Quinterra

It is merely an okay game. The tactics portion of it isn't very in depth, often times feeling very Rock-Paper-Scissors like, and the forces fit into at most two of those. The graphics are fine. The UI is usable though not helpful in any way and the text for the mission requirements is super tiny. Yet the missions end up feeling very much the same one after another, which would be fine if not for the Rock-Paper-Scissors element mentioned before. You can find yourself deep into a game and then because you are playing a force that has to group up (Lycans) vs. an enemy who poisons everything there is honestly nothing to do but quit the battle and find a port to get your morale back up. Pros: It is fairly intuitive, not taking long to discover what your few units are good at. It's forgiving for the first two levels to get you a good feel. The graphics are nice. The ability to set each audio element to what you want is wonderful. Cons: Rock-Paper-Scissors force match-ups. UI is unhelpful and mission requirements are super tiny text. Missions are repetitive. Can't see where beyond the very next bit of the path so can easily miss much needed missions, ports or other places you might want/need to go. The units you can hire are often for other forces, so have abilities that synergize with them, so not very useful, and many agnostic units are just worse. It's still early, the game designers I'm sure have plans for this game. I've spent a long evening, then played around with it again and I'm already bored and been frustrated more than once with, "Oh, great, poison army that puts out units faster than I can, with more health, on a map where I can't build up forces." or some similar miss match that makes it a futility filled fifteen minutes to get lose the match or quit out of the battle and take a massive hit to morale.

EDIT/UPDATE I just did some runs through the latest large patch. It somehow does feel better and cleaner. I have to report that there are still some encounters that are just impossible without VERY specific abilities. (Silence on a ranged AoE will nerf the game down to being playable, but not an auto-win). You will still come across stuff like a unit with lots of armor that spam summons minions that can instaheal the target boss for 6-8 each turn, while he will keep your unit count to a minimum. Straight deploy and attack will NOT win you games. You NEED broken combos that dictate you entire gameplay encounter after encounter. You will not build nice synergystic groups that you can deploy tactically as the battle plays out (Unit acquisition is too random...so anything outside baked in racial synergy is too unreliable). In short, the game is improving, the balance and depth is not. YET. I still have hope for this game and it is still early enough and clearly the dev is still working on it. Give it a try, or at least keep it wishlisted. I wouldnt bail on it or forget it if it looks interesting to you...just know it has some work needed still. I turned on comments, so you folk can tell me how dumb I am, or how to Git Gud...or even sway my opinion (as I may ACTUALLY be dumb and have to git gud). I WILL be returning to this title as I see updates. It has promise and I enjoy the missions that are not "Apply face to brick wall". OLD REVIEW BELOW ------------------- I wouldnt recommend this one yet. Beautiful, no bugs found yet, enjoyable play loop. I think it has a ton of potential, but there are some bad design choices in the champion/boss enemies or at least the mission goals as it pertains to some enemies. I know plenty of people will say "git gud" or "I beat the whole thing on the hardest difficulty in 5min without using units"....but I found myself being annoyed more than challenged when I hit hard points. An example: You have to kill 4 units with 8HP. On average you are summoning 2 units that do 2-3 damage. ALSO, when they kill a unit it turns into a full copy of the enemy AND becomes an additional one you have to kill (so not just kill the base 4 as a goal, but kill ALL of them that are made). If you play it safe and try to hang back and build up, they just summon more of themselves intead. I get the theme...but it is more annoying than a challenge to figure out. There is also a boss that ignores the first 8 damage anyone does to it and it heals and spam summons ranged units...........it is just as fun as it sounds. Even adding a mechanic that causes it's summon's deaths to reduce its max armor, or max HP would give you a path to victory..but no, it is just a cycle of lose everything each turn, resummon next to the boss, do no damage, repeat. Lastly, there are maps where the goal is to have more troops on the board to get a point at the start of your turn and race to 4-5 points. Without a specific focus on spamming, you are making 2 units a turn and SOMETIMES 3. The enemy is making a base of 3 and sometimes can summon/spawn, or simply spams enemies with "+1dam +1HP for each creature of the same name" and those creatures can have "double attack power when attacked, till end of turn". Good luck clearing those while taking no losses with your 2-3 attack units. Personal Annoyance: Gating interesting races behind playing through the game with boring races. I get the idea of "Use simple meathead mechanics, then unlock and use interesting mechanics"...but suffering through ONE map is enough to learn, then you should be able to use the next race. having to play through the whole thing several times is tiresome. Ultimately, amazing little game underneath. feels fresh using plenty of classic mechanics, I would suggest giving it a shot if you LOVE StS, Nowhere Prophet, Trials of Fire, etc.

A fun strategy game that has a surprising amount of depth to it. You really have to play for a few hours to get a complete understanding of the draft system and the strategy behind summoning certain units. The combination of crystals and equipment for elite units as well as minions also adds another layer of planning and deck building. Each species has different mechanics tied to them that make them feel unique. The difficulty is also in a pretty good place. You cannot expect to win every expedition you set out on, but the game is definitely beatable if you equip your units properly and plan strategically! It is still early access but the devs have showed that they're passionate and willing to add a lot more content in the future. Definitely worth checking out, especially for the low price point!

The best Strategy game in steam, bar none. Faeria's gameplay doesn't come close. The synergies, puzzles, and decision making I find myself in each game is very engaging and refreshing. The Imp race in the brown crystal desert are quite robust. one of the best strategy games on Steam. I find myself perennially stimulated playing this game!

Really enjoyed the concept and approach to map exploration and strategy, however I have to say the balance feels awful. My first run throughs just felt punishing and un-fun. Like the game is designed to be too hard until you've levelled up enough, just to stop you clearing it in a good, well planned run. Often bosses just made me want to put the game down, rather than outplay/out-think them because with the starter roster there was simply no way to. That made me want to stop playing. I will check back in future and hope that it feels less punishing for a new player. I get wanting a challenge in your game but honestly this just felt artificially hard. Basically I don't recommend this game in its current state.

I really like this. Slay the spire-esque with notes of Magic the Gathering. Beautiful art, lovely soundtrack, just solid all the way around. I hope they work on making the "drafting" mechanic a little more meaningful. https://youtu.be/0u0Q8oeiC_k

Help! I can't stop playing this game. :D Really great game already and I am looking forward to how it develops. Some fights are a bit difficult for new players, but the morale system makes it so that you should still be able to reach and defeat the bosses despite a few defeats. Once you got accustomed to the units + gameplay it might even be a little too easy and there are still a few mechanics that can be abused to trivialize most of the game. Regardless, it is quite addicting and very enjoyable! The developers react quickly to feedback as well, I already got the Arriviste nerfed. Sorry guys. :D

I think this game is a bit early for me. Cool concept but the UI is hard to use especially in combat. Its hard to know which character still needs to move and which characters you can still play.

Surprisingly good. Also surprisingly easy? I'm up to three consecutive runs now without actually having ever lost. It seems like there are too many combinations that are a bit too strong right now, and its a bit too easy just to fall into the habit of building one unkillable monster, or cycling ranged units with haste to kill whatever you need to kill. I'm going to keep playing though, hoping for an ascension mechanic at some point, because as it stands the game doesn't have much in the way of teeth for any roguelike veterans.