An Early Access Examination Video -
http://youtu.be/ndURnVBjWyIBefore we get into the game, I'll tell you a little about the setting without going into hours of lore. Essentially a comet struck the empire city of Mordheim destroying it and scattering warp-stones throughout the now ruined city. These warp-stones hold power thus are highly priced and as such is the reason warbands of all races risk the horrors and danger of the city. I have to say that I am cynical in general of games workshop licensed games currently, games workshop used to be very strict and careful with their IP's until recently where they opened the metaphorical floodgates allowing developers left right and centre to use them. As a result fans of the IP's have received a ton of bad games in the past year alone so going into anything with games workshop slapped on the front gives me worries from the get go.
Now lets talk about the current content in the early access version. As I'm recording this, the game has just entered phase 2 which released a new warband being the sisters of sigmar giving a total three playable factions including humans and skaven. They also introduced the hideout section with allows you to change the equipment of your warband in a limited way currently. Phase two also had a number of balance changes however the game is and will remain to be unbalanced for sometime.
Warbands are made up from a variety of units. These include a leader unit, hero units, novice units and an impressive unit. Currently in the Early access build you cannot change your warbands roster. Each unit has two weapon sets that you can customise as well has having access to light armor, heavy armor and clothing. Each item you equip with have an effect on that units stats, sometimes in both positive and negative ways. For example equipping a two handed great hammer will give you more damage and armor penetration but it gives a plus percentage chance for the enemy to dodge as its slow and heavy.
At it's core the game is a tactical turn based combat game, pitting your warband against another on a map which represents a location in the city. Once you have chosen your warband you can currently only enter a skirmish battle either against a play across online multiplayer or against the computer AI. There are currently four maps to choose from two of which are procedurally generated and two that are unique maps which have a landmark from the city in like the temple of sigmar map. Each map has different deployments available which will affect how your units are placed at the start of the match. There are several to choose from and you can have each warband start at opposite ends of the map, ambushes, my personal favourite which is having both sides deployed in combat with each other and more.
The turn system works from an initiative ladder instead of having one team take a turn and then the other. Each unit on the field on both teams have initiative scores which depend on a variety of factors including equipment, attributes and so forth. The higher the initiative score the higher up the ladder the unit will be and as such the sooner you will be able to use it. I like the idea of the turn system as it requires you to think very tactically but also gives you the opportunity to adapt to the enemies movements too. One main issue at the moment with the turn system is the amount of time each turn takes particularly if the ladder ends up having a couple or more of the enemies units in a row. You can end up sitting there doing nothing for a good amount of time which tends to get a little frustrating. Battles overall are very slow paced which I don't necessarily mind but I think the developers need to find a way to shave some time off to not only avoid players becoming bored but to also stop lots of players leaving mid battle.
Each unit has a number of strategy points and offence points. Strategy points are used for movement, interacting with objects and are required for some fighting skills including reloading a bow. Offence points are all about combat and are used for basic attacks, spells and most combat abilities. First lets focus on movement, movement is pretty straight forward, you have a movement circle around your character that you can move within without using SP, once you move outside that circle you use up one SP and another circle appears. Should you not like the movement choice you have made simply run back into the way to came and your SP will be refunded. You can also use SP to do things like climb and jump. These actions however also require a success roll based on the characters stats. Failure will result in the unit falling on their ♥♥♥♥ and taking fall damage.
Similar to movement, to enter combat with an enemy you must enter the red circle surrounding them. While it is a circle, I have noticed that you can only surround an enemy with four units, one on each side. Upon entering the circle you'll have a new set of actions available including basic attack, any skills your unit has plus the disengage and flee actions. Each action will take up one or more OP and the amount of OP required can depend on the weapons and type of unit. The game as you would imagine works from a rule set so every time time you attack an enemy there’s a miss chance, a critical damage chance, a parry chance if they have a shield and a dodge chance.
Units can enter stances both in and out of combat. Depending on what equipment they have in combat, units can enter parry and dodge stance. Parry increases the chance to block an attack and dodge increases the chance to avoid the attack. Out of combat you can currently use ambush for melee and overwatch for ranged. Overwatch works similar to other tactical games in that if an enemy moves into the sight of your ranged unit they will fire. Ambush works similar to overwatch for melee units however the main difference is that they will run and attack the enemy thus entering the combat ring. It should be noted that many combat skills and weapon modifiers are not currently fully implemented in the game.
While everything from movement to attacking takes place in third person, you also have the strategic overlook view to enter whenever you wish. This can help you get a overall view of the map and both your unit and known enemy positions. Everything works from line of sight so If you cannot see an enemy they won't show on the map. While the strategy view is basic currently however is something I would like to see improved upon including possibly the addition of the ability to move your units in that mode.
The last major mechanic in combat is morale. Each team has a morale bar located at the top left of the screen. Every time you kill or critical hit an enemy their morale bar will deplete and vice versa. As a teams morale drops they will start to encounter a rout check and should they fail then enemy team will be the victors. It means that even should you face a team that is stronger than you should you play tactically and ambush key units, you are able to claim victory.
Overall the current early access build is pretty solid even with it's bugs. The game holds great potential and I can certainly see it becoming one of the best Warhammer fantasy games that I have seen in a long time. My biggest gripe with the current version is just the sheer amount of time turns take and thus the time of each battle. If your looking for something that will be a quick ten minute fix then look elsewhere. I have had matches that lasted forty five minutes plus. In terms of monetary value while the game is very incomplete you can rack up the hours in multiplayer. In my opinion if your a warhammer fantasy fan I would certainly recommended it thus far. The game has a lot of potential and while the game is relatively fun right now there is still time for things to go wrong. That being said its a very strong start from Rogue Factor.
3 WARBANDS with one preset roster each – The Sisters of Sigmar, the Human Mercenaries from the Empire and the Skaven from Clan Eshin
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