Assassin's Creed: Recollection

Assassin's Creed: Recollection is an iOS app that includes a card game called "Tactics", an art gallery of the Assassin's Creed main game series, an in-app store where players can purchase Animus credits and new cards, or memories, and the short animated film Assassin's Creed: Embers. Initially released in December 2011 for iPad, It is also avalible for iPhone and iPod touch.

Overview
Tactics is a real-time card game, where players engage in one-on-one disputes to control the three regions on the board. In order to control a region, players must increase their influence using their cards. The player that reaches 10 influence first in a given area will control that area. The player that controls two of three areas wins.

If both players gain 10 influence in a region, then any further moves played in that region will erode the opponent's influence.

Tactics has an associated single player campaign and story where the battles are waged against AI opponents. The player begins with three tutorial missions in Spain during which the key mechanics of the game are introduced using specific decks and pauses in the action to illustrate points. After completing the tutorial, the player proceeds to the first location in Italy for the first full real-time battle.

The multiplayer aspect of Tactics is tied in with the iOS Game Center for finding opponents, tracking achievements, etc.

Memories
"Memories" is the name given to the cards in this game. Memories are earned by purchasing packs in the in-app store with Animus Credits or as prizes after a battle. There are three different types of memories: Agents, Sites and Actions. The player is granted one free pack of Memories upon starting tactics.

Memories are purchased within a battle using gold. The cost of each memory is relative to its power. Some memories add to the player's daily income once resolved.

Memories are divided into six color-coded specialties that reflect the nature of the individuals, actions, and sites within the series: Gold (yellow), Crime (black), Faith (red), Media (purple), Order (blue), and Scholar (green).

Agents
Agents are character memories which can be sent to any of the regions to increase the player's influence. The player can have a maximum of two agents in each region. When an agent is purchased it takes half a day to resolve, after which it can be placed in a region. Once in a region, the agent takes another half a day to wield its influence.

If an agent remains uncontested until it resolves, its influence is added to the region and the agent is returned to the player's HQ to rest for a half day before becoming available for play again.

A player can send an agent into conflict against an opposing player's agent. When this is done, the conflict takes a half day to resolve. At the end, each agent's strength is reduced by the influence of the opposing agent. If an agent is reduced to zero strength then it is eliminated (sent to the archives). Agents that survive the conflict are returned to their player's HQ, but they do not contribute influence to the region due to the conflict.

Some agents have special abilities that allow them to influence friendly or opposing players or that provide them strengths or weaknesses in certain scenarios. Some abilities are triggered when the agent is purchased and others manifest once the agent is sent to a region.

Sites
Sites are location memories which are allocated to a region and will give the player a daily influence increase. Sites can be stacked within a region to increase the influence. The current influence of each player's sites is compared and the player with the higher influence receives the differential between the two at the end of each day.

Actions
Actions are memories that can alter the course of the battle by either boosting the player's influence or crippling their opponent. Many actions are resolved quickly, not requiring the half-day charge time; however, Action memories only have one use before they are archived.

Sequences
The player can create different Sequences, which are collections of memories. Since memories are shuffled and pulled randomly during a battle, sequences allow the player to tailor the deck for a specific battle or for different strategies by including only the memories that would be most effective in that situation.

A sequence must have a minimum of 50 memories and the memories within a sequence can only come from at most two different specialties.

One sequence is chosen to be used before beginning a battle. The Sequence Manager interface allows the player to create new sequences, duplicate existing sequences, and add or remove memories from an existing sequence.

Battles
When a battle is launched in Tactics, the player is given a chance to review the randomized selection of six cards from the sequence with which they will begin the match. There is a one-time chance to shuffle and randomly select a new set of six cards.

The initial six cards are available for purchase as soon as the player generates enough gold. Each day an additional card is selected from the deck and added to the ready list, assuming fewer than six cards are currently there.

Battles follow a daily cycle, represented by a vertical bar that progresses across the screen. At the end of each day, the player's daily income increases by one gold and influence from Sites is added to each region.

Animus Credits
Animus Credits are the in-game currency that is used to purchase new packs of cards. As part of the tutorial, the player is given exactly enough credits to purchase the starter deck when beginning Tactics. Additional credits can be earned through winning single player and multiplayer battles. Each victorious single player battle (after the three tutorial battles) adds 25 credits, but only one time - repeat victories do not add credits. Credits can also be purchased with real currency through in-app purchases starting at $0.99 (U.S.).