![]() The decision space is often tense and vibrant. ![]() ![]() Impressively, the scenarios use the simple ruleset to create a dynamic and interesting experience that elevates the limited tactical scope of the card play. It’s effective, presenting a wide range of maneuvers and even offering difficulty scaling. The AI-controlled adversaries are handled through a fleshed out scheme deck. Many pages are even dedicated to a solitaire or cooperative story-based campaign with branching scenario pathways. While the bulk of scenarios are aimed towards two players going head to head, there are options for multiplayer free for all and team-based skirmishes. There are wild flourishes such as summoning a massive colossal cultist to batter your foes, and a neutral mechanema “wrecklamax” tank construct which players alternate controlling. Most have you aiming to control points of interest with your three champions, but some require you destroy enemy strongholds, perform tower defense, or even retrieve objectives mimicking a capture-the-flag structure. The 12 scenarios feature a mix of different player counts and formats. The variety and quality is stronger than any of its competitors. Yet, Ascension Tactics overcomes this through an exceptionally rich and generous scenario booklet. When all of this is taken in combination, the general blandness threatens to relegate it to the back shelf, a game forgotten as quickly as it was learned. They’re not needed, as the standees are perfectly functional, but just going with a complete title of Ascension Tactics would have been a stronger move. It’s also odd that the game is given a subtitle of Miniatures Deckbuilding Game when there are no actual miniatures in the retail edition. The bright and cheerful illustrations are not poor at all, but they are much more generic and uninspiring than Ascension’s original Eric Sabee artwork, as divisive as it was. This adds a touch of excitement to the otherwise drab conflict system, as it keeps you somewhat unsure of your opponent’s capabilities. They boast effects which increase the strength of attack and defense, and they’re played spontaneously in combat. These tokens are seeded on the map and gained through play. Even combat is deterministic with playing attack cards and needing to exceed your opponent’s defense however, this is partially relieved by the nifty treasure token mechanism. The capabilities of each champion are known, which presents a ceiling on more crazy and dramatic play. Unlike its strongest peers such as Warhammer Underworlds or Unmatched, your tactical considerations are somewhat predictable and steady. The skirmish portion of the game suffers for this quality. The impression is that this card pool is more foundational, setting Ascension Tactics up for the future as opposed to offering truly unrestrained and captivating effects for players to wield. It feels dull and lacks the dynamism evident in both the most interesting deckbuilders, as well as miniatures games. Yet, nearly all of the abilities across the 132 card deck are just differing degrees of strength which roughly map to the Rune cost of the cards. Most offer varying Power and Rune amounts, some with small flourishes such as increased effectiveness if you play multiple cards of the same faction type. Unfortunately, the rest of the market options are rather safe and underwhelming. This allows for character growth over time and for some significant creep in strength over the game. There are some clever options such as the novel construct cards, which function as upgrades to your heroes. It is quite unpredictable as you will only see a small portion of the available pool over the course of the hour-long playtime. The market consists of a row of six cards dealt from a large shuffled deck. What portion of your deck you allot and how you utilize each of these resources is where much of your strategic thought will be focused. The importance of Power and Runes is equally balanced. ![]() Here it’s used to command your champions on the battlefield, issuing them orders to move across the hex-board and deliver powerful attacks. Power, on the other hand, boasts a completely new application. Just like previous Ascension titles, you spend Runes in workmanlike fashion to purchase cards from the central market. There are two main resources which are gained and manipulated through the majority of cards. Participants alternate taking turns playing their hands and attempting to squeeze maximum efficiency out of their evolving engine.
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