Ascension: Card game for iPhone/iPad/paper

This is from 2010, so may be out of date.

I just dug up the info. Summary is that they had a rules error in a video, someone tried to post to their forum mentioning it, but the post was deleted.

The game's designer emailed them about the mistake and was told, 'we can't really spend too much time on games which have low retail value. We have now changed the way we do business and will review only the BIG games [their emphasis] which have at least a retail value of over $35. Since no one donates to the site, we have to sell the games to pay for the production of each video. even there [sic], we lost money'.

They also said that the videos weren't supposed to be tutorials - that's fine, my videos aren't either. However, I do boardgame reviews, I've done a podcast for three years and I know it's a pain in the arse to get stuff up online. But if there's an error in a show, you correct it.

It's a point of principle and one that, ideally, won't be related to money or effort.

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/6013...

Meh. After reading a few pages of that thread, it sure seems like another internet "tempest in a teapot" to me. I'm not going to say I agree with everything 100%, but as someone who has also done a podcast for four years and had to deal with people complaining about what I do and how I do it when I'm doing it for free (or at a loss), I empathize more with the producers than the consumers.

EDIT:

And that... really doesn't belong in this thread, I suppose. To get back to ASCENSION, I found this thread on BGG which discusses a few tips/pointers.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/...

Had my favorite game of all time against a random last night. In a Fedaykin-like move, he got the All-Seeing Eye on the third round and put it out on the fifth, so I figured that was probably game over right there. He kept hitting good cards and built up quite the Mechana horde. Meanwhile I was just plugging along trying to avoid a total blowout, and finally caught a lucky break.

The 7 health super monster appeared just before my turn, I killed that and used its "kill/acquire anything" reward to kill the 6 health monster that steals a card from your opponent. That swiped me his "Draw 3 cards" hero, and then I proceeded to snowball into The Turn By Which All Other Turns Shall Be Measured. Ginormous honor swing, sent all his constructs back into his deck, picked up some big value cards, and wound up beating him soundly a few rounds later.

Like all card games, when the cards go your way, it's tremendously satisfying

So I think I've got the hang of the AI now, and consistently beat it. Next challenge is the high score.
In a crazy game I managed to get 118 honour!

Mr Crinkle wrote:

Had my favorite game of all time against a random last night. In a Fedaykin-like move, he got the All-Seeing Eye on the third round and put it out on the fifth, so I figured that was probably game over right there. He kept hitting good cards and built up quite the Mechana horde. Meanwhile I was just plugging along trying to avoid a total blowout, and finally caught a lucky break.

The 7 health super monster appeared just before my turn, I killed that and used its "kill/acquire anything" reward to kill the 6 health monster that steals a card from your opponent. That swiped me his "Draw 3 cards" hero, and then I proceeded to snowball into The Turn By Which All Other Turns Shall Be Measured. Ginormous honor swing, sent all his constructs back into his deck, picked up some big value cards, and wound up beating him soundly a few rounds later.

Like all card games, when the cards go your way, it's tremendously satisfying :)

Where's the 'Like' button?

Torq wrote:

So I think I've got the hang of the AI now, and consistently beat it. Next challenge is the high score.
In a crazy game I managed to get 118 honour!

Didn't think beating 118 would be possible, but blew it out of the water:

IMAGE(http://desmond.yfrog.com/Himg740/scaled.php?tn=0&server=740&filename=vxv.png&xsize=640&ysize=640)

Torq wrote:
Torq wrote:

So I think I've got the hang of the AI now, and consistently beat it. Next challenge is the high score.
In a crazy game I managed to get 118 honour!

Didn't think beating 118 would be possible, but blew it out of the water:

IMAGE(http://desmond.yfrog.com/Himg740/scaled.php?tn=0&server=740&filename=vxv.png&xsize=640&ysize=640)

And this is why I am never playing you again

Crinkle - I have to say, I suspect the All-Seeing Eye is the best card in the game.

Torq - What difficulty are you doing your score attack on?

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Crinkle - I have to say, I suspect the All-Seeing Eye is the best card in the game.

Torq - What difficulty are you doing your score attack on?

Maximum for now: 2 bars. I'm assuming that the portrait of the AI has no bearing on it's skill or predilections for card types.

I think my favourite card is the Lifebound 7 cost who puts any hero on top of your deck.

My favorite is Lifebound Lycanthrope. He's not tremendously strong unless you're really lifebound heavy, but I really like him. Can't figure that one out.

The scoring in this game is definitely weird-- I ended the game against Crinkle with about 40 more points of honor, yet only ended up winning by 4 points after the cards were tallied up.

SommerMatt wrote:

The scoring in this game is definitely weird-- I ended the game against Crinkle with about 40 more points of honor, yet only ended up winning by 4 points after the cards were tallied up.

It is a strange interplay between game points and deck points; towards the end of the game, I just start buying points, especially once I know my deck won't recycle any more.

Fedaykin98 wrote:
SommerMatt wrote:

The scoring in this game is definitely weird-- I ended the game against Crinkle with about 40 more points of honor, yet only ended up winning by 4 points after the cards were tallied up.

It is a strange interplay between game points and deck points; towards the end of the game, I just start buying points, especially once I know my deck won't recycle any more.

Yeah, I figured that strategy out pretty quickly. I also tend to banish any high honor cards from the center row if I can as well. It's just kind of amazing to me how much things can totally swing points-wise. You really have no idea how things are going to end up.

Just heard about this game on the podcast and wanted to try it out.

However, the lite version seems to have disappeared from the app store, or is it just me?

There were comments on BoardGameGeek a few days back that indicated the same thing. Perhaps the Lite version was just a time-limited trial of the game that Incinerator Studios put out there to drum up interest?

(BTW, my Game Center ID is OzymandiasAV, if you want to play.)

I think removing the Lite version is a dumb move, though perhaps they feared too many people were happy with just playing the computer for free.

Btw, I just noticed that I can't invite friends to start a game - anyone else having this issue? Been doing it regularly, and today, can't.

Update: The devs are aware of the issue I just described, and anticipate it will be a quick fix. That said, they have been aware of it for most of today, so it's not "just reboot the server" quick.

And the problem was fixed about an hour after my last post. It may be obvious, but I'm still playing the shizz out of Ascension. I think because of the relatively low number of unique cards, this game needs expansions quickly. There's one out in the paper format, and I hope they bring out the next one for iOS soon. A new Magic set is generally over 300 cards, so it takes longer to learn everything. With this number of cards, it kind of feels like there aren't that many different things to see and do.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

And the problem was fixed about an hour after my last post. It may be obvious, but I'm still playing the shizz out of Ascension. I think because of the relatively low number of unique cards, this game needs expansions quickly. There's one out in the paper format, and I hope they bring out the next one for iOS soon. A new Magic set is generally over 300 cards, so it takes longer to learn everything. With this number of cards, it kind of feels like there aren't that many different things to see and do.

The new expansion does need to come soon, but unfortunately it only actually comes with 65 new cards.

I'm enjoying the game, although not as much as you. I kind of feel like there really aren't that many winning strategies involved in the game, and once you get down with the "buy the banish cards" philosophy, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot going on. Maybe I'll be crushed by an expert player, though, as I might be missing something. Doesn't feel like it, though.

I'm hoping they can stick with it long enough to figure it all out. The first Magic set was a far cry from modern sets. I think the mechanics of Ascension work very well, and it mainly needs more cards.

I finally got through the tutorial, and played a few games against the AI. I'm enjoying it, despite being a card game rookie.

I'm TheCounselor in Game Center, if you guys want to practice against a chump.

TheCounselor wrote:

I finally got through the tutorial, and played a few games against the AI. I'm enjoying it, despite being a card game rookie.

I'm TheCounselor in Game Center, if you guys want to practice against a chump.

The thing about Ascension is that the luck factor really balances things out between veterans/newbies. Are there strategies you're not going to know about? Sure, but even an "expert" player can't get the cards he wants when he wants them.

"sommermatt"

----
EDIT:

My basic strategy--

Early game, grab cards that "banish" cards from your hand. Discard as many Apprentice and Militia cards as you can. Replace them with Mystics and Heavy Infantry, or other cards that give you +2 to power or money.

I've heard rumors of people making these massive chains of constructs, but I've really yet to see it work out in play.

Mid/end game, start killing monsters and buying cards that give you the most honor. There are a few 6, 7, and 8 honor point cards, and those will most likely decide the winner at the end of the game. Keep trying to winnow down your hand; you want to be lean and mean and get your cards out as fast as possible

End game, stop banishing cards from your hand and focus on buying honor. If you can't afford the 6, 7, and 8 honor cards, consider banishing them so your opponent can't grab them.

Good luck. One thing that still drives me a little crazy is not knowing where you stand until you do the final tallying. You might be 40+ points ahead of your opponent in honor, yet lose because he squirreled away the Hedron Canon and other cards you were't paying attention to.

Speaking of Hedron Cannon, TheCounselor owned the sh17 out of me in what may have been his first multiplayer match. Good game, sir.

Buy cards that at least replace themselves. Cards that draw AND do something, or that draw multiples, are pure gold.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Speaking of Hedron Cannon, TheCounselor owned the sh17 out of me in what may have been his first multiplayer match. Good game, sir. ;)

It was my first. Chalk it up to beginner's luck.

Well, I finally got around to playing the lite version I picked up before it disappeared from the app store. Several hours later, it's 5am and my phone is drained dead. I'm thinking I'm into this enough that it's worth the 5 bucks, easy.

How are the dynamics when playing against more than one opponent? Is the multiplayer kind of a play your turn and send it along, and then when it's your turn again you get a push notification? I've not attempted the multiplayer thing in any iOS game yet. This might be what pushes me to finally decide on a gamecenter id.

Mutliplayer is asynchronous. You play your turn, and then wait to get notified of the next one. Ascension tells you whether the other person is online, though, which is nice if you can leave the app open and get a bunch of turns in a row done.

TheCounselor wrote:

Mutliplayer is asynchronous. You play your turn, and then wait to get notified of the next one. Ascension tells you whether the other person is online, though, which is nice if you can leave the app open and get a bunch of turns in a row done.

I'm finding that I'd about a thousand times rather play a game all at once than one turn here or there. Ascension is designed to be a relatively quick game, so you can knock off an entire round in like 10 minutes or so. It's not bad to play async, but you tend to forget what the heck you're doing when you get involved in a bunch of matches at once.

Whenever it's my turn, I click on my deck got see what cards I have, and that tells me what card I should buy. I have about 9 games going with different people who play at different rates.

TheCounselor wrote:

58 points

Me wrote:

58 points

Never seen a tie before.