As I mentioned in a previous post, 2017 was a big year with respect to board games for me, as I was able to play enough games to create a Top 100 list, with help from attending conventions and new app releases. Without these, it would have been very difficult to play new games because of my busy work and family schedule. Moving into 2018, I may have found something that will propel my ability to play new and old games to new heights - online board games. Although the tail end of 2017 had me finding out that Food Chain Magnate was playable on BoardGameCore, this year I have found many more websites carrying many more games, all for free!
Using these websites you are also able to play against real players around the world, in which most cases is more of a challenge than playing against AI. One downside is that unless you play real-time games, which I cannot dedicate enough time to, turn-based games can take a long time to finish. In some cases, games have dragged on for more than two months and it is easy to completely forget what strategy you were planning by the next day. It is also sometimes hard to judge how good a game is because of these super-elongated play times. On the other hand, there is a large number of games available online if you know where to look and it has given me a good opportunity to test new games and play old favorites.
Below is a short list of the few sites I am playing on frequently and my mini-review of them. One thing to note is that all of these sites have rules enforcement. I haven't tried any of the sandbox sites yet mainly because I find enforcing rules on my own much more difficult online.
BoardGameCore
This is the site that started it all for me. I first had played two games of Food Chain Magnate in real life. The first one went rather well and I was rather impressed by the mechanics, but the second devolved into a long, drawn-out price war and we never finished the game. This was quite disappointing, especially as Food Chain Magnate was one of my most anticipated games to play, so I eagerly looked for a way to play it again to see how price wars could be resolved. I stumbled upon BoardGameCore and have since played many, many games. This website specializes in Splotter Spellen games and besides Food Chain Magnate, I have also played The Great Zimbabwe and I am keen to try the other two games that are available.
The interface is very good and, like most of the other sites, I appreciate the turn confirmation so that you can minimize "mis-click" errors. The site provides e-mail notifications when it is a player's turn, making it easy to stay on top of games. One thing I dislike that some sites provide is an end-of-game summary - it has been quite easy to not realize a game has finished unless you remember you were playing it and check the finished games tab. I also dislike that there is no ranking system or tracking of statistics to see how well I am playing relative to myself or others. This doesn't detract from the implementation of the games, but does make the site seem a bit outdated compared to the rest.
Boiteajeux
A few months after I started on BoardGameCore, I decided to do a search of other websites that have rules enforcement and came up with quite a list of sites and games I wanted to try. Well, Boiteajeux had my former #1 game of all-time, Agricola, so I had to try it out since it had been so long since I played Agricola. It reinvigorated my love for this classic game and there were also a lot of other games I wanted to try as well. Games I have played include Alhambra, Concordia, The Castles of Burgundy, Dungeon Petz, Kanban, and Tzolk'in - a good mix of familiar games and new games.
This site has a very good interface as well. I think almost all the games have turn confirmation, a feature that I never appreciated until I started playing games on the next site I will discuss. Unlike BoardGameCore, there is also a ranking system which I really like to use to see how I am doing. Game logs are easy to access. My biggest knock against the site is the 20 game limit for the free account. I completely understand the need for premium accounts to support the site, so I am not actually complaining to anybody about this limit, but considering the other sites do not have this hard limit, this is a disadvantage. I also would appreciate an easier way for viewing completed games - without the e-mail notifications, I find it very cumbersome to search for completed games on the site unless I am missing where this feature is. At least they send e-mail notifications when the game ends with a direct link to the finished game, unlike BoardGameCore.
Board Game Arena
Just after starting to play on Boiteajeux, I began playing games on Board Game Arena. The biggest draw for me was Keyflower, which has been on my radar for a long time. So I began playing on the site and noticed it had some old games that I wanted to play some more, such as Stone Age and Race for the Galaxy. Immediately, my biggest problem with the site was the 3 game limit. Now, each time you finish a game this limit increase by one and now that I have been playing for a few months this is no longer a problem, but early on it is very hard to stay engaged with the site as a result. For example, my early games of Keyflower took so long to complete, I was only on the site once a day to take my turn. Eventually I caught on and played a couple short games of Hive to boost my game count, but this was a frustrating start.
My other ongoing issue with the site is lack of turn confirmation. In most games, as soon as you click on an action or selection that is valid, the game instantly accepts this as the move without confirming that it is what you actually intended to do. This is very frustrating as it is very easy to misclick something or want to long-press to see details but accidentally make the selection instead. The sheer number of games that this site has that are not available on other sites makes me continue playing here, but if the game is available elsewhere, I immediately play it on the other site so that I do not have to deal with this problem.
However, I very much like its use of "Thinking Time" to make sure games progress. The way it works is that in each game players are assigned a certain amount of time to make their moves. Once this time has passed, other players are allowed to quit the game and if they do, the player whose time has run out takes a penalty. This discourages players from leaving games or taking too long to complete turns. This system also makes me always play turns on Board Game Arena before any of the other sites so that I don't take that penalty for not finishing a game.
The final highlight of this site is that it has many games I am interested in playing in and several more that I want to try. I've been able to play Eminent Domain, Carcassonne, Keyflower, Tokaido, Troyes, Jaipur, In the Year of the Dragon, Colt Express, Coloretto, Caylus, K2, and Hive, plus many others. Beside the final site listed below, this has the most games including new games being added on a regular basis.
Yucata
Finally, I found Yucata which might very well be my favorite site. Similar to BoardGameArena, they have a seemingly endless number of games in their library which I enjoy playing or would like to try. There is also a different system to make sure games proceed. Instead of using thinking time and penalties, games must be played in order of when it is your turn. For example, if it is your turn in Game A and then your turn in Game B becomes available, you must complete your turn in Game A before you can move onto Game B. This forces players to play through all games and they cannot give up on some games if they are losing. This is arguably a better system than applying penalties because I still see a lot of abandoned games with the penalties, but with this system games cannot be abandoned if you want to play other games on the site.
Another interesting feature is the progression. All the websites previously mentioned except for BoardGameCore have rankings within each game so you can compare yourself with other players, but Yucata has an overall ranking metagame. Based on different games that you've played, wins, and skill level, you move up in class and rank. Does it mean anything? No, but it is fun to see yourself progress and rewardes for diversity and wins.
In terms of interface, this site has turn confirmation which as I mentioned before is almost a must for me. One negative is that only some of the games support game logs, while almost all on the other three sites have this feature. It is pretty important when playing games extended over a long period of time that you can see what your opponents did on their turns or even what you did on your last turn! However, even without this feature, this site has won me over with its impressive library of games. It has a significant number of classics and new games being added on a regular basis and just a sample of games I've been able to play include Carson City, Terra Mystica, The Voyages of Marco Polo, Las Vegas, A Few Acres of Snow, Imhotep, San Juan, and Carcassonne South Seas. There are so many more games that I want to try that I see this site providing new gaming opportunities for the years to come.
Using these websites you are also able to play against real players around the world, in which most cases is more of a challenge than playing against AI. One downside is that unless you play real-time games, which I cannot dedicate enough time to, turn-based games can take a long time to finish. In some cases, games have dragged on for more than two months and it is easy to completely forget what strategy you were planning by the next day. It is also sometimes hard to judge how good a game is because of these super-elongated play times. On the other hand, there is a large number of games available online if you know where to look and it has given me a good opportunity to test new games and play old favorites.
Below is a short list of the few sites I am playing on frequently and my mini-review of them. One thing to note is that all of these sites have rules enforcement. I haven't tried any of the sandbox sites yet mainly because I find enforcing rules on my own much more difficult online.
BoardGameCore
This is the site that started it all for me. I first had played two games of Food Chain Magnate in real life. The first one went rather well and I was rather impressed by the mechanics, but the second devolved into a long, drawn-out price war and we never finished the game. This was quite disappointing, especially as Food Chain Magnate was one of my most anticipated games to play, so I eagerly looked for a way to play it again to see how price wars could be resolved. I stumbled upon BoardGameCore and have since played many, many games. This website specializes in Splotter Spellen games and besides Food Chain Magnate, I have also played The Great Zimbabwe and I am keen to try the other two games that are available.
The interface is very good and, like most of the other sites, I appreciate the turn confirmation so that you can minimize "mis-click" errors. The site provides e-mail notifications when it is a player's turn, making it easy to stay on top of games. One thing I dislike that some sites provide is an end-of-game summary - it has been quite easy to not realize a game has finished unless you remember you were playing it and check the finished games tab. I also dislike that there is no ranking system or tracking of statistics to see how well I am playing relative to myself or others. This doesn't detract from the implementation of the games, but does make the site seem a bit outdated compared to the rest.
Boiteajeux
A few months after I started on BoardGameCore, I decided to do a search of other websites that have rules enforcement and came up with quite a list of sites and games I wanted to try. Well, Boiteajeux had my former #1 game of all-time, Agricola, so I had to try it out since it had been so long since I played Agricola. It reinvigorated my love for this classic game and there were also a lot of other games I wanted to try as well. Games I have played include Alhambra, Concordia, The Castles of Burgundy, Dungeon Petz, Kanban, and Tzolk'in - a good mix of familiar games and new games.
This site has a very good interface as well. I think almost all the games have turn confirmation, a feature that I never appreciated until I started playing games on the next site I will discuss. Unlike BoardGameCore, there is also a ranking system which I really like to use to see how I am doing. Game logs are easy to access. My biggest knock against the site is the 20 game limit for the free account. I completely understand the need for premium accounts to support the site, so I am not actually complaining to anybody about this limit, but considering the other sites do not have this hard limit, this is a disadvantage. I also would appreciate an easier way for viewing completed games - without the e-mail notifications, I find it very cumbersome to search for completed games on the site unless I am missing where this feature is. At least they send e-mail notifications when the game ends with a direct link to the finished game, unlike BoardGameCore.
Board Game Arena
Just after starting to play on Boiteajeux, I began playing games on Board Game Arena. The biggest draw for me was Keyflower, which has been on my radar for a long time. So I began playing on the site and noticed it had some old games that I wanted to play some more, such as Stone Age and Race for the Galaxy. Immediately, my biggest problem with the site was the 3 game limit. Now, each time you finish a game this limit increase by one and now that I have been playing for a few months this is no longer a problem, but early on it is very hard to stay engaged with the site as a result. For example, my early games of Keyflower took so long to complete, I was only on the site once a day to take my turn. Eventually I caught on and played a couple short games of Hive to boost my game count, but this was a frustrating start.
My other ongoing issue with the site is lack of turn confirmation. In most games, as soon as you click on an action or selection that is valid, the game instantly accepts this as the move without confirming that it is what you actually intended to do. This is very frustrating as it is very easy to misclick something or want to long-press to see details but accidentally make the selection instead. The sheer number of games that this site has that are not available on other sites makes me continue playing here, but if the game is available elsewhere, I immediately play it on the other site so that I do not have to deal with this problem.
However, I very much like its use of "Thinking Time" to make sure games progress. The way it works is that in each game players are assigned a certain amount of time to make their moves. Once this time has passed, other players are allowed to quit the game and if they do, the player whose time has run out takes a penalty. This discourages players from leaving games or taking too long to complete turns. This system also makes me always play turns on Board Game Arena before any of the other sites so that I don't take that penalty for not finishing a game.
The final highlight of this site is that it has many games I am interested in playing in and several more that I want to try. I've been able to play Eminent Domain, Carcassonne, Keyflower, Tokaido, Troyes, Jaipur, In the Year of the Dragon, Colt Express, Coloretto, Caylus, K2, and Hive, plus many others. Beside the final site listed below, this has the most games including new games being added on a regular basis.
Yucata
Finally, I found Yucata which might very well be my favorite site. Similar to BoardGameArena, they have a seemingly endless number of games in their library which I enjoy playing or would like to try. There is also a different system to make sure games proceed. Instead of using thinking time and penalties, games must be played in order of when it is your turn. For example, if it is your turn in Game A and then your turn in Game B becomes available, you must complete your turn in Game A before you can move onto Game B. This forces players to play through all games and they cannot give up on some games if they are losing. This is arguably a better system than applying penalties because I still see a lot of abandoned games with the penalties, but with this system games cannot be abandoned if you want to play other games on the site.
Another interesting feature is the progression. All the websites previously mentioned except for BoardGameCore have rankings within each game so you can compare yourself with other players, but Yucata has an overall ranking metagame. Based on different games that you've played, wins, and skill level, you move up in class and rank. Does it mean anything? No, but it is fun to see yourself progress and rewardes for diversity and wins.
In terms of interface, this site has turn confirmation which as I mentioned before is almost a must for me. One negative is that only some of the games support game logs, while almost all on the other three sites have this feature. It is pretty important when playing games extended over a long period of time that you can see what your opponents did on their turns or even what you did on your last turn! However, even without this feature, this site has won me over with its impressive library of games. It has a significant number of classics and new games being added on a regular basis and just a sample of games I've been able to play include Carson City, Terra Mystica, The Voyages of Marco Polo, Las Vegas, A Few Acres of Snow, Imhotep, San Juan, and Carcassonne South Seas. There are so many more games that I want to try that I see this site providing new gaming opportunities for the years to come.
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