We had our first game last night. 4 people played and my wife approves because she won (Reikland Raiders). Since it was our first game we were making mistakes so now is the time to clarify some things.

Regarding Star Players, once they are in your hand do they stay there or are they discarded after using them during a week? In addition, what is the difference between freebooters and other players. I read somewhere that freebooters replace a player in your team roster while other players are added on. Can someone please clarify how Star players are added and maintained in the team deck?

Starplayers without Freebooter ability are put on TOP of your teamdeck after everybody showed his new improvement pile (so you definitely will have them in the next week)

Starplayers with Freebooter ability replace on other player in your team (in our case we always remove Lineman and put the Freebooter in the team deck instead). After replacing you shuffle your teamdeck again (so it's not guaranteed you will have the Freebooter starplayer in the next week, but you replaced a bad player, so still pretty good).

The Starplayers without Freebooter are put on the deck AFTER shuffling of course if you gained starplayers with freebooter as well.

All starplayers you've played during a week are then put on the discard pile as any other player in your team as well. So the next time you shuffle your teamdeck they stay in your team (until the final end of the game).

€: sorry, if it's hard to understand. I can rephrase it (put more effort in writing it in proper english ) or go more into detail if questions remain