Being a geek of many kinds I’ve played a good share of board and roleplaying games. It’s a culture I am no stranger of and find a lot of imaginative fun in. However, these hobbies can become pretty expensive when you’re also slobbering over new video games releasing each month at $60 a pop. In the end one hobby has to come before the other, and I often sacrifice my love of physical games for digital.

That’s where Hero Mages comes in. It’s a free flash game based on concepts found in games like Dungeons and Dragons and Mage Knight, focusing on a quick and tactical game played easily online. As all games of the type it seems a bit complicated at first, but is easily learned and playable by anyone within minutes.

The general idea is you choose a central mage character that then has two other characters guarding him. The other characters vary based on which mage you are playing as. Each character also has different abilities in combat, making them all balanced and useful. There are two game types called Elimination and Assassination. The first one you have to completely wipe out your opponent while the second requires you to kill the other opponent’s mage. The game can have anywhere from 2 to 4 players at one time.

The mage is the most important character of them all. They allow you to use cards which act as spells available for you to cast. Each round you get a total of three points which can be used to cast different spells, or they can be saved to place more cards in your hand. You can hold a total of seven cards which can quickly run out as you try and hold the advantage over the other player. Some character abilities also require the sacrificing of cards in order to activate, forcing you to judge which would prove more useful on the battlefield.