Originally published at: http://statelyplay.com/2017/10/11/from-the-news-you-already-know-file-both-smash-up-and-cottage-garden-due-tomorrow/
iOS, Android, PC/Mac •
Although I’ve been diagnosed with chronic depression since I was eight years-old, it still sneaks up on me sometimes. Yesterday was just such a day. It started like any other, but quickly turned into a muddy mess which ended up with me laying in bed and staring at the ceiling instead of plucking away at my keyboard. Sorry about that, everyone. I’ve been working to ensure it doesn’t happen very often (or, hopefully, ever) but things change and I’m not quite there yet. That said, it will not be a regular occurrence.
Of course, big news always seems to pop up when I’m not around. For example, yesterday’s posts should have been announcing two big stories, both of which you’ve, by now, probably heard. If you haven’t, however, tomorrow is going to be a big day for board game ports as both Smash Up and Cottage Garden are set to arrive on the App Store.
Smash Up is a light card game created for tabletop by AEG and developed for digital by Nomad Games. Yes, that Nomad Games. It’s published by Asmodee Digital, but they seem to publish about 98.7% of all apps nowadays, so we’ll forgive you for not acting surprised.
The game involves mixing two of the game’s nine factions into one deck with the sole purpose being blowing up thine enemies to tiny bits [in thy mercy -ed.]. Each faction has a specialty. For example, pirates are adept at moving cards while zombies can bring dead cards back from the discard pile. Fun ensues via these combinations and discovering how each faction can compliment the other.
Smash Up will be released for iOS, Android, and PC/Mac tomorrow. There will be cross-platform multiplayer but, considering it’s Nomad and Asmodee, I wouldn’t expect to see asynchronous play. Who knows, maybe they’ll surprise us. If online play isn’t for you, there’s the obligatory solo play vs. AI as well.
The game will ship with nine factions, but the cardboard version has expanded more than my elastic waistband. Considering Nomad’s experience in cranking out a myriad of expansions for Talisman, I think it’s safe to say that the original nine factions will be supplemented with expansion factions fairly quickly.
The other title is another euro game from Uwe Rosenberg of Agricola and Patchwork fame. It’s called Cottage Garden and is developed AND published by DIGIDICED. Take that, Asmodee!
Cottage Garden is another Rosenberg game with a pastoral bent that would seem to be the most boring theme ever considered. We had bean farming with Bohnanza, farming and raising a family in Agricola, animal husbandry with Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small, and cave farming (seriously) in Caverna. Let’s not forget quilting in Patchwork. These themes make the monastery-buliding theme of Ora et Labora seem like PUBG.
In Cottage Garden, you’re gardening. Competitive gardening, apparently. Up to four players will plant and grow flowers printed on Tetris-shaped pieces, trying to maximize points based on what that current plot scores. If it sounds a little like Patchwork, you’d be correct. I haven’t played Cottage Garden yet, but everything I’ve heard makes it sound like Patchwork-Lite.
Still, it’s a Rosenberg game and DIGIDICED does a heck of a job with their apps, including asynchronous, cross-platform online multiplayer. It also has 3 differnt AIs for lonely shut-ins, the friendless, and editors of middling game blogs that begin with the initials “S” and “P”. It also has playback of previous games so you can sit back and watch exactly how you screwed the pooch in that last game.
Cottage Garden is coming tomorrow for both iOS, Android, as well as PC/Mac.