When you open a pack of the World of Warcraft Minis Game, you’ll get a character card for each of the minis. These cards are the basic building blocks of the game. First off, you’ll notice that character cards come in three basic varieties. Blue are members of the Alliance faction. Red are members of the Horde faction. Green are members of the Monster faction.

Let’s examine the Alliance’s Vindicator Hodoon.

His name, race, class, and talent specialization appear at the top of his card. A character’s name has no game effect, but its race, class, and talent spec are of great import, especially the class. The class of a character tells you more about what it’s about than anything else. For example, Paladins are holy warriors who use melee and magic to defeat all comers. We’ll talk about talents in a future article.

You can also tell a lot about the character by looking at its picture. A big two-handed weapon and shiny metal armor tells you this guy is out to bash his opponents and laugh off the counterattacks. In the lower corner of his picture box is a big hammer, the class icon of Paladins.

Having a picture of the miniature on its card will help you keep track of who is who on the battlefield and in your collection.

In the upper-right-hand corner of the card is his faction flag with an honor cost on it. Honor is the point value of the character, which we will explain more in a future article. Suffice it to say, the higher the number, the more powerful the character. But with great power comes great subjective obligation.

Below Hodoon’s picture are his combat statistics. The higher the number, the better.

Armor () is a character’s defense against physical attacks. Paladins wear plate armor, so his armor rating of 4 is quite high to represent that.

Resist () is a character’s defense against magic attacks. Paladins are adept in using holy magic, so they have a reasonable understanding of and defense against magic attacks.

Health () is a character’s hit points, or in other words, the amount of damage it takes to defeat the character. Paladins are fairly sturdy, so an 8 health is pretty good.

In the Vindicator’s upper text box, you will find his main attack ability. He swings the Hammer of the Naaru, a powerful two-handed mace that drops from High King Maulgar in Gruul’s Lair.

Let’s examine the attack stats and icons.

is the tick icon, which is followed by a number. The number after the tick icon tells you how many ticks it takes between swings of that big mace. This attack costs 3 ticks, or more accurately stated, it takes 3 ticks before Hodoon can swing it again. If he swings it on game tick 1, he won’t be able to take a turn again until the game clock reaches tick 4.

 is the range icon, which is followed by a number. The number after the range icon is the distance at which the character may attack targets. An attack of 1 means the character may target an enemy that’s 1 space away (in other words, an enemy in an adjacent space).

is an attack type icon representing physical attacks. Attack type icons are either physical or magic. The physical icon means the defender will use its armor rating to protect itself. The number after the attack type icon is the power of the attack and the number of 10-sided dice rolled during the attack. (We’ll have more on attacking in a future article.) The word in parentheses after the power of the attack is the damage type of the attack. Physical attacks from something like a hammer are always (Melee) damage.

 is the critical hit icon. If one or more of this attack’s dice result in a critical hit, the effect following this icon happens once. In this case, Hodoon’s crit represents a magical judgment effect raining down on his enemy’s head. is the magic attack type icon, which means the defender will use its resist rating to protect itself from this 4 power (Holy) damage attack.

Paladins are equally at home dealing physical and magical damage to opponents.

In Vindicator Hodoon’s lower text box, he has an additional ability called Devotion Aura. From what you now know of character cards and stats, you should have a pretty good idea of what this ability is all about. A future article will reveal more about abilities like this one that are always active, even when it isn’t the character’s turn.

While upper text boxes are usually reserved for main attacks, it’s anything goes with the lower text box. Secondary attack powers, healing magics, and anything under the sun can be found here. Lurking in that sun’s shadow is a faction watermark in the background of the lower text box. It matches the symbol on the faction flag in the upper-right corner and helps the color-blind identify the different factions.

Did you buy that? ’Cuz I have no idea if it’s true. I’m guessing it’s more for artistic merit.

At the bottom of the card is flavor text to give the character a voice and offer up some information on it. It has no effect on gameplay, unless you quote his flavor in a Russian accent to distract your opponent.

That’s it for character cards at this point. They will make more sense as we reveal more gameplay information in future articles. Speaking of clarity, I should explain a few things for those of you who are miniatures game fans and not familiar with the World of Warcraft. Maybe a tidbit on the three factions will help you understand more about the World this week.

The Alliance currently includes the valiant Humans of Stormwind, the mighty Bronzebeard Dwarves of Ironforge, the mysterious Night Elves of Darnassus, and the brilliant Gnomes, refugees of the irradiated city of Gnomeregan. The newest members of the Alliance are the spiritual Draenei.

The Horde is made up of the fierce Orcs, the cunning Darkspear Trolls, the noble Tauren, and the ruthless Forsaken. The newest members of the Horde are the Blood Elves, who are shunned by the Alliance because they feed their magical addiction with demonic energies.

Unlike the Alliance and the Horde, the Monsters of Azeroth are not an organized group working toward shared goals. Some Monsters strive to protect their territories; some strive to conquer Azeroth; still others strive to destroy it. The one thing that all Monsters have in common is their aggression toward outsiders. Within the Monster faction you will find Elementals, Mechanicals, Demons, and other fearsome creatures waiting to send unprepared adventurers to their doom.

Wait! Before you go, I almost forgot. The card back is pretty cool, too.