iOS Universal, Android •
The Battle of Polytopia is one of the best pick-up-and-play time wasters on the App Store. In minutes you can build an empire, quash your enemies, and then realize your score is tens of thousands lower than everyone else who’s ever played the game. Hooray! Battle of Polytopia is one of only two things you can be terrible at and still have a good time. You can guess what the other one is and, yes, I’m terrible at that, too. Yesterday, Midjiwan released a major expansion for Polytopia ensuring my futility will continue for all time.
If you’re not in the know, Battle of Polytopia is the smallest 4X game you’ll ever find, but it has the feel of a mighty gaming giant. Played over 30 turns (or unlimited turns if you’re a warmongering son of a bitch), the goal is to score as many points by building an empire (or killing all the other tribes, again, if you’re a warmongering son of a bitch). You begin with a tiny village and a warrior and earn points by founding new cities, building things, researching techs and other stuff. I don’t really know how you score points, which is why I end up scoring in the 10K range while the leaderboards are filled with played scoring 10-20X that.
The latest update for Polytopia doesn’t include another tribe to command, instead it adds a healthy heaping of other stuff. We get new technologies, new units, and better maps. There’s an entire slew of things that I’ll use in the most inefficient way possible. I can’t wait. Here’s the list:
- A new technology, PHILOSOPHY, enters the tech tree and introduces the MIND BENDER UNIT that can flip any enemy unit to your team.
- You can now upgrade your boats to ships and if you are really rich you can evolve them further into mighty BATTLE SHIPS for 15 stars.
- Added the ability to DISBAND UNITS and DESTOY BUILDINGS to the tech tree.
- The KNIGHTS now have the ability to attack several weak units in a row, clearing the field of enemies.
- The attack of the CATAPULTS have been balanced to provide better gameplay.
- You can now add COMPUTER CONTROLLED PLAYERS to pass & play.
- A new MAP GENERATOR will create more diverse worlds.
Battle of Polytopia is available for both iOS and Android and is free to download. Don’t let that scare you, they’ve done freemium right. You get a handful of tribes to play for free with other tribes each running $1.
i have a dream…
…playing async multiplayer games with SP friends…