Ascension Tactics Miniatures Deckbuilding Game for Ages 10 and Up; 1-4 Players

Great Deckbuilding game
Instant favorite! If you love deckbuilding and area control, this game is a blast. Is a shame it doesn’t come with the miniatures, but I guess it’s ok for it’s price. Lots of replayability.

False advertising
So this game is promoted as a miniature game however there are no miniature. Look up some older photos and there are miniature designs. Looks like there were miniature in the Kickstarter and they still used all of that for their advertising and decided to no longer provide half of what it advertised

Good with some issues
I really struggled with this one as Ultra-Pro took some shortcuts that make for a slightly disappointing end result.It’s called a “miniatures” game when there are *zero* miniatures in the box. They put standees in the box for retail. Not truly unexpected as had they included miniatures the game would have been much more expensive (likely twice the retail price) but by doing so the name is quite misleading, though it *is* in small print on the box (not so in Amazon’s huge title). I can forgive that as I feel the standees do a better job of representing the “Champions” and “Monsters” than do the miniatures (that can be quite confusing to figure out which is which). The artwork on those standees is quite good and matches that on the respective card for the “miniature.” My biggest gripe with the standees is the use of a stand type (the non-springy variety) that I’ve found will eventually cause compression damage to the cardboard and won’t grip as well over time. If I find myself playing this often I’ll be replacing those with ones having a better design. They also needed to have included another 2-4 stands per player as it’s highly likely you will run out in a 3 or 4 player game (you can use the 3rd/4th player stands in a 1-2 player game) depending on just which cards come out.I’m more bothered that they couldn’t create a separate instruction booklet for retail. The one currently in the box makes several references to Kickstarter product (not included) which wastes space and can frustrate a consumer – especially if they’re not a hobby gamer and don’t know what Kickstarter represents. Even the image of the game board does not look like what’s in the box – this annoyed me greatly as it shows a standard Ascension “center row” set up *on the board* off the side of the action spaces on the board. While that, in itself, is not “big deal” it’s also misleading as you’re now looking for a better board experience that’s not included.For a new player, the instructions can be a bit confusing as they first give you the standard Ascension deck builder rules and *then* add the bits which pulls in the standee portion of the game. Overall, I didn’t find it too bad but did have to refer to the “dudes on a map” portion of the manual more frequently than I felt I should due to how the instructions are laid out. It didn’t help that there are “faction specific” cards that help add to the confusing manner in which the instructions are presented.Then there’s the “far larger than it needs to be” game box. It has enough wasted space to include a complete 2nd copy of the game inside and *still* have room to spare (enough for a 3rd and 4th copy). Yes, the insert is nice but it’s poorly designed and causes approximately a 1-2cm lid lift. There are spaces for all the game pieces but some are in the box as layers which makes getting certain pieces out more of a chore than it needed to be. The box could easily have been an inch or so less thick had the insert been better designed. In all fairness, almost every Ascension box is far too large for what’s inside and many people either combine “expansions” to reduce the shelf space needed. I’d say they may be planning expansions for all that extra space but, unlike Ascension the card game, this insert isn’t designed to hold additional expansions.So just how does it play? It plays like Ascension, an excellent deck builder, with a “dudes on a map” addition. It’s certainly not “deep” as it’s a very basic area control game with combat that uses a mostly standard Ascension method for battles/rewards. It feels somewhat like they grafted a lighter combat/movement version of Memoir ’44 onto Ascension. That’s not a bad thing. The solo game also plays well and is more challenging than I expected.I’d like to give it a higher score but Ultra-Pro not renaming the game for retail, using the Kickstarter instructions, and the overly large box bring it down 2 stars. The game play brings it back up one.I give it a 7/10 overall score for game play and that could easily go higher as I play it more which is why I’m going for a 4/5 overall final score. If you like Ascension, check this one out in spite of its production shortcomings.

Fun tactical deck builder for 1 vs. 1, 2 vs. 2, or solo play
This game is SO much fun!The Ascension line of games has many titles, but as far as I know, this is the first time they have combined deck-building with a tactical battle game board. So instead of just purchasing better cards and doing battle with them, you can now see how your champions are deployed and you will have to factor in movement costs, which can vary with the terrain.OVERVIEWIn Ascension Tactics, you control a team of four champions, at least initially, going up against an opponent who also controls team of four. It is possible to acquire additional champions during the game. There are a whole lot of champions from which to choose, each with a different combination of strength, defensive ability and speed. Plus some champions have special abilities, including some that vary depending on what cards are on offer for purchase.You are able to purchase “constructs,” which add to their statistics or give them temporary powers, again depending on what cards are out for purchase or what cards you play from your hand. There are also treasures that grant single-use benefits such as increasing your player’s strength, speed, etc. for one round.The game comes with a scenario book that tells you what the set-up is in terms of terrain and treasures and what the victory conditions are — usually scoring points by controlling various “shrines,” that is, by having more of your pieces adjacent to certain spaces than your opponent does.FOUR DIFFERENT MODES OF PLAYAt its heart, this is a 1 vs. 1 battle and that’s probably the way most people will play it. But it also has a very good solo mode, in which you play against the game’s “AI.” There is also a variant that allows two teams of two to play against each other (which I haven’t yet tried).GAMEPLAYPlayers start with weak cards, which they will improve as the game goes on. On their turn, players draw a hand of five cards and play them in any order they choose. Runes let you buy better cards — either a +2 runes card, a +2 power card, or cards from a changing market of six cards. Power lets you command your champions and various heroes and cultists that you acquire over the course of the game.Cards comes in four suits (called Lifeforce, Enchanted, Void and Mechina). Cards are usually more powerful when you play two or more of the same type on your turn or, in some cases, when there are two or more of a particular type visible in the market. This means that you will sometimes want to buy cards in your opponent’s suit rather than letting the other player (or AI) get a powerful buff.The player who goes second gets two extra power on their first turn to balance out the first player advantage. Players play until one has achieved the victory condition.COMPONENTSThis version of the game contains standees rather than miniatures, which were only available to those who backed the game originally on Kickstarter. Unless you are really into miniatures, this is probably preferable as the standees have not only the character art on them, but the names of the champions.There are colored bases for them so you know which characters belong to which player. This makes it easy to see at a glance which champions are on the board and who controls them.The board is two-sided, with the terrain and shrines for the first scenario printed on one side and the other blank.Rules are easy to understand and the booklet of scenarios is great – really clear about the setup required for each and which modes you can play it in. There are even recommended champions for each player in all of the scenarios.The tiles and tokens are sturdy and there are crystals for counting up points. Cards are of good quality and easy to read. The best part, though, is that everything comes with an organizer that perfectly holds all the pieces in place so they don’t move around when you store the box. No more baggies! (Though there is still an awful lot of plastic).The one downside of the packaging is that the box is the same for the Kickstarter version of the game so it’s way larger than it needs to be and takes up a lot of shelf space.REPLAYABILITYThere is so much content in this big box! Just trying out the different champions in different combos with the first scenario alone offers many hours of play.RANDOM THOUGHTSThe box says the game plays in 45 minutes or so and this is probably true once you become familiar with the cards and champions. That will probably take a while. In the meantime, there are a LOT of decisions to make in the game so expect your initial games to take twice that long.