It’s a controversial and, some might say, blasphemous sentiment, I know. But some games require so much bookkeeping or have such a wide variety of rules that keeping track of it all requires serious mental bandwidth. Which leaves you with less bandwidth to focus on gameplay and decisionmaking.
Of course, we do play physical card and board games, separately from video games, for a reason. There’s the social aspect, beautiful art, and a visceral pleasure in handling interesting game pieces. Nevertheless, the games on this list work so much better as apps that I feel something is lost when playing the physical version.
Of course, you can still play the physical version if the power goes out or the world comes to an end, but you could just as easily play something better suited to an analog environment.
Terraforming Mars (2016)
I will never play the physical version of this game. The game has so many ongoing effects, so many different variables to keep track of, and so many opportunities to get something wrong that it is legitimately stressful. Even if you can find the table space for it.
The app keeps track of all the different parameters and all the different ongoing effects, so you can be confident that the winner at the end of the game actually won.
Sentinels of the Multiverse (2011)
You can’t talk about bookkeeping without mentioning Sentinels of the Multiverse. The game is a fun co-op card battler with a variety of heroes, villains, and environments that play slightly differently. But in the late game, it become a really repetitive math assignment.
Okay my card does 2 damage. Oh no wait, it also gets +1 from your EFFECT. Did you remember to apply the -2 modifier from the environment card? Which modifier applies first?
The app takes care of all of that so you are able to focus more on interesting combos. It is also styled like a comic book, which is fun.
Root (2018)
I have played the physical version of Root a couple times, and I highly doubt we played it correctly any of those times. Root has an asymmetrical ruleset, and each player’s faction is decently complicated. Your opponents are likely focused more on how their faction works than on yours, so it is extremely easy to accidentally cheat.
In contrast, the app only allows you to do legal things. It’s also adorably animated.
7 Wonders (2010)
7 Wonder’s app reduces the time it takes to play a game from a stated “30 minutes”–probably more like an hour–to genuinely around 15 minutes. Once your attention is no longer occupied by the mental math, you’re able to focus much more on the critical decisionmaking. And you’re able to get more games in. I usually use the excellent implementation on Board Game Arena.
On the downside, you lose the experience of physically drafting cards around a table. In my opinion, the time reduction more than makes up for that, but your mileage may vary.
Galaxy Trucker (2007)
Galaxy Trucker’s app is on this list not so much because it streamlines gameplay, but because it brings something new to the virtual table: An extensive, funny, well-written and fun campaign mode that has no analog equivalent.
Honorable mention: Civilization
Civilization gets an honorable mention because the version most of us know, by Sid Meier, was an app first. But I think it belongs on this list because it exemplifies the advantages of board game apps.
You theoretically could handle all of the bookkeeping in Civ 6 manually, but doing so would be so burdensome that it would easily outweigh the actual gameplay decisionmaking.
This is the barrier designers ran into when designing the four separate analog adaptations, none of which really captured the majesty of the video game.
Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Civilization was an app before it was a board game. In fact, the first Civilization board game came out in 1980. TTT regrets this error
Matt
November 11, 2022 at 2:27 amI’ll go ahead and mention Onirim too as a solo card game that works 10x better as an app given that you have to shuffle several times in a single session.
My honorable mention would be Race for the Galaxy, very solid app and actually makes learning the game much easier than straight from the rules alone.
Jason
November 15, 2022 at 9:32 pmYeah, Onirim with all the shuffling is much better with the app.
Brent
November 16, 2022 at 5:59 amGloomhaven!
Nathan
November 11, 2022 at 9:54 amCivilization wasn’t an app first. It was a board game first back in the early 1980’s.
Nate Rye Reynolds
November 14, 2022 at 2:48 pm1980 games was a different civilization. Sid meir civilization originated with the PC game in 1991
Becka
November 11, 2022 at 4:39 pmLol, they forgot Potion Explosion! Although I *still* adore playing this in real life, on the app is *so* much simpler! And, tou don’t ha e to worry about stray, lost, or rolling away marbles as you play! All it takesis a bump at ghe table, and there they go from your card!
Still an awesome game all around though!
Sky Sternberg
November 11, 2022 at 7:12 pmAdvanced Civilization was actually a board game published in 1980 that the computer game developed from.
DanD
November 12, 2022 at 8:08 amDominion surely – storing all expansions is a challenge of its own, let alone setting up and tracking everything
Kurt
November 13, 2022 at 11:27 am+1
David Betts
November 12, 2022 at 6:09 pmI enjoy Civ 5 more than 6 on my older computer. Lots of ways to win, near infinite setup options. But less micromanagement of where to build buildings in each city.
Matthew Ludlam
November 13, 2022 at 3:15 amStar Realms also, so many cards and keeping track of health can be a pain
Brian
November 13, 2022 at 7:22 amI feel like there is a strong argument for any “big game”with lots of rules or pieces. I know that a lot of people have purchased Gloomhaven for instance, but I’m happy that I went with the digital version.
Jason
November 15, 2022 at 9:37 pmGloomhaven is better in the app if you’re playing solo. But, I find it’s a much more interesting game multiplayer. Same with Spirit Island.
Jonathan Badger
November 13, 2022 at 4:52 pmActually the Sid Meier game and the Avalon Hill game are unrelated other than sharing a title and theme – they are very different.
JOAO CARLOS LIMA SELVA
November 14, 2022 at 5:29 amI think that a live board game session has a kind of fun digital versions won’t ever have. I agree that some games can work better digital and I could add a lot more examples to this list because you can always eliminate setup time, let many rules you forget be dealt by the AI… but you know what? I’ve tried most of them at BGA and they are definitely not as fun. And unknown people are not as kind. Sometimes they can be very annoying with someone who is still learning a game and there are trolls everywhere.
During the pandemic lockdown there was a strong reason to avoid home sessions, but I was the most happy guy in the world when I could invite my team of nerds again to our “dungeon”.
Cheers!
Rob
November 14, 2022 at 3:16 pmThrough the Ages. Better on the app.
Zapp
November 15, 2022 at 2:57 am100%, Through the Ages. So much more streamlined in the App! Makes for a more enjoyable experience IMHO
jeffronicus
November 17, 2022 at 3:27 pmI love Terraforming Mars, but it’s the sort of game where the most experienced player can you get stuck policing everyone else to make sure they’re actually following the rules. I played one session at a con with one player thought he could buy an extra victory point every time he earned victory point instead of one buy per turn. We eventually deducted some points from his score but we never figured out who actually would’ve won, which soured the experience for all of us.