Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer

My partner taught me Dominion a while ago, and suggested this game to me. I put off buying this app due to the graphics of the game (they completely turned me off). He let me play this on his iPad, and after going through the tutorial- I was hooked!

This game reminds me of Dominionin- the way that you start out with a deck and need to build up from the basic cards, acquiring better cards in front of you. You are trying to gain star points to win. You also get points for having more cards than your opponent and there are points assigned to special cards (bottom left corner). You must banish evil monsters along the way (thus, the graphics that turned me off to begin with).

I must say, the tutorial for this game is the best one I have seen! It walks you step by step through the beginning of one game and allows you to play from there or start a new game. I learn best by doing things, rather than just having to listen to a bunch of rules. This tutorial made it fun and easy to learn this game!

I like the fact that you can play online with other players in your spare time (taking turns and checking back when it’s convienent for you) or just play on your network with a roomate or go it alone. I play this several times a day now. Its easy enought that even our 9 year old likes this game, and strategic enough to have me keep going back for more!

Introduction
What is the Ascension iOS app? It is an iOS implementation of the fantasy deck building game of the same name. The tree version is from Gary Games while the app is developed by Playdek who is prolific at converting board game to iOS (Nightfall, Summoner Wars, Can’t Stop,..)
The game is Universal (same app works on both iPhone and iPad) and is currently priced at $4.99.
Through the app you can also acquire the two first expansions, Return Of The Fallen ($2.99) and Storm Of Souls ($3.99), as well as a promo pack containing few additional cards ($0.99)

Gameplay
As all well respected deck building games, all players start with identical decks they use to acquire more powerful cards.
There are two currencies in the game, Runes and Power. Runes allow you to acquire Heroes and Constructs while Power help you fight Monsters. Each turn the player can acquire or defeat as many cards as possible given his Runes and Powers. Runes and Powers are obtained from Heroes you play and Construct you have in play (Constructs are cards that once played stay in play and give you some effect/action each turn). Powers are used to defeat Monsters, who in turn give you Honor points. Heroes and Constructs go on your discard pile once acquired but Monsters are banished (excluded) from play. Note that most cards give you additional benefits like drawing more cards, banishing card from play, extra Honor points,….
The goal of the game is to finish with more Honor points than your opponents; and the game finishes when the initial pool of Honor points available (depending on the number of players) is exhausted.
In addition to the Honor points you get during play, at the end of the game you also get Honor points for cards in your deck as all card except the starting deck have a Honor value.
Now one important point to explain is that unlike Dominion, Thunderstone, Nightfall, …,the cards you can acquire or defeat each turn are not always the same during a game. There are always two Heroes (one giving you two Powers, the other two Runes) and one Monster (giving you one Honor) that can be acquired or defeated. But all other Heroes, Monsters and Constructs are shuffled into a draw pile and at the beginning of the game the six top card are revealed and put in the center row; those, in addition to the three cards discussed above (2 Heroes, 1 Monster), will be the cards the first player can choose to acquire or defeat. Then, each time a card is taken from the center row, a new card from the draw pile is revealed to replace it. In addition to drawing your hand, this introduces an additional random factor.
The interaction with other players is low to medium. Some cards you play make them discard cards in their hand or Constructs in play, others allow you to banish cards from the center row (if you can’t get a good card, better to banish it than someone else taking it) and a card allow you to steal few honor points from opponents.
The game is fairly quick in its digital digital form, probably around 15 minutes against the AI and 10 minutes per player on multiplayer.
The expansions add some new interesting rules like some effects that take place when the cards are revealed in the center raw, some Monsters that can be kept in play and then used once for a special effect,…

Implementation
The game lets you play 2-4 player games. You can play alone against multiple AI, pass and play mixing AI and human players or asynchronous online using Game Center.
The AI offers 2 difficulty levels. Comparing my performance online (around 40% wins) to my performance against the AI (probably like 70% wins) I would say that for the better players, the AI might be too week. For me it is however fine as it gives some challenge while not being frustrating.
To play online you can choose games with different number of players, using different sets of card (base set, base set plus expansions or expansion alone,…) and a timer. The timer lets you set how long each player will have to complete all of their turns, going from 10 minutes to 1 month. Note that it is easier to find 2 players games with 10 or 30 minutes timers. You can also invite people for private games.
To learn the game there is an interactive tutorial that you can supplement by accessing the rulebook. A positive point is that unlike some other iOS implementation of board games, the rules have been adapted to the digital game and are not a scan of the board game version.
The design of the app is inspired by the theme and cards of the game with drawn backgrounds and interesting music (each expansion gives access to a new background and a new music). The board is busy but the different areas are easy to differentiate and see. On the iPhone you will need to tap on cards to be able to read their actions or effects, but on the iPad, especially with a Retina display, all can be seen and read from the main view except the effects of constructs in play.

Verdict
Ascension delivers a quick deck building game experience perfect for portable play. Although the randomness of the center row (cards you can acquire or defeat) might put off some players, I do not think it reduces the importance of skills. In my experience good players will be much better at adapting to the changing cards and will usually beat less skilled players.
The artwork on the cards has his detractors, but I am not one of them: this is for me the most interesting art I have seen on cards.
The iOS implementation is also a winner with different options to play, a good tutorial, a clear board, nice graphics and animation and good music.
There are however three improvements I would like to see: a stronger AI (although for me the challenge is fine as is); a chat for online play; a way to show the location or timezone of people as I have been caught playing with people obviously in opposite time zones leading to half day waits between each turns.
(It actually appears that a stronger AI is (or at least was) in the pipeline and the app does look like it was set-up for 3 levels, the third one not being selectable)

I recommend the game to anyone with an iOS and it is a must buy for anyone interested in deck building owning a Retina display enabled iPad.

I have played almost 500 games of Ascension on my iPhone. To say it’s one of my favorite games or that I love it is, perhaps, an understatement. I also love Dominion, but they are very different games.

For this review, I’m going to discuss both the game of Ascension and the app.

Ascension is a deckbuilding game. There is a large deck of cards, many of which are unique. At all times there are 6 cards from this deck available for “purchase” between both players. Players purchase these cards with one of two currencies. There are cards that provide new abilities and monsters, which typically just provide points and a one-time behavior (i.e. steal a card, banish a card from your hand, etc.). So, in addition to the 6 randomly generated cards in the center, players can always buy the currency cards to more efficiently obtain cards or banish monsters.

Some people will knock Ascension for being too random, and it IS random. Especially compared to Dominion, where the 10 piles of cards are constant for the entire game. However, as you learn the game and its cards you’ll find there is a rhythm and a pulse to it. You’ll begin to learn the probability of monsters or other cards coming out. You’ll see the combinations. I should note that I play the game almost exclusively in 2 player games. With 3 or 4 players the game gets a bit too chaotic and it’s too difficult to make meaningful decisions.

One thing I love about Ascension are the Constructs. These cards are both worth a great deal of points at the end, but when you play them they remain in front of you semi-permanently (some cards and force you to discard them). At first glance, their abilities are meaningless. However, veteran players will quickly show you just how powerful a well-built set of Constructs can be!

Yes, sometimes your opponent will get all the best draws. It happens. But, two experienced players can finish a game of Ascension in under 10 minutes. If you get a bad draw, just play again!

Now, some specifics on the App.

The app is very stable and never crashes on my iPhone 4. The game uses Gamecenter to find friends against whom to play, and I’ve found it’s one of the better board game apps because of it. It is very easy to setup games and navigate through them. Playdek (the developer) has made good improvements throughout the app’s life cycle, including fixing bugs and exploits, improving the UI (Next Game button!) and adding the game’s expansions. You can now buy the Return of the Fallen and Storm of Souls expansions, plus the promo cards.

The UI is generally very clean and easy to use. The hardest part of Ascension is learning the cards, which just takes time.

This is a great app and well worth the money. I love the app so much that I intend to buy the physical game. Great job on both the developers of the game and the app.

I had never played the boxed game of Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer, but the reviews always made it seem like a game I would like. When I got my Ipad it was one of the first games I purchased and I’m very glad I did.

I’m not going to go into the rules because they are readily available elsewhere. Ascension is a deck building game where you and your oppenent start with a small, but identical hand of cards and build a larger and hopefully powerful deck by the end of the game. But what I will say is that the game is filled with great artwork, and the presentation is probably the best I’ve seen in a boardgame to Ipad conversion.

It is also very easy to learn. I read through the instructions in less than 5 minutes and watched the tutorial which was very informative. I was able to play through my first game without having to refer back to the instructions at all. If you are not familiar with the concept of deck building it might take a little longer to fully grasp the game, but not to the point where you wouldn’t enjoy it.

I have onlyl played against the AI but you can also play against another live opponent or online. Very fun game with great graphics and sound effects!

I became a fan of Ascension even before the card game came out. The art style intrigued me and I was looking forward to playing a game where I did not have to collect the cards in order to be able to play and enjoy the game. When I finally got my hands on the physical game, I was very happy of the outcome. The game is a great deck building game with a shorter setup and put away time.

Then the app came out and it was a no brainer for me to get it. This allowed me to play against my wife without having to set up cards and put away the cards. To my surprise, this game plays great online. The asynchronous play works perfectly for those on the go.

If you are looking for a deck building game or have never played a deck building game before, definitely check this game out. One of the best Card Game Apps in the App Store.

I have developed a near addiction to this app. The game is fun in its physical form; however, it really takes off as a digital import. The AI is challenging but doesn’t appear to cheat. The only change I would like to see is a third level of AI.

I enjoy the game, but it seems to require more luck than skill.