Pocket-Tactics Series 1 and onward

 So, Pocket-Tactics. I've been diving into that kind of hard around October last year. And I wanted to talk about it so here we are. The first thing that really drew me in is the idea of it being a fully 3d printed board game, its a very portable size and its hex tiles gives me Civilization vibes. And hey just files means its relatively cheap to get into. Woo.

Apparently Pocket-Tactics has some time behind it, since its been through some 5 or 6 editions, but this is the first big commercial one. There is also a free meeple version available that contains all the rules and what not. But its a cool game with a lot of variety and stuff going for it. Also the rules are like a single page, take a look.

For instance both players build the gaming board in unison, they put all their faction's tiles into a bag and draw them out one at a time. What could be considered mere setup for the game is actually a very influential part. Because you get to define the battlefield together and, and since forces are asymmetric you'll want different things for sure. For instance in a game with the core set I had some longbowmen I really wanted some hills for them to stand and rain death from. Where as my co-player could deploy his forces from any forest tile, so he made sure to spread out those to get as many angles covered as possible. And because of the simple rule that you're only allowed to place tiles facing the others base, you can think ahead and limit their placement options to, for instance I forced them to place their base in an unfavorable location through a little trickery.

Another thing I'm really a big fan off is the sort of rock paper scissor thing the game has going. Every model has three different ways to fight, in melee, at range or with magic. And no-one is great at all of them. Which leads to moments where someone like a Witch (who is good at magic) gets killed by a much cheaper piece - a Conscript, because he engaged her in melee instead. You roll dice equal to a model skill and see who has the highest roll overall, with some modifiers like favored terrain and ally assistance allowing you a few rerolls.

And that's really the jest of it, all models fight each other in different styles over different terrain you laid both laid out, trying to either destroy the enemy's base or wipe out all their reserves. But from here additional depth is tacked on, because every model has a special ability or rule that changes them up just enough. Wilderfolk Stalkers can ambush from any forest tile, Conscripts provide plentiful aid for their professional soldier allies, Witches can turn killed enemies into Wilderfolk and the Mage can throw fireballs onto large areas.

The kickstarter was successful enough to see some 8 additional factions made as well, each with their own themes and mechanics as well. So you'd already here think, holy crap I am spoiled. 10 different factions how many unique face-offs are that? I don't know, a lot probably.

The game plays around with a lot of interesting ideas during Series 1 and lays a solid foundation of mechanics and tricks between the newcomers. We have the above Raiders whose base is a travelling mobile warship, there are Lords who gather coin from villages and use them to bribe enemy troops, Hillfolk who go utilize difficult terrain and harassments to win and so forth. We get to see mechanics for changing enemy dice pools, difficult to traverse terrain, ways to regain reinforcements, alternate ways to deploy and so forth.

But the game goes beyond that too, every single model has a cost, something that is irrelevant when playing, but used for list building. So you can if you want create your own kingdom or mix and match weird ideas. And since everything is at a 10mm scale, its both quick to print and paint, its not like starting a new warhammer army. At 125 points you can have about 10 models, a few on the cheap side 7-11 points, some in the middle and a few around 15+. As an example here is a faction I made from Series 1.

But this post is more about my excitement for the future. All of this other stuff has been lead up, because Series X and Series 2 is very much a thing. Series X is a collection of extra old factions that dont fit anywhere in particular but are still good inclusions, and well Series 2 ooh boy. It feels very "Advanced D&D" ish in the faction that its exploring new weirder themes and bringing in new ideas and mechanics. I mean yes we've had knights fighting witches, but what about post apocalyptic barbarians in a 3-way fight with snake cultists and a mutant land-ship? Yeah exactly!

I mean, just look. If you aren't excited then you haven't been paying attention buddy. And all of these include new mechanics and twists on the gameplay, further exploring the possibilities. For example Tech is a nice field some models can have dice in, replacing Magic. They're somewhat transferable, but this gives yet another avenue for models to face off on. Barbarian trackers can put down targeting circles on particular models to give friends bonuses against them, the snake cult introduce a day/night cycle with particular nasty things they can bring out in the darkness. And the giant tanker of the dust sea marauders, while not unlike the ship of the Raiders further up, can crush terrain beneath its bulk, milling villages, cliffs, forest and what-else into dust beneath its bulk.

These are just some of the five factions introduced in Series 2, and with additional minis, a RPG and a large catalogue of old factions to update. The future for Pocket-Tactics is looking very exciting for my favorite 3d printable portable game.