Category Archives: iOS

iOS

Command Decks Come To Star Realms App

apps, iOS, star realms

Last week saw an update to the Star Realms app released. Which saw the 18th expansion Command Decks introduced to the game for £6.99.

“Each Legendary Commander has a unique starting deck (that replaces the normal hand of Scouts and Vipers), and has two unique Gambit cards. They also have different starting Authority values and hand sizes. Each Command Deck has a powerful 8-cost ship that gets added to the trade deck at the start of the game.” (https://www.starrealms.com/star-realms-command-decks-now-in-star-realms-digital/)

This is the first time that I will have played with the Command Decks, despite owning the physical decks. The only time I seem to get to play the game in real life is with Nathan. And that hasn’t happened for a long time. So I’m pretty excited to be able to play with them now.

As stated in a recent post I’ve played over 10k games with the app now, and the expansions have helped keep the game fresh. Although I tend to play with every expansion selected, which allows for some crazy starts and plays. Sometimes it’s refreshing to play with just the core set, or with only a couple of expansions selected.

The least used, ok not used at all, side of the expansions for me is the campaign missions. So I can’t speak for that side of things. It could be argued I’m not getting maximum value out of my purchases. But the campaign side just doesn’t interest me.

What isn’t obvious when selecting the Command Decks expansion when making a challenge to another player is how to select which of the seven Command Decks you play with.

When you select the Command Deck expansion in the bottom left corner an avatar of the current selected Command Deck appears (shown above).

If you click on that avatar you are taken to the Command Deck selection screen (see below) where you can select the deck you wish to play with.

On that screen pressing the little question mark and you get the specific rules for that Command Deck.

It should be noted that which ever deck you select will be the default Command Deck you get whenever you accept or issue a challenge until you change it.

Compared to the other expansions and the cost of the full game this expansion is on the expensive side. But as with the others this is buy once and have everywhere! Which takes the sting out of it for me. This is one of my favourite things with Star Realms that my games in progress and purchases follow me to which ever platform I’m using. No need to buy again.

I’m sure that there will be one or two Command Decks that I will prefer over the others. But that’s something to discuss for another day (once I’ve played them all for starters).

Right I’m off to take my turns…

My Current Top 10 iOS Board Game Apps

apps, iOS

Yesterday I wrote about the disappointing and uninspired top 10 favourite board game list that was featured on the iOS App Store home page.

I also threatened to share with you my top 10. Today I carry out that threat, and present to you my current top 10 iOS board game apps.

Disclaimer: This list is fluid. It does change. Although it wouldn’t matter when I did the list one or two entries would always be there. This list is also in no particular order. Meaning I haven’t ranked them. Also it should be noted I usually play these games online against friends. Very rarely do I play against an AI opponent or random opponents online.

Also remember that this is iOS games. Hence why Wingspan is not on this list. At the time of writing it does not exist on iOS.

My Current Top 10 iOS Board Game Apps

Star Realms: If you like deck builders then this is the game for you. It’s great value for money with the Wise Wizard Games (yes they changed their name recently) of buy once play anywhere. There are a lot of expansions for the game now. Which may put people off. But they are not needed to enjoy this modern classic. Did I say I love this game?

Epic the Card Game: for that Magic the Gathering fix Epic scratches the itch for me. It’s totally free to play! You only pay for cosmetics, or to enter tournaments. No grinding or splashing out lots of money to get cards. My favourite way to play is Dark Draft against my friends. Which is an amazing draft format for two players.

Lost Cities: Another two player game, but this time the classic Reiner Knizia card game about exploring for ancient lost cities.

Carcassonne: the classic tile laying game. I love playing this with the expansions. In fact I hardly ever play this without them.

Ticket to Ride: the classic board game. There are several maps/expansions for this to buy. But the cool thing is when playing against friends only one of you needs to own the map you want to play.

Tokaido: a beautiful version of the set collection board game about having the best experience possible as you travel the road between Edo and Kyoto in Japan.

Roll for the Galaxy: an amazing port of the board game that changed how I view the game! Well digitally. This as an app turns the game into something I can play when I have a spare 5 minutes to fill, waiting in line or something.

Scythe: All I’m going to say is this is the digital version of my all time favourite board game. And probably the only game on this list I play against AI opponents.

Onitama: a lovely version of the two player abstract game.

Splendor: a great implementation of the gateway game.

Below are some honourable mentions of games that nearly made the list.

Honourable mentions aka games that nearly made the list

What are your top 10 board game apps?

Disappointing App Store List

apps, iOS

This morning when I entered the iOS App Store to check for updates to my installed apps I noticed on the home page a curated list titled “Our top 10 board games”.

So once I’d started the downloads for the updates (there did seem a lot this morning), curiosity got the better of me and I checked out this top 10.

To say I was a bit disappointed by their choices was an understatement. With Carcassonne being the only “modern” or “hobby” board game to make the list, I thought this wasn’t a list chosen by gamers.

Even if I didn’t chose some of the more “hardcore” hobby games that have app versions. Where is Catan, Tokaido, Ticket to Ride, Splendor, Charterstone, Sagrada, Roll for the Galaxy, to name a handful of modern, accessible, light or gateway games?

Even with my recent rediscovery of Chess, would or should it make a top 10? It depends what the point of the list is.

With a big clue being “our favourites” then this list is a list of favourite boardgames of whoever compiled the list. I’m assuming this curation was by a human and not some code.

What can we deduce about the author of the list? They may have scratched the surface of modern boardgames as hinted by the presence of Carcassonne. However the rest of the selections being the more mainstream titles that most people play growing up. So I’d guess they don’t play boardgames on a regular basis, maybe during the traditional family holidays with other family members during a family get together. They had to compile this list so fell back on games they played growing up.

I don’t think any boardgamer when asked to do this list would come up with this top 10. I’ll do my top 10 in another post I think.

MtG Arena App Update

apps, iOS, magic, MtG, MtG Arena

Thought I’d give a little update on the iOS version of Arena.

I raised a support call with WotC over redeeming the codes I had. Which they did respond to. You need to either use the PC/Mac version, or go to your account settings and https://myaccounts.wizards.com/code. Now this bit must be new (as in the last year) as I don’t remember WotC allowing codes to be redeemed via the web before.

Completed Colour Challenges!

So now I have some free packs and decks. Not many but some. It’s a start.

However having ground out the Colour (I refuse to use the American spelling here) Challenge unlocked the rewards as I progressed through each, and unlocked the other game formats. What it does not do is give me the free deck for having completed it, or acknowledge that I’ve completed it!

But Colour Challenge Not Complete!

The WotC twitter support did reply to my query about this with…

WotC Twitter Support Reply

So I visited the link, and created a feedback (that’s all it allows you to do) with the above screen shots attached.

In the meantime, I entered promo codes (happy I can do that now), ate, slept and other stuff.

With time to kill this morning I decided I’d check to see if I had a reply.

I want to say to my surprise there was no reply or even acknowledgement that my “bug” had been seen. But I was disappointed that there had not even been any form of acknowledgement. Which is the minimum you expect, even if it’s automated.

Naturally I voiced that disappointment via social media with the WotC Help account in a fairly civil manor.

I know the cards in this red/green deck aren’t going to be great. But they are cards none the less. Plus the challenge needs to be acknowledged as being completed so it can give me another to attempt (possibly). These challenges are one of the ways to grind out gems/coins and boosters for free. If the aim is to spend as little as possible (my total outlay so far has been a fiver on the intro booster offer) then this needs to be working.

MtG Arena hits iOS

apps, iOS, magic, MtG, MtG Arena, news, online play

Today Magic the Gathering Arena hit the iOS App Store.

Finally! It’s long over due on the platform. It came out on Android as an early access at the end of January.

Mini rant…

In my opinion Arena should have been on mobile from launch, or failing that within the first 6 months of launching. I really do think WotC fumbled the ball on this. By taking so long to reach other platforms other than PC, WotC really failed to make a significant dent into rival games such as Hearthstone. And that’s despite throwing lots of money at advertising, and “buying” streamers.

Initial impressions…

So this morning after downloading Arena onto my iPad, it had to then download even more data before I could do anything but play the tutorial. Then before the majority of game modes are made available I had to complete the Colour Challenge to unlock them. Which is basically play a mono coloured deck against an “AI” opponent playing one of the remaining colours, then the final game would be against a random real opponent. And you have to do that for each colour type, before you can play Standard or Historic for example.

The “AI” opponents are more logic puzzles than playing against an AI, as the cards drawn are the same each time. So it’s basically about playing the cards in the right order.

The real player opponent was fun. However there were some uneven matchups with obviously more powerful decks, they were not mono colour for starters. I think this for a complete novice to the game could be very off putting.

Being a paper player I have collected more than a handful of Arena codes over the last couple of years. These codes unlock decks, boosters, etc within Arena. You have to enter the code within the in app store to unlock them. However it appears that in the version of Arena released today there is no way to redeem those codes. So if like me you don’t have a PC/Mac you can’t use them, hopefully they won’t expire before WotC sort this out. Which would not be cool.

I knew I’d like playing MtG using Arena. It’s MtG with a slick “modern” UI. What’s not to like?

Another rant…

However it’s all the crap around playing the game that WotC have with their nickel and diming players for every penny they can screw out of them I don’t like.

I’ve seen comparisons online, and WotC are one of the meanest, less generous companies for this type of game. The in game economy is very much weighted in their favour.

Which means building up a collection and being able to build decks requires you to spend a lot of time grinding away, or spending lots of money. Neither is ideal.

Will I continue to play Arena? Possibly. Redeeming these codes is a biggie for me. Maybe a deal breaker.

Got a virtual ticket to ride

apps, Fenland Gamers, game night, iOS, online play, virtual game night

Last night our game club Fenland Gamers held another virtual game night.

We had a new (not new to the club) member join us for the virtual game night, so I added their Asmodee username to my Asmodee friends list. I do this through the Asmodee web page. It’s easier and quicker that way. It does make sending game invites a lot simpler if folks are in your friends list. Once that was done, it was deciding what to play based on the overlap between the apps everyone owned. Which was either Carcassonne or Ticket to Ride (TTR). There were other overlaps but not for everyone.

Our game for the evening was Asmodee digitals TTR. I’ve not played the TTR app in years, and even then it was just me against the AI. So it was a first for me to be playing it online. I definitely needed to remind myself of the interface. The last time I had played any version of the physical TTR was the New York version in 2018. The original TTR I last played in 2017, and the TTR UK was 2016 on 18th March. Literally a day short of being a full on 5 years to the day!

We started off playing the original base game of TTR because I didn’t know what expansions everyone had. Which I needn’t have taken into account. It was pointed out over discord during play that only one person (the one starting the game) needed to have the expansion.

I wasn’t doing amazing in the first game, I put that down to getting back into the swing of things. Even though I didn’t win, I wasn’t last, and scored more points than Jonathan.

The second game was using the TTR UK map. I think out of the versions of TTR that I have played so far over the years, this is one of my favourite maps to play. I like the having to purchase technology to open up various parts of the map, get extra points for competing routes etc.

One annoying thing did happen right at the end when I was going to share the detailed results for the TTR UK map. It crashed! And every attempt since to go back into the game (not the app) to get those results sees the app crash. So Jonathan kindly sent me the images you see above. Sadly the UK map does not show the completed routes at the end of the game. It’s the board state just as before I trigger the end of the game and the final round. But it does show that I got the New York route that was worth a massive 40 points plus the bonus points I had from the technology cards.

Despite that app crash at the end I think that the combination of using official app versions of a game along with discord for voice/text chat works really well, especially if using a tablet device. My experience with the virtual tabletop apps hasn’t been great. Especially their iOS versions. Nope for me official app version on the iPad, and use my iPhone with headset plugged running the discord app for the chat. Works a treat.

Anyway we all had a good time. That’s the important part.

Discard 8!

apps, iOS, star realms

I’ve not done one of these Star Realms posts in ages. Mind you I haven’t had a great deal to shout about. Although a 4 game winning streak against one of the games top players was pretty cool, and should warrant a post normally. However it didn’t as that player is still winning 2 games to every 1 of my wins!

Today I finished a game against one of my regular opponents, and achieved a first for me in Star Realms. Yep after nearly 9800 games of Star Realms it’s still possible to do things for the first time.

In the past I have had it so that an opponent has to discard 5 cards on their turn. Which basically means they have no next turn, as they are discarding their whole hand of cards (although with the new docking mechanic in the Frontiers Promo expansion they could have a 6th card, or the right event card they may have drawn an extra 2 cards). I’ve been on the receiving end of this once (yep only once in that many games, plenty of times had to discard 3 or 4 cards though) and it’s not fun. Unless you are dishing it out, then it’s funny!

But as the screen shot below shows in this game if my opponent had gotten to taken their next turn, they would have had to discard 8 cards! Naturally that is not possible under normal circumstances. And these were normal circumstances. No event card or docking mechanic shenanigans going on.

I’ve never ever before today forced a player to discard more than 5 cards. This is most definitely a record for me.

So for those interested here is the video of the game just finished.

What’s the maximum number of cards you have made some-one discard in Star Realms?

My Recent Top 5 Boardgame App Plays

apps, iOS, nintendo, online play, switch

Below are the top 5 played app versions of board games for the last 3 weeks.


The first place will always be Star Realms. Having now played over 9700 games now, I’m still loving the game. Regular expansions help keep it fresh. And at any given time usually have 5 or 6 games on the go with friends.

Those that know me on other places other than this blog will not be surprised with Wingspan coming in second. I have been sharing the outcomes of games with Jonathan, and now our games include Jeff as well, on those platforms.

Speaking of Wingspan, last nights 4 player game (the fourth player being an AI) saw me win in style and just miss out on hitting the 100 point barrier.

Epic came in third because I’m currently only playing with one person, and those games are dark drafts. Which take longer to play taking into account the draft stage has to be done first before a game can start. Plus we are playing across time zones.

Naturally the last two positions are taken up by the two games we played last week during the virtual game night.

What are your top 5 played board game apps?

Buffy is Legendary

iOS, news

More news from GenCon, more screen caps of Instagram! 

This time my source for this story is The Dice Tower.

I enjoy the Legendary Marvel deck building games from Upper Deck. They are miles better than the awful DC deck builder. I have the Legendary Encounters games as well for Alien and Predator. Which are sitting in my pile of shame. But from reviews and comments, and nominations for awards Upper Deck have really pulled it off getting theme into their Encounters game.

So it’s why I’m looking forward to getting my hands on the soon to be released Big Trouble in Little China Legendary game and the Legendary Encounters Firefly game plus the Legendary Marvel Civil War expansion.

Although I’m not happy about the promos they are giving away at GenCon. But that’s a rant for another day.

Last night while I was dreaming about the excuses Taylor Swift gives for not calling me, or that I’m actually funny, The Dice Tower were posting the following on Instagram.

Yep Buffy and all her vampire killing goodness is coming to Legendary. 

There was already a board game about to be released that Roll for Crit in one of their GenCon vids described as Eldich Horror light. So I’m down for getting this when it hits.

But back to Legendary. How cool is this? I hope that they take into account the movie that started it all.

But that’s not all…

Very thin on detail, read that as none, there is going to be a Legendary app!

Will this be the games or like the existing third party ones that select characters, schemes and masterminds etc for you?

I’m hoping for the game, with online cross platform play.

My Current Addiction

apps, iOS, neuroshima hex

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.