Phone Games

[Stan]

Finally got rid of my phone with limited space and got a phone with reasonable space. So now I need to load it down with apps.

Any good suggestions for phone games?
Here's some I've played recently. As you can see, I had searched through card based games on the store at one point. Most of these are free, at least at the base level. I usually go with medium thought games - above simple tap tap tap but easy enough to play with 5 minutes of free time.

Card Thief - You plan a series of moves on a grid to pick up loot, avoid guards, avoid light, and sneak up on guards. As you progress you get tools you can use a limited number of times.

Hnefatafl (viking chess) 9x9 board, like a more complex version of Fox and the Hounds with asymmetrical play. One side tries to move their king from the center to an edge, the other tries to kill the king. Due to uncertainties in original play and stuff there are variants in the rules. I suck at it but it's interesting and so I come back to it occasionally.

Onirim - neat solitaire variant where you try to complete patterns - complete all the patterns before you run out of cards to win. Occasionally a ghost pops up to steal your cards and force tough choices. It has variants, some of which cost a buck or two. Each game takes 5-10 minutes.

Risk You know the game. With blitz rolling (computer keeps rolling until you win/lose the territory), a game takes 10 minutes.

Seedship A simple gem. It's all text based, making mostly binary decisions. You are the AI of a seedship looking for a new home for humanity. You come up to planets and decide whether to send down one of your limited stock of probes, to settle, or to move on. Over time, the sensors get better making the planets more likely to be closer to ideal but your ship degrades over time so it comes down to managing risk - move on to hope to find something better or settle for what's in front of you. The score is based on how many people survive colonization and how well things turn out. It can feel repetitive after 10-20 plays but it's worth trying and it's free. (Also one of the tiniest users of memory I've seen).

Underhand Solitaire game about running a cult. You manage resources and setup new cards to call forth a Mythos being. Card types are things like cultists, money, artifacts, food, and Suspicion. Some of the more lucrative moves gain you suspicion cards. You have a max hand size and suspicion takes up space - too many also risk a police raid. There are ways to lay low and get rid of suspicion. It can get slightly tedious as you have to play through the small deck a couple of times to wait for a given card to come up a 2nd time but it's an unusual game with interesting mechanics. A nice feature is the game changes with victories; new cards are added and you go after bigger Mythos figures.

[Mike]

I've played Card Thief and Risk. Both good.

Kyle introduced me to Cribbage with Grandpas. Amazing. And it serves your 5-minute framework.

If you like tower defense, Kingdom Rush is excellent, and I obsessed over Digfender for a long time. (To be fair, I get obsessive about most phone games, so that's why I try not to have any anymore.)

[Phoebe]

I enjoyed the cribbage with Grandpas. Also the novelty of Risk on the phone. After a while I forget they're there. I have a few other good ones though:
Tiny Bubbles (logic problem solving game but it has really appealing graphics)
Oh nO - kind of a mindless exercise but satisfying when it is completed
Jigsaw sudoku - same
Kendoku - same

[Stan]

I haven't played a tower defese game for years so Digfender is really hitting the spot. Will try tiny bubbles soon.

[Mike]

I'm glad you like it. Digfender has the unique (for me at least) feature of having some say in choosing your own road.

[Phoebe]

Whatever you do, do not play that star trek game on your phone!!! Either you wander loose and helpless indefinitely, or join some ineffective little guild, or ... unexpectedly become blood brothers with a pirate gang that ends up in constant intrusive and personal contact with one another, not to mention the $$ they will spend! You will pounce on your phone at odd hours to help someone raid or defend against a raid, as if you were all live passengers on a helicopter headed behind enemy lines in combat. I watched some guy getting through Covid in the ICU with his star trek pirate brothers. It's touching and very human in our time of socially distant need, yes, but do you in fact need this in your life? Ok if so, maybe get this game. Meanwhile, I will be playing Logical cell and the machine might be spying or stealing my info but it leaves me blessedly alone and Anonymous.

[Mando]

I am playing "Wings of Heroes" app as well as the Battle of Warships" as well as "World of Submarines"...been playing long enough to hold my own against most of the people who put real money into it. It builds teams completely randomly. World of Submarines does allow you to invite people on your missions.

If anyone is interested, let me know.

There is an app game of DnD Lords of Waterdeep
I have bought :
Colt Express
Catan
Galaxy Trucker
Talisman

and since I have an Android phone the Google play store has them in my "Family Library " so we can all have them without buying more apps.

[Phoebe]

War of submarines sounds like a good game, particularly for random people I might or might not know who may or may not have seen Red October 4,000 times and counting.

I play my boring logic puzzle games and chess and coloring in room decor with attractive patterns. It's all very soothing and anonymous and bland, ideal for the many moments I spend in school drop off and pick up lines or waiting for the rehearsal to be over or whatever. Meanwhile my husband is joined in some kind of semi-marital relationship with his Star Trek guild.

[Mando]

There are not a lot of group games that are not combat related...

LANTERNS is a very nice adaptation of the board game to mobile devices.

[Mando]

I had this on my old phone and it was a lot of fun. The actual game has a lot of cards so at least I save cleanup time and can play a board game if nobody else wants to.

[Mike]

I had this on my old phone and it was a lot of fun. The actual game has a lot of cards so at least I save cleanup time and can play a board game if nobody else wants to.

That is SOOOOOOO tempting! Curse you!

[Mando]

well, I was going to get this for my birthday...the real game, not the phone game, but Amazon has crushed them...the actual game box is still in the wrapper, but there is sand from the timer in the shipping box...I returned on and received another in the same condition before I could even get the return dropped off. Much sadness.

[Mike]

I'm so sorry Mando. I love this game. Noah and I got to introduce it to his older brothers this weekend, and we played through three or four games. It was fantastic. I hope you get this sorted. It's worth it.

[Mando]

Theo Town
a lite simulation of city building.

no internet required to play and free to play. mods available for free to download

https://hi.theotown.com/

[Mando]

Battle of Warships

....blah blah blah... naval warfare, sea battles online and offline. Navigate your unique ships that used in the WW1 and WW2. Improve on your own ship, increase health points, engine speed and turns. Customize navy army with the flag of your country. Get daily rewards, level up your skills and ship's characteristics.

[Phoebe]

I like the look of the city one. A while back my favorite game was purchased in a hostile takeover (really - it was purchased by one of those shitty casino game companies, which immediately destroyed it) and the replacement game I found for it is also defunct (they stopped supporting it, no new material). Those were my mindless moments games, when you're sitting around in the car waiting, or sitting around waiting for someone to come around in the car ... for such moments. Then a bad thing happened, very bad: I downloaded this game where you merge numbered squares to form larger and larger numbers by powers of 2. I think I mentioned this here before, Pete replied, no idea when or where. The point is that this game was vomited forth from hell specifically to destroy me and me alone. Or I suppose anyone else with a similarly afflicted brain. I have to ration it out to myself. The whole time I play it I have to keep repeating internally, like a mantra, that literally ANY THING ELSE I might choose to do would be better than this. It would be better to go lick a salt block or groom the toenails. ANYTHING. There is no good here. I would rather play this game than most other things, like eating or sleeping or drinking. I have woken up in a half-haze in the middle of the night, taken myself or the dogs to the restroom, and then FOUND MYSELF PLAYING THE GAME MINDLESSLY while semi-asleep. I think I have literally played it in my sleep. Sometimes I wake up and see the phone clutched in my hand, with evidence of strange recent choices in the game visible on the screen, which is active. So must be playing it in my sleep. I have taken to hiding my phone from myself at night. There should be a law against this thing, seriously.

[Mando]

Moved on to War Thunder Mobile

It is turning my phone in to a hand warmer.