Collectible Card games are all the rage as of late. There is something about building a deck out of cards you have collected that fit your play style and master strategy that appeals to gamers who want to feel more in control of their gaming destiny. The latest in the Wargaming.net family makes you a General in a Turn-Based Collectible Card Game set in the World of Tanks universe controlling a squad of tanks with the goal of destroying your opponent. As a Free-To-Play web-based, it is sure to appeal to the CCG, strategy and military enthusiast gamer types.
World of Tanks Generals - Order of Battle is both simplistic and complex in its design. You select a Headquarters from one of three nations, USSR, Germany or USA. Each nation comes with unique aspects that will affect your overall strategy such as higher firepower, greater resource growth or stronger defense. Once you select your nation, you build your deck with tanks, artillery, orders, platoons and special cards that can augment all the above granting additional firepower, defense or extra strategic effects. Don’t quite have the perfect set of 40 cards, well head over to the mercenaries and rent cards to fill out your deck or just to try before spending those precious research points. Mercenaries can be rented for 1 or 24 hours with in game gold. As with all Wargaming titles, you have a tech tree of research where you can unlock additional cards and make the ones you have more powerful as you earn experience with your selected HQ. This is just the deck building part, then you get to add on assets that are consumables you can apply to your deck for each match.
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Unlike traditional CCG’s, Generals uses a 5x3 battle space where your cards move around and your position on the board determines the actions you can take. Tanks and Artillery have range and speed that are the basis of the strategy. To be able to launch an attack on a unit, you have to be able to see it, which means a tank must be in an adjacent square. Artillery can hit any unit spotted by another remotely, but are defensively weak. Light tanks are speedy but have low firepower and durability. Medium tanks are average across the board but can move diagonally. Heavy tanks have high attack and defense but can only attack once per turn whether it offensive or defensive. Tank Destroyers always attack and counterattack first so be sure you can survive because if you die they will take no damage. Squads support your HQ with additional firepower or defense and are placed on the edge of the board. They have consumable effects and once used up leave the board, if not killed first. You can only bring new cards to the table if you have the resources and a place to put them next to your HQ. Resources are based on the total number in the fuel cans on all cards you have on the board at the beginning of your turn. Not all cards have fuel cans, so make sure to consider this in deck building. It can be very strategic to attack and lose a tank with resources or wait so you can collect the resources for your next round to spend on one of the six cards in your reserve (hand).
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Use of the battlespace, when to use and not use cards in your reserve, going on the offensive or defensive, there are so many ways to approach your combat round as you work towards a victory. The scenarios that play out have endless possibilities and you can never know when the tide of battle will turn. The depth of the HQ Research Tree provides so many variables to your deck building, strategies can and will change constantly as you progress. If you know me, you know I am all about collecting all the cards and achievements and this game has a lot of each. All of these aspects makes World of Tanks Generals highly addictive to me. One of my favorite matches had me completely outgunned, the board was almost clear of all my tanks and the opposing general was about to crush me. But I pulled out an attack squadron that gave me extra attack and I was able to destroy his HQ just before his tanks could destroy mine. It was an extremely exciting match that was keep intense by the fixed battle length of 30 minutes, heightening the sense of urgency to make good decisions quickly or chance forfeiting your turns and losing the battle.
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You can take your combat to any smartphone, tablet or PC as long as you have an internet connection. Your Wargaming account is shared and just like the others, it is free to play, with some premium cards and tokens that can be purchased. Wargaming has pulled out all the stops to make a highly engaging card game that fits within the World of Tanks universe. The card art maintains the same level of detail you expect from a company that prides itself in being historically accurate in the units. This makes collecting the cards just as enjoyable as their other titles. If you like Collectible Card Games I think you will love World of Tanks Generals. If you haven’t had a chance to give World of Tanks Generals a try, I suggest you check out my Overview Video to get a better sense of the game and get excited as Open Beta is here for EU and almost here for NA. I can’t wait to jump back and see what strategies I can come up with this time. Note that there will be no wipes to progress in Open Beta, so no reason to wait for launch. Now for a prediction, once Generals is finally launched, maybe, just maybe we can get a World of Warships Admirals version of this epic card game because the formula works and hey, I am a Chief after all and it all about them ships.
