A few years ago, I rambled about a game I used to play on my cell phone, Clash of Clans. My nephews had gotten me started on it, and I stuck with it; we were in a "family clan," and it was a way to interact with them. Over time, we all basically stopped playing the game. It got old. In some ways, it was a passive game; when you were battling someone, it was your troops going up against their preset defenses. There was no other person actively playing against you, not even a computer. That may be why the company that created the game created a spin-off version, as play of the original, at one time the highest grossing game in the iTunes App Store, began to trail off.

 

Their successor game, using many of the same ideas and figures, is Clash Royale. Unlike its older brother, CR is a live action game. Each player builds a battle deck of eight cards. You might choose to have wizards, giants, goblins, barbarians, Valkyries, dragons, and a host of other options; there are more than ninety cards available. Each card costs a certain amount to play, they have unique ranges on the board and have varying degrees of speed, strength, and durability. The object is to destroy more of your opponent's castles than they destroy of yours.  You start with three, and if someone gets all three, they win. Oh, and you only have three minutes per game to win.