Overview
At a glance
Is this game right for my group?
ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.
Harder to teach
High replayability
Highly interactive
Scales well
Deep strategy
How it plays
How does it play?
Colony Wars is a deckbuilding game in the Star Realms series which is both a standalone box set for two players (featuring an 80-card trade deck, as in the original) and an expansion for the base Star Realms set that allows it to be played as a four-player game.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Deck / Bag Building
Add new pieces during play to improve the cards, tokens, or dice drawn later.
Hand Management
Time and sequence a limited hand of cards to preserve future options.
Open Drafting
Select cards or items from a shared face-up display.
Delayed Purchase
Commit to a purchase before receiving the item or paying its full cost.
Take That
Direct negative effects at selected opponents.
Read the full game description
Colony Wars is a deckbuilding game in the Star Realms series which is both a standalone box set for two players (featuring an 80-card trade deck, as in the original) and an expansion for the base Star Realms set that allows it to be played as a four-player game. In Colony Wars, as in Star Realms, players will start with a fleet (deck) of 10 basic ships, and can spend Trade to acquire more powerful ships and bases from a central trade row of 5 cards. This row is continuously replenished by random draws from the trade deck. Many ships and bases deal Combat damage which you can use to attack your opponent and/or destroy their bases. When you reduce your opponent's Authority to zero, you win.