Review: Godtear

Time to get on with my first review here at M3, and might as well start with the one thing I've been able to play: Godtear!

So, I played my first game last night with good friend Jeremy via Tabletopia. If you're not familiar; Tabletopia is a virtual tabletop program that lets you play a variety of games, and the folks at Steamforged Games made a module for Godtear so people can play while we're in lockdown. And since my local shops aren't letting people play in them, not that I would with the rapidly rising number of COVID cases here in Utah, I figured I might as well take advantage of this so I can actually write up a proper review!

We played 2v2, using the contents of the two starter boxes

One thing I will say right off is I really appreciate how quick setup took, even using Tabletopia which was significantly slower than playing a game in person.

So how do the rules work? Quite well, actually. Everything is fairly streamlined and we only had to check the rulebook for a couple of things (mostly just clarifying that we weren't messing up too badly). Nothing jumps out as needlessly complex or fiddly, which is refreshing after playing various miniatures games that have 600 page rulebooks that still aren't clear.

To play the first thing players do is decide the size of their game, the standard being 3v3 meaning you each pick three champions and their followers. Since the game has no factions you're free to just pick whatever you want, which allows you to mix up strategies and such pretty easily. It also means you have total control over the amount of models you'll need to play a game rather than the game going "you need a minimum of 40 guys to play a small game." It also means you're totally free to just buy whatever you think looks awesome, and I love that aspect of the game already.

Once players have their champions selected you pick a scenario, of which there are I believe six in the back of the rulebook. Each scenario has different deployment areas, starting layouts of objective hexes and how far the turn token can go on the battle ladder (or at least I'm fairly certain that's what the faction token is for on the battle ladder). Then you deploy, roll to see who goes first, place the turn token on the battle ladder and start! I also like how each scenario has different effects that happen at the end of each turn, adds a nice touch of variety to the game and allows players to change the board around. 

The end of turn one, showing new objective hexes that were placed

Each turn of the game is broken into two phases: the plot phase and the clash phase. Models have different skills, and some have their stats changed, based on the phase of the game, which is a cool dynamic. The plot phase is generally where players will go to try and set up what they want to do in the clash phase, it's also during the plot phase that Champions can do the claim action which allows them to place down their banner which is a big way to score points. The clash phase is where models will start wailing on each other, doing damage and going for kills. 

The one thing I will say I'm not a huge fan of with the phases is how they handle model activations. In the plot phase the first player activates their entire force, and then the second player goes. Yet in the clash phase it's an alternating activation with players picking a champion or follower group to activate, and then going to the next player and so on until everything has gone. It just seems weird, and a bit jarring, to go from I Go You Go (which is a system I'm really not a fan of) to alternating is just odd to me. I'd really prefer if the whole game was done alternating, to be honest. I feel like it'd make actions in the plot phase a little more impactful. As it is it feels like skills that let you move enemy models in the plot phase aren't super great if you're the first player because your opponent can just move away and undo your plans.

Still, I will say it works alright. With the small scale of the game you don't feel like you're just sitting around not doing anything while your opponent does their entire turn (or as I call it: the 40k approach). Just a bit weird.

Finvarr and Morrigan face off next to an askew objective hex

Taking actions with models is pretty straightforward: a model (or group if they're followers) can take two actions during a turn. Generally this is an advance action (allowing a model to move up to it's movement value), or skills as printed on a model's stat card. You can also take other actions like the aforementioned Claim action, as well as the Rally or Recruit actions for a champion or followers respectively. 

I want to touch on these two actions real quick: basically if a model is knocked out (i.e. they take enough damage to meet their HP) you can use these actions to get models back into the fight, which means you can't just table your opponent and go "lol I win" because models will keep coming back. I actually really love this because it means that a few lucky rolls won't just remove a champion from the game and ruin everything. It's just a nice touch, especially after seeing so many other miniatures games that let people ignore objectives and just kill (or games that pretend to be one thing but people just kill each other the whole time anyway).

The Battle Ladder in action

One of the really cool aspects of this game is the Battle Ladder. This is a constantly shifting element that changes based on things payers do like knocking out models, making Claim actions and having a banner on an objective hex at the end of the turn. The fact that it's constantly changes as you fight is a really neat touch and makes things feel dynamic. If you have the token on your half of the ladder at the end of the turn then you win the turn and victory points. So a well laid plan can drastically shift things at the end of the turn and potentially get you the win. 

I also like that the game only goes to five points, which means that winning later turns can still win you the game even if you lose the first turn or two. It really does seem to reward planning and smart plays rather than just bashing in skulls all game (although that can work out quite well). To give an example: in our game I won the first and third turns (we only played three due to time) through planning and laying out my banners without ever taking out one of Jeremy's champions (in fact I'm fairly certain that Nia took zero damage all game) despite how many steps on the Battle Ladder that gets you.

The end of the game, banners planted and the bloodshed over

Skills that require dice rolls as super simple, which is a relief. Basically you roll a number of dice equal to a model's accuracy stat, if you roll equal to or higher than the target's dodge stat you hit. Some skills do not damage, but instead have effects like giving enemies blights that impact their stats. If the skill can do damage then you roll a number of dice equal to the skills damage value, then you subtract the target's protection stat from the roll and that determines the amount of damage done by the attack. It's all pretty slick and no bullshit, which is great.

Lastly I want to touch on boons and blights real fast. This is a cool little way to allow players to modify stats in an easy manner. It also lets you set things ups and does allow for more strategy during a game.

The only other thing I could really say that one might see as a knock against the game is that it can be a bit symbol heavy, but everything's pretty easy to remember I find. It's way less crazy on symbols than something like Wrath of Kings was (seriously, so many damned symbols), but it could potentially be a turn-off to people not as well versed in miniatures games.

Overall, how do I like it? Quite a bit, actually. It plays fast, even on Tabletopia which is nowhere near as fast as an in person experience, the rules are pretty easy to get (I've only had to ask the subreddit three quick questions to clarify things) and the fact it rewards planning and not just non-stop killing is quite a refreshing change of pace. I would absolutely recommend this to someone looking to get started in miniatures gaming as a solid starting place, and also to experienced wargamers looking for something fast paced without feeling anemic. Despite my minor gripes I can still see me playing this more in the future, and it feels like it'll be a nice addition to my collection of games while offering a very different experience from my other options.

Hope you have all enjoyed, and hopefully this was informative to people debating if they want to purchase the game.