You may notice something different about which expansions to play with when challenging other players now.
It is now possible to buy the latest in app expansion based on an already available physical expansion, which is Crisis Heroes.
I’ve not played Star Realms with the Hero cards, so it will be interesting to see how these play. Will they give incredible insane starts like the Gambits/Events can give?
Continuing with the “pay once play anywhere” approach this is a snip at £1.49.
Who would of thought I would be getting excited over a game about making a patchwork quilt?
Yesterday an app version of the 2014 two player game hit both the iOS App Store and that other lesser one.
I hadn't played the original physical game, but one of my regular Star Realms opponents has, and put up on Instagram that they had just downloaded the app and was asking for people to play against. So I thought why not? The app once I found it on the App Store was only $2.99, so a bargain.
Once downloaded, I went through the tutorial and was instantly hooked. I love the Tetris feel of the placement of the tiles that represent the quilt patches. Then there is the timeline, and the currency being buttons. Love those touches. And the button currency very thematic.
Each patch has a cost both in buttons and time it will advance your counter on the timeline. Certain points on the time line when you cross them will generate more buttons for you to spend, and there are single square patches that if you reach first can be used to plug that odd gap on your quilt.
Love, love, love it.
Digidiced the developer of the app have done an amazing job. I've installed the game on my 6S, and it's usable on the smallish screen, the buttons are on the tad small side.
The game looks amazing, plus the in-app purchases are just themes for the game, so if you want to change the appearance you can. But I love the default look.
Now I wish other app devs would learn from these guys, because the app comes with asynchronous online play straight out of the box. Too many boardgame apps are being released these days without this feature, with the promise of it coming in a future release. The bread today, jam tomorrow deal. It's one of the reasons I took so long getting the Splendor app, it still doesn't have the online play. But a 99c sale over Christmas saw me cave in. Digidiced have just hit it out of the ball park here, and deserve a big hearty pat on the back for this.
So there you have it, a great two player game on iOS, well worth getting. And you can guess what will be added to my game collection soon.
Although this app is graphically styled, and aimed at players of Epic. There is no reason why it couldn't be used for playing other games *cough*Magic*cough* to keep track of life in them.
Have to admit not used the app in anger yet. But it does look rather good graphically.
For the Christmas break I took a “few” games to play. It will come as no surprise that we didn't get to play most of the games. I even have a semi-valid reason for not playing one of them!
I had packed Magic the Gathering Arena of the Plainswalkers for Nath and I to play. However there was one slight flaw in my plan.
About a week before Christmas I had decided that it would be a good idea to use the rather nice storage box that comes with the Zendika Fat Pack to store the spell cards and character cards for the game.
Can you see where this story is going? Yep I remembered to pack the little storage box I am using to store the dice and tokens for the game, but had forgotten to pack the box with the cards in. A fact that I remembered about 3am Christmas Eve, when during an awake moment I thought we can play Arena of the Plainswalkers, “oh bugger!”
Jonathan and I met up at the local Costa for a coffee, catch up and possibly a game or two.
After catching up on our gaming Christmas, Jonathan introduced me to a new game to me called Haggis.
Haggis is a trick taking card game for two or three players.
Now I'm not saying the following because I won, or due to the fact I CRUSHED Jonathan. But I liked the game. At first I was a little “confused” about the game play, but soon picked it up. I liked the tokens Jonathan had made to record what bet you made at the start of a round for if you will be the first to get rid of all your cards. If I got the game I would be knocking on his door for a set.
The idea of each round is to get rid of all the cards in your hand, whilst winning tricks. Some of the cards like the 3,5,7 and 9 (iirc) are worth one point, and at the end of the round you score that point for each of them in your pile of cards won. There are also wild cards represented by the Jack, Queen and King that are also worth 2,3 and 5 points. If you are the first to get rid of your hand, and you made that bet at the start you get those points on top of the cards you scored. Plus as a reward for getting rid of your cards first you get the “haggis”, which is a small pile of left over cards that you also score (if there are any scoring cards in it).
I won the first two rounds, and decided to take a bet that I would again be the first to get rid of his cards and did a thirty point bet. I was half expecting that this would be the round that I would not be the first to get rid of their cards. But my doubt disappeared after I made a very strong start, getting down to about four cards in three tricks. After a little comeback by Jonathan I did get rid of my last card and score a massive amount of points, including the bet, about sixty five points!
Afterwards Jonathan admitted that he used to play the game a lot with his daughter, but not only that but using an online app (can't remember the name) he'd been tutored by the game designer on how to play and tactics. So luckily for me beginners luck trumps skill and being rusty at the game.
It was a great way to spend a bit of time, I enjoy my coffee shop gaming sessions. They are always with great company.
After watching the latest Boardgame Blender and the Suzanne segment where she showed an app for tracking the games played, I hunted down the app she was using because it looked interesting. I liked the idea of tracking the games I've played and producing stats based on that info.
Ok yes I know I write about them here on the blog. But the stats angle is something that appeals to me. Plus this app ties up with bgg, and updates there for you too. It's not a free app, costs under three coins of the realm.
So we'll see how this goes. I'll try and post the stats each month on here.
If we include app versions of the game my most played game of the year is clearly by a long shot Star Realms.
There are some great app versions of boardgames out there. Sometimes I'll get the app version before getting the physical version to see if I like the game. Then other times I will get the app version so I can learn the basics of the game before actually getting to play the game in real life. Plus the app allows me to game when I wouldn't be able to, whether it's against an opponent online or the built in AI.
Regular readers know that recently I got Neuroshima Hex and four of the army expansions for it, with a fifth promo army in the post somewhere. But I haven't got the game to the table yet (Gav we need to arrange a time and place). So in the meantime I got the app and have been playing that.
The app is pretty awesome. I've been playing the quick game option against the easy AI. This gives me a random army each time I play a game against a random army on the opponents side. I like this because it means I get experience playing all the armies, against all the armies. Although the Vegas army is one I'm not having much success with.
I have to admit the easy AI is giving me a pretty good challenge. But I can't wait to get the game to the table also. But in the meantime this is scratching the itch to play.
Posted by me using my iPad and the Blogsy app