How to play Footsoldier's Tale

You are Ping, a nameless village lad in the last years of the Han dynasty. When Yellow Turban rebels raid your village, you take up a spear, and soon you are marching with Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei. Chapter 1 has five battles against the Yellow Turbans, from defending the village gate to storming the sorcerer Zhang Bao's fortress. Chapter 2 joins the coalition against Dong Zhuo: Guan Yu slays Hua Xiong, the three brothers hold Hulao Pass against Lü Bu, and Luoyang burns. Chapter 3 follows the struggle for Xuzhou, from rescuing Kong Rong to the flooding of Xiapi. Between battles you return to camp to talk with your officers, buy gear and get ready. Each battle takes about 5–10 minutes.

Controls

• Tap one of your blue units to see where it can move, then tap a blue tile. Tap the unit itself to act without moving.
• Choose Attack, Tactic or Wait. Before every attack you'll see the damage you deal and the counterattack you'll take.
• Tap an enemy to see where it can strike next turn, or switch on Enemy range to see all of them at once.
• Keyboard: E ends the turn, Backspace cancels, P pauses, and Esc is the boss key.

Tactics tips

• Cavalry beats infantry, infantry beats archers, and archers beat cavalry.
• Forests, hills, villages and camps cut the damage you take. Villages and camps also restore HP each turn.
• Archers can't hit adjacent enemies, and they can't counter them either. Keep them behind your front line.
• Fire Attack is strongest against enemies standing in grass or forest.
• Palisades, rivers and cliffs block movement, but arrows and tactics fly over them. Keep your healer and archers behind a palisade and hold the gap with infantry.

About this game

Footsoldier's Tale is an original tactics RPG inspired by classic Three Kingdoms strategy games. The story is loosely based on history; the characters' stats, dialogue, art and code are all new.