Free Online Board and Card Games

Every so often, I come across online versions of great board and card games that we play. As a family, we enjoy some of the more complex strategy games that we've featured on this site before (such as the Catan series).

Many of these games have inspired amateur programmers to design their own online versions for everyone to enjoy. We've started to compile a list of the games here and will continue to add them as they are discovered. Most of them require signing up for a free account on specific online service or a small download of the game client. Many of the sites and services also have rules and guidelines available. Services such as Brettspielwelt require a little extra effort to learn how to use their gaming client.

Acquire
A strategy game of stocks and minor empire building. Players place tiles to form companies, buy stock, merge and acquire other companies. It's one of the best of its type but its been out of print (the original Avalon Hill editions) for some time and very expensive on auction sites. Luckily there is an online version!

NetAcquire - this free standalone gaming client is best version we've seen. I've been playing this one for many years and it was recently updated to a new version. There is no service associated with it, but the game can be run in a constant host mode for your friends.

Carcassonne
There are a few online versions of this excellent tile-placing strategy game. Players score points by completing various structures (mainly roads and cities) or usurping them from opponents. It's one of our favorites.

Carcassonne at AsoBrain - one of the oldest and best online versions. Requires a free login account with AsoBrain.

Carcassonne at BrettspeilWelt - another excellent version, requires a free account. They also have the expansion versions available (Inns and Cathedrals, etc).

Carcassonne on Xbox Live - this is actually one of the prettiest versions. If you have an Xbox 360, check it out. It's pretty cheap (800 points). Now, of course this isn't free, but it's worth mentioning. It was offered for free on the Xbox 360's second birthday in November of 2007.

Citadels
An excellent card game where players attempt to build small cities with gold gained by playing cards in strategic order. Each card has a personality with specific characteristics or benefits to aid players or restrict opponents in their city building.

Citadels at Brettspeilwelt - An excellent real-time version. Requires a free account on the service and runs best with their game client.

Citadelles - An excellent real-time version that allows you to play with an AI opponent. Requires a free login account to play with other people.

Dominate Game (Risk) - This is essentially the classic game of Risk. Learning the system takes a little big of time, but it works well and supports specific map scenarios and custom configurations. A free login account is required. A paid version is also available for a few added perks.

Lost Cities
An deceivingly simple two-player strategy game where players go on expeditions by laying sequentially numbered cards down to score points. The style of playing before drawing adds a level of difficulty to the game. Unfinished expeditions lead to possibly devastating point losses.

Lost Cities by Ken Huffman - A very simplistic version with light graphics, but it works and you can play with a human opponent. Requires a free login account.

Lost Cities at Game Pixies - A simplistic version that runs under Java but allows play with both a human opponent and an AI player. Requires a free login account.

Princes of Florence at Brettspeilwelt - An excellent version of this popular resource and city building game. Requires a free account on Brettspeilwelt.

Puerto Rico - A standalone, multiplayer client of this hugely popular city building and economic strategy game. Players manage buying and selling crops to support their minor empires. This version requires installing a free programming client called Curl, and a free login account on a gaming server.

Ra
An interesting tile/bidding game where players attempt to acquire artifacts through an auction system. Simple to learn, not so simple to master! This one is a classic.

Ra at BrettspielWelt - Playable at BrettspielWelt with a free online account, using their gaming client. It's a decent version and very popular on the service.

Settlers of Catan
An insanely popular tile-based empire-building game. Players build roads, sea lanes, cities, basic armies, and metropolises while managing resources and expanding their fledgling empires. One of the major draws to Catan is that the arrangement of tiles completely changes the game each time it is played. Some versions have map tools built in to design your own layouts. This link brings you to our Catan page with links to all the online versions and information.

Tigris and Euprates
Probably one of the best strategy board games of all time, it is also one of the most difficult to master. It is essentially a tile placing and empire building game with a little Chess and random elements thrown in. Players attempt to control colored/themed tiles by putting leaders adjacent to them. Conflicts occur changing leadership and ultimately scoring points each round. The winner is the player with the most points in their lowest scored color/theme. It's extremely addicting.

Tigris and Euprates at BoardGameGeek - this is currently the only online version we're aware of. It is not real-time (you get an e-mail when it is your turn) but the board updates every time someone makes a move. It is basically a PBEM/online hybrid, or turn-based version, but it works well.

Years ago there was an online Java server that supported Tigris and a few other games like it, but I believe it to be offline. If you know of this service, please leave a comment and let us know!

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More to come. There are many more games on BrettspielWelt for sure - we'll add those and more to expand the list.