Kickstarter link: CLICK BGG homepage: click Official forums: click
Codex is a non-collectible, customizable card game with a fantasy/RTS theme by David Sirlin.
It has been in development for around ten years. I have been aware of it for around the last 3 years, and I could try it out recently. I created this thread to generate some interest for its soon starting Kickstarter campaign.
It might appeal to a lot of people on teamliquid.net (and its sister sites):
competitive game, where you don't have to get new cards again and again
fantasy game with heroes and units fighting (Hello, Liquidhearth!)
a lot of RTS, Warcraft 3 and Starcraft references, both in flavor and gameplay
less luck based than similar card games
The main difference between Codex and most other customizable card games like Magic/Hearthstone/Netrunner etc.:
In other card games, you choose your strategy and build your deck to do that strategy well before playing. While playing, you are more or less locked in to do that one thing. This might result in bad matchups between decks in competitive play, where sometimes you feel like you can't even win.
In Codex, making and using a deck is like choosing an RTS race, instead of choosing a strategy. You choose your strategy after you start playing. You can do early agression, tech up, go for greedy builds or cheese strategies with your deck, and adjust on the fly to the opponent's strategical choices. Every deck can deal with most situations that come up.
There are 6 colored factions and a neutral faction. Faction themes:
Red - aggression, direct damage, crazy kamikaze attacks
Green - economy growth, big creatures, wild beasts
Black - demons, undead creatures, plagues, black magic
White - human warriors, monks, ninjas, soldiers
Purple - time manipulation, advanced technology
Blue - mind control, illusions, political scheming!!
Each colored faction has a starter deck and 3 heroes (the neutral faction only has 2 heroes). Each hero has 12 cards (2 copies each), that belong with her.
To make a deck, choose any 3 heroes from the game, take the cards specific to those 3 heroes and choose a starter deck from the color of one of your heroes. (E.g. a deck with a black, a white and a blue hero has to choose a starting deck from those three colors.).
Because each hero and its cards are kind of a complete package, all the possible ~ 3000 decks will be quite well rounded.
In the simplified game mode you choose 1 hero and use her starting deck to play.
I made this thread to hype up the game (obviously). In a few days the Kickstarter will start and it'd be cool if this got backed. A lot of Magic-like card games come out these days, but I feel this one is special.
Yeah, one of the things we tried to avoid with Codex was card packs/rarity/boosters etc. Like in an RTS game, you just "pick a race" and you have a massive toolbox of things available to you. You might not use them all, but you have the option to, and it allows you to discover "build orders" that work well against certain races but aren't foolproof 100% of the time.
Compare to games like Magic/Hearthstone where your deck is designed to do ONE thing really well, and therefore wins/loses against very specific deck archetypes before the game even starts, really.
So ultimately, we're trying to start a battle on equal footing. 12 SCVs and a Command Center vs. 12 Drones and a Hatchery, so to speak. But limitless possibilities after that.
On January 28 2016 22:20 kuresuti wrote: Seems pretty similar to how Prismata works (not a bad thing).
Yeah, since the Prismata devs leaned toward perfect symmetry in aspiration of perfect balance, it's interesting to see how this kickstarter based on similar concept but embraces deck building and asymmetry would fare.
On January 28 2016 22:20 kuresuti wrote: Seems pretty similar to how Prismata works (not a bad thing).
Yeah! We are totally allies of Prismata, Elyot and all the awesome folks at Lunarch Studios. Even playfield competitive games are the best (this is a Starcraft forum so I'm preaching to the choir here :D).
We just wanted to see what we could come up with if we took card exclusivity out of the game. Is it still interesting? Is there still depth? Approaching each deck like you would a race in Starcraft seemed like the best fit, given the fact that you have different strategies and build orders depending on what/who you're up against, but at the end of the day you're just using a really awesome toolbox called "Terran".
The last Sirlin game I played was Kongai, which I really liked and played thousands of games of.
After reading the first article on the economy, I totally understand the comparison to Prismata. I've been playing that game for a year now; I like it and have lots of thoughts on it, but I haven't yet posted on the prismata teamliquid thread. I'm DirtCheap in both games by the way.
The simplest way to understand the game is that there are 20 Heroes in the game, and they all have 12 cards that are associated with specifically that hero. i.e. If you choose Zane, you get the Anarchy tech line, which includes Zane's 4 spells, his two Tech I units, his five Tech II units, and his one Tech III unit. You pick two more heroes, and you get all of those cards, too.
The Starter Set contains two "neutral" colored Heroes, Troq Bashar (Bashing) and River Montoya (Finesse). The Starter set teaches you how to play the game using those two Heroes, and you play a "1 Hero vs. 1 Hero" game to learn the basic. However, Troq and River are still valid heroes with very strong Tech lines; Bashing and Finesse.
The Core Set contains the three Green Heroes/Techs (Balance, Growth, Feral) and the three Red Heroes/Techs (Anarchy, Blood, Fire). So now you have six. Having that many heroes available means you can play the "thing that tournaments use", the "3 Hero vs. 3 Hero" game with two players.
If you have Starter and Core, you now have 8 Heroes to mix and match; two neutral, three Red, and three Green.
The Deluxe Set is going to contain ALL 7 Factions (Neutral, Red, Green, Blue, Black, White, Purple) if we meet our stretch goals.
So to answer your question specifically, you'll need at LEAST the Core Set to be able to play the "tournament" mode of the game. Everything else is going to give you more Tech options, but think of it moreso like the Core Set is "Terran vs. Zerg", and the Deluxe has Protoss, Night Elf, Undead and Orc.
On February 04 2016 18:41 Foxxan wrote: so you can play this game right now?
Yes, you can download a print and play version of the Starter set (1v1 heroes) to try the game out. It's free for a limited time (while the Kickstarter lasts, I think?).
If you support Sirlin's patreon with 25 USD / month or more, you get to play the print and play version of the full game with the latest version of cards.
I am very tempted to back this for the biggest deluxe package including card sleeves (I want everything, I'm OCD that way) but I'm really quite concerned about whether the deluxe package will include all expansions or not, which it only will if enough stretch goals are met. that, to me, might be a dealbreaker, especially since I have never backed a kickstarter project before and there is something like a mental introduction barrier to whether I will bother making an account and dedicating 280 dollars to it.
I wonder how many people (and by extension how much money) is like me and are, in a way, hidden investors that likely will back it but are waiting for a good time.
On February 07 2016 06:32 Roblin wrote: I am very tempted to back this for the biggest deluxe package including card sleeves (I want everything, I'm OCD that way) but I'm really quite concerned about whether the deluxe package will include all expansions or not, which it only will if enough stretch goals are met. that, to me, might be a dealbreaker, especially since I have never backed a kickstarter project before and there is something like a mental introduction barrier to whether I will bother making an account and dedicating 280 dollars to it.
I wonder how many people (and by extension how much money) is like me and are, in a way, hidden investors that likely will back it but are waiting for a good time.
you should pledge now, then. You pay only when the campaign is over. You can cancel or lower your contribution any time before. Your contribution helps getting stretch goals faster, and that could attract more supporters.
On February 07 2016 06:32 Roblin wrote: I am very tempted to back this for the biggest deluxe package including card sleeves (I want everything, I'm OCD that way) but I'm really quite concerned about whether the deluxe package will include all expansions or not, which it only will if enough stretch goals are met. that, to me, might be a dealbreaker, especially since I have never backed a kickstarter project before and there is something like a mental introduction barrier to whether I will bother making an account and dedicating 280 dollars to it.
I wonder how many people (and by extension how much money) is like me and are, in a way, hidden investors that likely will back it but are waiting for a good time.
you should pledge now, then. You pay only when the campaign is over. You can cancel or lower your contribution any time before. Your contribution helps getting stretch goals faster, and that could attract more supporters.
fair enough, pledged.
I hope it reaches as many stretch goals as possible
Yes, you can download a print and play version of the Starter set (1v1 heroes) to try the game out. It's free for a limited time (while the Kickstarter lasts, I think?).
Wanted to try it myself, but could not find the print-and-play package o.0. Can you give me a link please?
as a green player from MTG, I approve of the moss sentinels, lots of big stuff and stuff that gets even bigger although as a zerg player necromancy also seems fun, it supposedly spawns tons of 1/1 skeletons.
I've played and taught a few sessions of this on tabletop simulator, and man is it the real deal. Coming from a magic the gathering point of view, the mechanics are all relatively intuitive, but most importantly even by the 2nd turn I just feel like I have a couple hundred different ways I could play my turn out.
The kickstarter is over, but I'd highly encourage anyone who considered and didn't pledge to look into the other options for getting this, as I think it's going to be worth putting a lot of time and effort into.
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