Duodecad

Developer:  Heavenly Software

Cost: 3 dollars

Dear Heavenly Software:

Your card battle game, Duodecad, is a noble attempt, but needs some serious work before it’s worth playing. The core game , placing cards on a board and capturing opponent’s cards by having your side have a bigger number than the adjacent side, is a fine idea. However, in this of game, the player who goes second has the extreme advantage. The first player basically has to force a draw or wait for player 2 to screw up. This  is no fun.

The hare captured the spirit of light card because the hare's western 5 is greater than the Spirit of light's 4.

There are plenty of rules that make the game more interesting, like elemental bonuses if a card with a elemental affinity is place on a square with the same affinity; two identical cards next to each other gain a strength bonus; or  special captures if either two of your cards together equal more than the defender,  or a single card with has matching values on a least 2 sides of adjacent cards. However, they are all optional, meaning that few players will attempt them, especially if cards are at stake. In future editions, the Elemental, Brothers, Same, Add and Combo(allow for extra captures if same or add rule is applied) rules should be in the base game. This adds strategy off the bat. The other ones, like see all cards, would be optional.

Next, the set-up itself is problematic, as each player gets 6 cards each to place on the 4×3 grid with winner being declared after all cards are played. In the beginning, yes, things are strategic, but as the board fills up, what goes where is automatic as there’s really nowhere else to go. I found most games are usually won and lost by the 4th turn at the most, with the last two being rote. The can be alleviated by making the grid larger,  end  the game when a player has a certain number of cards on the board(2/3rd majority maybe), and use the standard deck/draw system. Every turn, draw a new card from a 30-40 card deck.

Also it would be nice if there were status cards to go along with the deck addition. Non-elemental cards would have deck effects, like forced draw, forced discard, card removal from board ect. Positive effects for the player would be activated with the card captured another card, negative effects against the opponent would be activated upon being captured.

The cards themselves are well drawn

Next, there’s the way one goes about gaining cards. The amount of money gained via winning is set too low. Then there’s the trading rules, which stipulate how many cards the loser gives to the winner. No smart player, especially those going first, would play under these rules. Playing against the AI, however, it pays to use the trading rules. Even though one loses a ton of money if they leave early, I found I had access to better cards quicker by beating the AI and quitting when I was about to lose. Lose the trading rule and up the  amount of money earned when you win.

Finally, there’s no point to playing. There’s nobody online, but this could be fixed if the game was worth playing. There’s also no single player game here, just random battles against the AI with rules the  player sets. It would be very nice if there was a long  campaign where players earn money to buy cards in a series of battles with increasing difficulty and complexity.

As it stands, I cannot suggest a purchase, to anyone. The system is horribly broken and exists in a bare-bones package with no long term value. You obviously spent more time on making the game look nice than making the game functional and fun. Even if you just take some but not all of my suggestions, the game will still be more playable than it is now.  Otherwise, Duodecad is nothing more than a nice looking failure.

Sincerely,

Lakanar