Online Gaming During COVID

COVID-19 may have us all stuck at home - no game nights with friends, no gaming conventions, and no trips to our FLGS. That doesn't mean (despite the meme) that WE can't play - it just means we might need to play some online games.

I have previously talked about my favorite games for the iPad, but this time around, I'm going to talk about playing games online (mostly from an async) perspective. Prior to the quarantine, it had been a while since I explored the online gaming scene, but working from home coupled with others I know wanting distractions caused me to jump back in (and learn/re-learn some games).


There is a long list of games here - I hope you see how many good games are out there and find a game or two to play during this trying time. Here are some of the games I've been playing and my thoughts.

Hansa is online at - https://www.michaelschacht.net/pbm/ . The site and the interface are a little dated, but the game is one of those quick distractions that I still enjoy enough to own a physical copy. This is a little action point game / pick up and deliver (vaguely) that is fast enough to be a filler.

Over at yucata.de (which is where I used to play the most), I've played a few old favorites and picked up a couple new games. What is funny is that most of the games I play on yucata (with a couple of exceptions) are not games I'd suggest at the table - I tend to aim for games where I can pick up the action when I have time and lighter fare - things yucata does well at delivering.

Let's face it, To Court The King is a fancy yahtzee. I hadn't played this in ages and after another play, I realized why - it boils down to a race for dice and if you miss gaining the cards that give you more dice, you probably have lost. There is a singular path to victory and that's have the most dice. The game is otherwise clever and fast, but manipulating the dice and pressing your luck doesn't outweigh the fact that you must get more dice pretty much every time you roll.

Thunderstone, to this day, is still one of my favorite deck building games. Though I rarely pull it out to play at the table, I own the entire Thunderstone (original) set, including all the promos. Yucata only has the base game and the first expansion, but that still is a lot of game. I would probably be all over this one more if they added even one more expansion set. The online implementation can be clunky at times, but isn't horrible (certain cards can really drag with multiple players online which can suck, so this might be best as a 2-player matchup).

About every two years, I play St. Petersburg and remember why I don't play this game. I'm sorry, but it is just not a good game. Once you know the cards, there are no interesting choices to be made - if you want to win, you play a certain way and hope the cards you need come out. In what way is that interesting? Luck of the draw determines the winner. Some will argue that you play what you get, but that doesn't hold up for this one - you can't adapt and overcome.

Can't Stop is my all time favorite press your luck game - I have played it over 900 times on yucata alone. It is pure and simple and a great distraction. This is a genius of a game and has never been done better. I'm still playing this (right now) on Boardgamearena.com (where it is also available).

Thurn is one of those non-descript euros. Not quite area control, not quite route claiming. I got burnt out on playing (losing) to a buddy of mine at this game, but played a couple of games because he was interested. There is a little luck, but it is not a heavy game, so I can live with that being part of the game. A solid 6 = I'll play on occasion, but probably not likely to suggest it. It's one of those, I'm too lazy to learn a new games, so I'll play this mediocre one with you...

Yspahan is one of those games where the rules are not hard. The game isn't heavy, and yet my mind does not grok how to do well at this game. There are dice, but here, I don't feel like luck is the determining factor - your choices matter. Nothing about it is intuitive to me and I can't tell you why. I don't dislike the game, but I don't love playing it since I seem to be missing some key piece of the puzzle. I keep playing because I think I'll figure it out someday.

Guildhall was a new one to me. This was pretty easy to learn and there aren't so many options that a beginner is overwhelmed. This is a card game where you are trying to do some set collection. Each type of card has a set of colors and you want to collect full sets. Each type has some power that lets you manipulate things - including other players tableaus. It wasn't bad, but didn't grab me and make me want to play it again ten more times either.

Cacao (and all the expansions) was another new to me game that was easy enough to pick up. This is a light tile placement game where you play a tile with workers printed on it. This is pretty luck-of-the-draw, tactical play game, but it is straight forward and easy to pick up.

This and Yspahan... I find this interesting, but my buddy Nathan destroys me at this every single time. I have tried a couple of different tactics, but he just kills me every time. I'm not sure what I don't grok, but I just don't see what I'm not doing right. This is a tile laying game, each player building their own tableau. The trail of available tiles is laid out such that you move your pawn up the trail to take a tile - then whomever (it could be you again) is at the back of the group, takes a turn. You have to balance not taking turns to jump out and grab a good tile vs taking some mediocre choices in order to get "more". Its clever - I however appear not to be as clever as the game (or Nathan).

This is probably my favorite Feld game and I was really happy to see it hit yucata.de - of course, I didn't play it much, so I was happy to get in a game of this. The game I played, we all got to pick our board - since I don't play much, I just played one that looked fun to me. Turns out, some boards win more (based on stats from yucata players). Not sure if it would be better to have everyone on the same board or not. Regardless, this is Feld point salad at its best.

Chaos and "take that!". That's what this game is. There are two phases of the game - place your people in a city that is about to be flooded with lava and in the second phase, try to race them out before they get covered in lava. There is a TON of randomness to this light game, but take the silliness for what it is. This is much better at the table where you can curse the other players for burninating your people.

Of all the new games I've learned, this and Hawaii might be my favorites of the bunch. Here, each player is trying to build settlements while avoiding the skurge of raiders that will make it so that you lose points. Your expansion choices can be costly, or if played right, free. That balancing act of getting what you want vs taking what you can get keeps this lighter game interesting.

I often feel like I'm the only person that prefers this version of the game (vs Small World with its horrible graphical choices). Yucata offers a couple of different maps (including 2-player) so that makes it even better. This is a no luck conquer game, whose main decision points are when do I start over and should I spread out to conquer her or there? Quick and fun.

This is a classic action point game with a lovely 3D spatial aspect (and the 3D part is not for show, its an integral part of the game). It might be best with 2 players, but is also good with 4 (I don't care for it with 3 players). There are some fun tricks to play and managing your special tricks to steal away some points is where the fun of the game lies. I wish they had the other Kiesling and Kramer games from their Mask Trilogy. I haven't played this in a long while and I got killed. Very rusty.

Now we venture over to BoardGameArena.com (BGA) - this site has a number of games with really decent implementations. It definitely has a lot of nice looking games and a fair number of different ones. Hawaii was the first thing I learned to play on BGA and it has some similarities to Vikings in that each player is trying to fill out their tableau with pieces that make up islands. The mechanism for getting those pieces is very different (as is the scoring). This has a bit of an engine feel to it as well, as some of the things you pick up can and will help you as the game progresses. A decent light-medium euro game.

I love Backgammon. We played this a ton as a kid, so I was happy to find a decent online version at BGA. The fact that it keeps stats is cool too. The only thing that is missing (and its a big one) is the doubling cube. That and players that won't concede a game at which they have ZERO (literally) ZERO chance of winning. I still love this game.

I really like this lovely little abstract. As a two player game. It plays more, but feels a little uneven. The game itself is simple - following the placement rules, place a tile and then build one of your three types of settlements. The first player that can run out of two types of settlements wins. You lose if you can't place anything legally. Its simple. It is 3D. Its mean. A great little game.

Hive is another great abstract game that has this "always on the edge" feels to it and allows for a fair bit of clever play. There always seems to be another trick you can use to get out of trouble or force the other player's hand. I'd rather play this and only this as an abstract over something like Chess anytime and every time. Not sure its is my favorite pure abstract, but it is right up there.

Everyone likes the king of tile laying games right? BGA allows you to play with a couple of expansion sets and lets the creator pick some of the scoring rules as well. I have a limited patience for Carc - it always starts becoming a "who can be the biggest jerk" kind of thing when we play. I try to go in knowing this, but still...

And there you have it. A list of things I've been playing online recently. Here's the thing, this is a mere fraction of the choices available. I did learn four new games and shook off the dust on a number of others. I have a few other new and dusty games in the pipeline for the next installment!

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