How To Play Toy Battle

Toy Battle is an area control game where you seek to beat your opponent by either gaining dominance in an areas and points for that, or by reaching your opponents base. That is pretty standard, I feel for a game like this.

The actions are very simple for your turn. You either draw two troops to add to your troops in hand. Or you play out a troop. Most troops are going to give you an ability on them as well. When you play out a troop it needs to be adjacent to your base or connect to it by other troops. You play your troop either in an empty spot that meets those criteria or on top of an opponents troop that has a smaller value than your troop. You go back and forth taking turns until one person hits one of the win conditions for the game.

What Doesn’t Work

It’s not a major negative for the game, but this game feels like things that have been done before. I said League of Legends, and I really get that feel. And the toy theme works, but it’s a theme that I’ve seen done before. Mainly it feels like it’s a familiar idea with the lane battler and does it do enough to stand out from other games like that.

What Works

I like the speed of the game. Some games drag out when you play them on BGA. But Toy Battle hasn’t thus far. It helps that it’s a two player game, but even with that you need responsive players. And maybe I’ve just been lucky with responsive players, but the game moves quickly. I think the two options for your turn really help make this game accessible for a lot of players. And the two player limit also makes it go very quickly.

I enjoy how each toy has a different power. I think the lowest number has no power, but otherwise they do. Some of them let you break the game in terms of where you place out another character. Or they might let you pull back a troop who has a power you want to use again. While they are not complex, it adds in some fun strategy to the game that way. And I think it’s an area where the game could expand in the future, give another set of troops for players to swap into the game.

And the two ways that you win work. I’ve lost to someone reaching my base. And I’ve won by just controlling enough areas. Each of them seem doable in any game. And you need to consider the troops you are drawing, or the paths your opponent is building to determine your strategy. While the game isn’t super tense when you play it on BGA, I think with the two win conditions it would be a lot more tense in person.

Who is Toy Battle For?

I think this is for people who want that high interaction and strategy in a game. It is about outthinking your opponent and utilizing the abilities to the best of your ability. But it’s kind of like Root, in some ways, or Critters at War. It is going to give you that tense war element of a game, really, but it has a cute theme on top of it. So, I think this is for people who want that interaction and area control and maybe have a partner or friend they game with often who doesn’t like that as much, but this theme just might work.

My Grade for Toy Battle

So, I compare Toy Battle to a lot of things. And as I was writing about it, I realized, I enjoy this game pretty well. Right now it’s just a pre-order, but I might grab this game when it comes out. Because, for me, it takes some things about lane battling that I enjoy and gives me a nice area control element with it as well. And it works well for two players. Often times area control at two players isn’t that interesting, but here it’s good.

And the powers and abilities of the troops that you place out is another big selling point. You need to figure out your strategy and break up your opponents. And sometimes that means playing out a troop just for it’s ability so that you can mess with something. And I feel like as I play more, the more I can mine the depths of different strategies with the troops.

That said, there are a couple of things that keep me from just gushing over the game as a two player game like I did Zenith on BGA. I think that’s because the game feels a bit more familiar than some. Now, it’s better than Gold’n’Crash where that game was too long for a two player game. This one gets the timing right, but as I play it more, I want to see if I feel like playing the game or if it just makes me want to play other two player games.

My Grade: B
Strategy: B+
Luck: C-

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Skytear Horde

This is a fun game, I won’t do a full review on it. But I will say that I’ve played it solo and two player and I think that both of them work quite well. The game actually has three modes, solo, two player, and competitive, horde versus heroes. Now, this isn’t to say that I don’t have some issues with the game.

It’s a bit to learn at the start. The game is not light on steps. They give you a cheat sheet, which is great. But there are still enough steps that I need to remember them on the cheat sheet what they do. And the first couple of times that I played, it was a bit to remember. This third time, you see there are still rules that I’m not 100% on. But it’s definitely better in terms of what you need to look up.

And I have to say this is a pretty involved game. Which is fun because it means that you have a lot of choices to make. But it is also a game that plays quickly. It was about 40 minutes that I streamed and probably 30-35 minutes were playing the game. And that was with me chatting. So that’s great in terms of game length for a solo game. I will say that the setup, not tear down, is a bit longer.

Upcoming Streams

Like I said, ISS Vanguard will be wrapping up here pretty soon. I think. I still love what the game is doing. But the next two weeks for sure will be ISS Vanguard and we’ll see where the story and adventure takes us. 8 PM Central Time on Wednesdays. Though the easiest way to know is by subscribing and clicking that notification bell to know when I put up something new. And the upcoming video can be found here.

And then on Mondays I stream at 8:30 PM normally. I missed this past week because we had to adjust for podcast recording. Next week I want to learn and start playing My City – Roll and Build. I think that’ll be a fun shorter game and shorter campaign for Monday nights.

And, again, if you want to know when I go live or a new video goes up (it’s basically always live), please consider subscribing. You can do that here. And click that notification bell on the channel and you’ll always know when I go live.

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How To Play Air, Land & Sea

Air, Land & Sea is a lane battling game. Basically, two players fight over three theaters of war, air, land, and sea. Players take turns playing down cards that influence how much power they have at the given theaters of war. Cards range from 1 to 6 for each theater. It would be easy to know what the other player has except for the fact you only play with 6 cards each.

The strategy comes into the game around when to play cards. With the exception of the 6, each card has a power that goes along with it. Those manipulate where you can play cards or how cards can be played. And each theater can only have it’s own cards unless something allows you to break the rules with that. Or if you play a card face down, then it is worth two points but doesn’t have any power associated with it.

After a round, you score the battles. Who wins each theater gets 6 points and the first person to 12 wins. However, you can pull out of a theater if you don’t think you can win. The sooner you do that the fewer points your opponent gets. If no one reaches twelve, then the theaters adjust their adjacency to each other and you battle again.

What Doesn’t Work?

The aesthetic of the game is just okay. It is a game that takes itself seriously with how it looks, and that is kind of a negative. This is a very light game, one that is meant to be thinky but light in terms of game play. The artwork doesn’t feel nearly as light as the speed the game plays at. And I think the theme and aesthetic will be off putting to some people.

I also feel like the powers on the cards are not always that interesting. They do cool things, but not that game changing in what they do, at least what is what it feels like. The powers are good, and they add a lot of interest to the game, but with six cards for each player and six not in play, it’s fairly lucky what cards and powers will be in play. I feel like even taking it up to seven cards each and four not in play, you would feel like you could strategize more.

What Works?

The speed the game plays at works really well. This is a fast game and a quick game. I am generally interested in what you are doing and need to know what your powers are. And that is one nice thing about the easier powers, it doesn’t take much time to wrap my head around what your strategy for playing that card is going to be.

I also very much like the pull back mechanic. The fact I can drop troops out of a theater of war and give you fewer points, that is by far the most interesting thing to consider in the game. Mainly because, the longer you wait before you pull back, the more points you are giving your opponent. So, even if you think it might be close in a battle early game, it might make sense to pull back.

Who Is This For?

Firstly, I think it is for people who like that war and battling theme. Because the game definitely leans into the theme with the artwork. I think that if you don’t at least appreciate the theme there are going to be other lane battling games or lane tug of war games that will work better for you.

But I do think that the game difficulty level makes it very accessible. I could see playing Air, Land & Sea with a non-gamer and them being able to understand most of what is going on quickly. And since it’s a fast game anyways, if you need to play a learning game, you can and it won’t be bad to then shuffle up and play it again.

Final Thoughts on Air, Land & Sea

Air, Land & Sea is going to be leaving my collection. Now that doesn’t sound all that positive, and I will say, it is a mixed bag for me. Mainly because I compare it against Hanamikoji which has that same push and pull to it. Air, Land & Sea adds in powers, which seems intriguing, but Hanamikoji’s four actions are much more interesting in terms of a decision making space.

I think a lot of it comes down to that for me, the theme is just okay. I am not that interested in games with a war theme unless you add in something supernatural or fantasy to it. Just a straight up war themed game is not that interesting to me. So with the game leaning so heavily into it and just it not popping on the table aesthetically, I don’t know what I need it. I won’t play it over a number of other two player games.

That isn’t to say that the game won’t be for you. This is a game that I know a lot of people like. For me, I just have other games that I prefer and will want to play instead of it.

My Grade: B-
Gamer Grade: C+
Casual Grade: B

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