Magneterra First Look – Magnet Wizards

Magneterra sleeps in the darkest reaches of the cosmos.  A rocky, rugged world, Magneterra possesses a unique attribute in the many worlds: its extreme magnetism and rare elements.  This has given rise to mystical Tochon Magnets, natural artifacts infused with magical energies.  Now, wizards from across the cosmos descend upon the planet to take these riches for themselves.  However, only one can gain the greatest prize upon the highest spire in the land.

Magneterra is an adventure-skirmish game for 2-4 players developed by BField Games.  Each player takes on the role of a ferromancer, a wizard that can control metal and magnetics. They use Tochons from the spires of Magneterra to power their magic. The goal of the game is to grab the Tochon from the tallest spire on Magneterra.  In order to do so, players will fight local enemies, as well as each other in epic wizard duels to gather enough power to draw down the Tochons they need to claim victory.

There’s several options available for players to gain an edge over their rivals. Players can grab treasures that are seeded at the start of each game for great bonuses, or search by drawing a card from the search deck, or buy spells from the spell shop. The search deck contains cards that grant experience, upgrades, or sometimes even Tochons, while spells, when cast, grant game changing bonuses.

The main way to acquire Tochons is from Spires.  At the bottom of the board (opposite the starting zone) are the shortest Spires, and atop these are the Tochons that are the easiest to pull down.  See, each wizard figurine holds aloft a neodymium magnet. As a player draws closer to a spire, the magnet in the Tochon gets drawn to the figure, and boom, Tochon collected.  The range at which this can happen grows with each new Tochon acquired, and after a few are collected, a player can advance to a Master Wizard, which gives a huge power spike (and a taller figurine).

These wizards can also cast magic spells, of course! Each spell requires experience to acquire from the available spell shop in the first place, as well as to cast the spell each time. Spells can do a lot of things, from creating walls, summoning enemies to your fellow wizards, and increasing your wizards height through levitation (making acquiring Tochons easier).

Of course, to get experience, players have to do something deserving of rewards. In addition to searching for lore, players also gain experience from picking up Tochons, killing enemies and beating up fellow wizards. There were two different enemies in the version of the game we received: Ankylocats and Thians. Ankylocats are, like their names imply, a mix of ankylosaurs and cats. They are quick, deal a bunch of damage, but are easy to dispatch. Thians are rock-people. They hit harder, can attack at range, are very tough, but are quite slow.

When fighting, players will roll dice equal to their attack roll, hoping to get sword icons if in melee, or fireball icons at range. Interestingly, the dice have more fireball icons than sword icons, which means it’s much easier to hit at range than melee. You play as wizards, after all. The defending creature or player then rolls the same dice, now looking for shield icons. Shield icons negate swords or fireballs from the attacking dice, and any non-negated attack icons deal damage to the critter or wizard.

This mixing of magnet physics and wizard spell casting. Intriguing concept, and the physical clacking of magnets is very satisfying.  Each time you snag a Tochon from a spire, you feel a little jolt of elation!

The build of the prototype that we received has a beautiful artstyle. Each card clearly has a world and design in mind. Included are chonky walls, towering spires, and nicely printed wizard and monster models. The walls and spires all slot nicely into holes on the board, so there’s no chance of knocking them out of the board with an unfortunate bump.

Magneterra is still very much in development, but after seeing this gem at Origins, we needed to at least talk about it. Skirmish games are a dime a dozen, but the magnetic physics aspect of this game makes things much more interesting and tactile. If you’re excited to see more, follow them on Kickstarter or visit their website.

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