Battle cards are used to define the battlefield during setup. They determine what the players need to do to score victory points, where their armies can deploy on the table during setup, and define special conditions on the battlefield during the game.
- Standard 800 pt games use three types of battle cards: condition cards, deployment cards, and objective cards. There are comparable cards for 500 pt skirmishes, which are slightly different (to account for smaller boards and shorter games). Scenario cards are not used in competitive matches, but can allow players to set up, and then play through, fun situations that are inspired by our favorite Star Wars scenes!
- As part of the army building process, a player makes a deck of 12 battle cards, containing four of each type (objective, deployment, and condition), with no duplicates. During setup, after the Red Player has chosen a board side, the Blue player deals all 12 cards from his battle deck, in rows, onto the table faceup. The players then take turns vetoing the leftmost cards until both players have had the opportunity to veto two cards. The card from each row in the leftmost position is then used to set that category (objective, deployment, condition).