{"id":13976,"date":"2015-09-10T06:00:54","date_gmt":"2015-09-10T06:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=13976"},"modified":"2015-09-06T01:53:07","modified_gmt":"2015-09-06T01:53:07","slug":"massive-chalice-pc-xbox-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2015\/09\/10\/massive-chalice-pc-xbox-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Massive Chalice (PC & Xbox One)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"massive<\/a>Like X-Com, Massive Chalice is both a short-term tactical game and a long-term strategy game. \u00a0However, rather than managing an organization and individuals as they progress through their careers, Massive Chalice puts you in charge of a kingdom and you manage the royal lines through centuries of development.<\/p>\n


\nThe central idea of the game is fairly common. \u00a0Train and equip a squad of soldiers and use them to combat invaders to your realm. \u00a0Move them into hotspots when they flare up and hopefully they survive the mission intact to earn experience and improve in power. \u00a0However, the invasions are infrequent, and after a few go by your elite squad of soldiers begin to show their age (eventually kicking the bucket.) \u00a0This brings into Massive Chalice its great twist on the tactical combat genre.<\/p>\n

 
\nAt the start of the game, you are presented with a choice of several candidates to start your dynasty, located at the center of a map surrounded by 9 other fiefdoms. \u00a0Present your monarch (Queen or King – thrones can be occupied by either) with a spouse and jump into the game.
\nResearch and development can be used to improve the capabilities of soldiers, but at the start of the game it is far more important to establish additional dynasties in the other 9 locations. \u00a0These locations can house a Keep (for an additional dynasty), a Crucible (which increases character\u2019s experience earned over time), and a Sagewright\u2019s Guild (which increases the rate of research.) \u00a0Research can be used to build more buildings on your land or to increase your soldiers abilities. \u00a0As with X-Com, you can often \u201cuse up\u201d defeated enemies to fuel research into new abilities and items.<\/p>\n

\"massive<\/a><\/p>\n

Keeps need a lord\/lady and a consort. \u00a0Depending on their fertility characteristic, they produce progeny at a greater or lesser rate. \u00a0Their progeny will inherit many of the characteristics (good and bad) of their parents, and will be higher level depending on the level of their parents as well. \u00a0When they become old enough they can then become a member of the strike team or go on to produce children of their own.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 
\nIt is important to be careful of one\u2019s bloodlines. \u00a0There are a few different \u201cclasses\u201d of soldiers in the game (basically a knight, archer, and ranged bomber – some versions of which can also have \u201cstealthy\u201d abilities.) \u00a0Each parent contributes their class to their children. So two archers will produce another archer, but if you have a mix of parental classes they can produce an entirely new (somewhat hybrid) class. \u00a0All this combines to make managing one\u2019s bloodlines one of the most important decisions of the game. \u00a0Only progeny can take over the keep of their parents (and be the main ruler – you can have any class or bloodline be the spouse), and so you can\u2019t let a particular line die out, but you also need to be careful not to lose the ability to produce a character class of which you are fond.<\/p>\n

 
\nTo make matters worse, especially at the start of the game, you have to be careful you don\u2019t overreach your human resources. \u00a0The Sagewrights, Keeps, and Crucible all take people to man, and once a person is committed to them you can\u2019t call them back out of retirement. \u00a0Build too many structures and put too many people to work to quickly and you might not even be able to field a full five man tactical squad.<\/p>\n

 
\nAs the years go on, your people grow old, die and get replaced. \u00a0Hopefully, through training, heredity, and the Crucible, your squads will slowly become more powerful and higher level. \u00a0A bloodline can even obtain a legendary weapon that is passed down to succeeding generations. \u00a0invasions begin to become more frequent, and since two zones are always threatened and you can only send out one squad, the zones eventually start to fall prey to the invaders. \u00a0Last long enough and the \u201cmagic chalice\u201d will charge up enough to defeat the invading armies once and for all.. providing a lasting peace for your kingdom.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"massive<\/a><\/p>\n

Massive Chalice is a great tactical, squad-based combat game with a very unique organizational spin. \u00a0I love the idea of generations of people coming together to staff off the invading armies. \u00a0Sometimes you get a particularly fertile king that lives to a ripe old age, and sometimes you\u2019re doing your best to find a way to breed out unwanted traits (like cowardly or sickly) in your best bloodlines. \u00a0Any fan of tactical squad combat will find Massive Chalice a very interesting breath of fresh air.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 
\nKid Factor:<\/strong><\/p>\n

No real worries here other than weird looking aliens, a few of which \u201cexplode\u201d to make a corrosive mess. \u00a0However, the sprites aren\u2019t all the big and there isn\u2019t any gratuitous gore (your own people just keel over and die if hit.) \u00a0Yes, you are essentially \u201cbreeding\u201d new soldiers in your bloodlines, but it\u2019s quite abstract. \u00a0Kids would have to know enough that children come from mommies and daddies. \u00a0If you are (or aren\u2019t) one of the more modern sorts of families – yes you can have two \u201cmommies\u201d or \u201cdaddies\u201d on the throne, but they won\u2019t produce children. \u00a0Some reading there, although not a lot. \u00a0The key factor will be in long-term planning. \u00a0Best for middle school and on up when kids are able to plan out current actions for long term strategy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like X-Com, Massive Chalice is both a short-term tactical game and a long-term strategy game. \u00a0However, rather than managing an organization and individuals as they progress through their careers, Massive Chalice puts you in charge of a kingdom and you manage the royal lines through centuries of development.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[119,133],"class_list":["post-13976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-game-reviews","tag-review","tag-strategy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13976"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13982,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13976\/revisions\/13982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}