Play Chess, Bagh-Chal, Hearts and Rummy Offline Against the Computer: 13 Strategy and Card Games, Explained

A good board or card game needs someone across the table. When there is nobody around, or no signal, that usually ends the idea. Game Collection now has 13 more games built for that moment: seven strategy games and six card games, all of them playable with no internet, most of them against Lumi AI at the level you pick.

This guide goes through each one with the rules as the app applies them, so you know what you are sitting down to.

The 13 games at a glance

Strategy and board games

Chess

This is the full game. Tap a piece to see its legal moves, then tap a dot. Castling, en passant and promotion all work. You win by checkmate, and the app recognises every usual draw: stalemate, the same position three times, fifty moves with no capture or pawn move, and too few pieces left to mate.

Play Lumi AI on Easy, Medium or Hard as White, Black or Random, or pass the phone to a friend. If you leave, the game waits for you. Hint shows a good move when you are stuck, and Undo takes your last one back.

Bagh-Chal

Bagh-Chal, “tigers and goats”, is a traditional game from Nepal, and the two sides play nothing alike. Four tigers hunt. Twenty goats arrive one per turn, and no goat can move until all 20 are on the board.

A tiger moves one step along a line, or jumps a single goat in a straight line to the empty point beyond, capturing it. Tigers need 5 captures to win. Goats win by leaving no tiger a legal move. Once every goat is placed, a board position may not repeat, and the game is a draw at the move limit. You can play either side.

If you take the goats, fill the edges first and keep every goat backed up, so a tiger has nowhere to land.

Backgammon

Roll two dice and move your checkers toward home, using both dice if you can. Doubles give you four moves. Land on a point holding one enemy checker and you hit it, sending it to the bar, where it must enter again before anything else moves. Once all your checkers are home, bear them off. First to bear off all 15 wins. A gammon scores 2 and a backgammon scores 3.

Keep your checkers in pairs. A point with two or more cannot be hit.

Nine Men’s Morris

The game runs in three stages, and the app labels them Place, Move and Fly. First you take turns placing your 9 men. Three in a line is a mill, and each mill lets you remove an enemy man, though not one inside a mill unless they all are. Then you slide men along the lines. With exactly 3 men left, you can fly to any empty point. Drop to 2 men, or run out of moves, and you lose.

The strong plan is two mills that share a man. Swing that man back and forth and you capture every turn.

Chinese Checkers

Move all 10 marbles from your point of the star into the point straight across, with 2, 3, 4 or 6 players, against Lumi AI or passing the phone. Each turn you step to a neighbouring hole, or hop over one marble of any colour, and you can keep chaining hops in the same turn. Nothing is ever captured, so the best move is often the one that builds a ladder for a long chain.

Fleet Hunt

Place five ships on your grid by dragging them, or use Auto place. Then take turns firing at the other grid. A miss leaves a white mark, a hit a coral one, and a sunk ship shows itself. Sink all five first and you win. Switch on Salvo for an extra shot after every hit. Play Lumi AI on three levels, or pass the phone. After a hit, try the cells next to it: ships only lie in straight lines.

Tower Defence

Garden pests walk the road to a cottage, and you stop them with towers built on stone pads. There are eight maps, from Front Lawn with one lane to Old Oak with two lanes and two giants, and five towers: the Acorn Flinger for steady shots, the Compost Mortar for groups, the Dew Mister to slow pests down, the Long Reed to pierce armour, and the Bee Skep for swarms of small pests.

The pests make you think. Moths fly straight over the road, and the mortar cannot reach them. Shellbacks shrug off weak hits. Ladybirds heal everything around them. Check the NEXT strip before you spend, and tap Send to bring a wave early for bonus credits. Stars show how many lives you saved.

Card games

Hearts

You play against three Lumi AI players. Each hand you pass 3 cards left, right or across, or keep them, in rotation. The 2 of clubs leads first. Follow suit if you can, and the highest card of the led suit takes the trick. Each heart is 1 point and the Queen of spades is 13, so you want none of them, unless you take all of them. That is shooting the moon, and everyone else takes 26 instead. When someone reaches the target, the lowest score wins.

Spades

You and a Lumi AI partner face two Lumi AI rivals. Everyone bids how many tricks they will win, and partners add their bids together. Make your team’s bid for 10 points a trick, plus 1 for each extra trick, called a bag. Miss it and you lose 10 per trick bid. Every 10 bags costs 100 points, so once your bid is safe, start ducking. Bid Nil to promise no tricks at all for +100, at a cost of 100 if you take one. First team to 300 or 500 wins.

Rummy

This is the 13-card game. Each turn, take a card from the stock or the open pile, then throw one. Arrange all 13 into groups, with at least two sequences, and at least one of those must be pure, with no joker in it. The rest can be sequences or sets of one rank in different suits. To finish, select your last card and press Declare.

A wrong declaration costs 80 points. Cards left ungrouped count against you, capped at 80, and the lowest total wins. Play 3 deals, 5 deals, or to 101 or 201. Build your pure sequence first, because until you have one, every card in your hand counts.

Crazy Eights

Match the top discard by rank or suit. Eights are wild: play one at any time and name the suit that must follow. With no match, you draw until you can play, or switch in settings to drawing a single card. Optional house rules add a Queen of spades skip, a Two that makes the next player draw two, and an Ace that reverses play. First out wins the round and everyone else scores their cards, with eights at 50, so do not get caught holding one.

Pyramid

A solo game of sums. Tap two free cards that add up to 13. Ace is 1, Jack 11, Queen 12, and a King is 13 and goes alone. A card is free when no card lies on it. You get 3 passes through the stock, so look ahead before pairing: the wrong partner can bury a card you need.

Three Peaks

Tap any face-up card one rank above or below the waste card, and keep the run going. Cards turn face up once nothing covers them. Drawing from the stock gives you a new card but ends your streak, and long streaks score more. Each peak you clear pays a bonus, and stock left when the board clears is worth points.

Which one should you open first?

Want to see how the opponent thinks? Read how Lumi AI chooses a move. For the sports, puzzle and word games, go to the second guide in this set, or see all 13 categories.

Keep reading: Pool, bowling, Mahjong and a daily Crossword · What 106 games in one app looks like · Meet Lumi AI, our game opponent · Every game, category by category

Game Collection is made by Lacspace Game Studio, part of Lacspace Corporation Pvt Ltd. It has no ads and no in-app purchases. Games and features change with updates.

Frequently asked questions

Can I play Chess offline against the computer in Game Collection?

Yes. Chess plays with no internet against Lumi AI on Easy, Medium or Hard. You can take White, Black or Random, or pass the phone to a friend.

What is Bagh-Chal?

Bagh-Chal is a traditional game from Nepal. Four tigers try to capture goats by jumping them, while 20 goats try to trap every tiger. Tigers win by capturing 5 goats, and goats win when no tiger can move.

Is the Rummy in Game Collection played for real money?

No. Rummy and all the other card games are points only. There is no money, no wagering and nothing to buy in the app.

Which of these games can two people play on one phone?

Chess, Bagh-Chal, Backgammon, Nine Men’s Morris, Chinese Checkers and Fleet Hunt all have a two-player or pass-and-play mode. The card games seat you against Lumi AI players.

Who is my partner in Spades?

You play with one Lumi AI partner against two Lumi AI opponents. Partners add their bids together and the first team to the target of 300 or 500 wins.

How many games does Game Collection have in total?

Game Collection has 106 games in 13 categories, including 17 in Strategy & Board and 10 in Cards & Solitaire.