Most of us must have grown up playing board games of some sort. Few of us, though, have really seen what board games have to offer. It mostly involves specific strategic moves in order to win your opponent.
Many of these great games being played for fun and leisure on tabletop has inadvertently gone to extinct.
Luckily, the advent of smartphones and tablets has led to a second life for many of these more thoughtful board games in digital form and this offers a fresh chance for everyone to check them out, even those born after its reigning days. Haha!
The thing is you might actually have already been playing a game on your phone or iPad without even knowing that it was originally designed for the tabletop!
So here are the carefully handpicked ones for you to try out.
1. Ticket to Ride
The game manages to be accessible and exciting yet also strategically rewarding. It is actually one of the games that helped bring on the board game revival and also made train games fun.
There is a simple yet refined kink that boosts the competitive edge of this game which is, each player receives destination tickets, and completing a route on the ticket earns them bonus points, nonetheless neglecting to connect needful routes results a minus points by the end of the game.
The game is a great first embark into digital board game while offering an interesting locations including Europe, Switzerland, India, and others.
Its a must-try!
Download for IOS & Android
2. Carcassonne
This is another classic board game that has made its way onto digital platforms. It’s a puzzle that also involves a lot of interaction with your opponents, and it’s different (the puzzle) every time out.
It is very easy to learn and play, and yet it accommodates a myriad of strategies and paths to winning. The game also has a number of expansions that introduce new gameplay characteristics to the tiles, like rivers, and another layer of rules for an added challenge.
Download for IOS & Android
3. Splendor
Here goes the third awesome board game. Splendor is one of my favorite board games, and it’s still great on your phone (if you give it a try).
The game allows you reserve and purchase jewelry, secrets from exotic locals (all in the form of cards). Splendor players collect tokens which enables them to buy any of the 12 gem cards on the table, arranged in three rows from cheapest to most expensive.
The digital version of Splendor also comes with a Challenge Mode that is unique to the format. The game is based on the actual historical events of 15th and 16th-century jewelry merchants. One great thing about the game is it comprises of both educational and mechanically challenging puzzles.
Download for IOS & Android
4. Colt Express
The core of the game revolves around a very pleasant computer-like “programming” mechanic, where players take turns using movement and action cards, some secretly, which aren’t approved until the end of the round.
In this game, players plan out their train robbery step by step, but secretly from each other, so when their plans are set in motion nothing ever goes as expected.
A player might have strategically ploy to punch another train robber and steal a sum of money but in the end only to find out that they already bailed from the train carriage and the sheriff was there instead of the other robber. It will yield a negative turnout!
One thing is, Colt Express has a unique Story Mode for each character, with different objectives and achievements.
Download for IOS & Android
5. Coup
The simplified description of this game is a competitive conviction and hoax game where each person has two cards with roles on them, and the goal is to be the only player left, and to out-smart one another in a merciless melee and to be left with at least one hidden card.
The brawl begins as each player is randomly bestowed two face-down character cards from a deck of 15 cards that contains five different characters. But here’s the thing any player can lie and claim the ability of a card they don’t actually have. But be careful; getting caught in a lie will ‘kill’ one of your cards, forcing you to flip it face up. It’s a really enticing game.
Download for IOS & Android
6. Agricola
The game is really centered on feeding your family; you raise animals, bake bread, grow crops, build out your house, and maybe learn an occupation or two. Because of this, playing the game is an exercise in pure strategy, challenging you to alter how you expand your farm in the way that will net you the most points.
It’s actually more enjoyable than it sounds because it’s a sort of puzzle of how to balance gaining points with the requirement that every few turns you turn in enough food to feed your family members. Sounds cool right?
Download for IOS & Android
7. Exploding Kittens
Even the name sounds somewhat funny but let’s leave the name and get to the game.
The aim of the game is to avoid pulling an “exploding kitten,” cards which can cause you to lose the game, and to bury those deadly cards in the deck where it’s only you that can find where it’s laid. Truly, the app version of this game is far superior to the Tabletop type.
Download for IOS & Android
8. Lords of Waterdeep
In this game, players focus to complete quests to earn points; for example, guiding very major domestication of owlbears – by collecting resources on the map.
The app’s tutorial is extremely amazing, breaking the rules into five easy steps; one flaw of the game is how the app asks you to drag a card to the center to play or complete it, which isn’t very instinctive.
It allows You and up to four of your friends play as lords in the Dungeons & Dragons universe. There’s a part of the map in the game which comes as an animation, i.e a griffon flying across the screen– and the sound effects is also one of the best in any digital board game, making you truly feel like one of the Lords in Waterdeep scheming to get their way.
Download for IOS & Android
9. Galaxy Trucker
What truly separates Galaxy Trucker from so many other adaptations is the best narrative campaign on any board-game app.
The game starts with players building the best spaceship they can with their given components and within the time limit, and then watch it explode and fall apart in meteor storms and space pirate attacks.
This wasn’t just thrown together like some other board games; someone wrote it like a short graphical novel you’ll play your way through many, many games over. Galaxy Trucker was probably the most difficult translate to the mobile platform. Lots of imaginations and creativity-test in this awesome game like having all the guns and no batteries to boot them, then watching them shatter in space from one crazy attack to another.
It’s brilliant and makes the game so much more addictive. you fly your swiftly gathered spaceship through obstacles and enemies, undoubtedly glancing as your ship, and dreams, crumble piece by piece. Madcap and engrossing, this is the best board game you can play on your mobile device.
Download for IOS & Android
10. Neuroshima Hex
The game plays a bit like a classic trading game. It’s a two-player war game set in a post-apocalyptic world of radiation, ungodly mutations and
robotic mercenaries.
Its swift-paced game where players control one of four armies competes for influence and survival.
The world is a hexagonal board and players draw tiles, representing different military units, with powers and abilities varying depending on their type. They are arranged around the headquarters tile in order to protect it from the opponents, and the team, whose headquarters suffers the least damage during the game wins.
You can read fully the rules of Neuroshima Hex here
Download for IOS & Android