by Bolger
I thought I had lost it. My ability to find good games that is. My Christmas purchases included Phoenicia (ehh, no… clunky and not really working with rules as written), Conflict of Heroes: SoS (nope, just not fun), and Maori (nice, but not great). I had been trying to branch out a bit, but failed miserably. So, when on a whim I picked up Warhammer: Invasion at the local game store, my hopes weren’t exactly high. I knew about the game and had heard many good things about it, but it was a bit outside of my comfort zone (or rather, outside of my wife’s comfort zone), and I was really doubting how much I would enjoy it and how much it would get played. On my way home I cursed my desperate urge to continue to branch out and was pretty certain that the game would very soon be sitting on the trade table. I should have bought another stock euro. That would at least get played…
But man did I enjoy my first try of this game! We had a gaming evening planned, but in the end all except one friend bailed out and we had a good chance to try out some two player games. We ended up playing three sessions of Warhammer: Invasion, and would have played more if we just had time. I have since played it 5 times more, and every game has been great. The game manages to include so many things I enjoy in games: variable cards, conflict, engine building, resource management, and a very strong theme. So I guess you now understand what kind of grade I will give this game, but first a bit more info about the game.
What's in the box. Image by Garnett11.
General facts
This game is in its essence a card game. It is classified as a living card game, meaning that there is a base game but also many expansions coming out with extra cards. The base game and every expansion includes known cards in contrast to collectible card games that have unknown cards. The game play is also supposed to be similar to several collectible card games out there, but I haven’t played these titles so I can’t compare.
One of the cards from the base game. Image by gh0ul.
In the base rules, each player gets a deck of 40 cards representing a certain race. The game is set in the Warhammer universe, so the races that are playable are Dwarves, Humans (mostly Empire + Brettonia), Chaos and Orcs. To these 40 cards, 10 neutral cards are mixed in, so 50 cards per player is the norm. There is no reason why you would not include more cards in your decks, and once you have bought a few expansions there is probably good reason to do so, but in our games so far we have been playing with 50 cards.
The cards depict units, buildings or different events, everything in gorgeous full color paintings. The Warhammer nerd is bound to recognize a lot of the units, but even someone not used to Warhammer can definitely enjoy the beautiful illustrations and the strong theme conveyed by the cards. Unless you hate Fantasy, in which case you really should steer clear of this game.
Game Play
Each player has a board with three zones marked: Kingdom, Battlefield, and Quest. In a turn, a player plays cards from his/her hand into these three zones and pays for each card played with resources (tokens included).
An example of a player's board (the orcs). Image by Tommy_M.
Without going into full detail, cards played into the Kingdom zone increase the number of resources the player gets each turn, and cards played into the quest zone increase the number of cards the player gets each turn. Cards in the Battlefield zone can be used to attack the zones of the other player, and this is also how the game is won. If you damage a zone enough it starts burning. Once two of your opponents zones are burning you have won the game. There are also tactics cards that can be played directly from your hand, even in the other players turn, and this adds a lot of interaction and fun.
A game in full swing. Image by red_gobbo.
Every race has a flavor that is definitely its own. Cards are different and the overall composition of the decks is different. You cannot use orc tactics if you are playing dwarves and so on, you have to adapt your play to the deck you use. This is extremely well done, and all races are equally fun to play. Well, I think so.
My thoughts about the game
This game is an extremely solid two player game. If you enjoy Fantasy, don’t mind (or even like) a lot of text on the cards, and like having many options open to you I would strongly recommend the game. The different race decks and the number of expansions already out there make it very easy to vary the game. The random order of the cards also means that every session will be different.
I can see this game appeal to many types of gamers, and I would definitely not say it is only for ameritrashers or eurogamers or whatever. There is something in this game for everyone. However, the amount of text on the cards is probably too much of a hurdle for most casual players. The rules are really not that hard, but the cards are full of small exceptions and extra rules, and you have to be willing to put a bit of extra effort into getting through that.
My rating
I give this is a very solid 8. That’s a very good rating in my book.
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