TES Legends - Rumble in Skyrim Gauntlet

This past weekend TES had one of their Gauntlets, this time the "Rumble in Skyrim".  This one was exciting for me for a few reasons; I actually had some time this weekend to play, Skyrim has ended up being one of the sets that I have more of (than any of the others) and it was the first time it came out (harder to find "pre-made" strategies).

I actually tried to prepare for this one, and made two decks ahead of time; one spellsword (which is still my favourite deck type) and one scout.  I even splurged and crafted a couple of legendary cards in Skeletal Dragon and Undying Dragon.  I tested them both out and they seemed okay; however, I found it hard to judge when playing casual against standard decks as limiting to Skyrim cards eliminated quite a few of the key cards in each deck type.  My plan was to play each deck in two of the runs (out of the 4 that counted to the overall standings).

The first deck I played was the Scout deck:

The Elder Scrolls: Legends - Basic review from a casual perspective

The newest (computer/phone) game I have gotten into recently is The Elder Scrolls: Legends.  This is a free-to-play online card game in the same vein as Hearthstone.  

As I have started to play this as my main computer game, I am intending to write a series of posts about some of the aspects of the game from a casual, free-to-play perspective.  There are a lot of great articles, videos, etc. about the game out there, but I find that they tend to be from the perspective of serious players who put a ton of time into them.  While there is nothing wrong with that, there may be others out there who are a lot more casual and wondering if this is a game for them.

TES Legends is an online collectible card game where you build decks and compete against other players.  The game is available both on PC (through Steam) and on the iphone/ipad.  Thankfully your account transfers between all platforms (so you are always using the same collection, etc.).

There are 3 primary play modes; story where you play on of the storylines through, using combinations of pre-made decks and your own decks, arena (both solo and versus) where you draft a deck for the "tournament" and play that through, and play, where you use your constructed decks in the monthly ladder.

The "Home" screen showing various game modes

Hearthstone - (free? or pay?) to play

Hearthstone is a game that I have been playing on and off for a while now.  Actually, to be fair, it has been pretty regularly (2-3 times per week), but for shorter (1/2- 1 hour) times.  It is a free game to play, but with options in the game to pay to accelerate access to some portions of it.  One thing I struggle with is whether to keep it free, or to spend a modest amount on it.

The items that can be purchased right now either the main single-player campaign (which was a previous expansion) or more card packs, which contain 5 random cards.

Opening a Card Pack

An upcoming expansion, Goblins vs. Gnomes, has over 120 additional cards, and come in separate card packs from the current cards.  I have been following the release of the cards a little bit and have been interested in the cards that I have seen so far.  This has led me to be even more tempted to spend some money on the game.  As part of the pre-release, all of the new cards were made available in the Arena portion of the game, where you build a deck by selecting one of the three random cards they present you (regardless if you have it in your collection).  They also gave a free entry, and I went on to have my best arena run ever, ending up with 6 wins before I hit 3 losses.  So far the new cards have lived up to my expectations.

Goblins vs. Gnomes Arena Announcement

Finished the Arena Run

Throughout my play time I have manage to save enough in-game gold to purchase 4 out of the 5 wings of the single-player expansion, and I haven't been saving for the last one since the cards gained through it don't seem as worthwhile for me.  I have been using the gold I earned recently to try and purchase as many card packs as possible prior to the launch.  I do not have a lot of the current cards, especially the more powerful epic and legendary cards.  This has led to times where I find that I am playing against a deck that just seems to have better cards and it really isn't a fair fight.  However, for the vast majority of the ladder games I play I find that I usually end up at a level where the other players have comparable decks and it is a lot of fun.

Playing my Mage Deck

The other option I have is to play the arena more.  For each entry of 150 gold you are guaranteed a minimum prize of one card pack, a 100 gold value.  The arena is designed to level the playing field as your card collection is irrelevant, but there is still some luck in which cards are presented for you to pick from.  As well, once the expansion goes live, all packs earned here will be of the expansion cards.  I could easily see myself doing this a lot more in the next little while.

For now my intent is to continue to try and play it as a free game, but we will see what happens once the expansion is released in full.

Started Playing Hearthstone

Between now having two young kids at home and all the (much appreciated) help and visiting from family, boardgames just haven't happened recently.

Instead, I needed something that I enjoyed and can take as little or as much time to play as you want.  My brother had suggested Hearthstone to me and then I ran across it on a boardgamegeek forum, so I thought I would give it a try.

Well, I am hooked.  As an ex-Magic the Gathering player, the Collectable Card Game (CCG) genre works for me, and it is free! (more on that below).  The gameplay is relatively simple, but there are enough possible combinations of cards that there is definitely some strategy and variety to most games.  The games are also relatively short, often 10 minutes or less.

I have tried out all of the different types of play, but by no means exhausted them all.  From my "profile" below you can see that I have each class to at least level 10, which means I have unlocked all of the base cards.  I have played two wings of the "Naxxramas" expansion (I just started playing early enough to unlock the first wing free), have played "Arena" a few times (3 wins is my highest so far) and some ladder play.

One of the biggest criticisms of the game is the payment scheme; in order to unlock the Naxxaramas wings, and purchase 'packs' of the more advanced cards you either need to earn in-game gold, or pay with real money.  Collecting in-game gold can take a while, and I can definitely see the appeal to paying.  I am too cheap for that however, and have found that it is still enjoyable without paying.  As a result though, I don't have nearly enough of the more powerful cards needed to make a higher-level completive ladder deck.

Overall I have enjoyed it, and see myself continuing to play for a quite a while.  Check it out!