Why Do People Do Solo Gaming?

There are a number of reasons that people play solo games. I can’t probably come up with all of them. But I want to touch on some of the reasons that I play solo games. The idea of solo gaming is likely odd for a lot of people because gaming is often a social experience. But let’s talk about why you might want to, and why it is booming.

It’s The Only Way To Game

Sometimes solo gaming is the only option. So if you want to play a game that is how you have to do it. Even without the pandemic, in Minnesota, during the winter, there are some days you just can’t get out and game. And if you don’t have a roommate, spouse, kid, or significant other to play a game with. That means that it might be your only option. Plus getting sick now, people are being less likely to go out. So if you want to game, sometimes it’s the only way to game.

It Allows For More Gaming

Another one that is fairly obvious. But when you play games solo, that means that you can play more games. It ties into it might be the only way to game for an evening. But even if you can normally game in person it allows you to play more. Everyone else busy, you can still game if you really want to game.

The Game Gives You A Way To Learn

It also let’s you learn games. Now, getting a game to a table with a group for the first time is fun as well. But sometimes you want to know how to play a game well before you teach it. It comes up pretty often with bigger games where you want to know it well. Only so much can be gleaned from reading the rulebook or watching how to play videos.

It’s A Mental Refresher

But the main reason that I do it is that it is a mental refresher for me. I know a lot of people with a long day of work like to zone out and watch a TV show or movie. And I don’t mind doing that once in a while. But I find when I get into that groove and I’m just doing it over and over again, it feels like I am wasting time.

Therefore, solo gaming gives me a good mental refresh. It allows me to focus on something that isn’t work. It’s easy to take home a frustrating work project or something like that. But I find that board games, even if I play them solo and often as much when I play them solo, just allows me to focus in on one thing. It’s that clean break and a fun focus where I’m not worried about anything else.

Does Every Game Need A Solo Mode

In my opinion, the more the merrier for solo gaming. I want to see games coming out with good solo modes because that means that those games are more accessible to everyone. Having a solo mode in a game, often times just an added section to a rule book, doesn’t hurt the gaming experience if you want to play it multi-player.

That said, not ever game needs or can have a solo mode in it. A confrontational take that sort of competitive game is going to be nearly impossible to give a solo mode to. So I want games to have a solo mode if it makes sense. Even a game where it might work, I want a well done solo mode. If a game just adds it in because that’s the cool thing to do, but it isn’t good, I might not ever like that game.

What Makes A Good Solo Mode?

That segues nicely into our next topic. Because not all solo modes are created equal, and depending on the type of gamer that you are, that might make a difference for what type of solo mode that you want to play.

Same As Normal Game

There are a lot of games where it is baked into the ruleset, especially for cooperative games. Generally, it allows for scaling. So if we look at something like Aeon’s End or Gloomhaven, they basically tell you to play as at least two players. With Tainted Grail, the amount of energy it takes to do thing, how long the Menhir are lit, and what level monsters you get are all determined by number of characters. Besides that, those games are the same game as you play multiplayer.

Slight Tweak to the Rules

Then there are solo games that tweak the rules slightly. Something like the solo mode for Sagrada would be like this. You still draft dice and fill in your stained glass window like normal, but it gives you a score to beat with the dice that you don’t use. Basically you beat the total that the dice add up to, to win. It changes up the game a little, gives you more to think about but doesn’t add to much.

Ghost Players

And finally, kind of, there are ghost players. Fleet: The Dice Game, for example, has a character that basically pushes up from the bottom of tracks to stop you from going the whole way down. But it’s very simple, take a die, fill in a circle just like you do in the base game. Or this could be like the automa decks for things like Scythe. It determines how the enemy acts through a deck.

What Type of Solo Gaming Do I Like?

So, I will say, that while I am not opposed to a ghost player or automa deck, I prefer the other two. Mainly because the ghost player adds in more house keeping to the game. I play the AI turns for them, which isn’t as interesting.

But I really like my cooperative solo games. Mainly because they require so little work. I am already playing a game fully at that point and I don’t need to add in anything extra to it. I think with Aeon’s End the only thing that might scale is the health, if I remember correctly. And the turn order deck tweaks slightly. For Gloomhaven, they recommend you maybe play on a slightly harder level than normal. But the core of the does not change.

But I do play Fleet: The Dice Game, and I enjoy that. Mainly because it gives me a simple enough way for a ghost player. Once you know the pattern of how that character moves, because that’ll determine preference for dice to take, it is easy enough. But if it’s a full new set of rules for a ghost player or automa, I am likely not going to play it solo.

Do you appreciate it when a game has a solo mode?

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Not Going To GenCon Before 2019

I’ve only been to GenCon once in 2019, though I guess I did the digital version 2021. And while the digital was fun, I’m really looking forward to getting back to GenCon this year. Even if the year isn’t fully normal. It is just such a good board gaming experience. And while I don’t need to get every game, I am excited to see new games always.

Not Backing Vampire The Masquerade – CHAPTERS

This is probably my biggest regret in terms of a game that I didn’t back. Mainly because I didn’t look into it that much. I saw Vampire the Masquerade and moved on from it. But the game looks amazing. Quackalope has a great playthrough of a scenario and it makes me want it even more. I like the choose your own adventure elements then going down to the table level to fight monsters and interact with things. Just great looking campaign that I really want for the game and story.

Backing Zombicide: Undead or Alive

This one I am still very excited for Zombicide: Undead or Alive. I love weird west as a theme, which I talked about on last nights stream. And there aren’t that many weird west games out there, to add in zombies to the mix, and I’m interested. Why I’m regretting it is that Marvel Zombies is a thing. And a thing and theme that I like better. Plus, in Marvel Zombies you can play as zombies or as heroes. There is a decent chance that I will just trade or sell my pledge when it comes in.

Buying Scythe

This one is interesting, I’d guess for some people, because people love Scythe. And I very well might love Scythe, when I play my friends copy. I picked it up and I never played my copy and it wasn’t high on my list of games to learn. So I got rid of it, and I’m fine with that, because I know people who have it. It’s just one that I probably wouldn’t have bought in the first place.

Backing Satanic Panic

Now, this is probably the only Kickstarter that I backed which will never fulfill. The guy who is running it showed back up again for a little bit in the fall but then disappeared yet again. Satanic Panic is a role playing game that basically is a D&D style system, if I remember correctly, set in the 80’s during the Satanic Panic that happened. So it’s a fun idea, but it was a game I supported for the creator, and needless to say I’m not pleased. Nor do I ever expect to see a finished product. At least I didn’t back it for a physical book.

Doing Single Wave Shipping on Etherfields

This one I do regret, but only a little bit. I’m not sure how much Etherfields I’d have played to this point. Etherfields is a big Awaken Realms game where you explore through dreams. That sounds amazing, and I’m really excited to get it, but another campaign game. So it might be better that I waited on it until it was all coming at once. Still, the game looks really cool, and the endless slumber mode, I think that’s what it’s called looks great.

Backing Village Attacks

This is another one where I kind of regret it, and I kind of don’t regret it. I mainly regret it because it’s well delayed at this point. It is a game that I really like. Village Attacks is a great tower defense where you play the bad guys dealing with the villagers. The game is a lot of fun, but man, the game is delayed. And not only is it delayed, the communication is really lacking. I knew it’d be the case, the longer it goes, the more frustrating.

Final Thoughts on Board Gaming Regrets

I honesty feel like that isn’t too many. Now, a number of the early games I backed on Kickstarter, I have moved on from those. But I don’t feel bad about backing then. Eduardo Baraf and Pencil First Games is a great company and makes fun games now, Planet Lift Off, that was even a fun game. But I moved on from it as the first one I backed.

I also don’t regret backing so many big campaign games. I have toned that down some, but there’s always something new and cool out there to checkout. So now I’m being more discerning. But backing Chronicles of Drunagor, ISS Vanguard, Frosthaven, Isofarian Guard, and more, I don’t regret that at all. I will eventually play those games, and that is exciting to me.

What is something you regret passing or getting in the board gaming hobby?

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The Board Game Terms

Fast or Short

This is a game that doesn’t take too much time to play. So something that’s probably 30 minutes or less in terms of how long the game actually takes.

Quick

Quick is more about how engaged and involved you are in turns. And how long those turns take.

Long

Long is going to be the length of the game. So we’re probably talking about 90 minutes or more.

Slow

Slow talks about games that are going to encourage longer turns. Less engagement when it isn’t your turn and if there are a lot of people that the whole game could scale up considerably based off of player count.

Quick vs Fast

So, this is the one that I want to focus on more so, because I think that long and slow fall into an area that makes sense once we look at these other two. And I think that quick is really the highlight of what we are looking at and what I want in a game.

The Issue

Often times with board games, and let’s step back and talk about the issue, a board game might get a bad rap because it is a long game. Or people will be less apt to play it because it becomes more of an event. And on the flip side, some people look at little fillers as bad because they are too short to make a meaningful decision.

Let’s just say, in my opinion, both of these opinions are wrong. You can make meaningful decisions in a short game. And in a long game, it doesn’t mean that it’s not optimized for what it should be. But people are judging the game based off of how long or short, fast, the game is.

The Importance of Being Quick

For me, though, a game is more about whether it is quick or slow. Because that determines, more so, your engagement in the game. If a game has quick and punchy turns, then the players at the table are less apt to get distracted. And this is true even in a longer game. It doesn’t matter that the game takes longer, it matters if you are engaged in a game.

And the reason why I thought about this with Aldarra is that Aldrarra is not a short game. Now, almost three hours for three players, definitely longer than a normal game would be. Probably if people know the game, two hours for three players or slightly less, and that’s a pretty long game. But because of how tight the board is and how close you are to your enemies, you stay engaged. And the turns are pretty quick, even combat generally went quickly.

And that was with a three hour game. Now, on the flip side, you can play games that are short in how long the game takes. But you aren’t engaged in what is going on. A lot of classic games might fall into that category. Something like Yahtzee or Skip-Bo, it doesn’t matter what you do, really, for it to affect my turn. Not the best examples, but Skip-Bo works decently since you might have a long turn. Yes, the game won’t take longer because of that turn, but it does make a turn and game feel longer for everyone else.

Decision Making Space

So, I also don’t want to say that games need light decision making space. I think that’s some of the reason people shy away from smaller games, they think it’ll be too light. But there is a difference between simple decision making and engaging decision making. If I care what you’re doing on your turn, then it doesn’t matter if it takes a while.

It is more that I need to care in that case. In the case of Aldarra, I care about what you’re doing, even if you aren’t attacking me. Why, because it changes the board state a lot, it might open up new opportunities for me to move in, or it might squeeze into a smaller area. But what you do matters to me in that case and affects my strategy. Or you might be attacking me, and then I really care.

So What Is My Preferred?

Let’s wrap this up talking about what I look for. And honestly, the big thing for me is that I look for quick games. Now, this can mean a few different things, though I’ve mainly talked about it in terms of how long turns take. But again, that doesn’t matter so much, it’s more, how quickly do I move from decision to decision.

Decision to Decision Quickly

A bigger game might give me an option to follow your action on a turn if I have resources or something like that. I know that Scythe is a game that uses that mechanic. Well, your turn might take a while, but I can follow what you do, and do my own things, I’m interested. Or Ganz Schon Clever (or any of the Clever trilogy), you roll and I care about the dice that you leave behind. So even though I don’t have a full turn, I care of what you are doing.

And I think that moving from decision to decision makes the game feel faster. Area control is good for that, I care what you do because I don’t want you to attack me. And I do want you to weaken your armies and the other players. But a lot of other games make that work as well.

All At Once

There is another type of game as well, everyone go at once that works as well. This falls into the category of real time games, something I don’t love, but more so roll and write games. Metro X, Cartographers, and Welcome To… just off the top of my head, those are easy ones to play because everyone fills in things at the same time. There isn’t the pressure of a speed element instead it’s a smaller decision space and everyone acting at once, and that works well.

Story

And one final way that works for me, is if your turn has story to it. A lot of the time this means literally there is story that is being read out. But it can also mean that the game has a whole narrative flow. Pandemic Legacy Season 1 or 2 would be an example of this. And being cooperative helps, but you decide what you want to do on your turn, and that creates the story of what is happening. Especially in Season 2 with the discovery aspect, the game tells a great story.

Final Quick vs Fast Board Game Thoughts

Do you find that you have a preference, maybe based on length a board game takes? And is it really the length of the game that makes a difference?

I do feel that game length does matter, but I think for a lot of gamers that perception of game length often is tied to the decision making space. And for me, that is more about the quickness of a game versus how long a game might take. And how meaningful and interesting the decision that I can make are. Do you find something similar to that as you think about games?

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Quick Recap

The basic premise comes from how we interact with new people coming into the hobby. I might not own a game like Catan anymore, but that is a game that still brings hundreds if not thousands of people into board gaming. So when someone finds out about Board Game Geek, for example, or the Dice Tower, and they want a board game recommendation, they might ask on the Facebook groups. And I’ve talked about this idea before. If they say they own Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne, and Catan, what is a good recommendation.

Too often I see games like Scythe, Gloomhaven, Brass: Birmingham, something that is way too big. But people are recommending their favorite games. Why is that? Because they want more people to love them like they do. And honestly, so do I, but those games aren’t accessible to new gamers.

All of us have a pathway that leads through a lot of different games to where we end up. And some people that might stop at the likes of Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne, and Catan. For others that means that we end up playing through all of Gloomhaven. But what were the steps that got you there? I challenge all of you, myself included to write down or think about your board gaming journey to remember what were your steps.

Then, the next time someone asks for a board game recommendation, you can give them the name of the game that isn’t your favorite game, but was your next step. And I can do that as well.

Orchard: 9 Card Solitaire Game

This is a little solitaire game about stacking cards. The game play is simple enough, you are laying cards down so they overlap. Where they overlap colored trees, apple, pear, and plum, you put down a die. One overlap gives you 1 point per tree, two gives you three, and so on the more layers that you get. The goal is to get as high as score as you can. You got to see my high score last night as I got up to 56.

It’s a really good solo game. One it’s small so easy to take place. But when you pull it out, it’s still small in that it doesn’t take up too much space. Finally, it plays fast, but gives you good choices. There are some solo games that give you some choices and play fast. Orchard is a great puzzle that gives you great choices.

Next Weeks Board Game Stream

So next week’s stream will be a little bit different. It’s going to be the last stream for the year. And I’m going to ask for your help in figuring out what board game(s) I should stream at least to start the year. I have a number of campaign games that I’d love to have hit the table, and I’d love your help figuring out which one is the one that I should play next. So expect to see a poll going up with that, probably in the chat, to help me decide.

Then I’ll be taking off for the holidays. I think it’s just two weeks where I won’t be streaming. But it’s partially because I might not be around, and partially as a little bit of a break for me. So join me next week to see what games I’m considering.

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Why Talk About Changing Tastes?

I talk about that some in my article of Filler, Family Weight, and Other Board Game Classifications. The simplest way to put it is that as you game more your tastes will change. For a lot of board gamers, games like Munchkin, Fluxx, Ticket To Ride, Carcassonne, and Catan were the games that got them into the hobby board game areas. Before that, they were playing games like Uno, Skip-Bo, Monopoly, Phase 10, Clue, and Scrabble.

I think that’s a pretty common journey. It starts with playing those classic games that we grew up with, or our parents grew up with. Then when games like Catan came around, I at least had a friend who introduced me to that and then later Ticket to Ride. But now I don’t have Catan in my collection anymore, and Ticket to Ride rarely gets played. What changed or why did things change?

Why Do Tastes Change?

I think that everyone grows and changes in almost everything. I’m not sure if there is anything that people can’t change from. And I think board games show one way and an often way that people do change. Some people will always stick with a more basic game, they have found the level that they like. They want to play the classic games, and that is totally fine. But for myself and others into hobby board games, I think it’s important to remember the journey and how we can help people along that journey.

So I’m going to talk about two games that helped draw me into the hobby and probably did for a lot of people, Fluxx and Munchkin. I could talk about Catan, but I think that Fluxx and Munchkin explain it well. Both of those games are light card games that have you trying to mess over your opponents, take their stuff or stop them from winning. Now, this should sound familiar. That is basically how Uno works. You are trying to stop your opponents from winning as much as you are planning on your own victory itself. Or the game Sorry, you want to stop them from winning.

Why did we stop playing Sorry and Uno for Fluxx and Munchkin?

We stopped playing them, because Fluxx and Munchkin offered more in way of the game. When you play Fluxx , you are creating and changing the rules to the game. Sure it’s very simple draw one card and play one card, unless the rules say otherwise. In Munckin you are trying to make your character stronger to defeat more monsters and your opponent weaker or their monsters stronger, so that they can’t. There is more to think about with your card play.

Both of those games take something that we know and build upon it. They add more to the rules of the game, barely, and they offer more choices. To go back to Catan, I sometimes say that if someone like’s Monopoly they should try Catan. Why, because some of the pieces feel similar, but the game offers more choices. Now that’s a bigger jump than Uno to Fluxx, but it’s about finding stepping stones.

Why did we stop playing Fluxx and Munckin?

And this is a cycle that for hobby gamers repeats fairly often. I stopped playing Fluxx and Munchkin, though I still have both, because I wanted games that gave me more choices yet again. One thing that I find is that the more games I play the less true randomness I want in it.

Sure Tainted Grail might have a random encounter or unexpected outcome in an exploration, but I still make more choices. I play down all the cards for combat. Gloomhaven has a deck AI for the monsters, that is random, but I can plan out what I do and have knowledge on what the monsters might be doing. There is no, will I or won’t I draw the right card, because there isn’t a truly right card. It is how can I make what I have available to me work the best.

This is true for most all the games I play now. Some are smaller and more random, like Claim, but even that is less random and offers more choice than some other trick taking games. And it is an extremely light and fast two player filler game. While Fluxx and Munchkin might be light, they take longer than a filler. When I want that lighter, fluffier game, I want it to be played fast now.

What Do We Learn From Changing Tastes?

To start, I think it’s important to remember that our tastes have changed. They might change again, and those we play with, their tastes might change as well. There can be a disparity between gamers. Those of us who love those heavier games and those who love the lighter or more traditional games. It is easy at times to forget that we started there with more traditional games as well.

Even if you are starting now with a game like Horrified and Pandemic which are more on the hobby side of gaming, you will still have a progression to your gaming. You might not like those games as well in the future because you’ve mined them for what they have and now you want more. And we don’t want to forget, because when we forget, that is when we stop bringing people into the hobby.

And that really is my main point. I know I talked about this as well. When you think about your changing tastes over time, it comes into play with bringing people into the hobby. I am in a bunch of board game groups on Facebook, and I know I wrote an article based off of what I saw in those groups. I can’t find it right now, but let me recap.

The Scenario

A new person to the hobby side of board gaming joins one of these groups. They are all excited because they just got Cards Against Humanity, their group loves Munchkin and Catan, and they want to know what game they should get next.

The first two responses are:
“Those games suck.”
“Scythe”

What’s Wrong With This?

Well, there are a lot of obvious things wrong with it, and I know it’ll stand out to most people. Even the people who commented those things, stepping back and looking at it objectively and not in the moment can spot what is wrong. The first one doesn’t answer the questions and belittles the person who is excited about board games for their choice in board games.

The second one is a bit harder to see. Scythe might be a great game, it is on my to play list. But Scythe is a big euro style game that is a massive step up from something like Munchkin, Cards Against Humanity and Catan. That answer might intimidate a new gamer out of the hobby or make them feel dumb because they don’t understand the game. The Scythe recommendation is like giving someone a calculus test after they’ve just learned their multiplication tables, it’s too big a gap.

Both of these answers, the people writing them have forgotten their journey. They don’t remember how their tastes changed over time. And I get it, they are passionate about loving Scythe or wanting people to play what they find to be better games. But for almost every gamer, there is a journey.

So How Do We Be Better?

Staying on my scenario, I think that there are two better responses, though one of them is actually not responding. To paraphrase Thumper from Bambi, if you can’t say anything nice, be quiet. Now that doesn’t apply to every situation, but for someone excited about board games and on their journey, however deep it leads them into the hobby, be nice. So if you can’t be nice, be quiet.

Or, pause, think about your journey. Think about two types of games for the person who asks that question. The first is, when you were playing games like Catan and Munchkin, what other games were you playing? Secondly, what were the games that helped you take the next step? Then give two pieces of advice on what to get next. One for that point in time the person is in, and one for what might be a next step. Then explain why for both of them.

We really can use our knowledge to encourage people along their journey. I know that I want more people to play board games with, and I’m not facing a shortage. Games get played almost every Tuesday and Wednesday. I had people over to game on Saturday for a game night, I’ll have people over this Saturday, and I still want to play more games. And from that amount of gaming, I still want to play more.

But I know that I need to be careful not to push too far with my passion for people I don’t know are as passionate about board games. I want to give everyone them as gifts or to play games with non-gamers. That is amazing when I can and they love them or like them. But I shouldn’t pull Terraforming Mars off the shelf with a new gamer.

What Were the Board Games on Your Journey?

So, a little exercise for myself and everyone else. What has your board game journey looked like? What were the points where you paused and grew as a gamer?

For me:
Growing up: Uno, Skip-Bo, Dutch Blitz and the like were very common and got me into the idea of gaming.
Around End of High School: Got introduced to the modern classics of Ticket to Ride and Catan and dove into those.
Post College: Got into Magic the Gathering and introduced to more games like Dominion and Power Grid
First Board Game I Loved: Betrayal At House on the Hill, this really got me into board gaming and buying board games

Since then it’s been a slow and steady trying of different games and growing. Probably should say the final stop I can think of was about 3 years ago when we started playing Gloomhaven and I feel in love with the blended mechanics of Amerithrash and Euro as well as I fell in love with campaign games.

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Scythe

Probably the most shocking on the list is Stonemaiers game Scythe. This is one of the most popular board games out there, and I actually never played my copy, so why did I get rid of it. The answer is because I’ll probably never play my copy. I have friends who have it and who know how to play it. So I’m going to be much more apt to play their copy with them teaching me. And because it is a bigger euro game, with amazing artwork I’ll give it that, I don’t have as much of a group to play it with as with some other games. So because this is a bigger game, more to know about and teach, I am getting rid of it, freeing up space in my shelf, and hopefully once I can game in person again, I’ll get a chance to play it with the person who has basically everything for the game and some of the bling for it as well.

Pandemic: On the Brink

I like Pandemic, in fact there are three different versions of Pandemic in my top 100, and 4 different versions of Pandemic on my shelf, so why am I getting rid of this expansion to the base game? If I want to have a fun gaming experience with a more advanced version of Pandemic, I will probably take someone through Pandemic Legacy Season 1. I’ve played it twice, and I’d happily play it again as a game master type of roll, because the game is still challenging. If I want to just teach someone the game, adding in stuff from On The Brink is going to add to the complexity of the game, so I won’t put it in. That means that it would have to be a very rare and special situation where I wouldn’t be taking someone through Pandemic Legacy Season 1, and I wouldn’t be teaching someone the base game to need On The Brink. It just was too rare a scenario for me to ever be likely to play it.

Stuffed Fables

When this game cam out, I was really really excited for it. It was a game about stuffed animals who were going on adventures and fighting off the scary animals under the bed while their human, a little girl was asleep, the figures are adorable in the game, book maps are adorable and really everything about it is great component wise, so why am I selling it? There’s one main reason, the theme of this game is for kids, and for younger kids, but with four adults playing it, there were rules questions and things we weren’t sure on. I could eventually take my kid through that game, but by the time he would be able to grasp the strategy and the complexities of the game, I have a whole lot of other games that we can play as well. This isn’t kind of an in between game between kids games and games for adults, it’s just that way in theme. And I think that the theme definitely targets a younger audience than the mechanics do. So as much as I wanted to keep this one on the shelf, there are just too many other good games out there that I’ll be able to play with my toddler eventually to keep one with sometimes confusing rules around.

Which one shocks you the most, probably me getting rid of Scythe. I really want to play that game, and the campaign expansion box, Rise of Fenris looks amazing, but I just know getting my copy to my table wasn’t likely to happen.

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The reason that this came up is because I just downloaded a new one onto my phone and I was thinking about the various apps that I have where I can play board games. Just quickly listing off some, I have Onirim, Onitama, Ascension, XenoShyft, On Tour, Small World 2, Suburbia, and Silver. And you can get more, there is Scythe, Carcassone, Catan, and really so many others out there as well, some of them better than others. And generally, they are getting better overall.

Now, in the case of a few of those games, Ascension, Onirim, and XenoShyft, you can play the physical game solo, so you really don’t need the app, but for two of those, you can get through a game way faster on the app than in person and it’s a good experience. The last one, not so much. And some people are going to look at games this way and say, why bother if I’m just going to play against the computer, aren’t there always strategies that are going to beat them. Sure, maybe you’ll get to them eventually, but even though I win 90% of the games of Ascension that I play against the computer, it isn’t just a cakewalk always.

But let’s talk a little bit about what makes a good app.

1 – It Needs to Feel Like the Game
The mechanics should be the same, but you don’t need to show me all the upkeep. Small World is an offender of this, where it certainly feels like the game and there’s enough challenge there that it makes me stick with it, though. You want it to feel like you’re playing the game, that means that the visuals are going to remind you of the board game. What you have to do to make it work should feel some like the board game, though hopefully a little bit easier. A good example of this is Ascension where you are pulling cards into your discard and playing cards out in front of you, it’s how you’d actually use them in real life. Compare that to XenoShyft which is a mess of an app and a whole lot of work to get cards to go where you want or to know how to back out of something.

2 – It Should Be Intuitive
I don’t have all the games I have as apps as physical copies. That means, I need the app to teach me the game well. Games like Onirim, Ascension, Small World, and On Tour had good walkthroughs for their games, though, I already knew how to play Small World. But make it so that if I only kind of pay attention to the tutorial, I can understand the basics of what I’m doing. Suburbia is a more complex game, for example, so when I’ve tried to pick it up, it’s been harder to do so. Even going through the tutorial, there’s just more going on than some of the other ones. And because of that complexity, it should walk you through it better. Now, this isn’t something you can see without buying/downloading the game, but if it’s really bad, someone will comment on it, like XenoShyft.

Now, with all of this said, I don’t think app gaming will ever take away from face to face gaming. It’s just more fun to do it face to face for me. But it’s a good thing when social distancing, and you want to play some games that can’t be played solo. Some of these are just solo on your machine, OnTour and Silver are solo only. But others you can do as pass and play but if you can do that you can play a physical copy, and some like Ascension and Small World, you can do online play. That might be a little bit slower, but staying connected through an app to play a game isn’t the end of the world.

What are some of the board games apps that you love? Have you tried many of them, or does it seem taboo? I know that there are some out there, Through the Ages for example, that some people prefer the app because it makes a several hour game versus a much faster game.

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So, is there a point where a board game isn’t a board game? And do you qualify something like Onirim, Onitama, Ascension, and other games that can be played fully digitally to be board games in that form?

This is a question that a lot of board gamers have been grappling with. There are those who really enjoy breadth of what can be added to gaming. There are those who like there fact that it helps with book keeping. There are those who don’t like it, because they don’t want technology around when they game. There are those who don’t like it because they want their board games to be only board, cards, and dice.

I think that I can see both sides of the argument with this. Now, I will say, personally I enjoy when games have apps integrated into them. But I can also understand not having technology at the table. It’s nice, when playing Gloomhaven, to be able to sit down and just play without checking a phone much or at all for a couple of hours. Just because some games have an app doesn’t mean that all of them do, so there’s always going to be the option to play games without an app.

Now, I can understand that with a game like Journeys in Middle Earth, where the app helps out a lot with the game play and making things run smoother. In some ways, you don’t really need to set it up on the table because of how much of the heavy lifting the app does. So, that leans into the app a lot, and it doesn’t offer a way to play without the app. Games like Descent 2nd Edition and Star Wars: Imperial Assault both can be played with an app, almost to the level that you could Journeys in Middle Earth, but they also allow for options where there doesn’t need to be an app. So is that pushing it too far away form a board game, or is, because Lord of the Rings is a theme that a lot of people enjoy, something that bugs the people who want board games without apps, because they can’t get that game with that theme like they’d want?

In some ways, I think because you can’t get a handful of games, with whatever themes they might have on them, per year, that’s not that much of a reason to be up on arms about it. There are thousands of games that come out each year, and the vast majority of them don’t have an app with them. Now, a number of the ones that are talked about a ton, do end up having an app with them or something along those lines, because they are something new and different. But being new and different doesn’t make them the only games that are worth it out there, as we’ve seen with some of the hottest games this year being Wingspan and Tapestry, in terms of hype, which don’t have an app with them.

So, I personally think, whether you fall on the side of app or no technology, you are going to have plenty of games to play. For that reason, I don’t think there’s much of a reason to complain when game does come out with an app.

That brings me to the second part, though, does playing game like Onitama or Onirim on your phone count as playing a board game? Or a larger game like Small World or Scythe, are those board games still or when you are playing them on your tablet or phone, does that change it up so that it’s not a true board game experience.

Here, I actually am going to go with saying that they aren’t playing the board game. Though, it is close. Onirim is the one that makes this tricky. The reason it’s tricky is that Onirim is a solo game experience, when I think about the others, you lose the face to face, sitting around the same table aspect of the board game experience. With Onirim, you never have that experience. So, I’m going to say, my reason for saying they aren’t truly a board game experience is because you aren’t getting the tactile experience that you do with a board game. You aren’t flipping the cards and shuffling in Onirim, which for a lot is really nice, but you lose that tactile experience.

This really then does take us into Teburu. I got to barely see it through a window at GenCon, but it was interesting to see live as well as see the video for it. It’s an interesting thing, because while most games with apps still have you do most things, Teburu is going to allow the games to track even more things. In Mansions of Madness 2nd Edition, you track where the monsters and you are on the board, the same with fire, the game only cares that there are still monsters, investigators, and fire on the board. So you’re still involved with that, and you still track when hit a monster or number of successes for a given roll. In Teburu, whatever game you are playing on the system, you’ll be able to roll the dice and it’ll automatically calculate your successes or possibly prompt you to see if you want to reroll something or use an item or something along those lines to improve your roll.

So, does that take it away from being a board game? If we’re going by my tactile board gaming experience, it seems like it wouldn’t because you are still rolling dice and moving pieces on the board. But it does feel a whole lot closer to being a video game when it’s doing all the house keeping. Journeys in Middle Earth definitely falls into the same issue, while you still have to enter successes, there are definitely things that feel like you don’t need to set-up the board, you can just play the game in the system, or if not fully doing that, be able to almost do that. In think that Teburu is going to be an interesting enhancement to board gaming. It makes we wonder what they’ll be able to use it for, and if I were to ever get it, if it would still feel like a board game experience.

Overall, I think that technology in board games is interesting. I don’t think that it’s needed for a great gaming experience, though. And there are so many games out there, that I’m always going to have the option to play a board game without the use of an app. I’m excited and curious to see how technology will be used in the future, with story driven games like Time of Legends: Destinies or Chronicles or Crime where they are offering content creation tools since the story is contained in an app, to Star Wars: Imperial Assault that allows you to do a cooperative dungeon crawl without as much busy work. There are a lot of fun things out there, and even playing games like Onirim and Onitama as an app can be fun, because it gives you a chance to try it before you buy it.

What do you think about board games having apps or needing apps to play them? Do you want them to only be cardboard, dice, and cards? What is your favorite game that integrates an app?

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5. Risk Legacy
Yes, I could have put normal risk on the list, but I think that Risk Legacy is a way more enjoyable game. You could win a game of Risk Legacy by conquering the whole world, but you don’t need to, so it takes a game that can be a long slog and having players getting knocked out early, and turns it into a shorter and more focused game where someone might be knocked out, but they won’t be out completely. The dice are still extremely fickle, and with all the games higher on the list, there are ways to mitigate the dice, if there are even dice. Spoiler, only one more of them has dice. I don’t mind dice in a game, and in a shorter game like Risk Legacy, it works. There isn’t a ton to unlock in the game, but what you do unlock is fun, and creates some interesting choices as to what to play.

4. Cry Havoc
A game that I’ve only gotten to the table once, and it has a bit of a euro game feel for something that is heavily focused on area control. It is fun because the different actions trying to get gems on the planet all work differently. The Pilgrims don’t care about controlling as many areas because they score points better off of gem production. Whereas in a four player game, the Trogs just swarm out over the board very quickly, but can get spread thin if the player isn’t careful. Each faction handles area control just a bit differently, but they all seem balanced which is great.

3. Star Wars: Rebellion
While arguably a better game tactically than the next game, Star Wars: Rebellion does have the downside of being a two player game. There is a lot more going on in Rebellion than just area control as well, but controlling certain areas, getting troops built and deployed in areas that you do control, especially as the Empire really helps you lock down the position of the Rebels. With that, you also have the option of trying to slow down production by sabotaging different planets. This game has a lot going on in it, but it works really well and feels like an epic Star Wars struggle between the Rebels and Empire.

2. Smallworld
The silliest game on the list, but Smallworld really has a nice streamlined area control mechanic. It really does push for a ton of conflict, and that’s fine, because you are swapping out race and power combinations throughout the game, Mary might attack Tom to start the game, but in a few turns, Tom will be attacking Mary and destroying all of her troops. It does a good job of making the combat and wiping another player off the board seem not personal. The goofy theme and fun combinations does really help that aspect of the game as well.

1. Blood Rage
To me, Blood Rage might not do area control the best, but put together in the package of the whole game play, it’s area control and everything work extremely well. I also like that it’s area control can be known in some ways, but there are strategies that are fine if you die because you get more points or because you can take something from your enemy as well and as the player you get to decide how you want to focus in on area control. But you can’t lose all the time because you’re letting other players get points for upgrading their troop totals, action points, and other things.

What games could fall on a honorable mention list, and I really only mention some of these because they have a little bit of area control:

King of Tokyo – Technically you are vying for control of Tokyo. However, this simple dice chucker could just have you win without going into Tokyo at all, and there is only one area to control.

Carcassonne – Another one that doesn’t have much area control, you could argue that the original farmer rules are area control, because it’s who ever has the most farmers in an area.

Smash Up – Definitely are control, but I just got rid of my copy. Not because it’s a bad game, but because there are a million expansions. Also, it’s a game that seems to sit with a sweet spot of three players and more or less makes for a less enjoyable experience with it.

What are some other area control games that I should check out? I have Scythe sitting on my shelf waiting to be played, so eventually, I wouldn’t be surprised if that makes the list.

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