Reply With QuoteIt's not terrible on a non retina device! I promise.Originally Posted by Vincent19
Believe it or not, it works pretty well, at least on a phone with a retina display (playing on one without does sound pretty shitty). The main reason I find it to work is that, when zoomed out, the cards all display a simplified graphic of the main stats. The only thing you have to zoom in for is reading the special abilities, and as I get more and more familiar with the game, I find that I'm rarely having to do that.
Still, I would love to have an iPad 3 to play board games on. Stupid reality of not being rich...
It's not terrible on a non retina device! I promise.
You've convinced me to try anyway. At least, I'll only be wasting time and not money if I can't bear it.
Then my job here is done. When your ready for some fun and friendly opponents, don't be shy an come on over.
I got the gist of it and played a game; my Elves lost of course, but it was reasonably close. It's a neat system.
Does anyone know a person named Tom Cheap? Tim Chock? Tom Check? I remember he owns this site or something. Maybe he should get this game so he can play us.
He can even do a Tim vs Bruce on this game while I make him some coffee.
I think Tom bought it on day 1, and hes still trying to find the Start button on his tiny iPhone screen.
I bought in with the bundle because I support playdek, but I must admit this game is falling flat for me. Very generic tactical play, but I thought the pudding would be in the ability to build a deck. Unfortunately, even with the everything bundle, there's not a lot of variety in the deck building. What might I be missing?
Jorune
I beat NKoan in a game but i have no idea how.
This seems to be a theme with the playdek games, for me.
Sorry to hear you're not liking it. I'll say that I've had the completely opposite experience and after about 30 games, Summoner Wars has replaced Ascension as my favorite overall iOS game, and is in the running for my favorite board game of all time (granted, my experience with "hardcore" boardgames is probably limited to 20-25 different titles).
I feel that maybe it has to do with being a different kind of tactical gamer. I recall you mentioning that you love Neuroshima Hex (you got me to join the league!). Currently, I'm finding NH a hard game to get into. Now, part of this is almost certainly that I'm pretty terrible at it, but NH feels very... clinical to me. I often feel that I don't have many good options during my turns, and the options I do have never greatly excite me. The lack of randomness (outside of the draws) means that once I get onto the losing side of a battle, I find it difficult to claw my way back up. Mind you, I'm still new to the game, still terrible at it, and well aware that some people don't like randomness. I have no doubt my opinion could change.
Summoner Wars, on the other hand, has a lot of randomness (though not so much as to make your tactical plays useless). Combined with multiple highly unique races and plenty of viable strategies the game becomes very vibrant for me. I find it packed with interesting choices. Where should I put this wall? Should I save up for champions or flood the battlefield with common units? Should I be offensive with my summoner or keep him safe? Is the risk of having more units on the battlefield worth it? Should I kill my own dudes for the magic? I find myself making tons of these little choices each game and it makes for very satisfying moments when my plans line up perfectly and a summoner falls into my trap.
I really do feel like the perfectly tuned random elements are what make this game. Often in SW I'll find myself agonizing over whether to position my units in a dangerous way to give my rolls a higher chance of success, or make a safer play but reduce the chance my turn will net me the result I want. I find choices like these very rewarding because first I make the choice, then I can be excited when it works (or disappointed when it doesn't).
As for the deck building, I agree it's not the deepest system, but I like it. I've customized a good number of races to my liking and I find they play a good bit differently depending on the cards I use. Have you tried adding mercenaries to your decks? They have some really interesting cards in there.
Gah, sometimes the interface screws me up. Playing a game as the Jungle Elves against forgeforsaken and I accidently clicked end phase after moving my lions, forgetting that it automatically kicks you into the attack phase after the lions move (their special is they get to move after the regular movement phase).
Yeah, there doesn't seem to be that much in the way of deck building, given the limited variety of units per faction, and the fixed events and starting units. I find the tactical game pretty interesting though -- for instance, in my game versus nKoan yesterday, I really should have been mindful of him summoning that lion rider unit that can charge across the battlefield on the same turn. I wasn't, and my summoner lost 3/4 of his health as a result. I had a unit moving into a flanking position that should have been protecting my summoner. The game probably has more breadth than depth -- it looks like there's a lot of knowing what possible units the opposing faction can field, and anticipating it.
Only tried one multiplayer game so far, but I really like what I've seen. It gives you a lot more choices per turn than Ascension or Neuroshima Hex. The randomness lies more with dice rolls than the harder to predict card draws, which is a nice change of pace.
I find that it's hard to plan ahead in Neuroshima Hex. Whatever you do, it's always possible for the opponent draw a tile that will kill your net unit, has higher initiative, etc. The randomness decreases further into the game, but it seems easier/safer to react to what's currently on the board than to what the opponent might draw. I find the fun with NH is trying to improve your current position with the crappy, poorly timed tiles in your hand than pulling one over on your opponent. With SW you can actually plan something in advance and execute it. I like both styles of play, but SW is new and shiny right now.
Neither will replace Ascension as *the* bathroom game though. Log in, buy mystic, Log out.
Neuroshima Hex and Summoner Wars are both great games, but I must confess to enjoying SW much more. My gaming tastes were pretty much defined by old school table top RPGs and I really like rolling dice.
Right? This is the first iOS port that has actually made me want a copy of the physical game.
I'm really tempted to pick up the Master Set just to see how the factions not in the iOS port play.
That I didn't need to see :) Pretty crafty to have all the armies in the boxed set that were excluded from the port.
From what I understand, the Master Set factions will come out later for the iOS.
I was at a local game night at a game store last night (if you happen to live in Chicago, you gotta check out the Dice Dojo, awesome spot) and played a couple games of the master set. The factions in it are friggin awesome. They all feel very unique to what is currently in the iOS version, and there are some really fun abilities. The build quality on the components seems really high quality too.
If I wasn't annoyingly poor right now, I would have walked out with my own copy.
Gah both of you now! With Friday tomorrow I'm gonna have to rot gut mind erase to avoid owning that thing!
Don't underestimate the Undead. I got fucking owned by a custom Cultist deck with Malevolence. He sacrificed his zombies for magic and then proceeded to use every trick in his deck for summons. Anyone who says the game is mostly luck is full of shit. I'm only winning 25% of my games and it's pissing me off. There are some real card sharks out there.
I thought you did buy the master set, deF. Didn't you post a picture earlier?
that's one of the decks I've been trying out today. It's pretty good.
Shit, I think you were the one I played.
I did, right after I was informed of it's existence by the wallet destroying duo of Derbain and Vincent19. The new armies are nuts! I'm happy to report that all the armies are unique and feel like they would crush the armies we have now. That's usually how I feel about most expansions, though, and quite often am horribly wrong :)
I've been playing it with a couple friends, and the port is just excellent. As far as the tabletop experience goes, the game is nearly as fast on the table as it is on the phone. Yay!
Now all of you get to my tiny apartment because I want 4 player team games, NOW.
If you fly to Calgary I'll play a game with you :)
I'll even buy you lunch!!
On my way.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlT6owR5Ytg#t=0m22s
How is this possible?!?! Asynchronous games in my experience are in a time bubble. I have several Pocket Heroes games going on a week that are about a minute and a half of real game time.
Are the summoner games different?
I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "time bubble" but if your referring to how long a game takes to play in real time SW... maybe 20-60 minutes?
It really depends on how long you think about you turns. You can ponder forever and make great tactical choices and card combos. Or you could be like me, and pick the first gleaming move... And regret it instantly :)
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