Top 10 boardgames for your iPad

Hands up if you've ever dusted off your boardgames only to discover that half of the pieces have mysteriously disappeared. Thought so.

Thankfully, numerous developers and publishers have taken it upon themselves to bring faithful digital reproductions of your favourite family games to Apple's range of handheld devices.

Gone are the days when you had to worry about misplacing counters, your dog swallowing your dice, and finding tiles down the back of your sofa. Just don't lose your iPad.

While the majority of the titles below can also be played on your iPhone, it goes without saying that they're more suited to Apple's larger-screened tablet. Ticket to Ride
By Days of Wonder - buy on iPhone or buy on iPad

Ticket to Ride is, as you've probably guessed by its name, a railway-themed boardgame that charges you with laying a rail network across a variety of maps before your AI opponents beat you to it.

If you're looking for an extra challenge, however, you can compete online against other iPhone, iPad, Mac, and PC gamers. You can even play against up to five opponents on a single iPad.

Finally, there's support for Apple's Game Center, which means you can unlock achievements as you play. Now, you can't do that in the physical version of the game.

Monopoly
By EA - buy on iPhone or buy on iPad

Everybody should be familiar with the game of Monopoly.

It's the one that sees you roll dice to navigate a board; spend cash to purchase various locations, houses, and hotels; and bankrupt your friends with high rent charges when they unwittingly land on your properties.

This digital version of Monopoly features various game modes, including a Tabletop mode that replicates the immersive interactive qualities of the game's physical counterpart. You can also challenge your friends and family over both wi-fi and Bluetooth. Trivial Pursuit
By EA - buy on iPhone or buy on iPad

Trivial Pursuit is another classic boardgame that you've all likely heard of. The aim of the game is to correctly answer questions from six differently coloured genres, and earn enough coloured wedges to take the top prize.

Like Monopoly, the iPad version of Trivial Pursuit features a Tabletop mode that replicates the experience of the real-world physical version of the game. Trivial Pursuit for iPad also contains a Pursuit mode, a Classic mode, and the ability to customise your own games.

There are a ton of questions included in this application, but you can download additional themed packs through in-app purchases if you crave an extra challenge.

Scrabble is an extremely popular game in which you try to create words from a string of random letters that you're given at the beginning of each of your turns.

The Scrabble board is littered with 'double-word', 'triple-letter', and other similar point boosters, so the placement of your words is as important as the words themselves.

You can play Scrabble on iPhone and iPad against a computer-controlled opponent or take part in 25 simultaneous asynchronous matches. These allow you to dip in and out of the action as you see fit.

Small World is a fantasy boardgame that allows you to take control of hobbits, merchants, alchemists, and other mythical beasties.

Your aim is to snatch and grab as much land from your opponents as you possibly can, without giving up any of your own.

Small World allows you to play face-to-face with one of your buddies on a single device, and against a challenging range of AI combatants.

This strategy boardgame challenges you to build a medieval landscape from scratch by placing various tiles on the game's board and snatching landmarks from your opponents' grasp.

There are numerous game modes to delve into, including a single-player campaign that sees you battle nine AI opponents. There are also Pass-and-Play, Local Network, Internet Multiplayer, Solitaire, and Easy modes to test out.

As you play, you can congratulate your foes on making clever moves (or ridicule their mistakes) using Carcassonne's in-game chat functionality.

Catan
By United Soft Media - buy on iPhone or buy on iPad

Catan pits you against four other players, all of whom have three main goals in mind: own the most land, the longest roads, and the greatest army.

If, however, your buddies aren't available for a few rounds of pass-the-handset multiplayer, you can go it alone against "smart computer opponents with individual strategies". Online multiplayer is also in the works.

You can play Catan using its traditional graphical set, or switch it out for its US or German equivalents.

Your mission in Battleship is to sink your enemy's fleet of battle-hardened sea craft, which consists of an aircraft carrier, a battleship, a submarine, a cruiser, and a patrol boat.

Unfortunately, you have to do this without knowing exactly where your foe's fleet is positioned, which means you have to strategically use your near misses (and a bit of nous) to pinpoint their location.

You can challenge your friends on a single iPad, or compete over both local wi-fi and Bluetooth connections.

Puerto Rico HD
By Ravensburger Digital - buy on iPad



Puerto Rico, which is one of the world's most popular boardgames, sends you on a trip back in time to the days of colonial Spain.

As one of Puerto Rico's island governors, you have to prospect for gold, plant crops, and boost your economy, but you'll also have to take on the roles of mayors, settlers, traders, and more.

You can play against a mixture of real and computer-controlled opponents on a single device, or risk challenging one of the world's greatest players online through Game Center.

If you're a human male over the age of seven, there's a very good chance you've dreamt about world domination at least once or twice. Risk allows you to fulfil those dreams.

So, it's all about strategy and driving your opponents into the ground.

There are three different ways to play this game: against AI components; against five friends on a single device; and over local wi-fi and Bluetooth connections.