MASSIVE CHALICE

Before playing this game I never really played turn based strategy games. I usually played shooters and RPGs. I didn't expect to even get halfway through the story. But I ended up finishing the game and enjoying it. It is kinda hard to get into at first but I understood all of the mechanics after an hour. This game is not for everyone. I would recommend it to people with patience.

This game starts slow, but it picks up after about 50 years have passed. While there isn't much of a story, the game offers some excellent tactical gameplay and long-term strategic planning for those who stick with it long enough to understand the systems and how they work. Managing bloodlines and balancing research and training bonuses with your heroes' battlefield skills is a lot of fun and very satisfying. If you like strategy and tactics, Massive Chalice is the game for you. The only fault is the lack of any real, gripping storyline. The narrative doesn't get much more involved than "bad guys are invading, you should build a kingdom, raise an army, and kill the bad guys." The lineage system is very cool, but time passes so quickly it's tough to get to know any of the families or become attached to favorite heroes. None of that dimishes the amazing strategic and tactical gameplay though. This game is a hidden gem. Check it out.

Very much like the XCOM reboot tactically, but with the added strategic wrinkle of having to manage your soldiers' bloodlines as you fight a generational threat. Inventive, interesting, challenging, fun, frustrating, just-one-more-turn-addictive, and very deep. That being said, having beaten it once, I'll probably never play it again.

If you're struggling to beat this game, remember that you can reload autosaves from the beginning of a battle if you got caught offguard, with the same enemy spawns. Hunters are far and away the best class to groom early, they trivialize large encounters with long range stealth attacks (even better if you get a hunter relic like i did). Also, don't ignore traits and personality types when choosing regents, as that'll affect the bloodline of that house for the rest of the game. Inspired and Tranquil are by far the best traits. Alchemists and their respective subclasses are a close second to Hunters, even better if you have a relic for them. The best thing your heroes can have in this game is range, which is why Caberjacks are the weakest class. They can be viable if you get good rolls on their traits (high health, strength) but they'll simply be meat sponges otherwise. Overall, play your encounters slowly and methodically; there's no turn limit like XCOM 2.

On top of being a xcom style game, you also have to keep your bloodlines strong. The plot is basically keep your kingdom alive for 300 years and try to roll good on hero traits throughout. Having to balance the risks and rewards of everything you do in the rulers view combined with a punishing combat system make the game very satisfying. I always play on the hardest difficulty with IRON mode to disable savescumming, havent beaten it yet but every time I get probably 10-20 years closer. Oh yeah and te final battle plays tactically different from the rest of the game and the stealth archer strat falls apart