On year 271, less than 30 years before the final battle, a random event arises. Someone calling herself the Commoner Queen has been riling up the people. I can meet with her, refuse to meet with her, or send one of my heroes to disappear her.
Although the results can vary for each choice, I feel like I’m hip to this trick by now. The good choice, the bad choice, and the choice that risks a hero. But Doublefine gets really, uh, playful with these random events. You should see what they do when you start throwing things into the chalice! They’re more than happy to allow bad results for good choices and good results for bad choices, so I’m going to risk a hero. Hopefully, this will avoid one of my territories being put one point of corruption closer to slipping into the sea. Besides, I have heroes to spare. I’m awash in Gaffney girls! So I chose the third option and send a Gaffney girl to deal with this Commoner Queen.
After the jump, yet another Sagewrights Guild sinks into the sea. Continue reading →
As my game moves into its third and final century, I’ve suffered a couple of serious setbacks. I’ve lost two of my five keeps. When a keep is overrun and its territory falls into the sea, it takes with it the regent who presides there, his or her spouse, and all of their children. But you don’t just lose the territory and the heroes. You lose all the heroes they would have brought forth in later years. It is, quite literally, the end of the line for that family.
After the jump, let us tell sad stories of the deaths of keeps. Continue reading →
One of the things I love most about Massive Chalice is how the game mechanics are straightforward, above board, and logical. This could be a boardgame or a tabletop RPG combat system. With one boggling exception that was cleared up easily enough, Massive Chalice is a game that makes perfect sense.
After the jump, to hit chances for dummies Continue reading →
Ainfean Gaffney, a hunter in Massive Chalice, has never been in a battle. She would have been good at it. Being nimble, she has a dexterity bonus that’s extremely valuable to hunters. But when it comes time to found a noble house of hunters, I choose her as its regent, hoping she will pass down to her children the nimble trait. I marry her to Daniel Flink from my house of alchemists because Daniel is bountiful. Bountiful is a trait that increases the likelihood of having kids. They will provide me with a line of trickshots, which is the hunter subclass that results from marrying a hunter to an alchemist.
After the jump, Daniel’s trickshots hit their target, if you know what I mean. Continue reading →
This is my second game of Massive Chalice. I’ll be writing an update every 50 years or so up until the year 300 finale. In my first game, I got to the finale easily enough. But because I didn’t know what to expect, and because I was figuring out the bloodlines as I went, I failed spectacularly in the end. I’m convinced that’s how you’re meant to experience Massive Chalice: once to discover it, a second time to actually try to win it. The third and successive times are either for fun or at harder difficulty levels.
My plan this time is science. Just science. Science, which is also how you build buildings, was such a precious commodity in my first game. By the time I reached the 300 year time limit, I had so much cool stuff left unresearched, so many buildings still unbuilt, so much territory unused. Science is even how you recruit new blood when your old blood gets tired. Science does all these things. So my plan this time around is science.
After the jump, if it wasn’t for those meddling kids. Continue reading →
As you can see on the main map, the Ebbott Marsh, the territory at the three o’ clock position, is shot through with rivers. But does that mean anything?
After the jump, a river runs through it. Continue reading →
I suspect a common complaint about Massive Chalice is that your heroes die too quickly, and you therefore can’t get attached to them in the same way you get attached to your heroes in X-com, XCOM, the XCOM add-on, and other such games. It’s a complaint I shared when I first started playing Massive Chalice. But as I played, I realized it’s the single most important element of this subversive take on the X-com formula.
After the jump, mortality rates. Continue reading →
Tom Chick and Qt3 contributor Tony Carnevale discuss Invisible Inc, Massive Chalice, and Rebuild 3. Why those three games? What do they have in common? Do we recommend them? Which one is best? And why does Tony run a My Little Pony channel on You Tube? Listen to find out!
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