Yeah, missed the boat with no tutorial, no online games, no tooltip for the planet sectors, but gosh I'm glad to see another high quality boardgame app for iPad. And it's a great game too. Highly recommended, if you're into boardgames.
Yeah same here. I love them in concept but many just don't hold my attention for long. Hopefully this one will buck the trend but, to be honest, only time will tell. Oh, a quick one sentence summation of this game? Poker Dice meets Le Havre.
Yep, me too. Love the idea of boardgames on the iPad, buy all the ones that even look remotely interesting, play them enough to understand them, and then move on. Apparently I have the attention span of a kitten, and am also easily distracted by shiny objects.
The nice thing about this game is the file size is small so you can keep it on your device without much worry. The video's on this thread serve as a good tutorial, and the game isn't overly complex, and the manual is simple to use for reference while playing, I was able to win my first game on easiest difficulty which was a satisfying feeling. I want to encourage ppl to try this because I love seeing this type of board game on iOS, and this game is really well done, even if the publisher is unknown to me. hopefully online multiplayer support for this game will come, but for me it's not that big of a deal.
This is definitely my new favorite (solo) board game right behind summoner wars. Great deal for the price. No tutorial is no biggie for me as I'm an avid boardgame player and those don't come with tutorials either. Just read the rules, jump in there , and when you have a question the rules are easily opened.
Does somebody know if there is a German manual to download anywhere? This game is a little bit confusing me ...
These eleven pages are really SMALL. At first you just need to read page one which is a quick reference. Later on you'll ask yourself, hey, why can't I do this or that, and then you will skim the other pages; it is really straightforward and you'll get along in no time. It took me two games against AI 1 & 2. Recommended! (I did not know the physical board game, too.)
I didn't find one- maybe when the localized boardgame comes to Essen this month... But it is not so difficult, take your time. Here's the english version: http://gbp24.me/english_rulebook
No Retina is the reason. You should welcome larger filesizes that allow the full features of iOS devices to be realized. See Carcassonne.
Hey Gang, What is the consensus on the AI? I haven't logged enough games to say for myself but over at BGG they all are lamenting it's a pitiful joke, even at the highest levels, at this point. The only thing that I feel has to be taken with a grain of salt is, over at BGG, I think they all tend to be pretty professional board gamers and therefore MOST AIs will probably be a joke for them even IF they never played this particular board game in real life previously.
I don't read German so I'm not sure but I think boardgame geek has it here: http://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/67499/alien-frontiers-deutsches-spielmaterial Edit: Sorry, it appears I was incorrect and that's just the cards and stuff.
I have lost several times only just playing against three 'pirates' despite not making too many stupid mistakes . Imho I have got to play quite some more to compete against the 'admiral' AI.
To comment on the difficulty, I would say there is some challenge to be had. I am new to this game, I have 5 games under my belt so far, and was able to beat the AI in every difficuly but the hardest where I lost twice. You can notice the AI play style get more aggressive as the difficulty gets higher. And this game does have a factor of luck when it comes to the dice rolls. For me there is a challenge to beat the hardest difficuly, which I 'm unable to do. Perhaps for more seasoned players the AI may be too easy, but most games become easy when you've learned to master them. I think your average gamer would find some challenge here, even if you did have a wining strategy, you'd need the dice rolls to execute it.
I know you to be a competent board gamer, so I don't think we can declare it braindead if this is true, even if you are still just getting up to speed on things. I think what some players were saying is that the AI just couldn't hold up to an experienced player simply focusing on getting their colonists out as fast as possible. I can only imagine, if at the higher difficulties the AI actually interacts with the player it might be a bit more challenging. I just won a 3 player game with 2 Spacer AIs and while they seemed relatively competent, I don't think they ever bothered to raid or in general mess with me other than dropping an Isolation Field on me once. I think at least one key truism holds true here, the more opponents the tougher it will be, in general. Sure, I might be smarter than any one of them, but together they could probably give me more grief (or at least one of them is likely to get extra lucky).
I'm not an experienced player so I can't speak on that part of the game. The AI had deffinately messed with me, raiding my cards and resources, moving my ships, etc. etc., I haven't tried more then 2 players either, but it seems the AI does offer something. The good thing is the die rolls seem radom, which can be a point of frustration is some games.
Never played the tabletop version, but watched the dice tower video review of it and could play my first game without looking at the rules (but they do come in handy for clarification) The game is quite interesting, I like the mix of luck and strategy, and the theme transpires well in the game. Could become a 5 star game with full retina graphics, online asynchronous play and maybe a better help and tutorial.
The folk at BGG normally rant on every single AI everytime, once an iPad boardgame app is released, and it is never good enough, even for us mere mortals. Probably an experienced player might have an infallible strategy here to crush any computer opponent; going for this and that alien tech card or settling first of all on 'Burroughs' or wherever; but fortunately there's luck of the dice roll here and finding this strategy is part of the fun. As a worker placement or strategy game I would not take it too seriously (it's neither Le Havre nor Neuroshima Hex); I see it in a lighter category like a good family game. Nevertheless I think the AI does pose a good challenge for most players, you have little downtime (at least with the computer...) and you can take it anywhere, so what's not to like?
