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Mage Knight Dummy Player?
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Popularity Score: 7
This app was mentioned in 12 comments, with an average of 5.25 upvotes
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I. Love. Apps.
I am a giant tech nerd and I enjoy innovation... but not PURELY for the sake of innovation. I don't want a game that puts an app in for no good gameplay reason just to have the feature they can put on the press release. That way lies videogames.
From the simple companion app (I never play Mage Knight without my Mage Knight Dummy Player) to an officially supported 5 Minute Dungeon 5 Minute Timer XCOM and First Martian's full on integration, I love a good app and I want more of them.
That said:
1) Needing to keep a device charged is slightly irksome. Fortunately, XCOM and First Martians and Mansions of Madness are playable on PC, Mac, iOS and Android - one of my favorite XCOM sessions involved a laptop rather than a phone.
2) socioeconomics. Board games are a fairly expensive hobby. Needing to buy a board game AND a compatible device can be a setback for some.
3) digital futureproofing. This is less problematic with apps that provide things like .exe versions for windows (the .exe has been around for what, 20 years? longer?). The 64 bit ios thing someone else brought up is a great example of a downside.
The Mage Knight Dummy Player apps for Android and iOS is a godsend for managing the dummy player in campaigns. There's enough to do as it is and it saves you the hassle of pulling out more pieces and drawing cards. I'd recommend first-time owners to play without the app so they understand how the dummy player works, but for any later playthroughs it's a must-have.
Good info. The only thing I would add is that that there is a nice Android app that you can use to manage the dummy in solo or coops games. I know some people may prefer to keep everything analog, but I really like the app, especially for solo games. There is a well rated IOS app too, but I haven't used it personally.
Download the dummy player app for your phone Here's one for android.
It has cut off at least an hour from my solo games. No more shuffling another deck...adding cards...flipping cards...etc. I can get a full scenario done, setup to teardown, in 1.5h.
Using a "Mage Knight Dummy Player App" has taken easily 45 minutes to 1 hour off the total time (play time, setup, cleanup) for me.
You no longer have to manage/shuffle a 2nd deck. You don't have to add cards to this deck (or remove them after the game). You don't have to move/sort crystals. Don't have to count or do any math at all. You simply push a button and it draws the right number of virtual cards for you and tells you if their deck is empty and they declare final round or not.
I went from 2 hour games (full setup/teardown) to 1 hour. I played so many games, I was able to rush through an entire game in 45 minutes one time (was trying to see if I could play on my lunch break).
Get the rules down pat before adding lost legions. It adds even more rules, so you'll want to have the base down first before you add to it.
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If you have an android phone, I can't recommend the dummy player app https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sigmazero13.MKDummy&hl=en_US
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It speeds up the whole process
I recommend the dummy player app (Android or IOS) to speed things along.
1) You don't have to shuffle the dummy player deck ever (speeds up things between rounds)
2) Don't have to draw a card, then count crystals to determine how many more to draw. The app does it all for you
3) Don't have to deconstruct another deck on cleanup
I probably shaved at least 30 minutes off each game with the app easily (between setup, shuffling/maintenance and cleanup). On their turn, you simply click a button then it's back to your turn. dont even need to set down your hand!
I bought 'The Lost Legion' expansion, which gives a dummy player, more or less. A couple quick searches brought me to the following dummy apps though:
- Web App = https://www.boardgameutilities.com/MageKnightDummyPlayer/ActiveSession
- Web App = https://kallanreed.github.io/mk-dummy/index.html
- Android App = https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sigmazero13.MKDummy
- iOS App = https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mage-knight-dummy-player/id508617899?mt=8
There's an app for that.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sigmazero13.MKDummy&hl=en
I just use this guy so I don't have to think about it.