Cabals

[NeoStarr]

 

Anybody else play this? Pretty fantastic online card game for Android (probably iPhone as well). There's a PC client; but I figured this belongs in mobile because the PC version is really only a port that exists to save you from data charges. I'm a bit late posting this but if you wanna start playing now, all starter packs are 50 cents off this weekend (normally they're $3).

 

Concept:

The game is pretty much a tabletop version of Magic: The Gathering. You choose from several factions and make a deck of 30 or more cards from their unique collections You start with a home base you can deploy cards on and as you move them across the board you conquer spaces which will give you more resources or allow you to deploy units on different parts of the map. Most units have abilities to help you gain an advantage on your opponent.

 

Pros:

- Incredible art style and imagination. The game is set between the World Wars and the characters are derived from various horror and mythological conventions. Combined with some solid drawing skills by the artists it makes for a really jaw dropping style.

- Lots of depth to the gameplay. On par with Magic in that you have to judge a players potential cards based on metagame and the core mechanics are essentially the same, but the fact that you can carry unspent resources over to the next round and the amount of thought you have to put into positioning really puts the game on another level.

 

Cons:

- No narrative or campaign to speak of. The game is competitive enough that the story really isn't the driving factor to play it, but all the same it seems kind of a waste to have such an interesting setting and cast of characters without them really serving much of a purpose.

- Limited deck construction. There are 6 factions in the game, yet each faction only gets along with one other faction. This means that you can have yellow and red cards in the same deck, or blue and green cards in the same deck, but you can't have a deck of, say, yellow and green cards. This is especially annoying because some cards (especially common cards), are essentially repeats of a different colour but you still have to unlock them if you want to use them in your deck.

- It's "free to play". And how can that be bad, you must wonder. Allow me to explain. Your 'free account' will get you your choice of one of four starter decks and about 3 bucks worth of in game monies. The problem is that the starter decks, despite being pretty crappy, contain a few really great rare cards and a good majority of the cards in that colours collection. This means that trading is disabled to prevent people from exploiting the free starter decks and killing the value of all the cards. Instead, Cabals has a frustrating gambling system for acquiring the cards you want. Frankly, I would have rather paid the 3 bucks for my starter deck in exchange for the ability to trade cards with other players; especially considering the fact that you can try out any of the starter decks in offline mode indefinitely before you decide you want to pay anything.

 

Tips for saving money should you decide to spend any:

- Make your first account a trial one. Use a secondary email, play to about level 5. Use the free money they give you to learn the most efficient ways to spend it. When you're comfortable with this and have a plan, start your main account and put some money into it early.

- Don't buy boosters; always use the swap feature when you level up to gain cards. The reason for this is that you'll mostly want rare and a few uncommon cards. There are only about 30-50 rare cards, so the chances you have to find the one you want with a 40 cent unlock / 8 cent swap is much higher then if you were to pay $1.50 for a booster pack that only contains 1 rare card with no chance of swapping it.

- Buy complimentary starter decks and buy them in pairs (green/blue, red/yellow, purple/teal). You'll end up with 3 of almost every common/uncommon card, making deck building for those colours much more manageable.

 

Video:

Trailer (art only):

Gameplay:

 

Resources:

Main site: http://www.cabalsgame.com/

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabals:The_Card_Game

 

NeoStarr's Favourite Deck:

 

Hero: Boris Kane (Morgana works too)
3x Swarming Lice
3x Striga
3x Feral Shaman
3x Private Detective
3x Faery Demagogue
3x Lady of Ulster
3x Gnome Hero
3x Maiden of the Heath (best card ever)
3x Lady of the Lake
2x Osculum Infame
1x Valburg's Night