This week’s selection from Wizard Ops Tactics portrays the game’s swamp level as a damp and ominous place. Plaintive woodwind harmonies ease in and out over low string undulations, while excerpts of the game’s main theme recur in the brass. And to show you how lazy I am: the low string lines themselves are just the main theme, slowed down and set to 7/8 time.

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	The Murky Swamp

Continuing the music progression from Wizard Ops Tactics, this week’s cue accompanies the game’s Army Builder sequence with an anticipatory mood and almost-obligatory snare drum rhythms. A martial melody recurs throughout the piece, starting with the low strings, then subsequently in horns, violas, and low woodwinds.

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	The Army Assembles

This music selection from Wizard Ops Tactics takes on a distinctly pirate-y tone, as befits a game setting with beach umbrellas, cannons, and a giant frigate.

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	Beach Battle!

Another music selection from Wizard Ops Tactics, this cue accompanies a winter-themed battleground. High-register strings and harp help reinforce the icy visuals, while the low brass stabs remind us that we’re not at a peace conference.

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	Wizardly Winter

This week’s music selection is the main theme from the freshly-released iOS/Android game Wizard Ops Tactics.

The original Wizard Ops game was a frenetic action-shooter, whereas the successor is a turn-based tactical game. It features the characters and visuals, but completely different gameplay. This raised an interesting question: how to keep a sense of musical continuity between such different experiences?

This cue tackles that problem by reprising the original Wizard Ops theme (which you can hear in full sorcerous glory here) in a more stately, marchlike arrangement. It’s preceded by a slightly mysterious theme that’s unique to the Tactics universe, and recurs throughout the score.

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	Wizard Ops Tactics