So that Geeklist Bahimiron posted a page ago included a link to a PC version of Dominion, which I figured would be a joke, but I don’t get in nearly as much time with that game as I should so I decided to give it a go.
And it’s pretty great. It doesn’t used licensed art, but the clipart that’s in there is representative of the cards, and it plays very quickly despite having a decent AI. I’m sure veterans will have no trouble swatting it down, but I’m having way too much fun learning against it, and all the current expansions are supported. There’s even a campaign mode where you face off against opponents who have an advantage over you, thematically represented by the cards in their starting hands and your victory conditions. I’m currently trying to kill a duke who starts with a duke card (naturally) and four duchies. All I have to do is have a better score than him at the end of the game, but I’m not even coming close at this point.
Anyway, highly recommended: http://www.slightlymagic.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=61&t=2366&sid=140a54226f3d1484c2ad36c57abbc452
where did you hear that? I heard one of the guys from Incinerator on a Plaid Hat podcast this week, and it sounded like they still had a long way to go.
Also, what is Cyclades like?
A good friend of mine has a Briefcase of Descent ™ which he carries to his gaming group and the group of them plays Descent.
They enjoy it quite enthusiastically.
Tracy, why not just play Dominion on isotropic?
Cyclades is a cross between an American style “dudes on a map” game and a Euro. 2-5 people fight over a series of islands and each army has only two unit types: dudes and boats, so combat is fairly simple. What makes it interesting is that the options available to you depend entirely on which god likes you the most right now, which is determined by an auction at the start of the turn. So if you don’t have Ares’s favor this turn you probably won’t be adding to your army or attacking or building a fortress on any of your islands. In addition to the gods there are a bunch of mythological creatures for hire who basically let you break all of the other rules the game has already established. The rule breaking is kept in check by the fact that only a few of them are available at any given time.
Even though it is a dudes on a map game the actual goal is to build 2 metropolises (totally should be metropoli), although it’s entirely possible to conquer an island where someone already built one for you. The cool thing about the game is that there are a whole lot of ways to pull off clever combinations of moves that can put you ahead or win the game for you. I also like the way the auctions work and the strategy involved in vying for a god to help you or to deny someone else their abilities for a turn. It’s a good game and every time we play it’s always close right down to the wire. It’s also got a reasonable play time, usually under two hours.
I’m not sure how well Cyclades will translate to the iPad, as it is a game that definitely benefits from some live action trash talk. Plus you have to make a lot of noise when someone releases the Kraken. Oh right, there’s a goddamn Kraken with a cool mini where he’s eating a boat. So I should stop typing because you probably already ran to the store to buy this.
No AI. No campaign mode.
I try to stay away from live multiplayer games because I get interrupted constantly and don’t like to leave the others hanging. I’m also trying to get better at Dominion and learn all the cards (I have all the expansions but Alchemy, but have almost no play time with anything other than the base set and Seaside). That standalone app I linked is perfect for learning, and the campaign mode is kind of interesting (and frustrating – I think I’m going to have to cheat my way past the Duke as the four duchies and duke card he starts with are not in his deck but added at the end, giving him an extra 16 point boost at the beginning without those deadweight cards watering down his draws).
The guy who made that Dominion game also made a 7 Wonders game. Unfortunately he used official art in that one, so unsurprisingly it got shut down. Which is too bad, that’s another game I’m interested in and would live to give a try before investing $30+. Though I guess I should be glad he bothered to keep Dominion around, considering just how beat up he got when he made it available.
Playing around with Dominion makes me wish the RFTG game had a campaign. It’s so deep end that I ended up watching an hour of YouTube tutorials before I felt I had any idea what was going on.
Introduced 'prankster to Dominion last night. Had a couple of good game. Really like that game. It’s a nice, dialed back, light game… good for after some heavy gaming stuff. He brought over Death Angel, and I have to say, I wasn’t terribly impressed. Maybe we’re missing something, maybe it’s an early judgement since we only played it once… but, I just didn’t find it terribly captivating.
In other news Earth Reborn arrived at the house last night! Yaaay! I’m half way through the 40+ page manual, so I still have a little ways to go to get a game started, but I’m really looking forward to understanding this game. It looks to be a TON of fun!
Wow. Donald Vaccarino’s responses on that thread (he’s the guy who designed the original game) prove his eternal coolness. Very level-headed, fair, and genuinely funny:
Other people calling Donald out in that thread for being touchy and bitch slapping the guy who made the app don’t seem to understand that he could have actually been a complete asshole in his responses, but chose not to. Later, when someone brings up the Q-tip reference and demands an explanation:
What could have been an absolutely nightmarish epic knee-jerk-induced flamefest was nicely diffused by Donald throughout the thread. Bravo. Makes me really glad I’ve spent money on his designs.
His thoughts pretty much echo mine regarding these unsanctioned PC conversions. Fine as long as you’re not taking credit for the design, using official art or other assets, charging for it, or being an insufferable prick. Not fine if any of those conditions are violated.
And it turns out the sets I’ve used mainly in the past are the base and Intrigue, not Seaside. Guess I haven’t played the real game in longer than I thought, but I’m glad I have a PC version to keep my skills from rusting until I can bust it out again.
ioticus
3530
Damn, I don’t want to buy an iPad. I wish they would make Cyclades available for the PC or iPod Touch.
It sounds interesting (thanks to Mike Cathcart for the description!) but I’m not generally crazy about auction mechanics in games. Then again, I didn’t mind it in Medici or Ra.
The iPad is a wonderful platform for board games. You could play nothing but board games and get your money’s worth out of it.
Ascension, bohnanza, Carcassone, Catan, Ghost Stories, Medici, Neuroshima Hex, Puerto Rico, Ra, Small World, TTR and more already out. On the way,you’ve got: Tigris & Euphrates, Summoner Wars, Cyclades, (and thats just in October…). I think the best part is that you’ve got dedicated companies like Incinerator out there helping bring more quality implementations to iOS. The understand how a board game differs from a video game and how they can leverage the strength of the platform to make a great experience.
And Caylus!
And after that you’ve got Nightfall, the Ascension expansion and Agricola. Just from Incinerator/Playdek!
Eventually we’re looking at Le Havre, El Grande, Dominion, Race for the Galaxy, Dominant Species, expansions for Carcassonne, Catan and Puerto Rico.
Heck, BGG’s top 10 will almost be completely represented by this time next year. Someone obviously needs to jump on board with Twilight Struggle.
(Misguided’s list also missed Through the Desert, Battle Lines, Tikal, Samurai, Hive, Kingsburg* and Zooloretto! God. So much goodness.)
*I didn’t promise these were all good adaptions.
If you are willing to make some exceptions to your no auctions rule I still think Cyclades is worth a look because the auctions in that game are really cool. It’s not just “OK, Zeus is up, what’s your bid? What’s your bid?” Here’s how it works:
Each god has a money track to chart the current bid on that god. On your turn, you place your marker on the track of the god you want to bid on. So if you’re first you may put your marker on the 1 spot of Ares’ track. You’ve now bid a gold on Ares. The next guy puts his marker on Poseidon for 1 gold. Player three wants to bid on Ares and puts a marker on the the 2 spot of Ares’ track. What a jerk! You’ve now been outbid for Ares and you’ll have to move your marker to any other track (you can’t rebid on Ares immediately). This continues until everyone is on their own track and prices have been set.
What I like about it is that there’s a cool bit of strategy to who you bid on, especially if you get kicked off of a track. In the example above you might decide to place your bid on Zeus, hoping that the player after you will outbid you for Zeus, which would give you a chance to go back and outbid the second player on Ares.
In games with less than five players some of the gods may not be available, but Apollo is always available. In Cyclades Apollo is the god of taking a nap. You pass on this turn but you get a little extra gold instead. So on any given turn there are n-1 (where n is the number of players) gods that do more interesting stuff. Unlike the other gods, however, more than one person can put their marker on Apollo and take a pass, but the first person to do so gets an extra bonus. It’s just another cool aspect of the bidding.
I bet there’s a name for this kind of bidding and it’s been done in a billion other games, but I haven’t played those so I have to explain it over three paragraphs.
Played this for what felt like the kabillionth time over the weekend (it was probably only about the tenth, though). I get that it’s all real clever with each side trying to mitigate the other side’s events and maximizing the potential of their own events and all of that shit, but there’s only so long I can stand being forced to screw myself over in a board game and it’s for much less than 3+ hours. I won this game handily and I still felt miserable the entire time. Bleeeehhhhhh.
ioticus
3535
Twilight Struggle is being worked on for iOS AFAIK.
I know that the rights had been picked up for a PC version. I hadn’t heard about an iOS version. If this is true, awesome. I’ve never even tried TS. When it comes to wargaming the most intense I get is 2 de Mayo. Still, I’ve always been curious and it’s hard to say no to a <$10 version of a game $40+ game where I don’t have to clean up the bits over and over while learning.
ioticus
3538
You’re right, it’s a PC version not iOS in development. Sorry about that.
Nephrinn
3539
There’s a guy working on an unofficial PC version of Arkham Horror too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ptx---kr04&feature=channel_video_title
Apparently it’ll be finished in a month or two and will have network support, VOIP, music, and sound effects. Not sure about expansion support though.
Thanks for the elaboration, Mike.
Yeah, Bahimiron, I wasn’t trying to be exhaustive. Heck, I have Tikal, TtD, and zooloretto, plus others like Keltis. Ascension is probably the game I’ve played most on iPad, so naturally I’m very excited for the expansion. Having been bitten by the bug, I’d love to get Nightfall, RftG, and Dominion as well. All 3 are probably instant purchases for me.
