At long last, the latest expansion from the award winning Star Realms line is here! At first glance, the Colony Wars expansion for Star Realms looks very similar to its parent edition. For the benefit of those not completely familiar with Star Realms it is a strategic deck builder styled game where players use a deck of “starter” cards to purchase new ships and bases that are then playable through subsequent deck reshuffles. Each new base and ship added has a unique set of interactions with other cards in your deck providing a wide range of paths to victory.
This review is just the tip of the iceberg! We will begin in depth card reviews starting with next week’s Megahaulin Podcast!
There are a number of exciting new mechanics introduced in this set. Colony Wars introduces cards such as the Emperor’s Dreadnaught that can be purchased from the Trade Row and under certain conditions, can immediately come into play or be put into a player’s hand. Regular Star Realms players will notice that this greatly accelerates the speed of play, but also requires an equal and opposite strategic shift to account for an opponent’s new found advantage.
Another mechanic that’s particularly interesting is the new ability for Blob faction cards to “acquire a ship of cost x or less for free”. In the core Star Realms set, the Blob Carrier provides this ability with faction, but now there are three new cards that give this ability. Combined with their powerful ability to manipulate the Trade Row, this gives Blob players the opportunity to get big and stompy in a hurry!
One card that deserves special attention in Colony Wars is the Stealth Tower.
The Core Star Realms set provided a ship that “copies” any other ship that is currently in play. Many players wondered when we would see the Outpost version of that card. Well fans, your wait is over. The very interesting part of this card is that it not only copies a base, but any base in play. So if your opponent got the drop on Brain World, no problem, now you’ve got one for the turn as well.
A number of players have invented interesting modes allowing for three to four players to enjoy a single Star Realms set. With Colony Wars a range of new play modes with each participant having a full set of starter cards can be enjoyed.
Colony Wars is designed to be enjoyed as a stand alone product, or mixed and matched with your existing Trade deck from core Star Realms and it’s Gambit and Crisis expansions. With this new set, White Wizards has added thousands of hours of enjoyment to an already fantastic franchise. This is an instant buy for fans of the original game.
Megahaulin Blog for Star Realm Strategy 
Is there a difference btw ‘put into your hand’ and ‘put directly into play’ ? It seems to me they’re the same thing with different wording.
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Totally different. If you put directly into play you have less control about your card sequencing for maximum effect. Some of the cards have “Come in to play” effects which are different from triggering an ally ability at your convenience. It could be argued that you can get the same effects,but I think that’s the same kind of thing you have to do to produce results in the digital app that are natural in the physical game.
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Thx, my bad, I did not look at it from that angle just thought it was gonna played in that turn anyway. My thinking also must have been biased by playing mainly through the app.
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I’m so confused about the “put directly into play” vs “put in your hand”……….when playing on tabletop…I took put into play as you add the card to your current 5 laid down cards,…making you now have 6……and put into hand as, put the card in your shuffling cards that you are holding (instead of your discard pile)……..what is the right rule?
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