Getting Your Board Game Fix Online

For most of us, the real draw of boardgaming is the chance to sit around a table and hang out with good friends, whether working together toward a common goal or crushing each other mercilessly.  While it’s always fun to flex your mental muscle with a well-designed game, the actual gameplay is often secondary to the social aspect.

Unfortunately, we rarely have as much time to devote to the hobby as we like.  For those occasions when you’re thirsty for a game but just can’t get a face-to-face session together, these online gaming sites will help you get your fix, whether it’s with your regular crew or a bunch of complete strangers from halfway around the world.

Settlers of Catan at BSW

BrettspielWelt – The great-granddaddy of online boardgaming, BSW is a well-established site featuring dozens of different well-known Eurogames, including such classics as The Settlers of Catan, Pandemic, San Juan, Dominion, and Bohnanza.  There also seems to be an endless supply of Tichu sessions running at any given time.  Games on BSW are often played live, whether through the web-based Java interface or the slick downloadable client.  Just a warning: This site has never been known for its ease of use, and the experience of finding your way into a game can range from mildly confusing to downright frustrating for a first-timer.  Fortunately, the lobby chatroom is well-populated at all hours — including a dedicated channel for English speakers — so you should be able to get help if you can’t figure out how to join or create a game.  Overall, BrettspielWelt has a huge library and a massive pool of players (many of whom are frighteningly talented) to play with, and once you get past its user interface woes, it’s a great place to spend an evening online.

Stone Age at Yucata

Yucata – Another German-based site, featuring over fifty different titles.  You may be less familiar with some of these games,  but you will find such well-known gems as Carcassonne Hunters & Gatherers, Stone Age, Finca, Egizia, and Roll Through the Ages.  The interface for each game varies, but the design is generally very good, with authentic graphics used for many of the titles.  Best of all, the site itself is very easy to navigate, with a clean design and intuitive controls; getting into a game is a breeze.  There are also easy-to-use friends list and a unique ranking system that will track your wins and grant new titles (Worker, Builder, Messenger, etc.) as you “level up” by winning games.  While live sessions are somewhat supported (most  games feature a pop-up window that will notify you when it’s your turn), it’s generally not a real-time experience.  Many players will join several games at once and simply play their turns as they come up.  Yucata’s amazing interface and rich social features make it one of my favorite places to play online, though if you’re looking for a quicker, more focused session, one of the other sites might be more your speed.

7 Wonders at Jeux sur un Plateau

Jeux sur un Plateau – For those who don’t speak the language, this site (based on the French gaming magazine of the same name) is a little bewildering to navigate at first, and you may wander around for several minutes trying to find the link to the actual gaming (“Jeux en Ligne”, if you’re wondering).  Perseverance will be repaid once you see what’s available, however — the site features an online version of 7 Wonders!  The interface is quite functional, and once you actually get into a game, the language barrier isn’t a hindrance.  The site features around fifteen games in total, including such hits as Valdora, Caylus, Jamaica, and Metropolys.   One note: if you want to play a real-time game, be sure to look for (or create) a game with “live” in the title.  Otherwise you may find yourself in a session that will run over the course of several hours or even days.

Deduce or Die at Hexcell Games

Hexcell Games – A smaller site that currently hosts two titles.  Blue Max is pretty far outside my wheelhouse (definitely worth checking out if you’re a tactical aerial combat fan), but the real star here is the online implementation of Deduce or Die, a brain-burning deduction game.  Full instructions are available on the site, but essentially you’re trying to solve a murder by interrogating the other players about the cards hidden in their hands (it’s all abstract; DoD can actually be played with a few slightly-modified stacks of standard playing cards).  This is one of the few games that I actually prefer playing online rather than face-to-face, because the amount of thought that goes into each guess can bring a live session to a grinding halt.  Deduce or Die has quickly become one of my favorite ways to spend the odd bit of spare time, and I strongly recommend it to anyone who enjoys logic puzzles or deduction games.

Through the Ages at Boardgaming Online

Boardgaming Online – This is a single-title site that features online, multiplayer sessions of venerable civilization-building game Through the Ages.  The site won’t win any graphic design awards, but the interface is functional enough that you should be able to pick it up quickly if you already know the game.  Sessions tend to run for days or even weeks, so it’s a good choice for anyone who just wants to spend a few minutes per day on a game.  One caveat here: The full rules for Through the Ages are not available on the site, nor are they easy to find online — the publisher, for whatever reason, doesn’t allow its rulebooks to be posted on the Internet.  Still, for die hard fans of Through the Ages, a leisurely-paced online session may be almost as rewarding as a multi-hour face-to-face game.

These sites are all excellent ways to experience a board game when you can’t gather friends around the table, and I’m sure there are several more out there.  If you have a personal favorite board game site that features online play, be sure to leave a comment!