When this game was showed in Essen last year I wasn't really sure what to think about it. I decided to wait and eventually one day I would get the chance to play the game. Yesterday, a friend of mine brought the game to the local game store and we played an introductory game.
Some of you probably know HeroScape, to those of you the game won't be anything new except the setting - Magic: The Gathering one. The spells and units follow the Magic color philosophy (Jace bounces and mind controls, Chandra deals direct damage, Liliana discards, reanimates and kills etc.) but for the time being it is very limited.
The game sells usually for 30 USD (which is not the case here (double the price)) which is an awesome price for such a game (definitely worth it). The box contains
- 5 Planeswalker figures
- 30 Squad figures
- 6 Cardboard terrain boards
- Two 3-Hex sand tiles
- Two 1-Hex sand tiles
- 2 Ruins
- 4 Glyphs
- 30 Damage markers
- One 20-sided die
- 10 Combat dice
- 15 Army cards
- 60 Spell cards
- 1 Turn marker
- 1 Game guide
The planeswalker minis are pre-painted and not highly detailed (I've seen better from WotC) which I find a bit sad because I like nice minis. Anyway all the contents of the box is of a quality material and is pretty neat (certainly for 30 USD it is awesome). The only thing I missed was an actual turn counter. Many games have a pretty neat turn counters but here one can use a token and place it on the turn numbers in the rules booklet. That's neither nice nor helping much if someone needs to find something in the rules. (we used a twenty sided die for this, but's not ideal either)
The game is for 2-5 players. It is a fast and a simple game which means that anyone can play the game (without prior experience with miniature gaming) and have fun without being too overwhelmed with rules or figuring out how to create an army. On the other hand the game offers the players unit abilities and planeswalker spell abilities that can make the game more complex and thus also more entertaining.
In few minutes everything can be taken out of the box and prepared for a swift game. As a terrain there are 6 boards that create a relatively large board (containing some water areas) in real life. In game though the movement of units is actually high so in the end it is a really small play area (running away is not that easy and being attacked while leaving engaged units can really hurt). Except movement units have other stats - life, range, power and toughness, and abilities. Those can either be static or activated. Power/Toughness tells you how many dice to use when attacking or defending. There are special dice with sides with crossed swords or shields (or blank sides) so figuring out what hit and what was deflected can be seen at first glance even for someone who is not used to rolling dice in this manner. When unit's life reaches zero it dies and is put into a graveyard and usually cannot enter play unless a special effect says it can (reanimation). A unit can attack another one only if it is in range and in line of sight (pretty straight forward).
At the beginning of the game each player chooses one of the five Magic colors - White, Blue, Black, Red, Green. Then places their Planeswalker on the board, places their units on corresponding army cards, draws three cards from his or her spell cards deck. Each turn a player draws a card, moves his or her units (only one type can move in one turn), attacks and play spells. The spells are either Enchantment cards which come into play revealed and have some static ability or they are hidden and trigger when a condition is met. This adds a way how to do some combat tricks (spell cards cannot be played during combat otherwise). Up to three spell cards can be played per turn (it's very easy to forget about the hidden card triggers).
What is a bit strange (I don't mean bad, it is something I'm not used to) and probably original to the game is that units are deployed separately and within range five from the Planeswalker. This actually adds more decisions and it can be used to one's advantage which is pretty nice. It nicely follows the 'I, mighty Planeswalker, summon a powerful creature' line.
The game is very "planeswalker-centric". The 'walker is way more powerful and than the rest of the units and matters a lot. If one loses a planeswalker one cannot play any more spells or deploy units which also may be the reason why. I find it too unbalanced though because one can simply win a game just with the planeswalker alone.
There are scenarios one can play described in the rules but they are not really that interesting. Coming up with own ones is better.
Anyway the game has a great potential to be good (and since the next products should not be sold in booster packs but rather as stand-alone products one actually knows what they contain, the support and availability should be better). More customization is needed and more scenarios as well. It is a game one can take anywhere and prepare it fast and play. This helps a lot in nowadays fast paced lives. So I will look forward for the upcoming producs in this line (coming in 2016, probably in August as well?).
If you are an experienced miniature games' player you will most probably find this game too simple, but if you are looking for a simple fast paced game that is fun just try it out. The game is suited primarily for mainstream but with time this game can become complex enough to drive more hardcore players to it.
Rating: 2.5/5
No comments:
Post a Comment