Summoner Wars
The expandable card game of tactical combat!
Object of the game: In Summoner Wars you are playing the role of a Summoner. You have been endowed by a Summoning Stone with the ability to call forth mighty warriors and cast powerful spells to aid you in your battle against an opposing Summoner. The object of the game is to destroy your opponent’s Summoner card. When you are the only player with your Summoner card left in play, you win.
What’s in the box?
When you buy the Master Set it comes with all you need for 2 people to have a battle. Included are 7 different factions for the players to choose from – each having it’s own unique abilities and traits and therefore corresponding strengths and weaknesses. The game play and rules are easy to read and understand. In fact, once you get an understanding of the game, it takes about 45 mins to play! Of course, strategy (basically knowing the faction you are using) plays a big part in the outcome of the game.
The Master Set also comes with the playing board (one half shown below) which allows the players to face off and gives a clear indication of the “battlefield”.
Setting up the game is simple. Each faction has a set up card that indicates where starting units and your Summoner start the game. (See above picture). The top of the set up card also has a legend to help with the unit identification. Once set up is complete, the player shuffles the remaining cards and places them in a face down pile on the deck are on the bottom left of the board.
Each turn in Summoner Wars is divided into 6 phases, which must be played in order.
- Draw – Draw up to 5 cards
- Summon – You may summon Units to the battlefield by spending Magic Points
- Play Event Cards – During this phase you may play event cards, including Walls
- Movement – During movement you may move up to 3 of your Units 2 spaces each
- Attack – Up to 3 Units may attack during this phase. They do not have to be the Units you moved. Units that attack can only do so to Units they are adjacent to. You cannot attack diagonally. Ranged attacks cannot attack diagonally either and must have clear line of sight. They can shoot up to 3 spaces in a straight line.
- Build Magic – During this phase you may take any number of cards from your hand and put them face down on top of your Magic Pile (killed enemies go here too). You may look at the cards in this pile, but may not change their order.
Some cards have Special Abilities. Every Summoner has one. Special abilities take precedence over the regular rules. For Example: “Swift” allows movement of 1 extra space.
Combat is clean and simple. There are 2 types of die results:
- Rolling a 3 or higher is a Hit result
- Rolling a 2 or lower is a Miss result
An example of an attack:
Splub attacks a Miner, rolling 3 dice (Slubs Attack Value is 3). One die shows 2, another a 4 and the last die a 6, so Splub has rolled 2 Hits (the 4 & 6) on the Miner, adding two Wound Markers to the Miners card. Since the Miner only starts the game with 2 life point’s it is enough to destroy it and the Miner card is placed face down on top of the Magic Pile of the player attacking with Splub.
A closer look at the cards:
The top left card is a wall. A Summoner may only summon his / her troops around a wall (but not on the diagonal). Walls can be attacked and if destroyed severely hamper the summoning capabilities of the player.
The Unit cards have a large number in a circle on the top left of the card. This is their attack value (how many dice they roll when attacking). To the right of this is the life points represented by dark dots (up to 9 max). Once they have taken this amount of damage they are destroyed.
Under the large number are the following:
- The summoning cost in Magic Points needed to place the Unit next to a wall.
- A symbol that depicts melee (sword) or ranged (Bow) attack.
There is also a section for text that contains special abilities and other flavour text.
SUMMARY
This is a great fun game to play! As a two player game it is quick and the combination of 7 different factions to choose from creates a large number of different scenarios and play styles. The game has a number of expansions available in the form of faction decks, reinforcements and standalone Double Faction boxes. You can also buy an extra board to allow for a 4 player game.
The game also allows you to customize decks.
The 4 player game is interesting to play, but takes a little longer. It’s 2 vs 2 and once a player looses his partner, he / she is in a whole world of pain…….. facing 2 aggressive players.
I highly recommend this game to anyone who likes a quick, tactical game. It is not as deep and complex as a game like Memoir 44, but has a addictive quality to it. I look forward to playing a few more 4 player games, although if you are the first one out, be prepared to wait a while as you watch your partner struggle on without you…….
Well worth a try!
Until the next review – Truhlsrohk.
