The Game Science

(Enough with the mechanics… where’s the game?)

 

So why is tAoT fun? It challenges its players to be:

1        – Strategically reactive like when playing a game of chess.

2        - Creative like searching for a solution in a puzzle game.

3        - Able to create and manage strategic social roles like in a MMORPG raid.

 

To elaborate on these ideas I would like to tangent off and introduce you to a few cards and talk about how they influence the game.

 

 

Strategically Reactive

 

Each of the following training cards costs five gold to play, requires you to have one specific architecture building in play, and produces one of the following units:

 

Fire Elemental

            Attack:  very high attack damage

            Stats:  low HP (Health Points)

            Effects:  dies in 3 turns

           

Elven Archer

            Attack:  medium damage, ranged

            Stats:  low HP

 

Shield Guardian 

Attack:  low damage

Stats:  high HP

Effects:  reduces damage taken from all attacks.

 

Air Elemental

Attack:  low damage attack, ranged

Stats: low  HP

Effects:  evades the first attack made on it every turn.

 

We can deduce the following:

 

1 - The Fire Elemental’s attack is completely nullified by an Air Elemental’s evasion.

 

2 - The Air Elemental can’t be hit by any one attack so you need ranged units to hit it.

 

3 - The Shield Guardian’s damage reduction weakens every attack made against it making it defend well against ranged units.

 

4 – The Fire Elemental’s attack does have some damage taken off by the Shield Guardian’s damage reduction but most is still inflicted.

 

These statements expressed as a visual map creates:

(the arrows represent an effective counter)

 

 

This demonstrates the need to be responsive to what mechanics your enemy deploys. 

 

Moving on I want to reassess from a strategic production-economy perspective:

 

            Tech – meaning the number of architecture cards you have in play.

 

            Mechanics – meaning the units and spells you have played and your life points.

 

Gold - used with the cards in your hand to produce both Mechanics and Tech. 

 

            Command – Used to draw cards.

 

Observing gameplay we can see that:

 

1 - Because gold mines are constantly being fought for, the amount of gold you receive each turn is directly related to your Mechanics. 

           

2 - The amount of command you receive is constant but what really determines card economy is the ratio of early game to late game cards in your deck (a card that requires only a single architecture building would be early game). 

 

3 - Creating architecture buildings will advance your Tech, at the cost of both Gold and Command.  Once created Tech will give you more Mechanic for your Gold (just like more bang for your buck).

 

These statements expressed as a visual map creates:

 

Being responsive to how your opponent operates his/her economy is essential to winning.

 

 

Creative

 

Next I want to explore how tAoT is creative.  To demonstrate I would like to construct a deck.  When fighting against your opponent’s mechanics you are searching for a way to mechanically negate them.  When building a deck you are combining mechanics that synergize well with each other.  Before we can begin putting cards together to create a deck we need to decide on a deck theme, a way it will win.  So let’s create a deck mission statement:

 

This deck will:

1 – “Rush” our opponent in the early game

2 – Will win by dominating gold economy  

 

To make this deck I have selected cards from the Fire and Water armies.  I am going to introduce you to the cards and then talk about why I put them together.

 

Fire Elemental

            Attack:  very high attack damage

            Stats:  low HP

            Effects:  dies in 3 turns

            Tier:  1, Fire

 

Lightning elemental

            Attack:  low attack damage, small range

            Stats:  low HP

            Ability: can deal a small amount of damage to all units on both grids

            Tier:  1, Fire

 

Bolt

            Spell Effect:  high damage to a single enemy unit

            Tier:  1, Fire

 

Flame Strike

            Spell Effect:  low damage to three enemy units

            Tier:  1, Fire

 

Fire Enchantment

Spell Effect:  adds a medium damage buff on two units

            Tier:  2, Fire

 

Bolt storm

            Spell Effect:  Nuke all units on both grids

            Tier:  3, Fire

 

Ascended dragon

            Attack:  medium damage

Attack Effect:  attack will hit its target and the two tiles behind it.

            Stats:  High HP

Ability Effect:   regenerates some health, cost command

Ability Effect:   increase by one tile the number of tiles Ascended Dragon’s attack will hit, cost command

            Tier:  2, none

 

Flood Caster

            Attack:  low attack damage, small range

            Stats:  low HP

Ability Effect:  floods for 3 turns a mine you have captured and floods for 4 turns the mine mirroring it on your opponent’s grid.  A flooded gold mine can’t be contested or captured… think of it as being temporarily removed from the game.

            Tier: 2, Water

 

Erosion

Spell Effect:   all players on both teams lose 10 gold at the beginning of their turns for 2 turns

            Tier:  2, Water

 

Shrouding Mist

            Spell Effect:  All units on both grids lose a medium amount of range

            Tier:  2, Water

 

 

These cards all synergize well together. 

 

Speed Damage Cards – This deck has a huge amount of speed in the form of Fire Elemental, Bolt, Flame Strike, Fire Enchantment, and Lightning Elemental.  This should allow for easy capture of gold mines in the early game.

 

Gold Economy Damage Cards – At tier one, we assaulted the enemies gold economy by taking control of gold mines.  At tier two, we are going to assault gold economy directly with both Erosion and Flood Caster.

 

Ascended Dragon –Ascended Dragon’s high HP and regeneration ability is the only thing we have in this deck that can really defend a gold mine.  Water and Fire don’t really have any tough units so this card which can be added to any deck will have to do!

 

Desperation Move Cards – The worse case scenario for this deck is allowing the enemy to slow the game down long enough to begin stock piling units on the grid.  To deal with this situation we have two cards Shrouding Mist and Bolt Storm.  Shrouding Mist will partially disable all ranged units on both grids, range being something we have very little of is of no sacrifice.  Bolt Storm will simply kill every unit on both grids.

 

There are plenty of mechanical synergies I haven’t mentioned hidden within this deck…. Try to find some. 

Example:  Fire Enchant + the Ascended Dragon’s attack = that is a medium amount of damage boost that’s hitting more than unit.

 

This covers how tAoT is creative.  Moving on I want to talk about how tAoT is team based.

 

 

Team Based

 

To demonstrate the need for players to coordinate in social roles I want to build a deck that will in an effective way team up with the Fire-Water deck we constructed above.  Before we can begin to build this new deck we must first abstract what roles our Fire-Water deck accomplishes at each tier.

 

Tier	Fire-Water Deck	Team Mates Deck
1	Grid Rush/Control	?
2	Gold Economy Damage	?
3	N/A (Bolt Storm)	?

 

At tier one I want to support our Fire Elementals with ranged units behind them, giving the combined effort plenty of push against enemy gold mines.  To do this we will add cards like:

 

Elven Archer

            Attack:  medium damage, ranged

            Stats:  low HP

 

At tier two I want to support our Fire-Water deck’s gold economy destruction cards by ensuring the enemy will not be able to recapture any gold mines.  To do this we will add cards like:

 

Earth Elemental

Attack:  low damage

Stats:  high HP

Effects:  reduces damage taken from all attacks.

 

Our Fire-Water deck makes for a very tough fight in the early game, naturally so should our team mate’s deck.  Like our Fire-Water deck I will only add a single tier three card:

 

Quake

            Spell Effect:  Destroy all buildings on both grids.

 

This card is just like Bolt Storm, a desperation move.  In the case that our foes have managed to develop their Tech to tier three we would be in serious trouble since we wouldn’t be able to compete with their powerful late game cards.  A Bolt Storm followed by a Quake will start the grid game over again.

 

So that gives us

 

Tier	Fire-Water Deck	Elven-Earth Deck
1	Grid Rush/Control	Ranged Units
2	Gold Economy Damage	Tanking Units
3	N/A (Bolt Storm)	N/A (Quake)

 

Social coordination in proactive deck construction is important, but it is also necessary during combat.  Making coordinated strikes, timing plays, and especially your ability to change social roles to effectively counter your opponent’s forces are all major aspects of working together as a team in tAoT.

 

Conclusion

 

tAoT is strategically reactive, creatively proactive, and a challenging team based experience.