Review Details

Hordes High Command: Core Set

Hordes High Command: Core Set

Product Review (submitted on October 4, 2015):
I feel to really give this one a fair shot, I'm going to have to break down some of the game play and not judge it on a whole.

First of all is this an original idea of a game? No. Not by a long shot. But deck builders are a dime a dozen and we won't fault it on that. Instead we will look at how they did it and in that respect... to a point. No deck builder will ever live up to Dominion. That's a harsh truth. But The way they went about it here works for them. Each player has its own prebuilt pool to purchase from depending on faction and commanders. That's pretty cool. And you get to choose from a few a turn instead of just blind draws. Even better. But in the end It still leaves too much to chance. And in this type of game you really have to have a pretty thought out idea of how to achieve a victory. So a few turns of under powered units or raw resources you have to but before ever getting anything you NEED into your deck really hurts

Now victory. That's a topic here as well. Even victory can feel like a random chance. You may have been the player to haul off with more than half the locations this game. But your opponent still managed to recruit from his pool more units with raw VP than you ever even saw come up in the game. leaving you jaw dropped and dirty feeling as you realize all of the game play in between the first and last winds card meant absolutely nothing in the end.

Balance is also something this game gets wrong on many occasions. To the point no matter how well you draw or recruit you are left to just watch as unit after unit is shoved off the field because the location you need is being squatted on by units that by definition of text simply can not be destroyed. There is some definite faction favoritism going on here. So house rules... BAN OUT SCORN!

For the good parts though. The rules are simple to follow and understand and the game itself plays very smoothly Setup for this style of game is actually very painless and not too taxing of time as to take away from the game itself. Through all of the imbalance and lack of thorough strategy I still find myself dusting this one off to play with friends once and awhile. The art is gorgeous and original. There are enormous amounts of deck customization with the commander setup. and most important winning or losing, fair or cheated... It's just fun. Oh and the box holds every card organized WITH penny sleeves. so.. Huge bonus right there.

7.5/10 I would not spend MSRP. But snag this one up when you can find it on sale.
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