Ascension - Come Play with me on Apple's Gamecenter!

Ascension: Chronicles of the Godslayer is now free on all iOS systems. I downloaded it to my iPad on Thursday.

I don't know how long it will stay free, but you should jump on it while you have the chance. And then friend me on Apple's Gamecenter (username: histerin) and play it with me.

Why? Because I said so!

Oh, and because it is a seriously awesome game. It's a deck-building fantasy game where you are playing for the most "honor."

The game is for up to four players, but you can play against AI opponents.

The rules of the game are actually quite simple. Each player starts out with ten cards. Dealt across the center are six cards dealt from a separate deck, a combination of heroes and constructs that you can buy (with "runes" that the cards in your hand produce) or monsters to kill to gain honor (with "strength" that the cards in your hand have). As you buy cards, your deck will grow and you are able to do more. Heroes can give you more runes to use to buy more stuff, or strength to kill more monsters. They may also give you the ability to draw extra cards that turn, or things like that.

(Click images to see a bigger version)

Here's one of the heroes you can buy. At the top right corner is the rune cost to buy the hero. From the description, you see that he gives you four strength.

Here's the starting board configuration, with the center row laid out and your beginning hand.

Every time you buy something, it goes into your discard pile. You also discard all five cards (or more if you've been able to draw more) at the end of each turn. As you can see, you go through your deck fairly fast, but it continues to grow. The only cards that stay on the board are "constructs" that can help you each turn by giving you runes or strength.

You start out with fairly weak cards, eight "apprentice" and two "militia" cards, but will quickly build that up over time.

Once all of the available honor chits are gone (there's a limited number, based on how many people are playing), each player gets one more turn and then the game ends. Total honor is added up (most cards have an honor value at the bottom left which will tell you how much they give at the end of the game) and the one with the most honor wins!

I played this game at V-Con this year, and had a lot of fun. When I heard it was also on the iOS systems, I knew I had to have it. It's normally $5.00, but right now it's free! So you should pick it up even if you're not sure if you'd like it. What's the worst that can happen? You take it off your phone/iPad. You're not out anything.

The iOS presentation is beautiful on the iPad (I assume it's similar on the iPhone, though maybe not truly gorgeous except on the iPhone 5).

It also has a wonderful tutorial that walks you through the opening of the game. Even better, though, once it has taught you what you need to know, it will let you finish that game on your own.

You can play against the AI or you can play "hand the iPad to the next person" multiplayer, but you can also play online multiplayer through Gamecenter. I haven't had the opportunity yet, but I'm chomping at the bit to do so.

So what do you say? Download the free game (did I mention it's free?) and get in the game today! Then hit me up on Gamecenter.

As I said, I don't know when the game will go back up in price, so you should download it today, even if you don't have time to play right now. You may never get this chance again.