Vanguard Exiles - Early Access Impressions
Richard Garfield’s new game Vanguard Exiles is a strategic auto-battler.
Vanguard Exiles. Credit: The Tea Division
Vanguard Exiles is a new multiplayer-focused strategy game and auto-battler from The Tea Division designed by Magic: The Gathering creator Richard Garfield. Now on Steam Early Access, the board game-like experience challenges players to build an army and predict the opponent’s placement of forces to gain control of as much terrain as possible.
The head-to-head gameplay is straightforward. Players pick a faction, each with its own specialty and set of units. Each player secretly places units on a map, where each room is worth some victory points. The armies automatically battle and capture ground. After each round, players can buy one new unit to complement their forces, and the map expands. Whoever earns 80 victory points first is the winner.
Vanguard Exiles. Credit: The Tea Division
Vanguard Exiles. Credit: The Tea Division
There’s strategy in predicting your opponent's movements and deciding how to best spread your forces to gain the most points without being killed. There’s a lot of ground to cover, and one misplaced unit can lose you the round. The game is easy to learn; I got up to speed by watching a tutorial video included in this release and experimenting in a match.
The current release has single-player against AI but no campaign. You can play private multiplayer matches or search for public games. I spent most of my time playing against AI because I couldn’t find many opponents in the public list.
I played on my Steam Deck using my TV as a display. The game runs fine on the device using Steam’s controller configuration for mouse controls, but it’s clearly designed to be played on a PC with a real mouse. The UI is also designed for PC, with small text and icons. This isn’t a knock against Vanguard Exiles—just know you should play it on a PC.
In its current early state, I’d recommend checking out Vanguard Exiles if you have a friend who will join you. It’ll be much more fun than playing against the AI, which gets dull quickly without a campaign mode to structure the experience.
Vanguard Exiles is available now for PC on Steam in Early Access.
