Tag Archives: deck building

Enhance Your Hero Realms Experience with Character Packs

I was sent the five Hero Realms character packs to review for my blog. While I am very grateful for the opportunity, I won’t let it sway my opinions. This will be my honest review.

If you’re looking to buy any card games, board games, miniatures, and more, get it over at Game Nerdz using my affiliate links. Game Nerdz offers some fantastic pricing on anything you need, and it really helps me out.

What are the Character Packs?

The character packs introduce the class system to the fantasy-themed deck-building game. The playable characters I received were cleric, fighter, ranger, wizard, and thief. Each pack comes with two special ability cards unique to the corresponding class, and a few uniquely themed resource and attack cards. These packs will act as a player’s starting deck. The packs also have a unique character card and authority tracker for flavor.

You will need the base game if you want to play with these cards. Make sure you check out my review of Hero Realms if you don’t know what I am talking about.

Cleric Pack

Fighter

Wizard

Thief

Review

If you haven’t played hero realms yet, it is worth checking out. The game is easy to learn and teach, and has some terrific flavor. The cards are high quality, and the texture is wonderful. Make sure you check out my full review!

While the character packs aren’t a necessity, they do not disappoint. The packs are all printed with the high quality and care that I have come to know from Wise Wizard Games. The flavor of each pack is fantastic in both mechanics and art. This game has some fantastic art, and if you like fantasy, you’ll love these character cards.

Power level-wise, the classes feel pretty even. Most games were decided based on RNG, and none of the classes seemed unfair. I preferred using the cleric because I am always the group’s cleric. You can get away with only buying one character pack. I played a few games against a character without one and while the abilities do offer a slight advantage, it was manageable. That said, I would have preferred to play with a class because the class abilities add a fun dynamic to the game.

If you don’t sleeve your cards, you can pack the character packs snugly with the base game, but the box will only fit one character and the base game. You’re going to have to get creative with storage if you are like me and sleeve everything. This isn’t a criticism of the game, but rather something to think about if you’re getting ready to purchase.

I love Hero Realms because of the flavor and gameplay, and I recommend you at least start with that. If you want a way to spice up your Hero Realms game night, you’re going to want to check out the character packs. They aren’t necessary, but they are worth the money.

You can pick up the five-character card bundle on Amazon for $24.94, or the cleric, fighter, ranger, wizard, and thief separately using my affiliate link. It really helps me out if you do.

Hero Realms is the Fantasy Deck Builder that Delivers

I was sent a free copy of Hero Realms to review for my blog. While I am very grateful for the opportunity, I won’t let it sway my opinions of the game. This will be my honest review.

If you’re looking to buy any card games, board games, miniatures, and more, get it over at Game Nerdz using my affiliate links. Game Nerdz offers some fantastic pricing on anything you need, and it really helps me out.

What is Hero Realms?

Hero Realms is a 2-4 player fantasy themed deck building game. Build your coffers, hire your heroes, cast your spells, and be the greatest hero in the realm. Can you build the deck to rule them all?

What’s in the box?

Hero Realms comes with 144 fantasy themed cards for the unique deck building game, an instructions manual and the 4 sets of life tracking cards.

How to Play

Players all start with the same basic deck and take turns buying cards for their deck, and attacking their opponents. The goal is to bring your opponents life to zero, and the last hero standing wins. The included instructions are fine, but here is a how to video by Watch it Played for you visual learners.

Review

Players will immediately notice the fantastic quality of this unique deck builder. The art on the cards is beautiful, the words are legible, and it is all printed on high-quality card stock. The cards also have a lovely texture that feels good to the touch and makes the game pop. The cards feel sturdy, but I still recommend sleeving since the game requires a lot of shuffling. All 144 sleeved cards do fit snugly in the box, which is a huge plus for this game.

The game is easy to pick up and teach, but I still recommend looking up a tutorial for some of the less intuitive rules. I like that there are additional rules for alternative game modes for variety, but I wish there was a solo variant for the times I can’t get a group together. The variants are fun, but I prefer the base game.

As far as deck builders go, you can’t go wrong with Hero Realms. The game has fantastic flavor, beautiful art, and a solid loop. There also seems to be a good amount of diversity in the available strategies. Of all the times I played the game, I never built the same deck twice. My only real complaint is the lack of solo play, but that isn’t a deal-breaker.

If you’re looking for a new deck builder with solid fantasty flavor, you can’t go wrong with Hero Realms. You can pick up the Hero Realms base game on Amazon for $23.95 using my affiliate link.

Game Review: SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech (Nintendo Switch)

If you are looking for a casual game that doesn’t require much commitment, check out SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech. This is a game you can throw on when you just want to chill and not have to worry about leaderboards or storylines. While there is a cute little story full of puns and silly characters, it doesn’t require your undivided attention. The story is a bit on the basic side as it hits traditional RPG tropes, but the gameplay is fun enough where it doesn’t matter.

If you like deck builders and RPGs, SteamWorld Quest is a casual entry into both. The game relies heavily on deck building and hero management, but I never felt it was very intensive. I am a terrible deck builder, but I was always able to find a deck that suited my playstyle. There are guides and lists out there if you ever get stuck, but I never felt the need to look them up. As far as variety goes, there is enough diversity in the card pool to keep things fresh without being overwhelming. 

The game also has some simple RPG elements. There is exploration, loot, hero management, and a grind that you have to consider. 

Exploration was simple. Dungeons are small with only one real path, but there will be secret rooms that will grant you loot and cards. You can always go back to a dungeon to get everything. I never did, but I never felt like I was missing anything important. Dungeons will have a few straightforward puzzles that are manageable if you have been paying attention.

Hero management is also pretty simple. You can buy or collect items and weapons that boost the stats of your heroes and give them special abilities. There isn’t much variety and you will find there is only one real combination towards the end. You can buy items and weapons with gold and upgrade your cards with materials dropped by mobs. There is a grind to consider for this game, but it isn’t terrible. I never felt the need to spend hours in an area, but you can be under-leveled for certain fights if you rush too quickly.

Combat for this game is interesting. You choose your party of three heroes from the six total you collect along the way and create a deck with the cards specific to those heroes. The combat itself wasn’t difficult, although it isn’t something you can do too passively. If you aren’t paying attention, you can die. The RNG will screw you over, but it is rare when it does. The bosses were all unique, but they do feel like sponges towards the later part of the game. There is enough variety with the enemies that you will never use the same deck. I was constantly adjusting to counter enemy resistances and immunities, and it kept the gameplay from growing stale.

You should play this game. It is a neat and chill little card game that is fine for the whole family. I played it on the Nintendo Switch, but it is also available on Steam.