Militia

I think this is a brilliant little game - great for a fairly short round of racking my brains to find the right moves for victory.

Simple enough that it doesn't take up days of my life but complex enough to make me think hard.

Strongly recommend.

⣿⣿⡻⠿⣳⠸⢿⡇⢇⣿⡧⢹⠿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣾⣿⡇⣿⣿⣿⣿⡿⡐⣯⠁ ⠄⠄
⠟⣛⣽⡳⠼⠄⠈⣷⡾⣥⣱⠃⠣⣿⣿⣿⣯⣭⠽⡇⣿⣿⣿⣿⣟⢢⠏⠄ ⠄
⢠⡿⠶⣮⣝⣿⠄⠄⠈⡥⢭⣥⠅⢌⣽⣿⣻⢶⣭⡿⠿⠜⢿⣿⣿⡿⠁⠄⠄
⠄⣼⣧⠤⢌⣭⡇⠄⠄⠄⠭⠭⠭⠯⠴⣚⣉⣛⡢⠭⠵⢶⣾⣦⡍⠁⠄⠄⠄⠄
⠄⣿⣷⣯⣭⡷⠄⠄⢀⣀⠩⠍⢉⣛⣛⠫⢏⣈⣭⣥⣶⣶⣦⣭⣛⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄
⢀⣿⣿⣿⡿⠃⢀⣴⣿⣿⣿⣎⢩⠌⣡⣶⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣆⠄⠄⠄
⢸⡿⢟⣽⠎⣰⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⢀⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣦⠄⠄
⣰⠯⣾⢅⣼⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡇⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡄⠄
⢰⣄⡉⣼⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⢸⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⠄
⢯⣌⢹⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⢸⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠄
⢸⣇⣽⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠸⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠄
⢸⣟⣧⡻⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⡻⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠄
⠈⢹⡧⣿⣸⠿⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡿⠗⣈⠻⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡇⠄
⠄⠘⢷⡳⣾⣷⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣾⣿⣿⢀⣶⣶⣶⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠇⠄
⠄⠄⠈⣵⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⢸⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠄⠄
⠄⠄⠄⠸⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠘⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠇⠄⠄

Nice and simple chess-like strategy game. If you're in the mood for a puzzler thats low stress, this is a good starting point.

This game is bad because of one simple reason: You have no control over the difficulty.

It starts you out at the easiest level. Win some matches, difficulty goes up. Lose some, it goes down.

Have a bad run? You have to redo a bunch of too-easy levels just to get back to where you were. It's ridiculous.

If the game let me turn off "difficulty goes down when you fail" in the settings, I'd consider giving this a thumbs-up. But that single flaw is so severe that I can only give this game one star out of five.

A simple idea done well. Feels like playing chess on campaign mode. The difficulty seems to scale well and I don't think I've been put in a match that was unwinnable. Some units are able to refresh others, which allows for some fun move combos.

A few minor gripes:
There is no way to save in the middle of a game. If you quit/go to the menu the current game is considered a loss. You can only quit in-between battles.
There doesn't seems to be a way to change sound settings in game, you have to go to the menu...which can only be done between games.

In Dark mode the Eye Lasers fire too quickly on the enemies turn, I lost several units without knowing what had actually killed them.
The Wand (wizard?) is the only unit that can survive its box explosions, including allies. This is fine, but I didn't feel like it is explained well in the help page.

Over all a great game.

Militia is like something between Hive and Chess. It is a combo that works really well, and rewards thinking moves through. The various character abilities, which do things like teleport and guard adjacent allies, add some helpful diversity and allows for some cool improvisation.

With a few factions or modes, and ranks and leaderboard to get that feeling of progress, Militia is a good palate-cleanser when you want to play a simple-looking but still engaging game. Recommended.

One of the best games of its kind on Steam. I am always impressed with how BrainGoodGames takes what would be simple abstract board games and gives them a real feeling of life as a video game. One thing I keep forgetting to mention in my reviews for their games is how much of a fan I am of the simple graphic style most of them use. There is something about the lack of clutter and the very clearly defined monochrome pieces that feels almost meditative versus games with a lot of animation and unnecessary flashing colors. This is minimalism done very right.

Great game. It's like chess, but with innovative movement and attack rules that can be combined in complex and interesting ways. A typical match can be played in less than ten minutes, making it perfect for taking short breaks from work (which can easily become long breaks if you lose track of time). One of the few games I am proud to have completed 100%.

Thumbs up! Don’t be fooled by the simple graphics. It’s better than it looks. The way the pieces move may draw some comparisons to chess, but you only get two or three pieces at a time and all the pieces move each turn. It starts off easy at first, but the difficulty keeps increasing as you win more games. The standard game uses the pieces known as the Light World, but there is also an option to play with a different set of pieces known as the Dark World. Either way, it’s a good challenge.

Another winner from BrainGoodGames! This one is like a chaotic chess match where you have a few different units that move and attack in very different ways. Instead of capturing a king, you have to defeat several captains, which can be any type of enemy unit and are designated by a star.

And it's like two games in one because there are light and dark versions, which have their own completely different sets of units. Dark takes a bit more creative thinking sometimes because its units are less straightforward -- a force mage that can deal damage only by knocking one unit into another, and a "weaver" that sets "totems" (bombs). Yeah, I'm not sure how they came up with that name. I would have gone with "demolitionist" or "bomber."

Each game is quick, with three short levels, but don't let that fool you into thinking they are easy!. OK, they really are super easy for the first few ranks, but if you want to skip all that, you can "test out of" the easy bits with a placement match. All in all, it's well thought out. Just be sure to avail yourself of the tutorials and info screens because the meanings of the icons are not super obvious the first time you see them. A little trial and error, and you'll be golden!

Great little tactics game! Some similarities to chess, but more straightforward. Easy to pick up, but gets challenging quickly (in a good way). Very much recommended for all fans of strategic thinking!

Excellent simplistic turn-based tactics game. You get three random pawns each with their own unique set of movement/combat rules and have to kill the enemy's leaders on three consective floors. Your turns play a lot like a puzzle, as you're trying to kill specific enemies within a certain turn limit while not losing more than one of your pawns before doing so. If you win your rank goes up, if you lose your rank goes down. The enemies move about randomly after every turn (unless they can secure a kill) and difficulty goes up as your rank goes up so you're always guaranteed a nice challenge.
There's also a Dark World variant of the game - as opposed to the Light World - with its own sets of entirely unique pawns and enemies and involves slightly trickier puzzling as both pawns and enemies have slightly more complex rules for moving and fighting.

Its alternate chess
Each piece moves & eliminates other pieces in a different pattern (just like in chess)
The game comes with two variants 'light' and 'dark', each one has a different lineup of pieces.

Unlike Chess, you win by eliminating all of the enemy 'boss pieces'
Its fun, if you pay attention you can win reliably, and avoid losing any of your pieces. If you lose, it was because you weren't paying attention. I'd recommend this to everybody!

A truly dynamite strategy game! A simple ruleset with only one board but variable gamepiece placement makes this a very fun - albeit challenging - exercise in logic and planning. Far less variety among moves and fewer pieces than chess leads to briskly paced games that reward focus on necessity and encourage a flexible tactical approach to achieving the goal: eliminating all the enemy captains. I am so far (3 hours played) quite enjoying the smooth difficulty scaling, but can already see both the enemy quantity and type making my further progress hard-fought and well earned. I have zero reservations recommending this at full price, much less on sale! Militia is a carefully executed and interesting take on small-scale tactics that is well worth both the cost to purchase and the time to play.

Be aware this isn's a strategy game. It's a puzzle game. You get some a random board setup and enemies either attack you if they can or move randomly (near as I can tell).

It gets a thumbs up because it's a GOOD puzzle game, but I was a bit disappointed by the Steam tags since it led me to think it was more of a board game against an AI.

For people that like chess, this game should be really addicting. It's great that they change the level according to the player's skill.

A fun little board game. Actually, it's two games in one as there is a "light" and a "dark" mode with different unit sets and vastly different rules. Basically, you control a small number of pieces (1 to 3) against a huge horde of weaker pieces (10-20 is typical after the early levels). Your job is to take out a couple of enemy pieces - those marked with a star (typically 4-6 enemies are starred). The movement and attack rules for your pieces (and those of the opponents) seem very hard to remember, but after a couple games you'll be quite familiar with them, surprisingly enough, so no problem there! As you move up in ranks (the more you win, the higher your rank is, leading to harder setups - you can also lose ranks if you lose too much) you will have more enemies, while you will have to make do with 3 pieces at most. Yet with careful thinking, you can set up elaborate attack strategies and kill enemies without losing any of your pieces. "Unwinnable" scenarios are uncommon - I've yet to meet one, though technically I guess it might be possible.

If there is any disadvantage to the game, it's that replayability is not necessarily endless - once you learn both rule sets, you're basically just doing the same thing, except in different setups. The fact that setups are randomly generated means the game stays fresh for a long while, but even so, eventually one might get bored. Still, it's a cheap and cost-effective game. If you get it on sale, it's almost free, and certainly worth it.

If you like casual puzzles, this is definitely a game for you to try. Simple yet elegant, casual yet challenging, chilling yet additive, this is definitely a sweet game that captures that simplicity with great game mechanics. Like one of the other reviewer, this game does feels like a chess-ish game. Your objective is to kill off enemy units tagged with a Star icon within x turns, using only 2-3 units. You have to wait 3 rounds (they call it 'floor') to win a match.

I give it a + for the soothing music. Never gets bored. In fact, I find myself kept playing it late at night when I am suppose to sleep already!! :D

Excellent strategy game. Gets quite difficult at the higher levels. Interesting single-player ranking system. Nice, minimalist style.

Overall, a well-thought out, well-made, fun game that I enjoy on coffee breaks (and sometimes get sucked into for longer!). I have a lot more play time on a DRM-free version that isn't counted on Steam, probably around 10 hours.

A charming, deceptively simple game. Easy to learn, difficult to master.

You pit three random player-controlled units against a much larger number of weaker enemies. You have trickier and more powerful options, but a single mistake means losing 1/3 of your firepower.

The game has an elegant tutorial and is very quick to learn.

Its ranking system accomplishes two difficult tasks at once: motivation to get better at the game, and an effective difficulty curve. You'll probably blast through the first few ranks easily, but soon you'll find yourself in challenging environments that push you to master the mechanics. I can confidently say this regardless of your skill level or aptitude for this sort of game.

Overall, a great buy for the price. You can play one of two distinct rulesets, either Light or Dark. Light offers much simpler mechanics, with units that jump and attack in easy-to-understand ways. Dark offers complicated individual pieces that do things like push other units, generate explosives, and warp across the edges of the board.

I am excited to see how many hours of play this game offers me.

Fun, simple game with a good soundtrack.
However, the game is very unforgiving. No undo button, no restart level button, takes more XP than it gives, and one mistake could ruin the entire round for you.