Ticket To Ride has become a modern classic of board gaming since it first chugged out of the brain of designer Alan R. What else should I be playing: Check out Railroad Ink, elsewhere on this list, and you might enjoy the mass-transit planning of Mini Metro and Mini Motorways (though they go much faster).
Having all the cardboard admin handled by your PC means you can focus on the game itself - which is a cracker. The tabletop version of Through The Ages is a grand creation that takes hours to play and quite a bit of effort to keep all the cards in the right places. You draft technology, leaders, wonders and more from a shared queue of cards, making sure to keep your people happy and fed while also fending off attacks from your neighbours.
About terraforming Mars.Ĭivilisation games were born on the tabletop, with the first - 1980's Civilization by legendary designer Francis Tresham - serving as inspiration for Sid Meier's Civilization series on the PC (which then inspired board games based on the PC games based on the board game it's a whole thing.) Through The Ages takes the classic genre in a new direction, seeing players build up their empire using little more than a bunch of cards. What else should I be playing: As noted, the Civilization series seems a good place to start, and there's also Terraforming Mars, another strategic digi-board game about. With plenty of popular Magic: The Gathering formats from the original collectable card game, as well as some new formats exclusive to the digital version, and the chance to play upcoming sets a little ahead of their release, Arena proves MTG isn't going anywhere but up for a while. Arena also lets you unlock some of the physical cards you buy in the game for free, so you don't need to buy everything twice to keep your collection across paper and pixels. Arena is the same MTG you know from the tabletop, but translated into a fast-flowing, visually impressive app that sees it step up to the likes of digital-only card games such as Hearthstone. It's been around for decades and taken a few stabs at crossing over to the digital world in that time, but it was only with 2019's Magic: The Gathering Arena that it felt like it really hit its stride on PC. Magic: The Gathering is the biggest trading card game in the world. What else should I be playing: Deck builders are now an established favourite in PC gaming, so if the grandaddy of them all doesn't tickle your fancy then check out Hearthstone or Slay The Spire for starters. Where can I buy it: Directly from Wizards.
Why not head to the comments to give an impassioned speech in its favour? You might convert some readers to your team, and muster enough to break down the door of the treehouse and force us to include it when we update the list. You might find that your own favourite board game game isn't in the final 10, which of course means that it was number 11. Why drop £100 on 15kg of plastic miniatures and enough cardboard to crush a Honda Civic, when you can add a dozen new games to your Steam library for less than the same price? If you like them enough to play with friends around the table, the option to go out and pick up a physical copy is still there, after all.Īs is our way with our lists, this is by no means exhaustive, but we've taken a broad view to collect our favourites and give you varied options.
Another big benefit is that a digital game takes up a lot less space, and generally costs a lot less.
First of all, you don't have to unpack a bunch of tokens and cards from a box, only to find that they do not fit back in the same box two hours later.
There are many other advantages to digital board games.
Luckily, the board game revolution has reached video games, and you can get some cracking digital PC versions of your physical favourites. what a way to spend an evening! But equally undeniable is the fact that it's been hard to, you know, gather in groups in recent history. Getting around a table, throwin' them dice, eatin' them maize-based snacks. It's 2021, so we're probably past the point that we need to tell you tabletop games - known to many as board games - have had a renaissance in recent years.