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Review of PoxNora
PoxNora is a collectible turn based tactical game with elements of card games, miniatures games, and tactical rpg computer games. Turns are set at 1-2 minutes long and games average 30 minutes, with games against evenly matched opponents sometimes taking longer than an hour.
Registration is quick and easy and allows you to try out the game for free. The developers have created two basic armies, called battlegroups, themed around good and evil that can be used give new players a feel for how the game plays without spending any money. Don’t expect to win any serious battles with these starter groups, but they should give you enough of an idea of how the game plays to see if you like it or not.
If you enjoy the game then you will want to buy a pack of runes and create your own battlegroup. The buying process is similar to any collectible game with packs of 10 (2.99$), 30 (8.49$), and 100 (24.99$) runes being available for purchase. The runes are virtual and stored in a rune manager that you can access from the pox website. Each pack contains a set number of random common, uncommon, and rare runes with each rare having a 10% chance of being an exotic card. The 100 pack is the best value since it is not only cheaper but it also has a slightly greater percentage of rares, but a 30 pack can be viable for someone who does not want to commit too heavily to a new game. Currently the game has 200 runes divided evenly among six factions. The factions are flavor groupings analogous to nations/army groups in a miniatures game, each with its own style and back-story.
Once a player purchases some runes then it is time for them to make a Battlegroup. A battlegroup is made up of 20 runes with up to two of any one rune type. A player need not play runes of the same faction type, but gets a bonus if 10 or 20 runes of one faction type are revealed during a game. An inert Rune is roughly analogous to a card in a CCG and is even presented in an attractive card style format that adds a sense of familiarity to anyone who has played CCGs. Each rune represents a spell, a relic (building), a piece of equipment, or a champion (creature) and is illustrated in full color and presented with information and flavor text on the front and additional information available on the details tab for the rune. A forge tab is available for champions, allowing them to spend XP after a battle to gain more abilities and greater attributes.
Champions are the bread and butter of most Battlegroups. They come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes with many different abilities. Choosing champions with synergistic abilities can create interesting combos, making battlegroup design a great deal of fun. A champion in play functions much like a miniature or a character in a tactical rpg computer game. Champions deploy near your shrine and each turn your champions can spend action points to move, attack, and use special abilities. Equipment can be played to enhance a particular champion while spells can summon temporary champions, hinder opposing champions, or deal massive area damage. There are even a few counter-spells and other exotic spell effects. Relics are small buildings that can heal units, act like turrets, or give you more Nora every turn.
Nora is the basic resource of pox. Each rune has a Nora cost which is deducted from your reserve when you use the rune. There is no functional limit on the amount of stuff you can deploy or cast in a turn other than the amount of Nora in your reserve and the number of runes you have revealed. Every turn players accumulate a certain amount of Nora, usually 40. During the first turn players get a small amount of bonus Nora, usually 60. Certain relics, terrain features, and faction abilities can also increase the amount of nora you get. Dead creatures also drop small globes of nora that you can pick up and add to your reserve. Casting really expensive creatures, spells, and unleashing devastating spell combos sometimes requires that you wait a turn or two to get the Nora. Of course you will still be moving your champions around, and engaging in tactical combat even if you do not deploy or cast anything during your turn; thus waiting for Nora is rarely boring, merely a tactical choice.
At the start of a game players reveal 3 runes from their battlegroup of 20. The battlegroup is shuffled and the runes are hidden, so what you get is random, similar to drawing a hand of cards in magic or another CCG. The player may cast any of the runes that they have revealed as long as they can pay Nora cost. Each turn after the first they can reveal two more runes from their battlegroup. Special abilities exist that allow more runes to be revealed in a turn, such as the scry ability on the elven mage champion, which allows you to reveal an additional rune when the mage is put into play. If the player has 10 or 20 runes revealed from a particular faction, then he or she gains a bonus ranging from an increase to a particular attribute on all your champions to extra Nora every turn.
When a champion is killed or spell is used it is not permanently removed from play, it cycles back into use after a few rounds. Generally the greater the power of the rune the longer it takes to cycle back into play, although some powerful runes, like the lich king, cycle back into play very rapidly.
The goal of a game of PoxNora is to destroy your opponent’s shrine. A shrine is fairly tough, but has no way of defending itself. New players often make the mistake of concentrating on killing opposing champions instead of dealing damage to their opponents shrine, or over-extending their champions and allowing an opposing champion to slip past their lines and get to an unprotected shrine. The game has six maps with varying terrain types and strategies. The larger boards have terrain features called nodes that can be captured to gain extra Nora every turn and another place to deploy champions.
Then I went through the tutorial section before my first game and had only minor troubles figuring out how to play. The game is fairly simple, but a lot of players skip the tutorial and throw themselves to the wolves without knowing the basics of the game. This results in a few losses to expert players and might frustrate some people. My suggestion is to mention that you are new and ask for a friendly game, or at least read the tutorial.
The game was released in early august 2006 and at the time of this review is still experiencing some minor, but occasionally frustrating lag issues during games. A few runes seem overpowered and some of the game maps need work, but there is nothing like the game-breaking turn 1 win combos that plague some CCG games after release. Octopi is actively modifying runes, and seems fairly sensitive to player concerns without swinging the nerf bat too often. Trading is about to be implemented and a new set of runes is planned for October. After playing over 40 games, I am very happy with PoxNora and recommend it to anyone who likes turn based games, collectibles, CCGs, and miniatures games. It may not be the game for you, but it is certainly worth trying.
Try the game out at http://www.poxnora.com
Note: I would have given PoxNora a 5 for substance, but have to wait and see how they address the few small bugs and balance issues.
