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sean johnson
United States
avon
Indiana
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In high school I played the Star Wars Customizable Card Game a lot. I really like the fun of building decks and finding new card combos. However, the money sink of blind boosters grew really tiresome. When I played Warhammer Invasion, in 2009 I really liked it. It had the same appeal to me as collectible card games, but I found the Living Card Game model really appealing. From the demo I had played, it seemed that the game played well out of the box so we purchased it. We have also kept up with all of the battle packs. This means we have a large card base, but it also means we have a decent amount of investment in the game. So is it worth it?
Game Overview
Like CCGs, Warhammer Invasion is a game where each person has their own constructed deck. The play of the game revolves around the capital board. Each board has three sections, and following these sections controls the flow of a player's turn. On the kingdom phase, a player collects resources for power that support cards or units have. The players then move to the quest phase, where players draw cards for power that units and support cards provide. Next is the capital phase, where players can use their resources to play new cards. Finally, there is a battlefield phase where players can attack. An attack is done against one of these three sections of an opponent's board. Players can defend their board with their units, but eventually damage will get through. Each section can take 8 damage before it burns. The first person to burn two sections of the opponent's board wins. There are ways to make a section o the capital stronger by playing developments. Also, this brief overview does not begin to even scratch the surface of how cards can interact together, and like most card game that is where a lot of the depth in the play and deck building comes in,
The Game We Played
We actually played two sets of best to three. In both games my wife played an orc deck. This deck had a lot of cheap units that can be played very quickly, along with ways to boost the attack of the units. The whole deck is meant to play quick so that it can win before the opponent can even get set. I played a high elf deck that was built around the theme of playing dragons. Dragons are big units that are capable of massive damage. The first game was fairly even. I had one section burning, but my wife's kingdom section was one damage away from destroyed. I messed up though on my turn, and instead of playing defensively tried to take out one of her other sections in one attack, but I had forgotten she had played a development there (which gives an extra hit point to the section), and fell one damage short of burning it. I did this instead of playing cards that would have eliminated units. On her turn she played an Orc Tactic that boosted the attack of all her units, which gave her more than enough damage to destroy my second zone. In the second game, my wife got a really good draw and I lost in 4 turns. This was in part because she was able to use the special ability of two units to boost damage and attack for nine damage to my battlefield, before I even had a unit deployed there.
For the second set my wife continued to play with the orcs, but I switched to a dark elf deck. This deck focuses on control. It has several cards that force the opponent to discards, so their hand is small and limited. The deck also has a quest card and several abilities that eliminate units by giving them negative hit points. This worked out so that I could effectively destroy one hit point units almost instantly, which was very detrimental to the orcs since there were several weak units. My wife spent several turns doing nothing but drawing cards and passing, because she could not play anything. I think she was hoping to get a "Troll Vomit" tactic card that would eliminate all of my units. It did not happen, and I won the game. For the second game, I got off to a slower start, so I took some initial damage. However, I was able to play units that used their special abilities to take out her units before the Orc Horde got of control. The control functions of the dark elf deck then kicked in, and my wife found herself in a similar situation where she was unable to do anything, and I won the second game.
Our Thoughts
My Rating: 5 (Love it!)
My Thoughts: I really love this game. In some ways this almost feels like a board game. This game has elements of resource management and hand management. Early turns offer extremely tense decisions, when trying to determine the best way to use these limited resources. The unique feel of each factions and the incredible card art, vault this to an absolute favorite for me.
Her Rating: 4 (like it)
Her Thoughts: Now that I am comfortable with the game, I like it. Generally, this is the kind of game I would avoid, so I am not sure why I stuck with it in the first place. It is a good thing for Sean I did!
Verdict
Combined Rating: 9
After I play in a tournament this weekend, Warhammer Invasion will be the game that I have recorded the most plays for, and most of those are with my wife. All the time represented by the recorded plays, does not begin to scratch the surface of the time spent making decks, looking through the cards for new deck ideas, and the endless tinkering and trying to perfect a deck concept. Given the success we have had with Warhammer Invasion, I have been slightly tempted to experiment with Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game or even Legend of the Five Rings. However, every time I think about that I remember that lightning does not strike twice, and I really am lucky in the first place that my wife stuck with this game and took the time to learn it. As long as they keep making new battle packs for this game, I will probably keep buying them. Once they are done with new cards, we will have hundreds of Warhammer Invasion cards to keep us playing for a very long time.
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