I recently lost my deck of tactical objectives (again). This also coincided with the arrival of the tactical objectives app. I decided, "What the heck, lets buy this app and see how it works." The results were less than stelar.
Many aspects of the app are very convenient. The mission can be randomly selected or chosen from the list. This app also includes the rules for each mission, in the mission details, so you don't have to spend quite as much time flipping through your rulebook. Army specific objective decks can be purchased and unlocked, and the standard deck and cities of death deck come with the app for free.
How do we play this game again?
Once a game is started, all of your cards are displayed on screen, and can be enlarged for better reading. Cards can be scored or discarded and the app will keep track of your overall score. There are even three buttons at the top to score first blood, slay the warlord, and linebreaker.
I'm old, I can't read those tiny letters.
However, there are some serious shortcomings. There is an option to discard any card at any time, but there is not a similar option to draw a new card at any time. The only time new cards can be gained is at the beginning of a new turn. House rules about discarding and redrawing impossible objectives are right out. The tactical traits from the rulebook also cause serious problems with the app. Only two of the tactical traits can be used with the app.
But I need moar cardz!
The size of the app is also an issue. Unfortunately the app takes up way more space than it should. When it was first released the app took 2.1 gigs! Since then, through updates, the total storage has dropped to 1.1 gigs, but this still seems excessive.
Right now there are also not any controls for the sound, so all of the sound affects (the same for every action) happen at full volume. Yes, you can mute your phone, but this is an incredibly basic option that should be there as part of the app.
At the moment, there are some critical flaws in this app. I would not recommend that anyone spend their money until certain aspects are fixed. As I say that, I am very hopeful that these aspects do get fixed. I am not a programmer, but I feel like all of these issues could easily be fixed with a patch. If this app is something you are curious about, then I would check back with reviews and see if/when there is an update. The studio who created the app has mentioned that they are working on updates, but there does not seem to be any details as to what or when. I plan on keeping you all posted on this front. Hopefully this has been helpful, and you all exercise a bit more patience than I did.
How much does the app cost? Doesn't seem like it'd be worth a whole lot of money. In addition to the points you made I would like to see them make it so you can just straight up remove any cards you want from the deck before the game. I know plenty of people who just straight up pull some of the more niche cards out of the deck and only play with the "basic" cards that are applicable to most games. Also I have no idea what GW is doing making that app 1.1 gig. That's ridiculous. The fact they easily slashed 1 gig off the original size in a single patch tells you all you need to know about their development team. It's a card deck with pretty basic and limited customization. There is no reason it should take that much data.
ReplyDeleteThe app costs $6.99 USD. It isn't developed by GW, but by Derp Studios.
DeleteAfter spending a bit more time on their website, they did do a Q&A about some of the features that they would like to add. This includes the ability to redraw cards as well as mission timers. There is also talk of continuing to reduce the storage requirements.
Thanks for this review. To be honest I wasn't about to purchase the app anyway as I have all the objective cards for the factions I play, but it's nice to see someone do a review anyway. I can't help but feel this would have been better as a free app with army specific purchases. Hopefully it will get improved through feedback, but again I can understand why the developer hasn't allowed free discards and redraws since they'll have been working off GW spec, which doesn't allow that.
ReplyDeleteI am really excited about possible improvements. The current state of the app leaves me disappointed, but a few key fixes would changed the entire tone of my review.
DeleteYeah, I can see why the studio would want to develop the app consistent with the rules GW has. On the one hand it might make for a nice experience for people trying to follow the rules of a standard game.However, there should be a "sandbox" mode or option that allows you to do basically anything you want (discard, redraw, etc) for those who use house rules. That's the only way I would want the app - if I could treat it like a normal card deck and do pretty much anything I want with it.
DeleteI have some probability math request for you if you have time to crunch some numbers. I've been looking into demonkin and I'm looking for a durability calculation for the 'troop' unit types for the dex. Basically, if you bought MSU units of each and they were shot with bolters, what is the more point effective unit as far as durability goes.
ReplyDeletetroop units being bloodletters, cultists, bloodletters, and also berserkers are included in the base formation as well so I'd consider them troops.
DeleteI have another math article coming out in the next day or so, but this will be next on my list.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
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