Tales & Tactics

Tales & Tactics is a tactical roguelike autobattler set inside a tabletop-inspired fantasy world, where every run follows a new contender attempting to win the Grand Tournament. Across three acts, you’ll recruit an army from more than 100 units, equip them with powerful items, arrange them across a hex-based battlefield, and watch each fight unfold automatically. There are no timers rushing you between decisions, giving you plenty of room to inspect your opponents and prepare the right formation before committing to battle.

Your army can include everything from Fae, Dragons, and Treefolk to Skeletons, Ghouls, Orcs, and Engineers, with each group bringing its own traits and possible synergies. New units, perks, and equipment constantly compete for a place in your build, so even a strong early strategy may change completely when a rare reward appears. The journey also introduces rival tournament characters and bosses along the way, making each run feel more like a fantasy adventure than a simple sequence of disconnected battles.

What Makes It Different?

• A three-act single-player adventure built around reaching and winning the Grand Tournament
• More than 100 recruitable units including Dragons, Treefolk, Fae, Skeletons, Ghouls, Orcs, and Engineers
• Trait synergies that reward combining complementary unit types and battlefield roles
• Over 200 items that can strengthen individual fighters or change how they contribute to the army
• More than 200 level-up perks offering new ways to shape each tournament run
• Army-size upgrades and higher unit tiers that allow your squad to grow throughout an expedition
• An unlock system that adds new units, items, perks, and mechanics without simply making future runs easier
• Fifteen Challenge Climb tiers alongside custom difficulty options and asynchronous PvP

How It Plays

Each run begins with a contender, a small collection of units, and a long road toward the Grand Tournament. As you progress through the three acts, you’ll encounter rival characters, shops, rewards, and increasingly dangerous battles. New recruits can fill gaps in your formation or introduce traits worth rebuilding the army around, while equipment allows important units to take on more specialised roles.

Before every fight, you can study the opposing formation and move your units around the hex grid. Tanks can be placed where they are most likely to intercept incoming damage, healers need enough protection to remain useful, and ranged units must be positioned where they can attack without being immediately overwhelmed. Once the battle begins, both armies act automatically, leaving you to see whether your preparation and team composition were strong enough.

Progression during a run goes beyond purchasing stronger fighters. You can expand the maximum size of your army, unlock access to higher unit tiers, collect equipment, and choose level-up perks that influence the direction of the build. A perk that initially looks modest can become much more valuable when paired with the right trait or unit, and an unexpected recruit may be enough to justify changing a formation that had previously been working well.

Winning or losing also unlocks additional content for future attempts. Rather than handing out permanent stat increases, Tales & Tactics gradually introduces more perks, units, items, and systems, all of which can be disabled individually. This allows you to control how quickly the game expands while ensuring progression creates more strategic possibilities instead of simply reducing the challenge.

After winning the Grand Tournament, Challenge Climb adds fifteen increasingly difficult tiers with additional mechanics and restrictions to overcome. There are also custom difficulty settings and both ranked and unranked asynchronous PvP, where your completed army can be tested against squads created by other players.

Good If You Like…

If you enjoy The Last Flame, The Dungeon Beneath, Astronarch, or tabletop-inspired strategy games where positioning and party composition matter more than quick reactions, Tales & Tactics should feel immediately familiar.