The Story thus far
The time has come to assert control over the Vortex, the source of all energy. By using the power of the Vortex to weaken the dimensional walls between them, the Vortex Masters wage upon each other.
Overview of the Game
Vortex is a collectable boardgame in which each player composes a force (called a stack) of hexagonal pieces (called tiles) and attempts to control the Vortex which is represented by its own tile. The game shares many elements of and has the same feel as Magic : The Gathering. While the feel of the two games is similar, the fact that Vortex is a board game has a profound impact on how the game is played.
Vortex is a two player game; however, multiplayer variants are possible.
Before a game of Vortex begins, each player constructs a stack of equal size from one or more of the several different factions that are available. In the game, there are four "good" factions and four "evil" factions and a stack can be composed of tiles from good or evil factions. While a stack can contain multiple factions, it will be more difficult to play than a single faction deck. Much like Magic : the Gathering, each faction has its own color of summoning energy and playing with multiple factions will result in a difficult to play stack. The most common size for stacks will be between 20 and 30 tiles; however, the stacks can be as small as 12 tiles and still offer an interesting game.
The game begins with each player placing a Stronghold on opposite sides of the Vortex tile. Each player then constructs their opening hand of five tiles and shuffles together their remaining tiles to form their respective draw stacks. Then the players decide who goes first. The player who goes first loses a random tile from their opening hand and draws a tile from his draw stack. The game proceeds with each player taking turns moving their Minions, launching attacks, absorbing the energy of dead Minions and Strongholds, and summoning reinforcements. At the end of his turn, a player checks to see if he has less tiles than his opponent touching the Vortex and if he does, he looses a point of "Essence". Once a player has lost three points of Essence, he has lost the game. The other way for a player to win the game is to completely surround the Vortex with his tiles.
The golden rule of Vortex is that once a tile is a part of the "Vortex Mass" (connected to all the other tiles that make up the game board), no action can be taken that would separate it from the "Vortex Mass". This leads to all kinds of interesting tactics as will be explained below.
The Game Components
The vast majority of the game pieces of Vortex are the hexagonal tiles. These tiles are roughly 60mm across (about 2.3 inches) and are 1 mm thick. They are made out of a heavy duty paper product and are quite durable. While it is possible to tear a tile in two, it takes quite an effort and is highly unlikely to be done accidentally. Aside from liquids, pets, and small children, the tiles will easily stand up to a wide variety of abuse.
The artwork and layout of the tiles is quite good. Example of the tiles can be found on FFG's website.
The game also use three types of tokens and they are made of the same material as the tiles.
Strongholds
Strongholds are similar to "Lands" in Magic : the Gathering; however, unlike "Lands" in Magic : the Gathering, Strongholds can be attacked and destroyed as part of normal gameplay. Each Stronghold produces 1 to 3 points of summoning energy of a specific color. This energy can not save from turn to turn. Summoning energy from different Strongholds can be combined to summon high cost tiles. As the summoned tile needs to be adjacent to the Strongholds that provided the energy to summon it and given that Strongholds do not move once they are summoned, the configuration of Strongholds is an important element in the game.
Each Stronghold also has an armor and wounds rating. Some Strongholds have a summoning cost and some Strongholds have special abilities.
Each faction has a basic Stronghold that is free to summon. This Stronghold can be summoned next to any friendly tile. This is rather important as it allows a player to rebuild in case all of his Strongholds are destroyed.
Minions
Minions are the soldiers in the struggle for the control of the Vortex and they are the most common type of tile in the game. Each Minion has an attack range, attack rating, movement rating, armor rating, wound rating, and summoning cost. Most Minions also have some sort of special ability.
A Minion's attack range is the maximum distance that they cause damage. This distance is measured in tiles. For example, a tile with Range 1 can only attack adjacent tiles. Range 1 is the most common range. Minions with Range 2 are extremely rare and Range 3 is even rarer.
A Minion's movement rating is the number of tile sized spaces it can move each turn. A Minion can only move into empty spaces and it must remain connected to the Vortex Mass at all times.
Attack rating, Armor rating, and Wound rating will be described below.
Most Minions have some sort of special ability that give them an unique role in the game. The vast majority of these special abilities have a limited range, so a Minion will have to move into position in order to use its ability. Most special abilities only affect adjacent tiles.
Relics
Relics are rare items of power that are not summoned to be part of the Vortex Mass. Instead, they are played off to one side of the table and remain in play for the rest of the game. Each faction has its own relics and a player can not use a faction's relic unless he has one of that faction's Strongholds in play.
Most relics cost energy (and lots of it) to summon. This energy can only be gained by absorbing dead tiles.
Events
Events are similar to "Instants" in Magic : The Gathering. Each faction has its own Events and a player can not use a faction's events unless he has one of that faction's Strongholds in play. Some Events are free to play and others cost energy. Once an Event is played, it is discarded.
Essence Counters
Each player starts the game with 3 Essence Counters. They lose Essence Counters during their Burn Phase if they have less tile touching the Vortex than their opponent. Once a player loses all of his Essence counters, he loses the game.
Wound Counters
Both Stronghold and Minions can take 1 or more wounds. These counters are used to keep track of the number of wounds that a tile has taken.
Energy Counters
When a Minion or Stronghold is destroyed, it remain as potential energy in the Vortex Mass until it is absorbed. When a player absorbs a dead tile (also called an Energy tile), he receives an energy counter. Energy counters can be spent to aid a Stronghold in summoning high cost tiles, summon Relics, pay for Events and special abilities, and even to gain extra actions during a turn.
The Game Board
The game board, known as the Vortex Mass, is composed of the Vortex tile, Minion tiles, Stronghold tiles, and Energy tiles (dead tiles). These tiles are placed side by side and not on top of each other. Due to the goal of the game (surrounding the Vortex), the game board constantly pushes inward and therefore does not expand out to cover a large area. This means that a game of Vortex can be played in a very small space, such as the small tables found in most American bars.
The Turn Sequence
Each Player takes turns going through the entire turn sequence.
Movement Phase
A player may move any and all of his Minions.
Action Phase
Each turn, a player may has 3 actions. With these actions a player may attack, draw a tile, use a Minion or Relic's special ability, or consume an Energy tile.
Use Special Abilities : Some Minion and Relic's special abilities require that the player use an action in order to activate the special ability.
Attack : Attacks are rather straight forward. As a single action, a single tile can be attacked by any and all enemy Minions that are within range. The attack ratings of the attacking Minions are added together and then divided by that Armor rating of the target to determine the number of wounds that the target takes. The target then applies its attack rating (if it is a Minion) in a similar fashion to one of its attackers. Once a Minion or Stronghold takes a number of wounds equal to or greater than its Wound rating, it is destroyed and becomes an Energy tile. Each Minion may only participate in one attack per turn.
Consume an Energy tile : As an action, one of the player's tiles can absorb an adjacent Energy tile. When the Energy tile is absorbed, it is removed from the Vortex Mass and added to the owner's discard pile. The absorbing player then receive one energy counter.
Draw a Tile : The only way for a player to draw a tile into his hand from his draw stack is to use an action to do so. A player may have any number of tiles in his hand. However, once the draw stack is exhausted, he can no longer draw new tiles as the discard pile is not reshuffled to make a new draw stack.
Summon Phase
During this phase, a player uses his Strongholds and energy counters to summon reinforcements into the Vortex Mass. A player may also spend energy to summon Relics.
Burn Phase
This is when a player checks to see if he has less tiles touching the Vortex than his opponent and if he does, he loses an Essence counter.
Thoughts on Game Play
Vortex is a quick game to learn and play. It also has amazing tactical depth. A large part of the game revolves around maneuvering one's tiles into the correct position, but as the gameboard is undergoing constant change, it is often difficult to predict where a tile will do the most good.
Obviously, Strongholds need to be defended, but if too many Minions surround a Stronghold to protect it, it will be limited as to where it can summon other tiles. Stronghold formations are also important as a player will need to form "summoning pockets" in order to summon high cost tiles without needing to expend lots of energy counters, which are difficult to obtain. However, if a Stronghold formation is too large, it will hinder defending Minions from getting into position in response to attacks.
Keeping a strong reserve (tile in a player's hand) is also important. The ability to summon tiles into locations where they are most needed will give a player tremendous flexibility. The ability to summon a low cost Minion or free Stronghold next to the Vortex can often be the difference between winning and losing a game. Many games have been lost because a player did not maintain a reserve and he was unable to move his Minions to where they were needed in time. However, in order to maintain a strong reserve, a player must spend actions during his action phase to draw additional tiles and refrain from summoning them unless they are needed. This gives a player less short term flexibility on the battlefield, but greater long term flexibility, assuming he lasts that long.
The Golden Rule also adds many tactical options. For example, it is possible to maneuvering a low cost Minion into a position so that a strong enemy Minion can not move, as it would disconnect the low cost Minion from the Vortex Mass. The player's opponent will then have to spend a turn or two to move several tiles so that moving the strong Minion will not disconnect the low cost Minion or spend two actions to destroy and then absorb the low cost Minion. Another tactic is to use low cost Minions and free Strongholds to form a wall. An opposing Minion will either have to go around the wall, which could take a couple of turns, or try and break through the wall. If they try to break through the wall, it will take at least two actions, assuming that the attacking side was able to maneuver enough Minions so that a tile could be absorbed and thus creating the hole. Of course, the defending side could always move or summon something into the hole during his turn….
The key to all Vortex tactics is remembering that controlling the Vortex is key. A player might have the toughest Minions in play, but unless those Minions can get into position to control the Vortex, they are rather useless. This constantly forces the game play toward the Vortex and discourages strictly defensive play. This results in fast, active games.
Entry Cost
As Vortex is a collectable game, the question of how much a person needs to buy to get started is often asked. Vortex comes in Starter packs and Booster packs.
Each Starter and Booster pack contains a number of flats. Each flat contains 3 tiles, 2 energy counters, and 2 wound counters. Players will quickly discover that they will end up with far more energy and wound counters than will every be needed.
Four of the factions (known as the basic factions) have their own Starter packs. These starter packs contain the core tiles that will be needed to play that faction. The tiles for the other 4 factions (known as the advanced factions) can only be found in the booster packs.
Each Starter pack contains 8 flats of tiles. Four of these flats are "fixed". In other words, the same 4 flats are in every single starter pack for that faction. The fixed flats contain 10 tiles for the Starter pack's faction, the Vortex tile, and 3 Essence counters. Each starter pack also contains 3 random common flats and 1 random rare flat. Each Starter pack also contains a copy of the rules.
Each booster pack contains 3 random common flats and 1 random rare flat.
Depend on how involved with Vortex a player wishes to become will determine how much a player will need to spend. For the purpose of this review, 6 levels have been identified : Taste Test, Entry Level, Specialist Contender, General Contender, Completist and Master of the Vortex.
| Taste Test |
| Cost | $10 per person. |
| Breakdown | 1 starter pack |
| Details | Each starter pack contains 4 fixed flats for its faction. These flats contain 10 tiles, the Vortex, and Essence counters. The random tiles should yield at least 2 more tiles of the same faction, giving a person a basic 12 tile stack similar in feel to the demo sets. The stack won't win any tournaments, but it will be varied enough to give a good taste of the game. |
| Entry Level |
| Cost | $30 per person. |
| Breakdown | 2 Starter packs and 2 booster packs. |
| Details | For a person wanting to start playing some serious games of Vortex, I'd recommend buying 2 boosters and either the 2 good starter sets or the 2 evil starter sets. This will give a person a two faction stack in the 20 - 30 tile range and enough extra tiles for some serious customization. The stack will be more difficult to play than a single faction stack, but it is cheaper than trying to get enough tiles for a similar sized single faction stack. |
| Specialist Contender |
| Cost | $50 |
| Breakdown | 1 Starter pack and 8 booster packs. |
| Details | For the person seeking to participate in tournaments and league play and is willing to specialize in a single faction, I'd recommend the Host for good and the Brood for evil. Trading will lower the cost. |
| Generalist Contender |
| Cost | $120 |
| Breakdown | 4 starter packs and 16 booster packs. |
| Details | This category is for the person who wants to purchase enough Vortex to be able to field a fairly good stack from any faction. The person will end up with very good stacks for the 4 basic factions and average stacks for the 4 advanced factions. Trading will obviously lower the cost. |
| Completist |
| Cost | At least $210. |
| Breakdown | 4 Starter packs and at least 34 booster packs. |
| Details | It is not going to be cheap or easy for a person to purchase enough Vortex to have a complete set of flats. There are 38 flats that are "rare" and only 1 rare flat is included in each starter and booster packs. Given the odds of getting duplicate flats before getting all 38 rare flats, the actual cost will end up some where between $300 to $400. Obviously, trading will drastically lower this cost. |
| Master of the Vortex |
| Cost | At least $780. |
| Breakdown | 4 starter packs and at least 148 booster packs. |
| Details | This category is for the person who wants to be able to field any type of stack possible. As a stack can only contain 4 copies of any 1 tile, a person will only need 4 copies of each of the rare flats. Given the odds of getting duplicate flats before getting 4 copies of each of the 38 rare flats, the actual cost will end up somewhere between $1500 to $2000. Obviously, trading will drastically lower this cost. |
Wrap Up
Vortex is an extremely fun game with a low entry cost for a descent stack. With its fast game play, minimal setup time, and small space requirements, it can be played before RPG sessions as players are arriving , in bars, during lunch breaks, etc… Also with so many rare flats and 8 different factions, a casual player can purchase an occasional booster and keep the game fresh.
More information can be found at the Fantasy Flight Games web page : www.fantasyflightgames.com
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