Ashes of Empire - Pre-Release

10 Jul, 2026

As well as miniature games, I dabble in one trading card game.¹ That is Fantasy Flight’s Star Wars Unlimited.

This evening was the pre-release for the latest set of cards, Ashes of Empire. Pre-release events are always a good time, and a great way to bring the community together. Momentum definitely dies off for the game at the end of a set, so the pre-release helps to kick start the scene again.

We had 7 players down for this pre-release, and my local shop is having another two over the next week.

I opened my packs, and made my deck. My deck was an Agression Greef Karga deck. I thought I couldn’t go far wrong with this leader, as he just makes all the other units you play a lil’ bit better. This marginal gain is really useful in a limited format where people are playing suboptimal decks. There were a couple of cards that stood out to me in my deck. The first was this wookie militia, which forced my opponent to think twice before attacking my base, and also this ambushing space whale which could answer pretty much any card in space. This inspired recruit turned out to be a great turn one play when given a bit of awareness.

Overall I was pleased with my deck. There was nothing amazing, and I didn’t open any legendary cards, but I felt I stood a good chance of doing well.

Game one

First game was against a Cad Bane leader, paired with a blue base if I remember correctly. This was a tricky one, as Cad’s ping ability sort of equalled my advantage token one. I just about won the first game, as I managed to squeak just enough damage out before Cad’s big hitters started to arrive. The second game was also extremely close, but Cad won, having just enough damage on board to defeat me. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to play the deciding game, so that ended a draw.

Game two

This was against a Palpatine deck with a blue base. Our leader abilities were similar, so I wasn’t sure how these would go. In the end, I managed to spurt out enough damage in the early game, that Palps never had the chance to stabilise. The Pegasus Tri-Wing was huge for letting me deal surprise damage from my hand after Palps took the initiative. Two good games, both wins for me.

Game three

This was a mirror match, except my opponent was playing a green base. I thought this would be tough, as green tends to have some good ambushing cards which really benefit from Greef’s ability. I lost the first game, after I got caught out by a surprise extra 3 damage (I am not sure I could have won even if I knew that was coming). I managed to win the next two games, making the most if the wookies I mentioned earlier, as well as a great big sand beast which forced difficult initiative decisions. We both had copies of this card, which was fun to see and a good challenge to play around.

So I won the event! Go me! I got some sweet card dividers to go in my decks box, and a nice metal hand token.

I really enjoyed the games I played. I can see where the game is headed, and I felt there were more decisions to make in terms of whether to hit at units or bases. Advantage tokens are interesting to work around, especially when you both have them. I am hoping to get to another pre-release, as I much prefer opening packs and playing with them at the same time to just opening them.

Quack

Off topic, I’ve had a big retheme here on the blog. I couldn’t help myself. This is still (as always) a work in progress.

#SWU