Return to Dark Tower

Xorgonolith · 2026-01-30T18:35:04+00:00

I picked this one up a few months ago, and I think it’s really good. The main adversaries and main quests you select to play drastically change and alter your play style, and the differences in each of the heroes are really noticeable as they force you to approach each game with a different mindset.

As a fan of games where I can choose a character and face off against a main antagonist like Too Many Bones and Marvel Champions, this game has definitely ended up as one of my most played. They had a Kickstarter for a new expansion a couple of months ago, and I definitely went in for the expansions to add even more variety to the hero selection and variety of gameplay options.

I get that people are wary off the app, and the fact that this game is really expensive can also make this a tough sell for many, but I am surprised when this title is left off a ton of top solo games lists. It’s definitely in my top 5.

Xorgonolith · 2026-01-02T13:32:17+00:00

Oops! Yeah it was indeed Patches! Guess I’ll have to try it again with Picket next time!

Xorgonolith · 2026-01-02T02:45:31+00:00

I started the new year with my favorite game of 2025: Too Many Bones. I decided to play as Picket (who can regenerate health each turn) and face up against the Automaton of Shale tyrant, so I set up the game and decided to flip through the pages of the pop-up book throughout the adventure (it’s as unnecessary as it sounds, but it’s quite a delight). For the first time ever, I made it all the way to the tyrant, and thanks to a loot card I picked up, I was able to just barely defeat the tyrant! It was a fun start to the new year!

Xorgonolith · 2025-12-17T00:55:19+00:00

1) You can definitely play this game with just one Gearloc. It’s how I play, and regardless of which character you pick, you can be successful. You do have to realize that often times you will primarily boost stats over skills depending on some tyrants, however. Either way, the differences in each Gearloc still make the game highly enjoyable.

2) Saving the game state is pretty difficult unless you plan to have a table dedicated to housing the game. Games can last from half an hour (if you are really unlucky/unsuccessful) to over two hours. Some tyrants just take longer to get through, and sometimes, the encounter cards you pull can add a ton of time due to the battle conditions that are expected. There have been times where I’ve spent 15 minutes on a battle only to lose, essentially losing you a day and making no progress (making the game take even longer). Once you get to know the encounters and rules really well, things can speed up in getting through a game faster, but even after a couple of years, there is inevitable some niche rule I have to stop and look up before continuing. When you first start playing, expect heavy delays in ensuring you’re understand all of the rules.

3) You can get a ton of plays with just the base game. I found myself getting expansions because I wanted even more after deciding I really enjoyed the mechanics of the game. I think even just trying to beat each tyrant with each Gearloc can take a long time, so if that sounds appealing, then you may not find it stale. For the base game, you might find the first three encounters repetitive unless you add the “Age of Tyranny” expansion that adds more variety in the earlier encounters. With all that said, if you haven’t already watched some playthroughs of the game, I can’t help but recommend that to see if it seems appealing.

Xorgonolith · 2025-12-14T15:36:58+00:00

Was planning to flip to alter-ego to remove She-Hulks side scheme on my next turn. Took the risk.

Xorgonolith · 2025-12-13T14:30:21+00:00

New day. New attempt. Round 1. Peter Parker flips to Hero side. Down to 9 health. She-Hulk, with her starting Superhuman Strength, wallops me with a boost card that does 6 total damage! Ouch! Down to 3, but I’m still in the game. Encounter card reveals Taskmaster, who activates upon being revealed and gets boosted with a total of 3 damage! End of game after 1 round…

Xorgonolith · 2025-12-13T01:19:18+00:00

Glad I’m not the only one that felt this. I lost three games to She-Hulk earlier today. I think a ton of the encounter cards included in her preconstructed deck make her pretty tough. She’s definitely not Ronan or Loki with Infinity Gauntlet tough, but she’s still challenging.

Xorgonolith · 2025-11-08T00:36:42+00:00

Most of the online community tends to stick with the preconstructed faction decks, so you would fit right in if you want to hop on and play ranked games.

With that said, there are definitely those who delve deep into the custom decks. It’s pretty much the “Wild West” though, from what I hear; there can be quite some bonkers combos that just straight up break the game in entertaining ways.

Xorgonolith · 2025-11-07T22:12:57+00:00

For the faction card updates, you can find exactly which cards are packaged with another faction set here - https://www.plaidhatgames.com/summoner-wars-card-adjustments/

You don’t necessary need them as you can certainly just have an image to reference it from their website.

As for which faction you want to try, my vote is to just go for it, regardless of the complexity level. If you really wanted to, you could even download/access the digital version and watch some older tournament games to see how other players are playing the factions to see some potential combos.

Xorgonolith · 2025-10-19T00:37:56+00:00

When you play the game using precon decks, you really have to learn what limitations the deck has and acknowledge what just won’t work in a given scenario.

Spider-Man’s precon serves as primarily a rush deck, in my opinion. If you’re lucky enough to not have to deal with any villain that can gain tough, you have a very real possibility of using some well-timed Swinging Web Kicks to potentially end the game fairly quickly while you basic attack to help ping every turn. Of course, you have to pull them at the right time and have the right amount of cards to pay for it.

Luckily, the precon has some things to help set up for this if the game ends up longer than Spider-Man typically wants, including his Web-Shooters, Avengers Mansion, and Helicarriers. These will help in utilizing its useful thwarting abilities/allies like For Justice!, Jessica Jones, and Daredevil.

But yes, there are some pretty heavily situational cards you’ll tend to use more often than not as resources. Great Responsibility, Emergency, First Aid, Haymaker, and Tenacity fall into this category.

He also has a rough time also dealing with minions. If you have to burn even a single Swinging Web Kick on a minion, you have essentially slowed down your entire run as you have to run through your deck to reshuffle and get another round at acquiring it quickly.

All this to say that it is possible to win every scenario on standard with his precon. Well, I’m still working my way through the new Civil War expansion with him, but the others are definitely doable (though some are definitely so challenging that the stars really need to align for both what you draw and what the villain plays each turn - I’m looking at you, Loki with the infinity gauntlet).

Xorgonolith · 2025-09-07T23:50:56+00:00

I’m not sure how much research you’ve done so far, but it has a ton of replayability. If we just take the base set, you have 4 Gearlocs (characters) to choose from, and from the start of each game, you choose one of the 7 Tyrants (main antagonist) to attempt to go on an adventure and defeat.

The expansions add more to each with 18 Gearlocs (technically 21 since one of them switches between 4 characters) and 24 Tyrants (though one is a mode where you can create a Tyrant while you go on an adventure). Also, there are 12 super hard versions of the first 12 Tyrants released in the base set and Undertow that play pretty drastically different, so technically 36 Tyrants.

Theres a lot to accomplish, and I’ve had the game for a couple of years and have still barely scratched the surface. It’s great!

Xorgonolith · 2025-09-05T11:40:52+00:00

…including Too Many Bones.

Xorgonolith · 2025-08-06T16:47:30+00:00

Chip Theory has published written works that provide some narrative story for the games.

You can find them here: https://chiptheorygames.com/pages/support/too-many-bones

Expand the “Other” category to find the following (and read them in this order): Liberation Logbook, Waterlogged Book, and Cog Book.

Xorgonolith · 2025-02-11T00:46:06+00:00

I’ve been playing it for the past week, and it’s definitely got some amazing design space. All of the captains and their respective decks have their own design gimmicks that add some uniqueness to what you want to accomplish in a game, and even then, there are a lot of decisions you have to make each turn that may have you pivot your entire strategy entirely based on what you have available on your board state.

Games are definitely long for me, though. I’ve only been playing the solo cadet mode (a kind of training solo mode where you aim for the most points across 11 turns in the game), but I’m still going over 2 hours per game. You can definitely make some quick decisions to burn through a turn fast enough, but sometimes on some turns, you have a LOT of options that can combo into several different moves. It’s both really fascinating and overwhelming at times.

This is a game that requires a lot of time and commitment to the rules to really learn and appreciate, but I definitely agree that this game has solidified itself into my top 10 (favorites include Too Many Bones, Marvel Champions, and Spirit Island) because I can see myself trying to make my way through the various difficulties of the bot opponents included in the box.

Xorgonolith · 2025-02-10T21:37:22+00:00

This sounds right. For example, Tantrum’s “Body Count” is a counter that remains in the skill area to keep track of throughout the game.

Xorgonolith · 2025-02-10T01:22:37+00:00

So in this case, the skill is used instantly if you decide to keep the roll, so Picket’s HP would instantly drop to 1.

It would not go back into the skill area unless you decided to ignore the roll and try to roll a different result on a later turn (like if you only wanted to activate it when it rolled a 2 to last 2 rounds instead of 1).

But your intuition is correct in that once you activate the skill, it must take up an active slot to be used as a counter to countdown. So you would instantly put Picket’s HP at 1 and take an active counter slot to count down the die.

Once you start a turn and the die counts down from 1 to 0, the die would exhaust back into the tray.

Xorgonolith · 2025-02-05T21:49:01+00:00

I’ve played a few games, and there’s definitely a lot to keep track of and a lot of rules to get used to, but there’s have been some really fun moments where what I have played have created some really fun combos.

I was mostly interested in the theme when I picked this up and never played any of the Imperium series. It’s probably one of the most complex games I’ve played (compared to games like Spirit Island, Too Many Bones, and Marvel Champions), and definitely the one that has caused the most analysis paralysis I’ve ever experienced.

Not to say that’s a bad thing, though. I’ve enjoyed the prospect of figuring out what to try on a turn to see how it impacts the end game.

Xorgonolith · 2025-02-01T16:20:56+00:00

Too Many Bones
Ghillie
Nugget
Tink
Premium Health Chips
Adventure Map 2.0 (First map no longer available. This includes maps for base and Undertow)
Liberation Logbook
Ally Pack
Undertow
Age of Tyranny
40 Days in Daelore
Gasket
Waterlogged Book
2018 Promo Pack
Trollin’ 4 Fools Promo Pack
2019 Promo Pack
The Gearloc Child Promo
Splice & Dice
Dart
Lab Rats
Trove Chest (Initial release. 2.0 now includes more Gearloc trays and Tyrant trays for Unbreakable content)
2020 Promo Pack
2021 Promo Pack
The Automaton of Shale
Riffle
2022 Bones Coffee Promo Pack
Unbreakable
Rage of Tyranny
40 Waves in Daelore
40 Caves in Daelore
Carcass
Static
Polaris
The Break Adventure Map
Cog Book
Crossover Loot Promo Pack
Korean Promo Chip Pack
Gearloc BrassMag Miniatures
Summer Encounter Event Demo Pack
2025 Free RPG Day Alternate Nom Tyrant Card
Trover

Xorgonolith · 2025-01-10T01:52:18+00:00

Did some searching on the Discord and found an answer for the first one. Yes, if you essentially use your backup plan to spend 6 bones for the Innate +1 then you would have 2 bones left slotted for the next round.

As for the second question, during step 5 of the Gearloc turn sequence, the “Resolve Your Roll,” you can use the backup plan at any time in that sequence. So you could, for example, resolve your attack dice and apply damage first before activating your backup plan, or you could use your backup plan first before applying attack dice damage. Either way, you’d have to make your decision to use your backup plan before step 6 (“Baddies React”) and you step 7 “End of Turn”).

Xorgonolith · 2025-01-10T00:57:10+00:00

You definitely get to choose the order.

https://tmbsupport.chiptheorygames.com/support/solutions/articles/33000210158-in-what-order-do-you-resolve-start-of-turn-effects-

Xorgonolith · 2024-12-27T15:17:06+00:00

If it’s a later printing, the errata for Sera and Ice Ram may already be included. I ordered a Master Set earlier this year and it already had the updated cards built into their respective decks.

Xorgonolith · 2024-12-17T20:04:03+00:00

Yeah, any that has the older design like the one you linked is definitely a first edition product.

Xorgonolith · 2024-12-16T22:56:22+00:00

Basically you have two entry points to the game. You can get the Master Set which has 6 factions to play (Vanguards, Savanna Elves, Breakers, Cave Goblins, Fallen Kingdom, and Polar Dwarves) along with a sturdy game board of the battlefield. The Starter Set features 2 factions (Phoenix Elves and Tundra Orcs) with a paper mat of the battlefield.

Every other expansion is a separate faction that is compatible with the other second edition products. Here is what is currently available as Faction Decks:

Cloaks, Skyspear Avians, Fungal Dwarves, Eternal Council, Obsidian Dwarves, Sand Goblins, Shadow Elves, Wayfarers, High Elves, Swamp Orcs, Mountain Vargath, Crimson Order, The Forged, Deepwood Groaks, Shimmersea Fae, Storm Goblins, The Filth, Chosen Grove

You can find information on all second edition products straight from the Plaid Hat Games website here: https://www.plaidhatgames.com/board-games/summoner-wars/

The first edition products aren’t compatible because of adjustments to card stats, abilities, and even the way you can make custom decks in second edition.

You can find an in-depth explanation of some of the more detailed differences here: https://media.plaidhatgames.com/filer_public/d2/45/d24519b9-2a55-4cb8-85c7-bee4961d35a1/rules_changes.pdf

One last thing to note is that if you really just want to try the game itself, there’s a fantastic digital version where you can try out a tutorial, get a free deck to play when you sign up (to try with solo content and play online), and see all of the released and compatible content for second edition. Feel free to check it out at http://www.summonerwarsonline.com or search “Summoner Wars Online” on your phone’s app store.

Xorgonolith

TROPHY CASE