Castle Combat HD

Despite what Hollywood tells you, the castle didn't last very long as a viable defensive structure.

The introduction of gunpowder into Europe in the 16th century dealt the concept its coup de grace, but even before this it was becoming clear those safe, thick, defensive walls meant the enemy could easily restrict your movements, starving you out if need be.

Fighting a battle from a castle is a delicate balance - you have to use the structure to protect you but never rely on its defensive properties so much that it becomes your prison. There's a similar balance between defence and attack in Castle Combat HD.

The card-based iPad game has you and the computer - or friend if you have one willing to share the screen - either trying to build up your castle's strength to 100 or reduce theirs to zero.

To do this, you're each dealt five cards, which you play one at a time to attack the enemy or marshal your defences. These actions link into your resources: wood and stone for defence, army and magic for attack.

You start with 22 units of each, and two units of men: mason, woodworker, soldier, and wizard respectively. Each card you play uses up resources, with the result reducing your enemy's resources, diminishing their castle's strength, or increasing your castle's strength.

For example, a unit attack will use up ten of your army resources to reduce your opponent's castle by three. There are also cards which enable you to transfer your magic for stones and wood for armies, and various combinations thereof.

Resources are slowly replenished each turn, as each side gains more material in relation to how many manpower units they have for each.

This provides a balance in terms of available activity: you can't just tank rush. Instead, you carefully have to use all the options available to you, meaning games can take anything from ten to 20 minutes.

A nice randomness is provided in terms of how the cards are dealt, especially ones that enable you to increase your stock of men, or alternatively kill off your opponent's.

In the latter case, this makes the Plague card one of the most powerful in the deck. By reducing your opponent's manpower you effectively limit his future activity, because if he plays powerful cards he'll quickly run out of resources.

Additional strategy comes into play as you can discard any card you don't have the resources to play - something that's well worth doing to husband your resources and build up a war chest for a quick strike mid-game.

For all its clever strategy, Castle Combat HD doesn't come without issues.

Unless you're a hopeless player, the computer is much too easy to beat. There aren't any options to increase the difficulty level, nor online multiplayer, effectively reducing the long term value to same-screen bouts.

Graphically, the best that can be said is it's functional, while the user interface, especially in terms of what each card does, takes time to understand. Some cards also seem overly powerful while others are a little weak.

Still, there's something endearing about Castle Combat HD. Its pace is pleasant and the tactical options provide you with enough scope without being too broad. An update with adjustable levels of difficulty and adjustments to the balance of play balancing could make this a title worth pulling up the drawbridge for.