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Ever since I reviewed the turn-based strategy iOS game Hero Academy, I've become hooked on it -- and great at it. I rarely lose a match, and I'm running out of serious competition. So, I figured, if anyone could put up a challenge, it would be one of the people who made the free-to-play game.
After negotiations with the developer Robot Entertainment, I was set up in a match against Zeke Marks. He's one of the game's designers, and his coworkers at Robot consider him to be their best player. Marks and I engaged in an intense battle that lasted for the better part of a week, trading turns back and forth whenever each of us had a free moment. All the while, I took screenshots of the battle and kept notes on each turn.
You can win a game of Hero Academy by killing all of your opponent's units. But you can also win by attacking and destroying their crystals, which can take a lot of damage but are stuck in pre-determined locations. Each turn, you're allotted five "action points" that allow you to move units, attack, or use items and spells.
For our match, Marks decided to play as a newly added squad of characters, based on the popular Valve game Team Fortress 2.
Turn 1
The Team Fortress crew plays far differently from the other teams in Hero Academy, largely because there are just so many of them. All nine of the classes from Team Fortress 2 are represented, with two from each. The team doesn't use equipment to enhance individual units, and their special ability is that they regain an action point when stomping on fallen foes. This makes it easy for them to overrun enemy forces with sheer numbers, and the large variety of unit types gives them tons of strategic options.
I knew that this battle was going to be difficult, especially since Marks had, at that point, more experience than anyone else in the world with the Team Fortress 2 team. I decided to play things safe and break out my favorite team, the Dark Elves, who can regain health by attacking units. They work best with a particularly aggressive play style, and I planned on using their raw power to crush the Team Fortress swarm.
Marks kicked things off by bringing out a Heavy unit and buffing his attack power with an Engineer. I responded in kind with a Priestess and a Necromancer, who I powered up with a sword.
