Thanks Jamey for sharing your thoughts. As I noted elsewhere, I am not really much on BGA (as I try to play more in person), but really appreciate your discussing the topic. Gives me ideas!!
I used to play on BGA more during covid times. Back then, I regularly played Can't Stop, Alhamabra, Cubirds, Incan Gold, Coloretto, Draftosaurus, 7 Wonders and Nidavellir. I quite like the "slow" reveal of 6 Nimmt irl, as it slowly dawns on a player, who thought they were safe, but looks over to your card and realises that they've bust. It's probably my favourite part of the game and makes for good table banter. Thanks for the list.
I barely play on BGA anymore. In the past I've played both synchronously and asynchronously, and while I did play some big games on BGA that I loved (Tapestry, Castles of Burgundy, Carnegie, Space Station Phoenix, Yokohama, Beyond the Sun), like you, I gravitated to shorter games for BGA - especially when playing turn by turn, because tactical games are much easier to play one turn a day than strategic games. I especially liked: Sagani, Almadi, Next Station London, Welcome To, Can't Stop (much better synchronous), Nidavelir, Potion Explosion. Finally got to play Yokohama IRL recently and wow that's a good game.
Carcassonne: 17 games, Chakra: 16 games, Pixies: 11 games, Splendor: 10 games, 6 nimmt!: 6 games, 7 Wonders Duel: 5 games. Carcasonne is what I use to teach people how to play modern games and learn the BGA interface. Not really a favorite, but it's EASY to teach. I've only started adding extensions and that made it more interesting.
Love the Wednesday night group- definitely something I am always looking forward to. I am very grateful to the people I’ve met there who have also been willing to get on Discord at other times to teach me games I have not played. Outside of those times, I do play a bit turn-based with some of my regulars being Tapestry and Federation.
I'm primarily an asynchronous player on BGA, at least by volume, but I love to play real-time as well. There are some games that I prefer to play real time, usually ones that require significant long-term planning, or ones where it's paramount to be mindful of a lot of information. For the latter the first that comes to mind is 2-player It's A Wonderful World, which I think is a brilliant tactical game, but you really need to be able to keep the contents of both packs in mind when making a selection. I'm in the same boat of loving games where BGA takes care of all the admin. One area that didn't come up in your video is how, in tile-playing games like Carcassone, the interface will show the player all their legal placement options. I think this is a huge help for new players and speeds the game up immensely. I'm also a competitive-minded player who enjoys delving deep into the strategy of a single game, so I love that BGA has a seasonal ranked ladder for its games. I really appreciate that publishers choose to showcase their games on BGA, and I have bought several physical copies of games after falling in love with them online. Lastly, as someone who adores Can't Stop, I'd recommend checking out Mountain Goats on BGA. It is not so much a push-your-luck game, but otherewise shares a lot of DNA and does some very fun and interesting things with it.
I played 7 wonders duel on the tabletop for the first time in a long time and realized BGA is so much better as you don't have to keep calculating the costs of buildings
Favorite games on BGA at the moment: Sky Team, Splendor Duel, Iwari, The Crew, 6 Nimmt! Personally have a strong preference for BGA games where all the information you need is easily visible without scrolling... this is one reason I think more complex games are better "on the table" than on BGA.
I agree with you @Duphuntnos and take it one step further. Although I am not on BGA that often, I do have a few board games on the ipad (and the tabletop version too!) simply because it can be played while eating (e.g., Ticket to Ride) or vegetating at night (e.g., Wingspan). For example, I have tried Everdell and even Terraforming Mars on the ipad. However, too many areas to be concerned about (i.e., scrolling) that the tabletop is the only way to go (for me, at least). Maybe when I understand those games better… :)
I play almost entirely asynchronously on BGA (I think that’s the word you were looking for 😉), but my top favorites are Castles of Burgundy, Wingspan, Sky Team, Tranquility and Ark Nova. Really interesting selections in your list and definitely a few I’ll be trying out.
BGA for me is ok to test/know games that I do not own. Of course I prefer to play them IRL, but a mix of short collection and lack of people (family, friends) with the same hobby as me makes BGA interesting for me. And thanks Jamey to allow BGA to have your games.
I generally play short games in real time and longer games turn based on BGA. My list of short games I play a lot is very similar to yours: Faraway, Pixies, Captain Flip, and Azul. Longer games I play a lot are Ark Nova, Lost Ruins of Arnak, and Castles of Burgundy.
I love playing live on Wednesday nights. But also play a lot of asynchronously with regular people. I have a top 10 coming Tuesday for top games I only play on BGA. With Draftosaurus you can also play summer/winter as one game and they have the 2 expansions on it now. It's one of my favorite games to play on there.
I love BGA for playing asynchronous with friends. I don’t play much with unknown people anymore. I play lots of ark nova because it just works better on BGA (I sold my physical copy, because it’s just too tedious to play)
I play almost everything on BGA asynchronously (Asynch), and I've been enjoying just trying new games on there, often without even reading the rules beforehand Some quick games I think is prefer on BGA than IRL include Captain Flip, Knarr, and Vale of Eternity Some bigger games I have enjoyed on BGA include Obsession, Expeditions:around the world, and Teotihuacan
My top game on BGA that I’ll probably never play in real life is Challenger because you need a lot of player to make a tournament. I play a lot of Ark Nova and Earth solo game too cause it’a quickier that in real life. I enjoy playing Planet Unknow and Next Station London too on BGA because I don’t have a physical copy of those games.
I play games live, but mostly against random people. So, there are a lot of games I would like to play, but haven't, or at least not very many times. That is due to having trouble finding games, worrying about running out of time, not knowing the game well enough. Sometimes I may know the game well, but may end up using up a lot of time at the start figuring out how to use the interface for that particular game. There are also some games I've had issues with lagging and causing me to run out of time. Lately i've been playing shorter games, especially since I started playing Can't Stop in Arena Mode. These are my most played games on BGA. At this point, these top 21 games have all been played 21 times or more. 1. Can't Stop 2. Railroad Ink (mostly solo) 3. Azul 4. The Castles of Burgundy 5. Cartographers (mostly solo) 6. Wingspan 7. Diceathlon (mostly solo) 8. Targi 9. Welcome To 10. Stone Age 11. Trek 12 (mostly solo) 12t. Super Mega Lucky Box 12t. Sushi Go! 14t. Planet Unknown 14t. Cribbage 16. Kingdomino 17t. Yahtzee 17t. Drafosaurus 19. 6nimmt! 20t. 7 Wonders 20t. Pixies
I play both real time and turn based on BGA, but I usually have 50+ turn based games going at once. I also prefer the shorter games on BGA because more involved games have a lot of pieces that are tough to maneuver on my phone. I do not play on the computer and on your phone you mostly can’t get BGA to show you the things you can hover over and see on the computer. Here are my favorites to play over in person in no particular order. Patchwork Welcome To Kingdomino Isle of Cats Kingdom Builder Nova Luna Big Monster Marrakech My Shelfie Railroad Ink
Noob to digital board games here. Board game arena is different than table top simulator because all the rules are baked in, correct? Whereas TTD is up to you to know all the rules and manipulate the pieces correctly, board game arena won’t let you make an illegal move?
I far prefer Hanabi on BGA vs irl. An irl game can burn me out because I'm just not that good at keeping track of information, let alone making the inferences required, meaning it takes more effort from me. On BGA the core facts of the game are recorded clearly on screen, allowing me to engage more with the 'higher level' comms of it all
And I like it more on line because it's a bit awkward holding your cards backwards all the time and making sure everyone at the table can see what you are are holding.
I don’t like BGA, I’ve got a huge collection of videogames for digital enjoyment. I exclusively play boardgames in person and without any screens (if possible). It’s what differentiates them from digital entertainment. I have enough screen time as is..
BGA is great for testing games you consider buying. I tried Faraway and bought it, tried Planet Unknown and decided not to buy it. I think licensing games a win-win for BGA and developers, BGA gets more attractivity and the games get more publicity. And if a developer is convinced of the quality of a game, he would want people to try it. If its really good, people will buy the physical version too. Next game Ill try on BGA is Castle Combo.
Love this video, bunch of games I haven't heard of. I've been playing a lot of Knarr. I'll play it both in real time at night if I have the chance, but since I work from home, and it works well on the phone. I'll do the longer turned based version throughout the day
Thanks Jamey for sharing your thoughts. As I noted elsewhere, I am not really much on BGA (as I try to play more in person), but really appreciate your discussing the topic. Gives me ideas!!
I used to play on BGA more during covid times. Back then, I regularly played Can't Stop, Alhamabra, Cubirds, Incan Gold, Coloretto, Draftosaurus, 7 Wonders and Nidavellir.
I quite like the "slow" reveal of 6 Nimmt irl, as it slowly dawns on a player, who thought they were safe, but looks over to your card and realises that they've bust. It's probably my favourite part of the game and makes for good table banter.
Thanks for the list.
I tend to play the same few games: Castle Combo, Faraway, Lost Ruins of Arnak and Vale of Eternity. All very addictive irl and online!
I barely play on BGA anymore. In the past I've played both synchronously and asynchronously, and while I did play some big games on BGA that I loved (Tapestry, Castles of Burgundy, Carnegie, Space Station Phoenix, Yokohama, Beyond the Sun), like you, I gravitated to shorter games for BGA - especially when playing turn by turn, because tactical games are much easier to play one turn a day than strategic games.
I especially liked: Sagani, Almadi, Next Station London, Welcome To, Can't Stop (much better synchronous), Nidavelir, Potion Explosion.
Finally got to play Yokohama IRL recently and wow that's a good game.
Carcassonne: 17 games, Chakra: 16 games, Pixies: 11 games, Splendor: 10 games, 6 nimmt!: 6 games, 7 Wonders Duel: 5 games.
Carcasonne is what I use to teach people how to play modern games and learn the BGA interface. Not really a favorite, but it's EASY to teach. I've only started adding extensions and that made it more interesting.
I'm glad you mentioned that! I don't think I've played Carcasonne on BGA yet.
Love the Wednesday night group- definitely something I am always looking forward to. I am very grateful to the people I’ve met there who have also been willing to get on Discord at other times to teach me games I have not played. Outside of those times, I do play a bit turn-based with some of my regulars being Tapestry and Federation.
Thanks, Jeff! I've really enjoyed it too. I'm excited to try Federation with you soon.
I'm primarily an asynchronous player on BGA, at least by volume, but I love to play real-time as well. There are some games that I prefer to play real time, usually ones that require significant long-term planning, or ones where it's paramount to be mindful of a lot of information. For the latter the first that comes to mind is 2-player It's A Wonderful World, which I think is a brilliant tactical game, but you really need to be able to keep the contents of both packs in mind when making a selection.
I'm in the same boat of loving games where BGA takes care of all the admin. One area that didn't come up in your video is how, in tile-playing games like Carcassone, the interface will show the player all their legal placement options. I think this is a huge help for new players and speeds the game up immensely.
I'm also a competitive-minded player who enjoys delving deep into the strategy of a single game, so I love that BGA has a seasonal ranked ladder for its games.
I really appreciate that publishers choose to showcase their games on BGA, and I have bought several physical copies of games after falling in love with them online.
Lastly, as someone who adores Can't Stop, I'd recommend checking out Mountain Goats on BGA. It is not so much a push-your-luck game, but otherewise shares a lot of DNA and does some very fun and interesting things with it.
I played 7 wonders duel on the tabletop for the first time in a long time and realized BGA is so much better as you don't have to keep calculating the costs of buildings
Favorite games on BGA at the moment: Sky Team, Splendor Duel, Iwari, The Crew, 6 Nimmt!
Personally have a strong preference for BGA games where all the information you need is easily visible without scrolling... this is one reason I think more complex games are better "on the table" than on BGA.
I 100% agree about minimal to no scrolling on BGA.
I agree with you @Duphuntnos and take it one step further. Although I am not on BGA that often, I do have a few board games on the ipad (and the tabletop version too!) simply because it can be played while eating (e.g., Ticket to Ride) or vegetating at night (e.g., Wingspan). For example, I have tried Everdell and even Terraforming Mars on the ipad. However, too many areas to be concerned about (i.e., scrolling) that the tabletop is the only way to go (for me, at least). Maybe when I understand those games better… :)
I play almost entirely asynchronously on BGA (I think that’s the word you were looking for 😉), but my top favorites are Castles of Burgundy, Wingspan, Sky Team, Tranquility and Ark Nova. Really interesting selections in your list and definitely a few I’ll be trying out.
BGA for me is ok to test/know games that I do not own. Of course I prefer to play them IRL, but a mix of short collection and lack of people (family, friends) with the same hobby as me makes BGA interesting for me.
And thanks Jamey to allow BGA to have your games.
Jump Drive and Captain Flip play so smooth in BGA. Right now I'm excited for the final version of For Northwood!
I generally play short games in real time and longer games turn based on BGA. My list of short games I play a lot is very similar to yours: Faraway, Pixies, Captain Flip, and Azul. Longer games I play a lot are Ark Nova, Lost Ruins of Arnak, and Castles of Burgundy.
I love playing live on Wednesday nights. But also play a lot of asynchronously with regular people. I have a top 10 coming Tuesday for top games I only play on BGA.
With Draftosaurus you can also play summer/winter as one game and they have the 2 expansions on it now. It's one of my favorite games to play on there.
Been hoping for this topic! Super stoked
My top 5 on BGA : Knarr, For Sale, 7 Wonders Architects, Nidavellir, Kingdomino
I love BGA for playing asynchronous with friends. I don’t play much with unknown people anymore. I play lots of ark nova because it just works better on BGA (I sold my physical copy, because it’s just too tedious to play)
I play almost everything on BGA asynchronously (Asynch), and I've been enjoying just trying new games on there, often without even reading the rules beforehand
Some quick games I think is prefer on BGA than IRL include Captain Flip, Knarr, and Vale of Eternity
Some bigger games I have enjoyed on BGA include Obsession, Expeditions:around the world, and Teotihuacan
I can't stop playing 7 wonders and ark nova
My top game on BGA that I’ll probably never play in real life is Challenger because you need a lot of player to make a tournament. I play a lot of Ark Nova and Earth solo game too cause it’a quickier that in real life. I enjoy playing Planet Unknow and Next Station London too on BGA because I don’t have a physical copy of those games.
Awesome!!!Big Like 💎💪🏽😉
I play games live, but mostly against random people. So, there are a lot of games I would like to play, but haven't, or at least not very many times. That is due to having trouble finding games, worrying about running out of time, not knowing the game well enough. Sometimes I may know the game well, but may end up using up a lot of time at the start figuring out how to use the interface for that particular game. There are also some games I've had issues with lagging and causing me to run out of time. Lately i've been playing shorter games, especially since I started playing Can't Stop in Arena Mode. These are my most played games on BGA. At this point, these top 21 games have all been played 21 times or more.
1. Can't Stop
2. Railroad Ink (mostly solo)
3. Azul
4. The Castles of Burgundy
5. Cartographers (mostly solo)
6. Wingspan
7. Diceathlon (mostly solo)
8. Targi
9. Welcome To
10. Stone Age
11. Trek 12 (mostly solo)
12t. Super Mega Lucky Box
12t. Sushi Go!
14t. Planet Unknown
14t. Cribbage
16. Kingdomino
17t. Yahtzee
17t. Drafosaurus
19. 6nimmt!
20t. 7 Wonders
20t. Pixies
Thanks for sharing your most-played list!
Pixies ❤
I play both real time and turn based on BGA, but I usually have 50+ turn based games going at once. I also prefer the shorter games on BGA because more involved games have a lot of pieces that are tough to maneuver on my phone. I do not play on the computer and on your phone you mostly can’t get BGA to show you the things you can hover over and see on the computer. Here are my favorites to play over in person in no particular order.
Patchwork
Welcome To
Kingdomino
Isle of Cats
Kingdom Builder
Nova Luna
Big Monster
Marrakech
My Shelfie
Railroad Ink
That's a lot of simultaneous games! Very impressive.
Noob to digital board games here. Board game arena is different than table top simulator because all the rules are baked in, correct? Whereas TTD is up to you to know all the rules and manipulate the pieces correctly, board game arena won’t let you make an illegal move?
That's right!
I far prefer Hanabi on BGA vs irl. An irl game can burn me out because I'm just not that good at keeping track of information, let alone making the inferences required, meaning it takes more effort from me. On BGA the core facts of the game are recorded clearly on screen, allowing me to engage more with the 'higher level' comms of it all
And I like it more on line because it's a bit awkward holding your cards backwards all the time and making sure everyone at the table can see what you are are holding.
Hmmm, that's interesting. I haven't played Hanabi on BGA, but for me, remembering the information irl is a big part of the game.
I can’t wait for Scythe to be on BGA
I think it's currently in beta there, so it should be visible now.
I don’t like BGA, I’ve got a huge collection of videogames for digital enjoyment. I exclusively play boardgames in person and without any screens (if possible). It’s what differentiates them from digital entertainment. I have enough screen time as is..
I also prefer computergames for longer solo gametime, but I think BGA is better than mobile games while sitting in a bus or train.
BGA is great for testing games you consider buying. I tried Faraway and bought it, tried Planet Unknown and decided not to buy it.
I think licensing games a win-win for BGA and developers, BGA gets more attractivity and the games get more publicity. And if a developer is convinced of the quality of a game, he would want people to try it. If its really good, people will buy the physical version too.
Next game Ill try on BGA is Castle Combo.
Love this video, bunch of games I haven't heard of.
I've been playing a lot of Knarr. I'll play it both in real time at night if I have the chance, but since I work from home, and it works well on the phone. I'll do the longer turned based version throughout the day