Keltis, the 2008 German Board Game of the Year, has been brought to the iDevice by United Soft Media and is now available from the app store. Despite a seemingly complicated set of rules, Keltis is quite easy to grasp and a fun exercise in strategic gameplay.
Keltis Pros:
- Fun, strategic gameplay
- Simple controls
- Great Irish music
Keltis Cons:
- Some difficulty selecting markers
- Occasional crash
- No indication of winner
Keltis presents you with five colored paths leading to a goal area. Each stone on the path is worth points based on its position in the column. Markers are placed upon the paths when you play similarly-colored cards from you hand of eight. Cards range from 0 to 10 and their colors correspond to the colors of the paths. Cards are played in either ascending or descending order, based upon the order of your first two cards played in each color. If you play a higher card as your second card (i.e. 2 on a 1), all subsequent cards must be of equal or higher value. Similarly, playing a lower card (i.e. 7 on a 9) requires that all future cards must be of equal or lower value. Each played card allows you to move your marker one space ahead along the same-colored path. Once a total of 5 markers (the make up of the 5 can include markers from both you and your opponents) reach the goal area, or all cards from the turn-over pile have been exhausted, the game ends and the player with the greatest total wins, though the game curiously doesn’t indicate which player won with any sort of fanfare.
You have 5 markers to use, 4 small and 1 large. The large one earns double the point values, making its placement and advancement of great importance. Along the paths are a smattering of wishing stones, point bonuses, and clovers. Whenever a marker lands on a stone with one of these special indicators, something special occurs. Wishing stones earn a bonus point. Collecting 5 or more also earns an extra 10 points. Conversely, if you don’t collect any, you are docked 4 points. Landing on a point bonus will add the number of bonus points to your point total. Landing on a clover allows you to choose any of your stones, including the one that landed on the clover, and move it ahead an additional space. Stringing together a chain of clovers can help you advance several markers quickly.
Each time you play a card, it must be replaced by a card from the stock pile or by a card from the discard pile. There are 5 discard piles, one for each color. Only the top card from any pile is available to be picked up. Cards in your hand that are eligible to be played on one of your piles are highlighted, while cards that cannot be played remain neutral. You may also elect to discard a card rather than play one, either swapping for another discarded card or selecting the top card from the stock pile. There is a good mixture of strategy and luck needed to be successful. We were a bit confused by the rules, despite watching the interactive tutorial and having the rules spelled out fairly clearly. Once we actually got hands-on and tried it for ourselves, it didn’t take long before we were strategizing with confidence.
Graphically, the game is fairly standard in appearance, with lots of bright pastel colors against a green backdrop. Some items were a bit on the small side. Markers occasionally required multiple touches to select. Otherwise, the touch controls were not problematic. Cards are selected and moved either by tapping to select and tapping again on the target to drop or by dragging from one location to another. Your cards always remain on the bottom row. The section above is populated by the build piles of the current player, as well as a score indicator and wishing stone counter. The transition from one player’s piles to the others was a bit on the slow side, but game speed can be adjusted from the settings menu to remedy this. The piles also contained helpful arrows that reminded us of which direction each pile was being built. The background music is very nice, with a definite Irish theme that made for a pleasant experience. Keltis also supports playing music from your own library.
Replay value is very good, as with most board games we’ve come across on the iDevice. The more you play, the better you’ll understand the game and improve upon your scores. Four name slots are available to allow multiple people to use the game without impacting the stats of another. There are also 3 difficulty levels for you to tailor the game to your skill level. You can even set up a hot seat multiplayer game for up to 4 players. Keltis also includes the first path of Campaign mode, a single-player solitaire experience that twists the rules a bit, offering a unique but equally fun time. The final three paths of Campaign are available for in-app purchase, as is the New Challenges mode. Each can be had for $2.99. Keltis itself is $3.99, which we felt was a touch high, especially with other Reiner Knizia games selling for less. Keltis is a 4.5-Dimple joy that should excite board game players of every age.
