Stately Sessions: Liberty or Death, Turn 7

November 15, 2017 David Neumann 2

Tabletop • We’re back with our parade through (alternate) history via GMT Games‘ brilliant COIN title, Liberty or Death. I’m getting the sense that you, the Stately Players [I’m really trying to get him to stop. This will be the last time, I swear -ed.], are losing interest in these turn-by-turn walkthroughs, so I’m going to really try and wrap the whole thing up before Thanksgiving so we can move on to a different game. When I started the affair, I had it in my head that I would spend 5-6 hours playing the game and then chop it into a week’s worth of material. When I saw how much information had to be relayed while writing up the first turn, I realized I may have bitten off more than I could chew and moved to the one-two turns per day format. That works well for me, but it needs to work well for you as well. I’m new at this, and still learning. Stick with me. We’ll wrap up LoD as quick as possible and then throw something else on the table.

Stately Sessions: Liberty or Death, Turns 5 and 6

November 13, 2017 David Neumann 3

Tabletop • We’re back after a long gaming weekend that consisted of playing a lot of old favorites with not one “new” game hitting the table. We had some new players, so game teaching was still in order, but far less stressful than trying to teach games I barely know how to play. That’s all in the past, however, and from this point on we’re going to focus on wrapping this game of Liberty or Death from GMT Games up. I’m hoping turns become faster and faster as I become more familiar with the flowcharts of the AI, so maybe we’ll finish this game before New Year’s? Let’s take a look at two quick turns, Turns 5 and 6.

If you don’t already love Zach Gage, FlipFlop will do the trick

November 10, 2017 David Neumann 2

iOS Universal • It’s already been a great year for solitaire card games on mobile. We’ve had Card Thief, Onirim, and Miracle Merchant, all of which are GOTY-quality apps. Zach Gage felt he needed to jump on the bandwagon–Typeshift didn’t suck up enough of my time earlier this year–and yesterday he released his latest title, Flipflop Solitaire. Yes, it’s just solitaire, but somehow Zach Gage has made it much more. How does he do it? I’m guessing it’s the little bit of love he puts into every app.

You can now choose your own adventure on the island of Catan

November 8, 2017 David Neumann 7

iOS Universal, Android • 2017 has seen a flood of digital board game conversions from new kid on the block, Asmodee Digital. Today, however, I think we can safely say is their strangest release. It’s called Catan Stories and finally allows us to roleplay as settlers on the titular island like we’ve always wanted to! In all honesty, I’ve never wanted to do this, and never really thought about the people collecting my wheat and sheep when I roll dice in Catan. I’ve thought about the robber, wondering why he’s such a dick, but I don’t think that’s where Catan Stories takes us. Anyway, Catan Stories is out now for iOS and Android.

One Deck Dungeon Kickstarter goes live

November 2, 2017 David Neumann 1

PC/Mac/Linux • Due to some unforeseen issues that popped up yesterday, I wasn’t around the Stately offices to sound the alarm when Handelabra unleashed their latest endeavor, One Deck Dungeon, on Kickstarter. I’m back today, so…um, Handelabra has launched the One Deck Dungeon Kickstarter. Yeah, I really should have practiced this intro more.

Review: Underhand

October 18, 2017 David Neumann 0

iOS Universal • Since the release of Card Crawl a few years back, the Solitaire Card Game With A Cool Theme That Makes It Cooler Than Your Standard Card GameTM genre has really taken off. Tinytouchtales by themselves have released both Card Thief and Miracle Merchant, but there have been others as well, such as Guild of Dungeoneering and others that I can’t remember, not to mention that this opener is already getting a bit long in the tooth. Underhand is the latest game to arrive in the genre but, unfortunately, feels less like Card Crawl and more like the unholy love child of Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books and Groundhog Day.

Cardboard Critique (but not really): Temple of the Feathered Serpent

October 5, 2017 David Neumann 5

Tabletop • While board gaming is still a fairly small niche of the hobby world, it’s made up of many smaller niches. Many of those I’ve dabbled in: war games, miniatures, 18xx, smelling like you haven’t showered in three weeks. One group I’ve never participated deals with something called Print-and-Play. These are the crazy people [I only say this because a good friend is one of these people and he’s only slightly not crazy -ed.] who spend a lot of time to handcraft beautiful copies of games released for free and posted on sites like BGG. I haven’t even been one of the lazy ones who just print everything on regular paper and tape it together with Scotch tape. Nothing in this process interested me in until I helped design a Print-and-Play game of my own, and now I think they’re the greatest thing ever. Well, this game is, at least.

Cardboard Critique: Nemo’s War (Second Edition)

September 20, 2017 David Neumann 19

Tabletop • I’ve never played a solo game quite like Nemo’s War from Victory Point Games. I went into it prepared for the usual solo/cooperative game tropes–turns divided by a “bad” phase, more fires to put out than you have hoses, a general sense of being completely screwed–but found none of those. Instead, Nemo’s War felt more like one of those open-world video games like the Elder Scrolls series. Do whatever the hell you want, when you want, and have fun doing it. There’s never that moment, as in other cooperatives, where you “beat the game”. It’s strange, yet mesmerizing.

Steam Screen Shot

Review: Minos Strategos

September 18, 2017 Zac Belado 3

iOS, Android, PC/Mac/Linux • Art is cheap, at least when it comes to mobile games. You know this is true because even the most crap-filled freemium abomination is filled to the bevel with the most precisely crafted artwork. Pretty pixels are the aluminum siding of mobile gaming. Consequently, a good game is often not even particularly about the visuals but about the way the developer creates a tension between the tactical options available to the player and the desired game outcome. That and timers. We must always have timers. The reason this is important is that one of the latest titles to make its way to mobile, Minos Strategos by Brett Lowey of Militia fame, is not a particularly ground-breaking game in terms of visuals and also has some surprisingly poor UI choices. Combined, these make Minos Strategos troublesome at first but are, ultimately, a slight blemish on what is a very good abstract strategy game.

New word game, Wordwich, now live on the App Store

September 6, 2017 David Neumann 0

iOS • Shakespeare once said, “…brevity is the soul of wit,” but he did so in the middle of 30,000 words in what would be his longest play. In other words, Shakespeare has been trolling the shit out of high school sophomores who have been reading Hamlet since 1609. That said, he was definitely on to something, which is why I try to keep all my posts as short as possible. LOOK AT ALL THIS WIT! When it comes to games, however, it’s commonly thought that brevity sucks. Wordwich would beg to differ as it’s the shortest damn game I’ve ever played. It’s not the wittiest, but it does manage to be somewhat addictive.

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