Category: Mobile Game Releases

Many people would agree that The Castles of Burgundy is board game maestro Stefan Felds’s finest achievement. It sounds simple enough; roll two dice and take two actions that are dependent on the numbers rolled. However, players will quickly discover that this modest premise hides a surprising amount of depth and a variety of different routes to victory.

CoB is a settlement building game in which the players acquire and place small hexagonal tiles onto their player boards. These boards are divided into regions of different colours. The blue areas, for instance, represent your overseas trade, whilst the light green spaces are for agricultural development. Players begin each round by rolling two dice; they then use the values of these dice to carry out two actions. A player can use a die to take a hexagonal tile from the correspondingly numbered depot. The newly acquired tile is then placed into their store, which can hold a maximum of three tiles. By spending an action a player can transfer a tile from their store to their settlement board. The space on the board has to be the same colour as the tile and must also show the same number as that of the die used to complete the action.

The tiles themselves have a range of different powers. When you place a blue ship tile you have the opportunity to take some trade goods and also move forward on the turn order track. Going first can give you a real advantage, as in every round each depot will only have a limited number of tiles available. The dark green castle tiles are very powerful; when they are placed on the board the player gets to immediately take a free action, grabbing or placing any tile without having to consider dice values. You place animals in light green areas. To maximise the point-scoring potential you will want to place animal tiles of the same type in the same area. The grey areas are reserved for silver mines. At the end of every round, each mine will produce silver. This resource is extremely useful as it allows you to purchase additional tiles from the black market without having to expend an action.

The other two colours of tiles offer more complicated options. The brown spaces are for buildings; there are several types, each with its own special ability. Build a warehouse and you can immediately sell some goods. Normally, to sell goods you need to use a die that matches the value printed on that particular type of good. Trading is a great way of earning both points and silver. Construct an inn and you get four workers, each of which will allow you to modify the value of a die by either plus or minus one. At a push, you can spend one of your precious action die to get workers, but in this instance, you will only gain two of them.

The yellow tiles represent knowledge and fall into two main types. Some will give you end-of-game scoring opportunities, such as awarding extra points for constructing a particular type of building. Others will allow you to bend the rules, modifying dice rolls and giving bonuses when you carry out specific actions. In a neat design feature, the yellow tiles that you own are also displayed along the edge of the board. This means that at a glance you can see your special abilities and end-of-game targets.

CoB has plenty of moving pieces and fitting all of this information onto a small screen must have presented the creators with a real challenge. Happily, it is one that the designers have managed to pull off with aplomb. It may not work as well on a phone, but on a tablet-sized screen, the game is very user-friendly. Presentation wise, the game has had a much-needed makeover. The board game was certainly never going to win any beauty contests, with its drab colours and sketchy illustrations. Now, things are nicer, with colourful structures pleasingly rotating into view, cows mooing, chickens clucking and sheep making disturbing strangled bleating sounds. It is very satisfying to watch your settlement spring into life, and although the buildings can be hard to differentiate (a criticism that could also be leveled at the board game), a simple tap and hold will quickly provide the information that you are looking for. At the start of each turn the settlement board springs from a giant iris aperture – it all has a mechanical Game of Thrones opening credits feel. I could have done without the mumbling guys popping up in the corner of the screen every time I take a move, though.

The playing options are going to be recognisable to anyone familiar with Digidiced’s previous releases. You can play a local game with a mix of human and AI controlled players. The AI is a little predictable, having a particular liking for silver mines, but it still manages to put up a decent challenge on the toughest of the three difficulty levels. Other options include fast or slow ranked asynchronous games, as well as the option to play casual online games against friends. It is reassuring that a couple of bugs which caused the game to freeze have quickly been identified and removed. 

The Castles of Burgundy is a fairly involved tile-laying game; a two-player local game is going to take upwards of forty-five minutes to reach its conclusion. It is not as complex as something like Terra Mystica but is certainly a lot tougher to get to grips with than Carcassonne. The excellent interface means that players familiar with the board game will be able to jump in and play straight away. New players will have to invest a considerable amount of time going through the comprehensive tutorials, but it is well worth the effort.

Player interaction is limited to grabbing valuable tiles before your opponent does, but it is amazing how just two dice rolls can open up so many choices. Despite rolling dice, you hardly ever feel beholden to luck. There are ways of modifying dice or other options worth considering. Indeed a big part of the skill is to be able to keep your plans fluid and make the most of your current rolls. In each of the five rounds, the points that you earn for completing an area diminish and the game becomes a very tense race to complete regions as quickly as possible. 

This year has been brilliant for board game releases, it feels like there have been as many excellent releases in the past two months as in the entirety of last year and The Castles of Burgundy is yet another essential purchase for board game fans.

By Ian Boudreau 04 Mar 2019

Feels like its been a decent week, overall – we reviewed Gem Rush, Knights of the Card Table and Wars Across the World next week, also excellent additions to their respective genres. Content wise we’re a bit a of a crossroads as, apart from just making sure we review things and certain things like our Guides stuff, we’re unsure what else would be of use to the mobile audience.

Mobile gaming in general is changing, and it’s important we try and adapt with it  – what form that takes though, is something we’re looking to experiment with – if you have any thoughts or suggestions, do let us know.

Meanwhile, in mobile gaming…

Out Now

Castles of Burgundy (iOS & Android) – Full Review Coming Soon

Ideally, we’d already have a review of this live by now, but unfortunately, we got our code a bit last in the day. No matter – Matt’s on the case, and we’ll bring out our full thoughts as soon as we can. Castles of Burgundy is an iconic Euro-style boardgame where players must compete to develop the best holdings in 15^th Century Europe. It uses a basic dice mechanic, and there are many routes to victory – the winner is the player who gets the most victory points.

The app sports plenty of features we like to see in digital ports: varying AI difficulty for solo, cross-platform multiplayer, asynchronous and hot-seat options a tutorial and plenty of language options. At $8.99 its at the higher end of the price spectrum, up there with Terra Mystica, but DIGIDICED are a known quantity in digital boardgames, so you can be sure it’ll be worth the price.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7T2H16S2t8?controls=0]

Card Crusade (iOS & Android) – Full Review Coming soon

After a two-month stint in early access, this rogue-like deck building game is now out in the wild. It lists Slay the Spire and Pixel Dungeon as inspiration and features retro graphics. We didn’t get a chance to test this one out before today’s write-up, but the game features eight different classes, & ten floors to explore. Changes from the early access version include 20 new cards, balancing to the final three floors, a better scoring system and changes to how Altars work. We’ll bring you our full review as soon as we can.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNiRLskgMp4?controls=0]

Updates

Shieldwall Chronicle (iOS Universal)

Our review for this is still incoming, but while we wait the game’s already been updated to fix some high priority bugs. Namely, stability & performance issues a number of 2GB and 3GB devices have been settled. Along with our review, we’ll be doing a code giveaway sometime next week, so stay tuned!

Kingdom Rush: Vengeance (iOS & Android) (Review)

Everyone’s favourite controversial Tower-Defense RTS received a free content update the other day. The Subaquatic Menace takes you three new stages, where you must help Vez’nan defeat King Polxy and his subaquatic army. Plenty of new content, including new enemies, a new hero and a new tower.

——

Also, some of you may have noticed that the PC version of Armello received a big ‘2.0’ updated this week. I reached out to the developers regarding whether or not the update would be coming to the mobile version, and here is what they had to say:

“We would like to, though we are genuinely unsure at this time. The mobile version of Armello is an interesting beast and is very different to develop for. Crunching Armello down into those little devices is a feat that we don’t know that we can undertake for v2.0, and some of the core features, such as many of the menu overhauls, wouldn’t translate seamlessly.

We’re going to evaluate our options and let you know when we can.”

Sales

Reigns: Game of Thrones (Review) (iOS & Android): $2.99 on iOS

The undisputed best version of Reigns is on sales again, so if you’ve yet to pick it up now might be a good time. Fair warning though – it was cheaper over Christmas, so might be worth waiting for a bigger sales event.

Beholder (Review) (iOS & Android): $2.99

Dark and characterful narrative game Beholder is half price, if you fancy challenging yourself with some really horrible moral decisions.

Out There: Omega Edition (Review) (iOS & Android)

One of our favourite games of yesteryear – 2014’s Out There, is now selling its ‘Omega’ edition for just a dollar. This is an excellent strategy/rpg game from Mi-Clos, and one every mobile gamer should experience.

Seen anything else you like? Played any of the above? Let us know in the comments!

The basic concept of Wars Across the World is to take a single set of game mechanics that can underpin a range of different scenario types across history, at varying command levels. The design justification being that the base mechanics only need to be learned once, so that the developers can offer a breadth of battles and campaigns that all follow the same underlying logic, and so can be played in succession without much difficulty.

I was rather sceptical that such a design could both be fun and plausible, but so far I’ve been pleasantly surprised with what has been created. A combination of modern gaming techniques and ease of accessibility make Wars across the World an impressive achievement, and an excellent addition to mobile war games overall.

The company behind this, STRATEGIAE, have managed to find the sweet spot for mobile gamers and very much captures you in the ‘just one more turn’ trap. Whether it was defending Berlin in the dying days of the Second World War, force marching down to London from York in 1066 or desperately trying to seize Sinai whilst holding off the Syrians in 1967, I always needed to keep clicking that button to see what happened next.

The success of this game isn’t down to a single contributing factor, there are a range of elements here that have just been done very well underpinned by a well thought out baseline.

Firstly, the game is incredibly easy to pick up and play. Within a minute or two of installation you are quickly in the front line of the action dragging units around, making political decisions and trying to get some sort of strategic plan together. Within ten minutes you are quickly wondering whether not bothering to read through the scenario notes is really an excuse that will go down well in the Fuhrer’s Bunker and perhaps you are just better off blaming everything on Steiner (Insert Downfall meme video-ED).

Every phase it’s very clear what you need to do as the game highlights units and warns you when you haven’t activated elements. Even better it highlights cards that you could play so you don’t need to wade through endless cards trying to figure out what you need to do. It is so well implemented it ought to be mandatory for every game to copy this style of in-game assistance. Mr. Clippy this is not.

The game is built around an area movement map with strict turn and phase orders, but the designers have not let themselves be restricted or influenced by any specific school of wargaming techniques or traditions. This game is a smorgasbord of mechanics and they come together beautifully. Yes, there were times I didn’t really know what was going on but because I was so immersed in the experience it didn’t detract from the game.

My biggest concern was that I couldn’t see how they could merge such wide ranging historical eras together, let alone combine that with options for grand strategic level and operational level player perspectives all into a single game.

How they have overcome this is through incredible flexibility in their design tools. Units can be given any combat, movement and morale stats that fit the geographical region and the historical/ political situation. As a result not all scenarios are equal in quality, some of them are simply better designed than others. The base game on the iPad comes with a tutorial and a single mission but you are going to have to buy additional scenarios to justify getting this game in the first place.

Apart from the Berlin 1945 scenario ($2.99), the rest of the scenario IAPs are $1 each Everything I tried was worth the app purchase fee, and for this review I played Hasting 1066, Waterloo 1815. Tannenberg 1914, Normandy 1944, Berlin 1945 and Six Days 1967. I thought Berlin 1945 was the best of the bunch; an excellent scenario that had considerable depth compared to the other options, which probably explains the higher price. 

I always approached each new scenario somewhat sceptically, doubting that the mechanics I had just been using could work on a totally different time frame I was now loading up. However I continually found that my doubts were unfounded and that it was actually really fascinating to see how different unit types worked in different era’s and situations.  It was genuinely interesting to compare how my tanks performed in Suez against how my cavalry performed in 1815 or in 1914 at Tannenberg.

There are nuances to combat which I found strange at first as there are restrictions on unit limits and leader requirements. However these restrictions are designed to abstractly reflect logistical limitations and can occasionally be broken with the right card. Relatively modern armies tended to suffer morale collapse less readily than historical armies but none of the scenarios felt like a grind and there was often a real decision to be made. Most importantly the end result is plausible more often than not.

The AI isn’t a genius but considering that I lost my first four games in a row suggests that the competency level is definitely a fun challenge. Certainly the AI rarely lacks compunction to act, which often kills computer war games for me in general.

Wars Across the World also has an option for hotseat multiplayer and because it doesn’t take more than 1-2 hours (and I finished some in 30 minutes) to complete a scenario so you can easily sit down with a friend/ adversary and play a game or two over an evening or on a journey.

Everything you would want from a modern wargame is here; fog of war, morale, logistics, political considerations, supply, time pressures, interesting investment trade off’s. This is a far cry from many of the other wargames that we see with no real political context or pressures. War isn’t a logical, mechanical odds counting exercise, it’s a disorganized mess in which you simply attempt to act less badly than the people on the other team.

Wars Across the World captures that essence through the use of scenario specific cards. These cards cover a whole range of political and military factors and can be played at a strategic and tactical level during various phases of the game. Each set of cards is different for each side in each scenario and they provide a central part of the immersion that make this game good.

Most scenarios allow you to spend investment points on new units, replacements or cards. This creates interesting strategic dynamics and decision trade off’s.  Many of the political elements allow you to buy time in some way or alter the balance of the conflict in the longer term. Some of the political cards impact the opponent, creating unforeseen challenges and friction of war.

Current scenarios range from ancient warfare through to the 20^th century and there are more being released. Excitingly there is the option for user created scenarios as well. Wars Across the World straddles a line between offering meaningful depth and decisions, without crossing too much into the territory of hardcore wargames that you might see grace the front page of our sister website. It’s a welcome site in an app store increasingly looking at free-to-play and casual audiences.

At the time of writing, Wars Across the World has the following IAPs, all of which unlock additional scenarios to play within the game:

• Saratoga 1777 ($0.99)
• Six Days 1967 ($0.99)
• Tannenberg 1914 ($0.99)
• Malaya 1941 ($0.99)
• Waterloo 1815 ($0.99)
• Bulge 1944 ($0.99)
• Bull Run 1861 ($0.99)
• Hastings 1066 ($0.99)
• Berlin 1945 ($2.99)
• Hamilkar 264 ($0.99)

If you’re one of the many who’ve been eying iOS users with envy as they’ve been enjoying Farming Simulator/RPG Stardew Valley, you need not worry anymore – we now have a concrete release date for the game’s Android release.

Comes March 14^th, 2019 Android users will be able to get stuck in as they try to rebuild their grandfather’s farm in a village in the middle of nowhere. Probably Wales.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHUqhYslji4?controls=0]

The Android version will cost the same as the iOS version ($7.99 / $7.99 / €8,99), and you can head on over to the Google Play store to pre-register right now. It will also come with the following improvements that the mobile version has enjoyed since launching on iOS:

• Save at any time – even when you close the app!
• Pinch-zoom functionality, allowing players to handily zoom in to track down your Junimos or zoom out to get a full view of your farm.
• New control systems including virtual joystick and invisible joystick options, ‘action / attack’ button option, improved auto-attack and Joypad adjuster tool with complete customization of your onscreen controls.
• Additional supported languages – Korean, Italian, French and Turkish (these will be patched into the iOS version of the game at a later date).

While ConcernedApe made the PC & Console version, the mobile version was developed by The Secret Police.

Digital card games can be a tough genre to get into. If you haven’t been playing Hearthstone regularly, you may feel lost within the confines of its lore-rich world. And if you’re not willing to invest hours to practice, you may find yourself left out of the fun everyone else is having. Knights of the Card Table easily subverts these issues, combining the fun of dungeon crawling with quickfire card battles with plenty of unique layers to its gameplay. Wrapped up in a fun aesthetic and playful motif, it’s one of the best card battlers to hit mobile devices in some time – though it’s not without its unique frustrations.

Knights of the Card Table has you exploring various “dungeons” at the behest of a kooky dungeon master as a plucky young adventurer of your choice. You have a male player first, and the second unlockable character is a female you can swap to, if you so choose. Exploring dungeons and completing them is done solely via selecting a stage on a map, and then taking part in card battles that span several “floors”.

You’ll find that most decks are full of enemies, like spiders, beehives, and even jerky mailmen and bullies. Typically, five cards will be drawn from the deck and displayed to you (though sometimes some will remain unflipped, leaving them a mystery). When you clear one card out, another will appear. You’re in control here, however, of the card order you play in. So if you have three enemies on the play field followed by two restorative items, you can play the restorative items as needed, rather than having to wait to get to them.

Health Dranks will restore hearts (you start out with three), while Power Milk will give you a damage bonus. You’ll want to avoid the Poison, of course. Meanwhile, Spell Tomes like Fireball and Freeze can tear through enemy cards and give you an extra edge against them. In terms of power you’re facing off against, you can check the top left and right ratings on each card. The orange shape represents the enemy’s power, while the heart is their HP. Your dungeon explorer’s card shows this information as well.

One of the most useful game mechanics that requires you to think ahead a bit and strategize is the concept of card streaks. If you use three of the same card type in a row, you’ll get some pretty decent bonuses, buffs, or a selection of additional treasure. These card streaks largely rely on luck for you to trigger them, since you can’t see every card coming up in the deck, but when you can pull them off, they can do some staggering amounts of damage.

When you run out of hearts, you can opt to bring your character back to life by spending one of your “pops” to revive them, but after that it’s game over and you’ll have to start over. You’ll typically have plenty of pops to bring you back, but you don’t earn them as readily as gold,

Enemies don’t attack in a turn-based manner, either, unless you attack them first. You don’t even have to arrange the cards on the “table,” so to speak, in the order you want to play them. You can simply tap on the one you want to activate. This doesn’t apply anymore, however, when you run across “locked” cards that have a chain around them. This means you can’t swap them out with other cards or change position with them, and tapping them to move them ahead won’t work. You’ll have to get to them when they come up, which can be frustrating, but it does add a satisfying amount of challenge to the game.

As the game wears on, there are additional elements introduced as you rank up higher. There are trap cards, such as explosive dynamite, that you must tap and activate to get out of the way, because in order to continue on to the next dungeon floor you must complete the deck, whether you use all of the Health Dranks or Power Milks or have to succumb to dynamite damage.

Unfortunately, sometimes that means each dungeon floor can become extremely repetitive. You might get four Health Dranks in a row, or perhaps you’ll get Power Milk over and over again, with four enemies right behind one another at the end. This leaves you with no health options, and no way to recover if you don’t happen to roll the dice that can knock out the enemies before you.

After you complete a dungeon, you can head out and purchase additional gear. You get gold pieces and pops as a reward for killing off enemies and stacking items you don’t need like Health Dranks, but some items need an inordinate amount of pops for you to purchase them. Considering you get only a handful when you complete dungeons, it can take quite a long time to unlock certain items. Gold takes a much shorter time to accrue, but you need gold and pops for many of the items on offer. This is one huge frustration. You get your first few weapons quickly, since they’re decently affordable, but you’ll find yourself playing for quite a while if you dare desire an additional character to play as. This will undoubtedly be a turnoff for players looking to try out some of the various personalities.

That’s annoying, because Knights of the Card Table has a fun, silly Adventure Time vibe, and wouldn’t feel out of place in terms of its visuals on a channel like Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network. So not being able to see everything the game has to offer in a decent period of time feels like a slight to the player. With the game already costing $5, it would have made much more sense to ditch the semi-premium currency and opt for a fairer way to hand out new characters, weapons, and shields.

If you’re not looking to jump into any sort of difficult card battler with multiple novels’ worth of lore or want to try something without the need for learning an entire rulebook, Knights of the Card Table is a fantastic place to start. It’s light, humorous, and perfect for newcomers to the genre, especially with its quirky exterior, which will no doubt attract fans looking to explore. You can play with one hand, start and stop at your leisure, and collect a wide variety of kooky characters and accessories eventually, and it’s well worth settling in to play. Just don’t expect to unlock things left and right – it will undoubtedly take patience, but it will keep a smile on your face the entire time.

Note: This is a premium game on iOS, however the Android version is free-to-play and there are IAPs for the in-game currencies.  At the time of writing, current IAP options include:

• Various ‘big’ bundles that come with varying combinations of new heroes, Ad removal, Gold and Pops (£9.49 – £10.99)
• Gold-only bundles (£4.59-£8.99)
• Pop-only Bundles (£4.59 – £37.99)
• You can also watch ads for small amounts of Gold/Pops.

This week’s update is a bit wordier than usual, mainly because the usual format didn’t seem to fit what limited information, I have to share this time around. Before we get on to the main event, one bit of news I will share because it came in my Inbox today.

Feral Interactive are currently hard at work porting Tropico over to iPhone. Things seem to be coming a long well, because yesterday they shared a few screenshots over twitter. We really enjoyed Tropico when we reviewed it last year, and hopefully iPhone users will get to enjoy it soon as well.

Meanwhile, in the world of el presidente mobile games…

Out Now

There’s actually nothing definitive I want to highlight this week. Perhaps I’ve not been as in-touch as I normally would have been (had some days off), but nothing seems to have jumped out at me.

A few of the other sites seem to be talking about Immortal Rogue, which to be fair does look good and will be going on our ‘To Do’ list. The only thing is, according to the App Store page the game was released at the end of January. Google Play doesn’t give me enough information to determine when that version was released, so it’s possible this week marks the appearance of that version.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_w4uN-nhwM4?controls=0]

On our end, I’ve got people reviewing Knights of the Card Table, Wars Across the World and the digital adaptation of the Gem Rush board game.

Addendum: This completely slipped our mind, but Shieldwall Chronicles from PT favourites Wave Light Games released on iOS today. We’ve got this on our review list as well, so stay tuned!

Updates

Star Traders: Frontiers has updated again this week with lots of tweaks and balances – if you’re interested, they’re actually working towards the eventual release of Carrier-class ships in the game, with accompanying fighters. Again, even if you don’t use Steam, we highly recommend keeping an eye on the official Steam page, because a lot of information as to the current road-map and what goes in every update is posted there.

Other than that, Evolution has had a few updates and tweaks since launch. A lot of major issues, especially on Android, have been solved one way or another (the minimum specs for Android devices has been raised for the moment, for example), and they’re working through the rest of the outstanding issues as well.

Sales

Elder Signs: Omens (iPhone, iPad & Android): $0.99

A previous candidate on our Best Board Games list, Elder Signs is now down to a buck on iOS, a little bit more on Android. Note that there’s different app entries for the iPhone and the iPad version of the game, so make sure you buy the right one.

Crashlands (iOS & Android) (Review): $4.99

One of our favourite action RPGS and Diablo-like games is enjoying a small reduction, if you’ve yet to give It a try yourself. Please note that it has been cheaper in the past, typically $3.99 but in 2017 went as low as $2.99.

Cat Lady: The Card Game (iOS & Android): $0.99

This is a simple and engaging card game adapted from a physical game of the same name. It’s down to just a buck – not the most ‘serious’ of experience, but good for some casual fun.

Wars Across the World (iOS Universal): $0.99

A more serious war game, the base game for this is currently down to just a buck, although we’re unclear as to how much content you actually get. At the time of writing there’s ten IAPs consisting of individual scenarios. We’ve actually got a review in progress if you want to wait, but so far, our reviewer has been quite impressed with what he’s played.

Seen anything else you liked? Played any of the above? Let us know in the comments!

As high concepts go, a text-based real-time strategy game might not sound like the most obvious of mash-ups. A Few Minutes of Glory may look like it dates back to the dawn of the computer age but it is still an intriguing proposition. First of all, you build a medieval army by gathering and spending resources. When you are confident that your army is strong enough, you send them into battle against the AI controlled opposing force. It may sound like Age of Empires without the graphics but each game only lasts for a maximum of four minutes, even less if you play in fast mode. The victor is the first side to earn ten glory points or to have the most glory when the time runs out.

There are four resource-generating buildings, which produce food, wood, gold and stone. Food is needed for basic military units, wood for ranged units, gold is required for advanced military units and stone can be used to construct defensive structures. You may also use wood to build new production buildings, the snag being that the cost increases with each new building. Each production building will produce one resource every second.

Players begin the game with access to five randomly determined military units. To construct one of these units simply tap the box next to it and pay the relevant resources. You will then need to deploy the new unit to either an offensive or defensive role. Constructing walls and towers can further enhance defensive capabilities. Units fall into one of three overriding categories; infantry, ranged and cavalry. There are a total of fifteen different units, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Some of the more eclectic types include camels that are great at giving enemy cavalry the hump and monks who have the ability to convert enemy units.

Before battle commences the attacking force has the opportunity to ransack the local countryside for some additional resources. Next up is the combat screen, which displays a breakdown of the opposing forces. In each round of combat, units attack in order of their initiative values and will target a randomly determined enemy unit. The chances of success are calculated by comparing attack strength against the defending unit’s armour rating. There is a handy reference list of all of the units and their initiative attack and defensive values. If the attacking side wins then they are awarded two glory points, whilst a defensive victory only earns one point of glory. After a battle, the attacker has to wait around thirty seconds before they are allowed to initiate another assault, which gives their opponent a bit of time to recover. If either side is vastly outnumbered then they will get a substantial fury bonus added to their attacks. As further consolation, the production buildings of the losing side will be increased by one level because a fear of further defeat makes the population work even harder.

If the timer runs down to zero before either side has managed to earn ten glory points then a final mass battle takes place. The defensive and offensive units on both sides join together, with the winning side earning between two to six points of glory. The potential to earn so much glory in a single confrontation can swing the entire battle.

As the saying goes, one battle does not win a war. The ultimate goal in A Few Minutes of Glory is to win the war by being victorious in ten consecutive battles. After every successful fight, you will have access to a new power; these include resource building upgrades and improved units. Beware though, because a single defeat will bring your civilization crashing down and you will have to start all over again.

I have regularly settled down for a game of A Few Minutes of Glory, hoping that something would click. Unfortunately, I always came away feeling that I was missing something. On paper, the interplay between the abilities of the different units sounds intriguing. However, it often feels like you are poking around in the dark, throwing your limited choice of troops into battle without any real idea of how things are going to turn out. The presentation is so sparse that I could not shake the feeling that I was just toying with a spreadsheet. It is a criticism that has been leveled at the Football Manager games, but at least then the smart presentation and licensing agreements managed to hide this from the player’s view.

In a world of endless sequels and thinly disguised copycat releases, I admire the developer for trying to create something different. I like how the rules try and give a thematic reason for the design decisions. For instance, the inflationary cost of production buildings is explained in terms of the increasing scarcity of available land. I like the variety of units, the fast pace and the tough challenge (even the game’s developer cannot beat the AI on the hardest difficulty level).

Unfortunately, A Few Minutes of Glory feels like an intriguing concept transformed into a pretty dull game. It amounts to watching your resources increase and then clicking on boxes to purchase units. The decisions never feel interesting or involved and it soon becomes repetitive. The heart of A Few Minutes of Glory is the battles and these really need to be represented in a more satisfying way than just a scrolling list. The results flash by so quickly that it fails to build any sense of tension. I don’t expect fancy graphics; a little atmospheric flavour text describing the flow of battle would have done the job. As it stands, the battles feel very anticlimactic. Calculations are made, numbers flash across the screen and then you are told whether you have won or lost. It is then back to gathering more resources, buying more units and doing the whole thing all over again.

You may never read another app description as resigned as Partia 3’s. The developer, Dustin, laments the financial failures of the previous two entries, the cost of his vacations and weekends to the creation of this final chapter in the trilogy, and the likely mediocre response the new game will generate. Declaring it the ‘last app store description he will ever write,’ he signs it: “For the lovers only.”

The Parthia series is the creation of a devoted two-person team who have been making console-style strategy RPGs with no IAP for seven years with little reward to show for it. For that alone it’s worth a look – although unless you’re a strategy RPG die-hard, maybe not much more than a look.

The first Partia came out in 2012 and Partia 2 followed in 2014. Five years later, the labor of love is finally complete. Unfortunately, in that time, not much has advanced in the games’ design. Many of the criticisms given in PT’s review of the first game in the series still hold true even seven years later. Now, you do have touch controls rather than an on-screen controller, and the field isn’t pillarboxed into an approximation of a Game Boy Advance aspect ratio. But the UI is still frustrating, and the graphics and animations are limited. It would be nice if the gameplay made up for that.

The Parthia series has always been a devoted homage to Fire Emblem , which is known for its handheld titles on Nintendo platforms. Now there is an official Fire Emblem game on mobile, and a very popular one, albeit not the one fans were probably hoping for. Fire Emblem: Heroes reduced the size of the battlefield and dropped the series’ signature character permadeath. Parthia, on the other hand, is orthodox in its presentation of traditional strategy RPG gameplay. Your units move freely around the large battlefields. They can carry different equipment, gain levels, and have their individual advantages and weaknesses. In between battles, you can manage your army, buying and selling equipment and recruiting new soldiers. Most importantly, permadeath remains a threat, encouraging you to play carefully with your favorite characters.

However, battles are tedious. First, it takes a dozen taps to enter a simple command. Tap to select the unit. Tap to choose move. Tap to choose attack. Tap to choose the weapon. Tap to choose the target. Tap to confirm. Watch the animation. And that’s after turning off the default setting that requires double taps for each of those commands! Then, units too-frequently miss their targets or do little damage, making each battle a war of slow attrition. The AI does little to help the pace, preferring to wait to be attacked or otherwise being easily lured into bottlenecks and slowly whittled down one by one. Further, Parthia 3 doesn’t do a good job of teaching the player the capabilities of the units, instead leaving the education up to trial and error. I’m still not 100% sure which units are supposed to be strong against which, or if there even is a big difference between them. The AI is never a threat unless a story event demands overwhelming enemy forces.

Battles are often driven by story events, which push some drama onto the map by suddenly manifesting new enemy or allied units. The story remains forgettable, although commendable in its ambition. It’s trying to tell an epic tale of war and justice, but the large and thinly-drawn cast makes it hard to get a handle on why you should care. Not helping the narrative is the poor English used, which features grammatical or spelling errors in every other dialogue box. It’s not enough to make comprehension impossible, but it is enough to be frustrating to read and drop you out of the tale.

Devotees of the console strategy RPG style of Fire Emblem may find a lot to like in Parthia 3 and its prequels, especially those disappointed by Nintendo’s limited Fire Emblem: Heroes. This series was created by someone with a lot of love for a very particular kind of game. Now that the creator is freed of this obsession, I hope his next project can find the audience it deserves.