For the past several months I've been learning a game in its final stages of development: Legacy's Allure. What is it? Think of chess with a highly customizable army and a fantasy theme. The rules are simple and easy to learn, but the tactical and strategic depth of this game is immense. This is the only wargame I've found that competes with SWM for me.
I'll always play SWM...but now LA has taken a solid 2nd place for me.
Comparison points with SWM:
--NO randomness. No dice to roll (other than the initial roll to see who is the first player). So you can't get Vassalled!! No more losing a game because the dice betrayed you.
--It does *not* have any blind-booster-buying or anything like that. Rather, $125 gets you everything you need to play the game and build just about any squad that you want. (If you want to use many multiples of some cards then you'll have to get extra copies of those packs.)
--Initiative is entirely in your hands. Whoever took the final action in this round will take the second action in the following round. If you want to go first every round, then you need to be the master tactician, yourself!
--Activations are valuable. Having more guys than your opponent will help you to wait out your opponent, which is important...but if you act last in a round then your opponent is guaranteed to start the next round.
--Similar to SWM, there are different types of characters, each of which has its own strengths and weaknesses. There are big beefy Cave Trolls and Green Dragons that are hard to bring down, and there are also Apprentice Wizards and Troll Shamans and Grand Archers and Heavy Knights...and heroes.
--Heroes. Every army has 1 hero, who you can customize with a selection of abilities and spells just for him/her, and also with an assortment of equipment.
--Just like SWM, there is no hidden information. No cards to draw, no secret abilities, etc.
--Factions. There are currently 3 factions, with more already in development. A 4th faction is set to release in December this year. Each faction plays very differently, with its own strengths and emphases.
It launched today on Kickstarter and if you're interested by anything I've written here, I'd suggest that you take a look:
Legacy's Allure on KickstarterThe game is also available on TableTop Simulator, if you're interested in that.
I'm sharing this with the SWM community because this game has so much of the squad-building and tactical depth and excitement that SWM does. I imagine that many of you would really enjoy it if you gave it a shot!