The best board game apps for iPhone and iPad

Sandbox is the good iPhone app for board games which gives the unlimited sequel to Strategy & Tactics: World War II. Game designers abandoned historical restrictions and turn limits making your task deceptively simple – take command of any European army and lead it to victory in World War 2. With the strategy board game app, you can recreate the actual politics of the era - or not. For instance, as Great Britain you could side with the USSR to crush Germany – or you could disable the historical alliances and lead America to conquer Europe...

• Accurate maps of Europe and Asia with over 950 regions
• 4 types of ship: Battleship, Cruiser, Submarine, Destroyer
• 39 playable countries
• Choose how to bring the enemy to their knees!
• Decide how to spend the resources from the conquered territories
• Random event system: landing operations, revolutions, changing Coalitions

Wikipedia defines a talking board as: "a generically referred as spirit board, witch board, oracle board, mystic board or channeling board, as any flat board printed with letters, numbers, and other symbols, to which a planchette or movable indicator points, answering questions from people at a séance. The fingers of the participants are placed on the planchette that is moved by the spirits about the board to spell out messages. These boards are considered to be a spiritual gateway used to contact the dead or to receive information from beyond." Imagine all quality time you will have with your friends or family. What are you waiting for? Try out this Ouija board app:

"Ouija Board" app review

• 50 Free boards to choose from (all reviewed and some redesigned for this release);
• Unlimited number of fingers can now control the cursor at the same time (last version was limited to 11)
• Intuitive and easy to use

Bricks n Balls takes the classic brick game and gives it a facelift.  With a simple layout and concept, just swipe to launch balls into bricks and break as many possible.  The goal is to clear the floor as quickly as possible using angles and geometry to destroy the bricks.  Levels are designed in cute fashion with various tools and upgrades to make a simplistic game surprisingly challenging.  Scoring increases by how many bricks you break in the same launch, so plan carefully!

• Challenge your friends to beat your high scores
• Always free to play with simple controls
• This developer offers many successful apps

This app offers MahJong pattern practice for real American MahJong with Charleston.  These games give you the ability to play anywhere with a goal of learning new tips and tricks for card patterns.  A Tile Counting feature helps develop your strategy and skill.  A replay feature also teaches how tiles work together in new combinations.  MahJong may appear simple at first glance, but experts will quickly show you anything but.

• Build your skills and pattern recognition with this app to learn deeper aspects of MahJong
• Offers great tools to help you get better
• This developer responds with their community

The classic Scrabble game gets a fresh coat of paint with this app.  Not only do you get the classic scrabble feel, you can unlock multiple game modes such as duels, word drop, rush, and tumbler.  Play in leagues, against your friends, and in practice mode to hone your skills.  Personalize your game experience with custom tiles and boards. 

• Connect via facebook to easily finds friends and family to show off your skills. 
• Climb your way to the league leaderboards in an arena styled tournament that updates weekly. 
• This app updates receives regular updates and features

Are you prepared for total global domination?  Risk gives you the chance in this app designed after the classic Hasbro game.  Play with up to 6 players or AI of various skill.  Unlock more than 40 maps, different scenarios, and customized rules to expand your game play and challenge.  Join or host matches online across the world to prove your dominance!

• Multiple game modes, scenarios, and rules give a huge challenge and game play that will keep it interesting.
• Track your game stats and achievements to prove your prowess on the battlefield
• This developer boasts a large range of successful apps.

A wonderful remake of the classic boardgame.  The gameplay offers simplistic controls, featuring individual dice, arrows to show directional movements, and customizable game play.  A few new added features to the classic give you potions to avoid going down snakes, or flipping the snakes and ladders to add a unique element to gameplay.  This app is kid tested and parent approved.

• Many features of the game mean to help kids keep track of the game movement and make it child friendly.
• Can be played as both a single player and two player game to let kids play against friends.
• This developer responds with their community

Similar to Four In A Row, this board game app requires two people to play, where each player gets to draw a line between two dots. Choose your dots carefully as the person who "closes" the maximum number of boxes wins the game. Users have access to 3 skill levels and can choose to either play with a friend, find opponents online, or challenge a virtual player built into the app. This is a free game and takes up only 25.1 MB of space.

• 3 skill levels
• Challenge your friends
• Find opponents online
• Free Classic Board game
• Lightweight app

Mastersoft's Chess game was designed by chess champions to play like it is a human opponent. Play this app to improve your game and features high-res sets by famous Chess designers. No matter if you're a brand-new player or have been playing for years, this game will keep you busy. Beginners can use training mode, take back a move, and use the coach option. Grandmasters can choose from several modes of play, move forward or backward to any point in the current game, and see in-depth stats. There are 100 levels of increasing difficulty.  Chess app review

• High-res chess sets in 2D and 3D
• Save and load games
• Unique Chess engine
• For beginners to experienced players
• Free board game for iPhone and iPad

Play one of the world’s oldest board games with Fluid Backgammon. This app captures the best of the original board game, doing it justice even in a virtual playing space. Users can play against a virtual opponent, or play with a friend on the same iPhone. The virtual opponent is state-of-the-art, using a game-tree search to determine the best move in a given scenario. Select from easy or medium skill level, whether you are just learning this time-honored game, or whether you are a seasoned player. Grab Fluid Backgammon for your iPhone or iPad for free.

• One of the world’s oldest board games
• Play against a virtual opponent
• Play against a friend
• Easy or medium skill
• Free backgammon game for iPhone and iPad

Probably the very first board game that anyone learns, Checkers By DoraLogic takes this beloved game to your iPhone or iPad. Forget sitting at a restaurant with your kid while she colors and you surf. Spend quality time together by playing a couple games of checkers. Users can choose from single- or dual-player gameplay. The app boasts five levels of challenge, and lovely HD graphics. Players can undo an error by correcting a wrong move. The app will save your game if your phone rings, or if you exit. Enjoy your game even more by listening to your own music in the background.

• Everyone’s first board game
• Spend quality time 
• Single- or dual-player
• Undo wrong move
• Play your music in the background

The classic game of strategy, concentration, and skill, chess is a game for everyone. Chess Free is a valuable way to pass time or exercise your brain. Chess Free - with coach is an incredibly easy to use app, that doesn’t expect you to know the classic game of chess before you start. Instead, just play the game, and the built-in coach tells you how to play like a Grandmaster. This novel immersion method of teaching chess has you learning the most sophisticated strategies right from the beginning. It’s like learning to speak from listening to Shakespeare rather than Elmo.

• Pass the time
• Exercise your brain
• Learn what a Grandmaster would do
• Immersion approach
• No prior knowledge of chess necessary

A must-have game for any iPad, Minesweeper equips your iPad with one of the first entertainment games that was available on cellular phones. Whether you want the nostalgia, or you just want to play an oldie but a goodie, this classic game of Minesweeper is super easy to use, highly configurable, and loads of fun to play. The app supports Game Center, boasts three levels of difficulty, and includes a built-in video tutorial and help (for those of you who could never quite figure out Minesweeper.) Features include 3D Touch support, Retina high-resolution support, auto-save, and a wicked fast launch time. Compatible only with iPad.

• Old-style minesweeper game
• Easy to use
• Highly configurable
• Loads of fun
• Free minesweeper game for iPad

You think Pac Mac is vintage? Dominoes is vintage! Check out Dominoes Pro, and play this classic game in a virtual world. Dominoes Pro is the classic game of your childhood in Pro version. The game allows users to choose from seven different themes, while enjoying fantastic graphics and a sleek interface. Users can play to win based upon points or total rounds. The app connects to Facebook so you can invite your friends to play, or just brag about your dominoes expertise. Features include power-up and X-ray vision, plus bones swap. Think your memory is all that? Try the challenge setting and test it out!

• Classic dominoes
• 7 different themes
• Sleek interface
• Fantastic graphics
• Memory mode

Word Chums is a fantastic spin on the word game, brought to you by the makers of the award-winning Age of Empires. Whether you have a Shakespearean vocabulary, or just want to expand your horizons, Word Chums is the ultimate vocabulary-building word game. Users can play against friends, against the app, or connect to random opponents. Users will love the customizable characters that bring a new spin to the word game, beyond the usual vowels and consonants. The game will show you the strength of your word automatically, and you will even know valid words before you press play.

• Spin on word game
• From makers of Age of Empires
• Play against friends
• Customizable characters
• Automatically know the strength of your word

Tic Tac Toe Glow is not quite like the game your Grandma taught you on the back of a restaurant napkin. This fabulous app brings all the bells and whistles of the best in virtual gaming, to this tried and true stand-by. Check out fireworks, glowing special effects, explosions, awesome sounds, and music. Tic tac toe with Retina graphics and combined with Game Center achievements, it really is a whole new way to love the oldest game in the books. Enjoy a new style of an old game, by trying out a 5x5 grid and getting 4 in a row, or by trying a 7x7 grid and getting 5 in row!  Tic Tac Toe Glow by TMSOFT app review

• Classic tic tac toe
• Special effects
• Retina graphics
• Different sizes of grids to play
• Jazzes up a simple game

Do you think that screens are causing humans to spend less quality time with each other? Add some old time family game night to your device with Four in a Row on your iPhone or iPad. Simply create a row of four pieces the same color before your opponent does. Two players can play on the same device, or users can play online with friends or with players from anywhere in the world. All alone in the backseat on a road trip? Try playing against the virtual player, but first choose from three levels of challenge.

• Four in a Row
• Two players on one device
• Online opponents
• Virtual player
• Three levels of difficulty

Ludo is a game you may not yet have discovered. New Ludo is a fun app that will let you get your ludo on with a team. Users can customize backgrounds, access statistics, and try a lucky draw after each game to try and win free magic dice. Features include Tornado which sweeps your piece randomly to a place on the board, or Rainstorm, which limits movement to one more step. Ludo is the game of moving planes around a game board, but in this iteration, the team which gets all the planes to the goal first, wins.

• Team version of ludo
• Customize backgrounds
• Access statistics
• Lucky draws for magic dice
• Team that gets to the goal first, wins

If you are a Cribbage fan, you will love Ultimate Cribbage. The app boasts a classic cribbage board, just like your Grandma used to use. The app provides players with numerous options, such as six skill levels, optional score keeping, and fun game variants such as muggins, classic, and shotgun. The app will store all your stats online so grab your friends’ devices and play on them too! If you don’t know the game of crib, don’t let that stop you from getting this app, because newbies can learn as they go with the awesome in-game hint feature.

• Classic cribbage board
• 6 skill levels
• Optional score keeping
• Game variants
• In-game hint feature