A lane battle of rival AIs

💽 Compile: Main 1 was quite a big hit last year, so it is not a big surprise seeing the new box ‘Main 2’ following in its tracks. (Well, luckily Synapses Games came to the rescue to make the release a reality after the sad news with Greater Than Games 🙁). Compile is a lane battler, and Main 2 is basically the same game, but with 12 new decks (aka. protocols) to play with. 😉

If you don’t know the game yet, here is how it plays: 👇
First, you and your opponent draft 3 protocols each. These are decks of 6 cards each with their own flavor and mechanics, which you mix together into a deck of 18 cards. Then, the game can begin! 💪

Each turn you can either play a card, or skip to redraw up to a hand of 5. Cards can either be played face up, but only into the matching column, or face down into any column. Face up cards can have different effects.
1️⃣Their top effect is always active, they aren’t covered up with other cards.
2️⃣Their middle effect is an instant effect that activates when the card is played or revealed in any way.
3️⃣The bottom of the cards shows a passive, ongoing effect, that deactivates when the card is covered up.

Your goal is to gather cards with a total strength of 10+ in your columns and have a majority over your opponent, so you can “compile” that column’s protocol. If you manage to compile all 3 of your protocols, you are victorious! There are some possible shenanigans though, as some effects let you shuffle up the different protocol-columns, so it’s never over until it’s over.

💭 The fun comes from all the potential card effects, and their tactical placement. You could play facedown cards and reveal them as a surprise, or just try to deny your opponent from compiling with other clever effects. As you might know and expect from a lane battler! 😉 

Mixing and matching the different protocols makes this game highly replayable! I’d say there is some learning curve here until you get to know all the effects and how to best use them, but that’s part of the fun, right? 

Besides the gameplay, I really enjoy the theme and the overall appearance of the game. Check out that monolith-like box and matching artwork! 😁