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My (Growing) iOS Board Game Collection

Last week, I met up with my staple group of high school friends who play board games semi-regularly. And one of them was really surprised to see me with an iPhone 4s when I swore by my Android-powered Galaxy S II last year (LOL!).

Well I still have my S II and would never trade it off. I feel that for PIM and multitasking, it’s hands-down Android. They have better means to help you stay productive on the cloud. Despite Apple’s iCloud, I don’t feel it as much (unless if you probably own several iDevices). But because Android is powered by Google and Google has just become so ubiquitous, you can’t go wrong.

There is ONE thing that Android doesn’t have though. And it’s a huge collection of board game ports into iOS. I’m not referring to Monopoly or Scrabble. Or Words with Friends. I’m talking about the geekier ones you can find on Board Game Geek which are so hard to come by locally. On iOS, a huge chunk of these titles are readily available for a fraction of the price. With multiplayer online support via GameCenter.

Here’s a roster of some of my growing collection above:

Hive Online – A hex based strategy game where you need to surround your opponent’s Queen Bee.It’s kinda like Chess.

Carcassone – A classic tile-based kingdom builder that has become one of the pillars of Euro-themed board games.

Ticket to Ride – Another classic. It’s fairly simple to play: each team has to build the longest railway system. You get points for completing train routes. It was free for some time.

Bang! The Bullet HD – This is one of my all-time favorite card games (featured back in 2010). One sheriff, two deputies, one renegade, and three outlaws. The twist is that the roles are hidden from all players except the identity of the sheriff. Game ends when the sheriff and his deputies kill the outlaws or vice versa. The “renegade” wild card wins if he’s the last man standing.

Kard Kombat – From Richard Garfield, the creator of Magic: The Gathering. It’s Mortal Kombat .. with cards. Sort of.

Ascension – One of the world’s most popular deck building games similar to Dominion and Thunderstone.

Caylus – A popular Kingdom builder Euro-themed game, Caylus is a race to build and expand King Philip the Fair’s castle and make France strong!

Puerto Rico HD – Puerto Rico is still newly discovered and it’s your job to dominate the island. This is a popular role-playing board game that’s also kingdom-builder themed.

Neuroshima Hex – A hex based sci-fi combat game that’s honestly a lot more fun than Hive Online.

7 Wonders Scorer – This is a scoring app for 7 Wonders, a board game that is coming soon to iOS!

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Are any of you guys fond of board games? The experience of playing with cardboard vs digital is very different, but one thing’s for sure — the digital version beats cleaning up afterwards!

Any other games to recommend?

Unboxing Bang! The Bullet

I was introduced to Bang! over the 2009 holidays during the course of several get togethers with my childhood friends. More than anything, it was an instant addiction (apart from this other card game we played — the Munchkin series by Steve Jackson) and became integral to any sit down gathering we had in any living room.

Bang! is a western themed card game that assigns roles for up to 7 players: a sheriff, 2 deputy roles, four outlaws and one renegade. The sheriff and his deputies must defeat the outlaws while the outlaws must kill the sheriff to win. The renegade wins if he’s the last man standing. The catch is that nobody knows what role each player assumes, except the sheriff, who is publicly known.

Wikipedia explains it best:

The game is an interesting application of Game theory. As only the Sheriff is known, it is hard to know who has what role. Generally, a person’s role is implied if he tries to shoot, or otherwise harm, the Sheriff. Others’ role can be implied if they try to harm those who harmed the Sheriff. The advantage of keeping one’s role hidden from enemies must be weighted against the need to accomplish one’s goal.

Since the Renegade loses if the Sheriff dies when there are still others in the game he must defend the Sheriff to some extent. On the other hand his ultimate goal is killing the Sheriff. This leads to a “two faced” nature of the Renegade, trying to weaken each side (Outlaws and Deputies) while keeping the Sheriff alive until the end. This also makes it harder to ascertain who is an Outlaw, who is a Deputy, and who is a Renegade, as their actions may be similar. (source)

So little old me found out that there are over three expansion sets to Bang! and the whole package can be bought and enclosed in what’s known as The Bullet, a special edition casing that contains the complete game, and three expansion sets plus a sheriff badge for eye candy.

I finally got to play test this with a bunch of blog friends over at Aileen and Jay’s house and despite the first hurdle of explaining the entire game to seven other people, we had loads of fun. Definitely an addicting card game for any big group of friends (minimum 4 players). I’m not sure you can find the card game here in Manila, but you can do so via Amazon.

Bang! The Bullet costs USD $34.xx via Amazon.