Poxnora

[Tidus]

*Edit - Shoot, just realized this should be in the "Other Games" Section, any way i can get it moved? Sorry*

Poxnora is an online game that is a lot like this game. The game currently has 8 factions, and will never have anymore i believe.

Here is how it works:
First you create an account.
The main component of the game is the Runes, runes are your arsenal of tools to defeat your opponent. Each player has 30 runes in their battlegroup (or deck) which is shuffled before starting. Your battlegroup is fully customizable by Common, Uncommon, Rare, and Exotic runes. Runes come in 4 types...

All runes cost an amount of points called Nora, this is generated from your shrine (explained later), and any fonts (bases you can grab) you control. Once the cost is paid the rune is used.

Champion - These are creatures that can be summoned (as miniatures) that can move across the map. Champions have many special abilities, passive abilities and stats. The stats are:
Life - How many points of damage the champion can take before Dieing.
Damage - The base # of damage points the champion can inflict.
Speed - At the beginning of each of your turns your champions gain an amount of AP(ability points) equal to this. AP is used to move and activate attacks.
Defense - A small amount that can decline some damage dealt to the champion.
Range - How many spaces away the champion can attack with a basic attack.

Spell - A unique magical spell that can inflict multiple tiles, or affect a whole army, and many more types.

Relic - An object with life that can be deployed that set off some kind of enchantment.

Equipment - Runes that can be attatched to champions to enhance them.

All of these types can be combined together to create your battlegroup.
Official battlegroups are 1 Faction of 30 runes or 2 factions 15/15.
A mixed group (ex. 9/21) can only be used in casual play or campaign.

The object of the normal game is to destroy your opponents shrine before they destroy yours. There are also other kinds of game types such as... king of the hill, capture the flag, etc.

There are 8 factions in Poxnora, each give a unique enhancement when their are at least 15 of that faction in your deck. You get a major enhancement of the same kind if the whole deck is made of that faction. (creating a 3 faction deck makes a Wild deck, with no enhancement and a messed up shrine this is often called a circus deck)

Underdepths - Fire, death, demons
Sundered Lands - Dragons, sand, Draksar (Human/Dragon mix)
Forsaken Wastes - Renewal, undead, bones, skeletons, ghosts
Shattered Peaks - Earth, flying, ogres
Savage Tundra - Ice, Jakei (icy orcs), ice beasts
K'Thir Forest - Nature, Wisdom, reflexes, speed, druids, elves
Ironfist Stronghold - Dwarves, Barbarians, Palladins, Knights
Forglar Swamp - Water, Wisdom, Healing, Toad orc things, Nora

The game has many types of maps that you can choose from when playing. the newest one was added like a week ago (Mhaljaran Shores).

It is a lot like this game but online.

The game modes are Single Player (campaigns, with stories), Casual Play (Normal play against others, setup almost any type of game), Training (Go against begginers with starter decks and tutorials), Tournament (Tournaments are held here), Bazaar (Trading runes)

Your champions can also be upgraded. As you play with your champions they gain CP (Champion points), when this reaches 100 they gain a level. Each champion has 4 enhancements you can pick from, that can be changed at anytime. Usually 2 abilities and 2 stat upgrades. At level 2 you can use 1 at a time. At level 3 (max), you can use 2 at a time. 3 is the max level for each champion. You can also use tokens to upgrade CP.

There are a bunch of expansions, each with their own theme. You can buy booster's in the store. They are about 2.50 each. Each booster comes with 10 runes (6 common, 3 uncommon, 1 rare (each rare has a 10% chance of becoming an exotic instead)). You can also buy Packs (of like 100 or more). There are starter sets for each faction at 6.00, these contain about 15 commons, 10 uncommons, some rare, and like 1 exotic. If you need a little boost you can get packs of 30 commons for each faction at 1.00 each (these and the starters will always have the same runes). You can also buy new campaigns at 3.00 up to 10.00/each. There are about 10 free campagins. There are about 8 purchased ones.

When you start you will have no runes. You can download the game and complete a "walkthrough" in single player and get a free starter pack for that specific walkthrough you completed. This starter pack will have locked runes (These cannot be removed from the deck), to unlock them you have to purchase that starter set. So basically you can just spend a buck and have a full deck (common pack).

Here are the expansions:

Poxnora Base Set - The original set cotained about 150 runes.
About 30 each for the first 6 factions.
Savage Tundra - Announced the 7th faction, Savage Tundra with about 50 runes for it.
Shattered Peaks - Announced the 8th and final faction (Shattered peaks) for Poxnora with about 50 runes for it.
Drums Of War - Announced a new ranked play system and added about 200 runes (30 for each faction)
Skeezick Rebellion - Announced the single player system and added the first campaign, with about 20 runes for each faction (160)
Grimlics Descent - New campaign, and added about 15 runes for each faction (120)
Path To Conquest - Added about 20 runes to each faction (160)
Nora Surge - Added about 20 runes to each faction (160)
Dawn Of Elements - Revealed 1 new Exotic elemental for each faction, and about 15 runes for each faction. (128)
Ancient Awakenings - Revealed new Avatars that your shrine could transfigure into (like a summoner) 1 for each faction. Also added about 10 runes to each faction. (80)
Rise Of Serkan - Added about 25 runes to each faction. (200)
Broodcall - Added 1 exotic Legendary Dragon to each faction and added about 15 runes each. (120)
Dire Covenant - Added about 30 new runes to each faction. (240)
Mhaljaran Frontier - The latest expansion (about a week ago), added 8 ambassadors (exotic), 1 for each faction. Also added about 30 runes to each faction. (240) This release also added a multi part campaign where you can control story characters along with your own. Also added the latest map.

Other stuff
*Achievements - Like on Xbox360
*Ranks - The lower the # the better, start ranked play and climb the ladder.
*Forums - ....
*Balanced - The game is pretty balanced, even the original runes see a lot of play. Only downfall is some factions aren't used as much as others in terms of cool theme.

Yeah.... that's poxnora, i doubt anyone read through the whole thing. If your interested you can go to http://www.poxnora.com

Once you register and install the game and run it you should try a tutorial if it pops up. Once after that try a walkthrough for each faction and see which one fits your style. You will also get a free starter for each one (after completion) with locked runes. Oh the walkthroughs give achievements.
If you are really interested you can spend a buck to get a pack of 30 commons for your favorite faction. Once your better and get into the game it might be good to get a starter pack for that faction.

That about wraps it up thanks for reading.

[Quintaton16]

Yeah.... that's poxnora, i doubt anyone read through the whole thing.

As soon as I read that part I went back to read everything I had skimmed over. Great motivational tool there.

This sounds interesting. How's the gameplay compared to Summoner Wars? Is it equally fast-paced and swingy or is it more about maneuvering units ala Battleground Fantasy Warfare (or typical minis games)? How reliant is it on deck management, etc. Is it anything like Summoner Wars in this respect?

[Tidus]

Actually it is more of a mix of summoner wars and heroscape... kind of.

Well one good thing is, no cleanup or setup lol, since it is online.

I would say your matches will take at least 30 minutes each. It really depends on how deep the game goes. In same cases you will have like 20 champions clashing with 20 of your opponents and will have to make some very difficult choices on those turns.

There are also Nora Fonts spread all over each map (At least 2), at the beggining these are all wild, when you have only your champions occupying its spaces, you gain control of the font. Fonts give you all the bonuses your shrine does and are a summoning point. These can be fought over because once an enemy enters the zone it becomes wild again or "contested". This is kind of like glyphs in heroscape or Walls in SW.

During deck management you will make many difficult choices, depending on how many runes you have. You want to try to use all your runes every now and then to keep them strong and compared in level (max is 3). Also you are stuck using only runes from one faction or cut in half.

Heres how you can build a deck:

*Create a full deck with all runes from the same faction
Outcome: Your shrine will be of the faction you used. You will get a huge bonus for all your units, that the faction gives.
-Ex. Sundered lands grants Extra defense to all of its units, if you use a full faction Sundered Lands deck you will get the Huge bonus-

*Create a deck that is cut in half, 15 runes from one faction and 15 runes from another. (15/15)
Outcome: You will choose from one of those factions to be your shrine. The chosen faction will be your bonus to all units. This bonus will only be minor compared to the Full faction bonus though.

*You can also make a very jumbled up random faction deck (like 3 or 4 factions), I'm not sure if you can still do this. This grants no bonus and gives you a ruin looking shrine.

Deck management takes place on the website. You go to your Rune Manager where you can sort different factions, rarities, etc out. Also there are 2 rune views Picture view (picture of the card) or Name (A list going down of all the cards). You can click a rune to change upgrades or check stats and abilities or exp. The top portion has your current deck and all cards with an easy click and manage card interface. You can change decks, rename decks, delete decks, you can also change your shrines avatar (a super powerfull champion, it can turn into) etc.

[Anavasoothed]

Looks interesting. What are the prices when it all comes down to it? How much will it cost me to get the whole current shabang?

[Tidus]

Starter sets are free when you complete a walkthrough, but the runes are locked (you cannot remove them from the deck), so it is basically just so you can get used to it before making money decisions.

If you are looking forward to spending money on it, if you like it... i would start with a common pack.

A common pack has 30 runes (enough to make a full deck). Every common pack will always have the same runes (you can check the forums for rune list). There is one common pack for every faction at 100 points/each or $1.00/each. Money in the game is measured in points. 1 point is worth $0.01 in real money. So getting 500 points is getting $5.00 in game money. I would try out every faction's locked starter (free) or try each walkthrough before making a decision. Find the faction that suits you best or focus on 2 different faction's. Each faction has their own strengths and weaknesses, but it really depends on how you use it.

If you get a common pack and like how things go you might want to try a starter pack for that faction. A starter pack will have about 15 common runes, 10 Uncommon, 3 or 4 rares, and an exotic rune. So you can mix and match your commons into your new deck. Once again there is a starter for each faction (will always have the same runes). Starter packs are 600 points (or $6.00). You can also check what you will get in it before buying. The only random purchase is Booster packs and Box type boosters. The difference is you know what rarities you are getting.

A normal booster for an expansion is at least 250 points (2.50), they contain 6 commons, 3 uncommons, and 1 rare (10% chance of rare being an exotic instead). There are also faction specific boosters.

So really to get started it is just going to cost you a buck. If you want to enhance it a bit you will definately want to get a starter at 6 bucks.
So total for an average startup would be 7 dollars.

The game is relatively older now (about heroscapes age), so there are A LOT of runes. I would guess around about 2000 total runes in the whole game.
About 250 runes for each faction.

To collect them all.... it will definately take some trading.

Limited edition runes are Runes that are only made up to a certain #, then never made again. So some runes look a bit different (ex. black and white) (limited edition) and there are usually only about 50 of each out there. Limited Edition runes are worth a lot more than the normal edition of the card.

[Lord_AndraK]

As soon as I read that part I went back to read everything I had skimmed over. Great motivational tool there.

Lol i did exactly the same thing!

[darkbladecb]

I played PoxNora for a while, but found the transition from the really fun, really balanced super fantastic introductory game to the "real" game using decks you make yourself extremely unsatisfying. I bought a starter pack with a booster or two and got repeatedly crushed and the amount of money required to become competitive was more than I was comfortable with.

It was a SUPER fun game though and the introductory decks are all REALLY fun to play with (though there are some people that play some strategies that are REALLY lame and bottle-y... I'm looking at you, Savage Tundra).

[Tidus]

I know what you mean. I have only got a common pack and one booster throughout my 3 or 4 years of playing lol. I am still not sure i want to spend money on it. I think it is a little to late for me to get any further, the game is really getting old and it isn't as fun as it used to be (to hectic).

[mrbistro]

I am still not sure i want to spend money on it. I think it is a little to late for me to get any further, the game is really getting old and it isn't as fun as it used to be (to hectic).

LOL. Yet you still made such an elaborate post!

Thread moved to Other Games.