Even in objective-based battles, food remains king, and controlling it is the key to victory.įood is supplied by gristmills, around which farms may be constructed and then worked on by pig farmers. There are few, if any, other real-time strategy romps that are so driven by a single resource. Every building and unit costs food, and ultimately it’s the catalyst for this whole revolution. In battle, there’s only really one other concern: food. Starvation is just as serious as a bullet. It makes every battle exciting and kinetic, forcing you to keep moving, keep changing targets.

They’ve got a lot of health, but with a focused attack, that goes down rapidly.

Then there’s the additional wrinkle of trying to keep your pacifist general alive. The challenge is keeping on top of all of your furry soldiers amid these often messy scraps, making sure they’re in the right position and don’t need to fall back, and, of course, ensuring that you’ve got the right tools for the job, from kamikaze frogs to flamethrower-wielding boars. Most units only have a single ability, but that also makes their roles very clearly defined. When assaulting a base, for example, you may want to start by getting your ferrets in range to take out the defences then send in infantry, perhaps brave but fragile squirrels, or maybe stealthy chameleons, to take out anti-air units and then finally you can bring in some deadly owls, backed up by healing pigeons. The broad range of units means that there are still plenty of common sense tactics that can be employed, and even more in co-op. It’s disappointing when you can’t pull off something so simple, but in fairness, it rarely comes up. You can only select all of your units, or all of one type of unit. And if you, say, want to split your long-ranged artillery ferrets into two groups so they can attack from two different sides, you’re out of luck. You’re less a commander, sometimes, than a flare. When you order units to attack, for instance, you’ll automatically select the nearest enemy or structure. Tooth and Tail doesn’t really do precision.

Steam charts tooth and tail