Reiner Knizia's En Garde

[PaulCentaur]

Thanks. We are not currently working on any of Dr Reiner Knizia's other titles.
We are developing another game in the card/board-game genre though, which should be announced in the next few months.

[Ginger Yellow]

The current board game calls the three game types Basic, Standard and Advanced. Early on, we had Basic being much easier to beat, but the feedback from Dr Knizia was that he actually prefers the first game type and expected a strong opponent here.

I find that very surprising as it seems the first game type, once you've nailed the (pretty basic) optimum overall strategy (which isn't exactly complex) and do card counting, is too driven by the luck of the cards. You can't even tactically move at the end of the game because there's no last gasp win. So it almost always comes down to who gets the cards that allows them to keep the other player on the back foot, or someone making a basic mistake.

An incidental question - I assume there's some design reason for it, but it seems unfair that if you parry the last move of the game you don't get a chance to take another move. A parry is in some sense a win (as in you should be rewarded for luring the guy into making a parryable attack), and in the interest of fairness there should be some benefit to doing so rather than taking the hit. But often at the very end of the game there isn't.

We've made some changes to this (and an issue some people are having with the "beat each type" unlock) which you'll see in a minor update soon.

I haven't unlocked either the "beat an AI in each game type" or "win 5-0 in each game type" despite doing both of those. I'm wondering if it's connected to the fairly frequent CTDs I've been getting (maybe once every two to three games) - perhaps the app isn't saving the previous game's win state before the crashes.

[PaulCentaur]

Well, we were surprised too. Some versions of the board game present Basic as simply a training game for the main type.

Yes, in the final analysis the game rewards distance travelled but not ability to defend (other than nullifying the opponent's ability to attack). There are indeed situations where no matter what you do you will lose.

We have considered adding some end-of-game awards, which would not affect who actually wins but just jolly up the end and reward certain types of move. So you could lose the game, but have a little ribbon for "Most Parries" etc. It's a bit "All Must Have Prizes" though. Does anyone think this would add to their enjoyment?

As for the crash and unlock issues, can you please fill in the form at
http://www.engardeapp.com/report-issue/

I am sorry for any problems anyone is experiencing, but rest assured we'll be bringing out regular updates.

[abstractgamefreak]

@PaulCentaur Despite you still working on a german translation, perhaps you'd like to reconsider to release this game on the german appstore in english. 90% of all Knizia games are in english anyway, although I respect you guys putting additional work into this app I don't think it would stop interested people in Germany from buying En Garde today and updating the language files later.

[johnnyboy]

Still waiting for an update or fix.

I have been unable to unlock the 2nd AI opponent, despite winning many games. Also, the 3rd opponent unlocked too soon, when I had only beaten the AI at 2 of the 3 game types.

Originally Posted by PaulCentaur

I am sorry for any problems anyone is experiencing, but rest assured we'll be bringing out regular updates.

[iPadisGreat]

This is a fun Knizia game, and I am digging it. Primary plays very differently from the advanced difficulty levels, which are much easier. Quick question:

Has anybody actually managed to unlock the 2nd AI opponent in En Garde? I only have the first, Aiden, and the third, Aisha, available after playing ten games.

The 2nd AI did not unlock when I first won a game. In fact, nothing happened. In the next game, two notifications popped up and unlocked the third AI even though at that point, I had only played games at the "Primary" difficulty level.