News – Page 21 – Stately Play

Fire & Ice coming to Terra Mystica in April

March 22, 2018 David Neumann 5

iOS, Android, PC/Mac/Linux • I haven’t spent a lot of time singing the praises of Digidiced‘s digital port of the euro-game masterpiece, Terra Mystica. Not because it’s not a great port or the game itself isn’t my cup of tea, the reality is that the game is just too damn confusing. Yes, I’ve played it on the tabletop, but I’m not sure I ever got my head around TM’s wheels-within-wheels design that seems complex for complexity’s sake. Seriously, there are so many different rules, ways to play, and mechanisms that it’s a very hard game to truly understand without many, many playthroughs. And all complexity happens even before you take into account the 14 different races, each with their own tweaks to the base rules. On the tabletop you can take your time to figure out just what the hell is going on, but the app comes at you full speed. There are tokens flying, actions being taken, and points being scored and I JUST CAN’T HANDLE IT.

Darkest Dungeon adds DLC and drastically drops down to a dollar

March 14, 2018 David Neumann 6

iPad, PC/Mac/Linux, Switch, Xbox, Playstation • When Darkest Dungeon came out for iPad last fall, I instantly became addicted and played it more than I had in the previous three years it had dwelled on my laptop. I know the love for DD wasn’t universal with many complaining about the wonky UI that could be both tiny and fidgety at the same time, while others saying the difficulty level went beyond their definition of fun. Both were valid points–it’s close, but not a perfect port–but I loved it and kept throwing my hapless adventurers right into the woodchipper with the hope that the Crimson Court and other expansion content would soon arrive on the platform. Today is that day.

Iron Harvest lumbers onto Kickstarter

March 13, 2018 Alex Connolly 0

PC, Playstation 4, Xbox One • Everyone is kickstarting something these days. You, me, this guy. But King Art Games are crowd-funding something rather special; an RTS based on the fire-and-steel pulp of Jakub Różalski‘s 1920+ world [This is the same setting you’ll find in the board game Scythe, as well as its upcoming digital port. -ed.]. Think pot-bellied, soot-blasting mechanica. Cast-iron monstrosities a continuation of Victorian pomp and Edwardian arms development. The Iron Harvest is upon us.

Abstract gem, Feud, heading to Early Access and launching iOS beta

March 12, 2018 David Neumann 6

iOS, Android, PC/Mac/Linux • We talked about an unassuming little abstract game called Feud back in November and, turns out, it was pretty good. And this is coming from someone who doesn’t like abstracts. The game was designed by Dave Cordell originally as a tabletop game, but was quickly moved over to the digital realm where it’s a much better fit. Feud should be heading to Early Access fairly soon, but Bearwaves is adding a healthy heaping of goodness before that happens. Oh, and it sounds like an iOS version is coming down the road as well, and they’re looking for testers.

Better Stately Than Never: Masquerada

March 9, 2018 Tof Eklund 0

PC, Xbox, Playstation, Switch • Witching Hour Studios‘ Masquerada: Songs and Shadows had been sitting near the top of my Steam wishlist for about a year when I got around to it. You may know Witching Hour for their mobile and PC TBS Ravenmark: Scourge of Estellion, and if you don’t you should. Almost everything about the game intrigued me: the hand-drawn isometric art style, the highly developed and original fantasy setting, a plot that sounded like it just might actually explore tensions between the rich and poor with some subtlety, and the promise of tactical combat modeled on fencing.

Through the Ages coming to Steam on March 26

March 8, 2018 David Neumann 5

iOS Universal, Android, PC/Mac • If you’ve been reading Stately Play for any length of time you’re aware that my favorite digital–and tabletop, for that matter–board game of all time is Through the Ages designed by Vlaada Chvátil and developed and published by Czech Games Edition. I’ve played more games of TtA online than any other game and it’s not even close. Before the app released, I played dozens of games on Boardgaming Online and, before that, I developed a VASSAL mod and played dozens of games while trying to get that up and working. Since the app released last year, I’ve had 3-5 games going at all times and I’m still not getting tired of it. On March 26 Through the Ages will arrive on Steam for PC/Mac and being able to play it on my laptop while appearing to work will make my life complete.

Cublo starting Among the Stars beta test, looking for testers

March 7, 2018 David Neumann 0

iOS, Android • You remember Cublo Games, right? They’re the folks behind the digital version of one of my favorite board games, Martin Wallace’s Brass. Brass was released in late 2015 so, you might ask, what the hell have they been doing for the past 2+ years. Well, polishing Brass for one, but they’ve also been hard at work on another board game port, Among the Stars.

Armello is coming to iOS next week and, yep, it’s pretty good

March 6, 2018 David Neumann 13

iOS Universal, PC/Mac/Linux, PS4, Xbox One • Sorry I was AWOL yesterday, but unbeknownst to me (and for no reason I can ascertain) my two younger kids had off school yesterday. This allowed me to do real-life things with them like fix my attic stairs and teach them a slew of new curse words. Today’s a new day, however. The new attic ladder appears to be functional and I can’t wait to get a call from the school’s office today informing me that my kids decided to share their new vocabulary words. Oh, I also got a chance to play Armello on both my phone and iPad and it’s good. Very, very good.

Onitama is nearly here and Asmodee is looking for beta testers

February 28, 2018 David Neumann 9

iOS, Android • If you haven’t played Onitama from Arcane Wonders, you’re really in for a treat when the game lands on iOS and Android later this year. I’m not much of an abstract fan, but I fell in love with Onitama when I played it at Gen Con and can’t wait for Asmodee Digital to bring it to all my touchscreens. From the sound of it, we won’t have long to wait.

Just when you thought we’d covered everything on Steam today, have you seen Space Tyrant?

February 27, 2018 David Neumann 5

PC/Mac/Linux • I know it has already been a rather silly day on Steam what with Subset Games launching their first title since FTL took the world by storm and Handelabra unleashing a new, very un-Sentinels-like card game. Brace yourselves. Those aren’t the only two cool looking games to land on Steam today. Thanks to BitGamerX we also learned about Space Tyrant which looks like a sci-fi 4x designed by chaos-loving aliens. To be fair, we don’t yet know for certain that Blue Wizard Digital isn’t comprised of chaos-loving aliens. We’re working on it.