Review

Quick facts

• AI strengh: distracted (PR somewhere around 50 to 100)
• multiplayer: yes, not tried
• tutor / analysis: no
• price: $5
• App store link

Summary: A nice backgammon for beginners to compete with, without getting frustrated. If you want to improve or if you’re not a total beginner, not worth the $5. There are free backgammons like Backgammon KG who would destroy this one.

Wildcard Classics confronts the user with 3 different Backgammons:

• Backgammon – classic board game – free, 2 in-app purchases (for 2.50€, a Christmas theme and something called Acey Deucey???). Contains ads.
• Backgammon HD which I‘m reviewing here – costs 5.50€, no ads.
• Backgammon Premium, costs 3.50€, offers the in-app purchases as well.

On top, if you use Backgammon HD you can‘t play online against somebody who uses Backgammon – classic board game.

Once you‘re past this confusion (which their website doesn‘t explain, primarily because the URL they provide in the App Store doesn‘t exist), you can dive in and play some backgammon.

Like many Backgammons, BGHD features three difficulty levels – easy/medium/hard. Let‘s have a look at „hard“. It turns out that the app has some understanding of the game of backgammon. It knows the value of builders, it tries to make points, it hits blots when it should. Of the 11 games I played against it it won one. (I‘m not an expert, btw). 

I then let XG2 on the PC analyze a money game and a match. XG once rated it beginner (PR30), once it rated it Distracted (PR 91), and it was only saved from the “ultimate newbie” PR100 because after contact ends and you bring your checkers home there’s not so much you can do wrong.

If you‘re a casual player and if you look for a good casual player to play fun and not too hard games against, this might be your app. If you‘re a Backgammon enthusiast who wants to get better, to learn from your mistakes, it‘s not.

BGHD offers the full backgammon incl. doubling cube. However it feels like the doubling cube was added as an afterthought. Doubling well is an art of its own, and BGHD‘s rule „if you‘re well ahead in the race, double or take“ fails so often so miserably. I‘m winning most of my games at 64 points.

The screenshot above shows the situation after the app re-doubled from 16 to 32. Yes, my pip count is 118 and the app‘s pip count is 104, so it‘s ahead in the race by 12 pips. But I have trapped a stone behind a 5 prime, threatening to make a 6 prime, and it has nothing! This is the time to resign, not to re-double. The game ended with me winning 64 points.

Overall: for a backgammon that sets you back by $5 the AI is just way too weak.