Judge Apprentice - Lesson 5
Zones and Rounds
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Hello there and welcome back to the Judge Program for the Star Wars™: Unlimited - Apprentice Lesson Track.
As always, I’m your host Jonah, and today we’ll be talking about the game zones and going into more detail into round and turn structure. Some of this will be repeating information found in lesson three and the conversation about game fundamentals, but we’re going to be going a bit more in-depth with regard to turn structure.
Throughout this lesson, we’ll answer the following questions. What are the zones? Which ones are public and which ones are hidden? What are the phases of the turn and what are the steps within them? Let’s just get right to it!
Zones
There are seven zones - five personal and two shared, as well as “set aside” which is not considered to be any zone or in the game. The “game area” refers to the seven zones.The five personal zones are: Base, Resource, Deck, Hand and Discard. The two shared zones are the Ground Arena and the Space Arena. Let’s start with the personal zones.
Base Zone
Each player has their own Base Zone, and the game begins with that player’s base and leader in that zone. Bases cannot leave the base zone, but leaders can be deployed by using their epic action, and leave the base zone when they do so.If a unit attacks a base, it does not enter the base zone - it stays in the zone that it was in.
Resource Zone
Each player also has their own resource zone. All cards in the resource zone are resources and can be exhausted to pay the costs of other cards.As mentioned in the third lesson, resources are placed facedown and remain facedown. Players are allowed to look at their own resources at any time and the identity of these cards is considered hidden information.
Cards are added to the resource zone during the resource step of the regroup phase, or when a player is instructed to do so by a card.
Cards can be played from the resource zone if they have the smuggle keyword, otherwise, cards are considered to have no attributes while in the resource zone - playing a Devastator as a resource doesn’t count as playing a unit or a command card, and if the resource is defeated, it’s not a unit leaving play or being defeated.
Deck
Our next personal zone is the deck - The deck is facedown and out of play. Players are only allowed to look at the cards in their deck if instructed to do so by a card. The contents of a deck are considered hidden information. However, the number of cards is open information.Cards leave the deck immediately when drawn, discarded, or played directly from the deck. Cards that are being looked at, revealed, or searched for are still in the deck unless they are subsequently drawn, discarded, or played.
Discard
Next up is the Discard Pile. Each player has their own discard pile. Played events, defeated non-leader units, defeated upgrades, defeated resources and discarded cards are placed in the discard pile face up. The Discard Pile is considered open information, including both contents, quantity, and attributes of cards in it, and can be accessed by either player. Furthermore, the discard pile is not an ordered zone, so players can re-arrange their discard pile. For example, a player playing Rogue Squadron Skirmisher may keep units separated from the rest of the cards in their discard pile, so that they can remain aware of their options.If a card allows a player to play a card from the discard pile, they still must pay all other costs, including resource costs, aspect penalties, or additional costs.
Hand
The last personal zone is the hand. Each player has their own hand, which they can (and probably should) look at any time but is considered hidden information and not revealed to their opponent. However, like with the deck, the number of cards in the hand is considered open information. The hand has no size limit, so players can draw as many cards as they want.Again, like with the deck, cards in the hand remain in that zone when they’re looked at or are revealed and are not considered to have left the hand until they are played or discarded.
Ground and Space Arena
Finally, the last pair of zones are both shared zones. The Ground Arena and the Space Arena function the same, except ground units are played to the ground arena, and unsurprisingly, space units are played to the... space arena!Because they’re shared zones, all ground units are in the same ground arena. For example, Bombing Run will deal damage to your units in the arena you choose, as well as your enemy's units.
The ground and space arena are laid out to the left and right of the base zone, and which zone is which is determined when the first unit of the game is played. When the unit is played, the zone that it’s in becomes the appropriate arena, and the other arena zone becomes the other. If you play a Admiral Ackbar to the right of your base, the right side is now the ground arena for this game and the left is the space arena. Because your opponent’s board is mirroring yours, the ground arena will be on their left, and the space arena on their right.
Units can attack enemy units in the same arena or the base, but cannot attack units in the other arena zone unless an ability says that they can. When a unit attacks it stays in the arena it’s in, and the defending unit stays in its own arena as well, even if the two units are in different arenas or are attacking a base.
However, units in one arena can damage units in the other arena with abilities like Admiral Ackbar or Strike True.
In-Play and Out-Of-Play
Beyond the classification of shared and personal zones, there is also a grouping of “in play” and “out of play” zones.The Base, Ground Arena, Space Arena, and Resource zones are all “in play”. Cards in these zones affect the game through abilities, power, and HP. Players control the cards they play or put into play in these zones. Notably a player still controls upgrades they play, even if they play them on an opponent’s unit.
The hand, deck, and discard are all “out of play” zones. By default, these cards don’t affect the game and cards can’t select “out of play” objects. For example, you can’t use Waylay to return a unit in your discard pile and General Dodonna doesn’t affect your Rebels while he’s in your discard pile.
Rounds and Game Structure
Back in lesson three (so not toooo long ago), we covered round structure. We’re going to go a bit more in-depth here and talk about some elements that we didn’t cover then, because they’re relatively infrequent effects, and certainly aren’t going to come up at most events.Game Set-Up
When starting the game, put bases and leaders into play, and then randomly determine which player chooses who goes first. That means that if you win the coin flip, die roll, or whatever method you utilize, you’re able to decide that your opponent has the initiative. This is likely to be an infrequent choice, but it’s a neat option available to you! Notably, this is a time when you’re allowed to allow random chance into the game - you cannot flip a coin or roll a die to determine the outcome of a game or match.Players draw an opening hand of six cards and are allowed to take one mulligan. They are allowed to use the knowledge of which player is going first to inform this decision, which can be important. To take a mulligan, the player shuffles their hand into their deck and draws a new hand of six cards, which they must keep. The active player must make their decision regarding a mulligan first, but if their opponent takes a mulligan before the active player announces their decision, they are still able to decide whether or not to take a mulligan. However, if the active player announces a decision, and then their opponent announces theirs, the active player can not change their decision.
Once hands have been kept, both players resource two cards. Unlike resourcing cards during your turn, this is not optional, two cards must be resourced. These resources come into play ready.
Once the start of game procedures are complete the game moves into the first round and the first action phase.
Action Phase
The action phase is broken into three steps - the start of phase step, then player turns, and the end of phase step.At the start of each action phase, lasting effects that expire when a round begins or at the start of the action phase occur first. For example, Leader Han Solo’s ability that defeats a resource occurs now.
After the lasting effects wear off, triggers that happen at the start of the action phase occur. This would include abilities like Leader Grand Admiral Thrawn.
The distinction here is abilities or effects that were set up previous to this round or action phase will occur first, whereas abilities that are isolated to occur at the start of the action phase happen second.
After the start of the action phase, starting with the active player, the players alternate turns, taking one action at a time. Passing and Taking the initiative are covered in detail in lesson three, and playing a card, using an action ability, and attacking with a unit will be covered in the next lesson, lesson six.
Once both players have passed in succession, the step ends, and the end of phase step begins. Like with the start of phase step, any lasting effects that expire when an action phase ends occur, and then any triggers that trigger at the end of the action step trigger (how many times can I say or type trigger before it starts to sound weird?). If there are multiple effects that are ending, such as both “Make an Opening” and “Moment of Glory” played on the same unit, they expire simultaneously. Triggers, however, will still be sequenced appropriately - again, this is something we’ll discuss in lesson six.
Regroup Phase
Following the Action Phase is the regroup phase. Like the Action Phase, the regroup phase begins and ends with the start of phase and end of phase steps, but it also has three other steps - the draw step, the resource step, and the ready step.The start and end of phase steps function the same as they do in the action phase - with lasting effects, such as Sneak Attack occurring first, and then triggers.
The other three steps are straightforward. In the draw step, each player draws two cards simultaneously. If a player attempts to draw cards from an empty deck, they take three damage for each card they were unable to draw. In the resource step, both players may resource one card from their hand, playing it facedown and exhausted. If players want to see what their opponent is doing, the Active Player must choose whether they are resourcing and resource a card before their opponent does. Finally, in the ready step, players ready all resources and units they control.
As soon as the regroup phase ends, the next action phase begins, with the start of phase step.
The game continues in this cycle until one player is defeated, as laid out in lesson three.
And that brings us to the conclusion of lesson five! Our next lesson will cover a lot of rich content - Abilities, Actions, and Effects. So far we’ve mostly been talking about how the game does things, but we’ll finally get some agency and take control of the galaxy! I mean... the game! Until then, good luck and have fun!