These days , celebrate up with games can be a full - time job . So how do you separate the sign from the noise , the wheat from the stalk , the Temple Runs from the Temple Jumps ? allow for us to help by on a regular basis selecting a game   You Should Play .

I adore word games , but I could never really get into theWords With Friendscraze . The turn - establish Scrabble - inspired game moves too slowly for me , and there ’s no existent hooking ( by from it being Scrabble , that is ) . But NimbleBit ’s Modern word gameCapitalsis unlike : It ’s the perfect mash - up of Scrabble , Boggle , and Risk .

That ’s right … risk of exposure . So it ’s not just about who can come up with the best / foresightful parole ( or rather , who can use an on-line chisel web site to come up with the good / long word ) , it ’s also about strategy . And that ’s where it getsreallyinteresting .

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cap is complimentary , so word biz connoisseur have no reason not to give it a whirl . But if you ’re in the same “ Words With Friends is too irksome ” boat as I am , I understand why you might be wary — so here are three reasons you should insure it out .

When you ’re about to turn opposition ’ tiles into alphabetic character tile , the tiles fade slightly .

Strategy is fundamental : In capital , each role player starts with a base roofing tile , their “ Capital , ” which is colour in their color ( default color are red and aristocratical ) , and has a rook - like symbolization on it . Tiles are hexagon - shaped , and each capital roofing tile has six random letter tiles surrounding it . Your first move is to make a Scripture using any combination of your Das Kapital ’s varsity letter tiles and your opponent ’s letter tile . There are no restrictions , which is what makes Capitals more merriment than Words With acquaintance — you may use any tiles on the table , make speech as long as you like , and the letter of the alphabet tiles do not necessitate to be adjacent ( as they do in Scramble With Friends or Wordament ) to calculate .

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But there ’s a catch . This biz is not just about impress mass with your lexicon , it ’s also about strategy . The whole point of making words using the letter tiles is to take over the plug-in in your side ’s color . When you employ letter tiles that touch your dominion ( tiles of your color ) , those tiles are converted into tile of your semblance . When you use alphabetic character tiles that touch both your soil and your resister ’s district , the tiles in your opposite ’s territory are converted into neutral - zone letter tile . And when you apply letter tiles that only bear on your opposite ’s territory , nothing come about – those tiles remain neutral and get new letters . So , for expand your district , you necessitate to strategically link up up varsity letter tiles so you ’re bear on both your district and your resister ’s territory .

I sleep with this sound a bit complicated , but it ’s really not . You ’ll get the bent of it !

You do n’t have to be a wonk : Scrabble - inspired games are often drawn out as players seek to best ( and impress ) their buddies with the perfect 56 - decimal point ( and all obtuse ) vocabulary word . But cap does n’t cater to the intellectual show - offs — to gain this secret plan , you ’ll need to have a becoming vocab as well as a keen eye for scheme .

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I could have easily made lots of word here , but “ SLOT ” lets me get his cap roofing tile … why waste my brainpower ?

capital works on a turn - by - routine base , but if you trance ( or commute ) your antagonist ’s capital tile , you get an superfluous turn . And if you bewitch all of their remaining territorial dominion in that extra turn , you get ahead the secret plan . What this think of is that the longest , most complicated Good Book is not always the in force word — in fact , it ’s oftennot .

There have been several tour in Capitals where I had muckle of varsity letter tiles with which to make epic Scrabble Good Book , but where my opponent ’s soil was only fence in by three tile . surely , I could go the additional mile to print … myself , I suppose … and make some super - longsighted parole that included those three tile . Or … I could just use those three tile and pass over them off the face of the board , and pull ahead the biz ( this is what I choose to do ) . Likewise , I ’ve played a few opponents who were clearly vocab - sensation but had no sense for strategy – and when face with the chance to kill off my territory , they prefer instead to make some no - doubt high - points Scrabble word ( and they did n’t deliver the goods ) .

So Capitals evens the playing battleground a bit , and forces you to cerebrate outside the “ I am very smart ” box . It ’s not about showing off your magnanimous vocabulary is ( although it is partially about this ) , it ’s about showing off how well you could think on your foot when you ’re battling for territory in a Good Book biz .

you could try out your custom color / icon before buy the Customization pack .

The perfect freemium balance : chapiter is detached with in - app purchases . I have intercourse , I know — often this means that gameplay is extremely stilted unless you bribe the excess options . But Capitals ’ free play is actually very sane : You get one living ( which means you could start one unexampled game ) every minute , with a jacket crown of three lives . you’re able to have as many games going at a time as you wish , but you’re able to only start three new secret plan every three hours ( and trust me — this plot is a metre - suck , so NimbleBit is actually doing you a party favor ) . you may increase that cap to five life for $ 5 , or you may go for outright life sentence for $ 10 .

The game also give you the choice to customize your “ Capital , ” that is , opt your color and your symbolization . For $ 1 , you may change your colouration to one other than the default red or low , and you may switch your symbol from a Corvus frugilegus to an alien , a football game , or a bulldog ( among many , many other icons ) . you may tick off out the customization options before you buy by tap Customize from the primary sieve .

You ’ll have mass of fun with working capital without spending a penny , but the premium add - ons are priced well and deserving it if you require to take the next step .

Developer : NimbleBitPlatform : iOS(Universal)Price : Free