Year or two ago a mate informed me of an RTS lurking in one of E3’s murkier corners called Tooth and Tail, said it seemed like the sort of thing that’s right up my alley. Discovering they were in an early alpha stage I burst into the developer’s Discord and waved my Starcraft cred about like a lawman’s badge which duly secured access. One swift Steam download later I opened it, curious to discover what rich new ideas so intrigued my associate, trembling with anticipation at the myriad of earthly delights to come. Immediately I was greeted with controller prompts. Oh dear. TnT is an RTS designed to be played on consoles, which feels like designing a casino that goes on the sun. To the developers credit (Pocketwatch games) it’s as solid an attempt can be made, focusing on a minimalist control scheme and fast paced matches lasting about 5 minutes or so. Allow me to describe how simple this all is in one paragraph or less
You control a rodent commander fellow who runs around a simple isometric 2d battlefield. Your HQ/resource centres are called Gristmills and you position farms around them to make money. You spend money on huts that automatically spawn units. One button summons all your dudes to a location, a second button calls only one set of dudes, hold either button down to force move them, tap it to attack-move. If you’re near a particular enemy these buttons allow you to focus that target. You start a game with a loadout of up to 6 different unit huts and defence structures and if your commander dies they quickly respawn at a Gristmill. There’s 24 different types of dude hut/defensive structure all with their strengths and weaknesses so it’s all about trying to pick the right ones and not getting them all killed. That’s it. That’s all Tooth and Tail is.
Now I’m an RTS guy to my core. Cut me and I bleed strategy (in Real Time) which is why a minimalistic approach doesn’t work for me at all. In fact it’s incredibly frustrating. Since I can only control the commander I can’t micro or macro with the sort of precision I’d prefer. Units make themselves and for the most part micro themselves. Jeez, I guess you have to sacrifice an enormous amount of functionality to get an RTS to work for controllers. It’s almost like it’s a fundamentally awful idea. I’m also not a fan of the whole ‘choose your unit loadout before a match’ mechanic, it’s very daunting to choose from the 24 provided which strikes as going completely against the design ethos of simple and accessible.
I suppose I can see the appeal here. For most people playing an RTS is like being forced to juggle dynamite, perhaps scaling back the level of entry is acceptable. And to the games credit the fundamentals of RTS are still there, ie scouting, composition, timing, map awareness, high ground, that sort of thing. But in this pursuit it sacrifices an awful lot of depth, and not just mechanically. I’m incredibly fond of Company of Heroes 1 and 2 and those are games I can play with a mug of tea in one hand. What kills it for me is simply that it’s far too shallow. You just make a bunch of units, run around with minimal effort and somebody wins in a few minutes. I don’t think I can enjoy an RTS where I can’t directly give commands to units and to do that effectively you’re going to need a Mouse and its partner the Keyboard.
I hardly played the game and that was that. Or so I thought. TnT got it’s full release the other day and it was downloadable in my Steam library. I guess I got a release copy for free because I played the alpha and hated it? Humblebrag of the century I know. Guess I’ll explore the single player some, see if I hate that too. Shocking plot twist, I almost liked it!
TnT’s setting is that of a world of adorable anthropomorphised woodland creatures engaged in a hearty civil dispute over who should be turned into liverwurst. It’s a squirrel-eat-falcon world out there, or something. Bizarro-world Redwall, if you will. There’s this juxtaposition of early industrial era optimism with the brutally grim reality of the carnivore land that is the animal kingdom, all viewed through a quasi-Russian lens. No matter how enlightened or developed society gets, it can only function because someone’s eating someone else. The actual story itself isn’t much to talk about, some characters all want to devour each other and rebuild society in their vision (amusingly the educated revolutionary chaps are working to install a capitalist democracy, har har), it’s the backdrop what makes it compelling. I’ll confess I didn’t actually finish it, I got about three quarters through and have packed it in out of the sheer frustration of having to engage in gameplay. Maybe if you beat the final level it sends you a cake? Dunno, don’t care.
I was an alpha tester super early into the game. it was cool but i felt like the map imbalances with it made it unplayable for me where one player would have an easy economy while the other was stuck on one base or something.
On September 25 2017 07:52 FlaShFTW wrote: I was an alpha tester super early into the game. it was cool but i felt like the map imbalances with it made it unplayable for me where one player would have an easy economy while the other was stuck on one base or something.
I haven't played the game but I've watched some tournament matches and this is exactly my impression. I don't like the randomly generated maps as it seems the map will strictly favour one player in far too many of the matches. I think it looks fun as an entry level RTS for people who lack the mechanical skill necessary to play Starcraft at a reasonable level, but I don't think I'll buy the game myself. Still, I'm happy to see any RTS succeed at this point even if it is a somewhat neutered version of one.
On September 25 2017 07:52 FlaShFTW wrote: I was an alpha tester super early into the game. it was cool but i felt like the map imbalances with it made it unplayable for me where one player would have an easy economy while the other was stuck on one base or something.
I haven't played the game but I've watched some tournament matches and this is exactly my impression. I don't like the randomly generated maps as it seems the map will strictly favour one player in far too many of the matches. I think it looks fun as an entry level RTS for people who lack the mechanical skill necessary to play Starcraft at a reasonable level, but I don't think I'll buy the game myself. Still, I'm happy to see any RTS succeed at this point even if it is a somewhat neutered version of one.
im happy for it too and the game was fun. but as someone who came from starcraft, that was one of the first qualms that i had about the game with "map imbalance sucks in this game". Their response was "we wanted to keep the maps fresh and unique so we have RNG maps instead of pre-set maps". That was what really killed the game for me. Obviously, map imbalances create unique strategies that both players need to incorporate to win the game, but when a map is so catered to one side or the other, it's like, ok well I know my opponent literally has one strategy they can possibly use, I just defend that and win the game.
I like the game, it has a solid foundation with some fresh ideas, but the range of mechanics and actually strategy (especially with the randomized maps) is extremely limited. Rush strategies will instant kill you if you pick the wrong units (lizards are insanely strong compared to any other early game unit if target firing), but I guess its not a huge deal considering average match length. The ability to micro individual units and actually using your mouse for something besides left/right click would help this game tremendously.
sadly, your picture is literally how i feel on certain maps where it's impossible to grab a 3rd base while your opponent has a free 3rd and a pretty comfortable 4th. and you're sitting there like... welp i need to all in or its game.
Hey now, wait a second. I see what you did there. Black has so many queens.
On topic: As a more casual player that does not spend 1000h+ in Sc2 I found Tooth and Tail to be a wonderful micro cosmos of an RTS. I finally can talk strategy with others and we can agree on something or test it in a reasonable amount of time, because 90% of the playerbase have near perfect execution. Makes me see how great it must be to play something like Sc2 or BW on this level. It lacks depth, but for me it was worth the 20 bucks. (I mean, artosis took a game of the #1 player in this game on his second day, while Chip was playing at least since january and has won tournaments(and no, it was not only the random maps fault))
Save your money. I spent quite a bit of time playing this game since launch. 59 hours to be exact, and am currently claiming the #7 spot globally. At first, I was addicted. It seemed like strategy was quite important, however as I climbed the ranks and my game knowledge grew, the game became shallow. I began to learn there was only 1 viable strategy at the top level, and that was fox rush. It is a unit with the range of a Tempest, and speed of a hellion. Getting this unit out as fast as possible is all every game was about because once you got it, it gained so much value that it paid for itself in dividends. The game designers are incompetent, it took them months to patch this (apparently this has been the go-to strategy since before the game even launched). A shallow metagame like this that a chimpanzee can execute, no thank you.
Sad it's not deep (gameplay wise), but come on, the art, the backdrop, the political satire are SO GOOD!
If you want a more (mechanically) Casual RTS, with pixelated graphics (and Soviet undertones), I really recommend trying Command and Conquer 95 ... open-source re-implementation :D (also has Red Alert and Dune 2000)
openra.net
The fun for these, is picking up a new RTS and learning the meta as you go, developing your own strategy, but the mechanical (and player-level) skill-ceilings aren't nearly as high as SC, so you can start winning soon
EPT
![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/2MdI9T8.png)
