Miniatures offer that online feel only it's offline.

There is another game launching in November and it doesn't have the words Warhammer, or Lord of the Rings in it. It does involve the phrase World of Warcraft but not in the way you are expecting. Upper Deck is releasing a new miniatures game called surprisingly "World of Warcraft Miniatures Game" and they will release it two days ahead of its online brethren (on November 11th).

ICv2 has released a first look at the game and given it a middle of the road score, but does provide some good information about the key elements of the game:

The World of Warcraft Miniatures Game is, at its heart, simple. Players have one or more characters, and each character has a stat card listing several basic abilities – armor, resist (vs. magic), and health – plus the number of dice rolled using that character’s different attack modes, and the all-important Honor stat. Hits are scored by rolling a “4” or higher on a ten-sided die, and the player being attacked has a chance to reduce this damage with similarly successful rolls against the Armor stat.

To win the game, players must score victory points equal to the party’s combined Honor score. Players claim victory points by defeating a foe (reducing that character’s Health stat to zero) and by being on or adjacent to the Victory Point location at the end of turns five and ten.

I had a chance to play the miniatures game at Blizzcon and even played in one of the tournaments for beginners (seeing as the game launches in two weeks, we were all noobs). I found it fun and more strategic than the insufferable card game. I still don't understand how to play the card game, and I've had people from Upper Deck walk me through it a few times. While not typically a collector, I do enjoy looking at all of the stats and trying to assemble a good team of miniatures, so I found myself wanting to purchase more of the game pieces. Good on you Upper Deck, it's always a good idea to play toward my OCD disposition.

The game itself was enjoyable, there was enough thought required (but not a PhD) and the games were of a good length (and you can modify the game to be longer or shorter). I'm looking forward to using it as a math teaching tool for my kids as soon as my wife leaves for longer than an hour. Check out the review on at ICv2 and then head over to the Upper Deck site for more information about the launch.