Summoner Wars Tips and Tricks

[Aldin]

Having played a number of Summoner Wars games at this point, here are some things I’ve discovered:

General:

It’s a teeter-totter bloodbath! There will be times when you exchange turns of summoning and slaughtering. Don’t despair when you lose all your non-summoner units in a turn – there’s a decent chance you’re about to return the favor.

The difference between one and two hit points is bigger than it seems at first glance. If your foe is throwing two dice their odds of killing your figure drops from 90% to 50%. If they’re only throwing one die, they have to spend a second precious attack just to have that 50% chance versus their 67% shot at killing a one hit point figure on the first strike. Which isn’t to say anything common lives a long time, but at least the two hit point stuff doesn’t melt away like snowmen in the desert.

Be very, very aware of your opponent’s wall radius – the distance from which a newly summoned figure can attack you. This is especially important in the placement of ranged units who can often attack from a point where they won’t be vulnerable to melee next turn if they succeed.

Best card for the Magic Pile? A Hero is Born (sorry Goblins, but in truth you don’t really have a magic problem anyway). When you happen to need it and have it at the same time, great. It’s usually better spent on Commons.

Tundra Orcs

Walls are a free defensive reinforcement and should almost never be burned for magic. A couple of well-placed Ice Walls combined with a lucky roll can KO three to four enemy commons pretty easily. Particularly devastating against the Cave Goblins.

Your opponent’s Walls are wonderful as well as interim targets on a furious string of attacks by Fighters and Ragnor. A bit of pre-attack placement thought about what you might be able to string together can go a long way when you get lucky.

Don’t be fooled by the auto-wound, Smashers are the toughest to kill commons in the game – just keep them away from Heroes.

Let Grognack fight! Keep him at the edges of the conflict, but take advantage of his powerful strike and ability to risk taking some damage. He is the most powerful Summoner by far.

Phoenix Elves

Precision means always being able to know which of your units will be vulnerable on the next turn. You can take advantage of this to use the flimsy Prince in a way that gives him his autowounds but leaves him unthreatened.

Try to get a yo-yo wall into play quickly. Blaze step, Precision, (Greater) Burn, Spirit of the Phoenix and Far Shot all give the Elves opportunities to inflict damage without risking attacks on the following turn. Part of making that work is having an extra wall available to pull back the Warriors. You can run into a problem pulling them back to the main summoning wall and blocking off your own reinforcements.

The Fire Drake is one of only two figures (along with Gror) in the game that can attack through other cards. This includes his own walls and can make for a deadly cycle of ring around the rosie in the late game (until the wall is gone, but at that point you don’t really care).

Guild Dwarves

Don’t bother with Baldar unless you’re facing heroes, non-Elf heroes. In fact, against the Elves, just burn him for magic.

Besiege the Walls is a great card to hold in your hand, especially against the Tundra Orcs. Anti-wall strategies are really difficult to pursue, but when it works there’s nothing like the look of fear on your opponent’s face. One synergistic pairing is to use Defenders to tie up enemy units and block their access to Engineers who are rapidly tearing up the walls.

Decide early on whether or not to pursue wall killing. It’s a strength of the Dwarves, but passing on it and building Besieges and Engineers into the magic pile gives enough magic to usefully employ Thorkir.

Don’t be afraid to use Gror to attack one of your own units if the potential benefit is great enough. Heck, be willing to move one of your own units to a useful central location for maximum Hammer Quake-y damage (make sure you attack with that unit first). And yeah, adding Heroic Feat is awesome.

Cave Goblins

Zero summoning cost commons means you almost always want to go second since you can take advantage of a summoning phase without having any magic.

Sneeks can pull a Goblin version of the Elf Warrior’s Blazing step and give you a free three dice attack. Remember that you can switch him with Champions as well as with Commons as a way of granting mobility to both.

Being able to augment Blarf at any time means two things. First, you can use him as a cheap damage sump without risking giving your enemy a bunch of magic if they kill him, all the while waiting for an opportunity to juice him up for a big strike. Second, if you attack with him last he can instantly soak up any magic that gets added in previous attacks.

Getting all five attacks is tough with only three moves. Having a Slinger or two placed where they can take pot shots at walls is a solid way to maximize this attack advantage. A few hits on a wall might not worry your opponent, but the Goblin event cards, especially in sync with Mook, can turn an annoying plinking into a crushing, dozen-plus attack dice throwing phase.

Mercenaries

Okay, I’ve only played with Khan Queso once. He’s a nice substitute for a champion you don’t care for or that is particularly disadvantaged against a certain foe. The best example I can think of is Baldar against the Elves, there’s just hardly any reason to leave him in the deck.

Hopefully there is something in here that is useful or at least thought provoking. I plan on looking back at this in another month to see how hopelessly naïve I was in the early days. I'm very interested in hearing the tips and tricks others have come across as well.

[Grungebob]

Printing this one off to take around with me!!

[marcsanti]

"Let Grognack fight! Keep him at the edges of the conflict, but take advantage of his powerful ranged strike and ability to risk taking some damage. He is the most powerful Summoner by far."


Just to clarify what you mentioned above (bold), Grognack has ranged attack? On my card he actually has a sword. Could this be a miss print? I know the website shows him as having a ranged attack, but I thought it was an error like how the fighers have "Frenzy" when the printed card has "Fury".

[Classicsmiley]

Yeah, I did a double-take when I read that, and promptly went and looked at his card scan. I was really wondering how I'd missed the fact that he had a ranged attack.
It looks like for the production version he gained an extra life point, and lost the ranged attack.

[Aldin]

You guys are right, I was looking at the database here for reference while writing. He and Sneeks are the two Summoners I try to use pretty actively since they can afford to soak up a bit of damage when I screw up. I also realized after reexamining the cards just now that the Eater consumes at the end of the attack phase and NOT at the end of the turn like I've been playing so I'm going to delete that bit about switching him with Sneeks as well.

[mrkurtb]

Many great points Aldin. I hadn't actually calculated that there was that much of a killing disparity between 1 and 2 attacks versus single life units.

Similar to your engineer/defender combo I like to employ what we call the Dwarven Gauntlet. It's pretty simple, the setup is shown below.

http://http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o257/mrkurtb/Dwarven_gauntlet.gif

Right behind the forward wall place a defender. This allows allows the defender to soak up hits while more powerful ranged attackers safely dish out damage.

GOOD: Position the spearman back far enough so that the opponent can't become adjacent. Then on your turn hit with a 2 attack. Alternatively, if there are opponent reinforcements waiting to follow up, you could stay back and attack with both the defender's and spearman's single attack die each.

BETTER: Take advantage of Oldin's superior attack without putting him in immediate danger. Have backups ready for when the original defender falls.

BEST: Have Thorkir camp out and dare opponents to test the gauntlet. Thorkir stays safe and can basically take away this path to Oldin.

It's also great to gum up the works. If you get a slinger (or other 1 attack weaklings) stuck in there, sometimes it's best not even to attack them if you can attack elsewhere. It can be quite frustrating for an opponent to have a champion ready to go after Oldin only to be denied access by a defender-jammed passageway.

When the cards allow it and it is appropriate for the game situation, this is a fun little tactic.

One more thing: I forgot to mention that this effectively gums up the entire left side of the board.

[Truth]

Tip:

Move Prince Elien into an attacking position with his big 3 dice ranged attack, and then at the end of the turn blaze step a warrior in front of the Prince so your opponent can't strike back at him.

[Aldin]

Those are nifty ideas mrkurtb and Truth. That Dwarven Gauntlet looks truly intimidating and I'm always looking for ways to protect the pain-averse Prince.

[Creationist]

For the Cave Goblins, I'd add this:

Using The Eater to eat one of your own 0 cost commons isnt so bad. You get a free magic to use next turn.

[XNFM]

Walls are a free defensive reinforcement and should almost never be burned for magic. A couple of well-placed Ice Walls combined with a lucky roll can KO three to four enemy commons pretty easily. Particularly devastating against the Cave Goblins.

I don't agree here. Now I know I don't have too many games under my belt yet, but the fact that the Orcs have six walls makes me very comfortable burning one or two for magic, even the real walls. I can see where you're coming from saying that those extra walls should be used defensively, but I've never felt that I've ever needed more than three walls in a given game.

[Cavalier]

I don't agree here. Now I know I don't have too many games under my belt yet, but the fact that the Orcs have six walls makes me very comfortable burning one or two for magic, even the real walls. I can see where you're coming from saying that those extra walls should be used defensively, but I've never felt that I've ever needed more than three walls in a given game.

I've actually had all of my walls wiped out in a game before. Not much fun when you can no longer summon.:(

[Truth]

He used the word almost never, and I think he is right on. I almost never burn a wall for magic. Once in great while. But if I am going to burn a wall for magic is it usually with the Tundra Orcs that I do it.

[Aldin]

What happens is the Tundra Orc player stockpiles a few walls and then dumps them adjacent to an attacking force. In conjunction with Ice Shards it's an amazing way to get a 50/50 shot at massive damage without costing a single point of magic and without being constrained to the spaces you can reach with units. I've lost FIVE Cave Goblins to this tactic in a single roll of a die. It's only 50/50, but after the fairly limited (Greater) Burn I can't think of any attack in the game with a bigger threat range.

[Creationist]

Yeah, I did a double-take when I read that, and promptly went and looked at his card scan. I was really wondering how I'd missed the fact that he had a ranged attack.
It looks like for the production version he gained an extra life point, and lost the ranged attack.

So which one is correct? I know this happened with the fighters fury/frenzy power and that isnt really that different. However this really is. Care for a clarification truth?

[Classicsmiley]

I'd say the printed card (no range, 7 life) is correct, since that's what we actually have to play with. I'm guessing that the cards that are up on the site are from one of the last rounds of play testing, and that just a few of them got changed before going into production.

[J-Unit94]

I've been playing with Grognack as though he had 6 lives and range, like it says on the site. I hope that this is correct, because he'll be a lot weaker without that ranged attack, and the Tundra Orcs have proven to be one of the weaker factions, at least in the games I've played.

[mrbistro]

The printed version is correct.

[Creationist]

The printed version is correct.
Okay, thanks for the clarification.

*goes to change his proxies*

[KCU Master 2007]

I've been playing with Grognack as though he had 6 lives and range, like it says on the site. I hope that this is correct, because he'll be a lot weaker without that ranged attack, and the Tundra Orcs have proven to be one of the weaker factions, at least in the games I've played.

I've actually had a lot of success with the orcs. I can't imagine giving Grognack a ranged attack on top of his Walls of Ice Shard attack. That too me would just seem to much.

In a way, they gave him the most powerful ranged attack to date. A 50-50 chance to inflict a wound on multiple targets. If any of them are only one life commons or heavily wounded Champions it could yield a lot of magic and cripple your opponent if used correctly.

[J-Unit94]

The printed version is correct.

Ok,thanks. This makes Grognack a lot less powerful. Still probably the best summoner, but not quite as good as I thought. This also makes Elien a bit more powerful in my eyes, seeing as he now has the strongest ranged attack of the summoners.

[marcsanti]

He does have a great ranged attack, but he also only has 4 life which makes him a pretty easy target.

[Truth]

Okay, thanks for the clarification.

*goes to change his proxies*

Let it be known that the cards shown on the site are for reference purposes only. They are not intended to be made into a free print and play version of the game.

[paradox22]

Yes! No Proxies. Go buy more copies of the game so Plaid hat can release the UNDEAD ASAP!:D

[Creationist]

Let it be known that the cards shown on the site are for reference purposes only. They are not intended to be made into a free print and play version of the game.

I know. These were just to get a taste for the game before Christmas when I get the real thing. I fully intend on ripping/burning these as soon as I get the real cards.
And these proxies got 2 or 3 other people into the game.

[Quintaton16]

Pay very close attention to order of attacks. You can accomplish a lot by using one unit to clear the way for another unit to use a ranged attack or a few Furies right through the hole you just opened. The fastest game I've played yet was where, in about the fourth turn, Prince Elien had a Warrior in front of him, but I was able to get a Spearman to the side and kill it, allowing me to use my Oldin (with two heroic feats) to one-shot Elien. My brother never saw it coming.

[S1R_ART0R1US]

I just played a game where I had a version of the dwarven gauntlet going, but without the extra wall. Instead, I used to it to protect Oldin's right side, trapping an enemy champion in the corner, ready to be pounded by Thorkur.

I haven't played against the Phoenix Elves, as I don't have them, but it seems that in general a good strategy for the dwarves is to hang back with ranged units (Spearmen, Thorkur, even Oldin) and let defenders tie up opposing figures while you blast them. Foolishly I focused on killing Walls my first couple games. My units kept getting slaughtered while I slowly put on wounds...only to have a new wall down in a few turns.

[killercactus]

Man - I really need to play this game more often. Reading all of this strategy stuff has my gaming juices flowing.

I've only played one game so far with the Phoenix Elves. I picked up on the Blaze Step tactics pretty early on - they're a lot of fun. I don't have enough experience under my belt to get much more into strategy, but I'm sure I will.

[Lord_AndraK]

I find that the Orcs, though potentialy powerful get the crap beaten out of them vs the elves (unless variables affect the game).
They just rely on luck to much and the elves dont take an aggresive aproach what with their farshot archers plucking at me from a distance.
any advice on how to handle that other than something relying on fury?

[mrkurtb]

I find that the Orcs, though potentialy powerful get the crap beaten out of them vs the elves (unless variables affect the game).
They just rely on luck to much and the elves dont take an aggresive aproach what with their farshot archers plucking at me from a distance.
any advice on how to handle that other than something relying on fury?

Yep, don't even use fury.

I'll specifically address the fury comment below but first I want to talk about luck and what makes the Orcs work. What I'm about to write runs counter to what most respected Summoner Wars experts (Truth included if I remember) have stated, but I believe the Orcs (when facing the Elves especially) are affected by luck less than any other faction.

The way I see things luck comes in 2 forms in Summoner Wars, dice rolling and card timing. I'll talk a little about each.

Dice Rolling Luck
I am by no means a mathematician or statistician so I can't really provide any proofs etc. but lets think about dice rolls for a bit. In a typical Summoner Wars game there are quite a few rolls, easily more than 30 per side. As stated earlier, I'm no numbers expert but I seem to recall from somewhere that when it comes sample size, "30" is a magic number. When the sample size reaches 30 or greater, the distribution of the results will begin to look normal (it's more complex than that, but that's the gist). I'm sure others can point to faults in my previous statements but essentially it means that if you roll the die 30 or more times, "luck" is effectively minimized (NOTE: if all die rolls carry the same impact). However, not all SW die rolls carry the same impact; fury rolls and the rolls when attacking the opponent's summoner are the ones that would throw off the normal distribution most. Fury doubly impacts your luck because if you're using fury optimally, you should end up with a chance to attack the opponent's summoner. If we take Fury out of the equation, let's say for now don't use Orc Fighters or Ragnar, we're left with some die rolls that for the most part carry similar impacts. Imho, similar enough to say that die rolling luck is less of an impact on the orcs than card drawing luck is for the Elves, Goblins, and Dwarves.

Card Timing/Drawing Luck
Phoenix Elves
I believe that the Elves are the most luck-based faction (when facing the Orcs). I know, more heresy. The luck that affects the elves most is the timing of the wall cards (this is going under the assumption that the Orcs are being played optimally, which means in an aggressive attacking fashion, otherwise this would not be the case). The fancy Prince really needs the extra protection. The bane of the Elves' existence is the combination of the orcs' many plentiful walls and those pesky Shaman. If the Elves only have 1 wall card, then it is likely that Elien only has 1 safe space on the entire board (his throne = his starting space). Otherwise, a Shaman can hit him in 1 turn if there are no intervening elves and the orcs have wall cards on their center border. @20% of the time only 2 Shaman strikes will win the game for the Orcs. Also keep the following in mind when playing the orcs:
(1) Play aggressively, you should always be pushing the elves
(2) Come at the elves in waves, don't let them pick you off. Waves allows you to overwhelm/bypasss your opponent. Remember, you don't have to kill all the elves you just have to one elf. Which leads to...
(3) SW is about exploiting mismatches, so use Smashers [4 Lives] to overwhelm/bypass Archers [1 Attack] and Guardians [1 Attack] and keep them away from Warriors, unless you get the first strike. Similarly, use the Shaman to attack multi-life opponents and use them to constantly apply pressure to Elien. This leaves us with Fighters; normally don't use them. Their best use is attacking Warriors where subsequent fury success leads to attacks on other Warriors or Elien.
(4) Don't feed the enemy. If you primarily use your Fighters for magic you cut down on the Elves' steady supply of magic, thereby limiting their defenses. Ragnor and the Fighters should rarely be used against the Elves other than when you're facing end-game desperation.

Cave Goblins
The timing of Rage, Rush, Horde Attack, and even to a lesser extent The Eater with sufficient common units to fully utilize them is the way luck most affects the Goblins - more than non-fury dice rolls affect the orcs at least.

Guild Dwarves
I never go into a game with the strategy of taking down my opponent's walls so when the timing of Engineers and Beseige the Walls cards works out it's really just icing on the cake, so that's not a big deal for me with the Dwarves (TANGENT: I've recently been getting the hang of wall destruction/adjacent space denial, which is incredibly fun). More important for the Dwarves is the timing of the comeback cards (Reinforcements and Magic Drain) and the heroes. Dwarven heroes are great, so you don't want too many too early nor do you want your Reinforcements and Magic Drains too late, when they can't be effectively utilized. The dwarves are less affected by card timing than Elves or Goblins, though.

Tundra Orcs
Quite simply I think the Orcs' event and unit cards are so flexible that card timing is less of a factor for them than for any other faction.

So to summarize, if you don't have Fighters on the board you won't be using fury. You'll be starving your opponent of magic and lessening the impact of luck. Keep pressuring the elves throughout the game and chances are you'll get a couple of breakthroughs and soon the Flaming Prince won't be such hot stuff anymore.

[Quintaton16]

I disagree strenuously with your minimalizing of die rolls. You are correct in saying that over n=30 the distributions approach a normal distribution, but not all normal distributions are the same. They are defined by two things: mean, and standard deviation. Overall, the mean (average hits) for Orc rolls and the mean for Elf rolls will be pretty similar (although I might guess that the Orc average would usually be higher, as Elves generally use means other than dice). However, the standard deviation (how spread out the data are), will be substantially higher for the Orcs. The Elves are far less luck-dependent than the Orcs with respect to die rolls, because their event cards allow them to remove chance completely when they need to.

Handling the Elves, I can offer suggestions only in theory, as I make a very poor Orc. What I would suggest is put lots of Walls as far forward as you can get them. That way, it is impossible for the wimpy Archers to stand back and pick your troops to pieces. As mrkurtb suggested, attack in waves. Deep in their own territory Elves can easily take out one target at a time. If you attack with several Shamans, or even better, Smashers, their lack of die-rolling power really starts to hurt.

[mrkurtb]

The Elves are far less luck-dependent than the Orcs with respect to die rolls.

I agree with this and everything else in your post except for this one line...


I disagree strenuously with your minimalizing of die rolls.

Here is where it appears we differ. This leads to the question, "What affects the outcome of Summoner Wars games more, the cumulative luck of the dice or the luck of the draw?"

I believe the effect of when the 2nd Elven and 3rd Elven Walls come out have a greater impact on the game than the cumulative die rolling for the Orcs.

I don't think there's a way to prove either. However, I will say that it has been my experience that by minimizing the impacts of Ragnor and the Fighters and by playing the Orcs optimally, their faction has delivered the most consistent results.

[darkbladecb]

I will just throw it out there that I know some guys who play a bunch of very dice-based war games that are pretty much a luck-fest who refuse to play any form of card game, due to the luck-based nature of getting the cards you need.

I think I am a rarity in that the Elves were the last faction I played and subsequently the faction I LEAST take to. I feel like they are, along with the Goblins, much more susceptible to bad draws than the Orcs or Dwarves, because the margin of error for the Elves is so small. One breach through their defenses and Elien's done. I've seen games where the Elf player has seemingly had the game in hand, only to have a common summoned next to a front wall, penetrate quickly into enemy territory, and kill Elien despite the PE player having numbers and the momentum. The Orcs don't seem to have the PE's ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

[Greyelephant]

I find that the Orcs, though potentialy powerful get the crap beaten out of them vs the elves (unless variables affect the game).
They just rely on luck to much and the elves dont take an aggresive aproach what with their farshot archers plucking at me from a distance.
any advice on how to handle that other than something relying on fury?


I've had success with them against the elves. To me the Smashers "Sluggish" negates the Guardians "Precise", so this is an advantage for the Orcs. Not to mention the difference of health between the two.

Never forget that Elien has only 4 life. I shoot down the field after him as fast as I can. That sounds silly, because you could argue "Well who doesn't take a shot at a summoner given the chance"? I would say this, there are times when you must thin the ranks before going after the Summoner (who has high health). However, with Elien, you only got to get 4 lucky shots in, and he's done. Forget about any of the other units on the field of play. A "Sluggish Wall" is a strategy I like. Smashers take a lot of damage. Keep them in front of your Shamans and Fighters and slowly make your way down the field until you can get close enough to take a swing at Elien.

Take a second and look at the Summoners and heroes of each group.

Kaeseeall and Ragnor are both very interesting. Neither has a high attack. Both have a 5 cost to summon. With Kaeseeall being ranged it would make you believe that Kaeseeall has the immediate advantage and I might agree. With that said I think you must plan out Ragnors course carefully and never leave out the possibility of attacking your own walls, or units to try and activate his "Fury". This gives him the ability to close gaps quickly. With a few lucky rolls and given how fragile the "Dear Prince" is, I'd say this is a win for Ragnor.

Blagog and Maelena are closely matched. Blagog needs a 4 or higher for it to count as a hit, however he rolls 5 attack! Maelena rolls only 2 but has the "burning blade" to deal even more damage. Given that both have the same life and that Blagog costs 1 extra summoning point, I'd have to say these two are pretty even.


The Fire Drake ("Love the Drake" - Seinfeld) and Krung are close to the exact same given that they both can attack up to 3 total! However, Krung has the advantage of being able to deal more damage vs those 3 than the Fire Drake. I like how the Drake gives an automatic 1 damage. Plus, he can shoot through walls to hit your hiding Summoner. However, with the extra 2 life Krung has, I'd have to say the advantage goes to Krung.

Grognack vs Prince to me is a no-brainer. Given that Grognack could destroy the Prince in 1 swing tells you that if they go head to head, Grognack is coming out the victor. Plus, I like the Walls of Ice Shard attack of Grognack. With a few Ice Walls placed appropriatly, you can deal substantial damage.

We've played several games of Elves vs Orcs. Orcs have won the majority. Now, Dwarves vs Orcs is a whole different story all together. Dwarves no fear Ice Walls!!!!!

[Dromar]

Funny to see this mentioned, but the most success I've had with Orcs came from burning the Fighters for magic as well. Even though Fury is a nice skill, it's just not something one can rely on, and given the other options for spending magic:

Shaman - 1 cost for 2 life, 2 attack AND range, but only good against multi-lifers,
Smasher - 4 life, 2 attack, how can you go wrong?
Blagog/Krung - killing machines

and between 4 smashers in deck, plus Blagog and Krung, there's a lot of magic needed, and I just don't think Fighters measure up compared to the other options for spending magic. I mean, ignoring cost, is the Orc Fighter that much better than the Goblin Fighter? I don't think so.

[PePe QuiCoSE]

fighers end up usually being better magic-trades than your opponents commons, most 1 life commons don´t live more than 1 round and orc fighters have decent chances of giving you 2 magic before biting it.

[mrkurtb]

I feel like they are, along with the Goblins, much more susceptible to bad draws than the Orcs or Dwarves, because the margin of error for the Elves is so small. One breach through their defenses and Elien's done.

I think that darkbladecb has really nailed it. So while the PE's can consistently deliver better attacks, Elien's (and the Elves in general) weakness really magnifies any variability (whether due to dice or draw) to make them more luck-based.

[Dromar]

I wonder if the Owl Familiar mercenary will become a staple in those decks then, once it comes out. I can't wait for the new factions and mercenaries to come out.