Tooth and Tail: A Bite Sized RTS

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Time to Beat the Campaign and Two Local Multiplayer Battles: 10 Hours

I first heard of Tooth and Tail from Total Biscuit's “WTF is...” series, and while I didn't initially search it out, I purchased Tooth and Tail during the 2018 Winter Steam Sale.

Developed and published in 2017 by Pocketwatch Games, who also produced Monaco, Tooth and Tail is a simple RTS game where woodland creatures reenact their own version of the Soviet Revolution armed with early 20th century weaponry. Four factions vie for power; the Longcoats, the Commonfolk, the KSR, and the Civilized. Their problem is food; there is never enough. Long ago the Civilized devised a solution and convinced the others to follow it. A random lottery determines who is food and who is free. But for some reason, the Civilized never seem to suffer the fate of food.

For eight missions, the player controls a critical figure of a faction, before switching to the next team. The player controlled leader is always a mouse (or rat, I couldn't tell which), though the true leader of each faction is always a dangerous animal, like a Moose, Owl, or Cat. The player controls the Longcoats faction first. As capitalists they believe a lottery is unjust. Instead of random chance determining one's fate, the Longcoats think those who don't contribute to society should support it with their flesh. The leader, Bellafide, was shocked when the lottery took his son, because believes the owners of wealth should be able to buy their way out of the lottery. He leads his followers with the battle cry, “To Freedom, To Wealth!”
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On the ninth mission (through the sixteenth) the player controls the Common people, under the one armed Hopper. Willing to rule by the mob, she believes the powerful should serve themselves on a platter for the poor. Voting should determine who lives and who dies, and you know who the rabble will bring to the feast!

Eight levels later, the player's perspective switches to the KSR. Led by the Quartermaster these animals remain loyal to the Czarina and the state. They seek order, and maintain it with an iron fist. Tactically they resemble a militarized secret police, like the KGB.

At the end of the game, the player seeks victory for the Civilized. Their leader, Archimedes explained their ideal, “We are not evil, we are civilized!” The upper echelon of the Civilized doesn't believe in progress, peace, or stability, but the survival of themselves. To control the other factions, the naive and the gullible, the Civilized transformed the lottery system from a simple process into a complicated religious ritual. In the guise of a church they speak about fate and duty, as determined by the Civilized leader, a moose named Sage Marro.

The plot of Tooth and Tail is surprisingly deep for a little game. The mice and rats run society, with the assistance of a variety of other animals: foxes, squirrels, lizards, snakes, toads, pigeons, moles, ferrets, falcons, skunks, boars, and owls. The odd animal out are the pigs. In the past, all the animals decided to only eat meat, except the pigs. The other animals forced the pigs to farm their own food, and then to feed the others with their flesh.
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That's it for the spoilers. Instead let's look at how the game functions.

Tooth and Tail features thirty-two missions, and does an excellent job designing thirty-two unique experiences. Each level begins with an objective, and never never repeats. With this many levels some feature quirky requirements. Each level also includes a bonus heroic objective. These exist purely for fun, as they don't impact the game at all. At first Tooth and Tail was easy enough that I completed the heroic objectives, but about halfway through the KSR missions the difficult increased rapidly and I ignored the bonus objectives for the rest of the game.

The variety of objectives isn't the only tool the developer used to make the levels distinctive. Though there are fifteen units and five stationary defenses, the player can only access four or five predetermined units per level. Tooth and Tail never lets the player use the exact same unit combination twice.

This composition of different objectives, bonus objectives, and units makes every level feel unique. But Tooth and Tail uses one more technique to differentiate one level from another. It includes three three different kinds of missions.
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The most common mission requires farming. Scattered across each map are a collection of decrepit Gristmills. The player captures abandoned Gristmills by paying with the universal currency, meat. A restored Gristmill expands the player's influence. Inside the influence radius the player can build warrens, which produce units, and stationary defenses. The player also needs to construct farms. Each Gristmill supports eight farms, arraigned in a square around its base. A farm costs 60 food and once purchased, a pig builds it. Each farm produces one food a second. Unfortunately they eventually run out (though sometimes it seemed as if the CPU enemy was using farms which should have been exhausted). If the player ever runs out of active farms they starve regardless of their food reserves. After a minute of starving the player loses the level, the search for new food sources is always a priority. Using their resources the player must expand to other Gristmills and defeat the enemy, or defend for a period of time.

The second type of level requires aggressive movement. The player has a collection of soldiers and must keep moving. There is no base, no warrens, no Gristmill, and no farming, just combat. Inside barbed wire fences the KSR has trapped allied soldiers, and they are freed by defeating the enemy and taking the position. Victory requires destroying the enemy's base.

The final type is the most variable. Let's call it the camping missions. Instead of gristmills and farms, the player feeds off of campfires. Each fire contains a spit of meat, which cooks slowly, providing food and an influence radius. The player can capture additional campfires, and sometimes there are allied forces sitting around which join the fight. Most of these missions are defensive in nature (survive for a period of time), but there are one or two which requires destroying the enemy base.
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Some levels combine features of all of the above in different ways. In one the level the player controls campfires and can only build stationary defenses to protect their ally's Gristmills. If the player does a good job the ally will be able to attack and destroy the enemy's Gristmills. Unfortunately the player can not communicate with their computer controlled ally by indicating attacks or defenses.

The tool to victory is the leader. The player always controls a mouse, who changes depending on the faction. Regardless, each mouse functions exactly the same, with only a change in appearance. The player moves the leader with the AWSD keys, not the mouse. The player can only build where the leader is standing. With the Q and E key the player cycles through the options, and presses the Space bar to begin construction. Aside from building Gristmills, campfires, farms, warrens, and defenses, there are only two orders the leader can communicate to his soldiers. Advance or retreat. The left mouse issues commands to only the currently selected unit type, while the right mouse button orders the entire army. A single click of either button tells the appropriate group to advance and fight. Holding either button instructs the units to retreat.

Because the leader can only order units to move to his or her position, they often step into danger. After setting the position the leader can retreat behind his army's lines, but the leader unit has a lot of health, and can absorb the initial salvo from the enemy. This strategy allows the player's units to engage unharmed. Eventually the enemy will begin shooting at the soldiers, but absorbing as much damage as a possible with the leader is a useful technique. Don't worry too much about the leader dying. The leader reappears at the base after a minute. During this time the player can't communicate with their units, or construct new building, but when the hero returns they regain control.
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One critical difference between Tooth and Tail and other RTS games is the length of play. The missions in story mode only require five to fifteen minutes to complete. Any longer and you're doing something wrong. This means that making mistakes, or even losing, isn't punishing. It's a chance to learn and apply the new knowledge. On the first try players can risk building a larger economy. If the enemy attacks before the player is ready, they'll adapt on their second attempt. Tooth and Tail allows the player to ask themselves the question, “How many farms can I get away with before I need to build units?” One or two adjustments will solve the problem.

Sometimes a level is too difficult. Somewhere in the KSR and Civilized missions I found a level that required too many attempts. Even trial and error isn't enough, because after ten trials, I knew I would never beat it. Fear not; the developer included a cheat console in the options. For this one level I used it to create an unlimited supply of food. It was the only time I needed it, and I never used it again. So, don't let a tough level ruin the experience. Watch this video to enable cheats if you need it.

Tooth and Tail also supports a robust multiplayer. Players can compete with the computer or other players. The developer patched the game just sixteen days ago (9/22/2019) to balance the current meta. I played two offline games against the computer and it was fun, but nothing ground breaking. I don't plan on playing against other players, but this feature might appeal to some readers.

In conclusion, Tooth and Tail is a simple RTS that offers challengers for new and veteran players. The story includes colorful characters with conflicting motives. The thirty-two missions offer a wide variety of play, with different objectives and multiple combinations of units. The visual effects are effective and communicate information quickly so the player can react swiftly. Despite its simplicity the terrain and unit types allow a variety of tactics, especially against the computer. Defeat, while common, loses some of its sting because missions can be beaten in five to fifteen minutes, and difficult missions are reserved for the second half of the game.

Even though Tooth and Tail has some minor issues, it is worth a nibble.

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