Star Wars The Mandalorian Adventures Review - Is This The Way?

Ever wanted to run and gun your way across the Star Wars universe? Did you watch the adventures of Mando and Grogu during the Mandalorian TV show and think, that's some of me right there? Well, the board game Star Wars the Mandalorian Adventures takes you right into the first season of the stellar TV show, featuring art, characters, and scenarios from it. In this review, we'll have a look at how it plays, who you can play, and will try to keep it as spolier free as possible.

We've covered a whole host of Star Wars-themed games on the site, from the collectible card game Star Wars Unlnimted to the miniature wargames X-Wing and Legion, and also Star Wars video games like the recent Star Wars Outlaws.

How Do You Play Star Wars The Mandalorian Adventures?

Star Wars the Mandalorian Adventures features an incredibly easy core set of mechanics, and also one of the best onboarding systems I've seen. The game takes place using a book as the playmat, a system we've seen used to great success in other tabletop games. The map pages also feature the rules for that scenario, keeping everything handily in front of you. As you progress through the game's scenarios, you'll add components until you've unlocked the whole game. This system adds in elements as you play, none of which are particularly complicated, but this feels aimed at non-gamers, rather than veteran tabletop players. I felt like I could have gone all in during the first scenario, but adding elements as you go does have a nice flow to it.

During the game, players take turns, acting cooperatively to complete the mission. Games can be played solo, with a player controlling more characters if that's your preferred style of play. Each character has a deck of 12 cards, and each card has a power, between 1 and 4. All characters start with 3 of each power, and you randomly draw 4 of those cards into your hand. Each turn you get to take 2 actions, which you do by placing a card in the action slot on the board. There are 4 types of action:

• Move - Which lets your character move around the map
• Attack - Which lets you try to take out the enemies on the map
• Intel - Which lets you view unknown threats, or move threats
• Plan - Which lets you draw cards from the planning deck that might help you later on

The power of the card you place in the action slot is how effective that action is. You can move further, attack harder, view threats further away, and draw more cards to find a good one. You can also only do each action once per turn, which adds a great tactical element to which 2 actions you pick, and which cards you place. If you can't quite reach to attack an enemy this turn, do you save your high power card for the attack, or use it to move this turn and attack with a lower powered card?

Once you've had your turn, the cards stay on the board, and after any player's turn, if the combined score of any cards in a slot is 5 or more, then an event happens, if the combined total is 6, then a crisis and then an event happens. This adds another great dynamic to the game as events/crises can never be avoided in total, but they can be worked around until you're in a better position to deal with them. It noticeability adds a risk element early game, as everyone wants to move, but if everyone does, you'll quickly have an event, so working out between you who should move and who should plan and intel the threats can work in your favor until you're ready to activate an event.

Who Can You Play In Star Wars The Mandalorian Adventures?

Star Wars the Mandalorian Adventures has 8 playable characters, each with their own themed action deck. The characters you can play are:

• The Mandalorian
• IG-11
• Paz Vizsla
• Burg
• Migs Mayfield
• Xi'an
• Cara Dune
• Greef Karga

Even though the power spread across all the decks are the same, each character also has bonus actions on their cards, which can be used if played for that specific action type. For example, Mando has the Beskar Armor Plan card, which instead of planning, if played in the plan spot, he can search the plan deck for a defend card, and Paz has the Heavy Blaster Cannon attack action, which instead of attacking, can be used to deal 2 damage to up to 3 different threats at 1 range.

Each of the characters feels unique, which I was extremely pleased to see. Getting theme into board games is challenging, and Star Wars the Mandalorian Adventures manages to do it well, capturing each character uniquely and making the play experience with each, and with different combinations rewarding.

How Many Missions Does Star Wars The Mandalorian Adventures Have?

Star Wars the Mandalorian Adventures has 4 scenarios to play through in the map book, and each should be played in order as you work through the guide deck. Once you've played through and unlocked all the content, all of the scenarios can be played through again with different missions, and with different characters. I was actually surprised at the replayability of the game. It initially looked like it would be a quick and unrewarding experience, but there's a lot of replayability out of the box. It does also say that these are missions inspired by Season 1 of the TV show, so we might see another 2 games/expansions (and a bonus one for the Book of Boba Fett?).

What Are Our Final Thoughts On Star Wars The Mandalorian Adventures?

I was very surprised by Star Wars the Mandalorian Adventures. I'm a huge fan of the TV show, but at first, on reading through the rules, and seeing that it only had 4 scenarios, it looked very basic. But it actually has a lot of depth behind the simple mechanics. It's not hyper-tactical, but is it fun, and the onboarding is extremely well done. It would be very easy to get a non-gamer Star Wars fan to play this and enjoy it, without having to spend ages explaining the rules, or having to manage them while they play through the first game

Should I Buy Star Wars The Mandalorian Adventures?

If you're a Mandalorian or Star Wars fan, then you will almost certainly enjoy this. It's a great experience, with a lot more depth than I initially thought. If you're not a Star Wars fan, then this might lose a lot of its drive. The mechanics are solid, but there are other adventure-style games out there that you might enjoy more. If you've never seen Star Wars or the Mandalorian, then I would recommend watching the TV show first, as there are some spoilers in here about the characters and different situations.

The copy of Star Wars The Mandalorian Adventures used to produce this review was provided by Asmodee UK.