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The Julian Murdoch **HONORARY** iOS Board Game/Strategy Thread

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Managed to repeat it after about 7 attempts -- the 3 or so cards that are absolutely necessary just didn't appear that often in the same game, or the opponent got one. I only got 650, though, as I forgot to use the Tablet of Time in one turn -- easy to do as there is so much to do in one turn, and it does get boring by the end as the only thing stopping you from going on infinitely is either some machine word limit or the time you are willing to put in.

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Also, thanks to whoever pointed out that managing the center is a good strategy. I used to not care about the cards that allow you to do that, but I tried that now and it seems a good supporting strategery to your main stratagem.

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Thread title should now be updated, thanks to the snazzy new Thumbs interface.

It looks like Neuroshima Hex's async multiplayer patch is live, though it may be a little rough around the edges (according to Michael Barnes at No High Scores).

Also, Pocket Tactics reports that Legion of the Damned has published a title update that includes retina display support. I haven't played LotD myself, but it's a turn-based strategy game with a sci-fi theme and a number of features (online multiplayer, map editor). Has anybody here had any experience with it?

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Touch Arcade just posted their review of Autumn Dynasty, an iPad-only RTS ($4.99) made by some folks from the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab and it's overwhelmingly positive. An excerpt:

Visuals are all well and good, but Autumn Dynasty also shines in its mechanics. Simply put, this is one of the most full-featured RTS titles I’ve ever played. There’s resource management (in gold and acumen), unit training and even building construction (restricted to pre-determined build locations). Each unit also has a multitude of abilities that are unlocked as you progress through the campaign. There are even environmental considerations, such as forests that hide your units and elevation advantages. I was impressed at how well all the elements in Autumn Dynasty seemed to complement, imparting a certain amount of freedom to play that is sometimes missing from other mobile RTS titles.

Most of the impressions I've seen on Twitter and elsewhere have been positive as well, so iPad folks should definitely look into this one.

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It's been a fairly slow week thus far, but one announcement might be of interest: BGG reports that the Coding Monkeys (who worked on the iOS implementation of Carcassonne) are currently working on an iOS implementation of Knizia's Lost Cities.

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iOS Carcassonne was really well done, I look forward to Coding Monkey's next title in a big way. Really disappointed with the relative lack of iOS content out of E3, though.

Edit:

Also, Pocket Tactics reports that Legion of the Damned has published a title update that includes retina display support. I haven't played LotD myself, but it's a turn-based strategy game with a sci-fi theme and a number of features (online multiplayer, map editor). Has anybody here had any experience with it?

Oh, hello there. :)

I'm still a big LotD booster - it's not perfect but it's a fun little hex wargame and there simply aren't enough of those on iOS yet.

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One of the guys on GWJ was raving about Autumn Dynasty so i picked it up. Its pretty swish, but I'm not totally in love with it. Possibly because one of the early levels turned into a drawn out battle that took forever and i eventually just turned it off and went to bed. It has a lot of atmosphere and potential though, so i'll be playing it more. I might have just been in a grump that one day.

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Le Havre and Summoner Wars are both due IMMINENTLY. I will be on both of these things day 1!

Since you mentioned it, Pocket Tactics (hat tip to Owen) just posted that Le Havre will be landing with a $4.99 "introductory" price point, eventually rising to $6.99. The developers of Le Havre (Codito) also handled the iOS port of Tigris & Euphrates, which was solid.

Still no concrete release date beyond "any day now," though.

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Still haven't seen Summoner Wars yet, but Le Havre has gone live on the App Store. As mentioned earlier, the introductory price is $4.99 - online multiplayer through GameCenter, but IOS 5.0 is required.

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I'm getting pretty frustrated with the interface in magic. The horrible phase ticking down times, the need to wait for every bloody animation, the plain old bugs where I can't select a card and the huge glowing card popping up from my hand. Yikes. I'll be holding off on the upgrade a while.

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I don't know if this is the case on iOS, but the PC/console versions of Duels of the Planeswalker can usually turn many of the slowing down frills of the game off. For example the auto-zoom-in on new cards and combat animations are two things I know can definitely be turned off in other versions.

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I don't know if this is the case on iOS, but the PC/console versions of Duels of the Planeswalker can usually turn many of the slowing down frills of the game off. For example the auto-zoom-in on new cards and combat animations are two things I know can definitely be turned off in other versions.

Yes, you can turn the combat animations off, most of the animations I'm not finding TOO tough. The phase timers are kind of necessary, the worst that could happen in Magic is you pass priority and miss the opportunity for that last second spell or ability that will change the combat, so they are a little irritating but I'm not sure how you could change them?

The dice animation for Planechase though? Fuck. That. Thing. Planechase is a clusterfuck of unplayability with that thing taking about 5 seconds to roll every time, especially with the amount the AIs use it.

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Ah, i usderstand the phase change thing, but it still gets on my tits. I had the extra animations turned off already.

Is the Planechase the cards in the middle? i had a hilarious one where we got the 7 cards to the graveyard followed by all your creatures in the GY get put into play. Everyone suddenly got 6+creatures. I was reluctant to roll the dice just to move things along. I think i'll stick to ascention.

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For some reason I had completely ignored the prospect of playing board games on iPhone before. I had never played Ascension before and am now hooked. I bought all the expansions and I'm thinking about buying the physical version as well if I can find one.

I will check out Neuroshima Hex the next.

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Been playing a lot of "Summoner Wars", another card based game adapted to iPad by Playdek (Ascension), and it's very interesting game with a decent amount of customization. Unfortunately, it's buggy as fuck. The deck builder crashes the app on me about 99% of the time. Often the game does too. But when it works it's nice and it'd be great on multiplayer.

Unfortunately, Playdek hasn't really added anything new to their multiplayer system beyond what's in Ascension and not having rankings or any kind, or even just leaderboards, is somewhat annoying. I haven't tried it online yet because I'm still learning the various decks (and hoping I can build one of my own without it crashing) but this can keep me occupied for a while WHEN (if?) they fix all the stability issues.

My only qualm about the game itself -- rather than the app -- is that the end-game of Summoner Wars is rather weak. If you run out of playable cards or magic you have to go through confirming your way through the various turn stages over and over again. It's tedious. And nothing worse than having to continue playing a game, sometimes for a bunch of turns, that you have quite clearly lost but the opponent hasn't delivered the finishing blow yet. Anyway, if you win/lose before you get to the end game it's thoroughly more enjoyable.

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I've just come to expect a hilarious amount of crashing and bugging out with Playdek iOS games, but the lack of chat with Summoner Wars is really, really glaring. The average game length in SW is considerably longer than the five-minute bursts you can have with Ascension; having a method for some kind of communication channel, even for a quick "GG" after a well-played match, seems important.

I'm not really keen on the business model either - the Everything Bundle is a bit pricey ($8 instead of the usual $5 for board game ports) and the individual IAPs, which include selling packs of upper-tier "reinforcement" units for factions separate from the faction decks themselves, are set up to nickle-and-dime new players into the ground.

Consider the current faction stats for multiplayer win % (which, mind you, are not available to players until they've purchased at least one deck):

Tundra Orcs: 62.45% (1282/771)

Guild Dwarves: 59.51% (1120/762)

Cave Goblins: 52.54% (630/569)

Phoenix Elves: 49.48% (1135/1159)

Jungle Elves: 47.47% (797/882)

Vanguards: 43.48% (627/815)

Fallen Kingdom: 41.37% (805/1141)

Cloaks: 40.69% (649/946)

If you blind-buy the Cloaks as your "second" faction (since you get the Phoenix Elves by default), then the current multiplayer climate is probably going to encourage you to either try another deck or buy up on reinforcements and mercenaries, all of which require more and more cash.

I really dig what I've played of Summoner Wars but, with the game leveraging a punitive F2P environment where the "rich" players have immediate strategic advantages (through reinforcements and mercenaries, as well as potential deck selection), I'm reluctant to really advocate for it unless you're already a fan of the physical game.

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They REALLY need to fix some of the interface issues as well. If someone plays a 'units can only be hit on a 6' card on their turn, there is noway of knowing that unless you were paying very careful attention as the card went flying past your face. It's a fun game, I like it but I agree it's a tricky one to recommend at the moment.

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Modern Art: The Card Game has received an update and it seems to have fixed most problems I had with it. I play it almost every day and it crashed often near the end of the game, but hasn't done that since the update. They also fixed a couple of interface issues.

They added an ELO ranking system, which seems weird though, as you are ranked against the AI players and then your ELO score determines your rank in the Game Center.

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This thread makes me really want an iPad. I had no idea that there was an ios version of Modern Art. Now I really want it.

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This thread makes me really want an iPad. I had no idea that there was an ios version of Modern Art. Now I really want it.

WARNING: It's maybe not the Modern Art you're thinking of. It's Modern Art: The Card Game, without auctions but otherwise similar.

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I didn't realize this until now, but the iOS implementation of Ticket to Ride: Europe is actually a new standalone application, rather than IAP for the existing Ticket to Ride iOS app. It's currently priced at $1.99 at the App Store.

Also, as reported by Pocket Tactics, there were weekend price reductions for Caylus ($2.99, Universal) and Civilization Revolution ($0.99).

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