Five minutes later I bought it...
For me, the problem with most convention purchases is that I only get
to play it the once and I hope that the experience I had at the convention was
indicative of the actual game rather than the experience of playing a game with
someone who was letting me win in order to get me to buy the game.
On this occasion, it turned out that the experience I had at the
convention was actually the game itself, and in the time that followed, I’ve played
the game a number of times and enjoyed it more every time. It’s a simple game
involving card placement on a board, but the tactical element of it is very
strong and promotes a more involved style of play than most casual games
require. While the decks are packaged in
two’s, any deck can play against any other, and it’s good to test all the
different armies against each other.
It’s not expensive to start (with a twin pack costing about the same as
a single magic deck these days), and while there’s a bunch of extra’s that can
be bought to vary the game including reinforced play mats and weather/terrain
options for far more involved games, the game can be played straight out of the
box and it’s now one of my go to options when I’m talking to non gamers about
the sort of games that I play.
The third set of armies caused a reasonable division of the fans, with
many considering the Templars to be far stronger than the Undead they were
placed against, but it’s not that, it’s just that the undead do a lot of small
damage in all directions, which is of no use when you’re trying to beat things
that have massive armour and hit hard in single directions. Those who play with all the different decks
have the understanding that while those two decks (ironically) aren’t well
matched, both of them can be used well against the other four decks that are
already out there.
That said, I do prefer the Orcs and Dwarves that I first played with,
the other decks are interesting, but they don’t hold my interest the way Green
Vs Short does...
Either way, still the best thing I ever bought on the spur of the
moment.
