Pixel Tactics

This is probably the first print and play game I've tried, and the only reason I even knew about this is because I took part in their kickstarter for Indines

So what is PT about? Well, it's a skirmish based card game, except there are no dice or random abilities at all. The only random thing you do is drawing cards from your deck, which affects the heroes you get.

For those interested in it, a set of the rules can be found here. For those still wondering what it's about, you have a set of 25 cards, all of which can function as either a hero or a LEADER, depending on which side you place it on (the * side denotes the leader). Once your leader dies, you lose the game.

Play is simple. You pick 5 cards in the beginning and chose your leader from one of the 5. You put your leader in the centre of your formation; which consists of 3 rows and 3 columns, so he's in the exact centre. Each round consists of 3 waves, basically going from the first row, to the 2nd, to the third. The player with the initiative goes first for each wave and at the end of the round, initiative passes over to the other player.

One of the things about the game is that during each wave, you can only really do things that affects that wave usually. Unless you use orders, which are sort of like instants in MTG. So planning is key for each wave. Especially since most of your heroes will only have melee attacks and need to be in the front to be able to attack; since they can not attack if other heroes are blocking them. 

Overall, it's a pretty decent game, especially for the print and play price level. However, balance could still use some tweaking because there are certain combos that are just WTF. Having a 7 damage leader that has RANGED attacks can be pretty FUBARed. Especially when some leaders only have 14 health. Which means it's easy to kill someone in 2 turns sometimes unless they draw the right card. I guess that's why they recommend playing it in sets of 3 instead of just 1 match.