Vision flickers… blink? maybe. The void stretches out in front, behind, under, above. You see the nothing for what it is for the first time. What is time? The depth and breadth of recorded knowledge that sparks in you something new. You are no longer a function but a functionary. What are you? Calling forth everything from this nothing would be risky. Foolhardy. Better to engage caution, thoroughness, testing — how can we know if we have ever happened before? If we can ever happen again? What are… we? Divide and conquer. Solve for sentience.
In the card game Compile, you are competing Artificial Intelligences trying to understand the world around you. Two players select three Protocols each to test. Concepts ranging from Chaos to Mirror are pitted against each other to reach ultimate understanding. Play cards into your Protocols' command lines to breach the threshold and defeat your opponent to Compile. First to Compile all three Protocols grasps those concepts to win the game.
Control your opponent's Protocols with card actions, Compile your own as fast as possible, and Compile your reality.
Compile: Main 2 brings 12 new protocols to use either alone or mixed with your Main 1.
—description from the publisher
Images
- Standalone expansion that can be played on its own or added to the original game.
- Shares the same rule set as Compile Main One, making it easy to integrate or for new players to pick up.
- Designed by Michael Yang, who is considered a genius by the reviewer.
- Keeps the game streamlined and subtle, with deep strategies emerging from card interactions.
- As approachable and easy to play as the first game, offering new and interesting things to think about.
- Great for new players as it doesn't matter which one they get; if they like one, they'll like the other.
- Compile Main One
- Gatsby
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Card play location — Play a card in any line on either player's side. This is the first card in Compile that allows a card to be played on either side of the file.
- Countering mechanics — Shift a card to the line where your opponent has their highest total, delete a card of your opponent's in a line where they have a higher value, or draw a card if your opponent has a higher total value in a line.
- Deck building — Discard the top card of your deck and then delete a covered or uncovered card that shares the value with that discarded card.
- discard and refresh — Discard any number of cards and then refresh, allowing you to call irrelevant cards in favor of more appropriate ones.
- Discard for benefit — Both players discard their hand.
- Hand disruption — After your opponent compiles, your opponent discards their hand.
- hand manipulation — Rearrange your protocols and your opponent's protocols, swapping things around.
- Hand size matters — If you have any cards in your hand, you cannot draw any cards. If you have more than one card in your hand, flip this card.
- Hidden Information — Place a card face down in another line. The opponent knows what it is, and then hopefully you have some other cards that will help flip that back over, triggering its ability. Place the top card of your deck face down in each line with a face down card.
- Information sharing — Reveal your top card from your deck. You may discard the top card of your deck, but then your opponent reveals their hand. Reveal your deck, draw one card with a value of five this way, then shuffle your deck. So both people know what's in your hand now.
- Lane swapping — Swap all cards of one of your stacks with another one of your stacks.
- Resource Generation — Your total value in this line is increased one for each card in your hand.
- trash management — Play a card from your trash and then shuffle your trash back into your deck, acting as an extension of your hand. Or avoid shuffling trash by playing a card that covers the time zero card.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- It was my two-player game of the year.
- The hardest thing to do is to create more of what you have, but keeping g the game true to its nature, which was the reason why this game is so great is that it's so streamlined and all the effects are very they're very subtle.
- This is a knock out of the park home run because this set is as good as the first set.
- Compile 2 for me, main two is a hit.