Preview: Slash and Spells

Take on the role of a legendary hero, upgrade your hero, battle other legendary heroes and become the champion. We are about to take a look at the hard hitting player vs player battle game Slash and Spells from Burning Forge Games.

There are six asymmetric characters players can choose from in Slash and Spells. Each of these characters comes with its own play-mat and deck of cards. The characters are going to be represented on the board as acrylic standees. So that means no minis to paint, just the art displayed on durable acrylic.

There is no waiting to buff up your character in Slash and Spells. You get into all the action right away. Don't worry you also get to buff up and get special abilities along the way. There are some really interesting things you can do with your characters when you start to get to the higher levels of the relic path. What's a relic path? This is the way to unlock your ultimate power and some really interesting other actions that are all specific to the character. To move along the three relic tracks you need to pick up the relic cubes on the map. The map is 20 hexes in a relative circular pattern (Think Catan setup).

There is a lot of strategy in Slash and Spells. There are only 2 actions per turn and there is a finite number of turns depending on player count. So every move counts and you will also have to manage your resources to get those moves you want in.

There is no waiting to buff up your character in Slash and Spells. You get into all the action right away.

Each turn consists of 2 rounds during each of the rounds a player will take an action and play as many cards as they wish (You will expend energy to play them) after all players are done then you take the second round. During the turn you will use action cubes there are only 2 for each player and if you have an action cube on an action you cannot an action 2 times in one turn. Another point of strategy there do you hit first or wait to build up then hit?

The cards you play are unique to your character and allow you to do some very interesting things. When I was playing as Magnor the Reborn I could play cards to move my special tokens around the board and possibly do more damage without being in the same hex as the opponent. Once you place a card there is a spot to tuck it under the player mat and there the last three cards you played will allow you some extra actions to choose from. This makes playing cards important and another layer of strategy as to when you play them and if you are going to knock out a card that is useful is the new one going to be better for you?

...depending on where you are the opponent you just knocked out can reappear next to you and enact swift revenge on you.

As the game continues you will eventually get enough points to knock out the opponents. When this happens they come off the board and will come back with full health to the spawn points on the board. The spawn points are randomly drawn so depending on where you are the opponent you just knocked out can reappear next to you and enact swift revenge on you.

I am not usually one for a slug-fest of a game but the aspects of managing my resources and strategically striking my opponents was very fun. The game played quick (even for TTS). Slash and Spells will not have you waiting long before its your turn again, I would say just long enough to come up with a strategy and not over think it. This is a fun fantasy themed strategic player on player game that has no lack of action or enjoyment. Slash and Spells is coming soon to Kickstarter so smash that notify me button and check this one out.

Players: 2-4

Year Published: 2022

Time to Play: 30-60 (depends on player count)

Transparency Statement

A digital TTS sample of Battleground Spells and Swords was provided to Bert's Tabletop Games for review purposes. Final products may vary from what is portrayed in this article.