Tired of boring old chess? Looking for something better? Take chess, give the pieces different stats and skills, and you’ve got Tactics Arena.

Tactics Arena Online, or Tactics Arena, is a multiplayer online flash game. In TAO, each piece has a certain amount of health, an attack type, and a recovery time. We’ll get back to that in a moment. Let’s start from the beginning. Here’s how to play Tactics Arena from the beginning. By the time you finish reading this guide, you’ll practically know everything about TAO. Be warned: Just because you can play chess, doesn’t mean you can beat everyone at TAO. You have an entirely different set of rules. Also, you don’t need to know how to play chess to play TAO. Let’s get started.

Registering, and Account Types

Okay, so you’re ready to get going? Before you register, let me tell you about the two account types and the limitations. There are two levels of account (gray and gold). Gray (free) accounts are deleted every couple of months. Gold accounts ($5 a month) are not, plus they get more features (a special reserved server, extra pieces, etc). I play with a gray account, and I just recreate it every time they wipe the servers. My stats get reset every couple months, but who cares? It’s still fun. Okay, to register you go to www.tacticsarena.com and click “Play Now”. Click the link marked “Launch Game: Tactics Arena Online”. A new window will open. Wait for everything to load. It’ll take a couple minutes. Now select a server. You will only be able to use this account on that particular server (you can create ones with the same or similar name for each one though). Now type a username and password before hitting “NEW ACCOUNT”. Type your password again and hit “SUBMIT”. Now you should log in.

Preparing Your Account

You don’t want to start a battle if you’re not prepared! Click the button marked “Settings”. On this screen you can choose your color, position up to 10 pieces in a formation on the board, and pick your avatar. I highly recommend putting the Enchantress off the board, and adding the Lightning Ward. Now you can position the pieces however you want. Having a good setup can make the difference between winning and loosing. Once you’re done on this screen, click Lobby to go back to the main game.

Starting A Game

To start a game, you need to find an empty slot. In the Lobby, you’ll see a lot of circles with players standing in them. You need to find one with one or less players standing in it. Just click on an empty circle to place your avatar on it. If another player clicks on the ring you’re in, a game will start between the two of you.The same goes if you click on someone else’s ring. To the right are floors with more circles on them. You can switch floors by clicking on one of them. Once a game starts, the server will randomly pick a player to go first.

Basic Rules of Play

Unfortunately, most of the magic/ranged pieces won’t attack on you’re first turn. The Lightning Ward will, though. To use a piece, you click on it. The buttons on the top right of the screen let you choose an action. You have Move, Attack, Turn, and Pass Turn. You can only do two actions on a turn (Attack and Move). Choose move and move you’re piece close to an opposing piece by clicking one of the lit squares. Use the Attack action and click on a lit square you’re opponent’s piece is standing on. You really need to thoroughly read the instructions on the website, though. It doesn’t take long, and you’ll go from Noob to Knowledged Player in no time.

The Different Pieces

Here is a brief summary of the pieces available to grey accounts.

• Cleric: The Cleric’s attack action adds twelve health to every one of your pieces in one turn (take your opponent’s out early).
• Pyromancer: Attacks a selection of five squares in front of him simultaneously.
• Witch: Blasts a straight line of 4 squares.
• Scout: Shoots an arrow over an unbelievable distance.
• Knight: Tons of health, armor, etc. They always end up being the last ones standing for some reason…
• Lightning Ward: This piece can’t move. It just hits huge amounts on pieces in range. It’s range extends a fair amount around it.
• Assassin: Two knives, long walking range, quick recovery, some good special moves. Cool.

Psst…Special Move

If you’re Assassin piece has less than 5 health left, you can operate the “Desperation” move. Position the Assassin so it’s near as many of you’re opponent’s pieces as possible. On you’re Attack action, hold down the mouse button on the square the Assassin is on. It should change color after a couple seconds. Let go. BOOM! The Assassin will explode, hitting 99 damage on the surrounding pieces (killing them all).

Well, that’s it. I highly recommend reading the official manual before playing. You don’t have to though. You can stumble around and lose to the experienced players until you learn how to play well….

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007 at 11:09 am by Matt and is filed under Beginner's Guides, Flash Games, PC/Mac. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.