Slow, Turn Based Games to play with Buddy?

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KRAINOS

KRAINOS

We have a new enemy in town.
kiwifarms.net
Joined
Apr 26, 2025
Basically something like chess, or cards. Me and my pal would game every Friday night but he's been pretty busy.

What's something where one of us can pull out our phone and put in a move every now and then?

Any genre, I don't care.
 
I guess something like Heartstone could work, but the game's fairly pay to win and imo it's a rabbithole of its own. Haven't played it in years, but iirc it's technically a card game ?
 
Core Theorist said:
"I wanna play with my homies."
"I want us to be able to pull out our phones though."
What a self-own.
Click to expand...
Lol I know, but it is what it is. Before we moved we'd get beers after work, go home and play Deeprock or something. I literally only heard of like Genshin when it comes to mobile games.
PC stuff is welcome too of course.
Maybe I wasn't clear enough. Another friend plays a Chess app. So any time he can just punch in a move, we can't really sit down for an "online gaming session" at our PCs. (well I can but not him lol)

7.62x38mmR said:
I guess something like Heartstone could work, but the game's fairly pay to win and imo it's a rabbithole of its own. Haven't played it in years, but iirc it's technically a card game ?
Click to expand...
I like the idea but he'd never touch a Blizzard product lol
 
Words With Friends 2 - Like Scrabble, take turns playing words whenever you want.
Carcassonne - Tile-laying board game with turn notifications.
Ticket to Ride - Build train routes across a map, take turns asynchronously.
Hearthstone - Card game with quick duels you can play when both are online.
Hero Realms / Star Realms - Deck-building card games with async turns and alerts.
Twilight Struggle - Cold War strategy game for two players with async play.
Polytopia - Simple civilization game with smooth async multiplayer.
Through the Ages - Deep civ builder with async mode.
Letterpress - Word game where you take turns capturing territory.
Out of the Loop or Spyfall Online - Social guessing games you can play with friends.
Antihero - Strategy game about crime guilds, take turns at your own pace.
Stormbound - Mix of chess and card battling with async play.
 
There's one mobile game I used to play with friends called Subterfuge, its a strategy game that runs over the course of a week or so in real time. So you just check in every once and a while to issue some orders or make deals and alliances with other players. Not sure how well it would work with only two people but i suppose you could always open up a public games and get some randoms in there too.

I think most of the board game apps by Dire Wolf Digital support asynchronous play as well.

If you're looking for pc games too I would be remiss if I didn't mention the Dominions series, or its younger brother Conquest of Elysium. Its an extremely complex wargame made by a couple of Icelandic theology professors but you can set turn timers for as long as you would like and just pop in whenever you have free time to take your turns.
 
You could try ROOT, a turned based, asymmetric wargame set in a cutesy forest with cute animals, with the game itself being a cutthroat, vicious scrabble to crush your opponents, but not crush them too much that they can't deal with the other guys if you can convince them to.

It's up to four player, asynchronous, and comes in PC and phone app flavors so you can just pull out your phone and make a move when it's your turn. The game itself is like 10 bucks on the app store, and it has a few expansions and dlcs that add different factions and cards. These aren't required, but the additional deck adds interesting strategy options and is worth the extra five bucks or whatever it is.
 
I'd suggest pirating it because it's an abandoned game but Inkbound is a pretty neat concept and you'll be sitting around for a while if you have a friend who likes taking his sweet time reading and rereading everything when picking upgrades/items.
 
7.62x38mmR said:
I guess something like Heartstone could work, but the game's fairly pay to win and imo it's a rabbithole of its own. Haven't played it in years, but iirc it's technically a card game ?
Click to expand...
Surprisingly enough, hearthstone has been quite f2p freindly these past years. Their new model is to basically sell overpriced cosmetics for the whales and make the game as available as possible... so the whales can play the game and use their fancy signature/diamond 3d model ragnaros hero skins.

I think if you're a new player/inactive player after a long time, you can even choose a pre-built deck to play, with all the core legendaries and all.

You can also play Shadowverse if you're a weeb.

KRAINOS said:
What's something where one of us can pull out our phone and put in a move every now and then?
Click to expand...
For mobile games, huh...

Never played Pokemon TCG Pocket, but Pokemon TCG Live is pretty good, in every expansion the game just gives you a bunch of tournament winning decks for free and tell you to wreck havoc. It's also pretty easy to make a homebrew deck without spending a dime (at least in my experience).

Another TCG game I like is PVZ Heroes... but if Hearthstone is considered P2W scum, then PVZ Heroes would be that up to a thousand fold lol. Still fun if you have the good cards™

If I had any other suggestion, it would basically just be "free ludo with online play", not really a big mobile fan.
 
Metallic Blood said:
Surprisingly enough, hearthstone has been quite f2p freindly these past years. Their new model is to basically sell overpriced cosmetics for the whales and make the game as available as possible... so the whales can play the game and use their fancy signature/diamond 3d model ragnaros hero skins.

I think if you're a new player/inactive player after a long time, you can even choose a pre-built deck to play, with all the core legendaries and all.

You can also play Shadowverse if you're a weeb.


For mobile games, huh...

Never played Pokemon TCG Pocket, but Pokemon TCG Live is pretty good, in every expansion the game just gives you a bunch of tournament winning decks for free and tell you to wreck havoc. It's also pretty easy to make a homebrew deck without spending a dime (at least in my experience).

Another TCG game I like is PVZ Heroes... but if Hearthstone is considered P2W scum, then PVZ Heroes would be that up to a thousand fold lol. Still fun if you have the good cards™

If I had any other suggestion, it would basically just be "free ludo with online play", not really a big mobile fan.
Click to expand...
i would have suggested PvZ Heroes too, but damn that shit was P2W. Still remember the decks that combo'd you with Heartichoke and the venus fly trap environment that was gay as fuck
 
Laser Squad Nemesis. Turned based game like X-Com(by the creator of X-Com). Play by mail. When both players have chosen what to do the turn plays out. Rinse and repeat.
 
I'd recommend space empires 4

Its multiplayer, though a bit weirdly and can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be. Plus you get to build your own empire complete with an absolutely massive tech tree and the ability to design your own ships, stations, fighters, etc... and build everything from custom anti ship mines to literal dyson spheres, and all kinds of interesting techs including creating/destroying planets, nebula and stars. Nothing like sneaking in a single cloaked ship with a star destroying weapon into an enemy system and obliterating the entire system and everything in it in one shot
 
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