War Room Review

Well after many months of delays, Privateer Press's War Room app was finally released yesterday. I had high hopes for this app, given the high quality of everything else Privateer Press releases. However, I was extremely disappointed in the end result. First off, it's extremely buggy. If I found 5 bugs in the first two minutes I used the app, some of them major ones, then this app was simply not tested properly. Not even close. There are some glaring bugs that prevent use in a majority of situations:

• jack marshals don't work
• it only works over Wi-Fi, not 3G/4G
• purchases made on one device are not showing up others
• many devices simply won't run the app (the most popular Android devices)
• cards can't even be purchased on the Kindle Fire
• some cards (warlocks) simply don't show up in the list, intermittently
• a lot of the card data is outright incorrect, especially Field Allowances
• some cards are missing (the Lightning Pods for the Stormwall, for example)
• many of the buttons do not work the first time you tap them, and instead require you to keep trying several times before they work
• if you create a new account, and your chosen password doesn't match the verification, it displays your password in plain text
• there are rumors, though I can't confirm, that your password is transmitted in plain text without encryption each time you login.
• on many devices, the entire "W" section of the rules reference is not working
• there is no way to change your account password, except for clicking the "Forgot Password" link. Unfortunately, that link does not work either, as it never sends the reset password email.

In addition to the numerous bugs, which may eventually be fixed, there are design decisions that likely will not be fixed that are problematic:

• the app requires you to log in each time you run it
• the faction logos do not display the name of the faction - this is a problem for newbies
• some card scroll, which not only makes them seem less like real cards, but there is also no indication that there is more text available that you can scroll to see
• native UI elements are missing, for example you can't simply swipe right/left to delete something on iOS. You can't use the physical back button on Android. The entire UI looks like it was optimized for keyboard/mouse rather than a touch screen. This is because rather than develop a native app for each device, Tinkerhouse Games opted to use the Unity Framework, which was designed for gaming and not this type of app in the first place.
• This choice of Unity also impacts the quality of fonts, as they are blurry (scaled) in several places.
• Mercenary contracts and Minion pacts are not supported
• Theme forces are not validated
• Lists are not validated for point cost or for valid models
• UA's can be chosen without the unit, or can be attached to other units
• Lists are not filtered based on available points left
• Mercenaries and Minions can be added to factions that they can't work with
• the device limit is only TWO devices. In order to authorize/deauthorize devices, you have to deauthorize all of them. You can't do it to just one device. Their website shows which devices are currently authorized by a random unique number, so you can't tell which is which.
• you can't track status in a real game against someone else using the same account. So if I want to play a game against my son, I would have to buy the decks twice. This is ridiculous, as we are using different factions and are not duplicating any cards between us.

And this list is just what I've noticed during a brief use of less than 30 minutes. In the Privateer Press forums, there are many more reported issues. I emailed Tinkerhouse Games asking for a refund, but only received a form email stating they were working on getting the Android version fixed and that they hoped my issues would be fixed soon. I'm not happy with this app, especially given that it costs $60 to get the full deck. Overall, it was developed in a very amateurish fashion. Steer clear.

UPDATE: Thank you to Apple Support, for giving me a full refund less than 30 minutes after I emailed them. My two emails to Tinkerhouse Games, plus several posts on the forums, had no effect.

Force Wars Teaser

Just a quick teaser...we are working on a complete ruleset for a Star Wars tabletop miniatures wargame, called "Force Wars". Obviously, due to Star Wars being a licensed property, these rules will be available completely for free. The rules are heavily based on Warmachine and Hordes mechanics, with some tweaks here and there to accommodate Star Wars. They are intended to be played with the Star Wars Miniatures figures from Wizards of the Coast (now out of print, unfortunately). I'll keep you posted with details as it progresses, and post the final rules for download on this site.

Warmachine/Hordes Journeyman League

For the past few weekends, my son and I have been participating in the Warmachine/Hordes Journeyman League, over at Tenth Planet Comics & Games. We figured it would be a good way for us to learn the game and to ease into building up an army.

My son is playing a Warmachine faction, Cygnar. They are classic steampunk combined with arcane magic. I chose a Hordes faction, Legion of Everblight. Think of them as undead mutations of a dragon. So far we've been having a blast learning a lot about the game. Currently we've grown each of our armies from the base Battle Box, to 15 points, to 25, and finally to 35. Now it's time to catch up painting them all. My goal is to buy no more models until all of the ones we have are painted.

But as a preview, here are the first two paint jobs, all completed. The one on the left is a Carnivean, from the Legion of Everblight, while the one on the right is the Ironclad, from Cygnar.

My Intro to the World of Warmachine and Hordes

Yesterday, I played my first miniature war game. I was introduced to Hordes by a friend of mine (thanks Brian, and thanks to Tenth Planet Games and Comics for hosting us, you guys are awesome!)

For those that aren't familiar with it, the world of Warmachine has sort of a steampunk/fantasy theme. Hordes takes place in the same world, but focuses more on the fantasy aspect. The two games are compatible, and you can mix factions from each in the same game, though the rules are slightly different for each. We played a small, purely Hordes game as an introduction to the basic rules. Judging by the size of the rule book, there were quite a few rules that we left out in our first play.

I liked the idea behind wargaming. It's liberating from the strict confines of traditional board games. I understand how some people could be turned off by having to use measuring tape to measure movement and range, but it also opens up all sorts of possibilities that are simply not possible in other types of games. Of course, with this newfound freedom also comes responsibility. The game is more difficult to master, and thus requires more careful planning of strategies and a greater level of understanding of the rules, each unit, and how they synergize.

To me, it seemed like a nice waypoint between a tactical miniatures game (like Dust Tactics or Earth Reborn) and an RPG. I do find it interesting that most RPGs have miniature skirmish rules more akin to a tactical miniatures game than a full-fledged wargame. For a class of games that defines itself on the ability to allow players to do anything they want, I would think wargaming mechanics would've been the way to go.

For Hordes in particular, I felt it was a solid game. The rules are detailed enough to allow a lot of flexibility, but not so overly complicated that one can't learn them with a reasonable amount of effort. After a couple of hours of play, even my 9 year old son grasped most of rules (at least the subset we were using). There are also enough unique elements so that it doesn't just feel like a thematically re-skinned version of another game. I particularly liked the three aspects to a unit's health - body, mind, and spirit. It adds a fun and variable element to the game.

The only thing left to do now is to decide which faction I want to buy. And, of course, which faction to buy for my son, too!

Dark Tower Lives!

I'm so excited! Back in 1981, Milton Bradley (now owned by Hasbro) released a board game called Dark Tower. I was 9 at the time, but around the time I was 10-11, I got this game for Christmas. It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen! The board was circular and had 3-D plastic buildings that snapped into it, 3-D keys, flags, and even a miniature plastic dragon. That in itself was unusual for a mainstream board game at the time, but the kicker was the huge dark tower (get it?) in the center of the board. The tower was electronic and took care of movement, combat, exploration, you name it. Keep in mind, this was before the era of amazing computer games. This board game may has well have been from the future as far as I was concerned. I played it all the time.

I don't remember what happened to it, but at some point it disappeared. I suppose my parents either threw it out or sold it at some point. When I got back into board games a few years ago, I entertained the idea of buying a used copy of this game, but it is very hard to find. And when you do find it, it sells for $200-300. And I'm not even sure if the electronics would still work after all this time. And, in all honesty, the game may not be as fun as I remember and that's not something I wanted to come to terms with after forking over $300.

Then tonight I stumbled across a free online version of the game at the Well of Souls Dark Tower Fan Page. I'm off to try it out, and at least this way if it turns out not to be as fun as it was almost 30 years ago, it won't have cost me anything.

For those that are interested, here's a direct link to the Flash version at Well of Souls: Dark Tower Online Flash Version.

Halloween Heroscape

Just in time for Halloween, I posted pictures of a custom Halloween Set my son and I made for Heroscape, about 4 to 5 years ago. It's over on our customizing blog, Droid Factory Customs.

New Domain Name

I now have a dedicated domain name for this blog. You can reach it directly at www.tacticalmeeples.com. The old URL will continue to work, so nothing should (hopefully) break.