Modern chess of into the breach

Into the Breach is amazing. It’s right there on top as an example of fantastic system design. Chilling with Darkest Dungeon, Noita and mainly chess.

That is a high praise indeed. Game designer comparing game to chess is like painter comparing painting to Mona Lisa or Last Supper. It means a lot.
You can read more on Why chess is awesome post.

Into the Breach is very simple to understand and start enjoying.

You and your three mechs will spawn on the map consisting of 8×8 tiles, the map will also include enemies and buildings.
There is a persistent “health” which gets depleted every time enemy unit destroys a building, each encounter takes about 4 turns and you win the game when you finish last mission that unlocks after about 10 encounters.

Your mechs can do an action and movement in every turn before it’s the enemy turn. Mechs actions generally fall into three categories:

1. Deal DMG to unit
2. Move enemy/friendly unit
3. Others

Others is pretty rare and it can be some action that disables enemy units ability to attack for example.

There is quite a bit more mechanics, but they are not as important and I would probably categorize them as supportive mechanics. So the gameplay loop will probably look as follows:

You make turn (Moving or deal DMG to other units) –> Enemy makes move (Attack player or building)

It’s very fun.

The games rules are quite simple but offer a lot of opportunities for player expression. I think we can talk here pretty confidently about emerging behavior. (I will ignore additional effects like fire, water etc… they do play a role, but I would put them on a supportive bench)

Just the fact that you can move enemy units around after they move leads to a lot interesting strategic options.
For example: enemy unit can target building, but if you push it two squares to right, now it is aiming at other enemy unit and will deal DMG to it.

In the end I would consider Into The Breach a puzzle game and what makes it interesting is how it lets player think of his/hers own way how to solve these puzzles each turn.

You wanna go all out DMG dealer? Sure!

No DMG dealing and just moving enemies around so they don’t attack buildings? Here you go!

Combo of both + third option? Sure!