Any popular board game sooner or later is on the screens of our monitors. But often there is a problem: how to adequately convey the originality, sometimes the complexity of the rules and maintain the playability? Collided with her and authors Warmachine Tactics .
The company Privateer Press launched the original WARMACHINE in 2003, in a few years the game gained an army of fans and received many professional awards. Thematically, there are many similarities with other similar desktops - several factions are fighting for power and independence in the Steampunk world of Iron Kingdoms, where gnomes and elves live side by side with robots. And according to the degree of brutality, the size of the weapon and the thickness of the armor, this setting clearly resembles Warhammer.
But in the mechanic WARMACHINE there are important differences. On the battlefield, not only combat robots "warjack" and different infantry, cavalry, artillery units converge. At the head of the army there is always a special hero, a magician, who can also beat with a sword, and fire from a gun, and conjure spells. And before the beginning of each move, he must allocate his magic energy as efficiently as possible (focus points). In addition, it is very important to create combinations of "units" and units - this can give them additional bonuses and even new abilities.
Computer game based on the motives, called Warmachine Tactics, in August 2013, collected more than a half million dollars through Kickstarter. Then there was a long period of "beta" and early access to Steam, and finally the release took place, although the developers are still finishing their offspring on the go.
The original mechanics is generally preserved. In turn-based battles converge representatives of four major factions - Cygnar, Khador, Protectorate of Menoth and Cryx. Each has its own characteristics and "units" with unique properties. So, if the representatives of Cygnar are more or less ordinary people using guns, swords and grenade launchers, and their fighting mages know how to treat themselves, the necromancers of Cryx are able to poison and attack the enemies in horror - both by their appearance and special spells.
In the story campaign, the player does not have much choice - he is led by the script under the hands, forcing him to play for a pretty representative of one of the factions - but in "skirmish" and multiplayer, you are already a director: take either side, create your own army, arrange wards before the fight. However, there is something to see in the campaign: an interesting story of ascent and betrayal is complemented by a variety of missions offering completely different combat conditions.
The main role in WARMACHINE: Tactics , as it should be, takes on combat mages, who before each move must distribute their magical energy. They have many interesting spells. But their trump cards are in the sleeve of both the "wards" and the rank-and-file fighters. Robots of the Cygnar faction can, for example, literally ram the enemies standing in line with them. And their infantrymen use not only guns and bayonets, but also grenade launchers and smoke bombs. By the way, everyone has several types of weapons - the same warger can cripple a spear or shock an enemy by striking an electromagnetic shield over the head.
In addition to what skills and weapons you choose, whether you prefer to attack in close combat or shoot from afar, you have to take into account many other nuances - who will be attacked by your ward when you move to an enumerate number of cells, how much "units" competently cover each other and even in what the side looks at the soldier. And you can also increase the damage or increase the probability of hitting. In addition, unlike the original desktop, in the computer version there were shelters and a range factor - that is, you can not choose the target of the enemy that is outside the zone of defeat.
In general, the battles are complex and interesting. But not ideal. The outdated picture, the uncontrolled camera, periodically trying to show what is happening through the walls of the houses, the lack of distinct animation, the cumbersome, inconvenient interface, the need to manually select each "unit" (the very concept of "detachment", unlike the original, is not here) and the general slowness of the process - all this can scare off the game of many. For a long time, it also suffered from technical flaws and disgusting optimization, but now the situation has improved noticeably. But there are still few opportunities for use in combat environments (for example, roofs).
Rate:8/10
