Overview: There are 3 playable undead factions, each having a campaign with story elements. There is a sandbox mode. There are action "cards" to be played at both tactical and strategic levels. You get to pick 3+ cards (strategic) from a random draw every few turns. Blood is the coin of the realm for the strategic level, mana is used in battles. Tactical cards(spells/abilities) are assigned to the lord and can be upgraded/specialized. Campaigns: The campaigns are divided into 4 "missions", that unlock as you complete the previous. The 3 campaigns are locked as well. Campaigns have custom conditions/rules. There is NO difficulty adjustment in Campaigns, There is a "puzzle" element at the strategic level that adds to the difficulty. Tactical: There are no impactful random elements at the tactical level. Units move based on initiative. Most units have special attack/action with a cooldown. When you attack the expected results are displayed, I have seen some variance here, but very little. Maps are square grids with blocking terrain, and some special elements. There is NO diagonal movement, although some units can attack diagonally. Before a battle begins (at the strategic level) you may have the option to auto resolve. Conclusions: The Sandbox mode is fun, difficulty and victory conditions can be customized to suit your taste. All undead factions are available to play. The AI is functional but relies on numerical and qualitative advantage. There is a tutorial and in-game glossary, no manual. The ability to adjust the difficulty in campaigns would have made them more accessible, effectively gating them for all but the most patient. The randomness of cards offered can have a large impact on play in the early stages. 3 stars, No manual and campaigns being gated means MANY customers will only have access to half the game. For shame devs :(
Its a bit short for the money. There are 18 missions, however, from a practical standpoint, you can only play 13 of them in one play through. Meaning you would have to start 6 games to see all the new missions. The new missions can be very wonky. Patch introduced new bugs. Advice is to wait for a deeper discount (50% off the current price).
First saw the board game in the early 80s, been waiting for this for a long time. It does scratch the BattleTech itch. That being said, it's not all good. There are questionable design choices in terms of balance, interface and story. It can feel like you are playing the same missions over and over and over again (because you will be if you play long enough, of course the same could be said about chess). The strategic layer seems inconsistent, like they wanted to give you some RPG, but then changed their minds. They give you enough space for 24 pilots, but you can only use 4 at a time and the cost of keeping them is excessive (apparently being a mechwarrior is a road to riches, or inflation is out of control in this version of the BattleTech universe). They hold to the BT lore (if it matters to you) at times, and at other times throw it out the window. You can have 18 mechs ready to drop, but again can only drop 4, and will never require more than 8 to complete any missions, also the cost of keeping that many mechs ready to drop is excessive. The game still has bugs (at version 1.3+) that can cause strange behavior including crashes. For what it delivers it does require significant Video hardware, and can stutter and freeze without it. The camera controls can be a bit wonky, zooming into the back of hill when it should be showing you damage hitting your target. The AI is barely competent, once you learn it's behavior it can be easily manipulated. Balance is achieved (more or less) by the player being outnumbered 2 or 3 to 1 in most missions. There are more minor quibbles, each one on their own is not much, but they do add up. The good parts are obvious, I did have fun playing it. But, in hindsight would wait for a discount before buying it. If it were compared to other BattleTech games only I would give it 5 stars. However comparing to other turn based strategy/tactics games(in the same price range) it only rates 3.
