Tooth and Tail

Enough of a twist on the RTS genre to warrant a gameplay and the scenarios are surprisingly diverse and packed in fun-sized 5 minutes levels. There is an awful difficulty spike at some point but your millage may vary.

This game is how I imagined the Redwall books were as a kid.

This game deserves more!

10 hours in. I just finished the story campaign. I'm going to review key points of the game and give a summary.
Overall rating: 10/10. No complaints except I wish there was more!
HISTORY: Only other RTS I've played is Warcraft III. I typically wouldn't go out of my way to play games in this genre.
STORY, SETTING: The scene is set incredibly well, and the story plays hard into the objectives of the gameplay. Every mission is driven by the plot and you experience it as it happens. Lore is minimal and delivered through NPC flavor text (which is very enjoyable and immersive to read.) It's a setting with a dark theme looming over it, but it was just hopeful enough to keep me playing and wanting to see what happens next, to see what the story does with these lovely characters.
CHARACTERS: I have to say the characters play into the game a good deal. I can't say I would've enjoyed or played this game so much if it wasn't so character driven. They're believable. Even the characters you don't like, the dialogue writing is so well characterized that you want to see how the game handles them. NPCs are worth talking to. Missions are more fun when you understand why you're doing what you're doing.
GAMEPLAY, MUSIC, VISUALS: The music is great and plays into the gameplay perfectly! Visuals are also perfect. Everything's very clear & fun to look at, and the character art is great at fleshing out the pixel art.
The gameplay itself goes hand in hand with the story & characters, you can't have one without the other two. It's punishing but rewarding. I'd say it's highly likely you'll have to restart missions several times, because the story missions are like puzzles. Some of them I did on my first try, some of them took several, several tries. Perhaps one criticism is that you "have to figure out exactly what the game wants you to do" for the harder missions, and it can be trial and error, but overall it was very enjoyable. Going back through the missions to do the heroic objectives was very satisfying with the knowledge I had from finishing the game. It was so much fun trying out all the different objectives and options the game gives you in each mission, I, again, wish there was more.
SUMMARY: Great game. Beautifully written story & characters that tie in to the gameplay. I called the setting "homely." I wish I could experience more of the game's world, I wish there were more campaign missions, but I'll have to settle for playing with friends, CPU, and making maps. This game's a classic.
SPOILERS: I aaalmost want to dock a point from the rating for the ending, but it WAS fitting. It was justified. It made sense. It's just a little sad. I really like the game's characters. Kasha. Hopper. The Quartermaster. I kind of wish there were alternate endings that you could choose based on how you play the final mission. It just felt like everything I worked for throughout the game was destroyed. I know that's intentional, it's a political military game, of course it's not pleasant. It just feels like a Twilight Zone plot twist & I'm going to fantasize about an ending I like more. Haha...

i love the game and i have to say good job on the art style the game play start calm and it gets more tough as it goes on.

The horrors of war has never looked cuter.

If the idea of anthropomorphic animals embroiled in a gruelling war of starvation piques your interest then Tooth and Tail (T&T) will meet that expectation in bushels.
The craftsmanship that Pocketwatch Games has put into T&T is immediately evident. The detailed unit portraits, rousing soundtrack, and, most laudably, a functional conlang create a rich experience that draws you straight into the revolutionary turmoil of T&T. In fact, on a thematic level, it’s worth recognising the developers’ well-handled political allegory and its appropriate conclusion.
As for the game mechanics itself, T&T does take on a different flavour compared to the typical RTS. Specifically, the simplistic controls that centre heavily around the positioning of your chosen faction commander. Where, the majority of RTS games provide an omniscient overview of your army; allowing you to build structures, queue units, and deliver multi-pronged skirmishes as fast your APM allows. T&T requires the physical presence of your commander to perform these actions, which cuts down on the multitasking you can commit. Although, you can ‘fast-travel’ with your commander by burrowing to any controlled Gristmills (resource farms) to help with management. Ultimately, if you pick up T&T expecting Starcraft-level of depth than you’ll be sorely disappointed.
However, that is not say T&T is not an enjoyable RTS experience. It will scratch your strategic itch without a doubt and the plethora of customization features (i.e. map editors, modding, random seed generation) will ensure a certain degree of replayability.
If you’re hungry for some RTS diversity then Tooth and Tail is a worthwhile purchase!