The Party’s Over! – Star Wars: Shatterpoint Expansion Review

Atomic Mass Games can go ahead and keep releasing packs of figures, because I’m finding more and more that even when I’m sceptical – ahem Padme ahem – they surprise me in the best possible way. I love having more Jedi to use out on the Shatterpoint battlefield, so Mace Windu and The Party’s Over expansion pack was something I was really excited about. Let’s dive in and see how good it is!

Usually I like to wax poetic a bit about how great the figures are, but that’s becoming a bit redundant now. The figures across the core set and the expansions have all been good, and look even better when my father-in-law paints them. With this box again, everything is top notch!

Many people have asked me, “At what point do characters just become redundant? How long before characters just starting feeling the same as other characters?” While I think this is a real possibility down the line, it hasn’t happened yet. Looking over Mace Windu’s card and seeing him down on the table and in action, I can see the different strategies you might use if he is your primary figure.

Mace Windu

For me, Mace Windu is all about two abilities – Tempered Aggression and Shatterpoint. With Tempered Aggression, Mace can spend force tokens up to the number of failures rolled when attacking, to re-roll those failures.

This is an ability I can see using a lot – I’ve had so many situations were just one die rolling differently could have won a struggle as I would have wounded a character, but because of unfortunate luck, things did not go my way. This ability also somewhat answers the critics who claim that Shatterpoint is almost all die luck. We now have die manipulation!

We have seen characters get special abilities when put into reserve, but I do believe this is the first Shatterpoint ability. With this, depending on which stance he has, Mace Windu, when used as the Shatterpoint card, can make a focus action and help nearby allies, or heal damage and refresh force points.

Sure, at maximum it’s only going to trigger a few times a game (assuming you use him as the Shatterpoint) but it’s still a great way to strategically think about the struggle, and I really like that.

Mace also has fantastic attack and defence expertise to use, which makes him fairly powerful in combat situations.

Commander Ponds

I don’t find Mace Windu’s secondary, Commander Ponds, as strong as other secondary characters, although I really enjoy his Incoming ability that provides immunity (to conditions) for allied Clone Troopers within 3 range.

This could be really great if you are brining 4-6 Clone Troopers into battle with you (between your squads). The Forward Scout ability is only beneficial when first deploying units (allowing you to place Clone Troopers up to 2 range away from Primary as opposed to 1). This could be beneficial in getting troops out onto the battlefield quickly, but I find if you don’t pull those Clone Trooper cards early, that benefit can be nullified.

ARF Clone Troopers

The ARF Clone Troopers included in this box aren’t anything to crazy, although I would argue they might be the most powerful Clone Troopers released so far. Ultimately, however, that will be determined by the strategy you plan to use. Still, I don’t mind getting more Clone Troopers in Shatterpoint as it allows some good flexibility on what Troopers you want to use with what squads.

Overall, I think Atomic Mass Games has hit it out of the park again with this release. If you are excited about getting Mace Windu to the table in Star Wars: Shatterpoint, you won’t be disappointed!