War Room is out - Initial Reactions

War Room, the iBodger replacement app that allows you to build your Warmachine / Hordes list quickly and then link up with someone and fight, came out yesterday evening. The buzz for this software was huge - mostly because they made the iBodger author remove his work from any download locations - and many felt let down by the consistently long waits for it to come out. I believe the original date was sometime in April.

Why did we feel entitled to have this software come out? Hard to say. I actually un-installed iBodger a while back because I thought War Room would be out. Luckily I found an older download link that still worked, and Forward Kommander still worked. I guess once you get really excited about a thing and then it is consistently delayed it just makes your urge to use it greater.

I downloaded the software on my HTC Evo Shift 4G last night at Gamers Sanctuary. It wouldn't let me update anything because it said I wasn't connected to the internet (I had full bars 3G). Perhaps this is something related to iPhones not allowing you to download app updates when you're not on wireless? Who knows. I got home and updated the software.

First thing: this software loads really slowly. They'll have to do some improvements to the speed because holy hell it takes a while. What I want from an army list app is something I can load up quick when I have an idea.

Once I got into the software it made me create an account. I struggled through that (the enter key doesn't work) and made an account. Once I had done that I was able to update (the program takes forever to update the first time, then you have to update again). I went into the store part and purchased my Khador deck. Everything is cool with that. Came back, went to purchase Legion. It went through on Google Play but threw an error when I went back to the software.

Now WR is saying I didn't purchase the Legion deck. I got the receipt email, I know it went through. I try to restore it and it doesn't come up as purchased. I try to re-purchase and it says I already own it, then WR says the purchase failed. Don't know what to do. I emailed support@tinkerhousegames.com to see what they could do with me. They acknowledged that there are issues and offered the restore option (didn't work). Here's hoping they can figure something out.

The list building portion of the software is not bad; I like how you can see the cards and stuff. It is a little clunky and UAs don't automatically attach to their units. The interface is a little slow but I'd like to see how linked battles work.

The buttons on the screen are tiny, so you really have to make sure to hit them. The back button on my Android phone doesn't work in War Room. I can't say how infuriating that is. How does that not work? That is standard. Also, there is no exit button, so you have to hit Home and hope the thing exited properly.

All in all this app has been a huge disappointment so far. I am not sure what PP expected from this thing but it hasn't lived up to even iBodger's (a free app) standards. Perhaps they should have just hired that guy.

From reading other comments it seems like they didn't develop this software with Android in mind. There are brand new phones where this software won't work on it. I really hope they can turn this around because I spent $16 on this app, about 16 times more than any other app I've ever bought. At the end of the day $16 isn't a whole lot and I can continue to use iBodger but I know Privateer Press can do better than this.