Like X-Com, Massive Chalice is both a short-term tactical game and a long-term strategy game.  However, 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.

The central idea of the game is fairly common.  Train and equip a squad of soldiers and use them to combat invaders to your realm.  Move them into hotspots when they flare up and hopefully they survive the mission intact to earn experience and improve in power.  However, the invasions are infrequent, and after a few go by your elite squad of soldiers begin to show their age (eventually kicking the bucket.)  This brings into Massive Chalice its great twist on the tactical combat genre.

 
At 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.  Present your monarch (Queen or King – thrones can be occupied by either) with a spouse and jump into the game.
Research 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.  These locations can house a Keep (for an additional dynasty), a Crucible (which increases character’s experience earned over time), and a Sagewright’s Guild (which increases the rate of research.)  Research can be used to build more buildings on your land or to increase your soldiers abilities.  As with X-Com, you can often “use up” defeated enemies to fuel research into new abilities and items.

Keeps need a lord/lady and a consort.  Depending on their fertility characteristic, they produce progeny at a greater or lesser rate.  Their 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.  When they become old enough they can then become a member of the strike team or go on to produce children of their own.

 
It is important to be careful of one’s bloodlines.  There are a few different “classes” of soldiers in the game (basically a knight, archer, and ranged bomber – some versions of which can also have “stealthy” abilities.)  Each 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.  All this combines to make managing one’s bloodlines one of the most important decisions of the game.  Only 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’t 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.

 
To make matters worse, especially at the start of the game, you have to be careful you don’t overreach your human resources.  The Sagewrights, Keeps, and Crucible all take people to man, and once a person is committed to them you can’t call them back out of retirement.  Build 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.

 
As the years go on, your people grow old, die and get replaced.  Hopefully, through training, heredity, and the Crucible, your squads will slowly become more powerful and higher level.  A bloodline can even obtain a legendary weapon that is passed down to succeeding generations.  invasions 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.  Last long enough and the “magic chalice” will charge up enough to defeat the invading armies once and for all.. providing a lasting peace for your kingdom.

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

 
Kid Factor:

No real worries here other than weird looking aliens, a few of which “explode” to make a corrosive mess.  However, the sprites aren’t all the big and there isn’t any gratuitous gore (your own people just keel over and die if hit.)  Yes, you are essentially “breeding” new soldiers in your bloodlines, but it’s quite abstract.  Kids would have to know enough that children come from mommies and daddies.  If you are (or aren’t) one of the more modern sorts of families – yes you can have two “mommies” or “daddies” on the throne, but they won’t produce children.  Some reading there, although not a lot.  The key factor will be in long-term planning.  Best for middle school and on up when kids are able to plan out current actions for long term strategy.

Tags: Game Reviews