Wartile is the first release from Playwood Project Aps and is a real time strategy game with the feel of a tabletop board game. The game is still in the pre alpha phase so at the moment there is only a tutorial and a few demo maps. In the demos you control a group of Vikings as they alternately battle rival Viking clans and attempt to loot English monasteries.
The player does this with the help of a variety of unit classes. Warrior, spearman, and brute. Each class has its own unique abilities and serves its own purpose. The warrior is your all around average melee unit. It has average movement range, attack speed, damage, and health.
The warrior’s strongest asset is it’s higher than normal defense. Its unique ability is the shield wall. This ability allows the warrior to deflect incoming ranged attacks for a short duration. This is especially useful for storming locations that are defended by archers. Activate the ability, move your warrior into range and let him take the fire while your other units advance behind him.
The spearman has significantly less defense than the warrior but makes up for that by being able to attack from two spaces away instead of one and by having a higher chance to hit. The brute is about what you would expect, no defense and less movement range but has a massive health pool and when he lands a hit, enemies go bye bye.
In addition to controlling units, you also have cards that you can play to give you an edge in a fight. These are fairly straight forward, they can do damage, heal, and provide buffs to defense or attack. You have 3 cards you can play at any given time, once you’ve played one, it is replaced by another random card.
Cards have a casting cost, the resource used to cast them can be replenished by killing enemy units or by activating relics, usually there are one or two on any given map.
Initially the idea of Wartile was very confusing to me as tabletop games are traditionally turn based. Playwood addresses this by adding in a cooldown for each unit. Move and you must wait a few seconds before you’re able to take another move. Attack and you must wait a few seconds before you attack again. You also have the option to hit space bar which will decrease the game speed drastically for five seconds, allowing you more time to plan your next move.
All in all I think the developers do a decent job of giving Wartile the feel of a tabletop game. Down the road I’m hoping that they add a few new unit classes to increase the variety of the game and also a storyline to go with the campaign. This pre alpha is definitely a solid start for Wartile.
Game features
•Beautifully crafted diorama Battle Boards, with a true tabletop feel
•Take control of miniature figurines with an attitude
•Assemble your deck of Godly and Tactical Cards
•A new take on strategy – a cooldown system provides a refreshing take on the real-time strategy genre
•Customize your units with weapons, armor & new abilities found throughout the game
•Expand your collection of figurines & widen your palette of possibilities
•Venture into the first Viking Campaign that’s rich in mythology, story and lore
•Play against friends in quest orien ted multiplayer matches or go full competitive
