Brackenquiver

About Brackenquiver

Brackenquiver is a siege archery game fought between two bastions. You have a bow and a small quiver, and the wall opposite you fills up with enemy archers as the waves go on. The first wave is a single archer standing on the tower roof. The second adds one more on the wall beside it. The third puts one on the roof and two flanking the tower, and by the fifth there are five of them spread along the battlements. Every archer walks up and down its own stretch of stone and reloads on its own count, so a crowded wall fires as a spread-out group rather than a single synchronised volley. Hold anywhere on the screen to draw the string - the dotted arc shows where the arrow will actually land, and it moves as your target changes height, so you have to keep adjusting instead of aiming once and hoping. Release to loose. Your arrows are unlimited, so the pressure comes entirely from the clock: a miss costs you the time it took to draw again, and every second you spend lining up is a second the enemy archers and runners are using. While you are aiming, the enemy archers shoot back on their own, and those arrows only ever reach the gate behind you, so the damage lands on your wall rather than on the archer you are trying to kill. Infantry also runs in from the right, and later waves send them in pairs rather than one at a time. Once a runner touches the gate it costs you a hit, so a runner has to be dropped in the field first. Your gate takes five hits. Clear every archer off the wall and empty the field to move on, and each wave brings a tougher opponent: more archers, quicker shots, less spread, and runners who arrive sooner. There are five waves, then the ridge is yours. The sound is generated in the browser rather than loaded from files, and the Sound button in the top bar mutes it and remembers the choice for next time. It works with a finger on a phone or a mouse on a desktop.

Key Features

• ✦Hold anywhere to draw the bow and release to loose, with a dotted arc that previews the flight
• ✦Real projectile physics, so height, angle and power all change where the arrow lands
• ✦Enemy archers who fill the wall one by one, each with their own walk cycle and their own reload, so they never fire in lockstep
• ✦Melee runners that cross the field and cost you a hit if they reach the gate, arriving in pairs from the third wave on
• ✦Five waves that add arrows but bring more archers, faster shots, tighter aim and earlier runners
• ✦Five-hit gate, score for every archer and runner, and generated sound with a mute button
• ✦Plays with a finger on a phone or a mouse on a desktop, and pauses when you switch away from the tab

Tips & Strategies

• 1Hold to draw, and keep watching the dotted arc while you hold. Every enemy archer walks up and down their own stretch of wall the whole time, so an arc that was lined up a second ago is no longer lined up now.
• 2You have unlimited arrows, so a miss costs you time rather than a resource. It is still worth waiting for a moment when your target is near a stop in their walk instead of firing at the top of the movement.
• 3Rushers do not stop at your wall, they cost you a hit the moment they reach the gate. If one is already past the halfway line, it is usually cheaper to take it down in the field than to let it arrive.
• 4There is no penalty for waiting. Enemies only shoot on their own timers, so standing still and letting them come to you costs you nothing except the runners you have to watch for.
• 5Do not hoard arrows for the last runner. Clearing the field is part of finishing the wave, and a wave with archers still alive can go badly if you spend the quiver on infantry instead.
• 6Watch which way your target is travelling, not just where they are. An arrow aimed slightly ahead of a moving archer lands where they are going instead of where they were.
• 7Later waves send runners in pairs instead of one at a time. Take the nearest one first, because a second runner crossing behind it is much easier to miss while you are reloading.

Frequently Asked Questions