by A.J. Coltrane

Star Realms — A space-themed deckbuilder available either as an android app or as actual physical cards. The full app version is $5. The base set of cards runs around $15.

Like Dominion, the object of Star Realms is to build an efficient deck from a selection of cards available on the table. You can buy Outposts, Bases, and different varieties of ships, each of which provide some combination of offense, defense, buying power, life restoration, or deck thinning.

In contrast to Dominion, you and your opponent start the game with 50 life (“Authority”). The winner is the last player with Authority greater than zero.

An example of a ship that might be available for purchase, the Ram:

The Ram costs 3 “Trade” to buy. (The number in the upper right corner of the card.) It does 5 damage. The green circle on the card indicates that the Ram is also part of the Blob faction — if other friendly Blob faction are in play the Ram does an additional two damage. Finally, the Ram can be “trashed” (removed from the game) at a gain of 3 Trade.

Pictured next is an Outpost — War World. A big advantage of outposts and bases is that they stay in play until destroyed, in effect thinning your deck. They also provide some measure of defense.

War World costs 5. It does 3 damage unless it has an ally in play, in which case it does 7. It also has 4 defense, and must be destroyed by the opponent before they’re allowed to damage you.

The app is free to play. Spending $5 upgrades the game to include harder opponent AI options and turned-based asynchronous matchmaking. (In other words, your opponent sends a move, then you log in and play your move, and so on.)

I’ve played both the over-the-table game as well as the online app. The games go fast, and while it’s not quite as “deep” as Dominion, there’s still plenty of strategy, lots to learn, and there’s always the possibility for making a big stompy combination to win the game.

Highly recommended!

by A.J. Coltrane

Qvadriga:  It’s turn-based chariot racing for your android phone!

Do you like old-school strategy games? Like, really old school?

Back in the dark ages of board games there existed Circus Maximus.

Published by Avalon Hill in 1979(!), Circus Maximus was cool because you could select and train your horses and riders, bribe the officials, and run your buddies off of the track, all for fame, glory, and riches in ancient Rome.

It’s been out of print forever, but it still has a passionate fan base. These guys are taking it waaay more seriously than I ever did:

So I was really exited to see a sort-of-port for the phone – Qvadriga:

In Qvadriga you maintain a stable of four chariot teams. Your drivers can gain experience and become more skillful, assuming they survive. The game forces you to balance aggressiveness against keeping your drivers alive — go too fast around a tight corner and the chariot might break apart, leaving your driver dragging behind his horses. At that point you have to hope that he can get to safety before he gets run over. If the driver dies it takes a new hire a while to get competent… Plus you have to buy a new chariot to replace the one you broke, and the good ones aren’t cheap.

Anything goes, you can direct your driver to whip the other drivers, the other horses, or use his chariot to ram into anyone nearby. The game rewards weaving to cut off faster opponents.

There are two campaign modes, one of which allows you to resurrect a driver if he’s killed. The “Epic” mode doesn’t allow for resurrections. Ultimately the object is to become famous enough to be allowed admittance to the Circus Maximus, and then to have the driver with the most career wins of any driver still alive.

It’s $10 on the android store. I went ahead and forked out the $10 because I knew I’d get at least that much fun out of it.

Highly recommended.

by A.J. Coltrane

Title:  Power Grid

Game Type:  Auction/Territorial Expansion.

Number of Players:   2-6

Complexity of Rules:  Medium

Time to Play:   120 minutes

The Concept:   Players bid on power plants, with more efficient plants becoming available over time. The object is to be the player that can power the most cities at the end of the game. In order to win it’s necessary to balance resource acquisition against city building and the spending on power plants.

Why I Like It:  The bidding/forecasting element of the game can be intense. The action is relatively deterministic — there aren’t any dice rolls to screw you over if you’re planned well. The only randomness comes from the order that the power plants become available for auction. The game is rated #10 on boardgamegeek, which is no surprise since those voters tend to like games where they can control the outcome.

It’s not a super new game (2004), and it sat in our closet for a year before we got around to playing it, but now it’s one of my favorites, and it’s going to be a fixture at many GNOIFs to come.