Green Eggs and Ham
Peanut Butter and Jelly
RTS and Roguelike

Absolutely love this combo! If you don't mind an RTS game that is pared down to just the bare essentials as far as graphics and controls, while this does not have the polish and glitz that Starcraft has, it more than makes up for it with a satisfying gameplay loop (upgrade & draw cards for new stuff, battle, repeat), and quick battles (sometimes a given battle can take more or less time, depends on various factors, but some battles can be over in minutes if you rush... hardly ever does any map take more than 20-30 minutes)

Maps are procedurally generated so you need to explore every time. Battles are like mini RTS puzzles (multiple fronts, surrounded, mazes of cliffs & ramps, scarce resources, abundant resources). AI ramps up difficulty as you unlock higher ascenscion levels. And omg, the combos... there are literally hundreds of units/upgrades/global buffs/calldowns to unlock. Tons of different combos to try out. Every run is different

Gameplay to me is much more important than graphics and sound, so this game does well as far as that goes... graphics and sound are just good enough to be enjoyable without being a centerpiece (I actually really like the old-school blocky vibe)

I see complaints about the controls and UI... I think they are good enough for this game. It's not Starcraft or C&C: Generals... it is all simplified down, more like an arcade game. And you can set hotkeys to however you want them in the options. The 'select all military units' button is your friend

I have 50 hours played so far (in five days!) and I feel like I have only scratched the surface as far as trying out different stuff. I am really glad I tried out this game

The game is on the edge of a recommend for me, but I land on a no for now. I don't want to play anymore until a few things change (but will check in from time to time).

What pushes this to a no for me:
-The mechanics of controlling your army still feel janky. If you select multiple units there is no panel showing what all is selected (this is such a RTS basic, sigh). There's no "add to a control group" button.
-Your own army AI feels... dumb, like you're winning in spite of your own army's AI. If you want to attack the enemy base, you can count on your units needing a ton of micro to not hit every unimportant thing even while the AI is hitting you from some backline.
-Some unit animations are lifeless. I was looking at my crystal harvesters wondering if they were operating because they were sitting still, except for a tiny horizontal bar showing progress.
-Some upgrades such as drops don't clarify how often they can be used and feel like a waste once you've picked them
-There are unit caps on top of unit caps. You can only build 1 support tank factory and therefore only 3-4 support tanks. You can only build a certain amount of turrets when you pick them up. All these cost resources which are limited on the map... and yet you have a 100 overall unit cap too. These micro limits are not communicated well.
-Basically, coming from mainstay RTS like SC, SC2 and WC3 and even indie projects... I personally need more out of the RTS itself to have fun without a ton of hassle

Why I really want to like this game:
-The difficulty progression and roguelike experimenting with armies and upgrades shows a ton of promise
-The enemy AI and composition isn't a complete pushover even at lowest difficulty, it's intriguing to understand at first
-I love having a "pause" (major slowdown) button
-There is some QOL in selecting entire army and entire production line

Things I didn't get to but I would keep an eye on:
-As you unlock more units, not sure if that will dilute the pool so that you're screwed when it comes to having even a chance of building an army you prefer

Absolutely love it