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Welcome to Ars Cardboard, our weekend look at tabletop games! Check out our complete board gaming coverage —and let us know what you think.A common refrain we hear in the comments section of Ars Cardboard stories is, “Man, these games look great! If only I had someone to play them with.”We hear you. Assembling a board game group can be a daunting task, even for dedicated gamers. Hopping online for some multiplayer video gaming takes just a few clicks, but getting a group of busy adults to wrangle conflicting schedules and converge on a single physical space for several hours can often feel like a pipe dream—and that’s if you have gaming friends in the first place.And what if you do have a group but don't play enough? An insatiable hunger for board gaming is an affliction that we at Ars Cardboard share.Fortunately, we also have remedies. Option 1: Solo gamesTo many people outside the hobby, the only thing sadder than playing board games might be playing board games by yourself.
But to the 4,140 members of the (and thousands more like them), it’s a way of life. You already play single-player video games; what’s so different about their physical counterparts? So ignore the haters—solo board gaming can be a blast.Those new to the idea may be surprised to learn just how many games have fun and fulfilling solitaire modes.
Due to their puzzly nature, many Eurogames retain much of their fun as solo exercises, and almost every pure co-op game (think Pandemic) can be played by yourself. Here are a few of our favorite titles.
/ An upgrade card in Friday.The first purchase an aspiring solo gamer needs to make is Friedemann Friese’s brilliant little deckbuilder. If you’ve played, you know how the genre works: you start off with a small deck of crappy cards, and you use those cards to get better cards, crafting an increasingly powerful deck as the game progresses.Here, you play the role of Robinson Crusoe’s Friday, and you’ll help the bumbling Crusoe brave the perils of island living until he’s strong enough to face a ship of pirates circling the island. You’ll get rid of Robinson’s negative trait cards like “Distracted” and “Weak” to make room for more helpful cards like “Experience” and “Realization.”Friday’s crushing difficulty ensures maximum replayability, and its solitaire-only design means you’re always playing the “full game.” It takes about 25 minutes to play and costs $20 or less. Everyone needs a copy of this game.
Mage Knight On the other end of the complexity spectrum sits mad-genius designer Vlaada Chvatil’s gigantic adventure game. If Friday is a satisfying board game snack, Mage Knight is a huge Thanksgiving meal followed by a decadent dessert—and then by a course of leftover turkey sandwiches. It’s long, complicated, and intimidatingly deep.But Mage Knight consistently tops “best solo games” lists because of its immense complexity. The game seats up to four, but most Mage Knight vets recommend that you keep this one as a solo experience. Player turns can be exceedingly long (seriously, ten-minute turns are not unusual) because of the intricate card-driven puzzle you’re presented with on each turn.If the above description hasn’t scared you off, give Mage Knight a good, hard look.
If you can stomach its 3+ hour playing time and huge learning curve, you’ll be rewarded with one of the finest experiences in board gaming, solo or not. Imperial Settlers Imperial Settlers is probably my current favorite solo game, and I’m not alone—the title won the for best solo game in 2014. The game is a Euro-style card-and-token affair that tasks you with creating the best civilization in the ancient world. You start with only a few resources, but through clever card play, you’ll build up a mean, efficient production engine that will let you pull off crazy point-scoring moves by the final round.A solo mode is playable right out of the box, and designer Ignacy Trzewiczek has also published a highly recommended that allows you to build up power and bonuses over multiple game sessions.
Re: Mage Knight App In the Works The app will be a real app that handles the rules and lets you just be a player and not a 'game manager' lol. This is a personal project, it is something I have wanted to see happen for a long time for my favorite game. 2019-4-12 Mage Knight – Solo Board Game. See More Reviews. See More Reviews. CHECK PRICE ON AMAZON. Through Mage Knight, you battle to conquer cities as you battle through throngs of enemies to emerge victorious, all in the name of the Void Council. Its combination of exploration and conquest make it a highly unique gaming experience that stands out as.
Engine-building, multi-use cards, crazy combos—if you’re anything like me, you’ll love this game. And if you do end up getting a group together, you can play the game with up to three friends. Further ReadingSeveral months ago, any self-respecting list of solo games would have had to include perennial solitaire favorites. Today we have a new 'co-op as solo play' card game option., a fun dungeon crawl card game released at the end of 2015, aped mechanics from those previous two games and streamlined them down to their essentials. You can read our review.Other cooperative games that come highly recommended as solo experiences include,. You'll generally take the role of two or more characters when playing a co-op alone—just think of it as commanding a squad in a party-based video game.If you’re looking for other Euro options, the wine-making game has an excellent solo variant (you can also try to track down the and its full expansion, for an even richer experience). And many of designer Uwe Rosenberg’s games are lauded for their solo-ability; I’d recommend the fun Chinese veggie-farming title if you’re keeping it strictly single-player.Finally, check out designer Shadi Torbey's solo-first card games.
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Option 2: Mobile appsIt shouldn’t come as a surprise that many of the options available to solo board gamers involve the digital realm. And there’s no better way to play digital board games than on a tablet. Tablet board game apps promise an approximation of the real deal—on a tablet, you’re not using a mouse to click and drag pieces; you’re moving components around with your actual fingertips. Though not quite the same tactile smorgasbord that you get from a real-life game, it still works surprisingly well.Many board game apps are universal, meaning that you can theoretically play them on your phone as well.
But for most apps, even ridiculously huge smartphone displays will require an uncomfortable amount of zooming and scrolling; bigger is always better here. IOS is definitely the platform of choice for board game apps, but the Android faithful still have some options.All of our picks below feature solo play vs AI, online multiplayer, and “pass and play” game modes. Online modes can be hit or miss, but solo and local modes on all of these titles are solid.
Apps are also a great way to learn new games, as tutorials are standard. Further Reading Splendor($6.99 on and ) is a great mobile version of an Ars tabletop favorite—the title made it onto our ' list (even though, yes, it came out in 2014). Splendor is essentially a competitive puzzle, making it a perfect match for the puzzle-heavy mobile marketplace. I've taken to honing my skills in private so I can dominate my friends when we get together for game night.Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer (base game free on and; expansions available as in-app purchases) is one of the rare tabletop games that actually works better as a digital experience.
Between the constant card shuffling and fiddling with scoring tokens, the physical game can be a bit high-maintenance. The app handles all the busywork for you. Ignore the blah artwork; there’s a fun and addictive deckbuilding game hiding underneath. If you prefer a sci-fi theme, the 2014 hit Star Realms (free on and; additional game modes available as in-app purchases) plays similarly, except you can directly attack your opponent.
It's like a deckbuilder meets Magic: The Gathering. In space!Suburbia (, ) is like a board game version of Sim City.
Each player builds his or her own little suburb, but all the creations exist in the same larger city, so your actions can have an effect on your opponents. Winning the game requires you to carefully manage your reputation, population, and income while buying and placing the tiles that make up your slice of the metropolis. Suburbia is an excellent mathy Euro, and the app helps to cut down on some of the physical game's slightly tedious bookkeeping. A cool solo campaign rounds out the game's modes.San Juan ($4.99 on and ) is the card game version of the classic board game. The digital version's production values won't win any awards, and it's sadly missing the updated cards from the game's. But the game is so much fun that it doesn't really matter. San Juan isn't as deep as the similar (which sadly does not have an app version), but it's easy to learn, quick to play, and always fun.
Further Reading Lords of Waterdeep (, no Android version) is hands-down the best entry point for those wanting to see what this whole 'worker placement' game craze is all about. The iOS version is perhaps a little too faithful to the cardboard original (there's some wasted space on the board, forcing pinching-and-panning on smaller devices), but the overall package is great. A Eurogame disguised as a Dungeons and Dragons quest-'em-up, Lords of Waterdeep is one of my favorites.Agricola (, no Android version) brings Uwe Rosenberg's classic farming epic to your mobile device. If you've ever wanted to live the punishing life of a 17th-century subsistence farmer, Agricola is for you. (I've heard the game described as 'Misery Farm'—an apt description.) And with the app version, you'll no longer have to face the judging eyes of other players as you fail to feed your starving children. (The game is actually fun, I swear.)If the above titles don't do it for you, there's an endless supply of others where those came from.
Galaxy Trucker ($4.99 on and ) is another Ars favorite. Old standbys Pandemic ($6.99 on and ), Ticket to Ride ($6.99 on and ), and Small World 2 ($6.99 on and ) are also worth a look. Really, if there's a board game you're interested in playing on your tablet, look it up—you may well be in luck.Listing image by Aurich / Getty Images.
We're currently enjoying a resurgance in board games the likes of which has never been seen before, and in recent years this has been propelled further by the rise and rise of digital board game ports. From Scythe to Twilight Struggle, not to mention all of the board war games out there, there's plenty of interesting new projects getting released in the physical and digital realms.This is a spin-off of a similar article posted to our sister website Pocket Tactics which has since been retired.
We'll check in with this regularly to see how much we can update, but the goal is to look at, have a look at what is currently popular, and then offer up some research into whether those games are getting digital adaptations or not. You'd be surprised what is and isn't being considered for porting!So, without further ado, let's get started! Board Game Geek's Top Ten Board Games March 2020Now that we've resolved 2014'a list, let's have a quick peak at the list to see where we're at in terms of digital adaptations for mobile.
As we're going to be updating this article semi-regularly, this part especially will change as BGG's own top ten list changes over time. GloomhavenIf any game needed a digital conversion, it'd be this behemoth of an Adventure/RPG.
It'd certainly be a load off everyone’s minds (and backs, for the game weighs 10 kg). Thankfully it's definitely coming to PC at least thanks to Asmodee Digital, and the Early Access kicked off in July 2019. And come up with some pointers for anyone not familiar with the game.2. Pandemic Legacy: Season 1Unlikely, given that Legacy games stake their niche on physical alterations and a permanent end-state, concepts which don't exactly translate well to a digital app.
Although that's not going to stop ACRAM Digital from trying with Charterstone, which is due out at the end of this month. The original game, Pandemic, already has a digital version that's quite good, so we imagine that'll be enough for most people. Terraforming MarsAsmodee digital released their digital adaptation in October 2018 for PC, although the mobile version wouldn't arrive until December 2020! You can read what we thought of the adaptation.4. Brass: BirminghamIt's been a while since there's been a significant change to BGG's top ten, and Brass: Birmingham's ascent has taken us by surprise. If you want to know more about this one you can read its entry in, although as far as we know no digital adaptation is currently being considered.
Through the AgesThrough the Ages was ported back in September 2017, and it was well worth the wait. Available on PC and mobile it's one of our favourite board game ports. In a rare turn of events, some even enjoy playing the digital game more than the table-top version. In an even rarer turn of events, Through the Ages got its first expansion in September 2019, which released for the digital version of the game before the physical version.This game was #4 for a long while, but was recently knock off its spot by Brass.6. Twilight Imperium (Fourth Edition)No, and not in the pipeline for similar reasons as Rebellion below (since FFG owns this one as well). Stretching back aeons (okay, 1997,) this sci-fi game featuring seventeen playable races in its present incarnation (4th ed.) is epic in duration and execution.
Its ambitious design has stood the test of time, offering a related tabletop version of the intricacies of 4X genre, what with the conflict of warfare being counterbalanced by technology, economy and general politicking and ‘diplomacy,’ which is as genteel a front for betrayal and vendetta as any.Given the massive scope, a digital version of this game would be near indistinguishable from a made-from-scratch Space 4X strategy game, and there's precious few of those on Mobile. 7. Twilight StruggleTwilight Struggle is an extraordinarily cerebral head-to-head contest between players taking the roles of the US and the USSR during the Cold War, waging an indirect campaign against one another as you vie for influence with client states and spread your ideology.First released in 2005 (and designed by XCOM: Enemy Within designer Ananda Gupta), Twilight Struggle was released for PC & iOS in 2016 by Playdek, and it was glorious. An Android release followed shortly afterwards, and there was much rejoicing.8.
Star Wars: RebellionNo digital plans that we know of, and probably not going to happen for a few reasons. Like Twilight Struggle, this game simulates a struggle between two factions for ultimate control and is heavy on bluffing and deception. While there's no reason an AI couldn’t reasonably emulate these qualities, FFG generally doesn’t make digital versions of games. They do have a dedicated digital studio which is hard at work making A Game of Thrones: The Board Game 2nd Edition into a digital product, so going from that to Rebellion isn't that large a step.It's worth keep in mind though that Rebellion is also a premium product of a premium IP so its exclusivity on that front means a digital version might cheapen the game’s status, from a business standpoint.( You should all check out the late-90's, which is available on Steam. The board game is pretty much a physical successor -ED) 9.
Gaia ProjectPossibly, especially since its spiritual precursor, Terra Mystica, already has a digital port. If Terra Mystica were re-imagined from the ground up and shot into space, it would look something like Gaia Project, which is a little more sandbox-y and a little less blueprint-y. Still every bit as cutthroat but, going with that space theme, a more capacious and innovative design. Great Western TrailWhile there is for Tabletop Simulator, no 'official' digital implantation has been done yet, and so far nothing has been announced.
This is a game released in 2016 that sees you trying to herd cattle from Texas to Kansas City via train. It involves hand management and point-to-point movement, and is a very much a post-child for the modern board game Renaissance. It seems to have over-taken Scythe in terms of popularity recently, which is interesting.We hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane - let us know if there are any other older articles you want us to take another look at and update!
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