Introduction
The blue box on the left contains the Warring Kingdom set of cards.
Note1: You may click on the images for a larger and clearer picture!
The Warring Kingdoms mode is different from SGS Classic in terms of the roles the player play. In Classic, everyone has an Identity and has a goal to achieve. In Warring Kingdoms, you play as a Kingdom and your goal is to defeat/vanquish all the other Kingdoms! (Hence the name...). The game play is essentially the same as Classic with a few additional Warring Kingdoms exclusive cards.
Top: New cards specially for the Warring Kingdoms mode; additional Weapons, Life cards.
Bottom Left: The exact term is Careerist (野心家) but it doesn't sound right. I'll call it the Solo. You'll know why later. =P
Bottom Right: Characters you can play!
So aside from new cards, what else are new? Some rules has been implemented to make Warring Kingdoms more fun and exciting!
- You play as TWO characters instead of one, but the rule is, BOTH these characters have to be from the same Kingdom! There are 4 Kingdoms you can play as: Shu (蜀), Wei (魏), Wu (吴), Qun (群).
- You play with your characters HIDDEN unless you reveal it at the beginning of your turn, or you activate his or her ability(ies)! Meaning, no one knows which Kingdom you belong to until you reveal your character!
- If you and another player belongs to the same Kingdom when you reveal your characters, you guys are a team and you win by disposing the others! However, only X amount of players can be in the same team! X is HALF of the total number of players (rounded down). If you have 4 or 5 players, you can have 2 of the same Kingdom to be in a team max.
- So what happens if there is a third one in the example in number 3? Well s/he becomes the Solo. His/her winning condition becomes "to eliminate every other Kingdom and be the last one standing". Solos don't team up, they remain Solo no matter how many Solos there are in a game!
- The maximum health you can have becomes the addition of the two characters you have: 2+1 = 3, 2+1.5 = 3, 2+2 = 4, 2+2.5 = 4, 2.5+1.5= 4. If you have 0.5 extra health, you get to draw an extra card from the deck when you reveal both your characters!
- Some characters have "Perfect Combo". If you notice, some of the character cards above has a small name printed on the bottom right of the artwork, right above the textbox. That's the name of the character who is the Perfect Combo for the character with that small name.
- When you play with Perfect Combo characters, you get to do ONE of these when you reveal both your characters (for the first time): Either draw 2 cards Or recover 1 HP, pretty cool!
That's about all the new things for SGS Warring Kingdoms mode. I really LOVE playing Warring Kingdoms compared to the Classic version!
Take a closer look at the characters! =) Their design is slightly different from the Classic ones!
Even the back of the cards are different!
The Classic's cards and their backs - (L>R) Play cards, Character cards, Identity cards.
Warring Kingdoms' backs - (L>R) Play card, Solo card, Character card.
Review
I would say the exact same comments as the SGS Classic, but let's not do that. xP
Firstly, SGS Warring Kingdoms excel in terms of Strategy. You need to choose characters who complement each other really well in order to play to your optimum strength (whether to survive, to defend, to attack or to conquer). The planning begins from character selection, where you have more control over compared to SGS Classic.
Secondly, picking the best time to reveal your character. You only get two chances: At the beginning of your turn, OR when you need to activate their skills. You can't just flip it open any time you want! This really affects a lot of things, such as whether you can survive (since if you reveal yourself and you are surrounded by people of other Kingdoms, they will almost certainly focus fire), or if you would be killed by an ally accidentally! Some characters combination require more thoughts in terms of activation, because if you activate at the right time, you may have the chance to eliminate all enemies within that turn.... provided that you survived till then!
Finally, the beautiful designs! I personally prefer the card designs and back designs for the Warring Kingdoms' cards more than the Classic's. Aside from the fact that both the backs for the play card and the character card are black, I think they did a good job with the card template design! Not to forget that they added characters that does not/have yet to exist in the Classic version!
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However, there are still some cons to this set of game. Aside from it being in Mandarin (mentioned in the last post), it has WAY lesser cards compared to the Classic. The deck easily run out, and the same cards will come around again and again. Given, the Warring Kingdom is a newly launched game mode aged less than a year old, there are lesser expansions and SP (special cards) available.
Some like the artworks of the characters for the Warring Kingdoms set, but some doesn't. Mostly because they "cartoonify" many of the cards, making them much more "cartoonish" than their Classic counterparts (if they have one). Some improved, but mostly deteriorated in quality.
The coming point isn't really a con, because it's for the balancing of the game, but you might want to be careful when you play Warring Kingdoms IF you have been playing Classic for a long time. Some characters may have the same ability, but have been modified to make him/her less imbalance. Be careful not to make mistakes in the game! =)
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I would rate it a 7.5 over 10, because even though there are some cons, to me these cons have really little impact to the overall game play and game experience I had with this game. If you wish to buy this game, you may not be able to find this in Malaysia. You gotta search for it on the net! ^^
Happy Gaming!
Note2: You may use the images if you need to for non-commercial purposes, but do credit me/attach a link to my site! Thanks! =)
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