Caracassonne by TheCodingMonkeys is a delightful adaptation of one of the most beloved and critically acclaimed board games of our generation. If you haven’t yet tried it for iOS, the graphics are rather faithful, no flash here, but it’s great to have the CPU do the tallying for you.
In fact, if you have never played the game, let me assure you that this will become your new go-to addiction on your iPad or other mobile device, a worthy port of a tabletop game as successfully wrought as the electronic versions of Ticket to Ride and Settlers of Catan. Even after three years, there is a vibrant online community, and an online matchup with players from around the world is never more than 90 seconds away.
The game features robust online global leaderboards and in-game chat, and in an hour I played against opponents from Korea, France and Spain. All were friendly and welcoming.
The music in the game is still much too repetitive, but at least it sounds like an instrumental by Nick Drake.
Breath of Fire
There are already three expansion available – “The River”, “Inns and Cathedrals” and “Traders and Builders” – but TheCodingMonkeys have now announced a community-selected fourth expansion – “Dragon and Princess.”
“It was challenging to develop, as there are quite a few new rules and game mechanics in it. In any case, we feel it was quite worth the effort, as the game breathes new life with these additions. Also, it breathes fire now, on occasions.”
In the new expansion, you get Meeple-eating Dragons that live in Volcanoes. They manifest as soon as you place a Volcano tile on the map, poised and ready to wreak havoc on your once mellow land-control affairs.
Magic Portals are another element introduced, which function as teleportation spells for your Meeps, and lastly a magical Fairy that appears when you opt out of placing a Meeple – granting you a wish – perhaps protection against Dragon’s breath, bonus points or increased scores for landmarks.
Overall the expansion adds 30 new tiles which will certainly ramp up the action for those who have been playing the vanilla version.
The expansion will be available a week before Christmas 2013 as an IAP.
To sweeten the deal, Carcassonne for iOS is on sale for a limited time for the first time in its 3-year history, only through the December 17th, 2013.
