One of the best board games for IOS. A clear and pervasive D&D theme, Clean, functional visuals and easy game interface. Strong AI players. Based on a very good board game - and stays very close to the actual board game. Its a complex strategy game to play and you have to plan ahead to have any chance of winning - so best to learn by watching a net playthrough (or knowing the actual boardgame) rather than skimming the ingame text rules. A good ingame tutorial would be nice, but these seem rare in most of the computerised board games.

There is no question about the production value of the game. The graphic is excellent and the interface easy to use including a simple tutorial that teaches you the basics. But is it fun? I enjoy playing board-games on the iPad and "Lords of the Waterdeep" is no exception. It's a strategic worker placement game that plays differently depending on the number of players. In a 2 player games you can usually do whatever you want and there is no big challenge. With more players the competition becomes tougher and you will often be blocked out of important resources. This can make the game quite intense and the AI is good enough to kick your ass. The game itself is not too complex and can be learnt very quickly. It usually feels like a race in which you try to complete as many quests as possible to gather the most points. It's possible to play directly against your opponents but I haven't bothered yet with this strategy. Regarding the theme I have to say that it grew on me. It's hard to imagine the different cubes as "warriors" or "mages" and I wonder why they haven't been replaced in the digital version. This simple change would improve the atmosphere a lot. After almost 20 games I slowly start to relate more to the quest types and the people (cubes) needed to complete them. It's not a D&D experience though and never will be. "Lords of the Waterdeep" is a simple and appealing worker-placement board-game that is a lot of fun and perfectly fills the spot between the simple "Ticket to Ride" and the strategic "Puerto Rico". Average playing time is 20-30 minutes depending on the number of AI players. Online you have a time limit with a counter so that games don't go on endlessly. UPDATE: With the new extensions and especially the addition of "corruption" the game gets more depth and I never play without it anymore. The only downside is that "long" games take an hour or more, which sometimes feels a bit dragging. It's still a great game and has lost nothing of its charm.

This game is only for those who like complex board games. The hotseat function allows multiple human players to play against multiple AIs. Very worth the money when you consider how much the board game costs.