PAX Report: New World Colony

If Catan and Risk had a love child it would be New World Colony. The work of a lone developer, Erik Asmussen founder of 82 Apps, New World Colony is a new look into a classic style. The title supports two to four players locally or online and includes an auto-rotation feature for local play. But according to Erik playing it together is the point. But if you are more of a “wolf pack of one” sort of gamer you can play AI opponents. That way when you screw over your opponent you can see the look of despair in their eyes, at least that's what I'd enjoy the most.

New World Colony has the look and feel of a traditional strategy board game for the ipad. Players take turns gaining and building up their territory while at the same time screwing over their opponents, oh(cough), I mean trying to invade their opponent’s territories. But with New World Colony's supply and demand programming you really can screw people over by driving up prices on valuable commodities, like lumber or stone for building. Basically you want to stop the progress of your opponent’s colony building efforts and their ability to invade your territories. Yes I know I'm cut throat but I play to win! Especially in strategic planning games.

The basic terrains are fields, forests, mountains and water. Each terrain provides resources which are used to obtain and maintain colonies. The terrains appear in regions which are connected areas of the same type of terrain. Fields produce food, mountains produce stone, forests produce lumber and water produces food and gold. There are also special terrains, which are isolated areas, that produce extra resources as well. Resources are required for every move made by players. It costs a varied amount of resources to settle and build on territories as well to invade opponent’s territory.

Players build up their colony by building structures on their terrain. Players can build granaries, saw mills, forts, mines, ship yards, trading posts or towns on their occupied terrains. You can also build walls to secure your colony from attack. Building walls to protect territory costs opponents more to invade. Invasions can disrupt the growth of a colony by strategically impeding your opponent’s progress or simply costing them more resources to protect it. By diverting their resource flow you can distract them from progression. Basically screw 'em over again!

'So how would one win New World Colony' you might be asking yourself. By gaining the most colony points. Colony points are gained by building on your occupied territories. Players get one point per town but that multiplies when they gain control of the surrounding area. So the more area you control the more points earned per turn. Pretty simple right?

New World Colony has four game modes. Normal, defensive, pacifist and warlord! The game is available now at the iTunes app store. Oh yeah and since Erik is so awesome it's free! It's absolutely worth checking out not only for the very attractive price but because it's fun. Personally I love any game that allows me to screw over my friends!