Playdom's new browser game - Marvel Avengers Alliance: Tactics

I came across Playdom's new "Marvel Avengers Alliance Tactics" while I was browsing new games on Facebook... I guess I was trying to get a break from Skyrim and as well as South Park's "Stick of Truth" and decided to look for mini-games on Facebook to kill some time. What really caught my attention was their cover photo and the official trailer released on Youtube and decided to give it a try.

Playdom's MAAT cover photo

Marvel: Avengers Alliance Tactics Official Trailer Marvel: Avengers Alliance Tactics is a 3D turn-based tactical RPG with a world map that allows you to invade other players for certain rewards such as silver and ISO-8.
I started playing the game around the third week of June where I was still able to enjoy a few days in beta before they made it live/ available for everyone to play. I find the game very interesting at first, but the game gets boring as you proceed... or maybe it's just me saying since I really don't have friends who play the game. I was able to invite a few (around ten, maybe??), but I guess they just decided to check it out and then stopped playing the game. I'm also not fond of adding people to my Facebook account just for the sake of these games though..
Currently, I'm at level 82 and here's how the base looks like:

As you'll notice, the game has a number of currencies:
1. Silver - used to buy and upgrade the abilities of your heroes and agents, buy and upgrade your structures/ buildings, and as well as to train your heroes and agents. You can earn silver from completing assignments/ missions, do flight deck missions, and as well as attack other player's structures such as: training centers, command centers, shield vaults, flight control, and quinjet hangars. 2. Shield Points - used to buy and upgrade the abilities of your heroes and agents, upgrade your structures/ buildings, and to train your heroes and agents. You earn shield points from your friends which refreshes daily (it is limited only to 1 SP per friend per day), from gifts, and as well as from the roulette when you totally wipe out an enemy base. 3. Gold - can be converted to other currencies. It is used to buy abilities for your heroes and agents, buy a protective shield which prevents PVP for a period of time, speed up training, building construction/ upgrade, and as well as quinjet ETA. As of now, gold can only be earned when you level up or when you use cash ($$$). 4. Refined ISO-8 - used to buy and upgrade the abilities of your heroes and agents, upgrade your structures/ buildings, or buy ISO-8 chips that you can attach to your agent's/ heroes' uniforms. You can earn this from your Refinery or when you destroy structures such as: barracks, shield vaults, quinjet hangars, ISO-8 workshops and refineries. 5. Command Points - used to buy heroes. You can earn them when completing certain assignments/ missions (defeating the boss) or from the roulette.

You also have your base buildings:

• Command Center: upgrade to unlock upgrades for other buildings
• Barracks: upgrade to increase capacity for heroes and agents
• SHIELD Vault: upgrade to hold more Silver and ISO-8 currencies
• Flight Control: upgrade to run more simultaneous Flight Deck missions for passive silver
• Quinjet Hangar: upgrade to unlock more Quinjets (World Map vehicles)
• Refinery: upgrade to generate more passive Refined Iso-8 currency
• Training Center: upgrade to let heroes and agents train to higher levels
• Iso-8 Workshop: unlock new ISO-8 upgrades

You'll also see similar features from Marvel Avengers Alliance, such as: Hero Classes:

• Blaster - Strong against Bruiser, weak against Tacticians
• Bruiser - Strong against Scrappers, weak against Blasters
• Scrapper - Strong against Infiltrator, weak against Bruisers
• Infiltrator -Strong against Tactician, weak against Scrappers
• Tactician - Strong against Blasters, weak against Infiltrator
• Generalist - No strength or weakness to any class

Max Levels:

• Heroes: 15
• Agents: 15
• Base buildings: 12
• Commander: 300

There are 21 playable heroes, 6 of which are locked ones. The frustrating part is when you get to know the CP changes made last May 17... and if you'll do the math, you're getting around 215 CP increase just to recruit those heroes. Check the pictures below: (reference: http://maatactics.com/2014/05/game-update-playdom-adjusts-hero-cp-prices/)

This is the CP cost of the heroes during closed beta.

This is the CP cost of the heroes after May 17.

Hero Listing:

Black Widow: 16 CP

Cyclops: 16 CP

Captain America: 40 CP - 90 CP (+50 CP after May 17)

Captain Marvel: 16 CP

Doctor Doom: 90 CP (available after completing Chap 1 Assignment 6)

Hawkeye: 25 CP - 48 CP (+23 CP after May 17)

Hulk: 100 CP - 90 CP (-10 CP after May 17)

Iron Fist: 16 CP

Klaw: 16 CP - 48 CP (+32 CP after May 17, available after completing Chap 1 Assignment 2)

Loki: 90 CP (available after completing Chap 2 Assignment 12)

Omega Sentinel: 48 CP (available after completing Chap 2 Assignment 10)

Ronan the Accuser: 48 CP (available after completing Chap 2 Assignment 8)

She-Hulk: 16 CP

Sif: 25 CP - 48 CP (+23 CP after May 17)

Scarlet Witch: 40 CP - 48 CP (+8 CP after May 17)

Spider-Man: 64 CP - 90 CP (+26 CP after May 17)

Taskmaster: 25 CP - 48 CP (+23 CP after May 17, available after completing Chap 1 Assignment 4)

Thor: 40 CP - 90 CP (+50 CP after May 17)

Wolverine: 100 CP - 90 CP (-10 CP after May 17)

Anyways, here's my progress in terms of hero recruitment and development:

As of writing, I have 16 heroes and as well as 16 agents:

7 Shield Agents at level 2

9 Shield Agents at level 1

Black Panther at level 7

Black Widow at level 7

Captain America at level 3 (newly acquired)

Captain Marvel at level 8 (currently undergoing training for level 9)

Cyclops at level 7

Dr. Doom at level 10

Hulk at level 10

Iron Fist at level 7

Iron Man at level 7

Omega Sentinel at level 4

Ronan the Accuser at level 5

Scarlet Witch at level 2

She-Hulk at level 5

Sif at level 4

Taskmaster at level 4

Wolverine at level 10

It's pretty obvious that my priority is to complete/ recruit all heroes (just 5 more heroes left) and the development of my structures that is why even at level 82, I just have 3 heroes at level 10. I was so spending a lot of shield points in the process due to the upgrade of my heroes abilities and as well as construction. Since I had a lot of heroes, I wasn't able to prioritize the distribution of SP which made it longer for me to train important heroes. What was I thinking? LOL (I know.. I was just aiming for everyone to reach at least level 7 and wasted a lot of SP in the process.) When Chapter 2 came out, I realized how mediocre it was for me to settle my heroes at level 7 each- that was the only time I feel the need to focus on the important ones and start raising them to level 10 (at least!)

When dealing with heroes, I guess the common questions players have are:

1. Which hero should I buy for a start?

2. Which is hero is the best? (for each class)

3. Which hero is just a waste of CP?

Well, you'll start the game with Iron Man and eventually Black Panther joins you (for free). Then as you press on the story, you'll eventually be given the option to pick 1 other hero for free. You can even visit this link for advice.

Iron Man is useful together with Black Panther since their attacks have status effect which could be damaging when facing stronger foes and as well as facing Modok in the epic battle for Chap 1. Iron Man can cause burning status while Black Panther causes bleeding. From the picture above, most of the heroes deal serious damage except for Black Widow.

As to my line-up, I would recommend heroes such as Dr. Doom, Hulk, and Wolverine. Yes, these heroes are at 90 CP each but it's worth it. All three have area attacks. The downside I'm getting with Dr. Doom is with recovery after taking an action, but the good side is that he really deals serious damage. As per Hulk, I consider him as a good tank especially since he has high HP and Defense. He also has the gamma rage skill in which he takes a free attack on anyone who ends their turn adjacent to him. All I need to do is send Hulk smashing to the crowd hoping that he'll be the getting everyone's attention while the rest of my heroes just do a "free hit". :P Wolverine is the key player on my line-up as I consider him the best tank and as well as someone who deals serious damage. His attack attribute is high and also causes bleeding status. What makes him even more special is his regen skills especially if you equip him with his primal rage ability. I'm just waiting for Captain Marvel to get to level 10 and then I'll put the focus on Black Panther, Iron Man, Sif, and Iron Fist.

I was really having high expectations with the game especially that it was called "tactics". I was expecting things such as:

1. Bonus damage when attacking an enemy from behind.

2. Decreased "evasion" on the part of the enemy who has been attacked from behind.

3. Raise in the difficulty when invading/ attacking building/ structures as it gets upgraded.

I know there's still a lot but my mind isn't working right now as I'm a bit sleepy. :P 

They've also made some recent changes such as increasing the time in PVP battle from 4 minutes to 11 minutes and the energy cooldown has been increased making it similar to MAA. I noticed only "one" positive thing after the recent changes- and that is the current upgrade on your structures won't reset after getting destroyed from PVP.

I still prefer MAA to their tactics version. It's just like MAA though you are given the freedom to move your character and really see it in action. I won't give any final verdict to it though as it is just on its early stages. I just hope Playdom can make some serious changes to it.