The 8 best board game apps of 2019

Welcome to Ars Cardboard, our regular look at tabletop games! Check out our complete board gaming coverage at cardboard.arstechnica.com, or peruse our massive 2019 board game gift guide.

Tabletop games continue their push into the electronic space, with at least a dozen digital adaptations released in 2019-and that's not counting the numerous games in Early Access (like Gloomhaven) or approaching beta (Charterstone). Below, I've ranked my eight best of the year based on app quality, play experience, and purchase price.

Other games were either too buggy or just not good enough to include. I'll give an honorable mention to Takenoko, which was released in early December and looks fantastic... but is just too buggy to recommend right now. For example, if you switch out of the app mid-game, the app usually restarts and loses your progress, and the app requires you to tap too many times during AI opponents' moves. (Surprisingly, it's from Asmodee Digital, who typically does such great and bug-free work, so I expect these problems will eventually be resolved, but for now I'd say hold off on purchasing even if you love the tabletop version.)

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