My List (both board and card): Ascension: excellent tutorial, fun and variable (luck?) gameplay, excellent async mechanism, polished UI, tons of other players much better than me, but desperately need in-game chat; Carcassonne: excellent tutorial, fun and challenging gameplay (both AI and human), polished UI, tons of other players much better than me, in-game chat, but desperately need a rematch button; Penny Arcade: same as Ascension above, just lighter and more carzier fun; Fluxx: same as PA but even lighter; San Juan: less hard to take up than Ascension, has a lot of potential, but lack of async is killing my game time on it; Magic 2013: do I need to say more? It cannot have async play but I am still visiting it from time to time in spite of its gigantic installation size; Assassin's Creed: same as above with extraordinary gameplay mechanism; Stone Age board game: still waiting for it to go universal. Easy to learn for an economic-themed game, but the async turnaround time is too slow; Catan: first love, but becomes distant due to lack of async; Samurai: easy to pick up, exciting to play, great async feature, but heck I am very poor at it; Lost Cities: my choice of RK favorite after Samurai; Battle of Bulge: (can it be classified as board game?) It has everything good as any Playdek conversions, and also desperately need in-game chat and scenario variations; Le Havre: still struggling to learn how to win it, but the game is fun and complex and may be the best economic-themed game you can find on iOS; Summoner's War: another Playdek gem, I like wargames and i wish there are more AI and players out there. Honorable mentions: Can't Stop (it really needs async MP, I don't like playing with AI all the time); VG Titan HD: the design reminds me of the 1980's design, but where is the zoom button? RK's Kingdom: very much like Ra but it demands more tactical elements in it; Café International: this one is a bit too new in my collection, I have only played one game on it to be sure. Still struggling to learn: Dominate Species; Kingdom Builder; Elder sign Omens; Caylus; T&E.
I don't have too many board games, but I plan to fix that. (I only just got into board games within the past 4 months) Out of the ones I have... Ascension: After playing the physical version I immediately picked up this version and eventually got all the dlc. It's an amazing game. Carcassone: Production values are banging, though the game itself is decent. New World Colony: Haven't gotten Catan yet but this is a very similar game with the exception that you can attack the other players. Very fun. Bang!: Very minimalistic but still a fun exciting game Puerto Rico: Haven't played too much of it, but I hope to soon. Should hold me over until the release of Agricola Penny Arcade: Plays like a combo of Ascension and Dominion, pretty good. Tikal: Pretty thought provoking game, I wish it was optimized a bit better, but core gameplay is fun. Fluxx: Madness! Very little strategy, but still fun nonetheless I hope to pick up: Ticket to Ride Small World Catan Lost Cities The Forbidden Island Kingdom Builder Elder Sign Omens
If you like elder signs you, don't sleep on phantom leader. It's awesome. It's kind of minimilastic in it's presentation, but the missions are so awesome and with real world hardware it is easier to strategize then elder signs and ghost stories, very fun and well worth 15 endless runners or 15 of the latest retro crapfest rpg's TA forums are always abuzz with. Yes $15 is steep, but not really when you really think about it. It's a niche game after all. Anyway, just my 2 cents.
Oh, my bad. I usually just read the contents of posts and skip the author parts, so I have a grasp of what was said, but not who said what...
I am a sinner to miss out Shadow Era, fun as Magic but heck, the ever-changing rules and lack of real campaign let me down. This goes also to the honorable mention. I am looking at the Pandemic, ah, it also need to go universal...
These are the games I currently played for ios boardgame: Caylus => a lot of strategy with no luck factor. Stone Age => this game is very addictive and I played it a lot. I love to play in the game center.
I need a suggestion guys. I'd like to buy Puerto Rico but, reading almost everywhere, is not for a first timer like me who never played the physical version before. You agree? Now i'm playing Collapsible D, Elder Sign and Forbidden Island, and some other card games. Could you suggest me some good title not so much complicated? Thanks very much!
San Juan is supposed to be the card game version of Puerto Rico. I went through the ingame tutorial and was able to grasp it immediately. Caveat: I have not played Puerto Rico yet, even though it is sitting on my iPad... As for simpler boardgames: Café International Can't Stop Journey of Fortune: Dragon's Fire Kamate Miles Bournes Tintin Reiner Knizia's Battleline Reiner Knizia's Keltis HD Reiner Knizia Kingdoms Reiner Knizia's City of Secrets Skyline HD Roll Through the Ages Scotland Yard Small World Ticket to Ride
I would second San Juan if you're interested in Puerto Rico but concerned about the difficulty. It kind of gives the feel in a VERY stripped down fashion. If you love San Juan, it might be worth taking the plunge on Puerto Rico.
This is a great thread. I just picked up The Jam based upon it showing up on a couple of Top 20 lists. I will post my own list when I get home from work, but wanted to pop in and say that Lost Cities and Cafe International are two of my favorite games that seem to have less multiplayer interest than some of the others on these lists. I always welcome game invites for Lost Cities, Cafe International, and many other board and card games. I think I am GC friends with most of you. If not, feel free to send me a GC friend request and/or a game invite if we are already friends.
I hope if they make Lost Cities universal, that they make it play in landscape. I hate playing iPad games in portrait. Cafe International, I don't really care for. It's well done, just not my cup of tea.
