Ascension: Card game for iPhone/iPad/paper

Zelos wrote:

I was hoping for a decent solo experience as my iPad is wifi-only.

Even if just wifi, feel free to friend me up if interested in some multi play. Most days I only ever do my moves in the morning and in the evening when I return home, so I'm sure most people who still play it wouldn't mind limited time that you'll make your turns (based on your wifi availability).

Go ahead and friend me (shoptroll in game center) as well. I mostly play asynch like demonbox.

EDIT: demonbox, I don't know what changed, but you seem to have settled into a nice winning streak against me again >:(

Don't worry, I'm sure it's fleeting and will pass soon enough

I play with maybe 8 people right now and I don't generally play during the day. Well worth the asynchronous experience.

I think this is my first post on this forum.

Came out from lurker status and added shoptroll on Ascension. I knew I'd get beaten (I assumed pretty badly) but I thought I did alright. I made a few huge mistakes in the last round. Combine that with shoptroll's Samael the fallen and I was destined to lose.

@shoptroll: Had a ton of fun and would play all night if I didn't have to get up early tomorrow. Looking forward to the rematch.

Edit: bigred07 in gamecenter if anyone wants to play

Friend requests sent! I hadn't realised the iPhone version was so playable, I can use that as well.

Zelos wrote:

Friend requests sent! I hadn't realised the iPhone version was so playable, I can use that as well.

What's your gamecenter handle? I'm bigred07 if you want to add me.

I'm really having trouble with my beginning game strategy. Any tips?

bigred wrote:

I'm really having trouble with my beginning game strategy. Any tips?

You want to filter out the Militia and Apprentices (I think that's the right names... too many deck building games use similar terms for starting troops) to grease your deck. That's one of the big things you want to do every game (I find it's slightly harder to do in the expansion due to the diluted card mix). Void Heroes (purple borders) are pretty good at this since they'll usually give you one of either resource and let you banish a card from hand or your discard pile. In general, you want to replace Militia/Apprecntice with better cards... Mystic and Heavy Infantry being the obvious upgrades but there are other heroes in the center area who are better than those.

In terms of what to buy... I usually play it by ear. If the table has a lot of monsters at the time, I'll invest more in military over "economy".

Constructs are usually good buys, especially mechana since those work well together and they're worth the highest amounts of VP.

demonbox wrote:
shoptroll wrote:
demonbox wrote:

I really love this game, even though the tide has turned for me. When I was around 50 games I was in a solid 50% ratio. That has slipped dramatically. I'm not sure if it's because now I understand the rules better so I'm trying to intellectualize more than simply go with gut, if it's just the ebb and flow of win-loss, or if it's because I picked up the expansion at about this time and it's completely thrown my game off a bit as I figure out the new way the world works. I suspect it's all three, with a bit of focus on the last option.

Still, loving the game.

I noticed I started winning against you a little more often lately. I think when I first started playing you it was the other way around. Not sure if that was before you started playing expansion games or not though.

thejustinbot wrote:

Now I know the sets well enough I I can just wing it towards one of 4-5 strategies depending on what is on the table. Though in general I'll admit straight up that the basis of all of them is card draw and sending crappy cards to the void.

I'm finding I have a lot more success lately if I focus on constructs. Not necessarily for their effects, but they usually are some of the higher VP cards in the deck so they're usually worth going out of the way for. Also, they self-filter out of the deck until you're forced to discard which doesn't really slow down a deck that much.

If it looks like the center is streaking Life cards I'll start paying attention to those, but I usually don't get Life cards until I have something that gets me a bonus for them. Although the Raven is usually worth getting early on since it's so easy to guess Apprentice and walk away with 3 VP most of the time.

Otherwise, generally using Void cards to weed out the starting types works well along.

The tide has definitely turned.

Also I had my second game (can't recall who competitors were) where the scores were completely tied but I lost. I'm guessing it defaults to # of cards if the scores are otherwise tied. That seems a bit lame.

In case of a tie, the second player wins. I'm not sure how that works in >2 player games, but I would assume it's the player with the latest start.

I suck in >2 player games. I'm 1-9 in anything that's not two player.

bigred wrote:

I'm really having trouble with my beginning game strategy. Any tips?

Prioritize cards that will let you banish cards from your hand. Apprentices and Militia aren't worth any points, and you should try to replace as many of them as possible. If you can't do that, prioritize cycling cards - either ones that allow you to draw more cards or that let you discard to draw. Don't try to do both Power and Runes at the beginning - pick one for the first few turns.

I'm MNGwinn if anyone's looking for another person to play with.

shoptroll wrote:

Mystic and Heavy Infantry being the obvious upgrades but there are other heroes in the center area who are better than those.

I would consider almost everything in the center to be better than mystics and heavy infantry. I'll only buy mystics and heavy infantry if there is literally no other choice, and I avoid the one card that gives you free mystics (the sensei?)

Demyx wrote:

I avoid the one card that gives you free mystics (the sensei?)

Yet you'll gladly take the free Mystic from Stonehenge :p

Only because it's come up early in recent games! Mystics are okay early. Later, I've even banished them.

Demyx wrote:
shoptroll wrote:

Mystic and Heavy Infantry being the obvious upgrades but there are other heroes in the center area who are better than those.

I would consider almost everything in the center to be better than mystics and heavy infantry. I'll only buy mystics and heavy infantry if there is literally no other choice, and I avoid the one card that gives you free mystics (the sensei?)

For me, on the first couple of turns, I only take from the center if it will give me the equivalent to a mystic or sentry. If it is a construct that doesn't help early game and doesn't provide me with any money ( whatever it is called in the game ) , I'd rather get some extra mystics to be able to buy better things

Demyx wrote:

Later, I've even banished them.

I don't think there's any problem with that as a strategy. I've trashed Silver in Dominion once I have enough of a Gold based economy. That's one of the key things in this genre: knowing what to buy and what/when to trash stuff.

bigred wrote:
Zelos wrote:

Friend requests sent! I hadn't realised the iPhone version was so playable, I can use that as well.

What's your gamecenter handle? I'm bigred07 if you want to add me.

I'm zelos79 on gamecenter, I'd be glad to play some games with Goodjers. Just started a game with shoptroll, now I just have to remember to charge my phone up.

Fedaykin had quite the round against me earlier today. I think he must have drawn 5+ cards.

The sensei's great. Banishing, plus free runes in the early game, and the ability to swap heavy infantry and mystics back and forth in the later game. Plus, you can turn Deathseekers into Heavy Infantry for the honor.

Two other things that tie into early game play:

You don't need to play all of your cards. They'll be discarded, sure, but you don't have to put them down and show your opponent what they were. So, in the early game, where the second round's hand is completely determined by the first round's hand, holding on to any cards you're not directly using stops your opponent from knowing what your next hand is.

Because you're both drafting from the same pool of cards, who reveals the next card is important. It's especially important if you're not in a position to take what's coming up. Be careful about creating opportunities for your opponent.

Sigh, lost to fedaykin 80-77

ChrisGwinn wrote:

Banishing, plus free runes in the early game

Plus, you can turn Deathseekers into Heavy Infantry for the honor.

Yup. That's why I love it.

The ability to swap heavy infantry and mystics back and forth in the later game.

I haven't tried that yet, but it's a great point. I have picked up two sensei's in a game and end up converting one of the two into mystic/infantry depending on the need once I'm done upgrading the basics.

I was on a high last night after getting a few wins against fellow goodjers only to be completely abused by a 30 and change loss to ChrissGwinn. I'm hoping some of that can be attributed to card variance but there is certainly a lot to be learned from Chris. Every card was played carefully and precise. It was like the equivalent of watching a skilled marksmen slowly pick off target after target without a miss while the rest of us run around with shotguns shooting anything and everything hoping to hit something.

I've.. uh.. played a lot of Ascension.

Just acquired Samael the fallen very, very early in a 4 way match. SHIPIT

bigred wrote:

Just acquired Samael the fallen very, very early in a 4 way match. SHIPIT

He's not that much a win-game button though I've grabbed him in two recent games and still ended up losing by a small margin.

shoptroll wrote:
bigred wrote:

Just acquired Samael the fallen very, very early in a 4 way match. SHIPIT

He's not that much a win-game button though I've grabbed him in two recent games and still ended up losing by a small margin.

Yeah. I won one of those when you grabbed him mid to late game. It doesn't make as much of an impact in a longer 1v1 game if the board doesn't go your way. However, in a 4 way game I think it's a much quicker honor run and an early Samael is a great way to rise above the competition.

A comprehensive defeat by bigred in my first game online (and first game with ROTF installed). Good game, and I like the expansion too. Time for a rematch!

And now I'm in a terrible slump and getting my ass handed to me. A lack of culling cards when your opponent has them is bad.

ChrisGwinn wrote:

Two other things that tie into early game play:

You don't need to play all of your cards. They'll be discarded, sure, but you don't have to put them down and show your opponent what they were. So, in the early game, where the second round's hand is completely determined by the first round's hand, holding on to any cards you're not directly using stops your opponent from knowing what your next hand is.

Because you're both drafting from the same pool of cards, who reveals the next card is important. It's especially important if you're not in a position to take what's coming up. Be careful about creating opportunities for your opponent.

This post plus a nice card run has had me winning frequently today. Thinking about every card I play down, the next steps, what my opponent will have access to, etc instead of hitting the play all button has had a huge impact on my game.

Just in case, I would like to apologize for not being as fast as others I tend to only take my turns at night, and sometimes I can only squeeze in a couple. I also don't tend to use my iPad a lot on the weekends because of other things I'm doing, but I still try. This is why a 14 day game works best with me