I'd be ashamed to share my tactical advice which mostly consists of cheap ploy attempts and random luck [well... and cleaning up with my favorite unit which is (redacted, because classified)]. Although, that pesky enemy intelligence sure does keep the heat on.
Another noteworthy thing is that we have rectified one or two design decisions which went in the wrong direction. For instance, initially TM came with a 1-4 star rating system to rate the player's performance for a particular scenario. Since TM is quite challenging already, it turned out that this was more a source of frustration instead of adding additional replay value as intended. So we've changed this into a more playful approach, basically just giving hints about what the player might want to pay attention to for the next scenarios.
The plot is really nice in Tactics Maiden, ironically if people knew some of the plot twists they'd snatch Tactics Maiden up... but to know in advance could spoil things.
Tactics Maiden - Skill system One of Tactics Maiden's central features is its skill point system. Leveling up through combat experience yields 1 skill point for even levels and 2 skill points for odd levels. These skill points can be used to boost either the unit's attributes (HP, Atk, Pow,...) or one or more of its 4 class skills (in this example 'Charge', 'Shield Allies',...). Each skill or attribute can be boosted up to 3 times which results in 4 stages: Stage 0: no skill points invested Stage +1: 1 skill points invested Stage +2: 2 additional skill points invested Stage +3: 3 additional skill points invested In other words, 6 skill points are needed in total in order to max a particular skill or attribute. While stage 3 is usually the most rewarding one, the player is often better off with splitting skill points among several skills and attributes instead of maximizing just 1 or 2. This is especially true during early levels where fewer skill points are available. It is also noteworthy that skill points can be reset and redistributed whenever a unit is out of combat. Especially on harder difficulties, players might find themselves tweaking their units via skill points (and items) quite frequently. Let's have a look at the 'Knight' class to see how this works in practice: Should I invest more skill points in HP or defense values to make the unit more durable? Or maybe some skill points in MP to avoid running out of 'mana'? Increase Atk to do more damage? Increase Pow to further strengthen 'Shield Allies' and better protect your other units? Invest skill points in 'Cleave' for devastating damage against leather wearing armor units? Increase Retaliation damage for a 'counter attack strategy'? Or maybe in Mov to make the unit move faster? Of course there is no 'right' answer to theses questions. Everything depends on the player's preferences, play style, the kind of challenge lying ahead, as well as other available units.
Game Play Video - Scenario 108 I've made a video while playing through one of the mid-game scenarios. Initially I wanted to show how this scenario can be beaten on 'Hard' or 'Very Hard' difficulty, but all I got was a bloody nose two times. So I've switched back to default difficulty. Still made a few questionable moves due to the 'ticking camera clock', but in general it's one of many viable strategies to beat this scenario (albeit a somewhat risky one, spreading out the units like that). Here we go: Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel
Scenarios 108 show cases some of the detailed map design, the way water intersects the land area forcing the player into using more of a ranged approach. It sure threw me and my melee focus for a curveball. 108 is a good example showcasing some of the devious maps in Tactics Maiden and my run wasn't as quick as the developer pulled off.
ScotDamn, we seem to have similar tastes - Tactics Maiden is the game you've been waiting for but never knew existed.
Yeah, the original size is 24.4 MB, with 5 music tracks and all sprites and images using up most of the space. Once Apple has encrypted and codesigned the binary for the store, the size might be slightly different, though.
Class abilities Each class in Tactics Maiden has a special class ability. To give a few examples: Rogues and Assassins have a high chance to evade counter attacks, Paladins' attack damage is always increased by 20% against undead, and Pikemen have the ability ‘Unstoppable’ which makes them immune to movement debuffs. Class abilities can be also acquired via rare or legendary items. Thus, units can make use of one or more other class abilities for interesting combinations. Here is a list of the standard class abilities: Undead Hunter: +20% damage vs undead. -10% damage vs human. Human Hunter: +20% damage vs humans. -10% damage vs beasts. Beast Hunter: +20% damage vs beasts. -10% damage vs undead. Evade: 80% chance to get no damage from a counter attack. Berserker: 60% more damage if own hit points are below 33% (orange HP). Charm Immunity: Immune to Bewitch skill. HP Regeneration: Regenerates hit points after each turn. Gold Digger: Better rewards from defeating opponents (Lvl). Rabbit Run: +1 Mov if own HP lower 66%. +2 Mov if own HP lower 33%. Stealth Tracker: Lowers an opponent's chance of successfully hiding close to the unit. Bane of Archers: 20% more damage against archers. Critical Hit Immunity: Negates additional damage done by critical hits. Quick Learner: Increased experience gain. Unstoppable: Immune to movement debuffs. Swift: +1 Mov but 5% less damage. Stealth Master: +5% success rate for Hide and Prowl. Pierce Resistance: Uses average of D-Phy, D-Bow and D-Mag as pierce protection. Life Saver: 30% chance to survive a lethal blow with 1 HP instead. Poison Immunity: Immune to poison. Silence Immunity: Immune to silence. Poisoner: 10% chance to inflict poison. Silencer: 10% chance to silence an opponent. Ranged Counter: Can counter ranged attacks. Wounded Pride: +10% critical hit chance if own HP lower 70%. +35% critical hit chance if own HP lower 33%. Massive Criticals: Increased damage for critical hits. There are a few additional abilities only available via rare and legendary items. Edit: To be more accurate, the list above comprises already 2 abilities only available via items (Gold Digger, Stealth Master).
The Life Saver character buff is a game changer especially when it shows up on enemies; just when you think you've scored a vital strike the enemy flaunts death and devastates you instead. It's so devious things almost seem mean spirited, if it wasn't so much fun.
The 30% Livesaver is quite ... interesting ... indeed. Especially because it always seems to kick in when you need it the least On the plus side, there are various counter-units with skills that do two attacks in a row (Livesaver does not trigger when you are at 1hp) . Some numbers fun: we now have 110 pages with 1090 posts in the betatest thread; quite an accomplishment for one poor overworked developer and a small bunch of part-time testers, I'd say
Release Date - September 18 We had a few minor issues with the app approval process, so we can’t make it in time, unfortunately. In order to offer a reliable release date, I've postponed the iOS release to September 18 now. Really sorry for that, but these kind of things just happen.
Here's my impressions on Tactics Maiden, boo on the release delay. I’ve sent over 80 hours playing Tactics Maiden in the past month, but maybe biased since the Kingturn series (from same developer) are favorites of mine and from beta participation. In my opinion Tactics Maiden is one of the best mobile releases so far this year. You won’t find a game with more capacity to challenge, ability to customize solutions, and depth on mobile. Levels are puzzle-like with environmental barriers requiring different solutions (you can’t just bash your way through but need to be smart due to enemies on all fronts or other details). One of the coolest things is how devious the enemy artificial intelligence is; beneath all the strategy elements Tactics Maiden might be an enemy AI simulator most of all and the developer seemed especially focused on crafting a smart intelligence system. There are 80+ scenarios, which can be played in bit sized chunks – most levels took me 15 – 60 minutes to play. Autosave is great so if you need to pick up a game where you left off later it’s seamless. The diversity of character classes makes it feel like there are plentiful options; it’s impossible to use all accessible characters in one level. Tactical variety is highlighted by all the equipment (there are multiple types of same tiers items – ex: with armor you can protect against two but not all of the damage types so need to chose wisely because there is often a weakness – bows, physical, or magic); nevermind loot giving bonus abilities/buffs at times. There are a ton of special abilities (based on MP) that offer different styles even within the same character class along with certain class buffs (i.e. mages have a chance of surviving otherwise fatal blows with 1HP). Plot-wise I found the story to be good but at times stalls with so many scenarios. Tactics Maiden is essential to try if you enjoy mobile gaming; for $4.99 it’s a bargain but it may not be for everyone. One key is the ability to adjust difficulty to your taste (I recommend 4 for strategy fans, you can decrease/increase at any time). After each level there are plentiful statistics. Definitely give Tactics Maiden a shot, highly recommended - it's better than the Kingturn games were (and Kingturn/etc is great).
So... Tactics Maiden got pushed back to September 18th; but it does keep getting better... this developer doesn't give up and just released another new update.
Yeah, since August 28 we've started the final phase of our beta test with currently more than 1000 testers. After fixing one or two minor issues, the feedback has been quite positive so far, and Tactics Maiden should be ready for launch on iOS in time and in specification (September 18). Have a look here: http://bit.ly/1oqxq3x
Release Date September 18 Affirmative. Tactics Maiden will be released this week on September 18. I'll post additional info in the next days.
