tegidos

Yes. I’m one of those guys (but to be honest I don’t know how many of them really are there) who made a decision to buy himself an iPhone based on ability to play Summoner Wars app. Seriously. May sound a little bit crazy, but it will get even better.
I don’t own a physical copy, nor I played Summoner Wars before.
So how mad of a person I have to be to decide on really serious purchase based on a game that I really don’t know if I’m going to like it. What is done cannot be undone, but what can be done is to share my experience with others so they will know better.

As far as implementation goes (and I will tell from iPhone, not iPad perspective), guys at Playdek did a great job at putting everything together.
The game plays really well even on the small screen. Yes you have to constantly zoom cards to know what they do until you learn all of them, but to be honest you will have to memorize them anyway to be a good player. So after a while you will not have a problem with it. There is also full library of cards for you to make learning easier.
Tutorial is flawless. It throws you right into the action, helping you with first moves, interface and basic rules and then smoothly hands you the steering wheel.
There is a pretty decent AI so you can polish your skill a little before you go online and for someone who had no experience at all, this was a great feature. Still you will have to learn a lot more before you can actually beat some human players, but it will give you a feel how the game works.
Tinkering with decks is fun and easy. You can have a number of custom decks ready to play or just adjust with a card or two between every game in an instant.
What is the most fun, that you can log and play with people I would never ever have an opportunity to play with. And how cool is to play with the designer of the game and other folks at Plaidhat? And there is a huge and nice community of people playing this game so you won’t have a problem getting some play. Especially that it plays async really well.
If there is one things that it lacks… it is chat. Summoner Wars is a game where you just cry for ability to speak with someone. There are so many moments where I just wanted to comment on the game or some dice rolls and congratulate my opponent. I can see what problems chat options may bring but I still want it. And more factions of course 😉

I’m pretty sure I don’t have to tell you that I liked both the game and the app itself. I’m really glad I have it. It gets a ton of play. Furthermore I’ve met on many cool people on the other side of electronic board of Summoner Wars.
It is just a great implementation of a great game with great people.
Drop me an invite anytime 😉

Oh yes. It was worth it.

“You bought me a game about wizards?!”
That was my wifes reaction to her birthsday gift after reading what was on the bottom of the box. Not the reaction I was hoping for, I can assure you. Needles to say she is not into fantasy settings. I was thinking maybe after she opens it and see lovely, lovely artwork and big, chunky custom dice she will be more enthusiastic, because the production value is really great and the game just looks beautiful. She was not as glamoured as I expected. It was looking bad at this moment. But my wife tried enough of games to give it a try.

So does the story have a happy end? Did she liked it at all?

**** yeah! She did and like is not even the proper way to say it. We played it 5 times in the next 5 days which is far more boardgaming that we were used to lately (those who have two small sick children know what I’m talking about) That just says a number of things right away.

First – it is fast game, easy to set up (as long as you treat drafting as a part of game not a set up) You can easily finish a two player game in half an hour to 45 min.
Second – 2 players. It really works with two, so this is a great game for couples.
Third – Easy to teach, but still leaves you with a lot of choices during the game. Cards is where the fun of this game lies, not rolling dice… well ok, rolling big dice is fun too.
Fourth – it is fun.

This light almost euro-like game, but with lots of dice rolling and special abilities just hits the spot. You feel just right when you finish it. Your brain does not hurt after it and at the same time you don’t feel like you played a filler but a crunchy little game. And artwork – it is indeed lovely.

I’ve asked my wife how she would rate it? She said 10 out of 10. It ended up as one of her favourites alongside Ticket To Ride, jumping over the ones like Dixit, Agricola, Airlines Europe.

Now that is what you call a turnaround.

When “touched for the very first time” this game makes you laugh and laugh really hard. As long as you have any background in role-playing games or is at least a little familiar with rpg fantasy world this will hit you like a cannonball with great funny artwork and hilarious sense of humor put in every card.

It is in fact a fun experience to play Munchkin for the first time. And I played it more then once, and played with more expansions that I should propably. My experience with this game was really not that bad. First it was great. Then it was good. Then after a number of games, and many people in this hobby will tell you this is more then this game deserves, it was really not worth the time to play.

Munchkin is fun only to some point, some will argue this is up to 15 min into the game (and it would be a great filler if it would last that long). It is loosing its replay value fast. I’ve heard that instead of playing Munchkin you should just open the box, read all the cards, have fun while doing it and then sell it. It may be harsh, but there is some truth to that. The fun is mostly in the flavour put on the cards, but how long can it last?

There is no real “game” in this. Just a bunch of mechanism so you can enjoy playing with cards and exploring them. In the end result will not be based on how you played really.

So what is left when Munchkin looses it’s virginity? It is nothing special. Like a joke you’ve already heard a number of times and this is a long joke, not a short one. If there are no other games around I maaaaay play it, but I will make sure to have something.

Final thoughts? I will be gentle here, because I really enjoyed this game a number of times. A small advice – Find someone who has Munchkin and play it. You will propably have fun….
Don’t buy it. It won’t be better the second time.

Ok, I lied. Not a one word, but it goes down to one word in the end. Please stay and let me take you for a quick trip on my space truck ship.

Me, sweating – Ok, two more tiles… come on, come on. Where are all the batteries? – quick glance over at my wifes ship – Of course! As always she’s ‘collecting power’. Let’s put this gun here… and… faster faster faster!!! and one more cabin. DONE! Smashed the hour glass on the Start!
Phew… let’s check the connection. All fine. Ha-ha! Sorry honey, this does not fit where you put it. What? You’ve lost your whole left wing because of it? I’m so sorry for your loss.
Now let’s fly!

5 min later
Ok, small meteor hiting on… 5… oh come on! The only open connection that I had!?.. no batteries for shields, great – removing the tile – good that I’ve double connected this side of the ship.
Next card… Pirates? Just great, I lack one firepower – some die rolls, removing another two tiles… and a whole right wing just fell off my ship. My wife – I’m so sorry for your loss honey.

Sounds like a madman talk? Well this is how this game goes. Fast and furious. First part is crazy speed tile laying and building up your most unusual space ship. There will be no Enterprises nor Galacticas. There will be pipes sticking out, guns in every direction, shields hopefully covering different sides of the ship. Anything that can be attached is good. It all with the competition (that means other players) taking parts you needed just when you were to grab them. In the end you will have your ship like thing and will fly to grab the riches.

Second part is where you will fly and … did I say grab the riches? Well maybe more like… try to get to the end? Your ship will get hit, sabotaged, smashed by meteors and once again hit. Sometimes you will get some goods, but most of the time you will get punished. The good part is that everyone will get smacked. This is as fun as the first part, what may sound strange, but it is. Everything will blow up, your ship and the ship of the others, more often then not, will not even be closely similiar to what they were at the beginning. Some will not even finish the trip.

And then you will do it again. Build another ship, just bigger and take it on a longer, nastier trip. And then for the third time. After that who managed to earn the most money is the winner (yes there is a goal in this madness), but the truth is… everyone is a winner in this game, because they had extreme fun.

If you could find one word to describe it, it would be fun (ha ha! – here it is, one word review). This is not the best game ever designed, but it is for sure one of the most enjoyable. This is 10 out of 10 on wacky entertainment scale. For me this is a winner.

I’m one of those gamers that started their adventure with modern boardgames by discovering Settlers of Catan.
It was early 2000 when I first played it and fell in love with it. I was a gamer before. I’ve played pc games, Magic, rpgs and even tried some warhammer fantasy battle, **** I’ve played talisman years before, but never ever I’ve encountered something so clean and clever in design. Years later I understand what a “euro” game is, but for that moment I was in love with mechanism and interaction between players that this simple game was bringing to the table.

I love the the Gaussian distribution of propability with dice rolling, I really like the randomized board. It makes players involved all the time and interact with each other. Creates the feeling of developing your own network of settlements and roads, this small race for victory.
This is just a really good design. It is a light, medium-light euro, but it is just what it needs to be to get people into gaming (come on how many people will get into boardgaming because of heavy 4 hour economic, brain burning game)

The question is… is Settlers of Catan really a gateway game?

For me it was and many people around me at this time started their adventure with Settlers of Catan, but there is one thing I want to mention here. All of them were gamers in some form.
I do not think that this is the best game to introduce to all new players, there are better ones (like Ticket to Ride, Pandemic etc) but if you have a group that played other kind of games and not experienced what a modern board game is. This one will for sure open their eyes.

For me – this is the ultimate gateway game for gamers.
Just leave the expansions for the fanatics.

Dominion is easy to enter.
Dominion is good quality with great replay value.
Dominion is fun?

Well it can be in some form. It has this ‘building your engine’ thing that is always a winner. People like to build things. Some like to destroy them, but most of the time we prefere to construct something, create and Dominion delivers it. Just it.

For someone who never build decks this is very refreshing experience. You can customize your own deck, tailor it to your style, create something different then others and see if it is better. But…

What if you already build decks? What if idea of deck building is not new for you? Well the mechanism used for making it happen is new, at least in terms of traditional building decks, but that’s it. Really. There is nothing more to it. It is easy to grasp because of it and this is why it apeals to soooo many people.

I see the value of this game, I understand the game and when I played it I managed to put really good scores. It is a good game, despite for me not being a game really but an easy way to indtroduce deck building mechanism to people. But I’ve played Magic The Gathering, I had my decks and I’ve enjoyed it. But what is left in Dominion for me? Not really a lot. I can explore some card combos, but I’m not really that excited about it. Should I be? This is as dry theme as it can get and you can do only so much with those cards without making it too complex.

I can sit down to play a game of it, but I would find much more fun with something else. There are soo many games and so little time.
And this goes for most of the deck building games, but those usually are the next step after Dominion, they explore the idea of deck building and put more game around it and I can find something new there.

Everyone should try Dominion – I really belive it, maybe it is a candy that you did not try before. You may love it and enjoy the fresh new tase. For me this is like a candy bar after a chocolate cake. Not bad, but why should I eat it?