The, as yet unnamed, Magic: The Gathering Strategy Board Game is a tactical miniatures wargame for 2-5 players, inspired by the Magic: The Gathering card game, taking place on Shandalar. [1] [2] [3] It is co-developed by Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro. The final name will be announced at a later date. The game will be globally available in Fall 2015 (to be released at Gen Con). One of the designers is Ethan Fleischer.
Playing
- The players customize the battlefield by designing the map, placing terrain and powerful glyphs.
- Each game will include the same five highly detailed, fully painted Planeswalker mini-figures: Chandra Nalaar, Jace Beleren, Nissa Revane, Liliana Vess and a character that will be revealed at later date.
- The players each play one of the five planeswalkers, they summon armies, cast game-changing spells, and try to outmaneuver their foes on the battlefield.
- You complete arena objectives to establish board control, you position yourself to launch your final strike.
Relation to the TCG
- No prior knowledge of Magic is needed to play the game.
- The Magic: The Gathering Strategy Board Game is a standalone experience from the TCG. Many familiar concepts will be present, but streamlined for the board game.
- The game is not played with Magic: The Gathering cards, but it pulls directly from Magic lore and includes references to many classic cards.
Magic: The Gathering Strategy Board Game
Relation to Heroscape
It appears the game is using many of the same tiles and mechanics as Heroscape. Heroscape was an expandable turn-based miniature wargaming system originally manufactured by Milton Bradley Company, and later by Wizards of the Coast itself, both subsidiaries of Hasbro. After taking over Heroscape, Wizards of the Coast issued new products with a Dungeons and Dragons theme. The game was discontinued by Hasbro in November 2010. [4] The game is played using pre-painted miniature figures on a board made from interlocking hexagonal tiles that allow for construction of a large variety of three-dimensional playing boards. The game is often noted and lauded by fans for the relatively high production quality of the game materials, in particular the pre-painted miniature figures as well as its interchangeable and variable landscape system.
Rules
- The board is built up from modular pieces
- There are certain terrain rules for different terrains (e.g. water)
- some pieces create a vertical domension to the terrain
- Some pieces pose objectives and goals
- Ruins block the way and also block lines of sight
- Each player chooses a planeswalker
- Each planeswalker has access to one color of mana
- Each player has a card deck (12 spell cards) with spells that interact with the played creatures (these cards look similar to, but are not Magic cards)
- Each player starts with his or her planeswalker at the back of the board
- when a 'squad' is summoned, in the next turn only one unit (either the planeswalker or the squad) may be moved.
- The goal is to eliminate the opposing planeswalker, or to control a certain part of the board
- Elongated 'army cards' are the stat sheets for the figures on the battlefield
- Combat will be determined by both players throwing a certain number of dice (each having three sides with crossed swords, two with shields and one blank side)
Units
Each player selects one or more "units," where a unit may be a unique and distinct hero , or an entire squad of generic figures. Hero cards are associated with a single figure (e.g. Liliana) and squad cards are associated with a set of two or more figures (e.g zombies). A given player may only have one of a unique unit, be it hero or squad, in his army, but there is no limit on how many copies of a common unit may be selected.
Unit stats are:
- Point Cost
- Life
- Move
- Range
- Damage Dice
- Defense Dice
- Line of Sight/Damage Box