6 more Digital Board Games to play

A few days ago we wrote about playtesting the digital board game implementation of BattleLore called BattleLore: Command. It’s been fun testing a game app during the development process. And it’s also been a lot of fun from a game perspective.

However, the downside has been that so far it’s mostly been a single-player experience.

One of the biggest reasons we love board games is the interactive nature of the games – sitting with others at the table for a shared fun experience.

But that doesn’t mean that all digital board games are bad. Or that you can’t still enjoy a shared gaming experience with friends through digital games.

There are a lot of benefits to digital board games over physical board games. We wrote about a number of them earlier this year as well (portable, no set up time, no space limits, scorekeeping, and time).

After all, how else can you play Small Word in the car?

As long as we don’t let solitary play of digital board games override our experiences playing with others, we give them a thumbs up.

Here are 6 ‘new-to-us’ digital board games we’ve recently played that are fun to play with others.

Scotland Yard

If you saw our recent board game review of Scotland Yard, you’ll know that it’s a great deduction game we enjoy playing. So when we saw it available as a digital board game, it was hard to pass up.

Like the physical version, the digital version allows for up to 6 players. And just like the standard version, everyone in our family clamors to be Mister X. (It’s just fun being the one on the run that everyone else is trying to catch.)

The only downside to the digital game is the Tutorial text. The map of London is a great implementation of the physical board. But that also means it can be very busy to look at. For some reason, the developers decided to use white text in the tutorial. Who knows why they haven’t changed it in updates since, but it’s impossible to read over the busy board.

So if you’re going to play it (which we recommend), then we’d highly suggest you learn the rules of the game from a source other than the in-game tutorial.

Galaxy Trucker

Galaxy Trucker is a board game that I’ve had on my wish list for who knows how many years (a very long time). However, every time I’m close to buying it, I hesitate and choose something else. But the allure is continuously there.

I’ve had a pretty good feeling that my buddies would love playing it on our monthly Guys Game Night. They’d enjoy quickly rushing to build our space freighters in the first round and then watching them get destroyed during the second round. It has always sounded like fun.

But I’ve never taken the plunge…

Until it was recently released on iOS in a digital version.

Then I couldn’t stop myself. What better way to test it out?

The good news is that it turned out to be a game I enjoy. And there are optional ways to play with others – Pass & Play or Online.

Sticking with the face-to-face fun of gaming, we prefer the pass and play option.

6 Takes

6 Takes is an implementation of a card game that’s known by many names such as 6 Nimmt and Category 5.

In 6 Takes, you don’t want to claim the played cards. Each card has a certain number of bull icons that indicate the points you’ll score for taking that card. The player with the lowest score will win.

In the game, players start with a hand of 10 cards (numbers range up to 104). They simultaneously choose and reveal a card from their hand, then add the cards to the rows, with cards being placed in ascending order based on their number. When the sixth card is placed in a row, the owner of that card claims the other five cards and the sixth card becomes the first card in a new row.

There are a few other rules to learn, but overall it’s a very simple card game that plays very quickly in the digital version. And it’s fun.

It’s also easy to get carried away and play many times in a row.

Cafe International

Cafe International is a decades-old card game that was just recently released in digital form.

The game revolves around seating multi-national customers in a restaurant. The board shows many different tables, each with four chairs around them. The tables are grouped by nation, so the Chinese like to sit with other Chinese.

However, some of the chairs are on the border between two nations, so a person from either place could occupy the seat. To further complicate things, each of the people is either male or female, and tables must be gender-balanced.

It’s a tricky game to get the hang of and takes some thinking. The great thing about the digital version of the game is that it helps you figure it all out. Since the game won’t let you place a customer in illegal locations, it helps quite a bit with learning the game.

After you learn the basics, challenge your friends.

Lords of Waterdeep

Lords of Waterdeep is another game that I’ve had on my wish list for a long time. Since its release in 2012, there’s been a lot of buzz about the board game. Many people have claimed it’s THE intro game for the worker-placement style of game.

If you’re not familiar with worker-placement board games, they revolve around sending your “workers” out to dedicated spots on the board to claim certain goods, money, skills, abilities, or special powers. Players then use combinations of those collected items to convert to victory points.

Lords of Waterdeep is set in the fantasy world of Dungeons & Dragons, but you really don’t need to be a D&D fan to enjoy the game. That’s the theme, but the essence is really just about sending your pawns to collect resources to accomplish different Quest cards for points.

I was almost able to play the physical game at SaltCon earlier this year, but had to pass up the chance. So instead, I bought the digital board game first to learn how to play the game and see what it’s like.

While I’ve enjoyed playing the game with Caleb, and the implementation is very good. I think I’d enjoy the physical version much more.

Carcassonne

Carcassonne has been a Family Favorite board game ever since we got into board gaming with our kids. We love playing the tiles and watching the countryside grow and develop differently every time.

So it’s a wonder that it took so long to buy and play the digital version of Carcassonne.

The game plays very well in the digital implementation.

When it’s your turn to place a tile, the board will highlight possible positions to play the tile. So it’s really easy to see where it may go and make your choice. It’s also easy to rotate the tile and select where on the tile you’d like to place your meeple (city, road, field).

More importantly, the game is fun to play.

However, the fun just doesn’t match the physical board game for us.

The expansive view of the growing countryside just doesn’t translate well on an digital tablet. Sure the tiles get placed, and the countryside grows.

But in a sense, it also shrinks. To see the whole area, you have to zoom out. Which makes everything smaller in view and scope. The countryside will always be limited by the screen size.

Sure the game plays in a fraction of the time, and that’s good when you don’t have a lot of time to play. But it’s hard to beat the fun of laying out physical tiles and watching the world expand to cover the table.

Conclusion

So there you have it – those are 6 new-to-us digital board games we’ve enjoyed playing.

A few are great outright. Others it will depend on the setting. For example, if you’re traveling and want to take some games along, physical board games may just not be feasible. Taking a bunch of digital board games on a tablet will save a lot of space and can be easy to pass around in the car, van, or airplane.

Also, let’s not forget those digital board games that we still love in both physical and digital form:

• Ticket to Ride and Ticket to Ride: Europe
• Kingdom Builder
• Small World
• Alien Frontiers

There are a zillion digital games available to give us a break from time to time. The big caution is that we don’t let the ease and availability of so many fun diversions take us away from what truly matters – human relationships.

Don’t let all your time be sucked up in single-player digital board games.

Share the enjoyment and play the games with others!