Good Riddance 2016; Hello 2017: The Year in Gaming

Every year I try to write an article that summarizes the passing year and share what I am most excited about for the upcoming one. Let’s be honest here, 2016 was a crazy year! A year ago did anyone think that we would end up with Trump for president? Or have the Cubs win the World Series? Would I after a 16 month hiatus resume paining again? Despite the turbulent year, it was yet another great year for the gaming community and 2017 looks to continue that trend. Over the last few years the gaming industry has a seen a boom as far as leveraging multiple platforms, broadening its appeal by expanding the span of topics in which we could play, and the explosion of card based games; all of these factors really point to the fact that we are in the “golden age of gaming”.

The Industry
In 2016 the value of the video games market alone is $99 Billion dollars worldwide with it expected to grow to about $130 Billion by 2019. This boom can be attributed to the growth of app based games.  Who didn’t almost run someone over while playing Pokémon Go this year? The popularity of board games has also dramatically risen  over the last few years and as more interesting titles hit the shelves this will continue to grow. Card based games such as Magic, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and Pokémon are attracting many young players to gaming and we can see the effect when 30-50 tweens jam into our local gaming stores and prevent us from getting a table. Historical based gamers have also seen a boom, this year Bolt Action came out with a second version, Battlefront’s Team-Yankee grew and has attracted many new players to the hobby. Of course the games tied to movies did well, Fantasy Flight’s Star Wars X-Wing had many new releases that were tied to the very popular Force Awakens movie.

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Great War; Great Once Again!

For those who are interested in the Great War, the last few years has seen a boom in all sorts of media and games that highlight the bloody struggle that changed the world forever. This boom is not because the topic is gaining popularity, but rather it’s the fact that we are remembering the 100th anniversary of the conflict. Even after 2018, and the anniversary period is over I still feel that many of us who are amateur historians will enjoy greater company with a new wave of converts who got caught up in the boom.

Flames of War: Great War
While this is not new, I do have some new personal news to share. I finally got off my ass and painted the French and American forces I got many many months ago. The motivation was a hangover effect from painting my Team-Yankee Soviets and West Germans.  I got back into painting and I really wanted to knock these guys out. 

So sitting on my bench collecting dust was each of the box sets and some add-ons so I would have one of each blister and box.  My first project was the tanks, which was 4 Renault Ft-17s, 2 Schneider CA.1s, and 1 Char St Chamond tank. I will admit to being cocky and made the decision to paint all of the tanks in the French camo scheme. 

 

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On the Road, Episode 3 Thanksgiving Special: Video Games, Turkeys and Toys

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On the Road, Episode 3 Thanksgiving Special: Video Games, Turkey's and Toys

With Sean Sarah and Mitch Reed, Hosted by Tyler Held and Ashley Nekomata

In episode 3 Mitch and Sean are not on the road, but outside of the house where they talk about their favorite video games and fry turkeys!  Ashley and Tyler also give us what video games they play and what they plan to play in 2017. 

In act 3, We talk about what games they look forward to playing over the next few months and in the final act they talk about new products coming out for Flames of War and their future road trips.

For comments, concerns, or if you want us to come out and cover an event, please contact me at WWPDMitch@gmail.com or on Twitter at @MitchWWPD. 

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John Tiller's "Battles of Normandy"

 By Mitch Reed

Miniatures, board games, and video games; three distinct methods of gaming that often do not share the same participants.  I have always felt that board war-gamers were a separate animal from those who play miniatures, and these two groups are even more different from those who play either PC or console games.  However every so often I do find players who dabble multiple gaming platforms and if they have a favorite PC game title it usually is one of John Tiller's excellent products.  Tiller's latest release from his Panzer Battles series is a well done game that features the Normandy Campaign of 1944.

Over the last twenty years I am sure many of you have either played or heard of a game developed by John Tiller.  Staring with Talonsoft Games of the 1990's, he moved on to creating titles for HPS Simulations, and then over the last few years his own software development company. Over the years Tiller's games have covered many different eras and levels of warfare from squad level to  the operational level.  Tiller's latest series is called "Panzer Battles" which focuses at the battalion to Corps level of combat.  The second title in this series is called Battles of Normandy which is a deep dive into the entire campaign from the beach landings to the end of the Falaise Pocket.

 Hitting the beach... 

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Firefall Review

Overview

Gilly got me in to a new online game called Firefall.  I had never heard of it, but was told it was kind of a sci-fi World of Warcraft.  The game was free, so I went to Steam and downloaded it and watched the trailer.  I noticed off the bat that the graphical style is not "realistic", which I think is a good thing.  One of the best decisions WoW ever made was to really go cartoon-like with the look.  In games that try to be too realistic (LotR Online), I think the suspension of disbelief doesn't work as well and stuff looks weird and fake.  (Skyrim looked alright, I have to admit)

The story - which I didn't really see a TON of explanation about - is that you are on Earth in the far future and you are supplementing the military forces - Accord - in order to protect the civilian population.  Nothing flashy that I have seen as of yet.

Classes

You make up a character, but you do not pick stats and such.  You go through some introductions and pick what is called a "Battleframe".  You can change frames at base camps when you want, but you level up your skills and stats in each different frame.  So, there is not really a class, but your abilities in each frame determine your role and abilities.  Each frame has up to 4 active ability options and a primary weapon that uses limited ammunition and a secondary weapon that has unlimited ammo.  Each frame has a unique primary weapon, but all classes can access the same pool of secondary weapons.  You can pick from any of the following frames:

Assault:  This is a standard frame and is the most basic.  You get main weapon that does some direct and splash damage.  You get some AOE damage abilities and some additional movement capabilities.  I like this frame the best so far, as it is a good balance between damage, toughness and mobility.

I have leveled up Assault to 21.

Engineer:  Support people need to look here.  This frame has some decent weapons, but really shines in a secondary role.  This frame deploys turrets and ammo power ups for your teammates.  This is a very useful frame for group play.

Dreadnaught:  This is the heavy of the group. Think large chain guns, a shield and shotguns.  This is your Tank.

Recon:  Stealth and big alpha-strike weapons describe this frame. This frame can move around quite quickly, but is fairly fragile.

Biotech:  This is the healing frame. The weapons are mediocre, but the healing is very much needed when doing instance missions.  Some of the heals do damage to enemies and heal teammates.

Lots of customization options for your weapons and your frame.

Combat

Combat in Firefall is very much like playing a shooter like Call of Duty, rather than an MMO like World of Warcraft.  You have to actually aim your gun and shoot at enemies, not just tab-select them and mash buttons.  You mobility is key in battles as well and is well served in the game.  Each class has jump-jets in the boots which really let you move around.  Gear can be customized to enhance these abilities if they help your style.  The enemies must also aim and shoot you, so combat movement is very important.  If you stand around and slug it out, you will die.

Shooting it out with some enemies.

Mostly, one will be using the main weapon for dealing damage, while switching to the secondary to finish off injured opponents or handle specific situations like weaker mobs.  Each class has a selection of 4 abilities that can be used to increase damage, drop turrets, do AOE damage, etc.  What I find really neat is the ability to attach upgrades to each of these weapons and abilities to customize your character.  You can add splash damage, increase your magazine size, reduce the ability cooldown, etc.  

Crafting and Economy

There is a pretty neat system in place for gathering resources in the game.  There are traditional 'nodes' that you can use little bombs to blow up and retrieve Ore when you see it.  Fair enough.

What is really cool is that you can use a giant hammer to smash the ground just about anywhere to 'search' for fertile ground to "Thump", which is akin to mining.  When you find a good spot, you call down your Thumper from the sky and it starts thumping the ground and gathering resources.  There is a catch, though.  Like the Thumpers in the old Dune movie, the local wildlife is attracted to the device and attack it in waves.  You have to fight them off for a few minutes while your resources gather - often fighting some elite mobs at the end.

Hammering the ground looking for Ore.

Pretty crappy place to Thump.

This is a very novel idea, as you gain XP and some loot from the monsters while you do this - no need to choose between grinding XP or grinding resources.  I like this approach quite a bit.

For making stuff, you have the familiar Research, Refine, Make path.  The system uses Research Points as a main currency for discovering patterns - these come from scraping un-wanted loot drops.  I have found that the points build a little slowly, and I have started researching for future frames rather than the one I am mainly playing.  I seem to level out of the items researched to be of any use in the current frame.

Research Tree.

For money, you have Crystals, Credits and Red Beans.  Crystals you get from drops and refining.  Credits are hard to come by, but you can get them as rewards for playing the game for a certain amount of time per day.  Red Beans you mostly have to just purchase in-game for real money. Crystals are the most common thing used for repairs and crafting and such.  Credits can remove enhancements you have made to weapons and abilities.  Red Beans are used to get XP boosts and 'Veteran Status' where you earn more of basically everything as you play.  Also, many custom visual modifications to your character use small amounts of Red Beans.

Interface

The thing I like about the interface the most is the voice acting on all the missions.  Each mission is explained in detail, and there is full dialogue between your mission-giver and your ARES operator.  She acts kind of like your guide or JARVIS for you and your battleframe.

The interface is really easy to use, and a full key-mapping is provided.  The interface is also customizable, but I have not messed with any of that yet.  You use standard WASD and number keys to activate abilities and to use items in your hot slots - you see those as the two sets of 4 buttons in the screenshots.

You can hit the 'C' key and scroll through your inventory with the mouse wheel.

Most of the other activities in the game are using the mouse.  The interface will prompt you to make a selection with a graphic, and even often tell you which key to press to activate an item or retrieve quest rewards.   I found the interface very easy to use and picked it up very quickly.

Conclusion

So far, I like this game a lot.  There seems to be a LOT to it - I only covered the basics in this article.  I recommend people give it a try, as it is free on Steam.  I think this game has incorporated a lot of novel ideas from past MMOs into a neat package.  Suit up, Merc!

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What Caen you do on your iPad; Wars and Battles Releases on iOS

By Mitch Reed

Being a longtime Grognard who still enjoys the old map and counter experience, I have always looked for ways in which I can enhance this experience by using my iPad or tablet. In the last year my dreams have been increasingly fulfilled with the release of various titles that either scratch this itch or have left me thinking that tablet wargaming is still a pipedream.

Wars and Battles, a recent release by the French company Kermorio, fills a void that is missing from tablet gaming.  Wars and Battles is a “Portal” in which a gamer will be able to play key campaigns throughout history, with planned titles that include Napoleonic battles to the more recent Arab-Israeli War of 1973.  I wondered how one game engine could do all of this, so I was able to give the first title in the collection Normandy-1944 a spin, and I was pleased with what I saw.

In Normandy-1944 a player has the choice of playing out the battles of the entire invasion of Normandy Campaign as either the Allies or the Germans.  You have the option of playing 18 small campaigns or 11 advanced scenarios in Normandy-1944, or for a real challenge you can play the entire battle in 2 massive scenarios that throw in a few “what-if” factors to challenge you.

What I initially liked about this game is that instead of pushing around abstract forces on a map, players are given the actual units, with realistic characteristics (over 100) to move around the map.  This appealed to that old gamer in me and it showed me that some historical rigor went into the design of this game.  The game features 7 different types of units (armor, infantry, artillery, mechanized infantry, ships, aircraft, and leaders) who have the same distinctive characteristics as their real life counterparts did. Players can also choose from a 3D or 2D map, so you can have little tanks, planes and soldiers on your map, or have what I perfer, the 2D counters that look like the games I play the old fashioned way.

3D View

2D View


The map is also very well done and Normandy-1944 features 9 different types of terrain. Once in-game the interface allows you to tap on a unit (or a stack of two units) to select it. Once selected you can move that unit up to its movement allowance and if it's adjacent to an enemy unit (or in range for artillery) you can give attack orders. This is where the game shines; once you select a unit to attack you are given the combat odds and a screen that can allow you to select units (air, naval, or artillery) to support your attack. This really gives you the feel of an operational commander; allocating your resources for key attacks.

You see the part of the map that is used in the game you select

Gameplay

As we all know, a flashy shell sometimes hides a poor game play engine.  I can say that while I do not know very much detail about the engine, it seems to work well in this game.  The interface from the "portal" screen on down is easy to navigate, and you can quickly select the theater you wish to fight in.  Once in a spesific battle you can choose to play any of the advanced or large battle scenarios.  The smaller campaigns have to be played in order, so if you win the Bloody Omaha scenario, you can then go on to the next mission.  Once unlocked, you can go right to that mission in the future.  The game also allows you to save up to twenty games with an autosave feature. 

Naval gunfire.. enough said...

There is a lot of this game that is under the hood that players will either become familiar with over time or by reading the information found on the developer’s website.  Such as supply which is a major factor in the game and how action points work.  I was able to get into and win a game or two without reading up on the system; however it did help as the smaller battles got harder as I advanced.  Each turn a side is given a certain number of action points in which they can use to move or order their units to attack.  I usually had to pass before I ran out of these points; however I am sure that action points play a role in the larger games. Once you pass it is the enemies turn to move or attack.  This is one drawback that found when playing the game, the lack of a detailed rule book.  While the game is very enjoyable, I do not know the action point cost of certain units, or how being cut off affects my units until they are isolated.  I also do not know how units become replenished during the game, but I can see their ratings change if I have them sit still for a turn. I hope that in the future the developer adds this missing feature and shows off some of the well developed engine this game runs on. I will recommend that a player should read the pre-battle brief and the tips as they pop on the screen, they will teach you the rules as you play.

Weapons details in case you wanted to know

One other question players consider when purchasing a new game is how tough will the AI be.  I have to agree that if a game lacks a challenge you are not likely to play it very much.  From my time in the game thus far I can say that AI is very aggressive and it looks to cut off units or moves forces to key areas to support an attack.  The AI also does something that I have noticed lacking other games; it tries to take back objectives you have captured since you earn victory points for them each turn.  With this aggression you can also cut off your enemy and shift your attack to where the enemy is weak.  In the game there is no way to lower or increase the skill of the AI or to set the game on an easy or tough mode. Also, the game has the “fog of war” where you cannot see your entire enemy's force; this too cannot be turned on or off.   Some of the games I have played have been tough affairs where I have had to try the mission again using different tactics. 

Pre-brief, I would suggest reading it!

While the game can time-out and base victory based on points, I have found that I was the loser in these instances (I have played mostly Allies so that should figure) and I have a better chance to win the game by destroying the enemy's force in its entirety.   You can also win and automatic victory by capturing all the objectives at any time, but the tough AI did not allow me to do this very often. I also have realized that support elements such as artillery seem to work better when used on their own, rather as a support in an attack; perhaps this would make a good engine for a Great War game (hint hint).

The game tracks your progress as you play

One aspect that I was not able to test in the advanced copy is the multi-player version of the game.  Which if done like other iPad games are done turn by turn with players saving their latest turn to a server, so you can play a turn and come back to play the next at your leisure.

For $6.99 you get the Campaign in each battle of Wars and Battles portal. In Normandy 44, you can play more than 15 scenarios in Campaign mode. Then, when the next battles will be released, you will be able to play the Campaign of each battle. In other words, for $6.99 you get 7 campaigns amounting to more than 70 scenarios. Advanced and Battle scenarios can be unlocked via in-app purchase. So Normandy-1944 will cost you $9.99 for all 31 scenarios, the next title “October War 1973” will cost $6.99 for the full unlock. I feel you get a good product for the cost and it is great that the developer lets you buy only a small portion of scenarios if you do not like the topic.

Guns and Smokes....

The publisher has informed me that they plan to release a new title every two months with “October War 1973” coming available in January 2015.  Future titles feature battles such as, Gettysburg-1863, Kharkov-1943,   Austerlitz-1805, Market Garden-1944, and The Korean War-1950-1953.  This is a lot of content in the pipeline and the publisher states that different aspects of the games engine will be turned on or off depending upon the period, where issues like unit facing, game scale, anti-tank missiles, and the potency of air power, etc will change with each title. Overall if the future content keeps to schedule and if it has the same quality as the first installment, I can see this Wars and Battles becoming a huge hit.

Overall Assessment
I would have to give this game a solid 4 out of 5 rating.  The lack of a comprehensive rules book prevents this from becoming the great game it probably is, a real hex and counter wargame on the iPad.  Other bugs such as dead units that stay on the map were minor occurrences in game play and I hope will be corrected in future patches.  Along with the lack of rules preventing this game from scoring higher is the unknown of how the multi-player game will work. Having played other multi-player games on my iPad I know a bad multi-player engine can kill the best of games.  I also hope that the bi-monthly release schedule will be maintained because I am excited for the proposed titles that are planned.

Actual units with their combat stats

So, if you are a casual to hard core gamer who longs for the days when they pushed cardboard around on a map, your prayers have been answered and Wars and Battles is the experience you have waited so long for.

Wars and Battles will be available in the App Store 27 November 2014 and you can find it by clicking here. 

Morto's Rating

4 out of 5

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Review: Wargame: Red Dragon

The Wargame series of games by Eugen Systems as been around for a few years and has its origins in the 2010 game, R.U.S.E. The latest version of the Wargame series, Red Dragon, recently was released for PC (with expectation for an upcoming release to OSX and Linux).  The timeline focus of the Wargame series has been surrounding the Cold War era going hot, and Red Dragon continues this trend moving to the 1975-1991 time frame primarily in the East Asia region.

The expected cast of nations has returned to Red Dragon from the previous Wargame games, these forces consist of the expected NATO nations and Warsaw Pact nations, but also include new comers to the war, the Koreas, China, Japan, and the ANZAC.  Each nation has its own perks, available units, prototype units, and flavor that help to separate the forces more than a simple red faction vs blue faction.  The option for different coalitions for multiple nations exist as well to increase the selection of available choices the player has.

The core mechanics of the game are fairly unique to Red Dragon that most other Real-time Strategy (RTS) games do not possess.  Where as the "typical" RTS features resource management, base development, and macro/micro management, Red Dragon focuses quite heavily on a mechanic of "deck building" and unit micromanagement with very little resource or macro management influence.  Deck building comes from the concept that units are represented as cards or selections that you decide from before a game begins, these will be the only units that you have access to for the duration of that game and so a lot of strategy goes into the idea of building a deck and which units to bring.

The most unique feature of the Wargame series is the Deck Building or army list construction that allows players to customize their force to however they see fit.  Many players familiar with table-top games such as Flames of War, WarMachine, Warhammer, etc. will quickly understand the value of this core mechanic and view it as easily a major part of the game. Perhaps one of my favorite parts of the game is the list building and being faced with countless options on how to build different forces that I want to field. Just like building up an army in Flames of War, the deck building in Red Dragon allows you to select the coalition or nation, and then diving deeper to the unit force organization (Armored, Mech, Infantry, etc.) and from there one can select the era.  Each narrowing down of the selection of the force nets more and more bonuses to the force fielded.  Once the selection is complete as to the desired nation and organization, the actual building of the force begins. 

Similar to table top games, the options for unit selection are presented, allowing the commander to choose what they want to field in the force, but a maximum of 60 "points" can be spent where each slot a unit occupies takes up increasingly more points; so while the first few selections of infantry are 1 or 2 points, the fifth choice will cost upwards of 3 points or more.  These costs and available slots differ based upon the force organization selected, so a Armored deck will offer 7 tank slots instead of the standard 5, which each costing 1 point a piece, save for one. Each unit costs a set amount of resources that are accumulated over time during a game; line infantry cost less resources than special forces infantry and so can be deployed more often. In addition to resource cost there is a veterancy of the units to decide on, higher veterancy means that there will be less numbers to field but will fair better in combat, creating the question of quantity or quality as to which to select.  With the myriad of different units to choose from, a player can truly customize their forces to fit any play style and situation.

The battles between forces are conducted on a large map that can feature forests, mountains, plains, towns, rivers, and any terrain feature that you can expect in the East Asian theater of conflict. The two different game types available are an attrition/death-match variant where players battle out in attempts to exhaust the enemies' deck; and a domination/point-capture variant where tickets are accumulated based upon the value of the territories captured counting towards a total needed for victory. The player is given an initial amount of resources with with to deploy units from their decks before the game starts, these resources build up over time and are used to deploy new units as the game progresses. This initial force will dictate the players opening moves; be it land grabs for either capture territories or ideal defensible terrain, heavy pushes to establish a pincer on the enemy position, or any number of tactics that supports the initial deployment. 

One thing the player must manage is their ability to resupply their troops via trucks or helos, with a Forward Operating Base refilling those supply assets, and so deployment of a FoB is essential in areas that can easily be reached. Without these supplies, units in the field will deplete ammo, spare parts, and fuel and thus become unable to participate in combat. Each unit in the deck is a counter to another, and so the player must build a synergy of troops and other assets to counter their opponents' deployed forces; this can be through a combination of air, infantry, armor, etc. that eventually leads to seizing the initiative and being able to push the opponent back or allow them to capture needed zone. Battles can move lightning quick or stall out complete depending on the choices and deployments that a player makes versus their opponent(s), tactics, unit choice, and resource management are key to winning the game.

Where most players are familiar with managing at a macro or both macro and micro level, Red Dragon focuses primarily on the micromanagement level of control the placement, movement, and attacks of individual or small groups of units. Personally I view Red Dragon's game play as a refreshing change and quite a challenge to my style of game play, typically I prefer the more macro style but forcing myself into a micro style has its appeal when I have little else to manage.  Coming from a StarCraft background, micro has always been a weakness to me, the downside is StarCraft is both macro and micro, where I try to manage too much at once. Red Dragon allows me to focus on the micro element, dealing with the individual units and forming attacks and defenses rather than managing an economy and attacking at the same time.  At first I was apprehensive, but once I gave it a try, I really enjoyed myself and had a great time.  I find the game best when played with friends who you can count on as when more people are in a game, the more specialized a deck can be. That allows for a small group of friends to coordinate effectively with decks that support each other, creating effectively a much larger deck. 

This game has brought me to enjoy a different side of the Real Time Strategy universe and I can say that I am glad I gave it a chance. If you are a fan of the "Cold War Gone Hot" scenario, a RTS fan of any type, or a long time Wargame series player, then Red Dragon is certainly worth the purchase!

Wargame: Red Dragon can be purchased off the Steam store for the MSRP of $39.99


I look forward to creating a Let's Play series on YouTube of the single player campaign, and currently am posting multiplayer games on my channel.

Review copy of Wargame: Red Dragon was provided by Focus Home Interactive

Christopher Hecht is WWPD's online community manager, and leader of the 1st WWPD Panzer Division in World of Tanks.  In addition to playing both Flames of War and Bolt Action, he runs a YouTube channel under the handle of Darqueling that features many videos related to video games. 

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Video game Review: Hearthstone

Let's take a look at Blizzard's latest game, Hearthstone.

Hearthstone is Blizzard's version of jumping on the online collectible card game (CCG) surge that we saw in 2013. It's fairly similar to the old World of Warcraft TCG. If you're not familiar with the CCG genre, you collect randomly distributed cards and build decks with them. The format was made popular in the early 90's with Magic The Gathering, otherwise known as the savior of games stores everywhere.

The past year or so has seen a surge of the same format being offered as an online game. This has the advantage of being able to play whenever you want (in your underwear at 3am!), and with a wide variety of opponents - in theory, possible never even the same person twice. Obvious disadvantages include the lack of face to face social interaction, and the prevalence of spending real money for virtual goods.

With all that out of the way, let's take a look at Hearthstone! The cards in your deck can summon creatures on to the battlefield, blow up opposing creatures with spells such as Fireball, heal yourself and your minions, and other expected effects. Each player starts with 30 hit points, and the goal of the game is to reduce your opponents hit points to zero. Each player builds a 30-card deck, and then goes to town on their opponent. Let's take a look at some game play with my Warlock deck.

Hearthstone is set in the World of Warcraft environment. You can build decks with each of the nine main classes in the game.

Here is the deck editing screen for my Warlock deck. The available cards I can use are shown in a "book" format taking up the majority of the screen, and my current deck is shown in a column on the left.

Hearthstone has a random matchmaking system, with both a casual, unranked league, and a ranked, ladder-style league.

You start with a hand of three cards, and draw an additional one on each turn.

In addition to your hand of cards, each class has a special ability that can be used once per turn. Here, the Warlock can spend two mana, two life, and draw a card. At bottom right, you can see a single blue crystal - that's my bar of mana. You gain one mana each turn, allowed you to play bigger and more powerful cards each turn. This is a big difference from games such as Magic where you develop your mana by playing lands.

The player who goes second gets an extra card in their starting hand, and also gets a special card called "The Coin", which is a one-use inject of mana to help regain the lost tempo by going second.

Here I play a Murloc Warleader, which cost me three of my four mana crystals. The creature deals three damage, and has three hitpoints. He also makes all of my other Murlocs stronger.

I'm developing quite the little army of Murlocs. The ones with the "ZZzz"s are ones I just summoned this turn - creatures cannot attack the turn they are played. I can use these creatures to attack my opponent directly, or attack any creatures he has in play. Unlike Magic, if I attack him directly, he can't decide to "block" with his own creatures. As the attacker, I decide who fights what.

My opponent plays a Shieldbearer that does no damage, but has four hit points. It also has "taunt" special rule, meaning I must attack it as long as it remains alive. This is an exception to the normal allows, allowing (and actually forcing) that creature to block attacks.

But that's no worry. I've got enough Murlocs on the board to smash the Shieldbearer and destroy my opponent.

The game offers quests to earn gold. Gold is an in-game currency that lets you purchase more cards and tickets to events. Here I've completed a quest that was simply "Win three games" and earned 40 gold.

You get a basic set of cards just for starting out with the game, and further additional basic cards specific to each class by playing that class. However, the majority of the cards in the game are purchased through random "Expert Card Packs". You can purchase them with both real-life money and in-game currency. Obviously, it's a lot easier to simply buy them with in-game money, and since the game is otherwise free-to-download and play, many people start off by buying $20 worth of cards or so. You can also purchase them with the in-game currency "gold". Gold is earned slowly just by winning games, and in larger sums as event prizes and quest rewards. The cards you receive in each pack are random.

You can also get cards through a crafting system, allowing you to pick which card you get. Every card in the game is attainable from crafting. You gain "crafting dust" from winning events, or from "disenchanting" extra copies of cards you own. It's a slow, but surefire, way to get specific cards you want for your deck.

There is also a "draft" style format you can play called "The Arena". Arena is the most interesting playstyle in my opinion. Your first entrance to Arena is free, but additional Arena tickets either cost $2 or 150 gold. If you've ever played a Magic draft, Arena will look very similar with two key differences:

• You're not actually drafting with another player. You're just getting random cards.
• You don't get to keep the cards you draft. So draft for your deck, not your card collection.

In Arena, you are given three random classes to choose from.

Here I picked the Druid. You then are given 30 series of choices of three cards. You pick one card from each set of three to build your deck.

Once you have your 30 card deck, you play games with it until you either win 12 games, or lose three. Depending on what your record was, you win prizes, including rare cards, Expert Card Packs, gold, or crafting dust.

All in all, Hearthstone is a fun little game that anyone can play for free, now that it went into "Open Beta" in January. While they claim it's "Open Beta", no cards or accounts will be reset, so effectively it's a release version of the game, but they're keeping the "Beta" tag to account for balance and bug issues that may arise.

If CCGs or the Warcraft universe is something that interests you, I'd highly recommend giving Hearthstone a shot. It's a small, low system-req, free to play game to try, and especially playing it casually, you certainly never have to spend a dime. The matchmaking system prevents new players from getting matched up against people with finely tuned  killer decks, and in Arena mode, everyone's on the same page.

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