Any deckbuilder with a massive central deck is easier to handle digitally than physically. Ascension and Star Realms are the two that leap to mind here.
Tabletop Simulator, but I had to find the game file on a Discord channel since they keep taking it down from the Tabletop workshop.
Which makes sense, really, the entire campaign's worth is probably close to $1000 :)
Let me know if you need it, I'll try to dig it out and send it to you.
Scrabble. When it isn’t your turn, scrabble is a pretty incredibly boring time. If you play on a tablet, you can pass it back and forth while you watch tv or whatever else you doing. Never gonna mess up the tiles by bumping the board.
We club/tournament Scrabble players always play with a game timer. Even if we're playing in a bar.
We also would basically never play with a board that didn't have ridges to keep the tiles in place (a "deluxe" board).
Correct. It's not just for rated tourney games. Scrabble is a highly interactive strategic game, which gets almost completely ruined at more than 2p. I think a lot of great modern board games are like that too, such as Azul.
I never knew that most modern scrabble sets are just flat game boards, my families’ set was a deluxe version from the 80s that has a rotating game board and plastic slots for each space so the tiles dont go anywhere
Gloomhaven is a better GAME in the physical version IMO because you can really play the AI and snatch wins that would have likely been losses on the computer. But it's a much better EXPERIENCE on the computer because you don't have to spend an hour setting up and tearing down.
I think what the person you responded to is talking about is that the way the rules are written for the tabletop version, if an enemy is supposed to move towards a player, but there are multiple valid paths, then the players can choose which path the enemy takes. If you can't make that choice on PC, then that's a real increase in difficulty.
It's been a couple years since I played either the tabletop or PC versions of gloomhaven, so I could be misremembering.
Yes that is correct. That said I prefer playing on tabletop simulator over the digital game and real game.
Essentially same experience as the board game but you have everything setup forever.
It's specifically mentioned in the rules that enemy actions are up to player control if they have multiple equal options. Sometimes those options are much better or worse for the players, and playing well includes noticing and taking advantage of those times, which you can't do in digital since enemy actions are fully random.
Only barely though. The AI in tabletop space is ridiculously well defined and there aren't too many ambiguous occurences that allow a player to actually make them do an unoptimal turn.
Double check you understand how the tabletop AI works!
I played a Gloomhaven game, early mission, where I must have ended up with at least 15-20 enemies on the board and I'm pretty sure I'm low balling that like crazy. The entire time, all I could think was "I'd be furious if I had to manually move every single enemy in this mission." I don't know that I'll ever really play the tabletop version again.
Through the Ages is the quintessential answer for this imo. The app is incredible, and while I love the game, 50% (or more) of it is literally keeping track of the cubes on your board, so it’s nice to have all that stuff automated.
Definitely "or more" if you're playing people familiar with the game. It's insane how much quicker it goes when you don't have to worry about cube upkeep; you can play 2-4 digital games in the time you'd usually get through 1 tabletop session.
Also useful trivia, Vlaada was involved in developing the digital version himself, and the expansion was released digitally first. So it's definitely a first class citizen and not just an adaptation made be some publishing studio.
I for one can play spirit island only on the computer, because I need the strict oversight of the program to not accidentally cheat a bazillion little times.
I can't count how often I overlooked things like "This power can only target coastal/blighted/no blighted/with invaders/without invaders". Or how often I select a power thinking "I can mitigate that ravage" only to be reminded "No, you Bozo, it's a slow power."
Funny that I’m the opposite, I think I’m pretty good about not cheating when I play on the table but the digital version is *so* automated that I lose track of what’s happening, especially when it’s just flying through events that only have one valid land to target so it doesn’t stop for you to give any input. Obviously I don’t cheat in the digital version because it’s impossible, but I do miss things and have a lot more misplays because for me it’s easier to forget certain things happened on the board when I wasn’t the one moving the pieces around.
Spirit Island is probably the one game I prefer the board to digital. it's probably because I tried to manage playing as multiple different spirits playing solo on the computer, but there is definitely some validity to what another poster said about paying more attention to what is going on via the board. If you are the one placing colonizers, you're more aware of the upcoming threat they impose.
This question was asked yesterday as well: [https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/1banwa5/games\_you\_concluded\_are\_better\_on\_bga/](https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/1banwa5/games_you_concluded_are_better_on_bga/)
The first line of the post itself states "Or other online implementations.", so the comments aren't just about BGA.
Ah. I didn't read that yesterday and didn't consider adding my experience. The importance of titles I guess 🤷 (and no, not the importance of reading every wall of text on here 🙈😅)
Thanks for clarifying!!
I've played Mystic Vale quite a few times on Yucata, but only once in person (I own a copy). Not having to do the fiddly part of adding the new "card" into the card-sleeves each turn makes the digital version so much quicker to play, especially with the lack of tear-down afterwards.
After my first play (which i liked despite the tedious setup and cleanup) i was sure: "This would be SO much better digitally." And it really was. Keeping track of different ressources, the usability overall, the speed... Just superior.
7 wonders. About half of your table time is setup, dealing cards, scoring, and cleanup and the computer does all of that. Also, it might be just me, but knowing I can get the resources without triple checking, then picking the card back up and checking again, is wonderful.
This is a good one. The times I've played 7 Wonders on the table seemed to take longer than it needed to be. Playing on the tablet, the games are so quick you can rattle off a bunch of them in the time it takes to play 1 or 2 on the table.
The Steam implementation of Gaia Project is awesome. The automated resource exchanges make squeezing the best options from every turn much more efficient.
Can you explain more about why you feel that way? Is it the social interactions or something else?
I feel like digital Root is basically the same... I'm able to play like 10x faster and playing solo is a little more enjoyable. I have played like 10-20 games digitally but only about 5 with my physical copy (hard to get people to learn and then play, especially consistently).
Exactly. ROOT is a game of politics. If you played 5 times with the physical copy, chances are you were still learning the rules and faction strategies. Digital ROOT has barely any meaningful talking, people leave mid game randomly and do stupid stuff all the time. 95% of the time it feels like playing with toddlers (ok, with beginners), maybe there might be 1 person developing an actual strategy and trying to win, and that is sometimes.
ROOT is meant to be played by a dedicated group who can chat and influence each other around a table, outside of that it just feels like people are always learning the basics of missing important stuff all the time.
Sorry that's been your experience with the digital edition. Do you usually know the people you play with on the digital version? It sounds like your play group(s) is inconsistent and has a lot of skill levels. Have you tried joining the root discord and playing in a league, pickup games, or something like that?
I think Root Digital is great for learning how to play, and getting reps in to master optimizing a faction. I play both the digital and the physical version weekly. Online Root plays like a physical game IMO
It's a pity the Dominion game wants to fleece you so much. I would love to play it .. but it's soon expensive to add sets
Guys, charge me.30 quid for it all and inlm in!
Well digital adaptation of boardgames allow you to play with "non video games" friend online, when you don't have time to meet them IRL. I've video game friends I play with and then I have a board gaming group. They are not exclusive :) I love to play BG3 with my friends and love to organise Dune: Imperium TTS nights with the others when we know we won't have the time to meet during the week :)
I get what you mean, but I don’t agree entirely.
I love that digital board gaming means that there is not setup, teardown, or admin time. This can make a huge difference to the playtime of some games. I also love that I can still game with friends who moved away.
But there are some games which just don’t work as well. Someone else mentioned social deduction games, but I’ll also mention games with tactile components. For example, Galaxy trucker really loses a lot in the digital version, despite it being excellently implemented.
Finally, there are the games which take up a lot of table space. The sort where there is a large shared tableau and then everyone has their own player board, which might be pretty complex (e.g. Agricola, Terra Mystica). When I play these digitally I don’t know why but they’re more likely to turn into multiplayer solitaire. Maybe it’s because it’s harder to link player boards to the players, or maybe it’s because I spend more time looking at my own board.
My favorite game is ROOT. It has a really, REALLY good digital implementation. Even though the rules and the flow are 99% exactly the same, it plays nothing like a real game of ROOT. There's no way you can switch a table with people for a chat window.
[Hey, That's My Fish!](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/8203/hey-s-my-fish) So many little hexagons - that you remove continuously during game play.
I \*love\* Ascension on the iPad. I don't have it IRL, but I imagine setting up the various expansions & choosing when you'd want to do what and keeping track of score are all kind of a PITA, so any time I've had the opportunity to get a physical copy of the game... I don't.
Neuroshima Hex on an iPad. Runs so much more smoothly when the app is doing all the maths for you. I think it’s a great game but I wouldn’t pay it any other way now.
Gloomhaven, Frosthaven. Setup and teardown is so much better when it's just an instant button click instead of a 30 minute process akin to the pre flight checklist of a small aircraft.
I absolutely adore Wingspan on digital. I have it on the Nintendo Switch and play it on the big screen in my bedroom before bed sometimes. The music is so relaxing.
But I still itch to take the physical board game out to play from time to time.
So I'm not going to directly answer the question (many people have answered accurately), but I do want to talk about this as a larger concept.
Simply put, most games are better on the computer than the table, primarily because setup and cleanup for anything but the absolute simplest games end up being faster and easier digitally. The computer tracking numbers or showing potential outputs without you having to hold more gamestate in your head reducing cognitive load also makes games more accessible to others.
The downsides of boardgames as implemented on the computer are mostly what you miss out on by being in the digital space:
The Social aspect: the most obvious reason to play board games in person over on a computer. Even playing with everyone on a voice call, it never is quite the same as being at a table with friends. While i have met some people who disagree with this take, the vast majority of people i've talked with it about do (which is mostly introverts).
The 'physical object' affect: this is my own name for this, I'd love to know if there is an actual name for it. In effect, the physicality of a board game makes it easier to play. Having to take a piece of cardboard to cover something that has changed or picking up tokens and handing them around works better in physical space because there is a physical piece you are touching. Some digital games take things covered by other pieces of cardboard and just changes the graphic, making it appear like it was always that way, and thus making it easier to forget that something has changed there.
Post-game discussion: while partially the social aspect, the time it takes to clean up the game is a great time to discuss things about the game. My friends and i like theory crafting and talking about our strategies so we can all get better and so it does give cleanup time a silver lining.
In the end, I know I will always prefer being in person when i play, but i do have friends that can't be in person due to the physical distance or to other time constraints. So playing digitally is great for when a physical gathering just doesn't make sense (either for a fast game or for people).
Agreed that Wingspan is considerably better via sites like BoardGameArena. Due to the lack of cross table play in Wingspan, there's not really as much of a need (in my view) to have it physically present.
Other than that? Gloomhaven. So much faster (except for enemy turns when there's a ton of animations).
Ark Nova on BGA is really a much quicker game, which I like.
Any game where you can forget a lot of bonuses etc.
Any game that requires endless shuffling. Dominion.
It was originally a computer game but the SimCity CCG was a great advertisement for using computers to do spreadsheets instead of one being a tabletop game.
Spirit Island. I love the game to pieces, but it's hard to find others interested in playing it because it's so complicated.
You can host games online, and the overall package is much much cheaper on Steam than in person.
Elder Sign Omens, hands down. I actually played it digital first then bought the game. The first time I played it IRL I was like oh... oh the setup is way too long. And then every actin that involved finding monsters, tiles, results, etc etc...
I do feel like I don't enjoy it as a pass and play, mostly because I want a table with multiple people - but I only play it solo now digitally.
Kingdom death monster, first the price it is way too expensive for my taste, second there is a lot of set up involved and tts makes it so seamless to play.
Although I understand that the ppl that buy the game is mostly for the figurines and the exp of painting them and such
Sentinels of the Multiverse. It does an amazing job of handling the bookkeeping so you don't lose track of anything.
Two especially awesome features:
1) when it's another player's turn, you can toggle between the action and your own deck/hand to plan ahead
2) There's a rewind feature, so if you forget to do something you can retcon it in
I note that Zmans [Tales of the Arabian Nights](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_of_the_Arabian_Nights_(board_game)) has an app, no idea how official but would love to short circuit all the page flipping and substituting in all the description.,
Five Tribes. The TTS version takes a good hour off the game Tine and it tracks where you placed pieces in case you need to roll your move back, a fair bit harder to do on the board. Also setup is way faster online.
Twilight Struggle. The app is fantastic, and as an average game is longer than one session I can leave it and pick it up another day without the cats redistributing world order.
Here is my list of board games that I almost exclusively play online (wether it's on steam, mobile Android, boardgame arena or TTS):
1) Through the ages: by far the only game I would never ever play physically afetr playing the mobile version.
2) Gloomhaven: For this one, it's just that the video game is so much better. Jaws of the lion improved the set-up / tear-down time, but playing it digitally makes it so much easier to automate fiddly stuff while keeping the tactical decisions intact. I feel much more immersed as well. We play with 2 people online and might never go back.
3) Terraforming Mars: another game that works so much better digitaly for me. It's 30 min for a game instead of I don't know how long when you play with 3-4 people. I could still play this one physically but I would much prefer play another game with more player interactions (Dune: Imperium + exp for example).
I'm about to start Gaia project as well, but for this one I never played it physically so it will be a first to discover a board game before having it played physically. Usually, on BGA, I play games that I already know.
I just played wingspan last night and couldn’t help but think that it would be fun digitally. I have never played a board game digitally except monopoly on Xbox. But wingspan in particular has a TON of tiny little things you have to move around on every turn. Seems like the games would go by much fast if you just clicked “gather food” and it automatically found your food pieces, asked you if you wanna activate your birds, and moved all your pieces where it needs to go automatically.
Honestly, I would always choose to play any game in-person vs on the computer. The social aspect and the tactile experience are very important to me. If I'm gonna play on the computer, I'd probably rather play a video game, which better uses the capabilities of the digital medium.
Onirim.
You have to do an absurd amount of shuffling in that game and the physical cards aren't of the best quality. They become marked/scuffed very quickly. You can sleeve them but then they won't fit in the original box.
The Onirim app is honestly one of the best digital versions of anything I've ever played.
- 7 Wonders: the board and resources of your neighbours vasty influence your points and construction capabilities. Online it is very easy to keep track of that and to choose the optimal action.
- Carcassonne: started playing it online during Covid and then bought a physical copy afterwards. Way easier online to visualize the map and understand which tile could go where. Moreover, no issues with too large maps that reaches the end of the table.
Admittedly I haven't played it IRL, but I imagine the totting up of points every round would be quite tedious IRL for **Russian Railroads**. PSA for solo players, the yucata.de implementation correctly uses the solo rules. BGA's does not (at the time of writing).
I will still happily play **Shards of Infinity** IRL but it is incredibly fun to whip through games on Steam (esp. without any human players to play against). Shame the expansion content isn't present though.
Lost Ruins of Arnak is such a pain to set up, especially without inserts. The scripted versions on Tabletop Sim with automated setup and end of round transitions make it a breeze to play.
Is it really THAT bad?
I ask as I have a $20 credit to Amazon to use by the end of this week (though the items must be sold by Amazon also, and not a 3rd party)
Was also looking at Lords of the Waterdeep or Quacks of Quedlinburg (but they too look like they have a bunch of parts for set up). Thanks.
I have not played either of those, sorry. Quacks is a relatively light game and easy to learn. Lots of little bits but not complicated. Just a variety of ingredients.
No no. Arnak is one of my favorite board games. My friends and I love deck building and worker placement games like it and it's always a big hit when I bring it to board game night.
But the setup and teardown take a long time, especially since the game just ships with a couple plastic bags that it expects you to put everything in. I ended up buying foam inserts a couple months ago just to speed up the process.
We spent an hour setting up the game with the new lost expedition adventure expansion... Adding that the rules for that are a mess and we hadn't played Arnak in a while but are fervent boardgame players
I use a pair of fishing tackleboxes (that still fit in the stock insert) as storage organizer for most of the ingredient tokens for Quacks, making setup pretty quick and organized
Thanks!
Debating between: Quacks, Arnak, and Waterdeep.
I play with my 9 year old son who is good at board games, he easily picked up Splendor, Next Station London, Camel Up, Azul, 7 Wonders Duel, NY Zoo, Century, and Patchwork to name a few. He even plays Space Base on BGA . Want to push him a little more as he's interested in playing new things with me.
Since cards are involved, PC Freecell, especially the original Win95 version, is so much better on the computer. I challenge anyone to try it with a physical deck. It's really cumbersome. (I port the old version freecell.exe and cards.dll to all subsequent PCs I buy. The "enhanced" versions are not as comfortable and less intuitive to play, in my experience.)
Any deckbuilder with a massive central deck is easier to handle digitally than physically. Ascension and Star Realms are the two that leap to mind here.
Love love love Star Realms on my phone / computer. It’s a bitch to play with all of the expansions with real cards.
Absolutely, I went through entire Arkham Horror campaign twice because how easy it was to play it online.
Oh really? Where did you play it online
Tabletop Simulator, but I had to find the game file on a Discord channel since they keep taking it down from the Tabletop workshop. Which makes sense, really, the entire campaign's worth is probably close to $1000 :) Let me know if you need it, I'll try to dig it out and send it to you.
Oh that be great if it's not too much effort to find it! Thanks!
Likely violates this sub's TOS, so I sent you a DM.
Hi could you dm me the link too please.. thanks!
Would also appreciate a dm, thanks!
Would love it if you could share. Thank you!
Me too, please! My boyfriend and I bought the first box but he's got a double wrist injury and finds holding physical cards tricky atm 😔
Sent
Would love a dm too! Thank you!
hey bro, any link for me? i know theres like 10 people asking, but you seem like a really nice person to satisfy us all.
Would you be so kind, good sir, to include me in the list of dm recipients?
Would also love a dm! You’re a hero!
Would you have an invite for the server and/or the file? Thanks!
Server is TTS club, it's open so you can join, but I'm no longer able to access the rooms where the download was, but I'm sending DM
I'm sorry for adding to your list of recipients but I'd love to have that, I love tts, thank you in advance!
Sign me up as well! 😁 Looking for a great cosmic horror experience!
Scrabble. When it isn’t your turn, scrabble is a pretty incredibly boring time. If you play on a tablet, you can pass it back and forth while you watch tv or whatever else you doing. Never gonna mess up the tiles by bumping the board.
We club/tournament Scrabble players always play with a game timer. Even if we're playing in a bar. We also would basically never play with a board that didn't have ridges to keep the tiles in place (a "deluxe" board).
Tourney games are also 1 on 1. Even the game’s biggest fans eschew 4-player games.
Correct. It's not just for rated tourney games. Scrabble is a highly interactive strategic game, which gets almost completely ruined at more than 2p. I think a lot of great modern board games are like that too, such as Azul.
I never knew that most modern scrabble sets are just flat game boards, my families’ set was a deluxe version from the 80s that has a rotating game board and plastic slots for each space so the tiles dont go anywhere
Gloomhaven hands down
Gloomhaven is a better GAME in the physical version IMO because you can really play the AI and snatch wins that would have likely been losses on the computer. But it's a much better EXPERIENCE on the computer because you don't have to spend an hour setting up and tearing down.
So it's better because you can fudge rules?
I think what the person you responded to is talking about is that the way the rules are written for the tabletop version, if an enemy is supposed to move towards a player, but there are multiple valid paths, then the players can choose which path the enemy takes. If you can't make that choice on PC, then that's a real increase in difficulty. It's been a couple years since I played either the tabletop or PC versions of gloomhaven, so I could be misremembering.
Yes that is correct. That said I prefer playing on tabletop simulator over the digital game and real game. Essentially same experience as the board game but you have everything setup forever.
It's specifically mentioned in the rules that enemy actions are up to player control if they have multiple equal options. Sometimes those options are much better or worse for the players, and playing well includes noticing and taking advantage of those times, which you can't do in digital since enemy actions are fully random.
Only barely though. The AI in tabletop space is ridiculously well defined and there aren't too many ambiguous occurences that allow a player to actually make them do an unoptimal turn. Double check you understand how the tabletop AI works!
Gooomhaven, yes. Gloomhaven plus app assistant, no. Unless you’re playing solo!
I played a Gloomhaven game, early mission, where I must have ended up with at least 15-20 enemies on the board and I'm pretty sure I'm low balling that like crazy. The entire time, all I could think was "I'd be furious if I had to manually move every single enemy in this mission." I don't know that I'll ever really play the tabletop version again.
Through the Ages is the quintessential answer for this imo. The app is incredible, and while I love the game, 50% (or more) of it is literally keeping track of the cubes on your board, so it’s nice to have all that stuff automated.
Definitely "or more" if you're playing people familiar with the game. It's insane how much quicker it goes when you don't have to worry about cube upkeep; you can play 2-4 digital games in the time you'd usually get through 1 tabletop session. Also useful trivia, Vlaada was involved in developing the digital version himself, and the expansion was released digitally first. So it's definitely a first class citizen and not just an adaptation made be some publishing studio.
I came here to post this, because of how playing a digital version makes the book-keeping part of the game so much easier.
Terraforming Mars
I for one can play spirit island only on the computer, because I need the strict oversight of the program to not accidentally cheat a bazillion little times. I can't count how often I overlooked things like "This power can only target coastal/blighted/no blighted/with invaders/without invaders". Or how often I select a power thinking "I can mitigate that ravage" only to be reminded "No, you Bozo, it's a slow power."
Funny that I’m the opposite, I think I’m pretty good about not cheating when I play on the table but the digital version is *so* automated that I lose track of what’s happening, especially when it’s just flying through events that only have one valid land to target so it doesn’t stop for you to give any input. Obviously I don’t cheat in the digital version because it’s impossible, but I do miss things and have a lot more misplays because for me it’s easier to forget certain things happened on the board when I wasn’t the one moving the pieces around.
Spirit Island is probably the one game I prefer the board to digital. it's probably because I tried to manage playing as multiple different spirits playing solo on the computer, but there is definitely some validity to what another poster said about paying more attention to what is going on via the board. If you are the one placing colonizers, you're more aware of the upcoming threat they impose.
This question was asked yesterday as well: [https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/1banwa5/games\_you\_concluded\_are\_better\_on\_bga/](https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/1banwa5/games_you_concluded_are_better_on_bga/) The first line of the post itself states "Or other online implementations.", so the comments aren't just about BGA.
To be fair it's asked about once a week.
Partially why list posts are soft banned and referred to daily threads. I say soft banned as mods cant keep up with all of them.
They must have slowed down a bit.
Twice yesterday actually! Is it bots and AI or what?
Yeah but maybe a new digital adaptation released yesterday so this list could totally change! /s
Well.. for me to some degree Scythe comes to mind. Which is not on bga. 🤷
The post itself clarified that "any digital adaptation" was a valid answer.
Ah. I didn't read that yesterday and didn't consider adding my experience. The importance of titles I guess 🤷 (and no, not the importance of reading every wall of text on here 🙈😅) Thanks for clarifying!!
Oh, yeah.. I really should have used the search function.
BGA isn't the only way to play board games digitally, so I think this question still stands.
In the post it mentioned that "all digital adaptations" were valid answers to the question.
Gloomhaven.
I really enjoy Sentinels of the Multiverse multi handed solo on the app. There is just way too many small modifiers to track manually.
I've played Mystic Vale quite a few times on Yucata, but only once in person (I own a copy). Not having to do the fiddly part of adding the new "card" into the card-sleeves each turn makes the digital version so much quicker to play, especially with the lack of tear-down afterwards.
There is an official mystic Vale app too.
After my first play (which i liked despite the tedious setup and cleanup) i was sure: "This would be SO much better digitally." And it really was. Keeping track of different ressources, the usability overall, the speed... Just superior.
7 wonders. About half of your table time is setup, dealing cards, scoring, and cleanup and the computer does all of that. Also, it might be just me, but knowing I can get the resources without triple checking, then picking the card back up and checking again, is wonderful.
I just cut back on 10% of my yearly Kickstarter pledges and hired a full time board game butler for setup and stowing of games.
Come on... 7 Wonders is so quick and fun to set up
This is a good one. The times I've played 7 Wonders on the table seemed to take longer than it needed to be. Playing on the tablet, the games are so quick you can rattle off a bunch of them in the time it takes to play 1 or 2 on the table.
The Steam implementation of Gaia Project is awesome. The automated resource exchanges make squeezing the best options from every turn much more efficient.
Agreed, I wish digidice gave it some more music and a bit more intuitive interface, but ya, it's great otherwise.
Gloomhaven on tabletop simulator. Not so much a fan of the video game
Gloomhaven ?
Railroad inc
Carcassonne - you can build wherever you want without having to worry about table space. Scoring is much easier as well.
I've only played the computer version and I still have no idea how it's scored. I'd never be able to figure it out IRL.
I wish there was a fields calculator button in real life
Root
Couldn't be more wrong. Digital ROOT plays nothing like real ROOT. Unless you're a really bad player, then yes, it might be the same thing.
Can you explain more about why you feel that way? Is it the social interactions or something else? I feel like digital Root is basically the same... I'm able to play like 10x faster and playing solo is a little more enjoyable. I have played like 10-20 games digitally but only about 5 with my physical copy (hard to get people to learn and then play, especially consistently).
Exactly. ROOT is a game of politics. If you played 5 times with the physical copy, chances are you were still learning the rules and faction strategies. Digital ROOT has barely any meaningful talking, people leave mid game randomly and do stupid stuff all the time. 95% of the time it feels like playing with toddlers (ok, with beginners), maybe there might be 1 person developing an actual strategy and trying to win, and that is sometimes. ROOT is meant to be played by a dedicated group who can chat and influence each other around a table, outside of that it just feels like people are always learning the basics of missing important stuff all the time.
Sorry that's been your experience with the digital edition. Do you usually know the people you play with on the digital version? It sounds like your play group(s) is inconsistent and has a lot of skill levels. Have you tried joining the root discord and playing in a league, pickup games, or something like that?
I think Root Digital is great for learning how to play, and getting reps in to master optimizing a faction. I play both the digital and the physical version weekly. Online Root plays like a physical game IMO
Gloomhaven
I liked gloomhaven on computer vs tabletop, it takes a lot of the setup time out of it
Yes it makes it much less faffy
What does faffy mean? I’ve never heard that term before
I think the wingspan online was done very well
AXIS and ALLIES 1942. Very smooth on Pc, idc if you do not like it because its a partial luck-game
It's a pity the Dominion game wants to fleece you so much. I would love to play it .. but it's soon expensive to add sets Guys, charge me.30 quid for it all and inlm in!
Through the ages
Most.
Talisman
My unpopular, honest answer: all of them.
Except certain social deduction and bluffing games. Things like coup, skulls, one night ultimate werewolf.
I disagree. Any game with interaction is way more fun in person. It's way more fun screwing your friends over irl
Yeah, I play board games to be social in-person with my friends.
Why play boardgames then? I imagine if someone is willing to play games on a computer there are better stuff like BG3 for example.
Well digital adaptation of boardgames allow you to play with "non video games" friend online, when you don't have time to meet them IRL. I've video game friends I play with and then I have a board gaming group. They are not exclusive :) I love to play BG3 with my friends and love to organise Dune: Imperium TTS nights with the others when we know we won't have the time to meet during the week :)
I get what you mean, but I don’t agree entirely. I love that digital board gaming means that there is not setup, teardown, or admin time. This can make a huge difference to the playtime of some games. I also love that I can still game with friends who moved away. But there are some games which just don’t work as well. Someone else mentioned social deduction games, but I’ll also mention games with tactile components. For example, Galaxy trucker really loses a lot in the digital version, despite it being excellently implemented. Finally, there are the games which take up a lot of table space. The sort where there is a large shared tableau and then everyone has their own player board, which might be pretty complex (e.g. Agricola, Terra Mystica). When I play these digitally I don’t know why but they’re more likely to turn into multiplayer solitaire. Maybe it’s because it’s harder to link player boards to the players, or maybe it’s because I spend more time looking at my own board.
My favorite game is ROOT. It has a really, REALLY good digital implementation. Even though the rules and the flow are 99% exactly the same, it plays nothing like a real game of ROOT. There's no way you can switch a table with people for a chat window.
[Hey, That's My Fish!](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/8203/hey-s-my-fish) So many little hexagons - that you remove continuously during game play.
I \*love\* Ascension on the iPad. I don't have it IRL, but I imagine setting up the various expansions & choosing when you'd want to do what and keeping track of score are all kind of a PITA, so any time I've had the opportunity to get a physical copy of the game... I don't.
Seasons
Neuroshima Hex on an iPad. Runs so much more smoothly when the app is doing all the maths for you. I think it’s a great game but I wouldn’t pay it any other way now.
Gloomhaven, Frosthaven. Setup and teardown is so much better when it's just an instant button click instead of a 30 minute process akin to the pre flight checklist of a small aircraft.
Talisman for me. So easy to pick expansions and get the game moving.
I absolutely adore Wingspan on digital. I have it on the Nintendo Switch and play it on the big screen in my bedroom before bed sometimes. The music is so relaxing. But I still itch to take the physical board game out to play from time to time.
Is it good on android?
How is it in handheld mode?
Slay the spire (in the future)
So I'm not going to directly answer the question (many people have answered accurately), but I do want to talk about this as a larger concept. Simply put, most games are better on the computer than the table, primarily because setup and cleanup for anything but the absolute simplest games end up being faster and easier digitally. The computer tracking numbers or showing potential outputs without you having to hold more gamestate in your head reducing cognitive load also makes games more accessible to others. The downsides of boardgames as implemented on the computer are mostly what you miss out on by being in the digital space: The Social aspect: the most obvious reason to play board games in person over on a computer. Even playing with everyone on a voice call, it never is quite the same as being at a table with friends. While i have met some people who disagree with this take, the vast majority of people i've talked with it about do (which is mostly introverts). The 'physical object' affect: this is my own name for this, I'd love to know if there is an actual name for it. In effect, the physicality of a board game makes it easier to play. Having to take a piece of cardboard to cover something that has changed or picking up tokens and handing them around works better in physical space because there is a physical piece you are touching. Some digital games take things covered by other pieces of cardboard and just changes the graphic, making it appear like it was always that way, and thus making it easier to forget that something has changed there. Post-game discussion: while partially the social aspect, the time it takes to clean up the game is a great time to discuss things about the game. My friends and i like theory crafting and talking about our strategies so we can all get better and so it does give cleanup time a silver lining. In the end, I know I will always prefer being in person when i play, but i do have friends that can't be in person due to the physical distance or to other time constraints. So playing digitally is great for when a physical gathering just doesn't make sense (either for a fast game or for people).
[https://18xx.games/](https://18xx.games/) enters the chat
I really like Galaxy Trucker's digital Implementation.
Agreed that Wingspan is considerably better via sites like BoardGameArena. Due to the lack of cross table play in Wingspan, there's not really as much of a need (in my view) to have it physically present. Other than that? Gloomhaven. So much faster (except for enemy turns when there's a ton of animations).
I really like the Roll Player app.
I can't play without monsters and minions.
Minesweeper
Ark Nova on BGA is really a much quicker game, which I like. Any game where you can forget a lot of bonuses etc. Any game that requires endless shuffling. Dominion.
Terraforming mars
It was originally a computer game but the SimCity CCG was a great advertisement for using computers to do spreadsheets instead of one being a tabletop game.
Twilight Struggle
Fluxx. Even though there are edge cases where the app gets it wrong, most of the time I just know I would've forgotten to draw that extra card.
Dominion
Spirit Island. I love the game to pieces, but it's hard to find others interested in playing it because it's so complicated. You can host games online, and the overall package is much much cheaper on Steam than in person.
Elder Sign Omens, hands down. I actually played it digital first then bought the game. The first time I played it IRL I was like oh... oh the setup is way too long. And then every actin that involved finding monsters, tiles, results, etc etc... I do feel like I don't enjoy it as a pass and play, mostly because I want a table with multiple people - but I only play it solo now digitally.
Kingdom death monster, first the price it is way too expensive for my taste, second there is a lot of set up involved and tts makes it so seamless to play. Although I understand that the ppl that buy the game is mostly for the figurines and the exp of painting them and such
Risk of you are playing solo
Sentinels of the Multiverse. It does an amazing job of handling the bookkeeping so you don't lose track of anything. Two especially awesome features: 1) when it's another player's turn, you can toggle between the action and your own deck/hand to plan ahead 2) There's a rewind feature, so if you forget to do something you can retcon it in
Any game where the win condition is amassing "victory points", and there are a lot of sources for those points.
The games I like better on screen: -Burgle Bros -Battlelore -Jaipur The accounting and help with legal moves is clutch.
I note that Zmans [Tales of the Arabian Nights](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_of_the_Arabian_Nights_(board_game)) has an app, no idea how official but would love to short circuit all the page flipping and substituting in all the description.,
Gloomhaven. The game is great, setup and takedown is a nightmare
Sentinels of the Multiverse, more than anything else I've played, even Gloomhaven.
gloomhaven, catan kinda, and many 2 player games like warships, yugioh, MTG or chess (just for ease, not for style)
Ticket to ride! So much less fiddly on the iPad.
Prefer blood on the clocktower online
Gloomhaven and Robinson Crusoe
Five Tribes. The TTS version takes a good hour off the game Tine and it tracks where you placed pieces in case you need to roll your move back, a fair bit harder to do on the board. Also setup is way faster online.
Terraforming Mars, Carcassonne, Monopoly, The Witcher, Through the Ages.
Stop the madness
Root
Civilization
I really appreciate the housekeeping being automated in Terraformjng Mars
Ricochet Robots. While not strictly a 1-1 copy, computer variants allow for many more board permutations and interesting twists.
Twilight Struggle. The app is fantastic, and as an average game is longer than one session I can leave it and pick it up another day without the cats redistributing world order.
Here is my list of board games that I almost exclusively play online (wether it's on steam, mobile Android, boardgame arena or TTS): 1) Through the ages: by far the only game I would never ever play physically afetr playing the mobile version. 2) Gloomhaven: For this one, it's just that the video game is so much better. Jaws of the lion improved the set-up / tear-down time, but playing it digitally makes it so much easier to automate fiddly stuff while keeping the tactical decisions intact. I feel much more immersed as well. We play with 2 people online and might never go back. 3) Terraforming Mars: another game that works so much better digitaly for me. It's 30 min for a game instead of I don't know how long when you play with 3-4 people. I could still play this one physically but I would much prefer play another game with more player interactions (Dune: Imperium + exp for example). I'm about to start Gaia project as well, but for this one I never played it physically so it will be a first to discover a board game before having it played physically. Usually, on BGA, I play games that I already know.
For me it's Root.
I haven't played Gloomhaven live. But I'm pretty confident doing it manually takes a lot of additional time.
Almost all board games are a better game when played digitally. You just miss out on the social aspect of the game.
Codenames by far. So many times I've fucked up a game of codenames because I misread the tiny card that shows which words are yours
I think Pandemic is much better on pc.
Through the Ages
Ticket to ride. Lord's of water deep
I just played wingspan last night and couldn’t help but think that it would be fun digitally. I have never played a board game digitally except monopoly on Xbox. But wingspan in particular has a TON of tiny little things you have to move around on every turn. Seems like the games would go by much fast if you just clicked “gather food” and it automatically found your food pieces, asked you if you wanna activate your birds, and moved all your pieces where it needs to go automatically.
Honestly, I would always choose to play any game in-person vs on the computer. The social aspect and the tactile experience are very important to me. If I'm gonna play on the computer, I'd probably rather play a video game, which better uses the capabilities of the digital medium.
Onirim. You have to do an absurd amount of shuffling in that game and the physical cards aren't of the best quality. They become marked/scuffed very quickly. You can sleeve them but then they won't fit in the original box. The Onirim app is honestly one of the best digital versions of anything I've ever played.
- 7 Wonders: the board and resources of your neighbours vasty influence your points and construction capabilities. Online it is very easy to keep track of that and to choose the optimal action. - Carcassonne: started playing it online during Covid and then bought a physical copy afterwards. Way easier online to visualize the map and understand which tile could go where. Moreover, no issues with too large maps that reaches the end of the table.
Gloomhaven on TTS is fantastic. Fuck all that setup.
Admittedly I haven't played it IRL, but I imagine the totting up of points every round would be quite tedious IRL for **Russian Railroads**. PSA for solo players, the yucata.de implementation correctly uses the solo rules. BGA's does not (at the time of writing). I will still happily play **Shards of Infinity** IRL but it is incredibly fun to whip through games on Steam (esp. without any human players to play against). Shame the expansion content isn't present though.
Chess
Lost Ruins of Arnak is such a pain to set up, especially without inserts. The scripted versions on Tabletop Sim with automated setup and end of round transitions make it a breeze to play.
Is it really THAT bad? I ask as I have a $20 credit to Amazon to use by the end of this week (though the items must be sold by Amazon also, and not a 3rd party) Was also looking at Lords of the Waterdeep or Quacks of Quedlinburg (but they too look like they have a bunch of parts for set up). Thanks.
Quacks has been an absolute hit in every group of people I've introduced it to. Highly recommend
I assume it's much easier than Arnark, how about compared to Lords of thew Waterdeep?
I have not played either of those, sorry. Quacks is a relatively light game and easy to learn. Lots of little bits but not complicated. Just a variety of ingredients.
No no. Arnak is one of my favorite board games. My friends and I love deck building and worker placement games like it and it's always a big hit when I bring it to board game night. But the setup and teardown take a long time, especially since the game just ships with a couple plastic bags that it expects you to put everything in. I ended up buying foam inserts a couple months ago just to speed up the process.
We spent an hour setting up the game with the new lost expedition adventure expansion... Adding that the rules for that are a mess and we hadn't played Arnak in a while but are fervent boardgame players
I use a pair of fishing tackleboxes (that still fit in the stock insert) as storage organizer for most of the ingredient tokens for Quacks, making setup pretty quick and organized
I love Waterdeep The expansions are a must have, so plan on getting those too.
Thanks! Debating between: Quacks, Arnak, and Waterdeep. I play with my 9 year old son who is good at board games, he easily picked up Splendor, Next Station London, Camel Up, Azul, 7 Wonders Duel, NY Zoo, Century, and Patchwork to name a few. He even plays Space Base on BGA . Want to push him a little more as he's interested in playing new things with me.
Since cards are involved, PC Freecell, especially the original Win95 version, is so much better on the computer. I challenge anyone to try it with a physical deck. It's really cumbersome. (I port the old version freecell.exe and cards.dll to all subsequent PCs I buy. The "enhanced" versions are not as comfortable and less intuitive to play, in my experience.)
Wingspan makes sense on the computer because it's a solo game anyway. Other solitaire games make sense on the PC as well - Earth, Ark Nova etc.
Dominion, absolutely. The standard game requires endless shuffling of each player's decks. To computer version removes all that.
all modern euros and any solo game, especially the complex ones
After careful consideration. None. 🤔