Blog

While I always prefer to play a game with someone face to face, sometimes real life responsibilities prevent that from happening. Luckily, in this digital age, the old saying “there’s an app for that” applies to many popular tabletop games. Mobile Mayhem is a regular column from Unorganized Play about these mobile games and how they compare to the IRL experience.

In this blog, we’ll cover the app for the hit deck-building game, Star Realms by White Wizard Games.

• Available Platforms: iOS, Android and Steam.
• Cost: Free demo, $4.99 Full version, and various in app purchases for additional sets.
• Game length: 10-20 minutes.

Star Realms is a deck-building game that adds something that other big name deck-builders such as Dominion and Ascension inherently lack – direct player interaction. The tl;dr version of the game is to buy ships and bases to strength your arsenal and reduce your opponent to 0 Authority (health) – so no victory point win condition. This makes the game ideally a 1-on-1 experience. In fact, the mobile app does not even give you the option for 3+ player games.

The app was first released on August 14th, 2014; I remember that vividly as I downloaded it just before playing in their first World Championship tournament at Gen Con (I lost in the Top 4 to the eventual winner). I remember it having a very crude UI, but still worth a few practice games to get more familiar with the game. My biggest gripe with the app was that action from online games did not happen in real time. A player’s turn was not visible to their opponents until it was completed, and there was a big lull between turns. There was also no real timer for a game, so your opponent may take one turn, not come back for hours, and make it a much slower process. A player would forfeit if they did not make a move in 48 hours. In the digital age of instant gratification, that’s way too much time.

(Screenshot of the old UI)

I kept the game installed for a while, mostly playing their surprisingly challenging campaign mode. Players are pitted against an AI that had different special rules from chapter to chapter. Completing chapters in the campaign mode unlocked special user avatars viewable in online play as a badge of accomplishment. Once I finished that, I deleted the app to make space on my phone; I wasn’t as sold on their format for online play and wrote it off as another app that did not meet its potential…

Any issues I had with the app were fixed with a massive update that was released on May 14th, 2017. The game now has real-time games with a turn timer of two minutes. Also, the new UI and game-play animations are much nicer from a visual and functional standpoint. I immediately downloaded it and once again began slingin’ ships against players from all over the world. The update also introduced their Colony Wars expansion into the digital meta-game: a new set rather than the small card expansions that they historically had released. While Colony Wars can be a stand-alone game mode, players can mix and match any of their many expansions as they desire.

If you’re looking for something with a little more depth strategy-wise, this is the game for you. While there’s always variance in how the cards fall in the center row, your decisions of what to buy, what to attack (the player or their Bases) and what to keep your opponent from getting really make Star Realms a must-play for any gamer.

~ Chubbs

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a blog about the Unrivaled Tournament Series – my first blog on the young site that is Unorganized Play –  to which I had zero expectations in terms of reaction. If you would have told me one person would read it, I would have been happy… well, it wasn’t just one person who read it, but one company in particular:

Hello Chubbs,

Thank you for the article on your website. I would love an opportunity to discuss it as well as our tournament with you.

Jerod Morgan, Unrivaled

In the blink of a few seconds, my internal thoughts went first to, “We have a Contact Us page on the website?”, then “Oh my god, that’s so cool that Unrivaled actually saw my article!”, to finally “Oh shit… am I about to get a black bag over my head and water-boarded?”. I quickly shared the news with the rest of the Unorganized Play team and the first response, which came from Drew, framed it for me: “Goodbye, Chubbs”.

Luckily (or sadly for some of you), I’m not writing this article from a black site within which Unrivaled has imprisoned me. I’m writing it from my living room, the very same spot I had a cordial and informative phone call with one of the people behind one of the biggest gaming events of the year.

The social media team at Unrivaled had come across my article and noticed that I had listed some specific details that weren’t accurate; they were reaching not to censor me, but to give me any information I wanted straight from them to make sure everyone was getting the correct details about Unrivaled. The biggest error was that I had said winners of the Regional tournaments would receive $1,000, which they do not… but they do receive flight, room and board to Las Vegas, which could probably retail at $1,000, and is most certainly worth playing for… Good thing I’m not an actual journalist. #FakeNews

I first emailed back and forth with Unrivaled’s Marketing Coordinator, Anthony Villegas, to discuss where I had gotten my info and which facts needed correcting. Once that was done, he offered to answer any questions or provide any information I may need about Unrivaled. I sent a bunch follow up questions, to which Jerod said he started writing out a reply but got two pages in to the first question, so it would be much easier to talk over the phone.

The next day, we spoke for a half hour about everything Unrivaled – who they were, who they are, and what they’re hoping to become. The concept for Unrivaled has been in development for over 2 years by Oomba Inc., a tech and social media company who have their own tournament software that is utilized with all Unrivaled events. While the goal of Unrivaled is to bring more exposure to table top gaming, Oomba will benefit from Unrivaled by registering thousands of users for their site (completely free). In that respect, Unrivaled has already been successful, but that will not make them rest on their laurels.

To date, just under 300 stores across the country have bought in to Unrivaled. In my original article, I spoke about how many stores that are hosting these events are not pushing and promoting as much as a quarter-million prize pool should garner. Jerod put it into perspective for me by saying that their involvement is also a risk for retailers as well. Unrivaled is a very new name that doesn’t have huge brand recognition at this current point. While what they’re offering is awesome, many stores don’t know for sure if Unrivaled is going to deliver everything they promised… mainly because they haven’t seen what the final product will look like… or in this case, the “Grand Final” product. From everything Jerod said, the Grand Final itself will be a spectacle that is just as the name suggests: Grand. From arena-style gaming stages to live coverage with special guest hosts and commentary, more news is still to come.

We spoke further about the perception of Unrivaled in the gaming community – “People either love us or they hate us.” But if this story tells you one thing about Unrivaled, it is that they are not shy and have the ambition to break into this industry. They have encountered their fair share of criticism and negatively since embarking on this venture, but Jerod made it very clear that anyone who has a question or problem with what Unrivaled is doing should not be shy to contact him directly – “That’s my job!”

I half-jokingly/half-seriously asked Jerod if my original blog fit into that criticism category, but he said I was very fair… a little snarky, but fair – I’ll take it, as I cannot deny my snark! I was excited to see how this Unrivaled thing unfolded before writing my blog, but now I feel invested having directly spoken with the man behind the plan.

To anyone curious about Unrivaled or concerned with where they’re at, I encourage you to reach out to them directly via their website. Better yet, you only need to write a social media post or blog about your opinions using #Unrivaled2017 (trust me on that one…). I would also encourage you to give Unrivaled at least this first year to win you over. If they deliver on half the things I spoke with them about, I truly believe they will be a name in the tabletop gaming industry for years to come!

Overseers
ThunderGryph Games
Players: 5-6
Game Time: 30-45 minutes

Over the past few years, there has been a rise of casual games: games that can be played in less than an hour but still offer the same entertainment value as bigger board games. These games can serve as a good time-filler, as well as a palette cleanser between long games. It allows the play group to refresh and bring up the energy that may have been lost in longer games. Today, I will be reviewing one such game: Overseers.

Gameplay

Overseers is a card drafting game in which players take the roles of emissaries sent to Earth by a goddess. Players are to collect the virtues and vices of humankind in hopes of balancing the world…. Or not. Simply put, the players are drafting cards and trying to assemble a combination that gives them the most points. The player with the most points after 3 rounds wins.

Anyone who has ever drafted will know how this works. Players will be given six cards from the same deck. Each player takes one of these cards and passes the rest over to the player to the left. This continues until that player picks 5 cards; the last cards are put into a discard pile. The cards being drafted represent virtues and vices (Love, Hope, Anger, and Greed). Some cards are worth a set amount of points while others will grant the player more if they pick a combination of cards. The goal is to draft the most points, but be careful because the next phase is Judgment.

The Judgment phase is a voting phase in which each player will reveal three of the five cards they have obtained card on the table. Based on what they see, they must vote on the person they think has the strongest combination. That player then has two options:

• Concede – Admit to having the strongest combination and discard any two cards the player is holding
• Deny the Claim – Once all the cards are reveal, if that player did in fact have the strongest combination, they are forced to discard the two cards that give the highest value. If the player did not have the strongest combination, they may pick a card from the discard pile

Once the Judgment phase ends and the cards have been revealed, the Steal phase occurs. A player that has drafted the most Greed cards may steal a card form another player. After that, final scores are calculated and gold is awarded. This process is repeated two more times and the player with the most gold is the winner.

Players will also be given a random Emissary card before each round. Each emissary has a special power that can trigger during different phases of the draft. Emissary cards can hinder other players or award the players holding it. These cards might give each player a better idea of how they might want to play that round. Once a draft round is finished, the Emissary cards are reshuffled and a random one is dealt for the next two rounds.

Impressions

Straight out of the box, it is a very beautiful game. The artwork on the Emissary cards alone is worth the $20 price point.  The layout on the cards is well designed and helps the learning process go quickly. This game delivers by supplying players with their own reversible cheat sheet. One side is a flow chart that explains the phases of the game; the other side tells you how many cards should be in the deck depending on the amount of players. After the first round of drafting, everyone should have a basic understanding of the rules.

I am always in the mood to draft, so I find this game very appealing. Similar to Love Letter, deduction is needed to figure out the best cards to draft.  The cheat sheet will let every player know exactly how many cards they will play with and how many copies of a card might be available. Emissary cards are also public knowledge so players will have an idea what to watch out for. I had a pretty good read at the table so I was able to squeeze out a victory by the end of the game.

Jared R
Final Score: 7/10

It is a beautiful and well-designed game that still has that back stab element I am always looking for. The ability to deduct and draft the strongest combination, while at the same time bluffing, made this game enjoyable. Some of the wording on the cards and in the rules did confuse the group and lead to a minor mistake, but it did not slow anything down. In terms of re-play value, I don’t see myself playing more than two games at a time, but that is the intended purpose of a casual game: a game that gets us ready for the next game.