If you follow us on Twitter you already know I find the new Warhammer Invasion card game quite pleasing. I didn’t say why, however: basically it’s a non-collectible card game that delivers cracking good basic CCG play with some innovations around things that old-timers like me take for granted (like when to apply damage). You needn’t fear the sometimes-odd way that GW presents Warhammer content – it’s presented here in what amounts to FFG house style and is a very approachable intro to WH fantasy stuff. Also, all the promo FFG’s been doing calls it a two-player game, but our three-player game was great (although longer than the two-player, which is exceedingly quick and brutal) and I bet four works too.
In a way, Invasion is the first real test of the Living Card Game concept. It hasn’t had a past life in starters and boosters to prime the pump for the boxed version. It’s going to have to live or die on what it is out of that big square box. I guess it’s not much of a surprise that this more controlled and packaged experience plays great.
But then there are those chapter packs, yeah? Or Battle Packs or whatever. Three have been announced already and the core game is still just on its way to stores. And elsewhere it’s announced that these three are just the first half of a cycle of six. Um… guys? Some of us like being off of the new-cards treadmill? The total cost of ownership of the game is still going to be dramatically lower than that of a CCG, but come on. Pace, or the perception thereof, will need to be managed carefully if the LCG concept is going to win back recession-sensitive gamers who look back fondly on CCG-style gameplay.
Looks great. Did you employ any special rules for multiplayer since it isn’t promoted as such ?
You know, one of the problems that I typically find with many card games is their replayability. If they aren’t a CCG they get a little old after a while and end up sitting on the shelf collecting dust… Then again, all the CCG’s I have ever bought did the same thing too. Funny
M: no special rules that I’m aware of.
D: we’ve played multiple games out of the core box (obviously… no other choice yet) and it’s a good time. I expect plenty of people will stop right there.
Oooh, I am so tempted by this, yet so wary of the temptation to get into CCGs again…
The game is a lot of fun, and really easy to learn the rules. Every race plays very different.
You convinced me. I picked it up and I gotta say that I’m impressed.. maybe this will give us a bit of reprieve from Dominion. The art is fantastic, does anyone know if it’s recycled or all original ?
I think the art is all new. It’s much better than GW puts in their books (no offense to the artists, they do great work and then GW crushes it into sloppy black and white).
Mike – none of the instructions say anything beyond two players. Did you run into any trouble? What about if two players are teaming up against another?
John: not a CCG. It’s sold like Blue Moon (kind of).
Asylos: all of the cards are carefully worded to work multiplayer. You can have the petty diplomacy issue, especially since the game’s M.O. is basically “walk up and smack the other guy,” but that’s hardly damning if smacking each other is fun.
And yeah, the art is new, not the GW house style, thank god – GW painted art always makes me feel like someone’s found a really excellent way to deny how much he loves fascism.
Ok, I might have to check this game out…
“GW painted art always makes me feel like someone’s found a really excellent way to deny how much he loves fascism.”
COMEDY GOLD!!
@Asylos, @M1N1: The art is not new. Most of it is from other Warhammer related products, such as art made for Warhammer: Age of Reckoning (the MMORPG). Some of the art is hard to spot as old, because they cropped it out of a larger image or simply photoshopped it – merged with another picture etc. Not to say there isn’t paint there that I didn’t recognize.. but anyway, most of it is good old stuff. Which is probably one of the reasons they can sell the game so cheap.
And then there are the flimsy cards.. what’s with that? Does the fact that FFG also sells card protectors have anything to do with it? =)
Game is great though!
Flimsy cards? They’re better than Magic cards. We put them in some card protectors we had just because we didn’t want to muddy them up with fingerprints.