Warhammer: Battle for Atluma

"A great game if you try it with no expectations..."

At first glance a lot of people might assume that this game is a conversion of the classic Warhammer tabletop game, be advised this is something completely different. It's a direct conversion of the also popular Sabertooth CCG based on the tabletop game. So it's a conversion of a card game based on a tabletop game, confused yet?

The game play is exactly the same as the CCG that its based on, you construct two decks of cards one containing Army Cards and another containing action cards. The game begins with a muster phase, you start with a certain amount of gold coins to which to purchase you army with. You draw cards from your Army deck and purchase units (troops that do the fighting), attachments (magical weapons, banners, and armour that enhance your units) and characters (providing additional abilities for your units). After both players have mustered an army and spent all available gold coins the main game starts. The main action consists of launching a unit into a fight with an opposing unit, If the opponent has any faster units available it can block the speed works though a simple system of Flyers are faster than Cavalry which in turn are faster than infantry, the combatants then square up and you can then play cards from your abilities deck to improve your chance of winning the combat. One the combat has been won the losing card is discard and a rout check is taken if the losing unit fails then the winner can make a follow up attack and another fight begins. The players take turns in launching attacks until all units have acted at this point the values of the remaining units on each side are added up and which ever player has the most points is the winner.

Sounds great doesn't it? Unfortunately the game lets its self down with the main campaign, for anyone experienced in CCG's it's a breeze to be honest. I strolled though it in an easy pace, this isn't to say that the game doesn't have replay value though.
On winning a game you are awarded gold coins to purchase additional cards from the shopkeeper these come in booster packs or there is a small section of individual cards available every time you enter for you to buy as well. So you can busy yourself collecting all the cards and creating different decks.

The graphics are good in the game the card are has been loving reproduced exactly as the cards appear in the Sabertooth game. Although sometimes the text can be a little hard to read you can bring a larger version of the card at anytime which fills the whole screen of the psp. The backgrounds are also well produced.

On the whole a highly enjoyable game (Especially if you like CCG's) only let down by the weak campaign mode. I'd recommend it to anyone interested in CCG's or Warhammer but don't expect it to play like the table top game

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/15/07