iOS Universal •
I have kids in two different school systems, one in public high school and the others in a private elementary school. Although the schools are merely two blocks apart and many, many families in the area have children at both schools, we learned that they rarely manage to sync their schedules and, as such, their spring breaks never coincide. This led to the past two weeks when I was traveling and then home with children, both of which really cut into my writing time here at Stately Play.
Today, the house is empty and I couldn’t be happier. Not only does that mean I can actually sit and write again, but it also means I’m back to not wearing pants. Freedom.
None of this has anything to do with the topic of this post, however, which revolves around one of the true maestros of the App Store, Michael Brough. His dungeon-crawler/puzzler/roguelike Imbroglio has just expanded with Phlogiston.
We last talked about Imbroglio back when our wallpaper was covered in “P”s and “T”s and our lair was deep within a certain hex-shaped mountain. Yep, that was back in 2016 and, of course, Imbroglio was amazing. That’s due to the creator, the aforementioned Michael Brough, who somehow manages to make everything he touches on the App Store great. Hell, even his last game, Cinco Paus is addictive as hell and the entire thing is in a language I don’t understand.
Imbroglio is a roguelike with a dungeon crawling theme that uses a deck-building as its main mechanism. If it’s been awhile since you’ve played, you might want to head back to check out the new expansion just added today. The Phlogiston expansion adds two new heroes and sixteen new weapon cards to add a little variety. It also adds a new mechanism involving charging weapons.
…a weapon tile can become electrified to empower its next attack with bonus damage and chaotic energies that arc through adjacent enemies as well. This is like a new resource to gain and spend, but instead of a number that goes up and down it’s stored on the tiles on the board. It creates a whole new range of possible board constructions. With the extra damage it’s kind of an alternative to Whetstone; hitting multiple enemies it’s kind of an alternative to important board-clearing weapons like Echo Harp and Witchpact Blade; and with a variety of effects triggering off it it’s kind of an alternative to curses for building combo boards.
This is on top of the Ossuary expansion which was released at the end of 2016, which added the same: 2 new characters and 16 new weapon cards. It also added a new game mode. Why do I include any of this info in a post about Phlogiston? Because I haven’t touched Imbroglio since 2016 and it sounds like it will feel like an entirely different game when I do decide to jump back in.
Both expansions are available now via IAP. The Ossuary expansion is $2 while the Phlogiston expansion is $3. The base game itself is $4, so you can get all that Imbroglio has to offer for under $10. If you know how good Brough games can be, you’ll know that’s a steal.
Start the discussion at discourse.statelyplay.com