Mayhem, with nice graphics

Before taking off from Chicago Thursday I decided to see if I could find something new to do on the iPad.  Maybe a nice light game, not too involving, pleasant to look at.  Hence Miyamoto, a rogue-like deck building mythical Japanese tactical combat game.

It looks great, and is only about as habit-forming as Fentanyl.  Each battle takes about five minutes.  Eight battles makes a campaign, although things get much more difficult as you progress.  I've only gotten to level eight a few times, and have never beaten it.  You don't know what's in your deck initially, so you have learn from experience - sometimes you've got a lot of lightning bolts, sometimes a lot of meat shields.  But the game lets you add a new card for each level you beat, so that - if you can survive long enough - you can gradually balance things out.

Actual gameplay is elegant and quick, and the game shows evidence of really heavy playtesting as the elements are in almost perfect balance.  Each encounter plays out as a confused and random tactical melee with constant reinforcement - imagine two small armies blundering into one another - and advantage swings wildly.  There are no "safe" strategies, only degrees of risk.  The general who delays attack is just as doomed at the one that leaves cover too soon.  In terms of the feel of the game, I'd say it's about like the attack on Carentan in Band of Brothers, but prettier.

Available at an App Store near you, and highly recommended.  A good review is here.