ABOUT THE GAME: 

What is “Epic Duels”?

STAR WARS: Epic Duels is a 2-6 player board game that was released by Hasbro in 2002, among a slew of other Episode II merchandise, in which players play as Star Wars characters and wage combat with each other. The game combines card and board game elements with endless strategy, and has now gained a cult following. Most people can learn it in minutes and get hooked in just a few matches. 

Where can I find Epic Duels? 

Unfortunately, the game had dwindling sales as the hype around Attack of the Clones died down. You’d be lucky to find it in some sales bin at a toy store for pretty cheap, but the game now has become somewhat of a collector’s item, and can be found frequently on ebay.com in the 40$-60$ range. 

What movie is Epic Duels based on? 

Although the game is mainly a vehicle for Episode II: Attack of the Clones, the game includes characters and environments from both trilogies (minus Revenge of the Sith, which hadn’t come out yet). The game designers, however, did a nice job in making sure that characters like Luke, Anakin, Vader and Obi-Wan wholly represent their film counterparts through all 6 films and not just a singular movie. 

Are there other games like Epic Duels? 

Hasbro actually did use the Epic Duel format for one other release for the Transformers franchise. Battle For Cybertron has the Transformer characters fighting each other in the same format as Epic Duels. Fans of the game have often purchased Battle For Cybertron as well, not only for spare parts, but for 4 more playable boards that are passable as Star Wars environments. Battle For Cybertron  is less popular than Epic Duels and can be purchased rather cheaply here and there on ebay.com. 

Why isn’t Qui-Gon Jinn included in the game? 

He seems like an essential, but he was mysteriously left out of the game, probably to make more room for the Ep. II characters. Many fan decks of Qui-Gon can be found all over the web, including this site. 

ABOUT THIS SITE: 

How do you make the decks on this site? 

I create all of the card functions and fit the card sets myself based on the films and what precedents the Hasbro decks set.  

As for the cards, it’s a simple matter of scanning the existing Hasbro cards, altering the color, pasting in a new picture, and adding my own text using Adobe Photoshop. 

Do any of your decks have card backs? 

No. I found that playing without them works just fine. Plus the artwork for the original game decks is so good, that trying to match it is pretty futile. 

What do you use for character pawns? 

Wizards of the Coast recently started a new game based on Star Wars Miniatures. These small sculptures are only slightly larger than the Epic Duel pawns, and the difference is negligible during game play. Wizards have made almost every figure for the character decks on this site, but we’re still waiting for a few figures like Wicket and Jar Jar.  

These figures are sold in random packs but can be found individually on ebay.com. 

Have fans made any new maps? 

Yep. Check the ‘links’ section of this page. 

How do you use -insert custom card title here- ? 

Every card we’ve created fits with standard Epic Duels rulings, but in striving to create new, exciting features, deck creators have to struggle to keep things clear with limited text space and the game’s own precedent of inconsistent wording. 

If you have any questions about how a particular card on this site works, do not hesitate to email us, and we will clarify the ruling ASAP. We please ask that you just include “Star Wars” or “Epic Duels” or something characteristic in your Email subject line to avoid spam deletion.

What deck are you making next? OR You should make a deck for this character… 

We’re  pretty much done making decks, for at least a while. Just about every character seen fighting in the films has been added. We do not subscribe to any of the “expanded universe” novels, comic books, video games or cartoon shows, so no decks will be made for characters not seen in the film series. This is not to say that new decks will not ever be posted on this site. I have tentative plans for the following decks: 

·   Grand Moff Tarkin and Death Star Troopers

·   Captain Tarpals and Gungan Infantry

·   Captain Pananka and Naboo Officers 

That’s it. We’re mostly waiting for pawns to be made by the good folks at Star Wars Miniatures before seriously developing these decks. A Darth Plagueis deck will also be considered if/when Lucasfilm authorizes a particular image of him. 

There was also work done on an expansion for Epic Duels adapted from Marvel’s Uncanny X-Men. This proved to be more work than expected. Only one deck was completed, but all notes and images have been saved. 

So, while we won’t discourage you from making suggestions on what decks you want to see on the site, the idea of making new decks from scratch looks unlikely. Also, please don’t suggest non-fighting characters like C-3P0, R2-D2, or Jabba the Hutt. They’ve been already considered, and declined.

MODIFYING THE GAME: 

What game modifications have you made? 

Nothing that affects the rules. But there are a few small modifications I’ve made to the pawns to have easier game play. One is to paint the base of each of the Clone Trooper figures. They're so numerous, and in games with multiple Jedi, whose is whose can get confusing. I’ve painted Yoda’s Clone bases green, Obi-Wan’s blue and Mace’s (of course) purple. 

The other quick mod is to mark the notches in the non-unique minors, like Battle Droids and Stormtroopers. Using a gold or silver sharpie, you can mark the notches and easily distinguish which is your “1” minor and which is your “2” minor. It’s also pretty sharp looking. 

What house rules do you use? 

House rules are small rule variations that players of the game may use to “fix” game play or just simply make it more comfortable. Almost every Epic Duels player circle makes a few slight modifications. Here are mine: 

• Character pawns starting positions are chosen by the players. Almost every circle and internet community uses this rule, including tournaments. The labeled squares on the board will sometimes force characters in striking position in the very first turn, which most players dislike. Instead, the loser of the last match chooses board position first, with other players choosing next. The winner chooses where to place pawns last. This is a more balanced way to start, plus there are no labeled spaces for additional characters of custom decks.
• Princess Leia and Padme Amidala are surviving minors. This is explained a bit in “Rulings” section. This was just the way I was taught to play way back when, and introduced the rule to my circle. It gives the Skywalker ladies a bit more clout, which, considering the films, seems to make sense.
• The draw pile can be reshuffled an unlimited amount of times. The ED instruction booklet states that a player loses once he/she has gone through his/her draw pile twice. Considering Han’s “recycle” ability, this makes this rule unfair to all the other decks. It seems like a safeguard against really long games… but that never happens anyway. Most matches don’t exceed 2 reshuffles anyway, but with this rule abolished, players don’t need to worry about automatically losing.