Mage Knight is a miniatures wargame using collectible figures, created by WizKids, Inc, and is the earliest example of what is now known as a Collectible Miniatures Game. The game was designed by founder Jordan Weisman along with Kevin Barrett. The game is the first to use WizKids' Clix system, combining roleplaying and wargaming elements with aspects of collectible card games. Mage Knight achieved success after it was introduced in 2000. WizKids announced in October 2010 that Mage Knight was being relaunched with a board game, card game, and role-playing game.
In February 2013, WizKids announced that it would release Mage Knight: Resurrection, which utilizes its SwitchClix bases to be compatible with both Mage Knight 2.0 and HeroClix rules. The release date was Fall 2013
Unlike many other miniatures war-games, Mage Knight eliminates the need for reference to rule books and tables by integrating a dial into each figure that contains its current combat statistics - movement rate, attack and defense values, combat damage, and special abilities. While this system lacks the versatility of other miniatures games, mainly because players cannot customize their figures, it makes up for this by facilitating rapid gameplay and by having a large number of distinctive figures. The system, called the combat dial, has proved to be highly popular and is used in WizKids's other games, including HeroClix and MechWarrior. The dial allows a figure's displayed statistics to change as it takes damage.
All miniatures, called warriors, come pre-painted and are pre-assigned point costs based on their abilities. These costs range from 3 points (only the limited edition goblin volunteer Podo has achieved a point value this low) to over 500 points (for the tanks and the Apocalypse Dragon). To play a game, players will generally agree upon a point cost total, and then design their armies to maximize their strategic capabilities within the specified point cost total. Each player is allowed to take a number of actions per turn equal to the point cost total divided by 100. These actions include movement, combat, or the use of special abilities such as Regeneration and Necromancy. Game play is typically rapid, but often highly strategic, both in terms of traditional maneuvering and combat common to miniatures games and because of the unusual combinations of unit special abilities that make every army unique.