I was given a key by #keymailer and #cantata 's team. It has a real cool art style and promises a tactics game with the story and scale of a grand strategy game! Let's go have a look! http://twitch.tv/wobblypython
So this game has some real cool ideas about territory control and resource allocation that ultimately don't feel super sloggy. Some of the unit-movement stuff has some growing pains, and the idea of playing it multiplayer feels like a "We are doing this all day" big boardgame vibe.
But playing the first singleplayer campaign map took me something like four hours and I was rapt. I don't want to spoil any goings-ons in it, but I do want to share a weird hiccup that I think does a great job selling why this game is something special.
STORYTIME
So I had conquered an outpost or two. I was beginning to understand the strengths of my faction, and really starting to get the vibe on how they play. My faction leader was a sicko militarist. Might-makes-right kind of pedant. Real nasty guy, but not in a way that makes me go "wow fuck this" and want to put the game down.
While exploring the map, looking for my next conquest, I stumbled into some trouble, and then some trouble stumbled into me! I deployed my infantry and started wailing away but the new threat was a lot more mobile, and a lot tougher than what I was accustomed to. Coming hot off the back end of a conquest I didn't realize that I had actually burned a lot of my small munitions! My guys were running out of ammo! CRISIS!
I realized that I have a melee attack that allows my guys to attack for a single damage for free, but it's very uh, lethal. against these foes. That is my guys super die at the start of the next turn cuz they are not a match for the things they are facing.
So what do I do? How do I get more ammo for my conscripts?! Well, I have facilities that produce an ammo every turn, but we're exceeding that. And we need ammo very now! I could spend my action points to convert engines into ammo resources, but that competes with another option. a faster, better option!
The faction in chapter one has a sort of orbital drop deployment unit. It comes pre-stocked with four conscripts, and those conscripts have two ammo apiece. So instead of spending those engines to build ammo, I realized that it was to my advantage to send my existing men to their certain deaths, and replace them with fresh soldiers with fresh ammo. The game was very much using its mechanics to emphasize that no really, your faction is not the good guys here.
It was still a struggle, as I had to sort out the production shortage for the drop units long-term as well, but I did end up playing very fast and loose with my existing men and making short-term sacrifices to drop in more guys. Buying time for artillery and real heavy-hitters to make their way from one front to the next. It was a real wild situation!
It was also made very clear that the other factions must operate in ways that the group that I played as don't. There's got to be other resource dispensation mechanics. There has to be other ways to claim territory. Big OG Starcraft vibes. The difference between barracks or Creep or Pylons, y'know?
I'm very excited to crack through another chapter.
