A Token War Review
DISCLAIMER: I received this game for free. I don’t think that fact affects my opinion of the game, but it would be irresponsible of me not to tell you.
It’s been a while since I’ve said it, so I’d like to take a moment to remind everyone that Final Fantasy Tactics is my favorite video game and also the best video game in existence. It is the game that really got me into video games in the first place thanks to its incredible systems, including the turn-based strategy. It’s safe to say that I have been chasing that high ever sense. Typically, when it comes to tactics games, I normally prefer a tactical RPG, but I’ve previously been impressed by tactical deckbuilders in the past so when I was given the chance to review a new tactical deckbuilder, I was eager to take a look.
A Token War is a tactical strategy game that casts the player as the military commander of a nation at war. Story isn’t the main focus of the game, but the narrative that does exist tells the story of a patron funding the player’s campaign to conquer the island. During the march across the neighboring territories, players will command armies in small-scale conflicts between their forces and the local opposition, ranging from soldiers to pirates to undead. As the player wins more conflicts and ground, they will gain new forces to deploy, new spells to cast, and new modifications to improve their army.
Deckbuilders live and die on their loops. Players need to see new content or at least new arrangements of known content to keep them coming back for more, and A Token War takes an interesting approach to this. In most deckbuilders, a death or loss is the end of the run and players begin again from the start, but A Token War sets the player only as far back as their most recent iconic battle, which serve as a checkpoint. Additionally, one loss isn’t enough to be set back. Players have a number of extra tries in the form of retreats, meaning the player is able to safely pull back from a conflict, rally their troops, and attempt the battle again. Regardless of how many retreats they have left, however, that battle will never be the same again. During subsequent attempts, the enemy formations will be the same but what units make up said formations can change, making each battle only semi-predictable in classic deckbuilder fashion. The new content players obtain for their army, instead of what they see arrayed against them, is similarly varied. At the end of a battle, as well as when the player stops at a store, players are able to add new units, spells, and upgrades to their deck from a limited pool dictated by which region they currently occupy as well as which regions they have already conquered. This moderates how quickly players see new additions, fast enough to keep the game fresh and exciting but slow enough to keep some mystery and compel players to keep going.
Where A Token War moves away from its fellow deckbuilders is in the mechanics. Most games in the genre will have players acquiring cards to be put into a deck that will be regularly cycled through, drawing and shuffling when depleted. Instead of cards, A Token War uses, what else, tokens which go into their reserves to be deployed later. At the start of each battle, players will select which tokens from their reserve they want to use and place them on the battle board. Once the unit dies or the spell is cast, that token is consumed and can’t be used again in that battle. This being the case, I’m not convinced A Token War is actually a deck builder, in spite of what the game’s promotional material says. To me, it feels like the first edition of Monsterpocalypse without having to pay for the booster packs. This isn’t to say it’s bad to not strictly adhere to the definition of deckbuilder, but the game play of A Token War is significantly different from what the term evokes for most people.
The departure from deckbuilder standards serves the central, and perhaps most divisive, pillar of A Token War: the tactical gameplay. I want to preface this section by saying that I’m actually not much of a strategic or tactical commander. Most of the time I win tactical games by grinding excessive experience for my units, but that’s not an option in this game. Rather, players can only rely on their own wit and planning to come out ahead in these battles. On a turn, one side has only two actions to spend on movement and attacks, making each turn quick but deadly important. The objective isn’t to clear out all of the enemies forces, only to destroy their home base. This is significantly easier with all of the opposing soldiers dispatched, but it’s not necessary. As I said, I’m no military genius, but the enemy AI in A Token War are positively ferocious. I’ve been playing this game all week and have had far more losses than victories thanks to the prowess of the enemy programming. There are also moments in the campaign where players have to separate their forces into multiple groups to conduct larger scale conflicts, meaning that players must have a full understanding of their entire roster of tokens and how they work with each other and that no single strategy can be relied on forever, which I found to be tremendously cool. I wonder if Chess or Go veterans might have a more successful time than me, because of the mechanical simplicity and deep tactical potential.
A Token War is an interesting new entry into the deckbuilder genre, whether it belongs there or not. I think those who have my limited tactical capacity might have a limit on how much they can enjoy the game, but if you’re a modern Napoleon or just have the patience to handle repeated failures, there’s plenty to get out of the game. With good art, easy to understand mechanics, and an extremely affordable $13 price tag, I say pick up A Token War.
Buy this game at full price
It’s worth every penny they’re asking
