We all love something to root for.
Whether it’s cheering on our favorite sports team, a popular video game console, new TV show or a hot new board game, for some reason people love to invest and attach themselves to things. I admit I don’t fully understand the psychology behind it, but I know our attachments often help us to identify ourselves and can even be a form of expression at times.
Which is why you see so many games work hard to incorporate some kind of personable identity in their products. Are you a Ryu or Ken player in Street Fighter? Having a class players can find find relatable makes them more invested in their Dungeons and Dragons campaign. Magic the Gathering works hard to develop their five colors with actual personality traits that affect the way each plays in the game. And don’t even get me started on Monopoly because if you come between me and my top hat things will get ugly fast.
When we began creating REDLINE, we knew establishing strong factions would be essential to the success of the game. Not only to give players a favorite team to root for but to also give each a mechanical identity that opens the game up to be played in different ways. This resulted in the creation of our two current factions, the United Nations of Earth (UNE), and the Crimson Pact of Mars (CPM). This week I thought it would be fun to dive into these two factions to further explore their histories and mechanical differences.
Which side are you on? Team UNE? Or team CPM?
The Crimson Pact of Mars
Early in REDLINEs development we knew we wanted each faction to have their own base of operations to help make them feel distinct. If you read last week’s article on the influence of current events on the REDLINE story you’ll know the recent commercialization of space had a big influence and as such it only made sense to base a faction on Mars as we interact with the planet more and more. We wanted REDLINE to exist in a near future world and the low key space race we see today between nations and companies like SpaceX gave us plenty of room to be creative with the red planet.
In the world of REDLINE the commercialization of space led to huge advancements in technology thanks to the revolutionary development of asteroid mining. As more and more industry moved to space, Mars quickly found itself as prime real estate. Its proximity to the asteroid belt made mining economically viable and soon large ore refineries and heavy industry began appearing alongside the small Martian colonies dotted along the rusty landscape. And though the US had a presence, it was really China and Russia who took the lead on developing infrastructure on Mars as a way to secure mining access. The Moon also became a valuable resource at this time as a staging ground for trips to Mars with many nations establishing small bases there.
However, as tensions rose among world powers for access to the asteroid belt it was only a matter of time before open conflict started and soon the Solar War began. Having greater access to the deposits in the asteroid belt gave the Chinese and Russian forces a military advantage early on with joint strikes against the US and it’s allies in space. However when the US was able to secretly develop efreets and deploy them to expel the Chinese and Russian forces off the Moon the effects were disastrous. Now effectively cut off from their weakened governments, the leaders of the Chinese and Russian militaries were forced to flee to their industrial power base and colonies on Mars to restructure their forces and adapt to this new phase of the war.
Thus, the Crimson Pact of Mars was born.
Dedicated to reclaiming their home nations left behind on Earth, the CPM works tirelessly to rebuild their military strength while also developing the hostile terrain of Mars into a more habitable environment. They know full well it will take time to gather enough strength to recover the loss of Earth and so they digging in for the long game. They believe victory will be inevitable once they can harness the full amount of the space based resources widely available to them as long as they can survive in their new home.
CPM Abilities
Once we had a backstory for the CPM, we worked hard to further develop the look and feel of the faction with regards to REDLINE gameplay. Since they ended up as an amalgamation of Chinese and Russian militaries we wanted their efreets to have a more robust and industrial look to them. Design wise, we gave many CPM efreets a boxy and angular look more fitting to farm equipment than sophisticated military hardware. They are a little more simple in construction which makes mass production easier and gives the CPM a numerical advantage in the Solar War.
To show this in gameplay we tended to design CPM efreets with a greater focus on firepower and armor. Though they tend to have slower speeds, their efreets can absorb more damage in combat and really dish out punishment when they land shots. This is highlighted with their devastating Salvo ability which allows CPM efreets to plant thier feet and fire everything to increase their attack damage at the risk of decreased accuracy.
And just like their efreet designs, the CPM excels at dealing damage in any situation. Many of their cards, like Danger Close, blow everything up with a scorched earth approach that damages everything engaged in battle. Be careful when fighting an opponent playing as the CPM because you never know when they might call the thunder down, even on their own heads. Luckily, their efreets have the armor to shrug off such blows and keep fighting.
In addition, the CPM isn’t afraid to play dirty and has a few ways to disrupt their enemies by hacking into opposing efreets to get their weapons to malfunction at the worst times. And the CPM also understands the value of sacrifice for the greater good whic means they aren’t afraid to accept high loses to gain an advantage in battle as evidenced by cards like Blaze of Glory.
If you like to swing a big hammer and destroy everything in your path, then the CPM is the REDLINE faction for you. Their focus on bringing blunt force to every fight makes them powerful and as long as they can sustain high losses, their overwhelming might is usually enough to secure the battlefield and win games. For the CPM, it’s all about achieving critical mass and they can be hard to stop once they get rolling. Watch out.
The United Nations of Earth
It was clear to many that as the worlds economies became more and more dependent on space, that the US was falling behind the aggressive expansion of its adversaries. Though the US had access to the wealth of minerals that came with asteroid mining, the Chinese and Russians were becoming increasingly territorial with their resource claims which cut the US off from the easiest to access mineral deposits. Over time, they relied more on private business to extract the rare Earth metals out of their reach.
This reliance came back to haunt them when hostilities began to appear around the asteroid belt. Frustratingly, the US and its allies often found themselves on the defensive as there was little they could do to stop aggression when the most profitable mining orbits were already secured by foreign powers. This weakness almost became fatal when the Solar War finally began and the US suffered a number of devastating early defeats when they tried to take the offensive against the established Chinese and Russian positions on Mars.
Desperate to turn the tide, the US reached out to the technological powerhouse known as the BRIMEA, or Brazilian, Indian and Middle Eastern Alliance. Though these nations lacked a strong space presence, they directly benefited from the wealth that flowed from asteroid mining by being able to focus one hundred percent of their time and energy into advanced scientific research without the need to extract resources directly. It was with their help that the US was able to develop the first efreets in exchange for sharing their fledging research into faster than light propulsion. Eventually the US took over the entire efreet program and was able to successfully deploy them at the lunar Battle of Tycho Crater, a turning point in the Solar War that saw the expulsion of the Chinese and Russian militaries to Mars.
While a major victory, Tycho Crater in hindsight ended up as a pyrrhic one for the US. It created a massive power vacuum around the globe as billions of people living in Russia and China suddenly found themselves left behind, defenseless, and isolated. Without military backing, waves of riots broke out in those nations and soon a humanitarian crisis on a scale unseen emerged as what was left of the old governments eroded. The US and its allies suddenly found themselves in control of Earth, but taxed to the limit to secure it from total collapse.
Increasingly spread thin, and now in the unique position of having near total hegemony the US lead the creation of a new global alliance called the United Nations of Earth to establish a grasp of the situation. Made up of the US and its major allies, the UNE fights to retain control and stability over the Earth and its populations, both hostile and friendly, from CPM incursions. Resisting increased pressure to join the UNE and be sucked into a ruinous conflict, the BRIMEA led a surprise exodus of Earth with the perfected faster than light technology gained from the US which effectively doubled the abandoned populations left behind for the UNE to occupy. As a result, the UNE finds itself more and more as a peacekeeping force than an effective military arm.
UNE Abilities
With its forces taxed to the limit, the UNE finds itself relying heavily on advanced technology to make the most of every asset they have. Their efreets tend to be a bit more sophisticated as a result with a focus on speed and accuracy. Many of their most advanced efreets were designed around smooth curves and flowing shapes more similar to stealth fighter jets than bulky tanks. This advanced approach to efreet design can be seen with their Precision ability which allows them to reroll dice in battle for a second chance at a favorable result.
In combat UNE efreets tend to fire first and are harder to hit due to their speed. And though they may lack the sheer firepower of their CPM counterparts, they make up for it with a great accuracy to land devastating critical hits when weapons like the NAU-3 Avenger cannon are brought into battle.
Additionally, tying into their theme of accuracy and precision, the UNE has an easier time drawing cards to find the answers they need in battle. But they also look to dominate the battlefield tactically with cards like Brand’s Bunker that allows UNE commanders to peer into an opponent’s plans before combat and make adjustments to their own mission orders on the fly.
If you like to outthink your opponent and do so with finesse and carefully strategy, then you may want to consider enlisting with the UNE. True, they have to make every shot count, but they are experts in setting up ambushes and dancing around their opponents to whittle them down or force them to make mistakes.
Choose Your Fighter
In the future as we look to expand REDLINE, we’re also excited to build on the foundations of the CPM and UNE factions. You can see we worked hard to give each its own unique style of play and it will be a lot of fun to expand on these concepts with future cards. There is a lot of design space to grow each with new mechanics and efreets to bring to bare and we can’t wait to see what players can do with new abilities for their favorite factions over time.
Additionally, REDLINE was designed to grow with room for extra factions both in the lore and gameplay. And while it’s too early to discuss them yet, we’ve made sure each has their own unique mechanical space that will open up new tactics and strategies for play and deck construction when they arrive. Or, put another way, we wanted to make sure we put limits on what the CPM and UNE can do from day one of design so they didn’t encroach on new factions once they are introduced to the game.
It is our hope that as players dive into REDLINE: Tactical Card Combat they’ll find a favorite faction that appeals to their play style and personality.
Embrace your strengths and build on your weaknesses.