Strife Dreams

Managing resources, represented by in-game currency, is crucial for summoning cards, activating abilities, and executing strategies. Players must balance their spending to ensure they have the necessary resources to deploy units, cast spells, and respond to changing battlefield conditions effectively.

Seasonal Effects: Each season introduces unique gameplay mechanics and effects, such as the availability of magic cards during Spring. These seasonal changes add an additional layer of strategy as players must adapt their tactics to capitalize on seasonal advantages.

Morale is primary counter for gaining an environment. Morale represents the overall confidence, spirit, and determination of a player’s forces on the battlefield. It reflects the psychological state of the troops and their willingness to continue fighting. As morale fluctuates throughout the game, it can have significant implications for gameplay dynamics and strategic decision-making.

Reward System: Spoils of war cards serve as rewards for aggressive play and successful eliminations of opponent units. These cards offer additional resources, tactical advantages, or unique abilities that can influence the outcome of the game.

Tactical Advantage: By offering players additional options and resources, spoils of war cards enhance strategic decision-making and provide opportunities for creative gameplay tactics. Players must weigh the risks and rewards of engaging in combat to maximize their chances of securing valuable spoils of war.

Players can select their desired formation at the beginning each two to turns. The chosen formation influences the player’s army’s performance in combat stats in battle. Formations include Spearhead, Solid Wedge, Rotating Charge, Gated Corral, Feint & Ambush, Inverted Wedge, Twin Column, Echelon, Double Echelon, and Infantry Square. Formations also determine how many cards be used for a period of turns mean a player could use 10 cards + in a turn. The game is designed to use the entire deck. Unlike other card games in this one your best card doesn’t determine success. Strategy does because chances are bother sides will pull their best card in every environment.

In this game, players have the option to train and reinforce their cards to increase their strength and effectiveness over time.

Players compete for control over neutral list of agreed upon environment cards by engaging in battles within those environments. If one player manages to capture all of the environment cards, they achieve victory, and the other player loses. The environments offer various advantages and disadvantages.

In chess, controlling the center of the board is a fundamental strategy for dominance. Likewise, in this game, capturing all the environment cards signifies complete control over the battlefield, akin to controlling the center squares in chess. Achieving this goal grants victory, mirroring the strategic importance of controlling key territories in chess.

Tactic cards are powerful strategic maneuvers that alter the flow of battle by modifying how units behave, interact, or position themselves during the turn. They represent battlefield doctrines, formation shifts, and psychological tricks used by commanders to turn the tide without relying on raw stats or seasonal magic. These cards are not always permanent. Some last for a single phase or combat cycle, while others can persist until canceled or conditions are no longer met. Tactic cards are closely tied to the King’s mode, and they can only be used when specific battlefield criteria are satisfied or when the commander has issued the correct orders.

Each Tactic card enforces a unique set of positional or conditional rules that change how units engage. They may boost certain rows, grant bonuses to coordinated attacks, disable specific formations, or force the opponent into compromised patterns. These cards often reflect historical or fantastical military formations like squares, wedges, ambush lines, and bombardment arcs. In Strife Dreams, understanding when to commit a tactic is crucial. Overusing them without synergy can lead to wasted turns or vulnerability.

Role: The King, or Commander, serves as the player’s life points representation and acts as the leader of their army.

Abilities: The King provides various special effects per turn, offering strategic advantages to the player. Additionally, when summoned to the battlefield, the King becomes a formidable powerhouse capable of turning the tide of the game. In its initial position, the King possesses two passive abilities, allowing it to exert influence over the battlefield without directly participating in combat. These passive abilities contribute to the player’s defensive or offensive capabilities and strategic maneuvering, enhancing the resilience of the players forces and shaping the flow of battle.
However, should the player opt to move the King from its secure position to the front lines, it undergoes a transformation, assuming the role of a General. This transition unleashes the King’s full potential, empowering it to engage directly in combat and unleash its full array of abilities. It gains access to high stats, standard attacks and a third ability, further augmenting its offensive capabilities and bolstering the player’s chances of victory.

Limitations: The King becomes vulnerable to direct damage permanently. You can’t retreat the king until an environment is captured. Once your on a new environment is basically another battlefield. Remember the goal to capture the players territory. Multiple territory over a set number years. The years in season can be summed up as merely a few turns. It not as long as you think. Its only long from lore standpoint if the players cares about that.

Game Impact: The presence of the King can significantly influence battlefield dynamics and strategic decision-making, making it a pivotal card in the player’s arsenal.

Role: The Queen, or Captain, is an exceptionally powerful card that enhances the player’s offensive capabilities and battlefield presence.

Abilities: Queens have the ability to increase the size of the battlefield and possess potent offensive abilities, such as attacking any unit regardless of position.

Resilience: Unlike other units, Queens cannot be killed in battle; they can only be routed. After being defeated, a Queen takes about five turns to return to the field, limiting the player’s access to this powerful asset.

Strategic Impact: Queens exert significant influence on the battlefield, enabling players to exert pressure on their opponents and execute devastating attacks with precision and efficiency.

Role: Knights are agile units specializing in fast movement and precision strikes.

Abilities: Knights possess unique abilities such as First Strike, allowing them to deal damage to opponents before receiving any damage themselves.

Tactical Use: Knights excel in hit-and-run tactics, swiftly maneuvering across the battlefield to exploit enemy weaknesses and disrupt their formations.

Strategic Value: Knights provide players with valuable flexibility and mobility, enabling them to control the pace of the battle and capitalize on fleeting opportunities.

Role: Rooks are stalwart defenders specializing in defensive capabilities and resilience.

Abilities: Rooks possess defensive abilities and boast maximum stats per level, making them formidable adversaries on the battlefield.

Defensive Utility: Rooks excel at holding the line and protecting key assets, providing crucial support to allied units and withstanding enemy assaults.

Strategic Importance: Rooks bolster the player’s defensive posture, fortifying positions and repelling enemy advances, thereby ensuring the stability and security of their forces.

Role: Bishops are ranged characters adept at harassing enemy forces and exerting pressure from a distance.

Abilities: Bishops possess the ability to attack both frontline and backline units, making them versatile assets in disrupting enemy formations.

Offensive Prowess: Bishops excel at softening up enemy defenses and targeting high-value enemy units, weakening their positions and creating openings for allied advances.

Strategic Flexibility: Bishops offer players tactical versatility, allowing them to control the flow of battle and dictate the terms of engagement through precise and calculated strikes.

Role: Pawns are versatile warriors capable of adapting to various battlefield conditions and evolving over time.

Abilities: Pawns possess the unique ability called Promotion, enabling them to continuously copy and discard abilities upon each successful kill.

Adaptability: Pawns can change roles and capabilities based on evolving battlefield circumstances, maximizing their utility and effectiveness.

Strategic Evolution: Pawns evolve over the course of the game, becoming increasingly potent assets capable of turning the tide of battle through their adaptability and versatility.

In Strife Dreams, Tactic cards are powerful strategic maneuvers that alter the flow of battle by modifying how units behave, interact, or position themselves during the turn. They represent battlefield doctrines, formation shifts, and psychological tricks used by commanders to turn the tide without relying on raw stats or seasonal magic. These cards are not always permanent. Some last for a single phase or combat cycle, while others can persist until canceled or conditions are no longer met. Tactic cards are closely tied to the King’s mode, and they can only be used when specific battlefield criteria are satisfied or when the commander has issued the correct orders.

Each Tactic card enforces a unique set of positional or conditional rules that change how units engage. They may boost certain rows, grant bonuses to coordinated attacks, disable specific formations, or force the opponent into compromised patterns. These cards often reflect historical or fantastical military formations like squares, wedges, ambush lines, and bombardment arcs. In Strife Dreams, understanding when to commit a tactic is crucial. Overusing them without synergy can lead to wasted turns or vulnerability.

Environment cards in Strife Dreams are battlefield lore locations that set the stage for each round of conflict. They are narrative-rich, victory-linked objectives that players compete over as part of the overarching match structure.

Each environment is fought over in its own separate battle phase. The game is not won in a single clash. Players must conquer a certain number of environments to claim ultimate victory unless they eliminate the opposing King and win through decapitation. The amount of environment won is determined by the players.

How Environment Cards Function in the Game
At the beginning of a match, both players bring a custom-built Environment Deck. This should be a small stack of cards. These decks are placed face down at the start of the match. They are kept separate from the main deck that contains units, tactics, formations, and magic cards.

The first player begins the game by revealing the top card of their Environment Deck. This becomes the current battlefield. Both players now fight over this shared objective.

Each environment has twelve turns per player turn limit for a standard battle. This means both players will have twelve opportunities each to deploy units, use units, play tactics, cast spells if it is spring, and maneuver across the three-row battlefield. Once the total turn count is reached, the environment ends. At this point, both players calculate how much morale they have lost from destroyed units.

Morale is a tracked value tied to every unit card in the game. Losing a pawn costs one morale. Losing a queen costs six. Losing a rook cost 5. These values make unit management a critical layer of decision-making. Throwing units into combat without thinking can cost the match even if you win on board presence.

After morale losses are counted, the player who lost least morale wins the environment. That player takes the environment card and adds it to their victory pool. Collecting a predetermined number of environments, usually two or five depending on match type, results in winning the game. It’s not impossible for a player to decide to never put their king in one of three lines. But that player would risk not having opportunity to use that king’s unique abilities.

In the case of the unlikely morale tie meant card includes a unique tie-breaker condition. Omit that last kill that caused the tie breaker and treat it as if the kill was too late. Also, Environment cards do not have passive gameplay effects as from an artistic background effect on the battlefield.

Magic Usage: Magic cards are powerful game-changers that can tip the balance of a match in favor of the player who employs them strategically. By restricting magic usage to specific seasons, the game encourages thoughtful planning and timing, ensuring that magic remains a valuable resource rather than an omnipresent force.