Have you ever wished that Tetris were more like a strategy/kingdom management game? There’s also a sense of roguelite in there, as you go across the landscape, collecting resources, constructing troops, unlocking structures, and engaging in combat with adversaries. Isn’t that the main purpose of Tetris? Hey, come back here! What do you mean?
Drop Duchy’s Gameplay Features Terrain, Troops, and Strategy
Tetris meets The fundamental pitch is carcassonne, although it’s a bit more complex than that. In essence, you have a grid that resembles Tetris, with the recognizable bricks dropping slowly (thank goodness for those of us who are older). However, they comprise several terrain types in Drop Duchy, including plains, rivers, and woods.
Oh, and there are buildings that do things occasionally. They alter the terrain from time to time. In order to produce food as a resource, a farm may transform plains into fields. Certain structures have the potential to clear forests and transform them into plains, producing wood as a resource. The synergies between various building kinds are where things get fascinating. For example, if a forest is cleared and turned into a plain, a farm (if it’s within range) may be able to grow food on top of the wood from the forest, creating lovely little production cycles.
BUT! Additionally, there are buildings that generate armies, which is where things get interesting since there is a game of rock, paper, scissors amongst men wielding swords, axes, and bows. By the way, your Duchy is being attacked, therefore you will play on some quiet levels where you will concentrate on accumulating resources, but occasionally you will come up against an adversary.
Additionally, you need position your troop production facilities next to the appropriate terrain in order to acquire resources for building your men, as these unit production structures also use different types of terrain.However, you also have influence over where the opponent manufacturing buildings are located, so your well-planned production chain can function flawlessly for you. Then the game gives youDo you put it in the reserve slot off to the side and figure out how to screw your opponent with tile placements later (there aren’t many tiles and the board fills up!) or do you put it in there and play yourself? HOW DO YOU ACT?
That is the fundamental gameplay. The typical map with nodes and options is the roguelite wrapper; you can acquire resources and play on a serene area, but the last boss can have higher HP. Take on an adversary. Which map do you prefer—the one with more rivers or plains? Hello, what sort of resource are you looking to select?
Oh no! Because you may purchase additional tiles and unlock new structures with the resources you collect, there is also a “deckbuilding” component. The tiles you can use on each map are also limited, but you can upgrade your deck and use those same resources to unlock additional spaces. Naturally, this influences the selection of terrain: Maps with lots of forest tiles are definitely what you want to strive for if you’ve built your archers mostly on gathering wood from woods. However, those rivers also provide a lot of gold, which you may use to repair your overall defense (think HP; if it hits 0, you lose the game and restart).
Annnnd! Certain buildings, like the resource gathering buildings, can cooperate if they are close to one another. Therefore, if you arrange them correctly, you can give all of your military troops archers, swordsmen, and axemen in addition to a production benefit. Alternatively, you can whiff and put an enemy building in the space you reserved for YOUR building, and he will receive the bonus. Rest in peace.
Should You Keep an Eye on Drop Duchy?
One of those crazy independent games that occasionally appears and exemplifies why independent gaming is so fantastic is Drop Duchy: Such a ridiculous act would never be done by a large studio. Since it’s a demo, it’s obviously hard to predict how the final version will look, but this preliminary view demonstrates that the fundamental systems are present and function flawlessly. Other than the tutorial, Classic mode with Easy and Normal difficulty was the only replayable option in the demo; however, additional difficulties are in the works. Although the Duchy was the only side available, I could see that missions, the Republic, and the Order were on the horizon. Control of territory and administration of resources Perhaps Tetris wasn’t on your list.But perhaps it ought to be.