I just bought the iOS game and frankly, I find it nearly impossible to have any success at it. It seems very, very difficult and I say this as an owner of over 15 FF boardgames and 30+ expansions. I had been thinking of buying the board game also but now i'm not so sure after several frustrating hours with ES:Omens on my phone. So can anyone who owns both compare the difficulty levels of the games? I'd certainly appreciate it.

Don't get me wrong: I like a challenge and don't mind losing a lot. However, I think I've reached my max frustration with the iOS version of the game and I haven't even owned it very long. I fail the most basic of adventures 90% of the time. I've been scouring the net for strategy which shouldn't be mandatory for ANY game in the first few hours. Even the game descriptions in the Apple Store is boasting of how hard they made it (which maybe should have been my first clue to avoid it.)

Much thanks.

Hi there!

I cannot say anything about the iOS application, but I can talk of the game. At the moment, I've played 7 games, 7 victories, 0 losses. I find it kinda easy to beat, but it's a lot of fun. You just have to figure out you don't have to be afraid of spending items, and you have to focus on advntures giving you ES, and that's it. So, I'd say don't be scared! If you're that into FFG games, you'll find this no more difficult than other games you've certainly played!

I have both the standard game and the Android app. I don't know if the droid version is different than iOS, but yes, the phone app version is harder. You only get 4 investigators, their special abilities work differently and aren't as versatile (only in some cases), the mythos cards are totally different and harder in the app, and I could swear that some of the monsters are harder. I think I once got a witch on my droid that required 3 peril rolls to be defeated compared to the standard game version of 2 perils. Plus, you can't cheat in the phone app verison

I have to agree that the iOS app is much harder than the board game. In fact, I quite like it that way. The board game is fun and I'll keep enjoying it as a social experience, but too many of the Mythos cards have a "get out of doom" clause - e.g. add a doom token unless all investigators have X. Half the time these come up then no doom token is added. In the iOS app, it seems that the mythos phase will either generate a monster, add 1-3 doom tokens or have no effect. As a result, your doom clocks up rapidly alongside your Elder Signs. So far my victories are as follows:

Board game: Wins 5, Losses, 0

App: Wins 4, Losses 3

The iOS app has a much better win to loss ratio for a cooperative game - the game should be challenging, allowing you to win some times but lose frequently too. For me the board game is just too easy...

I personally don't see any significant difference between the board and iOS games. I got the iOS version first, and after a 3-4 game learning curve, it too became quite easy to beat. In fact, I don't think I lost even one game in the past 7-10 tries. I may have been lucky, but I tend to think that if you wight your decisions carefully, you should have enough control over your chances to tip the odds in your favor.

The iOS/Android app is somewhat more difficult because of how you resolve tasks:

- In Elder Sign "boardgame", after conjuring glyphs, you can assign some of them to partially fulfill a task, and then discard one glyph and reroll the rest until you either fulfill a task completely or are unable to fulfill it.

- In ES: Omens, the android/iOS app, this is different - you CANNOT assign any of the glyhs to partially fulfill a task. You can either fulfill it in one glyph conjuring (meaning: you have to conjure every relevant glyphs for a task at one, when conjuring), or die trying

Of course you can still use Focusing and Assisting (which in itself is a bit curious... because in the phone app you CAN focus and be assisted _at the same time_, unlike in the boardgame - which is stated in boardgame FAQ)

This makes ES: Omens a bit more difficult, I'd say.

But it is also inconsistent between two games, and can mislead people.

Drow said:

Actually, you can't.

The rulebook clearly states on page 6 that "a player may only complete a single task with each roll of the dice, even if the results allow him to meet the requirements of 2 or more tasks combined." There is no difference between the digital and board game version in this regard. Apparently you've been playing the board game wrong all this time.

Rince said:

Maybe it's me.. But what you've cited says only that you can complete only one task with one dice roll (not 2 or more with the same dice roll)), there's nothing saying about partially completing a single task with one or more rolls.

EDIT:

example I'm talking about:

Say you have to roll four investigations and a peril.

- dice roll gives peril, terror, terror, peril, two investigations and lore

- I assign peril and 2xinvestigations to a task, partially fulfilling it

- I discard one dice and roll the other three left until I fulfill this current task or until I have no more dices to resolve the entire anventure card.

Drow said:

Sorry but you are totally incorrect with this.

The app and the board game are exactly the same in this regard. You are not allowed to "partially fulfill" a task, you must either (i) complete a task or (ii) fail and set aside a die.

The rules (for the boardgame) are clear on this, see page 6, Rolling the Dice .

After rolling the dice, the player compares the results to the
requirements listed for each task on the Adventure card his
Investigator marker is on. If the player is able and willing to
meet all of the requirements for a single task, he completes
that task. If the player cannot or does not wish to meet the
requirements of at least one of the tasks on the Adventure card,
he fails to complete a task .

Nowhere does it say you may partially fulfill a task and come back to it later. It is clear that you must complete all requirements of a task or fail. " If the player cannot or does not wish to meet the requirements of at least one of the tasks on the Adventure card, he fails to complete a task. "

Based on your example alone, it is clear that you have this incorrect. Playing it like that makes the game soooo much easier. The board game is easy enough playing with the correct rules, playing that you may partially fulfill tasks makes it a cake-walk.

xris said:

Not really, it all depends on dice rolls, but ok.

Maybe I depended too much on youtube and people there playing.

The Ipad version: played Yig twice with 2 wins

played Azathoth twice with 2 losses

played Cthulhu once and lost

Tabletop: played once with 2 players, and didn't have time to finish the game, HOWEVER: was able to collect 6 out of 11 elder signs with NO doom tokens and characters were still pretty healthy. The table top game from my limited experience seems too easy. Maybe I am doing something wrong.

I feel they are equal, however Cthulhu is intentionally difficult.

The deal with the phone app is you can play it for hrs and then realize, "oh, I didn't know I could do that!" because lots of features are jammed in there.

This FAQ tells all. FFG as we know has a BIG problem with how their rulebooks are laid out. This will help make the game much more challenging and better suited for 2 to 5 players. This opened up the game so much more for me!

javascript:void(0);/*1344148675776*/

Thanks for the FAQ. Its ridicolous that FFG is not capable of delivering a more precise rulebook. I also knew a group which understood the rule in the above way and played it wrong. One should assume in the meantime FFG know how to formulate an important core rule in a way everybody can easily understand them. (a task other boardgame companies seem to achieve without problems)