Cross The Ages: A New Card Game Experience
Hello there! @saydie here and it was my first time writing on THGaming community to introduce to you a new web3 trading card game which I have been playing for quite a while now and it was called Cross The Ages which is on Polygon chain and can be played for free. It was introduced to me by @shawnnft and has also make separate post with his investment side of it so the topic of my post will be on the gameplay because first and foremost this is a game. The game was very easy to access. You just need to download the game through desktop or mobile and register just the same as how you register on a social media platform and once done, can play the game right away.
General Gameplay
In order to play Cross The Ages, a player needs to have a deck with a total of 20 cards. Each cards has a power value on them and a decks total power value cannot exceed 10,000 consisting of different elements. For Free-to-play player, there is a starter deck that can be used to start to play the game. After finding an opponent, both players will be transferred to the Appologium which is a 4x4 grid board where the goal is to be able to place the most number of cards or be the first to reach 65 points to win the game which can be earned through capturing cards and making affinities.
At the beginning of the game, there will be coin- flip to decide who will begin first. Each player start with 4 cards on their hand and can place maximum of 8 cards on the board. Depending on the power and element of the card the opponent plays, you can play an element that has advantage on it and you can capture that card as well as every eligible card adjacent into it then depending on your chain counter, the newly acquired card will try to capture the card next to it. If you have heard or play of the game Othello A.K.A. Riversi, you could say that this was quite similar from that but was more complex. There are also Affixes in the game that will be applied when a player reached a certain rating and if you wonder what it do, it's kind of like Rulesets on Splinterlands. I'm still quite low on rating so I have not played with this Affixes yet.
The Heptagram and Affinity System
As I said before, there are different types of card elements which could decide if you can capture the card of your opponent or not. This Heptagram shows the relationship within those elements. If your card's element has an advantage over the element of your opponent's card, your card will receive a +150 power during the placing of card while it loses -150 power if your card's element has disadvantage over your opponent. By selecting the element on the Heptagram, it will show you what that element is strong and weak against like what was shown below. Light and Nature has Red arrow pointing to Earth which means they are strong against it while Earth has green arrow pointing to Darkness and Fire Element which means you can counter this elements using Earth cards.
Aside from the element advantage, there is also the Affinity System where the power value of cards will be boosted by 100 for each card they have an affinity if they are next to an ally card that shares an affinity and comes with 2 types. The 1st is Simple affinity that involves 2 cards and Trinity with 3 cards. It can only happen if the cards were owned by the same person.
Card Types
 | Leader Card | This is the card with special icon in the bottom right corner and can use 1 special attack that can be chosen during deck building. There can only be 1 leader card per deck but it can have 2 capture chains. |
|---|---|---|
 | Battle Cards | The Cards that you play on the board to capture your opponent or defend your position by making Affinities. |
 | Field Cards | Special cards that changes the element of the board and boost all cards with the same element. The effect only last for 3 turns and can be replaced by another field card. It does not take space on the board. |
The Leader Card will always be pulled at the beginning of the game and was ready to played anytime but since it there is only one Leader Card, you should be careful when to use them. On the other hand, you can add multiple Field Cards but also need to be careful when to use them since as long as it was the same element, your opponent can also gain power boost from your field Card.
Cross The Ages gameplay
What Got Me To Keep Playing The Game
I've been playing Cross the Ages for quite some time using their Free-to-Play feature meaning, I have not invest anything at all while also being able to collect some card so I'm not really expecting to earn anything for the moment but still keep playing the game for this reasons:
Lore - Cross the Ages has a very rich lore backing the game, creating compelling stories to understand the premise of the game and create backstories with the characters in the game which makes them relatable or be attached to them. CTA even has published a book to give more substance to the characters and what amazes me is that it was written of different languages such as French and Japanese which is a lot of work but they managed to pull it of. If you want to read their book, you can get them through this link.
Great Graphics and Card Design - Not only the card designs were really good but the overall graphics of the game were really amazing. The Applogium is not just a simple board an awesome field and when a Field Card was activated, it changes the whole area to that element. The cards have different grade and the rarer once really got good design which is good for collection standpoint and price appreciation standpoint.
Sense of Progression- Players can get a sense of progression as they have not only a rating but also level system to give you a sense of progression of where you are in the game. Aside from that, they have this achievement missions that will reward you with points and cards upon finishing them which also allow a player to build their own card collection.
Mobile and desktop Version - The availability to be played on multiple devices allows it to be played by more people but what amazing here is that the game experience of playing CAT on PC and mobile device was almost the same.
Conclusion
Cross the Ages has bring a different game experience with the strategy card game genre with its unique gameplay but also give emphasis to make a rich lore and quality game graphics. For now, I'm playing the game casually using its Free-to-Play feature and it is quite easy to do so because anyone can play the game as soon as they register and can take on all the crypto stuff later which makes onboarding web2 players easier but investing in the game was always an option and its really up to you if you want to invest on it or not. My goal here is to introduce you a game which you can enjoy.
That was all. Thank you so much for reading.
Your welcome. I got you into this game I think :P and @izouky too. Have you purchased the pass for the exclusive events?