From: Alan Kaiser Subject: Re: [spielfrieks] Tactics+Strategy (Battlecards Review) I'm a little late coming into this thread but here is my 2 cents worth after many games of Battlecards. There are strategic elements to this game and there are tactical elements as well. The strategic elements generally take a few games to surface but they are there. There are of course luck-of-the-draw issues in the game but afterall it is a card game, what would you expect! That said however, given the nature of the decks, the luck-of-the-draw issues that some have spoken of are not as crucial as it would seem, but this takes a little experience with the decks to overcome. As Greg S. mentioned in his post, the designer has said that an experienced player will win a majority of the time and I have found this to be true as well. In terms of strategy, this aspect mainly deals with your long term goals of winning the most battles (more points) or going for the total victory by winning the battle for your opponents homeland. Most of the strategy deals with which battles you want to fight and in which order. There are a number of Conflict deck cards which allow you to avoid battles or fight different battles. When and how you use these cards is a big part of fighting the battles that you want to fight and avoiding the ones that you don't want to fight. Another aspect of the strategy of Battlecards deals with your deployment of units. Given the battles that have been won and those that are in the discard pile as well as how many are left in the Conflict deck, you will want to include or exclude certain units from your deployed stacks. You will also want to adjust the cards in your hand (your reserves) to take these factors into account. Each side also has certain key, powerful units. A strategic factor is being able to deal with those units (if you are the opponent) or bring them all into action in a decisive fashion can be the difference in any battle. There are a few other strategic elements to play but these are some of the biggest ones. On the tactical side of things, there are a variety of choices to be made depending on your situation and that of you opponent. Chris has mentioned some of the most common tactical decisions below and these are not usually trivial choices to make. Making the right choice at the right time can turn a battle in your favor. These choices vary depending on what battles have been won, what cards you have in your hand (both reserves and kept Conflict cards), what deployed forces you have before you and which your opponent has, what Conflict cards have been played (ie. are in the discard pile) etc. etc. It seems that a lot of players approach this game as they would other collectable or expandable card games in that they feel there is only a tactical element to playing your cards out on the table and fighting back and forth until one or the other player looses a certain number of cards. However, the Conflict deck changes all this and allows you to think a little more long term than most other card games. The fact that some of the bigger battles have prerequisites and that there is a certain degree of choice in when battles get fought makes for some interesting choices. One complaint that I see a lot is the luck of the draw issue. Again, it's a card game so yes, it is there but it really is not as big of an issue as many seem to think. Usually this issue comes up when one player is drawing all of the buildup cards that allow unit deployment while the other player is drawing few or no buildup cards. This can pose some problems but you have to remember that these cards only make up a third of the cards in the Conflict deck and if you are not drawing the buildup cards then you are drawing other useful cards which give you certain abilities in a variety of situations. I have found that many of these other cards allow you to control the pace and flow of the game. Knowing how and when to use these cards is key to surviving through a drought of deployed units. This is not really a flaw in the game but, in my view, a mechanism which allows for interesting decisions on the part of the players to influence the outcome of the game. Granted, sometimes you just get a really bad series of cards and this might lead to you loosing the game but that is really the same as in any card game, or for that matter, any game with a luck element. I have compared this game to Battle Cry in the past. Yes, Battlecards doesn't come with tons of nice plastic pieces but it is a fun wargame lite style game that is easy to learn and offers a variety of choices that the players can make that will influence the outcome of the game. There is a luck element in both that can tip the game in some instances but overall, good play generally will win out over poor play. As in many, many games that we discuss on Spielfrieks, a few games under your belt will allow you to see some of the more subtle aspects that the game has to offer. >This thread has probably gone on long enough, but since I started it I feel >compelled to counter a few of the criticisms. > >> I have to agree with this assessment, I found there to be very little long > > term or even grand tactical strategy. The battles themselves being strictly >> tactical with few tough choices. > >I think this is arguable. Some of the (at times) tough choices include: >* When to withdraw forces >* Who to attack with what units >* When to attack with a support unit, and when to use its bonus > >The phasing of attacks also makes this a non-trivial exercise. > >I do tend to agree that there isn't much of a strategic element to the game. > > >-Chris -- Alan Kaiser Aurora, CO [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! 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