Link to Armageddon Empires: http://www.crypticcomet.com/games/AE/armageddon_empires.html



Well, after spending most of the day (and lots of the night) playing Armageddon Empires, I think I can not give more knowledgeable thoughts about it. This will be a long post, but even with the long post, I am not getting into everything that this game has to offer....

WOW

Really, that sums it all up, but I will go a bit deeper than that.

First, the setting. Post-Apocalyptic setting. I am usually not really into that type of game world (or movie world, at that). But, I like this. The basic "story" is that in the year 2025, two alien species came to the planet: The Machines and the Xenopods. The Xenopods were basically using humans as a breeding ground. The Xenopods would hatch creatures who would attach themselves inside the humans, and then devour the host. The Machines were here to "stop" them. What resulted was Earth was a battle field in this struggle. And Earth as we know it, was no more. Nuclear weapons and total war decimated the human population (not to mention the genetic experiments done by the Xenopods), and the human population went from 9 billion down to less than 9 million. The war moved on to another front, but left behind was a planet decimated.

That was 300 years ago.

Now, there are basically 4 factions, all vying for control of what is left of the planet:

1. The Empire of Man ~ The remaining humans that have joined forces to reclaim what is theirs: Earth. They use more conventional weapons and units. They remind me very much of the Warhammer 40k universe Marines. Tanks, Imperial troops (Marines, Guards, Commandos), mechs, aircraft. This is the faction I have been playing with.

2. The Free Mutants ~ Mutated humans. Genetic experiments to create "super soldiers". The art for these guys show a lot of four-armed guys (Monad has a home). They also have Giants and Dragons. The story behind the dragons are interesting. The DNA of reptiles and humans were mixed....and thus, we have the Dragons. They look like fantasy dragons, but with that story, they fit in this world. They are fast, strong, and powerful. Very cool idea and concept, actually.

3. Xenopods ~ The Xenopods who were left behind when the Xenopod army moved on. These guys are alien monstrocities. They can somehow evolutionize themselves (not sure how that works in the game, but they can, I guess). The xenopods are experts in biologic and genetic manipulation.

4. The Machine Empre ~ inspite of the cheesy empire name they have, they look to be pretty tough. Battle robots, automated armor (automats) and automated mecha (automecha). They are immune to biological attacks, and are generally very tough, being that they are robots and all. Destruction 3000 would be proud.

Anyways, those are the 4 factions available for play. When you purchase the game, you get all the cards avaiable for each of the factions. What you must do is make a deck to use. Like I said, I have been playing as the Empire of Man, so I have put together a 175 pt deck that I am still in the process of tweaking.

The game is made up of your deck and the "game board" made up of hexes of varying terrain. You may come across a ruined city, or a petrified forest, or an ash field. Each terrain has different movement requirements and can add to the defense/attack stats. Something that is interesting, though. When you make your deck, you can choose terrain to place yourself. You can have no more than 15 pts through the terrain, which usually comes out to about 2-4 terrain hexes, but you can place these around your fortress. They can have mines, they can be hills or mountains (for defense), tunnels for easier travel....or ruined cities or towns for easy resource collection. After those tiles are placed, the game board is then randomly made (but the tiles that you placed will not be moved).

Another pretty cool part of the game is the heroes. When you make your deck, you will want to make sure you have some heroes in there. Each faction has different heroes, of course. Some heroes will be stronger commanding your armies, while other heroes will be better left in the science lab building new attachments and weapons or developing new tactics, while others would be out on their own assassinating enemy heroes or even blowing up facilities of the enemy. The armies that are attached to a general will gain experience as long as they are with that general. And that experience can translate into better and stronger armies. The Heroes really seem to add an rpg feeling to the game, and really offers a ton of strategy. What heroes to take? Also, only heroes can build collectors. Well, any hero can, and the only units that can must have the Engineering ability. Collectors are placed on resources to "collect" them.

Resources are spent to bring in units or facilities. The units have different abilities, and the facilities do different things. Some of the units I had as the Empire of Man....the Imperial Marines, who could have a double attack, or attack the same target twice. A mecha named Vengeance, which could target multiple targets. Also, it had Critical Damage, which would double the damage done. Each unit has stats, like attack, defense, movement, resistances....

Fighting is pretty tactical. A hero can only have 8 units under his command, but each hero also hase a command rating. The units suffer a penatly if the hero is commanding more units than his command rating allows. Generals usually have higher command ratings than, say, scientists. Fighting is done by dice rolls. Heroes also have a stat called "Fate". This fate gives you limited amount of chances to reroll your the dice that were failures. Lets say the Imperial Marines are attacking a group of Xenopod Brutes...2 Imperial Marines vs. 2 Brutes. Lets say that the Marines have a Hero, Vladimir Kost, who has a fate of "4". The marines have an attack of 7 (I believe), and lets say they get the attack initiative. The dice have 6 sides, with 3 sides showing success, and 3 sides showing failure. The first Marine you have target the first Brute (lets say, for example, that the Brutes have 5 attack, and 5 defense). The marines roll their 7 dice...and you get 4 successes. The Brutes roll their 5 dice, and they get 3 successes. The 4 from the marines - the 3 from the brutes = 1. So 1 point of damage is taken on the Brutes. They have (I think) 4 HP, so they now have 3. Now, the Brutes go. The first Brutes unit targest one of the marines, and rolls 5 dice, and gets 5. That marine now rolls their defense (I think it was 5 dice), so they roll....and they get 4. Lets say, for example, an earlier battle left that particular marine with only 1 HP. The Brutes' 5 - the Marines' 4 = 1 pt on damage....this would kill the Marines unit. BUT....the commander, Kost, has 4 fate. So, you choose to reroll that failure using one of the fate of the commanders (he would now have 4 fate). Lets say that it succeeds...so now the Marines have 5 successes. Now, the Marines do not take any damage, and they survive for another round. The fighting would go back and forth, until either side is destroyed, or a side retreats (in which case, the retreating side could possibly take damage from retreating).

Commanders can never die in army combat....unless an opposing unit has a sniper. Also, if a hero is out by him/herself, and they are spotted, a combat ready unit (any unit besides just a hero) can try to hunt-capture-kill the hero. Some heroes are made for this, with the Bounty Hunter ability, which would make the hunt easier. If the lone hero is captured, he is put at the nearest base or outpost, and is held as a prisoner. For each enemy hero held as a prisoner, you get 3 extra action points (pretty much everything costs different amounts of action points. Bringing in that Vengeance mecha cost something like 8 Action Points, along with the 1 Human resource, the 7 materials resource, the 7 tech resource, and the 4 energy resource). You can keep the prisoner there, transport him to another base, or execute him.

Really, there is so much more in this game, and it looks as though each faction plays somewhat differently than the others. You can have a "small" game on a normal map vs. 1 or 2 AI, or you can have a true war on a large or huge map vs. 3 AI. The only thing I do not like about the game, is the fact that there is no Multiplayer. This game SCREAMS mp. But, the dev (there is only one developer) has said that he chose to focus on the AI. That is fine with me, the AI seems pretty strong. He has also said that each faction has something like 65 or more decks that the AI can choose to play from. That offers quite a bit of replayability.

Last night, while playing, I was the Empire of Man vs. the Xenopods. I finally got one of my aircraft in my hand, so I launched an air-to-ground attack. They responded with their own aircraft (it had Interceptor ability). A little air-to-air battle, which I won, then moved on to the air-to-ground battle, which I then took out one of their troops. There are supposedly thermonuclear weapons that you can develop and use. I mean, really....this game is incredible.

Armies (with a hero) will gain more fate points with the more experience they have. There is also Prestige Points that are earned every time an army destroys an enemy unit or facility, or captures/kills an enemy hero. These prestige points show the fame the army has gained throughout the empire. Once an army reaches 35 prestige, it is designated a Legendary army, placing it in the empire's pantheon of heroes. The Legendary armeis are graned special bonuses like +2 bonus to their supply range and +1 movement point. They can also fight more effectively outside their supply. They also recieve another +4 fate bonus. When an army fights in an important battle, the army is awarded a battle honor, noting the vent. There is Air Assault, reconnasance, attachments, enhancements, and munitions, espionage, sabatoge, assassination, supply rules, seiges.....there is A WHOLE DAMN LOT to this game. But it is easy to get into also.

And the dev seems to be a good guy, and is listening to the players and is working on a patch to fix many of the complaints and issues that have been discovered.

If you games with this setting, or games where you gotta build card decks, or just a strategy nut (like me), I think you should at least try it. There is a demo, but it is only a 20 turn demo (the game ends once you reach turn 20). You play with an Empire of Man demo deck, and can only fight against the Machine Empire. And once turn 20 shows up, you are just starting to get into the game and able to start to field some bigger units.

The game is only 30 bucks, but a game like this, I think is well worth the money if you like these types of games.

If there are any questions, feel free to ask.

The demo can be found at the link at the start of this message....

Chris