My friend Nicholas Hjelmberg is a frequent guest at game night. Here are his best tips for how to play designer boardgames on-line.
Here’s a list of some web sites that I have visited to familiarise myself with various games. All are free to use but you have to register.
- Boardgame Arena. A large and well developed site for many games including Keyflower and Palaces of Carrara. I do miss the ability to retract moves though.
- Triqqy. A slightly buggy site but one of the few where you can play Reiner Knizia’s games, including Tigris & Euphrates and Samurai. Here too I do miss the ability to retract moves.
- Spiel By Web. This site has better functionality than design. Its games include Reef Encounter and Tikal.
- Yucata. Reminiscent of Spiel By Web, this site has shorter games like Alchemist and Torres.
- Boardgame Core. A stylish site with several games from Splotter Games, including The Great Zimbabwe och Food Chain Magnate.
- Sloth Ninja. For those who miss the Splotter game Indonesia, that is one of the few games here.
- >Boite à Jeux. a good-looking site with games including Alchemists, Myrmes, Vanuatu and Concordia.
- Michael Schacht. A simple but fully functional site for many of Michael Schacht’s games, including China and Patrician.
- MaBi Web. A little site with less known gems such as UR and Mykerinos.
- Civilization. A not entirely intuitive site dedicated to Civilization and Advanced Civilization.
Aardvarchaeology - by Dr. Martin Rundkvist 