Turn Based – Page 5 – Stately Play

Review: Lightning: D-Day

July 27, 2017 Kelsey Rinella 4

iOS, Android • Dave has given me the impression that HexWar are the Lucy van Pelt to our Charlie Brown, repeatedly advertising wonderful games and delivering troubled ones once we get our hopes up. I assume that, once the running gag had been established, the challenge for Charles Schultz was to find a way to create interest in a joke with a predictable ending. With Lightning: D-Day, HexWar did it by translating to app from a well-regarded, unusually simple WWII card game famous for its poorly-written rules. I had hoped that the combination of a lower degree of difficulty than their ambitious past games mixed with an easily addressed problem in the cardboard version made this a superb candidate for an unqualified HexWar success. Then again, we all know how this joke ends.

Antihero finds its way to PC/Mac

July 11, 2017 David Neumann 5

PC/Mac, (mobile coming later this year) • When I heard that Antihero had been released for PC and Mac it conjured up feelings of excitement for finally getting to see what the fuss was all about, and then sadness because all that fuss was generated by Owen way back when. In 2014, Owen was so excited about the promise that the first Antihero trailer made, I feared his head would explode and we’d be picking up bit of skull from all corners of Mt. Hexmap for weeks to come. Now it’s 2017 and things have changed, Owen is AWOL, and Mt. Hexmap is under new management. Why am I being so damn maudlin? Antihero is out, and so far it’s exactly what Owen would have hoped for.

Review: Friday – by Friedemann Friese

July 10, 2017 Kelsey Rinella 8

iOS, Android • I’ve heard people mention three web-based boardgaming sites often: Brettspielwelt, Yucata, and, um, Bootyjew (that’s what I’ve always heard it called, and I am proud of myself for finding a link despite that). BSW has always sounded the strongest, but it wasn’t enough for them–now they’re coming for our mobile devices, as well. Their first foray: Friedemann Friese’s Friday, a sterling choice. It’s a well-regarded solo game with complexity just a bit above Onirim‘s, so they avoided the twin bottomless pits of development effort: AI and multiplayer, like Pitfall Harry. I looked it up–that’s actually the name of the character from Pitfall! I’m not excited about it, it just seemed like a waste of punctuation to end a sentence with “Pitfall!.”

Missile Cards launches on iOS

June 28, 2017 David Neumann 0

iOS Universal, PC • We’ve talked about it, we’ve reviewed it, and today’s the day it finally arrived on the App Store. We’re talking about Missile Cards, which landed on the App Store last night and joined a handful of other card games that are trying their best to make 2017 the best year ever for mobile gaming.

Missile Cards making its App Store debut next week

June 21, 2017 David Neumann 4

iOS Universal, PC • We’ve talked a lot about the currently PC-only Missile Cards the past few months, starting with Nick’s glowing review. The big news was that developer, Nathan Meunier, was trying to bring the game to iOS at some point. That point is next week, apparently, as we can expect it on our phones on the 28th of June.

Qvadriga developer tackling naval combat in Mare Nostrum

June 9, 2017 David Neumann 3

PC • Qvadriga was one of those titles that few people had ever heard of, but those that had absolutely loved it. I’m quite confident that Qvadriga was (and probably still is) in Owen’s top 5 mobile titles of all time. While the title was published by Slitherine, the developer was Turnopia. Yeah, I hadn’t heard of them either. Turns out they’re still hard at work on other titles, with their latest just heading to beta now. It’s all about ancient naval combat and is called Mare Nostrum.

Review: Jaipur

June 7, 2017 Kelsey Rinella 7

iOS, Android • Jaipur on tabletop has long been highly regarded as a fairly light and quick, but still satisfying, economic game. The translation is everything we could hope for from an Asmodee digital title. Asmodee’s online service could improve in numerous ways (most notably by allowing asynchronous games), but they tend to choose games which support relatively large player bases so it is, at least, usually possible to find opponents. Solo play includes a generous campaign with a variety of tweaks to the formula, and, of the three AI opponents, only the easiest seems like a pushover.

Pixel Tactics Online is basically Pixel Tactics, but online

May 22, 2017 David Neumann 5

PC, Mac, iOS, Android • I’ve never played Pixel Tactics from Level 99 Games due to the fact that the tabletop card-battler is two-player only. Two player games became an endangered species at my house the minute we decided to have more than one kid. Lucky for me, Level 99 is bringing the game to both laptops and mobile later this year, so I’ll be able to finally give it a go without ignoring one of my kids. Instead, I can now ignore them all.

Games Workshop bringing Mordheim to mobile

May 22, 2017 David Neumann 0

iOS, Android • When I first saw the news about Mordheim: Warband Skirmish this morning over at Pocket Gamer, I was excited. Other than Talisman, has Games Workshop done a mobile title not set in the Warhammer universe? Then I read the article and saw words like Skaven and realized my Warhammer ignorance was showing. Mordheim is set firmly within the Warhammer universe, just not the 40K one.

Keith Burgun’s latest is heading to PC

May 1, 2017 David Neumann 0

PC, Mac, Linux • I remember talking with Owen back in the day and listening to him gush over Empire: A Deck Building Strategy Game as if it were the second coming of XCOM. Was his love for Empire a tad overzealous? Perhaps, but just a tad. Designed by Keith Burgun, Empire and his other titles, 100 Rogues and Auro, have all been the cream of the App Store crop since their release. Thus, you’ll be happy to hear that Mr. Burgun is working on another title and he’s currently funding it via Kickstarter. You’ll be less happy to hear that there’s no plan to bring it to mobile.