Remember back when I was complaining about how TCGs these days felt lacking in originality? Ah, what good times those were, felt like it was just yesterday. Anyway, no sooner than I posted that article than I came across a game that did just what I was looking for, a game called Summoner wars.

Summoner Wars is something completely unique by taking the plain old card battling mechanics and making it into an actual tactical board game. It starts as any old game would, with both players having their own starting units on the field and a deck shuffled.Then the true game begins...

Game play flows like a basic move and destroy style game where players draw, play cards on the field, move, and attack the enemy. Units are summoned by discarding magic and placing the unit card next to a wall, you gain magic through discarding cards in your hand during the Build Magic phase of your turn. Each unit can only move two spaces (vertical or horizontal only) and can then only attack units within three squares if they have range (a bow and arrow symbol) or directly adjacent (a sword). Combat works by rolling six sided die equal to the unit’s attack value and getting hits for each roll that is three or higher.

From there, the game goes pretty fast paced with the final victory goal of taking out the opponent’s summoner card. There are numerous obstacles to keep from obtaining this goal such as event cards and enemy unit’s effects, but it becomes a pretty excellent game.

Event Card used in Summoner Wars. Designed to wreak havok on the opponent.

Plaid Hat Games themselves are a very young company. With this being their first game to date, it only makes their future look brighter. They are extremely active with their fan base, which is a plus in my book. Being able to run their own Facebook Fan Page and Twitter really shows how much dedication they have towards what they do. Not to mention the loads of updates on the site constantly is a plus as well. If you’re at all hesitant to get behind such a young company, don’t be. Plaid Hat Games will easily be a big name someday.