In case you dip again to early July of this yr, we launched our annual Gen Con preview article, the place we talked about our most anticipated board video games of the conference. It’s at all times pleasurable to look over the lots of of latest releases for the conference and work out which one has sparked your curiosity essentially the most. And for me, it was Tag Staff from writer Scorpion Masque.
Designed by Gricha German and Corentin Lebrat, who teamed as much as make the superb Sky Staff, that is the latest providing from this duo. As an alternative of touchdown a airplane, they designed a quick-playing auto battler. It’s definitely distinctive, however is it pretty much as good as Sky Staff? Let’s discover out.
Gameplay Overview:
Tag Staff comes with a lineup of 12 very distinctive fighters. To start out every sport, each gamers draft 2 fighters and shuffle their decks collectively. Every fighter additionally has a beginning card that’s added to the participant’s deck within the order they like.
Turns are simultaneous, with every participant turning excessive card of their deck. Each card may have a capability similar to attacking, defending, or utilizing a character-specific energy. The objective right here is to cut back considered one of your opponent’s fighters to zero well being. After every card is resolved, the following card in each decks are revealed.
After all of the playing cards within the decks are performed, the spherical ends with a drafting section. Every participant attracts 3 playing cards from their reserve deck and chooses one so as to add to their play deck. They will slot the cardboard in anyplace they need of their deck, however they will’t change the order of beforehand performed playing cards. Additionally word that this deck isn’t shuffled, so the playing cards will come out in the identical order every spherical.
Turns go by on this method till one fighter is defeated.
Recreation Expertise:
I’ve solely performed a couple of auto-battler video video games, and I’m unsure if it’s the style for me. They had been enjoyable, however I have a tendency to love extra management of my items on the battlefield. Regardless, I used to be nonetheless intrigued by how an auto battler would work on the tabletop with out a pc to regulate your fighters.
And for Tag Staff, I’m unsure how a lot of the online game autobattler really feel that it pulls in, however in both case, the sport itself is nice. This is because of each the distinctive lineup of fighters and the graceful, streamlined gameplay. Educating the sport could be very easy. Flip a card, do what it says, add a brand new card. Rinse, repeat. But inside that onion are layers of technique.
If you find yourself drawing playing cards, you’ll draw three out of your combined deck. So that you not solely need to resolve which of your two fighters you wish to buff, however which card you’re going to use. After which you must work out the place in your deck the cardboard goes to go. Do you set the protection card in the identical place as your opponent’s large assault card? Or possibly they know you would possibly do this, so that they put a card of their very own in the identical place. There may be undoubtedly a thoughts sport side right here of each making an attempt to learn your opponent and likewise occupied with what’s greatest to your personal crew.
I’ll say that these with good recollections will probably be better off right here. In case you can do not forget that your opponent has an assault card, adopted by a protection card, then you’ll have a greater thought of the place to play your personal playing cards to counter (or benefit from) theirs. Or, in case you are like me and distracted by children and canine operating round, you’ll simply slot it I someplace and hope for the very best (Ala Leeroy Jenkins).
However regardless of the thoughts video games, the general gameplay of Tag Staff is tremendous easy. So it’s actually the various lineup of characters that helps preserve the sport contemporary. You’ve gotten your excessive injury characters, meat shields, assist, management, and random ones. There may be simply a lot selection right here that it not solely retains performs fascinating, however since you might be utilizing two characters, you may work out synergies between them. Maybe I wish to pair the fighter that rages right into a bear with the excessive protection or healer character to feed into his energy. Or possibly I simply wish to seize the 2 coolest-looking fighters and ship them to battle. Each methods are viable.
Lastly, I wish to give some props to the manufacturing values of the sport. The playing cards are top quality and the artwork is very well carried out. However one good factor is that the playing cards have each iconography and full textual content. So in case your card is “Do an assault after which acquire one energy”, you’ll have icons for assault, after which a +energy icon. Nonetheless, on the backside of the cardboard is the total textual content that claims precisely what these icons imply. So in case you are new to the fighter, you may simply learn the textual content and know precisely what the cardboard does. And after you’ve performed a couple of rounds, you may simply have a look at the icons and know what occurs. This made studying the sport a breeze.
Ultimate Ideas:
Tag Staff is one other win for designers Gricha German and Corentin Lebrat. The gameplay is each distinctive and a to of enjoyable. I like how straightforward it’s to get to the desk, and there’s a lot of selection within the fighters. Included within the field is a flyer that teases extra characters subsequent yr, so I’m all in on that. If you’re searching for a singular sport that’s each fast to play and has a to of selection, than Tag Staff is it.
Ultimate Rating: 4 Stars – Tag Staff again once more…it’s an excellent taking part in, 2-player dueling sport with a bucket of selection.
Hits:
• Good manufacturing values
• A lot of selection within the characters
• Straightforward to study and play
• A lot of potentialities for future fighters
Misses:
• The reminiscence side would possibly put some gamers better off
