The Mandalorian: Adventures is a new cooperative board game for 1-4 players, set in the Star Wars universe and inspired by the popular TV show, The Mandalorian.
Please note that this review contains mild spoilers regarding content and mechanics that are unlocked after a few games. While I’ve minimized spoilers, you may want to skip this review if you’d prefer to avoid any details about the secret content.
Gameplay
The concept of the game is simple: players work together to complete each mission’s objectives, but if a character is defeated by enemy damage or many crises happen, the mission is lost. Each player has a deck and a hand of cards, playing two cards into two different action spaces on the game board each round. These actions allow players to move, attack, investigate tokens on the map, and acquire planning cards for future turns. As the campaign progresses, more actions are unlocked.
The action system is quite interesting. Most cards have a strength value that determines the effectiveness of the action taken with them, while some also include special abilities that activate when the card is played into specific action spaces. However, players must carefully choose where to play their cards. When the value of an action space reaches 5, a negative event occurs. If the value exceeds 5, both an event and a crisis are triggered. The event deck controls enemy spawning, movement, and attacks and after the event is resolved, all cards in that space are discarded, and the value resets to zero. This governance mechanic adds another layer to planning, as it often restricts players from taking any action freely. The top card of the event deck gives a clue about which enemies will activate, allowing for some planning—though this advantage becomes less effective if multiple events are triggered in the same round.
Many enemies have special abilities that affect players at different times, including during player movement and enemy activation. These abilities, introduced gradually in subsequent missions, create new challenges and shape player decisions throughout the game.
A story deck and two secret envelopes introduce new rules and mechanics as players progress through the campaign, gradually unlocking more events, character cards, action cards, and enemies. The rules are simple, and even with everything unlocked, the game remains light to medium in weight. While this may not appeal to heavy gamers, it makes the game an excellent choice for players who enjoy lighter games or are new to the hobby.
Once everything is unlocked, there are three character tiers: novice, with higher health points; normal, with lower health; and advanced, with low health and a unique special ability. Each character also has a unique deck of cards. For each mission, some characters are required, while the game suggests others that fit the story. However, players are free to replace these suggested characters with any of their choosing, allowing them to experience the unique playstyle of each character.
One potential drawback is the game’s limited replayability, stemming from the small number of available maps—there are only four in the map book. Although different modes and objectives provide some variation, having more maps would have significantly increased the game’s longevity.
Later in the campaign, a hidden role mode is unlocked, and a disloyal player secretly works to sabotage the missions, adding an interesting twist. In this mode, players can even deal damage to each other, either trying to eliminate the disloyal player or the disloyal player attempting to defeat others to ruin the mission. This mode can be incredibly fun for players who enjoy this kind of mechanism in games.
In summary, The Mandalorian: Adventures comes with simple rules but plenty of tactical decisions, making for an engaging experience. That said, future expansions will likely be necessary to improve the replayability of the game.
Artwork, Story, and Components
The artwork is what you would expect, with heavy use of the IP, so fans of the show will feel right at home. Even though the quality of Star Wars content has declined in recent years, The Mandalorian TV show has been a notable exception. The board game follows the events of the first season, and those familiar with the show won’t be disappointed by its strong thematic ties.
The components are generally of good quality. The spiral-bound map book, similar to those used in other games, is a great feature. The card quality is decent, though we encountered one problem: the back of the newly unlocked cards had a slightly different shade, which could inadvertently reveal some information about upcoming cards in character and event decks. Although this discrepancy is noticeable, players would have to deliberately make an effort to gain an advantage from it. Regardless, it is a quality control issue.
One more thing to note is that some rules that are unlocked during the campaign are printed on cards. We thought it would have been better to print those at the end of the rulebook, even though they would have included spoilers. However, this was resolved when we opened envelope one. All those rules are included in the rules sheet in that envelope.
The box comes with an insert made of cardboard. It’s okay and eco-friendly but fails at holding the tokens in place if you store your games vertically. We had to separate the tokens for each mission multiple times as vertical storage caused them to get mixed up. Horizontal storage or using plastic baggies to store tokens is recommended.
Final Thoughts
Overall, we had a great time with this game. If you are a fan of The Mandalorian and like lighter tactical games, there’s a good chance you’ll have a blast with this game. However, if you look for a heavy game, or one with high replayability, this might not be a game for you.
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