Geewhiz was kind enough to give me an Alpha key yesterday for Prismata, a turn-based CCG with some unique twists.
The biggest differences being that there are several different resources to gather, not just one or two, so the economy is similar to base building. Also both players use the same two decks - a “stock” deck of basic units a deck of randomly-generated more powerful units.
Battles are very tactical, with a lot of consideration to the order in which defensive cards are played. It’s also pretty challenging. In fact, we’re both struggling with the same mission in the tutorial campaign.
Anyway, it’s worth keeping an eye on. It’s gong to be ftp, but the developers promise that all the monetized improvements they will be selling are strictly cosmetic.
This is kind of a turn based RTS with the units represented as cards. I finally got through that one mission and beat it but not sure if I can repeat it! :)
I am now struggling on the next mission.
I could see this game becoming one of the regular played games on the forum. It will be coming to Steam as Early Access in 1 - 3 months (but is playable as is).
I am now stuck on the Tier 1 Campaign Boss (last scenario). I have beaten some of the previous missions/tutorials in Tier 1 by trial and error. I have to go through them a few more times to try to get the strategy to enter my brain.
The tutorial is supposed to teach some basic ideas but it is hard. Playing PVP must be a real brain drain.
Yeah, I kept trying different things and finally beat it but not sure of the exact sequence I used. One thing I remember is watching when the AI puts down offense and tried to stay ahead of it while building up my attack. Do not try to max out the economy at that point. The moment the AI builds its first attack units place a wall. So you need to a least start buying the blastforges so you have the resources you need.
One thing I am not certain is that some of the units are finite. I did not realize they could run out (not sure if that is always true or just in some of the missions).
I am going to go back to that one and try it again.
I had the hardest time with the Coffee Break scenario. I finally beat it but not sure why I beat it.
I am skipping the boss in Tier 1 because I do not understand the cards it is using at this point and moving to Tier 2.
I watched a youtube video of two of the devs playing PVP with a 5 sec turn limit (gamers can set the timer up and if you go faster than the time limit for that particular session, I believe you can bank a certain percentage of time for more complex turns). They actually go through the strategy of what they were thinking. One thing about that video is that with practice and learning the units and their abilities and cost ratios you can eventually get better with the game. So there is hope! :)
Prismata for newbs (worth watching to see what they were thinking as the game plays out):
The major thing I took away from the video is that turtling (which I am prone to do) is not going to work.
The other was how knowing the cost of the resource units is so important. I was trying to have an early start on my defense but in that video they were building the resource the turn before they know they would need it.
I tried to emulate that as best I could in the Building Your Economy mission.
I think i really need to make myself (or find) a cheat sheet with all the units stats to do better. I did find their official wiki but it seems like it is all from 2014 so not sure if it is all up to date:
I lost the BYE mission again, but at least I lasted 20 turns. That’s something, I suppose. I can’t even think about how tough this must be against an experienced player.
I wish one of the expert players would discuss the various units and the strategy behind each one. Then more discussion about which units work best together.
The hardest thing in trying to learn to play is that there are so many units and therefore combos is that I am buying units willy nilly with no overall direction. And I do not know how to learn the combos by playing the tutorials.
I wrote them some feedback on creating simpler tutorials and going over each unit. I also suggested that they show the solution to the current missions since they to hard to solve puzzles (at least they are for me).
I keep trying a bit each day hoping that I will have that eureka moment. :)
There’s been chatter about this among some of the popular Gwent streamers recently and was wondering if anyone’s still playing here. It worth taking a look at? I assumed it was brand new, so was surprised to see how old this thread is.
I’m just really helpless against interesting CCGs and it sounds like it twists a lot of the CCG conventions.
It was too hard back when @tgb123 and I tried it. It just entered early access on Steam a week or two ago.
I think it was very interesting and they were working on a campaign which hopefully allows a player to learn the ropes better then my previous attempt. I will have to give it a try again.
A turnbased RTS is the best way I can explain it; using a card system.
I haven’t been back to it since the first attempt. Now that it’s on Steam I may give it another look.
[edit] And the devs are sending out free Steam keys to all who purchased it before, so I’ll check it out over the weekend.
I have been playing this a bit and if anyone gives this a try start with the Campaign and NOT the Combat Training. Originally the Combat Training was the only tutorial like part of Prismata and was more like a puzzle with no hints.
The Campaign makes the introduction much better (though it does start out very easy but seems to be building in difficulty). I am enjoying my time with it at the moment.
Learn to use only the basic units (cards) for several games. The basic units appear in every game with a big pool of other specialized units that change from game to game (think deck-builder). The main thing to practice at first is defense. I then practice against the AI and only pic one extra unit a game to learn how it works. The game can get very tough when there are a lot of extra units/cards available.
The AI seems competent to keep one’s interest and the variety of units can keep game fresh.
They are using a free to play model but what i see is either cosmetics or future single player campaigns that can be purchased. It is a multiplayer game primarily but plenty of fun for single player which I tend to be.
All units become available as one plays the game in single player (only have played single player so not sure if you also gain experience in multiplayer). The game can be difficult to grok in the beginning but I feel I am getting better as i put more time into it.
The balance seems well done. Single player games against he AI go rather quickly.
Thank you @geewhiz for a key! I’ll be sure to try and play this as soon as I can. A friend of mine was very impressed, and since we have similar tastes in “CCG” games, I was very intrigued. The only reason I didn’t buy it yet is that I had no gaming budget left this month.
Well, I’ll post my first impressions soon enough, I suppose. Cheers!
