This started out as a session report and grew into somewhat of a review. I did not do a summary of the rules so if you want to read about that then there are a couple of other reviews that do a wonderful job of describing them. If you just want my opinion on the game and components, you can skip down to the last few paragraphs. If you want to read about some of the figures and their abilities as well as my experiences in the tournament, then read the whole thing.

So I stood in line on Thursday just to get a chance to demo this game with the actual figures and there were so many people there that I didn't get in a demo until Friday morning. The demo was, unfortunately, using the same figures from the print and play demo off of the Warcraft minis website. However, the board was different and only had one VP location.

When I signed up for the demo, I also turned in my coupon from the print and play demo that entered me in a drawing for a chance to play in one of the first four Warcraft minis tournaments. Sure enough, at the second drawing they pulled my number and I got to participate.

The format of the tournament was that each participant was given a booster of 3 minis, each with 1 stat card and 2 ability cards. We were also give six 10-sided dice and a double sided paper map. Winners received an epic Varimathras figure. If you don't know who that is, go to www.wowminis.com and look in the gallery for the big purple dude with horns and wings.

The first two rounds were played on the Winterspring side of the map which displayed a snowy asymmetrical battleground with a single victory point location in the center of the map. We each had to choose 2 of the 3 figures we were given. I ended up with a dwarf priest, a dwarf hunter, and a human mage.

The priest has a wand as a basic magic attack and a dispel ability to remove a buff,debuff, or counter from a character. These abilities were not really explained in the pnp demo but they basically give a character a semi-permanent bonus or penalty. For instance, the aforementioned priest also came with a buff card called Power Word: Fortitude. It raises one ally's total health by 1 and heals 1 damage. This stays in effect until dispelled or the attached figure dies.

The hunter has a 2-4 hex ranged attack with a one tick cost. He also came with a card called Hunter's Mark that debuffs an enemy so they can't stealth and gives 1 reroll to allies using ranged attacks against that enemy. He also has a pet raptor that can be summoned and basically becomes another character to use. The hunter gets a bonus attack die if he attacks an enemy that his pet is in base contact with.

The mage has several abilities that adds ticks to enemy characters. For example, Frost Nova adds 1 tick to each adjacent enemy. Also, any 1's an attacker rolls against her results in the attacking figure adding 1 click. Unfortunately, the mage came with a healing potion card that was not tied to any specific class and only had the potential to heal 2 points. I felt this figure would be awesome with another frost ability but since I only had the one frost card, I ended up not using this figure in any of my matches.

So for the first two matches, I chose the priest and hunter. The hunter gave my opponents a hard time because his main attack was only 1 tick so he could attack on every tick of the game clock. The pet raptor was not as useful as I would have liked. He had a decent attack but only had 2 health and was usually killed in short order. He also got feared by a mage which sent him to a far corner of the map and effectively took him out of the match. I saw other pets during the tournament that had more health and could therefore tank better.

I ended up losing my first match to a team of two warlocks. It was quite close and came down to a single die roll but the luck was not with me.

The second match was a loss also. This time to a mage and warlock. The warlock had 8 health and could damage itself to pay tick costs for abilities. This turned out to be a very powerful figure because, with it's ability, it was one of the few figures that could actually attack about as fast as my hunter. This one came down to a die roll as well. I almost struck the killing blow on the mage but she made her 1 armor roll and managed to hang on long enough to score a victory point on tick 10 and win the match.

At this point, we each got another booster of 3 figures and flipped the maps over to the Tanaris side which was a symmetrical desert area with two victory points in the center of the map. The interesting thing about this map was that there was one space between the two victory points where a single character could score 2 points; one for each VP hex. Each contestant was allowed to choose three figures in each of the last two rounds. As we were playing with a limited number of figures, we were allowed to mix figures from the 3 factions.

My second booster was a monster booster and contained a voidwalker, fire elemental, and ogre warrior. I immediately chose these figures for my next match because they looked to be extremely powerful and were just cool.

The voidwalker has 9 health and has the taunt ability which forces adjacent characters to attack him. He also has a regular melee attack that forces a defender to immediately attack him again if he gets a critical hit. One of his cards is a debuff damage over time attack that deals damage to an enemy figure on ticks 5 and 10. He also has a last stand ability that allowed him to convert his remaining health into an equivalent attack against each adjacent enemy.

The Flame elemental is allowed to use any fire type action cards and also deals one damage to any character that moves adjacent to it. He has a Flamestrike card that is an area of effect attack that deals damage to all enemies in a 3 hex area.

The true monster of the bunch is the ogre. This beast has 11 health and a 7 power attack but only has 1 armor and 1 resist. He also has a boulder toss ranged attack that does melee damage with a power of 5. He came with a warrior action card called Breakthrough that allows him to move into and through hexes containing enemy characters and move those characters 1 space.

By taking these 3 beasts, my honor point total and the number of victory points I needed to win the match shot up to a whopping 20! I knew this would be tough but these guys were too cool not to use.

My opponent in round 3 went with a mage, warlock, and paladin. The ogre, being the tallest figure I saw in the tournament, drew a lot of attention early and soaked up tons of damage. He also dropped his giant hammer on the mage and finished her off in one swipe. The voidwalker and flame elemental did a good job of pounding on the paladin and was a about to kill him when my opponent had to leave so he forfeited the match.

In the fourth match, I changed things up a bit and went with the hunter, ogre, and flame elemental. My opponent went with a druid, voidwalker, and satyr. The satyr may have been a hellcaller from the online game but I don't remember for sure. My opponent attacked my hunter and killed him quickly. Although I managed to get the hunter's pet on the board, the pet was removed when his master died. I concentrated my attacks on the druid. She turned out to be very resilient having a pretty hefty armor and resist rating. She could also heal 1 damage on rounds 5 and 10. One of her attacks had a critical effect that would heal her and an adjacent ally as well. This ended up being my undoing. By the time I had finished her off, I had lost my ogre and my flame elemental was not doing very well either. As a side note, the druid had a cat form but never had a chance to use it. That was too bad because I really wanted to see that mechanic in action. I got my hunter back on the board but not in time to prevent my opponent from getting the last victory points he needed to win the match.

I have to say that after 4 matches playing with and against a variety of figures, I am hooked on this game. I was initially somewhat underwhelmed by the print and play demo and had concerns about how deep the game would be and those concerns have been alleviated for the most part. The game system is simple and elegant but seems to have some depth to it also. It plays fast and is really easy to teach to others.

After I get home from GenCon, I will spend more time playing this game with these new figures. Upper Deck was giving away a bog elemental figure at their booth with a purchase of $25 so I got the figure but didn't have any cards or stats for it However, I was lucky enough to talk to a guy that got the bog elemental from one of his boosters so I jotted down all the stats and abilities so I can add it into my small pool of figures too. Throwing in the paper proxies from the print and play demo, that brings the total number of figures I can play with to 11 so this should give me a pretty good sample.

As far as aesthetics go, these figures look really good to me. Comparing them to the figures from the new Mutant Chronicles game which is also available at GenCon, the Wow minis win hands down, in my opinion. The sculpts are sharper and more dynamic and the paint jobs are cleaner. It is also incredibly cool to see the figures from the online game in 3-D form. For those of you that are wondering; yes, there is a Leroy Jenkins figure and you have to yell out "LEROY JENKINS!" when you do one of his special attacks. He is holding a sword in one hand and a chicken leg in the other. "At least I got chicken."

I am not crazy about the paper map and will be investing in the deluxe starters to get the hardback boards. The graphics on the paper maps are nice and certainly functional but a hard folding map would be so much better. On the plus side, the poster maps are printed on both sides so you actually get 2 maps in one.

The bases are nice and help the game immensely by getting rid of the dice and counters. This speeds the game up and allows you to focus on tactics rather than bookkeeping. I talked with some of the playtesters that had been playing with paper proxies and counters for over a year and they were in the tournament just so they could play with the actual minis and bases. I felt their pain.

The bases do have a few problems though and they are one of my only complaints. I had a hard time keeping some of my figures snapped into them. One base in particular would sometimes separate from it's attached mini when I picked it up. This could be the base or it could be the figure; I haven't had a chance to investigate it more to see. Also, I would sometimes intend to click the health dial and would accidentally click the tick dial as well. The latter issue may be a result of my clumsiness and not so much an issue with the bases themselves. These were not huge problems but were worth noting.

So, in conclusion, if you have played the print and play demo and were not impressed, I would not let that dissuade you from giving the game a go. There seems to be a lot of variety in the figures and abilities and trying to build a squad to get the perfect set of combos from these abilities promises to be a lot of fun. I saw a few rogues and shamans on the game tables but did not play against any so I am still somewhat in the dark on the mechanics and effects of stealth and totems. I'm sure these add even more things to consider when building squads.

As a final note, if you are concerned about the longevity of the game, one of the playtesters told me that they are currently testing the third set of figures so if you end up liking the game, there is a lot to look forward to.