That’s right! Carcassonne for the iPhone and iPad is finally getting expansions that can be bought as in-game downloadable content. The two expansions that have been released are The River and Inns & Cathedrals.
The River adds 12 tiles that are played at the start of the game, creating a river that divides the land. It’s priced at 99 cents.
Inns & Cathedrals adds 18 tiles, some of which have an inn or a cathedral on them. Inns can double the value of completed roads they touch, while cathedrals add an extra point for each tile that makes up a city. It’s priced at $1.99.
In my opinion, both of these expansions are worth the price. If they’d just release Traders & Builders I’d be a happy man.
On May 19th, 2011 Days of Wonder released Ticket to Ride for the iPad. As a longtime Ticket to Ride fan I have been using it for nearly a month and have been generally pleased with my purchase.
First, the App is a recommended buy. I love Ticket to Ride and enjoy playing it on the iPad. Unfortunately, you have to either play Solo or Online since this is not a multi-player game except through the online version. Unlike Smallworld which allows the game to be played between to people face to face, this version of Ticket to Ride does not allow two or more people to play from the same machine.
The downside is that you get bored playing the bots, which do not have different levels of skill, which means once you figure out their patterns you can consistently win.
The upside is the iPad Ticket to Ride App integrates with the Days of Wonder online version seamlessly. This grants you access to thousands of online players who have been using the web interface. And the skill level of the online users can be very challenging.
The app interface is rather obscure for navigation. You have to negotiate a train station interface, guessing at what things are, until you become familiar with the app layout. Once into a game, things are very clear and easy to understand if you have played the game before. There are tutorials and instructions located in parts of the Train Station that you can hunt down and study to learn to play. They are all fairly clear except the use of Depots in the European version. I even know how to play the game and was still slightly confused about how to use them.
There still appear to be a few bugs in the game. I had some cards freeze on the screen. I could still play but had a pink rail card stuck over NYC, preventing me from seeing below it. I have also had the draw deck disappear, preventing me from selecting a second card. On several occasions the game has crashed, kicking me out and restarting from the beginning, losing my game in progress.
All of these bugs are fairly minor and infrequent and should disappear over time. I never have had it crash during an Online game, only against bots.
The game play is very fast, especially when playing bots. Even in Online mode, the games move along quickly, making it possible to play a 20 minute game with four players.
In game purchasing allows you to expand to the European map, Swiss map, as well as the 1910 expansions for Mega-cities, Big Cities and 1910 classic.
This app is very similar to the online version that you may have already paid for, but the convenience of using the iPad to instantly connect and begin playing is worth the cost.