Pixel Tactics 3

Initial impressions are very positive. multi-use card mechanism - each card can have 4-5 uses, serving as either a leader with a special asymmetric ability, or a hero with 4 different abilities depending on their location in the playing field.

Let me say up front, I am a huge fan of this series. In brief, each game comes with 2 identical 25 card decks of "heroes." Turn a hero upside down and he has better stats and a unique power to function as a leader. You will be playing a leader in the center of your play area and surrounding him with heroes to make a 3x3 grid of cards. Your objective, and the only way to win, is to kill the opposing leader. Each wave (a turn where you interact with one of your 3 rows of cards) you get 2 actions, play heroes, draw cards, attack, clear fallen heroes, play a card from your hand to activate it's "order" power, or do a little rearranging. Each hero has a unique ability depending which row you play it to. Your deck never reshuffles, so resources are finite. Please see my review of Pixel Tactics 2 for more details on game play. Each set so far has pushed a different theme in the powers on cards. Set 1 was the most basic. Pixel Tactics 2, was about supporting the hero in front of or behind you in a column. This set is about "magic." When I first received this set, I flipped through and my first reaction was that every single card is overpowered. But then I played it, and somehow Brad Talton has balanced everything. I played 1 game where my hero let me draw from my opponent' deck when I took a draw action, and I could force trade him cards I didn't want for random pulls from his hand. On the surface, that seems hugely overpowered, because I can burn through his deck and have mine ready and waiting when he runs out of cards. Thing is, I only one by 4 life points on my hero, long after he was out of cards. The reason for that is I have to spend actions to draw, and if I'm drawing cards, I'm not keeping my front line strong. I'm not attacking as much as maybe I should be, I'm not keeping the spaces cleared of bodies to put fresh heroes in. Honestly, I should have lost. My opponent was too caught up with me drawing his cards and didn't press an early advantage. An advantage that could have easily taken 15 of my hero's 23 life, maybe 20, before I was able to shut it down. And that's the thing with this game. It will always reward strategy over luck. There are options to play with custom decks or draft, but I haven't tried those. Playing with identical decks, I can sit there dreading my opponent drawing a card I know he has, but I really can't predict how he'll play it and which power he'll bring against me. The bottom line is if you're looking for a deep strategy game where luck plays a minimal role, this is a great choice. Plus it's cheap and portable to boot. Don't let it's cutesy retrogame looks fool you, this is strategy at it's finest.

Let me say up front, I am a huge fan of this series. In brief, each game comes with 2 identical 25 card decks of heroes. Turn a hero upside down and he has better stats and a unique power to function as a leader. You will be playing a leader in the center of your play area and surrounding him with heroes to make a 3x3 grid of cards. Your objective, and the only way to win, is to kill the opposing leader. Each wave (a turn where you interact with one of your 3 rows of cards) you get 2 actions, play heroes, draw cards, attack, clear fallen heroes, play a card from your hand to activate it's order power, or do a little rearranging. Each hero has a unique ability depending which row you play it to. Your deck never reshuffles, so resources are finite. Please see my review of Pixel Tactics 2 for more details on game play. Each set so far has pushed a different theme in the powers on cards. Set 1 was the most basic. Pixel Tactics 2, was about supporting the hero in front of or behind you in a column. This set is about magic. When I first received this set, I flipped through and my first reaction was that every single card is overpowered. But then I played it, and somehow Brad Talton has balanced everything. I played 1 game where my hero let me draw from my opponent' deck when I took a draw action, and I could force trade him cards I didn't want for random pulls from his hand. On the surface, that seems hugely overpowered, because I can burn through his deck and have mine ready and waiting when he runs out of cards. Thing is, I only one by 4 life points on my hero, long after he was out of cards. The reason for that is I have to spend actions to draw, and if I'm drawing cards, I'm not keeping my front line strong. I'm not attacking as much as maybe I should be, I'm not keeping the spaces cleared of bodies to put fresh heroes in. Honestly, I should have lost. My opponent was too caught up with me drawing his cards and didn't press an early advantage. An advantage that could have easily taken 15 of my hero's 23 life, maybe 20, before I was able to shut it down. And that's the thing with this game. It will always reward strategy over luck. There are options to play with custom decks or draft, but I haven't tried those. Playing with identical decks, I can sit there dreading my opponent drawing a card I know he has, but I really can't predict how he'll play it and which power he'll bring against me. The bottom line is if you're looking for a deep strategy game where luck plays a minimal role, this is a great choice. Plus it's cheap and portable to boot. Don't let it's cutesy retrogame looks fool you, this is strategy at it's finest.

It's a really fun game, simple rules yet lots of tacticial options. The expansion add a lot though you do not need them

It's a really fun game, simple rules yet lots of tacticial options. The expansion add a lot though you do not need them