Monthly Archives: July 2020

My Top Ten Board Game Apps

apps

During the past week the Dice Tower did their top ten board game apps. It was an interesting list from the four presenters.

But you know what I thought the world needed to know what my current top ten board game apps are.

What follows and in no particular order are my current top ten board game apps on iOS. After all iOS is my platform of choice.

Starting in the top left of the grid below we have Epic the Card Game. This game scratches my MtG itch on iOS. It’s totally free to play, you get all the cards, the only thing you pay for is cosmetic stuff or entry into competitions. And I absolutely love playing dark draft against my friends. Dark draft is a fantastic format for drafting two players. It has a great air of mystery to it. You have an idea what cards your opponent could have but not exactly what they have.

Next to Epic is Lords of Waterdeep. The classic worker placement game. A great implementation that I love playing against the AI. And the nice thing is it has the Scoundrels of Skullport expansion. I love playing the game with the expansion even if it does increase the play time.

Finishing off the top row is another worker placement game Viticulture. One of the newer games on the list. Another good implementation of a favourite game. The only draw back for me is that there is no Tuscany expansion (yet). So it kind of feels weird playing just the original version of the game.

Middle row left is the two player game Jaipur. A really great implementation of a classic. Not much more I can say really.

Dead centre is the classic two player game Lost Cities. I’ve been playing this for years now. I love the game, and not having to do the maths for the scoring is a god send, as is having a count of the number of cards left in the draw deck. That alone makes life and planning so much easier when playing.

Carcassonne closes the middle row off. This is the new version of the game with the updated interface, which meant I had to rebuy everything. But it has my favourite expansions for the game so I’m happy.

Bottom left sees another new to iOS app Scythe. If you are a regular reader of this blog you know how I feel about Scythe. It’s my favourite game of all time. It’s been a while for this to be released on iOS and frustrating seeing it on the PC. But they have delivered a great version of the board game.

Tokaido sits in the bottom middle. An amazingly beautiful looking app that captures the art style of the board game. The app does something other adaptions rarely do, it doesn’t look or feel like a board game.

Finishing off the grid is Santorini. This app captures the amazing beautiful looking two player abstract game wonderfully.

Lastly rounding off the ten is probably the game I’ve played the most (with 9099 games played! and a 40.19% win ratio) Star Realms. I just love this deck builder from day one of playing the physical game to getting the app and the umpteen games I’ve played. With so many expansions now there is so much variety and replay ability I don’t get bored playing the game. Plus WWG don’t rip you off, it’s policy of pay once and have everywhere was ground breaking, tied in with games sync across platforms. So start playing on your phone, get home login on your PC and pick right up there.

One to watch out for once it is out of beta is Roll for the Galaxy. I enjoyed the board game, although like all the games in my collection it doesn’t see the table nearly as much as it should. But this app version of the game is something else. It’s become a perfect little filler game for me when I have 5 minutes spare. I fire the app up, play against the AI. The games are really quick.

I’m going to finish off this post with just a screen grab of the board game apps I have installed.

Hope folks found this interesting and maybe curious enough to try something new app wise.

Dune board game gets spicier!

RPG

Sadly with the current state of things out in the big bad world, getting the email from Modiphius saying I’d been chosen to take part in the closed beta/play test for the upcoming Dune RPG wasn’t as exciting news as it should have been.

Despite the relaxation of the lockdown going ahead (even if the what little evidence the Government has released doesn’t really back this decision up), I’m being a lot more cautious. I’m not going to put Nan or Mum in danger because Boris’s mates are losing money.

So in the interest of reducing the risk of exposure to them it’s going to be a few weeks before I’m going to be socialising in a public space, and therefore gaming. Which means I’m not in a position to help out Modiphius and get a sneak peak at a RPG I’m very keen to play.

In the meantime we have seen the release of an expansion for the Dune board game.

Over the years while the game was out of print the Dune board game became this mythic beast that people would speak in awe of, and how much they loved playing it. Last year saw Gale Force 9 reprint the board game with some game play tweaks. Naturally I got a copy and the game did not disappoint.

I’ve been a fan of the books for decades now, along with the David Lynch movie. For me the board game captured the spirit of the first book perfectly.

Last week saw the release of the Ixians and Tleilaxu House Expansion for the game.

So basically we have two more factions to choose from when playing the game.

The expansion has everything you need to add the two new factions to the game, cards, tokens, faction shields and player aids.

Understandably I’ve not played with these yet. Heck it popped through the letterbox yesterday. Plus the social distancing etc (see above). However I can’t wait to get the game to the table and play with these new houses. But there are so many games I want to get to the table when it’s safe to do so.

If you compare what you get for your money to say the Alien RPG Maps and Markers pack, this expansion is amazing value.