Railroad Barons - a review by Nigel Buckle

Usually I don’t bother to go into details of game mechanics in a review, but the rulebook for this game is so awful [Paul's note: there is a new set of rules available for download http://lookout-games.de/wp-content/uploads/RB_rules_new.zip] I think it is worth doing so in this case, just so the readers know which rules I was using to play the game that led to this review! I’ll give my thoughts first and then an overview of the rules after for those who are interested.

This is advertised as an 18xx game for 2 people playable in 45 minutes – and it comes in a small box. You get a deck of cards, some wood markers a stock price track and some nice paper money (although I’m sure many 18xx fans would substitute this for poker chips).

The rulebook that comes with the game assumes you know 18xx games, if you don’t it will be rather incomprehensible, and even if you do it will depend on which 18xx games you’ve played. It certainly took me a little while to figure out how to play. There is a revised rulebook on Lookout’s website – but even that is missing a rather crucial rule (you can pay for a railroad company from your own cash if your holding company has insufficient funds, but this is optional – a rather different case to most 18xx games).

I seriously doubt the 45 minute play time – unless both are a seasoned 18xx players and able to calculate income (you’ll have to make calculations such as 23 x 7 and so on) or have a spreadsheet or calculator to hand. Both games I’ve played have taken over 90 minutes.

If you are a fan of 18xx games and want the ‘experience’ of such a game for 2 players in a relatively (in terms of 18xx) short time this game is definitely worth a look – but it does depend what aspects of 18xx you like. If it is the laying of track and building up of routes then this game is not for you – there is no board play at all. Similarly if you like the stock manipulations you’ll likely to find the rather static stock market a bit lacking. What aspect of 18xx is covered then if it’s neither the stock market nor the track building! Well it’s the feel of investing in companies and making decisions about what trains (railways in this version) to buy, when to payout, when to take in and which shares to invest in.

There is an initial auction of investors (the replacement for private companies) – there are 5 but only 4 will feature in the game. Each has a cash value and a special power, because the game is only 2 players rather than an auction one player selects which investor (and in the advanced game the value) and the other player either takes the card for the special power OR the cash value, with the first player getting the other.

The train limit and company operations have been cleverly abstracted with a set of network tokens – you can permanently use one per operating round as a $10 boost to revenue (a bit like a station marker) or you use them to indicate how many railway companies you can purchase this round, or how many railway companies you can own at the end of the round. This is very slick – and different companies have a different number of tokens. It gives you some difficult choices, do you increase revenue at the expense of flexibility over manipulating trains (if you own two holding companies you can switch railways like you can switch trains in other 18xx games).

At the start of each stock round (you have a stock round then 2 operating rounds) to top railway company is removed from the game, so even if the players are not forcing a ‘train rush’ (railway rush in this case) the game will. Start of the game the railway companies are level ‘2’ and generate $50, once these first 4 have been purchased (or removed) then the ‘flip’ railways are available, these are level ‘2’ on one side and level ‘3’ the other, you decide which you want (the level ‘3’ costs more, and is not as good as a full level ‘3’). Once they are all purchased (or removed) then you have level 3, then flip 3/4. Once the first 4 (either flipped to its 4 side or a full level 4) is purchased or removed all the level 2 railways are obsolete and removed. Next are 4/5 flip, then 5, then 6 (which remove the level 3’s), then 8’s (which remove the level 4s). The 8’s are also flip cards – either a $800 railway wit $300 income or a $400 railway with $100 income.

Rather than the typical 20% director share and 8 10% shares, this game each holding company has a 40% director share, a 30%, 20% and 10% share - which makes for some interesting purchase decisions as you have a limit of 9 certificates so really want the higher % shares.

Overall, for a low component, low cost, very portable card game this is a surprisingly good take on the 18xx experience. I was pleasantly surprised – and keen to try it again, initially I thought the limited number of companies and simple stock market would lead to a very shallow game with little re-playability; but my first two games were very different, and we were using the ‘first game’ suggestion of fixed value for the investors. One component lacking is a priority marker, even though the rules refer to it (as does an investor card), we just used a pawn from my spares box.




I just wish the system was extended to support more players, as it is an interesting economic game. I recommend it for fans of games that need thinking and calculation, but be prepared to work through the rules several times before trying to play your first game!

Overview of the rules:

Setup – sort the railroads alphabetically. Each player gets $200. Auction 4 of the investors, the remaining one is returned to the box and both players get its printed value.

Game Play – Stock Round, followed by 2 Operating Rounds, until a Holding Company reaches $350 value, at which point the game ends at the end of that Operating round. Player with the most cash (in hand and share value) wins.

Stock Round – Remove a railway company (not the first round), then starting with the holder of the priority each player may first sell any number of shares they like (if the director sells the price drops 1 box, can’t sell if 50% of shares of that company are in the bank). Then may buy a share (but not in holding companies they’ve sold this round). First share bought must be the 40% director share. The company floats (so operates) when 50% is purchased. Certificate limit is 9.

Operating Round – Companies operate in a fixed order. First place tokens – 1 (maximum) can be converted to a network token, rest are either on a + space or a v space. Then calculate revenue = value of railways + any investor held + network tokens, revenue is either taken in (company receives all of it) or paid out to share holders. If paid out stock price increases one box. Then railways can be purchased and/or investors taken (one per + token), then railway limit is checked, company can hold one railway per v token (excess removed from the game).

Heroes of Graxia - A review by Nigel Buckle

This card game is marketed as a deck building game – I think this is a little misleading, but it certainly has elements that should appeal to players of trading card games (in particular Magic the Gathering).


I won’t repeat the rules or go into too many game play specifics; you can read the manual here:


You each play a hero (6 different, all with unique abilities) but everyone shares a common card pool to obtain cards for your playdeck as the game progresses. Unlike other deckbuilding games you do not randomise the available cards in stacks with a subset available for each game. Rather you divide the cards into 4 types – monsters, units, spells, equipment and randomise those, then during the game 4 cards of each type are always available and you select from just those. This makes setup and put away a breeze, unlike other games of this type where you have to sort the cards into individual stacks.

In Heroes of Graxia you have 2 actions in a turn, and during your turn you can buy as many cards as you can afford (into your discard pile), then discard any remaining cards, and then draw a new hand.

You win by having the most victory points – these are gained from defeating monsters and also from killing your opponents units.

Unlike other deck building games, this feels more like a Rochester draft, you have not got unlimited access to all the card types, rather you can pick from the ones available at the start of your turn. This means you have to adapt your game as you play, rather than work out how you are going to build your deck for this game and then do it.

This game has significant player interaction – the game actively encourages you to attack your opponents through the way victory points are collected and the bonuses to player vs player combat many items and spells give.

There is a definite learning curve, the temptation is to buy as many cards as you can afford each turn, but I suspect this is sub-optimal play, unless they are all cards that give you victory points. There is currently no way to remove cards from your deck – defeated units go to your discard pile, but there is one spell that allows you to steal a spell from your opponent as they cast it.

I like it, but the game is not perfect. You will find yourself adding up attack and defence numbers all the time, are you strong enough to kill that monster, how much damage will it do to you, what values your opponents have, how the spells and mercenaries in your hand will alter combat. This can get bit tiresome, especially as the values get large in the mid to end game, and asking your opponent what their values are is a signal you are considering attacking sometime soon. Possibly this can be overcome with a player aid tracking the values for each player and updated each turn. Multiplayer can be vicious, and players need to be careful they are not setting up an opponent to win, for example you attack one opponent leaving yourself damaged and weak to an attack from a 3rd. To stop ganging up each player can only be attacked once per round, once you have your turn you are then eligible to be attacked again – this means if you are badly damaged by an attack you may not have enough cards/actions to fully recover leaving you vulnerable to another attack by a different player. The game requires the players to ensure they don’t help another player too much.


The game is very portable and the art work although not spectacular is perfectly servicable and helps the theme. You get 6 plastic figures, each representing one of the heroes in the game, but they are totally superflous to the game.


Overall, it is a game that will stay in my collection and I expect to see being played regularly. If your gaming tastes include Magic the Gathering or similar CCGs, and are looking for a non-collectable card game with a strong drafting mechanic and don’t mind adding up values repeatedly during a game I’d recommend this one.

RuneWars - A review by Nigel Buckle

I won’t detail the mechanics of Runewars, you can look at the rules for that First impressions are this is a lavish game with a price tag to match, huge colourful box and expectation of lots of great components. That’s where the disappointment hits, opening the box to find the major element is air - you get a massive insert used to hold the large punchboards, with the pre-bagged minatures in protective cardboard ‘sleeves’ to the side along with the card decks. Once you’ve opened it all out you’ll discover a misprint for the elves and the cities has been fixed and an additional punchboard included. Read the punchboards before punching and make sure you keep the right bits. Then once you’ve punched it all out you’ll realise the huge box is unnecessary and the insert completely useless as you’ll struggle to get all the bits back in the box unless you turn it over or throw it away. However that’s the main disappointment for me - the huge box, both in terms of expectation of it being full to the brim with cardboard and plastic, and in terms of storing and transporting the game. Really it could have come in a Runebound sized box with no problem. Game wise there is quite a bit going on with various sub-systems all driven by a card flip mechanic, no dice here. The map is made up of geometric hexes, so each game will be a bit different, and most of the hexes are populated with neutral units that you can try to get to join your side (good luck with that) or attack. Each player controls a race, and they are all subtly different, which is nice. Each has unique units and resources, giving each a unique feel without having a pile of special rules. There are a bunch of heroes, all with their own unique power too. The game last 6 years (4 seasons per year) maximum and once you know what you are doing you can finish the game surprisingly quickly. Unlike other conflict games of this type the combat system is very straightforward and very quick, just fight 5 rounds (one per unit shape, often you’ll only resolve 2 or 3) and then see what units are left standing, side with the most wins. Central mechanic is all players simultaneously pick an action card for the season and they activate in order. This helps reduce downtime and increase tension - will your opponents be attacking, recruiting, or harvesting? In the early games it is easy to lose sight of the requirements to win - you need 6 runes and you start with 2. Heroes can find more by questing, winter will often bring 1 or more additional rune into play and you can take them from your opponents. Once everyone understands the pacing of the game things get quite tense as you have to optimise your actions, units and heroes - the game plays so fast it is hard to recover from a major disaster (such as losing a fight to a neutral you expected to win). For some people looking for a Leader/Personality dominated game where Heroes run around as the main focus this game will be a disappointment - you need your armies to win and most of your actions will centre around them and your empire. The heroes are a bit of a sideshow, but an important one - the runes they can collect are often what you need to win. What you have is an area control game with planning. You can only fight with your armies once a year (you activate an area, place a token in it and move units into the area - and they are then stuck there until spring comes along), meaning there are hard choices about when and where you attack and can you defend a counter attack back? What I like: Games will be different - at least for a while, the sides are different, the map is variable, the seasons have different effects, the heroes are different - and you can add in encounters as a variant adding more variety (or chaos, depending on your viewpoint). Combat feels epic, despite the fast resolution - do you use fast units that aren’t very good, or spell casters, or your big guns that might get routed before they even get a chance to fight? The card mechanic works well, and combat is over in a very short time. Deep game play without huge amounts of downtime - most of the ‘planning’ side of the game is done simultaneously with everyone thinking about card play at the same time. Then actual turns roll along fairly quickly. Simple mechanics - for all the elements the game includes: Different unit types, resources, strongholds, development, heroes, quests, duels, etc the actual rules and mechanics are remarkably simple. You will not need a pile of reference sheets and help cards to learn and play this game, but you will need a few games to learn what works and what doesn’t, how many units you probably need to win that battle etc. Objective cards - each player gets one and they are coded by alignment (half the sides are ‘good’ and half ‘evil’, the objective cards encourage you down one of those paths, do the objective get an oh so important rune as a reward. It is fun - early on you are beating up neutrals and building your empire, in the last couple of years you’ll be bumping into your opponents and possibly fighting over crucial territory. No long slow build up, if anything the game ends too quickly - but if you find that is the case the designer has included an ‘epic’ version which lasts 8 years and has you starting with less runes. There are multiple approaches to victory - build your influence and win that way (dominate the influence bids, grab the role cards, even use diplomacy to get neutral allies), concentrate on heroes, grab items, find runes, duel (and kill) your opponents heroes, concentrate on tactics cards for sneaky tricks, or just flood the map with units and grab territory. What I don’t: Box size and that the winning condition is just dragon runes, I would have liked to see more race and alignment specific victory conditions - the objectives go part of the way there, but more would be nice. The game is screaming out for expansions - if nothing else to help fill the huge box. You’ll get through most of the quest deck in a single game (as most of it is not used, you only include quests for the map tiles you are playing) and most are very similar, go to hex X, take an ability test (flip cards = the relevant attribute) look for successes. Multi-part quests etc would add variety. You’ll get through most of the season cards, and some effects are repeated, again I’d like to see more variety, even to the extent each player gets a subset of cards and picks which are included (so you know some of the possibilites and can adapt your strategy). More heroes, more races. For the hefty price tag I would have hoped for just a bit more in the original game. Overall, if you want a fast playing epic feeling fantasy conflict game you won’t go far wrong investing in Runewars - but if you are looking for a game where heroes are the main focus with armies in the background you probably need to look elsewhere.

Middle Earth Quest : A Review by Nigel Buckle

A snap review after one play – prior to playing I’d downloaded the rules from Fantasy Flight’s website, so knew pretty much how to play...





There were 4 of us, one who arrived a bit late, so we had a quick run through of a couple of turn (including a combat) before he arrived, so I think we had some idea of how the mechanics worked but no real idea about strategy, nor detailed knowledge of the decks.



There is a definite learning curve on this game, and each side plays differently and you need to know the goals and abilities of both to do well – what you need to do to succeed and what you need to do to stop the other side.



I won’t dwell too much on mechanics, as you can get the details of those from reading the rules from the publisher’s website, rather I’ll cover the feel of the game and give my opinion on who would like it.



The game is set 17 years before Frodo leaves the Shire with the ring – so Gandalf knows the One Ring has been found (or at least has very strong suspicions) but everyone else is largely ignorant. Hero players represent characters recruited by Gandalf to protect the shire and try to hold back the advancing influence of Sauron (his influence over leaders, the emergence of monsters, etc), the Sauron player represents Sauron – advancing his plots to overthrow the Free People and recover his ring.



It is worth mentioning Fantasy Flight’s other big box Lord of the Rings game – War of the Ring. These two games approach the theme from different directions. War of the Ring is set later (Frodo and the ring are at Rivendell, and about to leave on the quest to destroy it) and the emphasis is on armies and hunting for the ring. Characters are important, but only for recruiting troops, leading armies or protecting/hunting for the ring. In Middle Earth Quest it is the other way around – armies are abstracted and the focus is on individuals exploring Middle Earth and Sauron expanding his influence out of his strongholds in Mordor, the Misty Mountains and Mirkwood.



I played Sauron, so I can’t really comment on the feel of playing as a hero – but as Sauron I found the game is strongly tied to the theme, my role is to dominate the Free Peoples in 3 ways. In military terms I have minions (such as the Ringwraiths) to move around and carry out my will – either hunt down the heroes, defend critical areas (usually ones that are linked to my active ‘plots’) or allow me to play particular plots. I also have monsters, which are similar to minions, but usually weaker – and a significant number are just rumours, but even rumours can slow and distract the heroes. And then there is influence, this represents my power spreading actoss the map, corrupting people and generally making the world more dangerous for the heroes. Free People havens are the annoyance – they prevent the spread of my influence and offer respite and healing to the heroes, and I there is little I can do to remove them (if you want a game where you burn down Lorien or over throw Minas Tirith, you need to play War of the Ring instead).



The game is long, and early games will be longer – I expect with repeated playing you could get the game down to the suggested playing time of 2-3 hours, and quicker with 2 or 3 rather than 4 players.



Setup is fairly quick – and all players can help, there are decks to sort and shuffle and then tokens to put on the map. The setup is variable depending which characters are chosen and which starting plot Sauron has. Each side has an overall objective – which is important for the strategy you follow. As Sauron you might be hunting for the ring, in which case you want to play plots that progress that side over others (so if you have a choice you’d rather capture and torture Gollum for news about your ring than corrupt Saruman or muster orcs in the mountains). Of course doing anything ‘bad’ is better than not – and keeping the enemies guessing what your actual goal is helps too.



There are some clever mechanics to restrict when you can do certain things – so the most powerful cards and minions only appear later in the game, and the events are set to help the side falling behind, if Sauron is winning then the events are more likely to help the Free People. Events are numbered and in three piles, and Sauron’s shadow cards and plot cards often have a shadow pool cost requirement. This means Sauron has to ‘waste’ influence placing it in a pool and the size of the pool is limited by the phase of the game – early on the maximum size is 4, preventing play of any shadow card or plot requiring 5 or more.



There is quite a bit of variety in the game – through the card mechanics, but what you actually do in a turn is a bit repetitive, if you don’t much like the theme or mechanics you will get bored playing this game fairly quickly.



The combat system is interesting – there are no dice, instead it is card driven, with the number of cards you have and can play limited by your abilities. The strongest combat cards sap you of strength quicker, so playing those you want to overwhelm your opponent quickly – low strength cards do less damage but with those you are wearing your opponent down and hope to exhaust them. Familiarity with the cards helps, but I found the combat tactically interesting – damage for the heroes is represented by putting their cards in an out of play pile, if all the cards end up there the player is defeated. Cards used in a turn go into another pile representing fatigue, cards in hand are what the hero can do (combat or movement) cards in the draw pile are life points and potential for future turns. This works well, and means at some points the hero players have to rest (get back the fatigued cards) or heal (get back the cards representing wounds) – but doing that advances Sauron’s plots.



Time is represented by the story track – the Free People’s marker just moves along 2 spots a turn, putting the game on a clock that will end it – Sauron has 3 markers, representing the hunt for the ring, corrupting the Free People and mustering armies/power – and they move along depending what plots have been put in play. The game ends when either the hero marker gets to the end of the track or all the Sauron markers reach a point or one gets to the end. And which side is ‘dominant’ (ie. winning the struggle) depends on how far advanced these markers are.



This means the Free People need to disrupt Sauron’s plots – and Sauron needs to protect them. The disruption is done by the hero’s spending influence, which they gain from questing or exploring parts of the map which are seeded with influence and characters from the events. Characters also suffer corruption (either voluntarily following a dark path to get a short term benefit, or as the character is targeted by Sauron through shadow cards or dangers while exploring). These corruption cards limit various character abilities and make the character vulnerable to some of Sauron’s cards – they can be removed, but to do that the character has to rest and expend valuable influence.



If you approach the game disregarding the theme then I think you’ll find it too long and repetitious for much enjoyment, but if you enjoy the theme then you’ll have fun and the time will fly by. There is a bit of downtime while players think about their actions, check cards etc - but some of that will reduce with familarity. As Sauron I didn't notice downtime much, as I was involved in each player's turn (being the enemy), but I could see players on the same side not having much involvement in the other players' turns unless they are playing very cooperatively and giving each other advice (downside to that is Sauron can listen in to what is being said)


So in summary – if you’re looking for a more character driven ‘adventure’ type game with a Middle Earth setting then get this, if you want to mobilise armies in Middle Earth or destroy the ring, go for War of the Ring instead.



This is not a traditional adventure game – characters do not amass piles of treasure and an armoury of weapons, nor do they power up to demi-gods. Most of the time you will be travelling around Middle Earth exploring areas, fighting monsters (for no reward other than annoying Sauron and freeing the world of foul beasts) and meeting with important figures (such as Dain, Theoden, Aragorn etc). You can train, which adds cards to your pile (which helps in combat and movement), you can get a few items (boats, horses, cloaks) which help you move around and you can improve your abilities a little bit, but this is not the main focus of the game. Disrupting Sauron by using influence to remove his plots and visiting areas to remove his influence is what you will be mainly doing – and occasionally be ambushed by minions and monsters.



Unless the Free People have the objective to kill the minions, you are usually better off avoiding combat, as it just at best makes you stop to rest more quickly at worst defeats you advancing one of Sauron’s story markers. But this is only after one game – a different mix of objectives and characters might change the approach, I’m not sure.



Are there any downsides – yes, unfortunately. The game isn’t great for the colour-blind; areas are marked with coloured dots (gems) to designate which card decks to use and which monsters chits to place. Fortunately they’re also named, so if you are familiar with Middle Earth geography the colour issue is much less significant. Some of the mechanics are a bit fiddly, you need to remember a few rules, and both sides have different rules to remember. The game is screaming out ‘expansion’ (or expansions), the area decks are rather thin, and we got through all the corruption and plot cards in our game, and some of the cards use general enough terms that reference very few cards. All this implies that an expansion is either planned or the game designed to easily allow for one to be made. Is this bad? Not if you only occasionally intend to play, the game out of the box will be fine for that, but if you intend to play regularly you’ll want to extend the cards and characters to give variety, meaning you’ll be investing in the expansion(s), adding to the cost of an already expensive game.



Finally, the plastic used for the figures is very brittle, we had 3 figures broken out of the box, and I’m sure most others will have the same, not good for a game costing this amount of money – why they didn’t use a softer plastic I don’t know.



Overall, based on my one play I bought a copy – and if you’re a fan of big box fantasy flight games or looking for a character based Middle Earth game I suspect you’ll do the same.

For the younger gamer : Army of Zero

Army of Zero,

2 players, Ages 8+, Reviewer Nigel Buckle

This is a strange mix, you get a fairly simple game aimed at boys and a puzzle with a £1000 prize. I won't comment about the puzzle other than to say the solution wasn't at all obvious!

Packaging is an oversized and flimsy box containing 3 decks of cards and some dice. Given the target audience (boys) I would have much prefered a more portable and sturdy smaller box - I can't see the packaging lasting very long.

First thing you notice is no rulebook, instead the rules (and the contest entry) are on the cards. This is fine, they've numbered the rule cards so it is easy to work out the order to read them.

Game is relatively simple, feels a bit like top-trumps with dice.



You get 3 combat cards (2 attack, 1 defend) and 10 warriors. The game comes with 84, so in theory there is lots of variety in the team you will get.

Each warrior has 4 ratings, all run from -2 to +2, Speed, Combat, Weapon and Armour, and I think the total on each card is zero (haven't checked all of them).

So you might have Speed 2, Combat -1, Weapon -1, Armour 0. Or Speed -1, Combat +1, Weapon -1, Armour +1, etc.

You are dealt a hand of 10 warriors and you select the order they will fight. Each turn you flip over the next warrior in your stack and then decide your combat action - either you fight (play an attack card or defend, play the defend card).

What happens next depends on the choices the players make:

* Both defend, nothing happens, discard the warriors, pick up all combat cards (more on this below)

* You attack, opponent defends - you roll your die (regular d6) and modify it with your combat rating (-2 to +2) and your opponent does the same. If you equal or exceed the defender you've hit. Then roll for damage, you roll your die and modify with weapon rating, your opponent does the same but uses Armour. If you equal or exceed the defending warrior is dead (remove from the game), otherwise it is discarded.

Your warrior is then discarded, and your opponent gets back the defend card, but you don't get back the attack card.

* You both attack. In this case you both roll a die and modify using Speed. Highest roller can then attack by rolling the die and modifying with Weapon rating, and the defender rolls modifying with Armour.

Surviving warriors are discarded, but the attack cards are put to one side.

You only get back your combat card when you defend, but you get back all the cards you've played. This means you can at most attack twice in a row, then you must defend (as it will be the only combat card you have left). This is where the order of your warriors becomes important, you want the warriors with high armour to appear when you want to defend, and there is an element of bluff and double bluff - do I attack, attack, defend or defend, attack, attack, or attack, defend ...

In an attack/attack round you want a high speed rating, if you are attacking vs a defender you want a high combat and weapon rating.

Once you've fought 10 combats each player gets back their surviving warriors and reorders them, then you repeat until one side has no warriors left. It all sounds quite interesting. The cards are nice card stock and all individually illustrated. There are a number of clans, and the clans seem to specialise in an area, so the Zebra clan for example are usually 'fast' (high speed).

You could play variants where you get cards from a clan or two rather than a random mix.

How does it play? Rules are simple and after the first couple of battles it is very intuitive, however after a while it gets a little repeative - having to go through the deck over and over to reach a resolution starts to show the problem. A game typically takes 20 minutes.

Depending on the mix of cards you're likely to see one side end up with fast characters left and the other with high armour, and then it gets tedious. One side nearly always wins combat (high speed) but can't inflict the kill (low weapon vs high armour) the other side doesn't die but can't win. Yes you can't keep attacking, but the die roll mechanic means if you have an armour 2 character it is hard to kill unless you can match it with a weapon 2 character.

We played 4 games and each one ended up with this 'stall' end game, usually when one side was down to 3 characters. Once a player runs out of characters both sides scoop and restack, which means if you have less characters than me I can put my 'weakest' characters at the bottom and they never have to fight again. I think it would be better to play a certain number of combats rather than a fight to the death. It would also cut the playing time down a bit too.

Overall, quite interesting if a little frustrating in the end game. Gamers who like more control would prefer a version where you draft your warriors rather than getting a random mix, but for the target audience the random method is fine.

My son (who is 9) said the game was fun, but got boring at the end where one side was winning but couldn't finish off the other - we both agreed playing 5 times through the decks would be better.

If you are looking for a quick, simple 2 player combat card game for your 8-12 year old, you could do a lot worse - not sure there is much here to appeal to girls or adult gamers though.

For the target audience I'd give it 8/10, for general gamers a 5 or 6 depending on how much the theme and the mechanic of ordering your warriors interests you.