The Download Munkey : Tracking the Treasure Down …

I love virtual collectible card games and Mytheria is no exception. This Flash game by
Diffusion Games was only given a brief mention in Jayisgames‘ first Link Dump Friday of 2009 so I thought I might provide more extensive details on this fun little timekiller.

If you have played CCGs like Magic : The Gathering (sorry, it’s the only CCG I have any experience with), you’ll find the rules for Mytheria rather easy to learn and play. For those that haven’t, the single-player campaign will gently ease you into the world of Mytjeria while teaching you the nuances of the game system in the first three missions. The rules aren’t as complicated as physical CCGs though – no upkeep applies for deployed units and there isn’t a system for interrupts as in Magic : The Gathering.

As in any other CCG, power is needed to summon units and cast instants (the Mytheria equivalent of spells), enchantments and auras (global enchantments). Unlike Magic : The Gathering though, Mytheria’s multi-coloured powers are not acquired by playing land cards – instead, you are forced to decide on either increasing the rate of power growth by one each turn or draw another card from your deck. I find this game mechanic rather ingenious as it not only adds a degree of strategy to each game but also makes the game fairer for both players since resource management no longer depends on luck but on each player planning ahead.

Furthermore, by allowing players to directly control the power growth, it increases the possible strategies of deck construction since players can actually build and play decks containing a swarm of many weak, low-cost units to quickly rush and overwhelm the opponent or opt for a smaller selection of powerful high cost units bolstered with multiple enchantments and auras and so forth. Unfortunately, custom decks cannot be used in the campaign but only in the Challenges which will allow you to acquire another six additional cards for the Deck Builder.

The five factions with their distinctive strengths and playing styles affect deck construction (obviously ) as well as make playing each mission in the campaign a very different experience especially when facing a deck from another faction.

Scythian (red) – Relatively strong units and direct damage instants make this faction very straightforward to play with. Leader units like Commander J’Ardan and Scythian Elites gain strength when deployed with other Scythian soldiers.

Solarian (white) – Strong defensive units like Solarian Fortress bear the brunt of the the enemy attacks while Solarian Walkers provide the offensive punch. Many healing and defensive enhancements are available for the Solarian faction.

Hrathians (blue) – Comparatively cheap robotic units.

Myrkin (purple) – Average units with a focus on instants, auras and enchantments like Power Drain that disable your opponent’s units and power resources.

Blackguard (black) – Mutually destructive auras and enchantments like Biochemical Assault and Contamination and make playing with or against this faction a very unpredictable and challenging affair.

Play Mytheria.

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Arcadetown’s The New World is a resource management game which puts you in the shoes of a captain sailing from the Spain (The Old World) across the Atlantic to the New World (the American continents) and emulating Christopher Columbus’ first vovage to the West Indies in August 1492.

This game will test your ability to handle unforeseen events like heavy storms, rats infesting the cargo hold and other Things That Happen™ on an epic journey like this and you will have to juggle the very limited time points between the different tasks needed to keep your ship seaworthy and the crew’s morale to prevent them from erupting into open mutiny, in order to reach the New World alive.

By consulting your daily logbook, you can make better decisions on your priorities for the next few days. Judicious timing for food rationing is also essential due to the lack of supplies on the smaller ships : while ordering half rations for the crew lowers morale, it still beats forcing them to sail on zero rations in the hold.

Three different types of ships – the caravel, nao and carrack – await you in the docks to cater to different playing styles – the caravel is fast but carries less crew and stores while the heavy carrack is the exact opposite. The other ship, the nao, is somewhere between the two. Personally, I’ve only completed the 3,000+ miles voyage with the caravel by pushing ahead as aggressively as possible by emphasizing navigation, sail maintenance and crew morale at the expense of hull maintenance and crew health.

Play The New World at Arcadetown.

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A rather old but innovative zombie killfest by Charles Cuiguet where you command squads of infantry and fighting vehicles to repel a zombie invasion.

Engage the zombie hordes with your squads, wait until the undead things shamble into range before giving the order to fire and watch the wholesale slaughter begin. Just try not to move the mouse in the combat window as it’s used for scrolling the view around the battlefield as it can get quite disorienting at times.

I especially like the close combat sequence that ensues when the zombies crash (slowly) into your defensive line. It’s a blast to watch your troops pull out knives and cut down zombies hand-to-hand but don’t expect many of your troopers to survive a melee against superior numbers of undead.

The strategic portion of the game emphasizes on manuevering your squads (in red) around on the map to attack different enemy units – preferably with you in tactically advantageous terrain (dark green) and them in open areas (light green).

Use heavy armour and RPG troopers to thin out larger groups and the standard assault rifle or pistol squads to mop up the remnants. RPGs are so effective against the undead invaders it’s hard to believe that they were designed to take out light armour – they must have been designed to combat a secret zombie infestation

Later missions allow you to reinforce battered units back to full strength or supplement your squads with an additional jeep or armoured vehicle to provide the extra dose of firepower like this

A sequel is currently in the works and you can follow the progress at the creator’s blog at Newgrounds.

Play Autumn War.

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If you’re into electronic music, you’ll recognize some of these machines that shaped early electronic music : Roland’s legendary trio of the TR-808, TR-909, the TB-303 (acid!) synthesizers.

Together with a selection of effects processors, Hobnox’s Audiotool allows you to produce tracks for free (much thanks to GeekNews for the heads up)

While Hobnox provides a video tutorial on the basics of using Audiotool and the virtual TR-909 and the TB-303, knowing how to use the equipment doesn’t translate proportionally to your ability to create music. I’m been fiddling with Audiotool for hours and I still can’t figure out how to create decent drum n’ bass beats.

The default drum n’ bass setup

I did create a simple 4/4 track which you can torture your ears with over here – a crappy example of tweaking the various knobs and buttons – I didn’t create enough patterns to substantially evolve the rhythms and basslines though.

Try out Audiotool.

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I like to play shorter tactically-oriented games like Battalion Nemesis during short breaks when I haven’t got the time for more detailed tactical masterpieces like Combat Mission, WinSPWW2, Steel Panthers : World At War (to name a few).

Battalion Nemesis puts you in the shoes of the commander of the red forces in a turn-based combined arms conflict with similiarly armed and equipped blue forces (a civil war perhaps?) I got a little confused at the start because I’m used to the convention of blue and red signifying friendly and enemy units respectively.

The 6 comprehensive training missions will get you up to speed on using the intuitive interface to command and lead your troops to victory in a series of mock battles which includes small-scale raids and even an amphibious landing

Color-coded +, - and = signs over each possible target in range for the currently selected unit makes it very easy to learn to play Battalion Nemesis.

As with every combined-arms game, the art of placing the correct units to counter specific enemy units is essential. So do the timeless techniques of manuevering to occupy the most advantageous terrain for attacking and defending. An good eye for terrain for defense by the right type of units and for funneling larger enemy forces into deathtraps for piecemeal destruction definitely helps to win the day in Battalion Nemesis.

There’s minimal resource management, mainly in capturing oil refineries to literally fuel the war with additional war machines churned from war factories.

Play Battalion Nemesis at Kongregate or read more at JayIsGames.

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