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I always dreamed about Warhammer tabletop on PC. However, there were no games for the longest time. Recently, such games started to emerge, but they often would muddle their gameplay, introduce elements which weren't in tabletop and thus preventing me from experiencing just pure gameplay. This is the first such game and it highlights that tabletop just aren't good games.

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This is a simple game about Warhammer tabletop. It has a lot of races and campaign copied from Slay the Spire. It has army builder, skirmishes, multiplayer and painter. Game is everything what I wanted from such a game and I couldn't realistically expected more. Hence game accomplishes its vision even if that vision isn't great.

Tabletop games are like phone games. Good phone games do not translate to PC and it is true for PC games. Different capabilities, different designs, different expectations. All of that adds up to the fact that a game which you could enjoy on a phone would not be engaging on a different platform. Same stands for tabletop games. Certain magic is lost if you are not rolling dice with some smelly nerd for hours. Making painstaking moves with miniatures which you spent ridiculous amount of effort, money and time on. Thus, such games serve to teach a player with a game and its mechanics, but are not worth playing long term on a PC, because what is the point?

Game mechanics do work. They create some sort of gameplay for sure and that is a praise coming from someone like me. I had seen many game systems which do not function, even from well established and dominant market titles. That is a win in itself. Unfortunately, what is there leads to poor gameplay experience. Part of that is fault of tabletop from which this game draws inspiration and part of it is game's fault.

Gameplay Fog
• The main advantage of taking tabletop into digital space should be its clarity. Sadly, this is the lowest possible attempt at making said game easy to understand. All this game did was to bring in game links to wiki. Opening windows in browser while playing is always a very bad idea as it detaches yourself from game in order toread a small novel for a small thing which might not be explained there. Game could had been much better in this area. Tutorials, pop ups could had helped in making simple rules easy to understand.
  
  Also, what is the hell going in combat? It is all such a mess. Why I roll so much? Why my units die, but sometimes do not die. Why they roll for routing? Will they ever return? The entire in this game isn't clear. You just roll the dice. You have a general idea what is happening, but it is difficult to see and understand what is happening. Modifiers and rules could be explained better. This entire interface should had been a lot clearer as it now seems like a bare minimum attempt at making an interface.
  https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3279733280
  In this screenshot, you can see how obtuse this game is. What is power/defense? What I'm rolling for? Countless keywords and I'm still clueless how charging into a forest with a flying unit is beneficial to me.
  
  Clunkiness
  
• Game is simple, but is clunky. There is no reason not to give people tools to known distances. Afterall, in tabletop, players exhaustively are measuring and arguing for every millimeter. So, this digital adaption misses the point. In this game, you cannot see what a range of a charging unit is. You cannot know if your unit is in charging distance, a massive oversight for a game which does all its main combat via charging. You also cannot undeclare charges. Something which would not exist in tabletop as an issue, somehow managed to become an issue here.
  https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3279734100
  This is where I got my flying Orc commander charged by footman. A pretty nonsensical outcome which I could had avoided by having information about charge ranges. However, something which is bread and butter on tabletop is missing in this game.
  Wrong side of simplicity
  
• This game is a copy of tabletop and those games tend to be inherently simple. That is part of their charm. However, in digital media, all the systems on top of it are equally as simple in a bad way. First of all, you cannot make good use of your gold. There are set amount of shops where you have a chance to buy an unit. You must have a certain amount of gold which is high. It prevents you from spending gold as unit upgrades, while useful are generally a trap.
  https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3279730847
  You can see it from this picture. I had charged with my chariots a squad of crossbowmen. However, my superior quality chariots somehow are losing to ranged unit on open field. WTF? Why? How many HP they had left? Why such weird gameplay balance?
  
  Then there is just general lack of gameplay balance. You can gather gold after battle, but it is a miniscule amount. Then you can skip an unit upgrade to enhance this miniscule amount gathered. Elite battles are way too hard, considering this game is made around not incurring loses. In general, campaign layout is very boring and campaign is not well made. You will be doing alright until suddenly you won't be doing fine. You will face some unit which will incur heavy losses on a single squad. That squad will take several battles to get to full strength. However, game doesn't relent nor it gives you the ability to lick your wounds. This results in gameplay where you win a battle, but lose the campaign several turns later. That is the worst kind of feeling which game could have.

It is finally the game which I always wanted to play and it sucks. However, it is the only such game in this particular niche, so if you ever feel like you have to scratch the itch, what you going to do? There is no real alternatives to this game. It is well enough put together without game itself being an issue. In the end, it is free. It is worth a try if you have an interest in it.

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