When Pete told me about Summoner Wars, I have to admit that I was a little hesitant. Being a CCG player, I’ve ran into multiple card games that didn’t make the cut over time, and I hadn’t ever bought into the LCG format that Fantasy Flight Games wants you to believe is the future of collectible card games. The idea was fairly simple, though. Buy preconstructed decks that can be retooled with later additions, and you have a working army ready to play. The investment is fairly small to get started, and you can build your collection if you want. In short, a lot like Magic: the Gathering.

Pete assured me that this was a different game. After a quick jog over to Board Game Geek, I found out that Summoner Wars wasn't just a card game. It was a tactical, movement-based card game, where the cards constituted your units and special abilities. Cards are played out onto a map and moved around like miniatures. This caught my attention. Despite the fact that I generally only talk about Magic: the Gathering, I've played tactical games too; I’m a huge Warhammer 40K (Tyranids all the way!) and Monsterpocalypse fan, so when Pete confirmed that Plaid Hat Games was mixing up my two favorite collectible game types, I was intrigued. "How do you mix a CCG and a minis game?" I wondered. An initial playthrough of Summoner Wars quickly answered my question; by utilizing a CCG's resource management system while offering up the same position-based tactics of a miniatures game.

Each player in Summoner Wars builds a deck made up of a Summoner (the character that represents you on the battlefield), three Wall cards, various Event cards, and varying amounts of Common and Champion units. There are four starting races that you can choose from, the Tundra Orcs and Pheonix Elves in one starter, and the Cave Goblins and Guild Dwarves in a second starter. Each player starts the game with a Wall, their Summoner, and a few Units on the battlefield, as determined by an army layout card. Each player sets up their side of the battlefield (a 4x6 grid) and after an abbreviated "first turn," the game begins. Players must draw cards from their deck each turn until they have five cards or they run out of cards in their deck. These cards can be played onto the battlefield, or may be discarded into your Magic pile in order to summon future units. Wall and Event cards are free to play, but units cost a certain amount of Magic.

Each Common, Champion, and Summoner has a set amount of Battle Points, which represents the dice you roll when they attack, a cost, and an amount of HP. You can summon a unit in your hand onto the battlefield adjacent to one of your Wall cards by putting cards in your Magic pile into your Discard pile. You may move up to three units two spaces, and may attack with three units during your turn. Ranged units can attack other units that are up to three spaces away from them, while melee units can only attack cards adjacent to them. Attacks hit on a roll of 3+ and a unit dies when it has wounds equal to its HP. If you destroy an opposing unit, you put it into your Magic pile, so the more units you destroy, the more energy you have to summon units with. The game ends when one person's Summoner remains on the battlefield.

While the rules for the game are actually quite simple, the actual gameplay can be quite complex, and that's one of the greatest features of Summoner Wars. The time from reading the rules to getting a game started only took about ten minutes, and my friends and I were battling for summoning stones and glory. The replayability is like that of a CCG or CMG - each game is unique, and while strategies may stay generally the same, you can expect a different experience each time you play.

As a Magic: the Gathering player and as a CCG fan, I immediately wanted to find out how each deck could be customized. The somewhat disheartening reply is, "Not that much." Each deck has to have a Summoner, all the units on its initial layout, and each event card (and no more) that's on the layout card. You can add up to 6 mercenaries to the deck, and modify the contents as you please other than those restraints, but the restraints are a bit much for me. While I appreciate the fact that the game is not supposed to be about making a collection and building combo decks or things like that, the lack of customizability still irks me a bit.


Pete talks at length about the quality of the components in his review of the game earlier this week, but I generally have to say that for the cost, you're getting some excellent components. The cards are aesthetically designed, and have high quality art that makes it easy to get into the flavor of the game. The cards are heavy enough stock that they'll hold up for many games, and the dice and wound markers are high quality. My only gripe is the paper mat generally doesn't like to stay down, but if you let it sit out unfolded for a while or put some books on it, it works just fine. If you don't like the board in the starter, Plaid Hat Games has a deluxe fold-out edition that's a website exclusive you can preorder.

With two new factions being released this summer (the Vanguards, a human race, and the Undead) and no signs of slowing down, Summoner Wars is probably one of the best games you can buy right now for your money. It offers infinite replayability in a smart, good-looking package, and the resource management and tactics of CCGs and CMGs.

Check out the forums for more Summoner Wars talk, and see images of the new expansions. Make sure to check back in with us tomorrow as we have an exclusive interview with Colby Dauch, the owner of Plaid Hat Games and lead designer for Summoner Wars!

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