Age of Rivals comes to mobile this week

Front Page Discussion
#1

Originally published at: http://statelyplay.com/2017/06/19/age-of-rivals-comes-to-mobile-this-week/

iOS, Android, PC/Mac •


Remember Age of Rivals? We talked about it back in March and its mashup of civ-builder and CCG gave us all sorts of warm and fuzzies when we played in on our laptop. For those of you who prefer to do your gaming on the go, you’re in for a treat, because Age of Rivals is coming to mobile this Thursday.

Age of Rivals is an original CCG that completely eschews the standard CCG model by ditching the concept of random boosters. You’ll find no IAP in Age of Rivals, instead all cards are unlocked as you play meaning you’ll eventually get all the cards, and never have to worry about picking up a crappy card that you already own three copies of.

While we love Age of Rivals’ lack of IAP, what really makes the game shine is its gameplay. The main mechanism is drafting. Each player is dealt four cards, picks one, and hands the remaining cards to your opponent. Do you take a card you really need or steal a card that doesn’t help you, but would really help out your opponent? It’s the same mechanism popularized by games like 7 Wonders and Fairy Tale, and it’s a good one.

Cards are then played to a tableau where they’ll interact to bring your civilization wealth, resources, military might and more. The game has leaders, conquest, economics, and is way deeper than you might think when you take a look at the screenshots. Despite the depth and complexity, you can still finish a game in under 10 minutes.

I haven’t played this one as much as I’d like, but only because it’s on my laptop. This might shock you, but I prefer to game on my tablet and phone, so this will be an immediate pick up for me when it lands on iOS and Android this Thursday. Another incentive for a quick buy is its special launch price. Age of Rivals will go live on mobile this Thursday and cost only $1. That’s a ridiculous price for the amount of game you’re getting so don’t delay in grabbing this one when it launches.

https://youtu.be/S2WhRlh2tqI
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#2

Ever since I first picked up the Pokemon TCG on some early GameBoy, I have loved games that give me the CCG experience without asking me to buy anything past the base game. They are few and far between and I think the last I played was Card City Nights. This alone will likely make this a day-one buy for me.

What’s the word on multiplayer?

#3

There will be cross-platform multiplayer. Steam currently has multiplayer including private matches with friends, ranked public matches, and “Player alliances” which I don’t really understand.

I’m pretty sure the games are real-time, but that’s pretty much the standard for CCGs. The game plays quick and the card drafting would make asynchronous play seem a bit strange.

That said, I haven’t tried multiplayer so maybe it is async and we’ll all be surprised?

#4

Been looking forward to this one. I’ve had it on my steam wish list, but I generally don’t pick things up on PC if I know they are coming to iOS. But the price is so cheap, if the PC version is in the Steam Summer Sale, maybe I will grab both.

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#5

Multiplayer is definitely live play. Matches only take about 5 minutes or so though. Plays out quicker than Hearthstone or really any other multiplayer digital card game.

The AI is fairly competent as well, and theres a few campaign style “special rules” matches that need to be completed to unlock some of the cards.

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#6

Age of Rivals is out on US App Store. It’s only $0.99 at the moment as well. I watched a few YouTube videos of the PC version. This was an instant buy for me.

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#7

$0.99… I’ll bite.

1 Like
#8

I’m really diggin this game. It’s got the empire building aspects that I like about Race for the Galaxy, while also having an interesting draft mechanic. You draw four cards, choose one, swap hands with your opponent, and choose one of theirs. This repeats 4 or 8 times (depending on the round) per round, with a few war and score phases between the start of another. The cards are anything from resources, infantry, defensive walls, cultural wonders, etc.

The game looks like it’s got IAPs but it doesn’t. What I mean by this, is you unlock cards by earning gold for random packs. Although I don’t think you get repeats for anything but identities, as it just unlocks the cards and upgrades identities. You get 15 gold for an AI win, 30 for a human win, and you always have 3 quests that are super easy to beat, they’ve just been play or win 1 or 2 games so far. The quests fill in with a new one when you repeat, so it’s not a daily or anything like that. All in all, very generous with the gold as its just a way to gate off some cards so you’re not super overwhelmed with new cards in your first few games.

There is no deck building either. Cards are randomly chosen from your collection of unlocked cards at the beginning of the game to make your deck.

I’m having a blast with it so far. I’ve played 3 games online already. They’re pretty quick, but extremely dense with interesting decisions imo.

I also started an empire for us. It’s called StatelyPlayCoalition. Basically it’s a guild in-game. We can all try to complete some empire wide quests, and we get some bonus gold every day for being in one. Join up. This game is definitely worth $0.99, and I’d easily pay $9.99 for it.

Let me know if you guys have any questions.

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#9

I’ve played only a couple of AI games so far but really enjoy what I’ve seen. The ability to unlock all the cards eventually is a big plus. My biggest issue with Hearthstone was I felt I was at a serious disadvantage against players who put more money into the game.

I feel like I’m stealing from the developer paying only $1 for this game. Hope they add more content later.

#10

Played through the tutorial, thought I had a handle on things, and got promptly trounced by the Normal AI. I’m enjoying it so far though - I’m assuming it syncs across devices? Requested membership to the Empire as well, hopefully we can get some friendly games going once people get up to speed on it.

edit: Just beat the normal AI twice. This game is getting moved to the first page of my games folder, and I have to admit it’s pretty damn playable on my iPhone 6. There were some people up in arms on TouchArcarde over the required internet connection, but it doesn’t bother me other than the fact that I’ll play on my phone at work versus the iPad #toolazytotether

#11

Yes, it’s an easy sync across devices since you have to register with a username and password. Just login on a second device and you’re good to go.

#12

Should work, I carried my account over from Steam to the Android version.

#13

I tried to add you to the empire, but it said you were already part of another empire. Try again, and I’ll see if it works this time.

Some tips for strategy are buy resources early. You get money every time your opponent buys a card that uses a resource that you have but they don’t. I think stone and wood are two very important resources to get. Most of the early cards use them. Make sure you’re getting enough coin income for the later rounds, especially round 4 when you have to repurchase your cards for the final empire.

Don’t forget to get some army cards as well. The tutorial stresses that numbers are more important than strength. That’s 100% true. If you have three 1 strength guys and he has one 9 strength guy, you will get 5 points and he will get 1 after the conquer phase.

You can also set some guaranteed cards to come in your deck for each of the rivals (identities you can choose) on the main screen. You can probably only choose 1 at the moment, but the different rivals allow you to bring in different combinations of types of cards. Most importantly, they are changeable. Just tap on the card in the rival screen, and you can choose something else. I originally thought they were set in stone, but they’re not.

Also I was wrong about guild quests, those on the empire screen are just your quests. You do get bonus gold though.

I’m really, reallly liking this game if you guys can’t tell.

#14

My fault - didn’t realize you could only join one alliance and I clicked on TA as well. I’m a free agent now, requested it again.

#15

You’re in. Picked you up off the waivers list.

The hard AI on this game is hard. I’ve won 3 online games out of four and 0 against the hard AI. Just got stomped 111-74 by it.

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#16

OK, I’m in :smiley_cat: Did request membership of the alliance.

#17

Think I’m 1-1 vs hard. Might be 1-2.

I just sent a join request, but if multiplayer is required to contribute, please decline. I’m only going to play vs ai.

#18

Just curious, but why not play “vs. Anyone”? There’s literally no difference, only you get more gold. There is zero interaction outside of occasional simple emotes ala Hearthstone. Every game’s cards are pulled from both collections, so you won’t be at a disadvantage card wise either.

You do only contribute to the empire if you win one game vs. Anyone. If you’re sure you won’t play versus humans, I won’t add you, but you might want to give it a try before I decline your request.

#19

Just beat the hard AI, but only by one point, 81-80. It had me pretty well beaten the entire game, but my cash reserve carried the game, thankfully. Lost twice to “anyones” but I’ll earn my keep in the empire before the day is out…

#20

Because I don’t have to worry about being interrupted in the middle of a game, for one thing.