Hardwood Backgammon for iOS - very close, but still no cigar

Imagine you‘re listening to a really beautiful song, and just when it‘s all perfect, the singer takes out his mouth organ and plays a really ugly mouth organ riff. That‘s a bit how I feel about Hardwood Backgammon (HW BG). It has many great features, and should stand out of the large sea of backgammon apps. But one issue nearly kills it for me.

Let‘s start with the positives. HW BG has nice 3Dish visuals on iPhone and iPad, different boards, backgrounds, checkers and dice (and more for money) to choose from, features everything a full backgammon app needs (matches, doubling cube, Crawford rule), and a strong bot to play against.

Hardwood Backgammon in action (iPad pro)

It also has online play, but online I‘m so happy with DailyGammon and Backgammon Galaxy and Heroes that I just don‘t try it out.

First you need to invest a few bucks (don‘t remember exactly, something like 2€) to get a “world class” level AI. I couldn’t resist, and yes, this got me a world class AI. The bot plays an aggressive, very strong game. Sometimes it makes small mistakes, particularly it’s a bit too fast at the doubling cube, but in the two 5-pt matches I played against it while transcribing in XG2 (Roller++ level), XG rated it at PR 3.0 and 5.3 (the later due to one too aggressive double), which is world class level, definitely. 

A different board (cost me a few bucks)

When you start a match, the app selects a virtual opponent for you. I have no clue what this is about - you get a random name, but there doesn’t seem to be any playing character or something similar associated to it. Lilly seems to play exactly like Joan d’Arc, and you neither can get separate statistics or anything else.

Moving is enjoyable, both double-tapping (click on source checker, click on target location) and drag&drop is supported. It’s not totally up to the best (can’t undo a move by moving the checker back to where it was, like in True Backgammon), but very pleasant. I also really like the nice 3D look and feel. Very professional.

BUT… and here’s the big but. Two things nearly spoil the app for me. They are small issues with a big impact for enjoyment.

First, when you have made a move, you see an “end turn” button like this: 

The “end turn” button of anger

This button will stay there for five seconds. Then it will automatically vanish, your move is made and it’s the opponent’s turn.

Now if you’re a beginner, five seconds sound like a long time. But sometimes, in difficult situations, I want to spend much longer looking at the position after a move, weigh different alternatives, before I commit to this or that move. Five seconds is just nowhere enough. These five seconds cause a lot of stress and frustration.

Second, the app doesn’t store its game state when you do something else. If you move to a different app and iOS decides to close HW BG, your match is gone and you have to start a new one. Never had this, ever, in any other top BG app.

Oh yes, and while we’re at it, the app also has a fairly minor bug. 

THE BUG

In post-Crawford games, the app is so eager to do the automatic double that it will double right at the beginning of the game, in the initial position, before the first roll. Not an issue at all. But still a bug.

These are minor issues, but in an app space that is as crowded as Backgammon, where an app competes with wonderful apps like XG Mobile, True Backgammon, Backgammon NJ, these are showstoppers.

Still, go ahead, try it, if you’re moving fast and not playing long matches with long breaks, there’s nothing wrong about this good app.

Update Sep 2022: after laborously playing a number of matches and at the same time transcribing them into XG2 I found that the "world class" AI plays indeed on world class level (PR 4.8 so far). Will continue some more.