Star Realms 101 Site Plan

Overview

Purpose

This website will help people learn how to play a deck-building game called Star Realms and learn some strategies to help them play against competitive players. It contains helpful tips for players at any level of experience and provides a product guide to help decide which copies to purchase.

Audience

Anyone that wants to learn how to play a fun deck builder and experienced star realms players that want to get better. This website has helpful resources for every strategy game enjoyer.

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Game Overview

Star Realms is a strategic deck-building card game. You start with a small deck of ships that can provide trade and combat. You can use your trade to acquire more powerful ships and bases. If you generate enough combat and deplete your opponents authority, you win! For simple instructions on how to play the game, refer to the rulebook or the instructions on the official Star Realms website. This website's purpose it to provide some more advanced tips and what to do after learning how to play.

You start with a Realm you have authority over. Each game represents an all out battle against another player's realm. You each start with small fleet of ships. Will you be able to strike deals with the four powerful factions to build your military might and take over another player's realm? If you don't, you will lose all your authority and your realm will be lost.

Already know how to play the basics and looking to improve? Check out this strategy guide.

Bored of playing one deck over and over again and want to know what new cards to get next? Check out this buyer's guide.

Finding New Ways to Play

Already have a ton of cards and looking for more customization ideas? Check out these suggestions for new ways to play.

Playing with Multiple Decks: The normal set up is fun, but playing with two decks is twice the fun. You can use three cards from each deck as your trade row for a total of six instead of 5 cards from one deck. Put the stack of explorers in between the two small trade rows. When you're done playing, all you have to do is sort out which cards you aquired, and there's symbols on the bottom right each card correlating with what pack it came from to make it easy. Playing with multiple decks will enhance faction combos and introduce new strategies. It's rare, but you can encounter higher extremes of seeing all super expensive cards or one faction the whole game. These situations can be fun and make the game feel new again.

Make your own deck: Why not take your favorite cards from each deck and make your own? Pick out twenty cards of each faction and try to spread prices evenly. You could make a deck where all of the card deal damage but there are none that cost more than five. You can make a deck that has some easy coin production options and a large amount of expensive cards. You can make a deck where almost every card lets you draw a card. Why not make a deck that's all bases and see what happens? The possibilities are endless.

Images for the Home page

Strategy Guide Page: Four tips for success

What order to acquire factions

Each faction are strong in different situations. Many cards that are powerful in the beginning of the game are not effective later on. Machine Cult cards are the best example of this. This faction plays the long game, and if you start acquiring them halfway into the game, they're not going to be nearly as useful. Blob and Star Empire cards can be bought at any time, but once you start acquiring them in bulk, you should focus on dealing damage the rest of the game. Trade Federation cards are best at the very beginning of the game, because trade is only good for improving your deck. It won't matter if you're about to lose in a few turns.

Building an efficient deck

One of the most important things to keep in mind is the size of your deck. Buying a lot of cheap cards might be powerful early game, but as you start to acquire more expensive cards, you won't be able to play them very often. Some methods to prevent an uncycleable deck is to aquire machine cult cards early on, focus on buying cards that let you draw a card, and using scrap abilities to acquire more expensive cards.

Countering your opponent

If your opponent starts out acquiring cards with scrapping and coins, they're playing the long game. You can purchase all damage heavy cards and try to deplete their authority before they become to strong. If you find you're opponent is doing this to you, you can buy defensive trade federation cards or bases to survive longer. Notice your opponent isn't buying any cards with combat? They won't be able to destroy any bases you acquire.

Best utilize faction bonuses

Of all of the cards in each deck, around 70% of them have ally abilities. This means if you stick to one or two factions, your cards are going to have much more power and you'll have a significantly better chance of winning. A card that seems to be the second best option might be worth purchasing if it increases your consistency of drawing multiple cards of the same faction per turn.

Images for the strategy guide

Buyer's Guide Page

Where to purchase decks

Base Decks

As of now, the base game, Colony Wars, and Frontiers are the three full decks available for purchase. Out of all of the purchaseable star realms content, full decks are the most value moneywise. They can be all be played standalone 1v1. Each deck comes with different cards that are pretty well balanced. Each of the decks are balanced with each other too, despite having some new introduced card abilities. Colony wars introduces cheaper bases, adds a few cards that can be played immediately if the same faction is in play, and changes how each faction can be played. Frontiers has less ally abilities overall, but introduces some cards with double ally abilities. More cards have scrap abilities. It also comes with enough starter cards for 2v2 and bosses that can be played against solo or co-op.

Booster Packs

Booster packs can be purchased to slightly modify or add complexity to the full decks. Some booster packs will just come with set normal cards, but others will include different types of cards, mentioned below.

Heros add some complexity to the game. When purchased, they will give you a small bonus and possibly grant an ally ability. Most of them can be scrapped to be used again. They're very useful for players who struggle to stick with one or two factions.

Gambits add small buffs that can be used to speed up the game. When flipped over, they might increase your combat, trade, or even modify the game in some way to your benefit. There isn't one correct way to implement them into your games. They can be given to a player who is new to the game and might need some extra help. Both players can start with the same gambits and whoever uses them better might end up being the winner.

There are a few booster packs that come with multifaction cards. These play like normal cards, but they can activate ally abilities of either faction. Sometimes these cards will have an ally ability that can be activated by either faction, or two ally abilities for each faction this card represents.

There are six different legendary commander starter decks that can make for a fun challenge. A player can play a command deck against two other players or go 1v1 against another legendary commander. These come with a strong multifaction card, gambits, and a twelve card starter deck that already works well with two different faction.

Tech provides a use for money later game. Players can purchase tech and spend coins to gain an ability once per turn. It adds a fun layer of complexity to the game and provides another strategy that could make you the winner.

Senarios and events add a bit of randomness to the game and are a good way to mix it up. One scenarios can completely change how the game is played. An event could change the course of a game. Missions provide an alternative to way to win. Missions give small tasks to complete, and when completed will give you a reward.

Images for the buyer's guide

Wireframes

Create three wireframes for your site. One for each page and list them here

Home

The home page will include a slideshow gallery of sample of cards that can be clicked through. It will give an introduction of the game near the top. In the middle it will introduce the two pages. Near the bottom it will suggest a another way to play.

Strategy Guide

The strategy guide will explain how to build an effective deck, what resources to aquire first, when to aquire each faction, how to counter your opponent, and how to get the best value of faction bonuses (in that order).

Buyer's Guide

The buyer's guide will explain each base deck, have links to places to purchase star realms cards, and explain booster packs (in that order).