Locating the perfect tabletop MOBA is a bit like looking for a unicorn. It simply doesn’t exist and no amount of begging or fist clenching will make it appear. While the “multiplayer online battle arena” genre remains popular in the digital realm, it seems impossible to nail its feel in cardboard form. Perhaps that’s why Chip Theory Games elected to go in a different direction with Cloudspire, drawing not just from MOBA games but also real-time strategy and tower defense as well.
DOTACraft?
Little cardboard can be found in this enormous box. Units are thick poker chips, while the game’s surface is neoprene tiles that interlock to form randomized configurations. The sheer quantity of stuff in the box attempts to justify its high price tag while threatening to make you throw out your back if you don’t lift with your legs. By the end of Cloudspire’s three-hour playtime, plastic discs will be scattered about the table as if a slot machine exploded.
There is a lot going on here. The various factions to explore include warrior birds, the cast of Avatar, Groot’s family tree, and a group of bearded men, because of course. These disparate cultures are warring over a bountiful resource that has been discovered in floating islands named Cloudspires.
The structure of play is as hodge-podge as the game’s warring factions. The MOBA genre is an easy comparison, as a lot of time is spent pushing stacks of minions along a path toward your opponent’s base. Freedom of maneuvering is limited for the majority of troops, although your selection of heroes has more autonomy. Strategy intersects with tactics as you determine the deployment formation, the line order of your processional army, and whether you group troops to protect certain valuable units.
But calling Cloudspire a mere MOBA would be lazy. The game draws equally from the real-time strategy genre. You can purchase upgrades and new technologies, unlock new units to field, and even plop down defensive towers across various choke points on the map.
