Card art is colored hand drawings in most cases most is pleasing to the eye, but not as good as some higher circulation games. The art does capture the spirit of the game pretty well and does compliment the card descriptions. The cards are laid out in very easy to understand manner. Text is well in proportion to the rest of the card.
The game itself is very easy to play once you play through just one round, it’s also very easy to teach others. The premise of the game is you are an Alliance and you have strike forces, (group of soldiers) that do your bidding. You have different types of cards: Alliance Cards Strike Forces Technology Influence Cards Mission Cards
Basically each player starts out with a Strike Force and an Alliance and tries to build the biggest empire they can by bringing other alliances under your control. Each Alliance has some different powers, like an ammunition corporation giving special bullets to improve your attack or a Armor plating corporation giving more defense for a single attack.
The Game is in turns and phases. Start of the Game. You start by putting out an alliance from your cards and a Strike Force.
Deployment phase. You can put out cards from your deck. That means that you can add a strike force or some technology. For someone to use technology they have to be of the correct level to use it, but the game gave a chance for Free Tech which means that you have a chance to deploy one piece of technology even if you don’t make the tech level.
Mission Phase. You have your Strike Force(s) and Alliance(s), you start by putting out a mission and an alliance from your hand. The missions are rated from easy to insane and there are different skill levels. The cards also have different skills needed, so one strike force might be good at computer skill and you send them on missions that you need to be good at computers while others just need brute force killing, which other strike forces excel at. You now have to go on that mission and succeed in order to lure that alliance to side with you. This is what can make the game very interesting and what makes the name of the game so intriguing. You can use your deck and “Stack” the deck in your favor so that you are in position to win. I have my decks favor combat so that if I don’t make my computer rolls I can just plow though the combat phase.
Obstacles Phase: Your opponents can do just about anything to stop you on your missions which when I first started to play it seemed like you would never succeed, but that is far from the case. It is all about strategy. Each opponent declares if they are going to do something and depending on the alliance you may want to try and stop them or do nothing. It just depends on your strategy of playing offense or defense and believe me you have to do both, but time them right. There are a number of things that you can do varying from playing an obstacle card, using a corporate power or sending one of your own strike forces to intercept the mission causing it to fail.
Objective: Before the game starts you decide how many victory points wins the game, which we have been playing to 20. Each Alliance represents 1-8 victory points. Once you get over the 20 points you have to declare victory. The other players now have one more turn to either get more points than you or knock you down below 20 or you win. It all comes down to strategy. I might get 21 points, but not declare victory as I know the next player is going to go over my total and win the game.
I can’t express how much this game is all about strategy and timing your actions to the right player and situation.
Overall: It's fun, fast, and simple, but very strategic. I believe there is also an RPG associated with this game, but I have never played that and as far as I can tell it was not needed to play this game. I'd recommend it for anyone looking to have a good 1 – 2 hour TCG.
From what I can find:
The Starter Kits, Starter Decks. and Boosters are available at the Roleplayerink web store http://roleplayersink.com/component/option,com_wrapper/Itemid,27/
The product page has lots more info, some art examples and 2 demo deck downloads at http://roleplayersink.com/content/blogsection/5/61/ Check out the demo decks at least, its really a fun card game.
