Board up the windows, lock the doors, get a few gallons of Gatorade, a poop bucket, and say good bye to the outside world as I present my latest addiction, Hero Academy.

Hero Academy is a sort of fantasy chess, you have five actions every turn and can use them to spawn units, use items, move or attack. This is the core of the gameplay, simple and easy to learn but difficult to master (or so I’m going to claim since I only win one out of every five matches). 

The game is free to download but follows a micro-transaction structure; you can play endlessly though without spending anything. Only one team is available for free, the Council (humans) who are the most well rounded of the teams. For a little extra you can buy the Dwarf team which has a bigger focus on area attacks, or the Dark Elf team which favors the more aggressive players. The teams are all balanced very well and by no means will you feel at a disadvantage playing with the humans. There is even another team on the way that, judging by the silhouette will be some variation of Orcs or Goblins.

If you have an iOS device you should definitely give the game a try. The only negative is that the game is purely multiplayer and so the response time can be very long depending on the player at the other end. The game allows you to have multiple matches going at once though. I also had connection issues when playing with a friend in the same room, it took up to five or ten minutes for my actions to show up on their screen, but that might just have been our WiFi. Overall it’s a great game.

The Hero Academy Site

Originally posted on my OrangeYetis blog.