Star Chamber: The Harbringer Saga

Previewed by: The Good Evil (TGE)

As many of you know I am a pretty hard core RTS player, I am currently playing Age of Empires 3 like it’s going out of style but, having seen some of the features of AoE3 and how they affect game play, I went in search of other games which use cards to enhance strategy. Titles like Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon came up a lot in my searches along with Magic the Gathering. None of these games gave me what I was looking for in terms of a strategy game with cards to enhance game play; all were card games only.

Then I found “Star Chamber: The Harbinger Saga”. I’ve heard about it before from a friend (who is also a hardcore RTS player) and kinda glanced over it a little without much thought if I would play it or not, as I didn’t really care for an online card game… luckily I gave it a second chance and downloaded it. I played a bit and now I’m hooked.

Star Chamber is a turn based sci-fi strategy game that uses trading cards to enhance the game. The cards can have a profound impact on the game but you can still play it without using the cards at all. I’ll have to get into a scenario to explain how cards are used and what they can do for you.

There are 10 races in Star Chamber; each race has a strong point and sometimes they have weak points as well. Some races have super powerful warships, some have more influence, some have more culture; you can base your deck on their strengths to have the best chance of winning the game. There are 3 ways to beat your opponent: either from a “Cultural victory” (culture is generated from some planets; once you get 30 more culture points than your enemy you will win), “Military victory” (conquering your enemy’s home world will give you a military victory) and “Political victory” (Star Chamber is based on planets fighting over control of the galaxy. In every game there is a senate type planet where you will place personae of influence to vote; the more influence you have, the better your chances are to win the vote). Each of these offer a method to victory and with the millions of decks that can be put together there is room for unlimited strategic potential. This is a very cool thing.

Star Chamber’s base units are Citizens, Leaders and Warships. There are DOZENS of cards that provide extra units with benefits and/or impairments depending on its attributes and where/when it’s played. Citizens are needed to spread influence throughout the galaxy; you need at least 1 citizen to take control of a neutral planet, you do not need to leave the citizen on the planet to keep it under your control (you will lose production though if you have no citizen on a friendly planet). Citizens also carry influence into the Star Chamber and the more citizens you have, the better your chances are of winning one of the 3 votes at the Star Chamber. There are card played citizens that, for example, will lower production on an industrial planet or others that may provide x2 the influence. Citizens are the life blood of Star Chamber but you can’t do much without War Ships!

There are 2 basic warships, the scout and the cruiser. There are 2 special ships, the bomber (extremely useful for killing citizens on planets to remove their influence) and the peacekeeper (a ship that you get if you win the “peacekeeper”vote at the Star Chamber and through a card). There are also dozens of other special ship card like the “dreadnought” one of the most powerful ships in the game that makes players crap themselves when they have to go up against those beasts of ships. Ships are used to fight your enemy’s ships, blockade planets (blockade a planet by parking a ship at an enemy held planet where the enemy has no ships, and that planet’s production will be reduced to +1 per turn instead of +2 or +3. Planets also act as if they are blockaded if they are owned by you but you have no citizens there; planets only produce fully when they have a citizen present), and transporting personae from one place to another. There are tons of upgrades for ships that can turn a weak scout into a powerhouse of a vessel. Play your hand wisely and your ships will see huge power; play your hand poorly and expect heavy losses.

Leaders boost planetary influence, ship power, and political influence. Leaders can be brought into the game from cards; they are highly important in later games where extra power in ships could mean the victory for you. They can also have a profound impact on your strategy if used correctly. For instance if you want to win a political victory then a leader that has +2 political influence is a much wiser choice than a leader with +1 leadership. Some leaders have special attributes that can benefit you or harm you depending on the leader and the card. Leaders aren’t the all important cards that you’d think; you can easily win even if you have no leaders but you would have an even easier victory if you do have a few extra leaders running around ).

Now that you know the basics I will talk about multiplayer and one of my favorite parts of the game. Since the game can be a little overwhelming when you first start it up I am forever thankful to the developers for adding an observer option that allows you to observe games that are already started: AWESOME FEATURE. I spent the first day watching nothing but game after game after game learning the maps, watching power moves and planning of some of the best players in the game… it was like a strategy gamer’s heaven, just going in and out of games at will watching and learning. I hope more games get a system like this one day… it would be so awesome.

The decks you are allowed to create are very open; you can “splash” (add cards from other races if they fit your strategy) and there are tons of cards to choose from. You have rare cards that can be traded for many uncommon cards and there is a lobby made just for trading cards. This creates a very deep community element and we all know that communities make the best games even better.

There are weekly tournaments hosted by the developers, in these tourneys you are guaranteed to win at least a booster pack (worth about $2.50) and there are many different types of tourneys. For example I played in a draft tourney last night: a draft tourney is where you pick cards from booster packs and use them to build your decks. These cards are completely random because they come from unopened packs which can be VERY interesting to say the least.

I really enjoy the game a lot. It’s a hobby game like Magic: The Gathering; if you want more cards you have to buy packs or trade with others but unlike real strategy card games, Star Chamber’s cards will never get ruined if you drop them on the floor.

Very good game, I highly recommend it. When the demo is made (I was told it should be out soon) you should really give it a go, it’s very worth it.