Favorite Four: Board Games (iPad Edition)

The iPad is a perfect two-player gaming device. Specifically, the iPad is awesome for playing board games. While the following board games aren’t all iPad-only, these are my favorites for use on the iPad. This week’s Favorite Four are my favorite four board game apps.

Risk Risk, the classic strategy game, is probably my most played board game on iOS. My girlfriend and I play it constantly on my iPad. The war game has a decent AI system, but the AI has only beat my girlfriend and I in a three person game once. What’s nice about Risk on iOS is that there are two options for claiming the original territory. I’m not sure which is the correct way but it’s an awesome option to play around with. Risk is a must-have app for any board game fans. Ticket to Ride - iPad only Ticket to Ride is the iPad adaptation of the popular train board game by Days of Wonder. It’s is one of those German-style games that’s somewhere between a strategy board game like chess and a party game like Pictionary. The game consists of claiming routes between cities according to cards each player receives. I’m still learning the game, but it’s one of the most fun iPad games I’ve ever played.

Carcassonne Carcassonne is another German-style board game recreated for iOS. Unlike Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne is a universal app. Carcassonne involves placing tiles on a board to create a medieval landscape with cities and roads. Carcassonne is one of the few games on the App Store that’s so popular and so well-done that its rating for the current version is the full five stars and 4.5 for all versions. Game Table - iPad only Game Table was one of the first apps I grabbed for my iPad when I got it a little over a year ago. I immediately realized how cool it would be to play board games with people to give them an example of the iPad. Game Table has various board games including an awesome chess app, checkers, backgammon, reversi, a card app with chips, and Go (the Chinese board game). No AI here; just beautifully crafted game boards to play with other real humans.