It’s super easy to understand the playing process of Altar: the War of Gods. Just finish the in-built tutorial and start your first match to allow the gameplay basics to become clear in your mind.

Still, some additional information may turn out to be very helpful – if you know the theoretical basics, you will have more chances to come up with effective practical ideas. Thus you’ll become more successful in the Altar matches.

This article explains such basics. It helps to feel the gameplay better.

Let us remind you, friends, that Altar: the War of Gods has been published exclusively on Caer Sidi. This game is part of the Tangle-based ecosystem, which opens many possibilities for Wanted Games, as a developer, and you, as a player. For example, physical and digital versions of the game are interconnected thanks to the distributed registry and phygital assets, powered by Caer Sidi.

Altar is still in its alpha state. But you can try it out, give your feedback and make the game better. Please, install Altar: the War of Gods from this page on Caer Sidi.

First step – Tutorial

Some players prefer skipping tutorials, considering them unnecessary. That’s ok for many games, and probably, in Altar you also will be able to start without any preparations. Still. If you do so, you miss something interesting and valuable.

Tutorial in this game introduces the story behind that War of God. Why deities of the Aztec, Japanese, and Indian mythology fight each other? Who created such beautiful and mighty tokens? What is that Altar, after all? Follow the speech of Amaterasu and you will know the answers.

Also, the Altar tutorial explains battle mechanics and answers many gameplay questions.

Second step – choose your army

In the current alpha version of the game, you can choose one of three available pantheons: Aztec, Japanese, or Indian. The number of entities for them is limited to one god and three supporting characters. Here they are:

• Aztec: Quetzalcoatl + Topiltzin, Vision Serpent, and Chacmool;
• Japanese: Amaterasu + Ungaikyo, Miko Azusa, and Basan;
• Indian:  Indra + Apsara, Marut, and Gandharva.

Of course, in the future, the variety of these personalities will be much bigger, so players will have more options in building their armies.

Third step – your first match

First of all, powerful gods expect sacrifice from you. This action proves your readiness to fight and it will be done automatically. Gods are primary tokens of the armies and they enter the battle board first. If they are defeated, the match will be over.

Your god is in the lower part of the game board. Ready to fight tokens are in the lower-left corner of the screen.

There are three opponents battling in one match of Altar. Each can make three actions per turn: place token on the board, move to another spot or attack an opponent nearby. 

One token can move only once per turn. The number of steps is indicated in the lower part of every playing piece.

Other numbers on the tokens refer to the power of attack (left, red) and defense). Fights happen when one token attacks an opponent. The random system chooses one stone – if red, the attacker wins; if blue, the defender wins. Winners take the spot of their opponents. Losers leave the board.

You can get the victory by defeating gods of other armies or by placing your tokens on special spots around the central altar. In the future, the second victory type will open the possibility of crafting new tokens and getting new creatures.

 A few tips

We would like to share with you some ideas about game tactics. They will probably be helpful for your game.

• Experiment with pantheons. Read this guide on choosing your pantheon. Try out each of them in practice. You may find the best personally for you or develop skills for battling effectively with all of them.
• Use long-range tokens first. It would be nice to cover the battlefield with your warriors, take winning spots around the Altar before your opponents do this.
• Avoid attacking with defenders. Some tokens of Altar are good in attacks, so leave such actions to them.
• Occupy winning spots around the altar with strong defending tokens. It will be harder to move them away. You may need to replace your long-range tokens with slow but more powerful in defence.
• Protect your gods. The primary tokens are quite mighty, but randomness of fights can be favourable for your opponents. If your god is defeated, the match is over for you. Sometimes it’s better to keep the god token under protection of their supporting entities.
• Enjoy the game. It’s arguably the best advice for gamers (in any game, in fact). Your emotions are primary here. If you really like the game, you will like to practice it, so you will become more experienced and successful in it.

One of the distinguishing features of Altar is the use of the distributed registry technology to store information about tokens and matches. In the future, the token collection will be expanded with rare collectible pieces. Some of the tokens will get their value thanks to glorious victories or thanks to their extraordinary owners. Players who start their “careers” in Altar earlier have more chances to build a super nice collection of tokens. Do you want to be among such advanced players? Delve into Altar right now.

Follow our social pages to get all the news on Altar: the War of Gods.

Meet the development team and play the physical version of Altar (with the Celtic pantheon) on 24-27 October 2019, in Essen, Germany, at the boardgame trade fair Internationale Spieltage SPIEL.

02.09.2019 11:55 AM

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