Last Friday saw me head down the M42 to the capital and a morning appointment at Disney HQ in London, where the team from Asmodee were overseeing a launch event for the seventh and latest set for the Star Wars: Unlimited trading card game, A Lawless Time. The expansion is officially released on 13th March, but myself and a room full of enthusiasts were invited to crack open some boxes, see what cards we pulled, put together some content and meet a very special guest.
10:30 – Arrival
After a perfectly pleasnt drive down to the big smoke I managed to (almost) smoothly find my car parking space, and a brief 5 minute walk later I was at the entrance to Disney HQ, where we were signed in and met by the Asmodee team, who took us to the elevator and up. I didn’t recognise any faces, but no matter; the focus was on Unlimited, A Lawless Time and learning more about this beautifully presented card game that has in just a couple of years, caught the imagination of the CCG community.
11:00 – Welcome
Once in the room, adorned in Unlimited livery with a feature wall and various Star Wars helmets, I soon spotted a couple of friendly faces. From Jedi News, James Burns and their Gaming Editor Mark Alders and a face seen at many conventions across the UK, the Meadalorian, Martin Mead. A chat with the guys, and an introduction to some of the Asmodee staff and we sat for the start of the presentation. We learned that this 260 card set has new mechanics, that the first three sets (Spark of Rebellion, Shadows of the Galaxy, and Twilight of the Republic) will rotate out of the Premier format, and introduces the first multi-aspect cards. As a newbie to the game, I’ll admit that a lot of the nuance went over my head – thankfully, I parked myself with Sam and Olly, two CCG focused YouTubers who both played the game, and quite apart from being eminently patient with me (bear in mind, there were people in the room who had qualified for the Star Wars: Unlimited Galactic Championship 2026 on 24th – 26th July at The Venetian Resort in Las Vegas) gave of their time to explain the basics of the game.
11:30 – Open boxes and create content!
First we were given a 16 card booster pack, which now includes including 1 leader, 1 base/token, and 1 foil card, and then a Pre-release kit, which is released a week before the new expansions release that holds six more packs and two leader cards, in this case one for Leia and one for Jabba the Hutt. Designed for sealed tournament play, this meant we had everything we needed to play a round of Unlimited (or in this case artistically lay the cards on the table and take photographs).
In addition to this we were also shown a video from the team back at Fantasy Flight Games HQ (including designer John Leo, who you can hear below when I spoke with him at last years UK Games Expo), who went through the changes made for A Lawless Time and revealed that each of us would be getting an Event Exclusive Rey play mat.
12:30 – Lunch
Not much to say other than Disney put on a lovely spread, with options for vegetarians and vegans, and all of it tasted fantastic.
13:00 – Special guest arrival, meet and greet with signing!
While we were aware that there would be a guest, I imagined that we would be meeting someone from Fantasy Flight Games, perhaps one of the designers or artists for A Lawless Time, so imagine our surprise when we were told that none other than Mon Mothma herself Genevieve O’Reilly would be visiting. For two hours she chatted with everyone in the room, giving us all plenty of time and attention, and even signing a Mon Mothma card for each of us. A genuine treat, and many thanks to Mark Alders for snapping the pics of myself and Genevieve.
13:30 – Building decks, casual play & mini tournament
While Genevieve continued to chat with the attendees, I then had the chance to start building my deck, and while I didn’t play a hand (instead I watched Sam and Olly play a couple of hands) I did get to watch how to construct a 30 card deck, what the different colours mean, how they sit together and what the various icons mean (when I say I’m a newbie, I’m not kidding).
16:30 – Finish
For me ‘finish’ was at 3.15pm, as I had a three hour drive north in the rain through country lanes and hold-ups to Redditch for the Echo Base Star Guest Dinner, so I made my goodbyes, grabbed a bag of swag and thanked the team from Asmodee for a fascinating day that saw me set up my first deck, watch my first game and get truly excited to learn more about Star Wars Unlimited. Since the event last week I’ve ordered the starter set Intro Battle Hoth, to learn the mechanics of playing and perhaps find a local group to play some more, and hopefully if Fantha are invited to future launch events I might know enough to play a hand or two.
Either way, as a gamer or (in my case) a collector, this is an impressive set with some gorgeous artwork, a thriving community powering it and dedicated teams at Fantasy Flight Games and Asmodee doing their utmost to listen to the fansd and give them what they want. At risk of ending on a cliche, the Force is certainly with them.
View this post on Instagram
Many thanks to the team at Asmodee and Mason Williams for the invitation.
