Contesting the Belief that Anakin Is Too Powerful – Star Wars: Shatterpoint

There has been talk both within my own gaming group and online with those playing Shatterpoint early that Anakin Skywalker is too powerful of a character, and a bit overpowered when competing against the other included primary characters in the core box. In our own games, we saw first hand how quickly Anakin could turn the tide of battle, even levelling Asajj Ventres in one turn.

See, Anakin has a powerful additional force paid action that allows him to attack a target a second time. In a few of our early games, when Anakin was engaged with Ventres and her droids, he handled her with ease, turning the tide of the struggle and ultimately winning the game for the rebellion. “He is too powerful” the vanquished players bemoaned, and I will admit I had similar thoughts. Was Anakin too powerful and is the balancing off in this game?

Fast forward to yesterday, and with brand new figures like Count Dooku and Obi-Wan Kenobi on the board, we decided to test the theory of whether Anakin was too powerful by changing how he was interacted with. In our first few games, Anakin continued to line-up on the play field across from Ventres, and would power forward into combat (as he should).

This time, myself playing with Lord Maul, I opted to move Maul towards Anakin as often as I could, wondering if Lord Maul would be the one to stop Anakin in his tracks.

After slow movement across the battlefield, Maul and Anakin finally became engaged. Anakin had no opportunity to attack any of my other troops, which meant both he and maul were at full health heading into a pivotal engagement.

I’ll admit to being shocked, but had I looked closely at the cards, I probably shouldn’t have been. See, Maul can toss a good number of defence dice, and should you be hunkered as well, that’s an additional die in your favour.

All of a sudden, Anakin was doing 2 or 3 damage, not 6 or more. And when he did his additional attack for the cost of two force tokens, he was again doing 2-3 damage, not 6+. There is another twist here that we didn’t fully understand in our first game – the more damage Maul takes, the more dice he gets to throw for attacks. One die for every 3 damage AND 3 dice for every injury. That’s pretty damn good, and a great way to whittle down even a primary character’s health.

So is Anakin too overpowered for Shatterpoint? No, not really. If he is used well, like any of the Primary characters, he can wreak havoc on the battlefield rather quickly. But if you know how to neutralize him effectively, you can easily make Anakin a non-factor in struggles!