Audamir

Minigames, puzzles and the daily challenge

Short tasks on small maps, puzzles without chance and a new map every day, the same for everyone.

The hub of Kastgard: the tiles Principalities, Tribes, Free play, Minigames with their stars, Puzzle Labs marked Puzzle of the day, Daily challenge, Watch a game and more
Minigames, Puzzle Labs and the Daily challenge are tiles of the hub of Kastgard; a tile shows the stars, the next puzzle or the state of the day.

Besides Principalities (Principalities) Kastgard has three kinds of short games.

Minigames

The screen Minigames: a list of minigames, each with a preview of its map, a name, a description and three stars
Each minigame has a preview of its map, a description and three stars; the minigames that belong to the Campaign carry a label.

Minigames are short tasks on a small hand-drawn map, a showcase of what the game can do; one takes a few minutes. There are 18 (13 of them are in Kastgard, five belong to the Campaign and appear with it): for example First attack, Capture the fortress, Battle for the cities, Connected region, Ring, Bridges, Fog, Giants and Quick game. The goal is, for example, to eliminate the opponent, hold three cities for three rounds or take 70% of the map. One star is for reaching the goal, the second and the third for the number of rounds or territories. After three stars an elite and a legendary star unlock, with a stricter limit. Golden Dice are paid only for an improvement: 15, then 10 and 15; the elite star 30, the legendary one 80.

Puzzle Labs

The screen Puzzle Labs: the card Puzzle of the day and Laboratory 1 with its puzzles, each with a preview of its map, its difficulty and its stars
The puzzle of the day is at the top and the laboratories are under it; each puzzle shows its difficulty and the stars that are already earned.

Puzzle Labs are puzzles without chance: the dice are fixed, you have a single turn and the solution can always be worked out. Nothing is rolled, the side with more dice wins and a tie goes to the defender; after a win all dice but one move on. The goal is to eliminate the opponent, capture a fortress or own at least a given number of territories. There are 28 puzzles in four labs (Basics 3, Terrain 7, Abilities 7 and Mastery class 11), with difficulty 1 to 5. Each has a provable solution: a solver finds the shortest one (par), 3 to 10 attacks. Stars: one for reaching the goal, two without Help, three without Help and in par attacks.[1] Golden Dice are paid only for an improvement: 8, then 6 and 6.

The daily challenge

The window of the daily challenges: the daily challenge and the puzzle of the day with their setup and a Play button
The daily challenge and the puzzle of the day are the same for everyone; the line under the daily challenge describes its setup and its difficulty.

The daily challenge is a new map every day, the same for everyone. The day is your local calendar day, and the date draws the size, the shape, the number of opponents (3 to 5), their strength (Normal or Strong), their aggression and the obstacles. Fixed are: you start, everybody against everybody, a tie goes to the defender, a limit of 100 rounds and the rule Long wars end switched on (after three rounds without a change of owner the big stacks melt, after round 50 every captured tile brings three extra dice).

The first win of the day gives experience, a free box and counts as a day for the achievements; further wins that day pay only Golden Dice, and a loss costs nothing. Golden Dice and experience are 1.5 times the score. The daily strip shows "Today 1 / 2 done" and holds the Puzzle of the day as well.[2]

The Puzzle of the day

The window Puzzle of the day: the map of the puzzle, the goal Eliminate the opponent, a tip, three stars with their conditions and the button Play
The window of the puzzle of the day shows the map, the goal and the conditions of the three stars; the best solution takes the fewest attacks.

The Puzzle of the day is generated from the date, it is the same for everyone and the solver has checked that it can be solved. The kind changes with the day of the week, from an introductory one on Monday to a mix of the mastery class on Sunday. Golden Dice: 20, 32 or 45 for one to three stars (only for an improvement), and on the first solve of a day 5 for every earlier day in a row, for at most 6 days.

Notes

  1. See (forthcoming article no. 10): how the solver works and why the first set was rewritten. ↩︎
  2. See (forthcoming article no. 20): the daily challenge. ↩︎

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