Truly innovative underappreciated turn-based strategy card/board game. Takes effort to learn but offers tremendous depth
based on deck building, card playing and a boardgame map.
Does this sound a tad dull? Only when you consider the lack of animations or sound/music, or the absence of flashy fancy graphics (though the card art is very, very beautifully done and immersive)
However when it comes to depth, variability and keeping the tension sky-high over the course of the entire game, there are very few games out there who could hold a candle to Armageddon Empires!
In fact, one could say it's a very pure form of a 4X game, stripping away some less essential elements (graphic animation, hordes of units) and focusing in what really counts to get excellent gameplay and replayability.
Speaking of replayability, there are 3 factions in the game with completely different units, characteristics and technologies and as a cherry on the cake there's always the unpredictable independents holding resources and bases. For a second cherry on the cake and an additional challenge you can have wasteland cults included in the game (sort of religious crazies with really tough armies)
Also nice is that most games (unless you choose a larger map size) only take 1-3 hours to complete so you get very direct feedback on the decisions you've taken. In a post-apocalyptic landscape with scarce resources, the armies are very manageable in size which further reduces micromanagement.
1) Explore: as in any such game, the player has to explore the surroundings to find resources and locate the enemy troops and headquarters, as well as claim loot that is scattered around the landscape (taken from abandoned towns, gas stations, military caches, bunkers, independent army factions just to name a few)
Exploration in all its facets is even more crucial, knowing that some units can go into stealth mode to scout, sabotage your buildings and even assassinate your heroes.
2) Expand: the initial tiles on which you start just won't cut it... Your headquarters do provide a generation of the game's 4 resources (Humans, Materials, Energy and Technology) each turn, but you'll need to get your hands on more resources if you ever want to build a sizeable army.
The feeling of a post-apocalyptic world is conveyed very well in this aspect, as resources are scarce and you constantly have to take tough decisions on how to spend them.
Add to this:
- the aspect of supply range that has been implemented (troops outside of the supply range have a weaker attack and defense)
- some actions (e.g. aerial attacks) can not happen outside of a certain range
- each movement of troops requires scarce action points
- you can only build bases using the according cards from your deck... or by capturing neutral or enemy bases
and you'll understand how important expansion is, much more than in traditional 4X games where you simply spam troops and send them out all over the world
3) Exploit:
Choices, choices, choices. You have to make every resource, action point and card count.
This makes for some very interesting decisions already when building your deck (heavy, expensive units that may sit useless in your hand for several turns or small, cheap units that may not be able to put a dent into the enemy's armor)
In addition, the amount of action points you receive at the start of a turn depends on the roll of the dice and can only be influenced by... sacrificing resources.
Imagine the trade-off: spend more resources to be able to do more (but then of course you can't spend those resources) or save your precious resources but losing speed. In addition, you don't know how high the AIs will raise the stakes by sacrificing their resources.
Another aspect is that the size of your hand is limited and drawing new cards requires action points, so here again there are some tough decisions to be made, even more so since your deck is limited to exactly the cards you included, so if you only had 1 Elephant tank and you discard it to make room for something else, that means no more Elephant tanks for you...
Similary, if one of your heroes dies, that's the end of him/her for the remainder of the game.
An almost hidden aspect of the game is research that allows you to research technologies and genetics that will give you an additional card that for example enhances your troops or provides you with a nice heavy missile to drop on an enemy base. However research doesn't come cheaply: you need to build (or capture) a lab, hire a hero capable of researching and spend both action points and resources after which a roll of the dice will determine whether you actually get access to that new technology or not.
4) Exterminate:
Rarely has a game given you so many options to finish off an opponent, instead of the usual kill / technology victory.
Do you barge in with a stack of doom, do you sneak in just when your opponent moved out an army, do you feel like nuking his headquarters or rather feel like sabotage?
Going a bit more in detail on the combat mechanics:
- the outcome is determined by the rolls of the dice, so there is never a guarantee how a fight will turn out
- either side can play tactics cards to influence the outcome, making for even more tension
- some units have the ability to add fate rolls which come in really handy if you're looking for those few additional damage points to score a kill
- plenty of units have special abilities that can turn the tide of battle and require more strategic decision taking on your part
- even the order in which you have your individual units attack/defend has an impact on the outcome
- in addition to ground combat there is aerial combat but then again those can be intercepted or shot down by surface-to-air missiles
- units can be repaired at bases, but of course that costs action points and resources
- heroes can claim territories so you can start collecting resources (naturally, after an initial sum of action points and resources) and build bases (provided you have the right cards in your hand)
- some heroes add to the characteristics of any army they are leading (e.g. increase the supply range, increase attack or defense)
- some heroes can assassinate other heroes or sabotage enemy buildings (including their headquarters)
The major drawback of Armageddon Empires would be that it takes some effort to learn the game mechanics; while the manual is quite in-depth there is little in terms of tutorial or in-game help and the user interface is not always straight-forward or that efficient.
Once you know how to play, it's very addictive; with all the variations in factions, deck building choices, different strategies, 3 map sizes and choices in terms of deck limitations it offers nearly unlimited replayability.
Too bad there is no option for multiplayer, but on the other hand the AI does put up quite a challenge and adapts well to the environment and player's actions. It happens more than once that you think to waltz into the AI's headquarters the next turn and then it takes a decision forcing you to completely change your strategy.
In summary, my recommendation would be to try the free demo (though know very well that it only unveils a tiny part of what the game is about) and buy it in the end :)