Faeria Review

Faeria is a free-to-play Strategy Card Game from Abrakam SA. It features elements from traditional titles of the genre like Hearthstone and Magic: The Gathering but it also introduces some original mechanics.

In Faeria, everything takes place on a hexagonal board; opponents deploy their troops in order to attack each other and reduce their life total to zero. What’s very interesting about the game is the way you handle your deck and the many different paths you can take to achieve victory. First of all, the battlefield is a large mass of water; in order to deploy any kind of troops, you have to cover a tile with the corresponding kind of terrain, namely dessert, forest, mountain and water (more than a lake kind of thing). Units can only be summoned on territory you control, plus they require a certain amount of faeria (the equivalent of other games’ mana); once summoned they can move across the board in order to get in range to deliver a hit to your opponents or their troops. There are four faeria fountains on the map that have to be captured in order to get a steady resource flow adding an extra strategy element to the game.

Each turn you are represented with the choice of placing a land tile, summoning a unit, getting one extra faeria point or drawing a card. Your deck is relatively small (30 cards) with no limitations on how many copies of a monster you may have or deploy on the field and that can be sometimes a real headache; will you sit back, lay some land tiles and gather faeria in order to unleash some powerful cards or will you try and rush things in order to surprise your opponent? Tactical possibilities are almost endless and the fact that you also have to anticipate your adversaries’ plan of attack gives an extra level of challenge.

There is a very helpful training course that will introduce you to the game’s mechanics and that will reward you with new cards and crystals that can be used to purchase deck boosters. What is more, you can choose to destroy unwanted cards for crystals that you can use to craft more powerful ones. Participating in ranked matches will reward you with new cards and treasures that can be used to alter the course of a battle. Controlling as much territory as possible while in the same time carefully unfolding your plan of attack, trying to guess your opponent’s strategy and sometimes sheer luck are the keys to victory!

Faeria is a fun game that uses many of the traditional mechanics of CCG titles but it also adds an extra layer of difficulty with its advanced strategic side in a highly entertaining, mixture that you must absolutely try!