Hrmm interesting, not sure if I trust this rumour but I guess we will see. I'm holding out for a February New Years.

I have the core sey sitting in my closet waiting for the app to buy more.

My group has been playing Descent with the app for the past couple of months and are loving it. At this point I just drop by the forums every 3 months or so looking for news on this app because we cannot wait to make the transition to IA instead of Descent.

Please FFG. This app cannot come soon enough.

Just a little addition here, I frequent the Descent and MoM boards as I play both of those games as well and the rumblings in both communities is that they all believe the delay in their own games app releases is due to the app team working on IA.

It's gone very quiet for Descent and before this last expansion MoM had been in the dark for quite a while. I still say the switch in release for IA to the one big box and off months means the app is coming for Christmas. Get ready! And buy your stuff early, because if you are waiting for the app to release to buy product you will be very disappointed, it's already tough to find some of the older stuff and when the app is announced IA and all its expansions will be sold out.

@FrogTrigger - I hope you're right

Well Descent appears to be a done game. They have refocused everything on Runewars. Descent development stopped when Runewars development began. MoM had a bunch of stuff come out all at once, which would have all been preplanned and developed before the 2nd ed hit the shelves. The new expansion merely means they sold enough to justify continued development of that game.

If you look at the careers web page for FFG, other than them opening up some kind of food service in their games center, they are looking for someone to over see video game development with 3rd parties. Nothing about app development anymore. They may have giving up doing most of this stuff in house and are contracting it out to 3rd parties. So how much the different projects are linked I am not sure. I do hope they continue support of the Descent app even if the game is now done.

They also want to hire a quality assurance tester. Lets hope they get someone good and all the typos go away.

I'm definitely hoping for the best on this. After playing Descent and Mansions of Madness with their respective apps, my group refuses to play Imperial Assault any other way, which is too bad since I've got everything painted up and begging to be played.

13 hours ago, Mep said:

Well Descent appears to be a done game. They have refocused everything on Runewars. Descent development stopped when Runewars development began. MoM had a bunch of stuff come out all at once, which would have all been preplanned and developed before the 2nd ed hit the shelves. The new expansion merely means they sold enough to justify continued development of that game.

They released the new app campaign since then, didn't they? I think you're probably right about the physical content, though - they'll probably just keep going with apps for the different expansions.

I highly doubt they give up on Descent after a year of the app being out and it sky rocketing their sales and popularity of the game. Invest all those resources, see a spike in sales, then give up? Nope.

The last campaign was centered around a big box expansion, Shadows of Nerekhall (which is an AMAZING campaign btw, Kindred Fire was great but this is like levels above that, I'm glad MoM and RTL are helping stretch their legs before the IA app ), so I imagine the next one will do the same. They still have Labyrinth of Ruin for big box and 5 more small boxes (the last 2 small boxes actually bridge for a larger campaign). So they still have a lot of physical content to get through before they run out.

For all the available questions and scenarios available with the game they put a TON of work into it so it is no surprise that the release afterwards would be a slow trickle.

19 hours ago, Mep said:

If you look at the careers web page for FFG, other than them opening up some kind of food service in their games center, they are looking for someone to over see video game development with 3rd parties. Nothing about app development anymore. They may have giving up doing most of this stuff in house and are contracting it out to 3rd parties. So how much the different projects are linked I am not sure. I do hope they continue support of the Descent app even if the game is now done.

Or, you know, they hired everyone they needed to.

@ManateeX Yes, the physical game. Runewars has no app.

@FrogTrigger I hope they continue to do more apps for Descent. They stopped releasing physical content a year ago. Of course after Runewars is set, they may go back and release another expansion.

@ArbitraryNerd If they are hiring someone to coordinate with 3rd party video game developers clearly they aren't able to do everything they need to do in house. Apps are hot right now and getting good people to work on them, especially in MN, is hard. Getting good people to work on them cheaply, well that happens out of country and needs a coordinator.

So, I don't know anything about Descent or it's App. Can someone who has played the Descent App and Imperial Assault explain how the app would work if functionally similar to the Descent App?

Do you still setup the physical board and make moves, attack etc - then log the moves, tally the damage on to the figures on the app itself? Is the app basically a mirror of what the physical board has? I am assuming the app is the IP and it would make decisions as to who to attack, where to move etc. Then you would move the figures on the physical board to match what the app did. Also are dice still rolled?

Or is the app a replacement for the board and campaign guide? I could see the app potentially having voice overs or small clips to explain the scenarios after campaign events trigger?

thanks all!

We can be pretty certain the App won't be an electronic version of the game. That would cause immense problems with the SW electronic game license holder EA.

So, you should still have the physical components to play the game. I'm not sure if you can use the current missions as-is (preferable), or does FFG need to adapt them to be used with the app.

I have not played the Descent app, but I have played Mansions of Madness 2nd ed. The app should work quite a bit differently than the MoM app though.

3 hours ago, a1bert said:

We can be pretty certain the App won't be an electronic version of the game. That would cause immense problems with the SW electronic game license holder EA.

So, you should still have the physical components to play the game. I'm not sure if you can use the current missions as-is (preferable), or does FFG need to adapt them to be used with the app.

I have not played the Descent app, but I have played Mansions of Madness 2nd ed. The app should work quite a bit differently than the MoM app though.

Not different at all. I doubt they will adapt the missions, there will likely be new missions and a new campaign which will make use of the components you have. Similarly to Mansions of Madness, it will likely have alternate layouts of the missions to use different tile sets. And also similar to Mansions of Madness, it will simply tell you where to place figures initially, and then instruct you to move them based on conditions but will not actually track anything on the board, that will be up to the players with the actual board. Finally, the Imperial classes and Agendas will likely fall away in lieu of random or triggered events. There's a good chance the game will also be adapted to allow for 5 player co-op.

14 hours ago, totalnoob said:

So, I don't know anything about Descent or it's App. Can someone who has played the Descent App and Imperial Assault explain how the app would work if functionally similar to the Descent App?

Do you still setup the physical board and make moves, attack etc - then log the moves, tally the damage on to the figures on the app itself? Is the app basically a mirror of what the physical board has? I am assuming the app is the IP and it would make decisions as to who to attack, where to move etc. Then you would move the figures on the physical board to match what the app did. Also are dice still rolled?

Or is the app a replacement for the board and campaign guide? I could see the app potentially having voice overs or small clips to explain the scenarios after campaign events trigger?

thanks all!

The Descent app doesn't actually keep track of the board state, per se, and you couldn't play without the game board. It keeps track of what's on the map, but not where it is. It also controls which figure activates and what they do, but not to whom.

So for example if you use an action on the board to open a door you click on the door in the app and say that you want to open it. The app says something like "place tile 13" on the other side of the door, then "spawn a zombie group" and shows you where to put the zombies. As soon as you press OK the zombies disappear from the app screen.

When it's the overlord's turn the app will say something like "activate zombies" and then it has a bunch of instructions, all of which are pretty general. "Attack the closest hero", "Attack the hero in range who has suffered the most damage", "use this special ability", "move towards the closest hero", etc. You keep going down the list until you find an action that makes sense (i.e. they don't try to attack a hero that's not there). All of the actions are done on the board like they normally would be - you don't tell the app what happened, where they moved, who took damage, etc. The only things the app tracks are 1) which monsters/heroes have activated and 2) when a hero/monster is defeated.

And that's pretty much the gist of it for the in-game part, other than handling a few other minor things (it tells you how much gold you find, what items you pick up, etc). Once a given mission is over there is also an overworld map where you can choose where to go next and a city that you can visit to buy items, rest up, etc. All of the story, whether before, during, or after the missions, is told via on-screen text.

One last thing is that the campaigns are designed specifically for the app. At least in Descent, there's no way to have an automated overlord control any of the printed campaign books. They just released a new app campaign to go with one of the boxed expansions, though, so it doesn't look like we need to worry about any of the expansion content going to waste

8 hours ago, neosmagus said:

Not different at all. I doubt they will adapt the missions, there will likely be new missions and a new campaign which will make use of the components you have. Similarly to Mansions of Madness, it will likely have alternate layouts of the missions to use different tile sets. And also similar to Mansions of Madness, it will simply tell you where to place figures initially, and then instruct you to move them based on conditions but will not actually track anything on the board, that will be up to the players with the actual board. Finally, the Imperial classes and Agendas will likely fall away in lieu of random or triggered events. There's a good chance the game will also be adapted to allow for 5 player co-op.

Mansions of Madness has different layouts because it has a limited number of scenarios, if you want to compare what the IA app will be to anything it should be Road to Legend, the Descent app. They follow the same game mechanics (more or less) and will instead offer a variety of quests versus a few quests in different variety.

Everything else you said sounds good, the big difference between IA and Descent that I see happening is the incorporation of the allies. I imagine those will be woven into the story line and I am hoping the villains function similar to Descent, if you are taking to long in a mission there is a chance a villain will show up as an end of round effect.

It honestly should be quite epic considering they've had lots of practice already with Descent and MoM, like if you look at Shadows of Nerekhall campaign and Kindred Fire there really is no comparison. They've learned a lot in a short amount of time.

2 hours ago, FrogTrigger said:

Mansions of Madness has different layouts because it has a limited number of scenarios, if you want to compare what the IA app will be to anything it should be Road to Legend, the Descent app. They follow the same game mechanics (more or less) and will instead offer a variety of quests versus a few quests in different variety.

Most on the newer quests (Seeds of Corruption and H&M packs) have two layouts, one which uses only the minimum tiles you must have, another which uses tiles from at least one additional expansion. The key difference is the layout with the expansion tiles will always be used if you have those expansions, so it is not able replay variety.

8 hours ago, ManateeX said:

The Descent app doesn't actually keep track of the board state, per se, and you couldn't play without the game board. It keeps track of what's on the map, but not where it is. It also controls which figure activates and what they do, but not to whom.

So for example if you use an action on the board to open a door you click on the door in the app and say that you want to open it. The app says something like "place tile 13" on the other side of the door, then "spawn a zombie group" and shows you where to put the zombies. As soon as you press OK the zombies disappear from the app screen.

When it's the overlord's turn the app will say something like "activate zombies" and then it has a bunch of instructions, all of which are pretty general. "Attack the closest hero", "Attack the hero in range who has suffered the most damage", "use this special ability", "move towards the closest hero", etc. You keep going down the list until you find an action that makes sense (i.e. they don't try to attack a hero that's not there). All of the actions are done on the board like they normally would be - you don't tell the app what happened, where they moved, who took damage, etc. The only things the app tracks are 1) which monsters/heroes have activated and 2) when a hero/monster is defeated.

And that's pretty much the gist of it for the in-game part, other than handling a few other minor things (it tells you how much gold you find, what items you pick up, etc). Once a given mission is over there is also an overworld map where you can choose where to go next and a city that you can visit to buy items, rest up, etc. All of the story, whether before, during, or after the missions, is told via on-screen text.

One last thing is that the campaigns are designed specifically for the app. At least in Descent, there's no way to have an automated overlord control any of the printed campaign books. They just released a new app campaign to go with one of the boxed expansions, though, so it doesn't look like we need to worry about any of the expansion content going to waste

Thanks for this, I haven't seen anything like this in terms of detail - great explanation. I guess it makes sense to be generic in terms of who to attack where to move etc. Still sounds cool, it would be fun to play co-op with my family vs all of them ganging up against me.

4 hours ago, totalnoob said:

Thanks for this, I haven't seen anything like this in terms of detail - great explanation. I guess it makes sense to be generic in terms of who to attack where to move etc. Still sounds cool, it would be fun to play co-op with my family vs all of them ganging up against me.

It is fun! Although it's still not as good as having an actual imperial player in terms of decision-making (those that want a more challenging game are better off playing versus a human) it's nice that you can play with everyone on the same side. That's a really attractive option for some groups.

Yeah, the app simply replaces the Imp player so everyone can play on the same side. I wouldn't say it is as good as having an imp player however. The app is still rather clumsy and not really all that interactive and of course, it doesn't think. All it does is show how to place the tiles, doors, creates and monsters and what the monsters want to do. You then have to be honest to the game and play the monsters accordingly.

It does allow for single player play however.

I don’t have Descent but I wanted to see what the app was all about.

Figured I would spend about 5 minutes on it but was absolutely blown away by the interface, sound and story. An hour later and I’m still going through it randomly.

Seriously, the IA version is going to launch IA into the stratosphere.

1 hour ago, Mep said:

Yeah, the app simply replaces the Imp player so everyone can play on the same side. I wouldn't say it is as good as having an imp player however. The app is still rather clumsy and not really all that interactive and of course, it doesn't think. All it does is show how to place the tiles, doors, creates and monsters and what the monsters want to do. You then have to be honest to the game and play the monsters accordingly.

It does allow for single player play however.

I'm curious to try it but not nearly as excited as other folk. Mansions of Madness works because of the nature of that game. But for Imperial Assault, I don't know... I really enjoy being the Imperial Player. The one time I played as Rebel wasn't nearly as fun.

dont think I've read this already, so just to add:

the app does a really nice job of giving each monster group a different ability each turn. Nothing overpowered, but it syncs with whatever the app decides is their attack strategy for that turn. I actually find it a better mechanic than overlord cards, as it's more consistent and adds flavour to the monster groups.

the additional downpoint is the randomness of the app means it sometimes deploys the completely wrong type of boss at the end of a mission - an IA example would be deploying general Sorin on his own with no models to support him. It doesn't happen too often but is a risk, unfortunately.

Someone still technically has to be the Overlord, you get told what to do with the monsters but there are always extra decisions that need to be made. For instance, move 3 spaces and attack the nearest hero, well there might be 2 heroes that are 'nearest' you can randomly pick, or play it hard and focus fire the weakest. I generally make those decisions as I have the most experience as a GM and I find you can really scale the difficulty. Sometimes it will tell you specifically to attack the strongest or weakest hero, but that is just one example. There are other decisions that need to be made, like which way to retreat, to block the hallway or not, etc..

For those of you holding off for the app, I would encourage you to check out Redjak's automated Imperial Variant. https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1724080/redjaks-automated-imperial-variant-raiv-v1-under-n

It uses decks of cards for the AI. Although an app would be nice, I found the variant every bit as entertaining as Road to Legend. As a bonus, much like Descent it's unlikely the campaign released with the app will match the campaign released with the box sets.

RAIV is also (loosely) integrated into the IA Vassal campaign module.

Vassal: Imperial Assault Campaign module