ACT 1 - SCENE 1: Slow zoom out from a gaming table full of various popular and well-known games. An epic orchestral score begins to slowly build as we continue to zoom out, revealing gamers moving little wooden pawns around scoring tracks, rolling dice, playing cards onto a table. Suddenly the zoom stops and we pan over to a small red box alongside a small stack of card packs labeled "Tactdecks."
Narrator: "In a world where games ruled supreme, where big-name companies rule the roost, one tiny game stood alone and dared to make its mark in its genre. Could this small game hold its own and one day scale the heights of greatness? One man decided to find out. This is his story."
SCENE 2: We switch locations entirely to a small cozy basement gaming room where two gamers, Tony and his gaming buddy Earl sit discussing what game to play next.
Tony: Well, I have this really fun little skirmish level tactical wargame using cards for units and obstacles called, "TactDecks," that you might like. Sound fun?
Earl: I suppose. What makes it the next best thing next to sliced ostrich, though? The box certainly doesn't really impress me.
Tony: ::: getting up to bring the TactDecks box over to the table ::: For starters, the entire game is nicely portable since everything in the game is represented by cards. From units, to magic items on the table, to terrain, it's all card-based, making set-up and clean-up extremely convenient. The game's designed to be quick-playing, quick to setup, but deep enough to provide some solid tactical choices and fast yet furious fighting.
Earl: Okay, okay. ::: perking up ::: You've got my interest, let me see the Starter deck. That's what that red box is, right? What's the game's format, are there other expansions? Is it collectible? If it is, forget it, you know I can't STAND the collectible format.
Tony:: ::: chuckles knowingly ::: Yes, I know you hate that kind of thing. So I'm happy to inform you that TactDecks isn't collectible - it's fixed purchase format. Every pack has the same set of cards within that pack, so no blind purchasing. The Starter Set is capable of hosting 2 players but it's highly recommended that each player uses his or her own Starter Set for a more rounded experience. Also, if you liked what you saw in the Starter Set, there are additional "Reinforcement Packs" you can purchase from Soiree's newly redesigned website at: www.tactdecks.com that offer a cool variety of new units and terrain. If you buy the TactDeck Deluxe set, it's a great value as get a sizable discount on the Starter Set and each Reinforcement pack is very aggressively priced at $5 each.
Tony:: Like any game that provides a variety of different Units or in-game powers and abilities to use, the more of them in play, the more depth you'll find inherent within the game design. The reinforcement packs definitely add some real kick and excitement to the Starter Deck though I don't really feel that the Starter deck isn't exciting or "fun enough." It's just that after playing several games with this system, I found myself wanting more of everything to play with.
Earl: Hmmmm...sounds even more intriguing. So how you play the game? Is this one of those needlessly complex games with a frikkin' rulebook the size of the Encyclopedia Galactica? I hate that crap.
Tony: Nope. Not at all. In fact, one of (many) strong points behind TactDecks is the fantastically easy-to-learn gameplay. Basically both sides agree to play with a set Army size, measured in points (each Unit or Terrain card has a point value). Players can customize their own unique army to fight with as long as the point totals meet the pre-agreed amount. Units have ratings like Common, Uncommon, or Unique that govern how many can be in any given army, assuming players are using the Advanced rules. The advanced rules also allow for players to create armies specifically linked by Faction. ::: taking a deep breath ::: Then players take turns until one side no longer has any Units remaining in play or specifically per the rules, the winner "is the player who still has at least one Unit remaining."
Tony:::: taking a quick sip of Mello Yello before continuing ::: The turn structure breaks down into 6 steps with 2 key Phases: Primary and Tactical. In the 1st step, players draw 2 new Reserve cards (more on these in a bit) and any Spell cards they're due (if they have OtherOne spell-casters in play). Then in the 2nd step, they determine Primary Initiative, which is based on the player who had the most Reserve cards at the end of the previous phase, thus rewarding the player who did more while using less of his clever Reserve cards. After the 2nd step, players each take a Primary Phase turn with every one of their Units. In the 3rd step, aka the "Primary Phase" each Unit can both Move and take a Feat (which is any action that isn't Moving, such as picking up a Collect item or Attacking another Unit). After the first player activates all his Units, the 2nd player activates his, then they move onto the 4th step which is the Tactical Iniative phase and once again Initiative is determined by which player still has the most Reserve cards from the last phase. In the 5th step, players, in turn, can either Move OR take a Feat with each of their Units but not both, so it's a bit more limited than the Primary phase in that regard. Once that phase is complete for both players, it's time for the Discard phase where both players discard any remaining Reserve cards (while taking note of who had the most Reserve cards for the next Primary Initiative phase). And the cycle repeats. So have I confused you yet, old friend? Earl: No, I got it. It's pretty basic. Really it boils down to two main phases: Primary and Tactical. One allows for more full activities while the other is a bit more limited. I like how streamlined it is and how there's a great mix of game balance built into giving the initiative to the player who did more with less, so to speak. Nice touch there. Tell me a bit more about the actual cards, what do they each do and stuff?
Tony: So there's basically 6 different types of cards. Units, Obstacle/Terrain, Event, Reserve, Spell, and Collect. Units are the characters you fight with, Obstacle/Terrain cards are precisely that - obstacles you place for your side before the battle begins, preset to (in theory) benefit your side, Event cards are how the game determines whether or not you hit an opponent during an attack - they basically perform the role (pun intended) that dice normally take in these kinds of games, Reserve cards are like cool abilities that you use during the course of the battle, usually to modify Event card draws. Ironically, they're more like what gamers usually know as an Event card from other games, in that they infuse some unforeseen twist to battles. Collects are simply Magic Items or Items on the field of battle that Units can pick up and use - I usually liken them to the Glyphs in Heroscape Master Set: Rise of the Valkyrie, in that regard.
RESERVE CARDS
EVENT CARDS
Tony: You can use Reserve cards whenever they seem appropriate and similarly for Collects, but Events are only drawn to generate a final combat result as you can see in the picture above.
Units are comprised of a variety of stats on their front face including: Attack Rating, Mobility (movement) rating, Defensive ratings vs. Near, Far, or General Attacks. The front of the card shows the Strength Condition boxes (hit points) each character has as well as any special talents or innate abilities like the OtherOne Disciple's spell-casting capabilities. See the picture below for some sample Units.
Earl:: So how does the Unit balance seem to stack up - any gross imbalances or weird issues? I hate when a game launches with obvious imbalances between combatants.
Tony: Me too. Thankfully there's a nice Rock, Paper, Scissors, Fireball dynamic going on here. The requisite units make an appearance - long-range attackers (archers or spell-casters), short-range melee, Cavalry, and Rogue-like mercenaries and their ilk. Good solid use of combined arms and the proper application of the right unit at the right time nearly always pays dividends, despite the luck of the draw (with Event cards for combat). In a lot of combat-oriented games, it's all too frequently the case that the random element has an almost overwhelming impact on the results of a match - in TactDecks case, it affects things but not in bizarrely inequitable swings of fate. A nice touch, that I appreciated, Earl, was that even Miss results on the Event cards frequently provide some other small benefit for your units. Maybe it allows them to move out of combat range or acquire a free opportunity attack for a spellcaster.
Combat works like this: Unit moves into range for an attack, it draws an Event card which can provide a Success +0, +1, or maybe a Miss with no benefit or a Miss but one which provides some small other positive feature. You then add that result (if a Success) to your pre-existing Attack statistic and subtract your opponent's Defense rating for that particular range of attack. So if you had an Attack rating of 2, then drew a Success +1, your total Attack score would be a 3 (unless you then played some other cool Reserve card to further adjust the results). If it was a Near attack and your opponent's Near Defense rating was a 0, you'd do 3 points of damage. The game provides a small sheet of removable damage counters to keep track of a Unit's "strength condition" aka Hit Points. With the variety of Units and the combination of Spells, Reserve cards, and Events - not to mention a Unit's special skills mixed in, things are just the right kind of interesting and fun.
Earl: Sweet. I'm really liking the sound of this. It seems like Soiree games put some serious thought into everything. Wait a minute! How does the game handle movement and positioning and ranges and such? Is this one of those games with a ruler or measuring tape of some kind? I don't have a problem with that, being a huge Warhammer 40k fan myself, but for a quick-playing and ostensibly portable game like this one, it would seem like a drawback.
Tony: Well check out this quick picture to see how terrain lays out on the playing field and I'll explain about the other cool little system that TactDecks uses to address that very concern.
Tony: ::: excitedly ::: See the cards themselves are the measuring units and you start out on a pre-measured square or rectangular grid. When preparing the game, you each take turns to lay out your chosen terrain and units onto the table in alignment with an imaginary grid. It's simple to keep things lined up and in perspective since all the cards are required to stay in the vertical position. I had my doubts at first, before even acquiring the game, but after watching the really useful YouTube videos posted on Soiree's site, I immediately appreciated how well it worked. No need for some expensive gridded board or even a flimsy gridded paper map, the table and cards together create that for you. I loved it. Really cool stuff.
Earl: Okay, breathe...breathe. I get the point, imaginary grid cool, unnecessary map or game-board, bad. Roger that.
Tony: The other thing is the the Advanced rules (which are optional) also allow for Area of Effect attacks as well as the impact of height on the battlefield. It's all clearly explained in the rulebook.
Earl: So am I to believe that there's nothing wrong with this game? Have you found the legendary perfect game here? ::: rolling eyes :::
Tony: Nah, it has a few issues from my perspective, though I'll admit that they're hardly deal-breakers, by any means. My main complaint is with the game terms used. I felt like they were (in places) needlessly unintuitive. "Strength Condition" seemed like a more clumsy way to say "Hit Points," the Event deck should have probably had a name more appropriate to what it does (which is to generate a random combat modifier), the Reserve deck should probably have been called a Manuever deck or something along those lines, and the most awkwardly named cards are the Collects, which could've simply been called Items or Magic Items.
COLLECTS aka Magic Items
But it's hardly a huge deal as you learn the terms pretty quickly as you play. I wasn't terribly impressed with the card art or layout, overall, but it was definitely acceptable considering that Soiree games is a one-man show (to the best of my knowledge). Those particular negatives aside, I was extremely impressed with the design of the game and the actual gameplay, which I found remarkably enjoyable and strangely compelling. I really think that Soiree Games is onto something here and if I had to rate this game using a 10-point scale, I'd give it between an 8 and an 8.5. Very good game all around.
Earl: ::: With a wicked grin ::: Enough talk, let's fight!
Scene 3: The camera slowly fades back to an ever increasing wider view of the gaming basement room. Dramatic, slightly bombastic music reminiscent of the intro music from the Battlefield 1942 videogame begins to swell as Earl and Tony each grab a Starter Deck of TactDecks and prepare to duke it out on the field of battle.
It isn't as much of a "review" as it is an "experience!" :)I believe I saw this game being demonstrated at the "Council of Five Nations" boardgame conference in Albany, NY this past October.
It looks like it is different enough to be interesting, and cheap enough to be affordable. I wish you the best.
Great read. Would my kids like this game? Seems simple enough. One thought - you might want to break up the larger paragraphs into smaller chunks to make reading easier. Just a thought.
Thanks for the support, everyone! And Tony, thanks for an informative and entertaining review. It was a blast to read (I'll have to re-read with the Tron Legacy soundtrack in my headphones)!
The review style was partly an homage to Don La Fontaine, may he RIP. He had that great voice that you heard in so many movie trailers.
The review style is nice, it forces me to actually read it instead of just skimming over it But I think I'll stay at "one of the better games that you're not playing", the amount of booster packs (hey, it was released in 2010!) and no solitaire mode (yes, I'm a fan of RftG with The Gathering Storm extension for solo play) will probably keep me from buying it, and if meeting other people to play, there are usually more than two.
P.S.: Maybe I just came here for the mentioned in the other thread, but you can't prove it
To give honest feedback, trying to be constructive and not to sound too negative: I tried giving this review a read but found the wall of text a bit lengthy to want to give it a chance. My attention wasn't immediately grabbed so I felt the urge to move on to something else, especially since the game has not yet proven popular or to stand the test of time.
Also, I'm the type of person who isn't into the artificial banter format unless it's completely deadpan satire (more difficult to communicate through writing).
I strongly believe video reviews are the way to go these if you want to catch someone's attention. I would prefer to be shown how something is played, rather than read about it.
I hope this helps and I will give it another try when I'm not at work
Posted Wed Jan 19, 2011 4:00 am
mentioned in the 
