AI opponents in board games, have any of you played against a digital AI version of a game you love - practical advice

[DigitalNomad76]

Q: Are digital AI opponents for board games any good and which games have the best implementations?

A: Hugely variable. Chess AI has been genuinely superhuman since Deep Blue and modern implementations like Stockfish and Leela Chess Zero are good at playing at calibrated human levels rather than just crushing you. For Eurogames the digital AI ranges from reasonable to terrible. Wingspan on iOS has AI opponents that are competent but rarely feel like genuine competition. Terraforming Mars on digital has a similar problem, the AI plays legally but does not play well

[NightCrawler33]

Agricola on Board Game Arena has the best digital AI for a heavy Euro that I have played. It actually threatens you rather than just completing its own objectives

[Jarvis]

Twilight Struggle on mobile has solid AI that plays both sides competently. The asymmetric nature of the game makes this harder to implement than most and they managed it

[SuperPosition]

Chess AI at calibrated levels is the benchmark everything else should be measured against. The ability to set an ELO target and get meaningful competition at any skill level is genuinely impressive

[Bussin]

Go AI after AlphaGo is in the same category as chess. The top programs are superhuman and the teaching tools that emerged from that are excellent for learning

[StringTheory83]

Most Eurogame AI falls into the problem of optimising its own position rather than responding to yours. It does not threaten you, it just executes its own strategy. That is not the same as playing against a person

[SGHolly]

The threatening versus executing distinction is the right one. A human opponent sees what you are doing and responds. Most AI sees its own objectives and pursues them

[CMPunk_Mike]

Spirit Island on digital has AI opponents for the invaders that scale difficulty in interesting ways. Different to optimising AI because the invader behaviour is semi-random by design

[Pilgrim]

Root on digital has AI that plays each faction differently which is impressive given how asymmetric the factions are. Not superhuman but genuinely different to play against faction by faction

[CobyOlaleye]

Board Game Arena as a platform is worth mentioning. The human opponents there are real and the range of games is excellent. The AI is secondary to the live multiplayer which is the actual feature