Backgammon NJ HD

I’ve been playing Backgammon NJ on my iPhone for 10+ years along with other BG games, this is by far the best! The board and interface are straight forward but also offer in-depth settings, modes and stats that I haven’t found in any other game. After nearly a decade of playing at Medium and Hard skill levels, I forced myself to play on Expert level for the last two years…to say it can be frustrating is putting it mildly. I can see how some people might think this App (and its AI) is somehow cheating, but it’s not. Those false claims have easily been debunked – take a look at the njsoftware web site. The thing about Expert mode is it’s just that. Over time you’ll start to understand how game reacts to the dice rolls and your moves – basically its strategy. Because of BG NJ, my method of play and approach have dramatically changed over the last few years. I’m at a point where I can beat the game nearly half the time on expert level and often, I know within the first 4-6 turns how the game is going to end. Like anything else, if you play on medium, hard and expert level, you will become a much better player…I certainly have.

I’m not in any way an accomplished player, but I’m fascinated with the game and this app is the best Player vs AI I’ve found on the iOs platform. I’ve seen the accusations from other reviewers about the AI cheating by looking ahead at the previously generated roll values and adjusting its strategy accordingly. I don’t believe this for two reasons: 1) I’m a novice-level player with poor math skills who’s also hampered by deficient strategic thinking. And yet, through repeated play, I’ve improved and consistently beaten the AI enough to advance to a higher difficulty level. And 2) why would a developer hope to successfully launch an app by deliberately designing it to cheat the player? Especially in this case where there’s no further play-based profit to be made beyond the initial purchase, so why would there even be an incentive to do so? It makes far more sense to go to every length to ensure an unbiased game environment, which is what I believe this developer did. I don’t get to play on a real board against other people very often, so I love playing and practicing on this app!

I consider myself to be a very good backgammon player. Made a lot of beer money in college in the early 80's playing gammon for 25 cents a point. Anybody who says this app doesn't cheat is smoking crack. I proved the cheating to myself and you can do the same. I played 10 games on the expert mode with the computer generated dice rolls. I lost EVERY game. Then I changed the option to manual dice rolls, still on expert mode. When I manually rolled the dice and forced the computer to play those random rolls, I won 7/10 games. Unfortunately, manual dice rolling is very tedious, but — it's the only way to ensure that the computer plays fair. The manual dice rolling option is the only reason why I would recommend this app. FYI - I’ve downloaded many other backgammon apps and they ALL cheat. The AI in this app, like in every other app I’ve played appears to be the same for all modes. The only difference between beginner and expert modes is the amount of timely doubles and perfect rolls generated by the computer. Where this app can help improve your play is by learning to strategically use the doubling cube and recognizing pip count advantages. For beginners, looking at the hints might also help improve your game.