Would really like to see a database on BGG of all the digital boardgames available that we could also rate. If this is already available, or if there is something that is linked on the main page of the game, can someone show me?
I can't believe they didn't put Spirit Island on here. The app is amazing. It's also super expensive but you get your money's worth, especially for solo play.
Through the Ages is amazing. I haven't played many others...Race for the Galaxy is good. Terra Mystica is fine for learning... paperback is fun. Gon Schon Clever, Agricola, Ticket to Ride. I guess I have played a few, but the only one that I really play is Through the Ages.
I've played over 500 games of through the ages on the app. The hard AI is a fantastic challenge, I might win one out of 10 games. I can play at least a dozen games by myself in the amount of time I can play the board game version with people who are familiar with it. It's a must-have if you're a fan of the game.
I really like Pathfinder the Adventure Card Game as an app. It implements the rules well and has a great soundtrack. The entire first campaign is on it which IRL costs about £170! Also surprised Zee didn’t put Nuroshima Hex on his list, he loves that game.
The "Terraforming Mars" app doesn't feel at all like a computer game. I can't recommend it to people that don't know the board game, and especially not to people who expect something different than a board game. The UI is very cumbersome and, despite the nice looking display of the planet, it could do a way better job to support a bit of immersion. But it's still a nice distraction for people who know the board game well. I played the app several times lately. The "Ticket to Ride" app is good, although the UI could be improved, especially the menus and settings. The explanations of the rules of the additional maps fall short, aren't displayed correctly and are overlooked easily. It would actually be necessary to show them prominently and in detail and have a way to look them up during play. The "Lords of Waterdeep" app is good, although the UI could be improved, especially the menus. But I like that it brings up confirm and undo buttons at the correct moments. I also like the app for "Twilight Struggle", although the UI is too laggy. For me "Twilight Struggle" is a game that I likely wouldn't buy or play in paper because of the bookkeeping and representation. But as an app "Twilight Struggle" is great! I really like what I've seen from the apps of "Forbidden Desert" and "Forbidden Island". Sadly they're not available on Steam yet. I never touched "Gloomhaven" but it seems the app is the only doable way to go if you really want to play it.
The Dominion app might be in Beta, but it's pretty excellent. I've already put in hundreds of games. Surprised no mention of Castles of Burgundy. Killed the board game for us.
Is it maybe Play Store exclusive? I also thought it was weird how they were saying one didn't exist..but they're definitely only looking in the App Store
yeah makes me wonder if it is cos of them playing on iphones by the sound of it, the android app looks amazing - i dabbled it in but i wasn't in the mood to learn it yet but looks smooth
@@kakamacat1135 Its great if you're willing to pay for the expansions. The best part is the AI -- hard really feels hard, and medium is still a surprisingly good challenge.
Tom is 100% right for Gloomhaven to be #1. I have a lot of board game apps on ios. Far and away, Gloomhaven (on PC) is the most transformational. The app designers took a complex board game, added all the things that are great about computing (animated graphics, sound, networking, shuffling, setup etc) and delivered an amazing experience. My friends and I played it multiple times each week after work until we finished the campaign and we would never have gotten it to a physical table the same number of times, given any amount of time. And it's way cheaper than the physical game which I will never play again at a table.
Really shocked Zee didn’t say Neuroshima Hex or Convoy. Also especially on a phone roll and writes are amazing because if you have 3-5 minutes to kill you can knock out a game really easily.
Blood Rage is now a very fine and nice implementation of one of my favorite BG. And man i like it so much!! Most of the inital bugs had been fixed. You guys really need to go back to it. Its amazing
One good implementation of a board game in an app is Colt Express. Yeach there were some bugs, yeah Asmodee basically killed it and its not coming back. But its such a simple cool game. Recently I've been playing the Nemesis Lockdown app. Very cool implementation.
The new Dominion app on Android is amazing. What really addicts me to it is the hard mode AI. It REALLY is hard and it's a fun puzzle to play, lose, and try again at the same set until you beat it.
R.I.P. my wallet. I just bought 8 of the apps you mentioned. Thanks for this list! It will really help my toilet sessions. There is only so much Elder Signs Omens I can play before rage quitting when the dice suck. You all rock! Thanks a bunch.
Love the sagrada app, and wingspan. I also don't like switching between the habitats, so I just use their option to see your whole sanctuary at once, like you see it when playing on the table. Works great. And I'm currently playing a lot of cartographers and patchwork. :)
Thanks Tom for including Twilight Struggle As a lover of history and we are close to the same age this game is amazing. I bought it never expecting to ever play it with a human. The App is perfect l. I don’t care about the AI. The theme is excellent. I don’t think it can be beat
Glad to see that Ascension is still killing it. I agree about how it is so flexible with adding and removing expansions. Even the ART of the cards keeps getting updated.
This is one of the top ten intros to anything Dice Tower related by far! 🤣🤣🤣 I might have it as number two, with anytime Sam and Zee went crazy at the beginning of a Back Talk video as number one.
They just came out with Nemesis: Lockdown as a game on PC. Another game with a lot of upkeep and fiddley rules. Seems like a good implementation. Curious to see if it travels to other platforms.
One thing that would be SUPER awesome, is if when you talk about an app, you could mention whether it has ASYNCHRONOUS, online play with friends... I want to play games with my friends, but I never know whether I can play with my friends or not... and I can't play real-time, so it needs to be asynchronous. Ticket To Ride Sagrada Lords of Waterdeep Star Realms Roll For The Galaxy Raiders of the North Sea ...are all great apps that have asynchronous online play with friends.
My absolute number one is star realms. Not the most pretty app but played it so much. 2 is race for the galaxy, 3 terraforming mars and 4 through the ages. I love the implementation in vibe and feel of TFM but I find some interface decisions and default animations (I turn them off) make the game more slow then it needs to be.
There's a lot I haven't played, and a bunch that I really want (Charterstone, Concordia, 7 Wonders, etc). But for now, my top 10 apps would be: Ascension Mystic Vale Cat Lady Wingspan Onirim Through the Ages Aeon's End Patchwork Splendor Isle of Skye Istanbul Morels Kingdom Builder Shephy Jaipur Okay, that's 15. Whatever. Those are the ones I played the most, roughly in that order. I'm most excited for Everdell, assuming that's still coming. And boy, I wish there was an app (with AI) for Food Chain Magnate and Battlestar Galactica.
This has to be one of my favorite lists they've done. Of these I've only used Ticket to Ride, Lords of Waterdeep and Elder Sign. No complaints whatsoever about Elder Sign. I'm not a huge fan of digital dice as there's no true randomness there but the app improves on an already incredible atmosphere from the board game and really gets you into it. My only issues with Ticket and Lords is playing against the AI. For some reason the AI in both games is absolutely brutal. I haven't played Ticket in years since I last played it with friends, and while I only got Lords like a month ago I won't play it again until I can set up a game with my best friend. I also feel the need to mention the first ever video game adaptation of a board game I ever played: Monopoly. This was a version for the SNES that I played on an emulator. Incidentally the AI for this was also heinously difficult, but the thing that sticks with me is that it taught me about a couple of rules that I didn't know about. The most notable of these is the property auction. By the base rules, when you pass on buying an unowned property, you have to have an auction for it, which means that if you're lucky you can buy a property for less than it's default value. I was not even remotely aware of this rule and it would still be years before I realized that it was an actual part of the board game.
I love Tokaido, Splendor, Elder Sign, Raiders, Onirim, Cartographers, Ticket To Ride, Sushi Go, 7Wonders Duel, The Old Dark Tower App. Stone Age had an app for a long time and then it disappeared. Forbidden Island, Desert both great apps.Lanterns is a good app. Just got Potion Explosion still not sure on that one. Jaipur is good, HeyThat'sMyFish with my nephews, Hex and Clever are great. The score Pads for Welcome to are brilliant!
My list would only be 3 games, as they are the only board games I play on a phone or computer. The Clever games by Wolfgang Warsch are incredible & I've played them thousands of times. My favorite is the Clever Hoch Drei 2nd variant.
i imagine this is a hard list to make since it can be approached in so many different ways (does a good game with a so-so app beat out a so-so game with an excellent app; does a bite-sized game trump a large game because it gets played more in app form; etc.) i think i've played all of these apps, except forbidden desert (as it is one of the few that are old enough that it was made when developers thought there was only money in iOS... and i play on android, PC, and Switch.) I'm surprised Spirit Island didn't make any list (thought the people's list would at least have it) as it is my #1. Jaipur would also probably make my list. Wingspan is the only one that I find the digital version worse than the physical (granted I have it on Switch); not that it isn't polished, but because of the method of presentation. for a deep cut, my list would also probably have Dungeon Twister on PS3... too bad it hasn't been brought up to a more modern platform.
My absolute fav app version of a game is Pathfinder Adventures. It's a bit buggy but it alleviates so much of the fiddly bits of PACG and makes it a fun solo-able experience!
Mike said he had no idea about Tom's #1, and with no hesitation I said "Gloomhaven. It's obviously Gloomhaven.". I don't like it as much because my laptop graphics aren't up to snuff and I am constantly clicking on the wrong thing, but that is me, not the app.
I agree with Mike, the Root app is far and away the best implementation of a board game I've ever seen and the team behind it deserves a lot of credit. They've designed fully animated 3D models for each factions' warriors and it really helps make the world feel more alive and thematic. Most other board game apps like Scythe, Spirit Island, etc simply represent the components with renderings of the physical pieces which is perfectly functional but compared to how Root looks, it makes them look a little hollow. The AI for most games like 7 Wonders or others is probably fine but to get the most out of Root, you really want to have human opponents to play against because the AI are pretty bad. This isn't an app problem but more so because the decisions in Root are so far-reaching and deep that a computer would have a hard time outwitting a human who knows the game well. I also find the price to be really fair at around $9.99. It's really a high watermark for board game apps and Direwolf Digital have set a new standard.
I will also say this about Acram: they were really helpful when I submitted crash reports to get me up and running again (Charterstone). My most played app is probably Ticket To Ride. Others I like are Waterdeep, Istanbul, Sagrada, Ganz Schon Clever (et al.), and Tokaido. Also Jaipur, which went the extra mile with a whole solo campaign thing.
Ascension, the one game I bought all the expansions on one device and when I switched OS, bought them all a second time. Bought mine have to be Terraforming Mars, Ticket to Ride, Ascension, and Sagrada. Picked up Root and Tokaido, which are on sale on Android and IOS it seems for one more day(along with a ton others) as of June 29th 2022)
Agree, Zee! Istanbul app is the best! Just bought Root though, and I am going Gloomhaven next Steam sale! For Dominion: Androminion is awesome. Have to sideload now though. Played thousands of games; decent AI too
My top 10 of the apps I have played. Lots of good ones out there. I don't play them often except TtA since I play competitively in tournaments which I can't get in person. Usually good for killing time though. 1) Through the Ages 2) Ascension 3) Cascassonne 4) One Deck Dungeon 5) Suburbia 6) Terraforming Mars 7) Twilight Struggle 8) Race for the Galaxy 9) The Castles of Burgundy 10) Jaipur
I'm also surprised the presenters didn't choose Wingspan more. The music, sound design, and visual design really makes the game on top of the game play itself.
Shame the Mystic Vale app appears to have been abandoned, no updates for ages and stopped after only the same expansions that are in the essential edition
I take it games on Steam are included as there is no Gloomhaven app. Labyrinth: War on Terror is on Steam and is great. Maracaibo, Dominion, Concordia, Roll for the Galaxy, Gaia Project, Spirit Island, Eclipse: Second Dawn for the Galaxy have all very good apps on iOS.
Ooo I’m glad to hear Gloomhaven is coming to iOS! I’ve been itching to play that game but the price, size, setup, and lack of other friends willing to commit has really put me off. Bring it!
