Fidchell
The game is played an a board consisting of circles and lines on which the game pieces are placed and can move along. Similar to games like Nine Men's Morris the pieces are first placed onto the board in turn and moved afterwards once all of them have been placed. The capturing of pieces works differently though and is alike to Tafl games: a piece gets captured if a player traps it between two of his own pieces. This even grants him another move with which he may trap another one and so on.
The app features two variants of the game: the basic edition which is easier to understand and where both players are treated equally and the advanced version which has different goals for both players. The general goal is to connect the central Naval stone with the border of the board by forming a connected line of stones.
This app features both game modes for offline play against a human or the computer/AI and asynchronous online play against humans via Google Play.
The app is ad supported. These ads can be permanently deactivated through a one-time In App Purchase (IAP).
Category : Board
Reviews (28)
Game tends to freeze causing some unwanted and concerning issues on my device such as screen going black for a while and rendering the phone unresponsive. The game's responses to my moves are also slow and takes a while to register that I've made a move. Also, as Fidchell is a Celtic I find it odd that the AI has Anglo-Saxon names rather than Gaelic or Welsh. Due to the issues experienced, I give this only 2 stars.
Glad to see something different than Tafl, but I would love some more info in the app about the theory of the round board instead of it being a more Tafl-like game. All I've seen is a confusion of the two, so it would be cool to have some history lessons in the app, too? Hard to find details on how we know its a round board like this instead of a square grid. Loving the game so far! I'm going to want a real board soon.
Simple rules, challenging strategy, great fun, just like Hnefatafl from the same dev. Great aesthetic, nice meditative soundtrack. Please do Bagh Chal too, so I can build a virtual collection of traditional board-games.
I open the game, and first I get is to choose between personalised ads (containing an endless list of international ad-providing companies who will get my data) or non-personalized ads - or I can choose to buy ad-free. You know what? : I've uninstalled your nice little game 🙂
Update to previous review: Understandable. Keep up the good work, it really is a fun game. AI just needs tweaking
Nice app, taught me to play this interesting game. Unfortunately the AI is very weak.
improve on the lines for better understanding this app need and upgrade ans the difficult mode need to be moderate.
App works well. AI could use some big improvement
Brilliant game, had hours of fun
Waiting for some bugs to be patched. Will revisit review after.
It's really interesting, i love it
Enjoyed it more once I got the hang of it
I have sent the screenshots. Please inform me if you have any questions
Really fun
The game is great, but the computer opponents are either really bad or painfully slow.
Game board should be bigger otherwise I give it 5stars but gets 4 great ancient game!
Fidchell is an excellent strategy game.
The graphics are good. The app itself is clean with an easy interface. But as a very advanced fidchell player with years of experience the AI is not challenging. I'd be happy to offer tips on strategy if the programmer (s) ever wanted to beef it up.
Brilliant game, simple player intsrface and controls and the graphics, although simple, are clean and crisp and ideal for the game.
This game would b great.except playing human to human...if u want play computer..instead..starting a new game...u cant..not even restart resets it
Great game, but the computer opponent is soooo slow. I thought the game had froze the first few times it happened
A very interesting game and surprisingly complex. It plays well, and I am thinking of making a board myself. To improve the game however I would reccomend the following; 1. When playing against human players add a notification system to pet them know when it is their turn. 2. Add a forfeit or draw button as it seems a situation of stalemate can be very possible. I play quite a few strategy games and in this one you really have to think quite a number of turns ahead.
Calling this game Fidchell is a little far fetched, given that the game play is more akin to Nine Man Morris than Tafl and given that there is a Fidchell Tafl variant already. This is Nigel Sucklings invention based on the interpretation of historical texts descriptions only. That being said, the game is fun. It is more akin to Nine Man Morris in game play, but rewarding all the same (Recommended). It would be great if it were possible to turn off the extra turn for capturing rule. This creates unbalanced game play. It would also be good if it had multiple AI levels like in the version of Tafl (Which is the best to date I've played (**Highly Recommended**)
I'm giving it 4 stars for originality. Similar to Nine Men's Morris, but much more sophisticated. Graphics are pretty good too. My only gripe is with the rather weak AI - though, considering that (to my knowledge) this is the first electronic version of Fidchell ever, I can sympathize with the difficulties involved in writing an AI for a game of this complexity.
AI is well.....flawed, if you work outside inward you WIN. Just thought you would want to know.
No issues with the game or the interface. But the AI is horrible.
Best
Great looking, easy to use and great music! Would like to see more games put out by them. Something like Noble Celts or even a traditional Chess app would be great. I'll pretty much buy from them because I trust that a good product will be released by them.