A rather new game piqued my interest lately: Hearthstone Battlegrounds.
At first I had no idea what to do and how to play this game. But I crossed the border to a match making rating of 7000 a couple of weeks ago and just realized I'm in the top 1% of the playerbase.
I also love that it's possible to play with friends since the latest update on semptember 8th, so I've been playing mostly with friends lately.
For those who don't know: It's an auto battler. You buy minions of different races, with varying stats and unique mechanics. The person with the most minions on the battleground starts, and his leftmost minion attacks first at random (unless there are taunt minions, which get attacked first). If both players have the same amount of minions, a random player begins. And that's already all there is to the basics.
However there is a lot of strategy involved. Of course you want your most valuable minions to be seated at the right of the battlefield, but you also need to protect them with taunts, divine shield and other things. If you're familiar with Hearthstone, you'll have an easier time, because the basic mechanics are still the same.
What I like about the game:
- You have many different playstyles thanks to the different races that have their own ups and downs. Mechs for example have devine shield, which can be really strong since your minion doesn't get any damage the first time it's attacked. But it's balanced in a different way: Mechs don't have nearly as many strong buffs as other races. Murlocs on the other hand have many group buffs, which makes them quite durable in midgame (unless you die in the early game) and on top of that, they can also get toxic minions, which means they only need to deal damage to the enemy minion once to kill it.
- Every race is actually quite balanced.
- Thanks to RNG, every game feels different. There are games where you have huge luck and get every single card you need, and there are games where you just get garbage and just lose. While playerskill is important (to pick the right things at the right time), luck also has its part. That reminds me of something a friend once said to me: Skill is when luck becomes the standard.
- It's more of a luck based strategy game rather than pure gambling.
- Every patch completely throws the meta out of the window. Last patch for example, there was an arcane cannon. It was especially strong with pirates, so most people went to play with pirates. Now that they removed that single card, pirates are a lot better balanced.
- Most heroes you pick are actually quite good. Only a few of them have limited use. But even then you can get to first place without using your heroes abilities if you play it right.
- It's free to play
- You need to play with what you GET instead of what you WANT. There are some key cards that determine what you have to build around with, most of which can be found on Tavern Tier 3. For example there's a juggler (he shoots 3 dmg at a random enemy if a demon dies), who's a huge red flag to go build around demons. For mechs it's that 3/2 divine shield minion that gets a damage bonus and a new divine shield whenever a mech dies. For dragons however it only starts around Tavern Tier 5, when you can buy the dragon that gets +X/+X where X= the amount of dragons you control every single round. Pirates are tricky, since when you start focusing on them you already want to have some decent pirates. The most needed pirate however is available at tavern tier 4, since he buffs every attacking pirate with a +2/+2. Murlocs on the other hand just need to be on your field for long and take every buff you can get your hands on, which already starts at tavern tier 2. I'd say most people choose which way they build at tavern tier 3, which is quite early in the game.
Things I don't like:
- My favourite hero was removed (the one that buffed race-less minions)
- Somtimes RNG pees on you
- There are so many heroes that you barely ever play the one you actually want to play this time I still haven't played most heroes
- You can BUY a huge advantage (choosing between 4 heroes instead of 2 at the beginning) for 20 €, which is insane imho. I love the game, but I double dare anyone who tries to pull my money out of my pocket in that sickening way.
- endgame usually comes down to: who can get Brann first and who gets more buffs out afterwards. Or: Who has more toxic minions.