not easy if no one there has ever played. But we all felt confident enough to start. Mind you watching everything took a few hours. So we breaked for lunch and I read the booklet anyway. Everything coming to life and making sense in the booklet after watching the videos. Note: If you don't have access to the internet there is a play by play included in the book which will probably help just as much than just sitting down and reading the rules.
So we get back and start our first match. I get to play since I own the game,
. I pick the wizard my opponent (Hi Rick!) picks the Warlock. So a classic power struggle then. We pre-build the two starter decks we found online since we read they were better for starting off than the ones in the book. We don't do apprentice and do a full 120 point spell book.
I'll skip the details, but after 4 hours the battle the battle was finally over. I won but just barely. There was a time towards the end where I had to pop off two Minor Heals, one as my quick cast and one as my quick action. Getting 4 points in each roll wasn't epic but it helped me. Since I was one HP from death. Man that warlock can pile on the damage!
The 4 people who were not playing all watched the entire match. Learning more as well played. We had to reference the booklet a lot. Honestly that is okay. The terms in this game are part of this game. I don't mind it in the least and after the first play I remembered most we came across anyway. But honestly, if you want to play a 30 minute card game. This is not it. This game seems to be developed to take 1 or 2 hours and to require thinking and strategy... and dice rolls.
Dice rolls. My bane. I don't mind them though, but they almost never work out for me. Honestly though as where hardcore strategist hate the random that dice rolls bring we love them. Nothing in life is 100% predictable. Militarily when you make plans and strategies, for them to get pulled off luck is almost always involved. If 1 of your tanks from your 3 tank battalion suffers engine fail, well that changes things. Its like rolling a zero. The dice add this. When my bear rears up to maul that demon he is not going to do the same damage every time. Sometimes he hits at a different angle or a different spot or the enemy squirms out of the way. I think for this game the randomness dice brings is excellent and adds to the excitement. I know while we were playing there were screams of anguish and whoops of excitement from us, the players and the 4 people watching.
That sealed the deal with my buddies. 3 hours later we were in the car cruising to the two gaming stores nearby to see if we could secure copies. The one I bought mine at was sold out, however another nearby one had plenty in stock and so we bought all 5 copies. And rushed back home.
So the next day I am working on my spellbook trying to figure out a good combo when I noticed I was missing a card, the Goron Werewolf pet. I also notcied the night before that my spells books were a little "wrinkled" The plastic on the cover and back. My friends copies were perfect. So I contacted Arcane Wonders and about 30 minutes later I got a reply the super efficient Alfiya Pope that he was going to mail me out the card and two new books! Sweet!
The next day I got time to put finishing touches on my spell book when I was browsing a card list online and I noticed a card on there who's name I did not recognize. I compared my cards one by one and found out I was missing two more cards!
Gate to Hell and Gate to Voltari. These also happening to be Epic cards. So I sheepishly email Alfiya again and he says that he already mailed it out (which I figured!) but he says to double check and make sure I'm not missing anything else. So I do and that is it. He mails out two more cards (again at their cost).
So the customer support is top notch, fast and efficient! They replaced the cards I was missing the damaged spell books. None of my friends sets were missing any cards or had damaged spell books. So this does not to be common. Just my luck of draw!
Anyway! This has gone on long enough. I'll end it with a TL;DR
TL;DR
I love this game. Any fan of 90's fantasy or D&D will most likely love this game as well. Magic Players might also enjoy this game. A great game from a great company!
