Top 30 Strategy Boardgame Ports To iOS Per BGG

(I thought I would share a list I made for myself. The number in the description is BGG's strategy board game ranking.)

1- Puerto Rico (#4, Varible Phase Order)
2- Le Havre (#8, Worker Placement)
3- Caylus (#11, Worker Placement)
4- Dominion (Releasing 8/16/12) (#15, Card Drafting, Deck Building, Hand Management)
5- Tigris & Euphrates (#18, Hand Management, Set Collection, Tile Placement)
6- Summoner Wars (#22, Dice rolling, Grid Movement, Hand Management, Variable Player Powers)
7- Tichu (#34, Betting/Wagering, Hand Management, Partnerships)
8- Imperial (#37, Area Control/Influence/movement, Commodity Speculation, Stock Holding, Variable Phase Order)
9- Ra (#47, Auction/Bidding, Press Your Luck, Set Collection)
10- Operation: Eradicate (Pandemic clone) (#49, Action Point Allowance System, Co-operative Play, Hand Management, Point to Point Movement, Set Collection, Variable Player Powers)
11- Small World (#56, Area Control/Influence/Movement, Dice Rolling, Variable Player Powers)
12- Samurai (#60, Area Control/Influence, Hand Management, Set Collection, Tile Placement)
13- Battle Line (#70, Hand Management, Set Collection)
14- Cyclades (#73, Area Control/Influence, Auction/Bidding, Card Drafting, Dice Rolling)
15- Tikal (#82, Action Point Allowance System, Area Control/Influence, Auction/Bidding, Modular Board, Set Collection, Tile Placement)
16- Modern Art (#86, Auction/Bidding, Commodity Speculation, Hand Management)
17- San Juan (#93, Hand Management, Variable Phase Order)
18- The Settlers of Catan (#94, Dice Rolling, Hand Management, Modular Board, Route/Network Building, Trading)
19- Ghost Stories (#96, Area Movement, Co-operative Play, Dice Rolling, Modular Board, Variable Player Powers)
20- Neuroshima Hex (#98, Hand Management, Hex-and-Counter, Partnerships, Tile Placement, Variable Player Powers)
21- Wabash Cannonball (Chicago Express) (#106, Auction/Bidding, Route/Network Building, Stock Holding)
22- Kingsburg (#122, Dice Rolling, Worker Placement)
23- Thunderstone Gateway (#131, Card Drafting, Deck/Pool Building, Hand Management)
24- Through the Desert (#147, Area Enclosure, Route/Network Building, Tile Placement)
25- Medici (#155, Auction/Bidding, Set Collection)
26- Ascension (#168, Card Drafting, Deck/Pool Building, Hand Management)
27- Roll Through the Ages (#182, Dice Rolling, Paper-and-Pencil, Press Your Luck)
28- Hacienda (#191, Card Drafting, Tile Placement)
29- Yggdrasil (#193, Action Point Allowance System, Co-operative Play, Deck/Pool Building, Dice Rolling, Set Collection, Variable Player Powers)
30- Nightfall (#331, Card Drafting, Deck/Pool Building, Hand Management, Pattern Building)
31- Kingdoms (#385, Tile Placement)

Interesting; didn't know some of these existed!

beeporama wrote:

Interesting; didn't know some of these existed!

Truth be told Dominion is releasing on Thursday.

Ecarus wrote:
beeporama wrote:

Interesting; didn't know some of these existed!

Truth be told Dominion is releasing on Thursday. :)

Answered my question! I started searching for it on itunes as soon as the OP posted the list.

Ecarus wrote:
beeporama wrote:

Interesting; didn't know some of these existed!

Truth be told Dominion is releasing on Thursday. :)

Might want to mention it in the OP.

Any word on an Android version?

Do all of these include computer AI? I had no idea Cyclades, Tikal, or Kingsburg apps existed, and those are three excellent games.

garion333 wrote:
Ecarus wrote:
beeporama wrote:

Interesting; didn't know some of these existed!

Truth be told Dominion is releasing on Thursday. :)

Might want to mention it in the OP.

Any word on an Android version?

Should be releasing with it or shortly after. It's an app front end to an HTML5 backend so it's not a ton to port over.

garion333 wrote:
Ecarus wrote:
beeporama wrote:

Interesting; didn't know some of these existed!

Truth be told Dominion is releasing on Thursday. :)

Might want to mention it in the OP.

Any word on an Android version?

According to Pocket Tactics there is going to be a release of Dominion on Android this week also.

Nice, thanks for the quick responses. Hopefully this means we'll be getting cross platform action going on.

garion333 wrote:

Nice, thanks for the quick responses. Hopefully this means we'll be getting cross platform action going on.

Given the implementation method I would think so but I've been wrong before.

Boudreaux wrote:

Do all of these include computer AI? I had no idea Cyclades, Tikal, or Kingsburg apps existed, and those are three excellent games.

Tikal definitely has AI. I think I read a review of Cyclades saying it doesn't, and might be local only. No idea about Kingsburg.

I find this incredibly disturbing, actually, and what many of us feared when they announced this HTML5 "wrapper" game.

The official Dominion Online game, endorsed by Donald X. Vaccarino and Rio Grande Games, is launching August 16th. The game will feature:

Unlimited, free play of the Dominion: Base Cards game.
Large and growing selection of Dominion expansion card sets available for purchase.
Play Dominion Online:
Single player against bots
Multiplayer against your friends and other players online
In a NEW Online adventure mode designed by Goko & Donald X created to challenge you and improve your skills.
Play Dominion Online from your browser on Goko.com, on Facebook, in a Hangout on Google+ or on your iPad or Android tablet."

Note it says nothing about being able to play the game OFFLINE. Even the single player requires you to be online, apparently. I find that really ridiculous.

SommerMatt wrote:

I find this incredibly disturbing, actually, and what many of us feared when they announced this HTML5 "wrapper" game.

The official Dominion Online game, endorsed by Donald X. Vaccarino and Rio Grande Games, is launching August 16th. The game will feature:

Unlimited, free play of the Dominion: Base Cards game.
Large and growing selection of Dominion expansion card sets available for purchase.
Play Dominion Online:
Single player against bots
Multiplayer against your friends and other players online
In a NEW Online adventure mode designed by Goko & Donald X created to challenge you and improve your skills.
Play Dominion Online from your browser on Goko.com, on Facebook, in a Hangout on Google+ or on your iPad or Android tablet."

Note it says nothing about being able to play the game OFFLINE. Even the single player requires you to be online, apparently. I find that really ridiculous.

It ... kinda does with the whole "single player against bots" portion.

Then again, it's called Dominion Online.

garion333 wrote:
SommerMatt wrote:

I find this incredibly disturbing, actually, and what many of us feared when they announced this HTML5 "wrapper" game.

The official Dominion Online game, endorsed by Donald X. Vaccarino and Rio Grande Games, is launching August 16th. The game will feature:

Unlimited, free play of the Dominion: Base Cards game.
Large and growing selection of Dominion expansion card sets available for purchase.
Play Dominion Online:
Single player against bots
Multiplayer against your friends and other players online
In a NEW Online adventure mode designed by Goko & Donald X created to challenge you and improve your skills.
Play Dominion Online from your browser on Goko.com, on Facebook, in a Hangout on Google+ or on your iPad or Android tablet."

Note it says nothing about being able to play the game OFFLINE. Even the single player requires you to be online, apparently. I find that really ridiculous.

It ... kinda does with the whole "single player against bots" portion.

Then again, it's called Dominion Online.

No, it doesn't... it says "Play Dominion Online: single player against bots."

Maybe it's just worded weirdly, since that's the actual title of the game... I dearly hope I am wrong.

EDIT: the more I look at it, the more confused I get.

SommerMatt wrote:
garion333 wrote:
SommerMatt wrote:

I find this incredibly disturbing, actually, and what many of us feared when they announced this HTML5 "wrapper" game.

The official Dominion Online game, endorsed by Donald X. Vaccarino and Rio Grande Games, is launching August 16th. The game will feature:

Unlimited, free play of the Dominion: Base Cards game.
Large and growing selection of Dominion expansion card sets available for purchase.
Play Dominion Online:
Single player against bots
Multiplayer against your friends and other players online
In a NEW Online adventure mode designed by Goko & Donald X created to challenge you and improve your skills.
Play Dominion Online from your browser on Goko.com, on Facebook, in a Hangout on Google+ or on your iPad or Android tablet."

Note it says nothing about being able to play the game OFFLINE. Even the single player requires you to be online, apparently. I find that really ridiculous.

It ... kinda does with the whole "single player against bots" portion.

Then again, it's called Dominion Online.

No, it doesn't... it says "Play Dominion Online: single player against bots."

Maybe it's just worded weirdly, since that's the actual title of the game... I dearly hope I am wrong.

EDIT: the more I look at it, the more confused I get.

I think the fact that MP mentions online that it's probably offline but I see what you mean.

I guess we'll find out in two days. In the meantime, I still have the original fan-made version for iOS.

On a related note, Titan HD on the iPad is on sale for $4.99. Usually $7.99.

Playdek Sale and Upcoming Games Confirmed

Playdek is having a sale in honor of GenCon and their latest announcements. Here is what is on sale 8/16/12 through 8/23/12:

Ascension: Chronicle of the God Slayer - $0.99, all expansions $0.99
Summoner Wars - Buy Everything Bundle $4.99
Nightfall - $0.99
Food Fight iOS - $0.99

also:

Playdek has also announced that they are working on the following games:
- Smash Up! from AEG
- Tank on Tank from Lock n Load Publishing
- Can't Stop from Gryphon Games

This is a not all. Playdek has also confirmed in their latest press release that Summoner Wars is being worked on for Android. This information is all just basic announcements at the moment but we will inform of more details when we have them.

Check out Cutthroat Caverns iOS at GenCon
Sadly I will not be making GenCon this year but I am still getting word on things to check out. Curt of Smirk and Dagger games invites you to come by his booth to check out a demo version of Cutthroat Caverns for iOS.
Their booth is #1518 so head on over and check it out.

Lost Cities for iOS to be released 8/23
We just received word from the folks over at Coding Monkeys that Lost Cities will be arriving on iOS next week. This is an anticipated release from a well respected iOS developer. We are checking out the game now and will let you know our thoughts on the day of release.

So, speaking of the DOMINION ONLINE app, the original game's designer posted this a few minutes ago on BGG:

Base, Intrigue, Seaside, Prosperity, yes. Dark Ages, I believe it will only have one third of it on launch. The large expansions are actually two smaller expansions each online (of 12-13 cards), and Dark Ages is so large that it's three. I have playtested one of the three Dark Ages sets online and have not seen the other two.

One of the gags running through the BGG threads about this release was that the company had someone with the title "VP of monetization"... looking at the comments above, I guess I know what this guy was up to. Splitting up the various sets of Dominion into "halves" and then even "thirds" and selling them separately is just crazy.

Thanks for compiling this information!

New entry:

Thunderstone Gateway (#131, Card Drafting, Deck/Pool Building, Hand Management)

Sommer, thank you very much. My iPhone is now much more interesting.

Dominion Online has not launched yet? I can't find it on the App Store...

The whole "Dominion Online" launch has been an utter clusterf*ck. Not only does the WEB APP not work, but the iOS "app" (which is just an HTML5 wrapper) was only submitted to Apple YESTERDAY.

The THUNDERSTONE GATEWAY is another wrapper for the Thunderstone Facebook game.

Quite frankly, as an iOS gamer used to Carcassonne, Ascension, Ticket to Ride, and many other quality boardgame apps, both of these are garbage.

EDIT:

BTW, confirmed that both of these "apps" require Facebook login AND a constant online connection... even for single player.

Ah, good. Then I don't need them.

SommerMatt wrote:

The whole "Dominion Online" launch has been an utter clusterf*ck. Not only does the WEB APP not work, but the iOS "app" (which is just an HTML5 wrapper) was only submitted to Apple YESTERDAY.

The THUNDERSTONE GATEWAY is another wrapper for the Thunderstone Facebook game.

Quite frankly, as an iOS gamer used to Carcassonne, Ascension, Ticket to Ride, and many other quality boardgame apps, both of these are garbage.

EDIT:

BTW, confirmed that both of these "apps" require Facebook login AND a constant online connection... even for single player.

Thanks for keeping us up to date on this. Will be avoiding both of these games. Now that I'm thinking about it I wonder if Isotropic works on Safari on my iPad.

Ticket To Ride actually annoys me on iOS because I still don't know which version I want for my iPad. They made it very confusing.

Found this interesting article discussing what the publisher Goko is doing here with Dominion and potentially others. Looks like they may have access to a pretty big collection of euro type games with the goal of creating cross platform playability. Frankly, I don't see this as being horrible. If this is a competitor to the BSW's with a central hub, friendly UI, Bots/AI and cross platform functionality, that sounds like a good thing to me.

Carlbear95 wrote:

Found this interesting article discussing what the publisher Goko is doing here with Dominion and potentially others. Looks like they may have access to a pretty big collection of euro type games with the goal of creating cross platform playability. Frankly, I don't see this as being horrible. If this is a competitor to the BSW's with a central hub, friendly UI, Bots/AI and cross platform functionality, that sounds like a good thing to me.

I don't know, I'm not excited about the way Dominion has been handled and they have the rights to a lot of quality games that I was would be given to someone like Playdek or the company that did Neuroshima Hex.

SixteenBlue wrote:

Thanks for keeping us up to date on this. Will be avoiding both of these games. Now that I'm thinking about it I wonder if Isotropic works on Safari on my iPad.

No... see, this is why the Dominion Online clusterf*ck is the clusterf*ck that keeps on giving! Not only do we have little to no chance of ever getting a DECENT iOS port, but with the launch of this "service" all online Dominion sites are closing down! Isotropic, BSW, the unofficial iOS app, etc. All gone.

Noooooooooooooo!!!

SixteenBlue wrote:

Ticket To Ride actually annoys me on iOS because I still don't know which version I want for my iPad. They made it very confusing.

If you want local play (and maybe realtime online?), you want the ipad-specific TTR version. This one DOES NOT have asynchronous online multiplayer, but it does have more expansions (I think) available as in-app purchases, and the graphics are much nicer.

If you want asynchronous online play, you want the iphone-specific TTR Pocket, and run it full screen on the ipad. It doesn't look as nice, and you have to get either the USA or Europe version of the app, but it also does local pass-and-play. I'd go with Pocket.