14 DAY TRIAL // 
The Prince is the core combat unit for any army, filled with upgrades and combat strength, ready to survive when going up against the toughest enemies. I tend to support him with souped-up spearmen and with mass-produced archers. The occasional knight, used mostly as a guided missile and designed to inflict a lot of damage, is a situational addition. I find archers decent sometimes, but I don’t put them on the field right away. My current choices make it easy to deal with most missions, but I need more strength to be able to challenge the final boss of this world.
Circle Empires Tactics is developed by Luminous and published by Iceberg Interactive. I played the game via Steam on the PC. This is an interesting take on strategy and tactics that delivers solid structure for both singleplayer and multiplayer matches.
The game features three factions: the Human Empire, an alliance between Orcs and Lizards, and the Wizards of Light and Darkness. Each comes with its own leaders and units, with special abilities that will lead to a variety of tactics. There’s little in the way of worldbuilding in the game because the focus is on the strategy elements. A little more lore for some units and their abilities could have made the entire setting more interesting.
Circle Empires Tactics is built around simple mechanics and player choices. When a battle starts the player has his leader and one or two other units on the field. To put down more gamers need to spend gold, based on unlocked types and previous decisions. Each unit then gets one order to execute, sometimes combining movement and attack. Every type also has special abilities, like the javelin that spearmen can chuck or the healing of the priests. Players need to carefully choose how units act in order to achieve the specific objective of each engagement.
Most focus on taking out all enemies. But there’s some variety to look forward to taking out a specific king, survival missions, resources extraction, and more. Regardless of the mission, it’s a good idea to limit losses and move fast to secure better rewards. Make sure to try and anticipate enemy moves and shelter troops that are in trouble.
Between battles, Circle Empires Tactics asks players to invest in their force. Who do you want to take with you? Do you have the money to invest in a new token or to upgrade your resources producing circles? Which unit ability should get which token? What’s the best combination to use for the leader?
And then it’s time to invade another circle of land or defend one from attack, with the ultimate goal of getting to the boss to take him down. Deal with this battle, take a new token and money, invest them wisely, choose where to move next, repeat until you feel powerful enough for a big engagement.
The loop is fun and engaging at first, especially for the player who knows nothing about the objective types. The small tactical puzzles offer surprises, finding the best combination for the tokens and abilities is a good brain teaser. But repetition starts to set in relatively quick and it’s hard to muster excitement when trying to kill a king that hides behind a wall of soldiers for the fifth time.
Circle Empires Tactics also features extensive multiplayer options, allowing players to engage in cooperative and versus matches both online and via LAN. The infrastructure seems solid and there are currently plenty of matches to choose from, with a variety of options when the player wants to create one. To introduce more variety there’s also an editor that anyone can use to put together scenarios.
Circle Empires Tactics does aim for the graphical complexity of other modern strategy titles while focusing on delivering all the information that players need to make good choices both inside and outside of combat. It’s easy to swap charms or to decide how to spec troops. But the visuals of the battles become boring very quickly, especially when facing the same scenarios over and over. The sound design does not rise above mediocre, with a very forgettable soundtrack and unit quips that don’t add anything to the action.
The Good
- Tight tactical mechanics
- Solid multiplayer infrastructure
- Limited frustration on failure
The Bad
- Limited worldbuilding
- Needs more variety
- Sound design
Conclusion
The problem with the game is that, apart from love of its mechanics, there’s nothing to keep gamers engaged with the singleplayer. The lore is limited and there’s not enough variety. The game is more interesting in multiplayer, where humans can deliver some cool tactical moments. Circle Empires Tactics has some good ideas but needs more depth to appeal to modern strategy lovers.
Review code provided by the publisher.
