Recent reviews by The SpoonElite

I recently began a journey into game development which has given me a real appreciation for the intricacies from the economic balancing and campaign mechanics to the unit physics. Some people love this game for the battles and some for the campaign map, you can win using either. The fantasy setting is also top notch with some exceptional character realisation for fans of the warhammer fantasy universe.

There are some odd design choices and balance issues. I wouldn't go into this game expecting a competitive multiplayer experience. Some factions have major advantages, some battle maps favour one side over another, and the AI make some questionable diplomatic decisions. Having said that, if there's a mechanic you have a real problem with then there's probably a mod for it.


I truly believe that a lot of time, dedication and experience has been sunk into this game and therefore you should support the developers. Would I recommend paying £40 for it and another £100 for all the DLC? No, wait for a sale. DO NOT buy all the DLC in one go, there is simply no need. Pick and choose, and do your research. Play the factions first, get an idea of the mechanics and then pay.

You can go into the discussion board and leave with the impression you can't play the Skaven without The Prophet and The Warlock, or the High Elves without The Queen and The Crone. This simply isn't the case, plague priests and artillery can easily carry you through a Skaven campaign. Dragons and wizards can carry you through a High Elf campaign.

I spent £15 on the game and picked up The Prophet and The Warlock. I know I would be happy enough playing the game without it. If you do buy DLC do it for the faction mechanics. The Vampire Coast and the Tomb Kings are very much worth picking up if you fancy trying those factions. But the bottom line is if you're on a tight budget you can very much enjoy this game without spending a fortune.


Don't worry about wanting to start over.

I recently took a Count Noctulis campaign to 150 turns. I conquered the whole of Lustria with essentially one doomstack and the help of Luthor Harkon. I was sat on 300K+ gold so I started building two more stacks and realised the campaign was a forgone conclusion.

I may return to it at some point but even though I never reached "end game" I would be depriving myself from more content if I decided to continue. Even if I was to start a fresh Noctulis campaign and just choose a different area of the map to sail too I believe I would be experiencing more varied content than continuing along the path of campaign completion.

There's so much to experience in this game that I think you'd be doing yourself an injustice by sticking to one campaign when they can last 250+ turns and whole lot of hours.

I'll start by saying how impressed I am with the quality and the feel of this game. In all honesty I tried this game because I had internet issues and my god am I glad that I did. The visuals are gorgeous, the animations are impactful and satisfying, the game play is uniquely tactical, the tutorials are also a brilliant idea, you have a great community, and there are great insentives in place to help new players.

However, I do have some critisisms, I've only been playing a couple of days but I figured initial impressions are something you value since you're trying to bring in new players. Please let me know if im miss judging or you've already discussed these thoughts.

Firstly, I feel pretty useless with the starter decks. Even with all the chests I've had thrown at me, even using Kripps promotional codes, completing as many of the solo battles/puzzles that i could (including using my gold to buy 2). And I still dont have enough to build a deck I feel is usable (even trawling through your deck hub). I've heard other people have a different experience but i spent some of my memoria on blue cards which I can't really use, which may be entirely my fault. However, you could have given some direction in terms of early investment. Maybe I'm supposed to focus on Pandora for now but there is a limit to how often I can play it, especially when, without game knowledge it is likely for you to lose. Also, forcing you to play online in order to be able to afford more tutorial missions doesnt make all that much sense.

To fix this you could make more of the solo missions free, maybe giving you some better cards, or one or two competative decks, but more realisticaly make a bigger focus on youtube content. Bare in mind I have read through most of the academy, there is a limit it is impossible to pass of how much you can learn from reading about any game. Something a little closer to the champion spotlight with league and smite. Maybe a deck spotlight.

Secondly, and my biggest gripe is that it really feels like you are attempting to follow Hearthstone in order to draw from their audience, mildly in visuals (I've seen some earlier builds for the HUD and it looks more unique, visually appealing and more user friendly), and more obviously with your marketing:

Implimenting more RNG; RNG is a great hook and it works BRILLIANTLY in Hearthstone with a pretty simplistic game mechanics wise, they can create very entertaining combos and decks (unstable portal for example) but in a game like yours which is more deep and complex, you have so much room to be strategic and competative, i realise you cant avoid it in a card game but you can avoid adding to it. Obviously Hearthstone has its competative scene but RNG will always deduct from the competative experience, even when that RNG can be manipulated.

The shop - apears almost identical just with chests instead of packs, when you open a pack it does the flashing lights and explosions animation (which is cool, they did a good job of that) but you could do so much more. Having colour based packs for example (what the hell happened to that!? it worked so well), Goki is a great example of something unique. Atleast do something that under cuts Hearthstone, thats how marketing outside of the entertainment industry works: 'you get an extra 10 packs when you buy a 50 pack bundle' for an under researched example.

My point is that what Blizzard has, with all there money and experience is a perfect harmony between marketing and gameplay. Which is something you do not have, so dont copy, it wouldnt fly with gameplay and it simply doesnt work with marketing. You have something unique and very special here, treat it as such, in every aspect.
Hearthstone players don't want a hearthstone alternative. Non-hearthstone players want a hearthstone alternative.