I finally completed one of the faction campaigns, at just under 50 hours free playtime. I could have done it a good deal more efficiently but I’m trying to have fun here. And in fairness it has been fun even if it’s taken a long time to notch off one faction out of six. I chose to main Black Legion (Chaos) because it’s my style of characters and has some crazy buffs.
Cutting to the chase this is essentially the 40k version of Hearthstone. Two lines of cards, attack, health, and tons of increasingly number spinning interconnecting functions. Having separate values for short and long range attack is a smart way to add tactics to every card play. More broadly speaking it’s the usual set up of getting rewards for playing, more for winning, opening booster packs, and spending in game currency on what you want. There are wildcards and a card shop where you may eventually be able to afford a legendary. I’ve not even touched the shop because generally they are very expensive, so to get the best value for me I really need to understand what I’m paying for. And that takes time as I gradually understand the game.
So far I’m only especially knowledgable about Black Legion from using it in ranked multiplayer. Although I have picked up a lot from matches on other factions. Plus I’ve been using practice mode with the other factions to complete daily missions. There are a lot of pre-made practice decks available. Not all of them are that well structured but it’s only against bots so it doesn’t matter win or lose. Plus with no time limit in practice mode it’s an opportunity to really examine the cards and experiment. It is also possible to use a custom deck against AI, even if it took me a while to notice the option in the deck screen.
Matches are quite quick, often over before turn 10, and the timer is generous enough. Decks are 30 cards, max 2 copies of a card. Sometimes I know I’m gonna lose very early on. Other times it’s possible to swing the match into a massive comeback with a good card combo. In the right circumstances it’s possible to buff troops to hit for 20+ damage which will take out the enemy warlord in two hits, or get similarly high health and armour to stick on the board. There are a fair few cards that can flood the board with troops, although there is a limit of eight for each player at any one time. It all adds to the tension and some shocking big moves.
I like the variance between the factions. Necrons are robotic or cyborgs (I don’t know the lore) and use a reanimating mechanic that can bring dead units back. Tyranids have synaptic links that can share buffs and cards that can merge into more powerful versions. Orks have mob attacks and strong unstable units that cause explosion damage. Ultramarines have codex which rewards using your full energy allowance to play cards each turn. Black Legion has cheap buffs with a lot of randomness, very aggro. Saim-Hann have shuriken pre-attacks that can avoid counter damage and thus keep units on the board longer. There are lots of other shared mechanics and rumours of more factions being added in future.
Some of the card functions could do with a bit more clarity. For instance one card will double the number of spirit stones that you ‘collect’. Yet when you use a strategem card to get 5 spirit stones this apparently doesn’t count as collecting them. Semantics aye. It only counts when you pick them up from the board. The only way to learn that is through playing (and losing because of it). It’s not the only example of this. Despite these instances the general rules are simple enough to pick up.
One thing I’ve noticed, there is a fair bit of random things on cards. Such as triggering a secondary attack at a random enemy. Or attacking for 1-3 damage. Or the Chaos warlord whose main thing is applying random buffs to random friendlies. That does keep games lively and a little unpredictable but could frustrate fans of pure tactics. It doesn’t bother me so much, I went for Chaos after all. The deeper I get into card battlers I tend to think the most important thing is not to take it too seriously and don’t worry about losing. Otherwise there’s too much stuff that could drive me wild. At the start of collecting cards I expect to lose most of the time and not really care. The starter deck for Chaos was crap. Frequently drawing cards I couldn’t play. It wasn’t until 20 games in that I could upgrade it enough to be more reliable.
This is tagged as early access, but it’s as complete as many other fully released card games. My only issue with the interface is it can be a little slow as animations have to end before you can do certain next actions. The app is stable and the features (and vitally the buying options) are many. It sounds like they are just covering their assess for revisions to the rules and nerfing various cards, but that is often a permanent ongoing process for CCGs. So don’t let that put you off. Normally I don’t recommend early access games but this is free to play, so no harm in trying it.
The player base is still on the small side but it’s a solid game and I’ve never waited long for a match, sometimes against a bot that can actually beat me. Should I admit that? I think I’m supposed to say bots are bad but whatever. They do make some terrible decisions and are generally easy pickings with a little experience and deck building. But they have their uses. Or bots can be disabled from the main menu.
Is it any good? IMO it’s as good as Hearthstone. Overall better for me. It will infuriate some and completely consume others. For every opinion I have someone else will likely say the opposite. I’ve found myself coming back to it quite reliably ahead of other games. Not too frequently but with a mild interest in chipping away at the campaigns. However, the slow progress does sap my interest a bit. If I keep going I will probably pay for some premium rewards but this is a game that could get very expensive over time. In the end, it’s not reinventing anything but it does what it does well enough and I really like the card artwork.
FREE from Steam and mobile stores.
mishmash 