Our Verdict
Though its champion system could use a little work, Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower is an excellent turn-based strategy game with plenty of potential
Mobile has a whole range of strategy games to choose from. We have micro-strategies like Bad North and Kingdom: Two Crowns, which use the platform to compliment their innate simplicity. But we also have strategy monsters like Rome: Total War and Civilisation VI – big PC games that have been ported almost wholesale to mobile, but didn’t originate on the platform. A fair few of the best mobile strategy games come from other platforms, but no matter how well they port or play, they were rarely made with mobile in mind. This is why I get excited when I see a strategy game made for mobile.
One of my favourite things about Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower, Perchang’s adaptation of the tabletop game of the same name, is how it uses the mobile platform to create a simple yet enjoyable strategy game. Silver Tower’s many stages are like flashpoints, little tidbits of turn-based strategy that you can pick and play, and put down just as easily.
Silver Tower really feels like it was made for mobile, with bite-sized stages and straightforward champions, who while simple, do also offer a certain level of synergy and strategic depth. Here’s the setup…
As you may have guessed, Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower is set in the Silver Tower – a mysterious and deadly dungeon, presided over by the daemonic Gaunt Summoner. Champions of every stripe and faction flock to the tower from across the Mortal Realms to face its many trials and find fortune. It’s essentially the classic fantasy setup of ‘mismatched band of adventurers seek treasure in deadly dungeon’.
Silver Tower itself plays as a turn-based strategy game. You build a band of champions, and choose three of them to face trial after trial in the tower. These micro-battles revolve around destroying obelisks, defeating enemies, or quite simply escaping as fast as you can, but they all involve their fair share of combat. That’s where your champions come in.
Silver Tower has ten champions currently, with the promise of more arriving later, and they represent the variety that you can find in Age of Sigmar. There are Stormcast such as the Raptor Prime, and the Knight Questor, cannon-wielding ogres like the Leadbelcher, and even Chaos-aligned characters such as the Chaos Sorcerer, and the Darkoath champions. What they all hold in common, however, is that they each have a champion skill, and a class ability.
The class ability is one of three: ranged, melee, or magic. The ranged class ability is Reaction Shot, for example, which is basically overwatch, allowing your leftover actions to be used to automatically shoot and stop enemies who come into range. The melee ability is Deathblow, and means that everytime you strike, you have a 40% chance of striking again, and I mean *every* time – this ability can get a little silly on occasion. Magic’s ability is Power Up, which builds range and attack every turn you don’t attack, and yes, that is as powerful as it sounds. It’s also worth remembering that enemies have these abilities too.
Champion skills on the other hand, are unique to each character, giving them a little flavour. The Leadbelcher fires powerful shots from his cannon which cover 3×3 tiles, setting them on fire. The Chaos Sorcerer strengthens accuracy and attack for his allies with daemonic power. And the Raptor Prime uses their crossbow to fire a long-range shot. Be warned, though, these abilities have cooldowns, or limited uses.
The skills are a nice touch, and give champions a little versatility, but some are better than others. The Tenebrael Shard’s ability to turn into smoke and move 8 squares away, for example, feels like it’s missing a follow up move, and quite often leads to him getting isolated and killed. Some of the more powerful one shot abilities, like the Leadbelcher’s Thunderous Blast seem like they are supposed to be powerful, but actually become far less effective due to their single use per stage. See our Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower tier list, if you want more thoughts on champion choices, though!
In order to earn these champions, you’ll need to summon them, and just as in Fire Emblem: Heroes, there’s a price for that. summoning stones are the currency of choice, costing 100 for a regular champion summon, and 250 for an epic. You can earn these stones through leveling, Blot’s daily challenge, or buy them in the store – a regular summon costs you about $3. There’s also a whole host of other currencies including gold, for buying things, XP for leveling champions, and then four different types of token: order, chaos, destruction, and death. These are used to level champions belonging to those specific groups beyond level 10.
There are items, too, such as cosmetic armour, weapons which change damage and number of strikes, and boons, which grant a stat bonus. It sounds complicated, but it’s a fairly straightforward system. I do have a few issues with the champion summoning, though. Beyond a certain point, summoning stones become harder to get, and the more champions you summon, the more chance there is that you’ll summon a copy of one you already have. It seems strange to me to make players work to earn a currency, then potentially not give them what they want for doing it.
Silver Tower would really benefit from a system letting you scrap champions for a portion of their summoning stone cost, at least to stop you cluttering your inventory with carbon copies of the same basic character. It might be a little different if each champion had a personal trait, or there were more cosmetics to differentiate them beyond just stats and level, but there isn’t. Having copies of the same basic character is kind of self-defeating, and kills the personal vibe that the game works so hard to establish.
The point of Silver Tower is that this is *your* band of ragtag adventurers, who you give weapons, and boons, and develop until they are strong enough to defeat the Gaunt Summoner. It’s an idea that’s supported by the little narrative beats before each stage or challenge, describing where your champions are at in their journey. I definitely feel like Perchang should lean into this more when adding new content to the game.
Overall, I’m impressed by how Silver Tower plays. I really enjoy the small stages, and how the game gradually builds difficulty by adding more enemies types, and varied objectives. The fact that enemies often infinitely spawn makes it feel like a dungeon defence game in some ways, as you have to cautiously make your way through a stage, while being assaulted from all sides. It also feels very classic fantasy with its dramatic soundtrack and central plotline of trying to complete a dungeon.
I’m also excited about the possibility of future champions from Age of Sigmar, especially with the inclusion of Chaos characters, and the doors that opens. While I do think its currency system might need a little work, and its champions could use more personalisation, I think the way the actual Silver Tower plays is excellent, and is well worth a look-see for any fan of mobile turn-based strategy.
You can find Silver Tower on Google Play and the App Store. Also be sure to check out our Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower guide for tips getting started!