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Well, doesn’t this quirky little box seem to be the thing everyone wants right now? It appeared in a Shut Up and Sit Down YouTube video and now everyone wants a piece of this sleek little head-to-head card game. The best way I can explain it is that it is like Air, Land and Sea but with draftable decks, a sci-fi theme and with the card manipulation dialled up to 11.
Compile is cooler, sleeker and now I have it, I will probably never play Air, Land and Sea ever again, and I love Air Land and Sea. Grab your trenchcoat, don your dark glasses and let's Compile!
Gameplay
In Compile you are rival AI’s fighting to compile their three protocols first. Using clever card play and strategy, you must outwit your opponent and beat them in a straight race to three.
The Setup
Compile is made up of 12 decks of 8 cards. You will draft 3 of these decks each to make up your very personalized and mechanically unique deck. Things like Death and Plague discard and delete cards, protocols like Life and Speed draw and flip cards. It's up to you to use your three protocols better than your opponent.
After each player has drafted their 3 decks, you shuffle them together to end up with a very small deck of 18 cards each. You arrange your three protocols in front of you, draw 5 cards and you are ready to rock!
Cards, Effects and Protocols
For anyone who has played Air, Land and Sea, this ruleset, on the whole, will seem familiar. Each player has 3 protocols in front of them creating 3 lines that you will be battling with your opponent on. Each card in your deck will correspond to one of those protocols and can be played into that protocol to gain its effect. You can also play any card face down, with no special effects, in any protocol. Juicy!
Each card has a point value on the top of the card, ranging from 0 up to 6. It also has three sections denoting different effects and powers. The middle box activates as soon as the card is played, uncovered or flipped and the top and bottom boxes are for ongoing ‘passive’ effects.
These passive effects are only active when they can be seen and when a card is covered, only the top box is visible. When to play your cards, what to cover and what to uncover is a bit part of its strategic depth. Only the top card of each protocol, unless strictly stated, can be manipulated.
Power and Compiling
To compile one of your protocols you must get at least 10 power within it and have more power than your opponent's protocol in the same line. Once you do you turn over the protocol card to its compiled side and discard any cards from the line, from both players. You are then one-third towards victory. What happens when you compile an already compiled protocol I hear you ask? Well, you draw a card from your opponent's deck. Wild!
The decision of where and how to play cards is layered with so many crucial variables and decisions. What are the card's effects? How much power does your opponent have in each line? Should you play it face-down in any line? All juicy decisions, all relevant and in a race to 3, all vital ones too.
Taking a Turn
On your turn, the first thing you do is check any cards for passive ‘start of turn’ effects and execute them accordingly. Then, you check for control, which I will cover shortly and you don’t normally play with that mechanic in your first game or two. After that, you check to see if any of your protocols can be compiled. Then you either play a card from your hand or refresh.
Refreshing fills your hand back up to 5 cards, if you have no cards you have to refresh and apart from card effects, refreshing is the only way to get more cards. As with all these types of games, refreshing can feel like a waste and punishing if you need to do it. Finding a way to draw free cards is powerful and something you should look out for.
After taking your main action, you then check your cache, which is just a fancy way of saying discard down to 5 cards if you have more in hand. Last but not least, you perform any ‘end of turn’ card effects within your protocols.
Control
As I stated above, after your first game or 2, you can add the ‘control’ mechanism. This mechanism adds a little bit of tactical nitty-gritty to the game. The second thing you do on your turn is ‘check for control’ which means, if you have more power in 2 lines than your opponent, you gain control. What this actually means, in raw mechanics is that when you refresh or compile you can swap the cards for any player's protocols around. This mechanic can be used to make it harder for people to compile or even have cards in the wrong protocols, creating some weird and wonderful card synergies. Imagine being close to compiling a protocol to win then your opponent swaps it for one you have already compiled. Brutal.
Components
Compile is another game that is just a deck of cards. These cards are gorgeous though, as is the box. The whole presentation style is as beautiful as it is modern. Both the box and cards have shiny foil accents and the techno-futuristic theme drips throughout. The cards are beautifully minimalistic and intricate.
Not only that but the card stock is superb, they feel plastic to the touch and have this wonderful thing where the front is shiny and smooth but the backs are matt-finished. Holding these cards feels like no other card game I have played in recent memory. It's wonderful.
Final Thoughts
I have already sold my copy of Air Land and Sea. I know, I know, I have mentioned it a lot in this review but they are so similar from a gameplay perspective, it’s hard not to. Compile is just better in every way.
It's fresh, it looks and feels so modern and is a joy to play. Drafting protocols means that there are so many different ways you can play, so many variables to play with and each game will be different. Every turn is tangible, every decision vital and how you place each card and where you place it can have effects that ripple throughout the game.
If you have another player you like to play head-to-head games with, if you have someone who loves to delve into intricate card play, Compile is a must-own. It’s quick, juicy and is just cool. It's like someone who loved Air, Land and Sea thought, let's throw it into the future and send it through a techno-filter. It's brilliant.
