The past few weeks I have been sucked into this new IOS/Android game called Storm Wars, its a really cool twist on the CCG/TCG gaming concept. Just like others before it you complete tasks that rewards you with currency and or cards, then you begin to put your deck together so that you can further improve on your decks strategy and lethality. The battling part is where this game takes a turn, instead of you playing your deck, both you and your opponent battle it out through an AI scripted encounter. At first this sounds like a draw back, something to shy you away from the game, but once you try this free to play game out it is absolutely intoxicating.
The Intro & Heroes:
When you do chose to launch the game you are presented with two options one a warrior hero or two the healer hero, both of which are very good with very different ideals of combat in mind. In total there are twenty-four heroes as of pat 3.0.3 each of which having different abilities, life totals and maximum card capacity. Some you must unlock through challenges or purchase with gems... WAIT I know i said gems and to some this sounds like an instant turn off but keep reading I promise this is the best free to play concept out there, you never have to spend real money and still have a chance.
The Campaign:
This is where everyone should start at, there are twenty-five missions to do, with the main Island being Atlantea, and then with the dragon card packs came the Dragon Isles. There is plenty to keep you busy in this game with every mission in the campaign having 3 difficulties each one giving you better and better rewards, along with this the levels throw a decent amount of cards at you that are really not that bad, some of them are actually in the top tier decks as of now 8/4/2017. One of the most important aspect of the campaign is a mission called The Coliseum, here you get 25 battles to fight, each one giving you one gem, if you manage to win twenty of them then you automatically get the next five games as wins, This is one of the best ways to earn gems for free along with many others. The Coliseum can only be completed once every twenty-four hours so make sure you enter the games as soon as possible and then complete the game within the twenty-four hour time span.
The Deck Builder:
When entering the deck builder you might be set off due to all the overwhelming UI in front of you, in total there are seven different card sets all specializing in their own category of destruction or protection. Along with all the card types you are given you can also choose any hero that you have unlocked on this screen. Below the hero portrait you have the equipment slots, and this is where things start to get interesting, all the equipment pieces have different rarities as-well as different effect. An equipment piece can make or break your entire decks strategy so make sure you try and collect them all. One of the coolest concepts in the deck builder is the ability to combine some of your duplicate cards to evolve them into a better higher quality card, the ramp rate in this game is one of the most addicting aspects always giving you something to do.
The Arena:
Once you think you are ready to take your deck against other people the arena is where you go, once here you are presented with a scrolling bar of hero portraits with the players name and fame rank. The left most individuals being of lowest rank and the right most being higher ranks. It is a small pool of players that are refreshed every 8-7 minutes, if you are impatient or you just want the list to refresh instantly then there is a common item called a rare coin that will refresh the list instantly. Another aspect of the arena is the tournament tab, this tab has a different tournament running every three hours, there is always a ten gem buy-in and the rewards can be anything between gems, card packs, or Reliquary token ( more on this later). The tournament rules are different every time, and you should always read and do some brain storming before joining in on the action. The rule sets usually limited card class, equipment rarity, some are from your cards or from a set of cards, they are always changing and are honestly one of my favorite aspects of the game.
The Shop:
This is where you use all your standard currency at, that being gems, gold, and Reliquary Tokens, you have two option when it comes to spending gold, either the 2k pack or the 9k pack. The two packs are very heavily argued upon on which one has more value, it varies to person to person, I prefer the 2k one but thats just me. The 2k pack gives you three cards of any rarity from the core set, while the 9k pack gives you 5 cards of any rarity, with one of them being a guaranteed epic. The Reliquary pack can be bought with 10 of the Reliquary tokens, with this pack it pulls one card from this pack and thats the one you get, all the cards in this pack are epic to legendary quality. Everything else in the the shop is bought with gems, which to be honest is thrown at you for doing anything and everything, I typically earn 30 to 45 gems a day.
The Crew:
This is the clan part of the game, here you can have a group of twenty individuals all battling it out for the same thing, to be the number one clan on the server. Battles are sorted into attacking and defending, you can only have one of each active at a time. Attackers get five battles per player while defenders get six battles per person, If you win a battle it scores a point for your crew, if you loose a battle nothing happens, There is no reason to not battle if you are in a crew, simply because there is always a chance for you to score a point for your crew, win or loose. Not only are you always having a chance to score a point for your crew, but once you exhaust all your battles you are guaranteed a crew token, this token can be spent in the crew shop which holds some pretty devastating cards. The the more battles your crew participates in the more cards that get unlocked in the crew shop.
My last thoughts:
When I first heard of this game I wasn't that excited, but once you get into it the game just grabs you in especially if you like the strategy aspect of a TCG/CCG. The game is a free to play game so I really insist on everyone just giving it a shot, the company is very active both in global chat and in updates. Honestly the number one thing I give props to is the free to play model that the game provides, I haven't payed a dime into this game and still I am really enjoying it, and this is coming from a guy that has to be the best at everything he does. So give it a try and hit me up, my crew is always looking for good players.
IGN: PlayBook
Once again my name is Zachary Jamison, but you may call me PlayBook.