I Used Alexa to Play Board Games and Now I Never Have to Play With My Family Again

The last time I played Monopoly, my 8-year-old turned to me and said, “I hate you, Mommy.” It happened after a savvy move on my part totally stymied her. There was pure rage in her eyes, and I haven’t lifted the lid on a board game since. Instead, I’ve stuck to less dangerous family activities—playing Legos without shoes on or a good game of tackle football.

Don’t get me wrong—bonding over board games is great family time. But the passions aroused during a competitive round of Risk can create deeper wounds than even the most contentious dinner-table debate. So when I heard about Amazon Alexa’s new tabletop gaming skills, I was keen to try them out and see if some impartial artificial intelligence could be my ally in maintaining family peace this holiday season.

There are currently three Alexa-compatible board games: When in Rome (which debuted last year as the first Alexa-powered game, meaning you have to use Alexa to play it), St. Noire (the second Alexa-powered game, and the first fully voice-acted one, introduced in July), and Ticket to Ride (the first traditional board game to have an Alexa Skill that enhances tabletop play). We decided to try one Alexa-powered game, St. Noire, and one Alexa-enhanced game, Ticket to Ride, playing them for six hours over three nights.

Alexa as Game Master

For both games, Alexa’s primary role is as Game Master: teaching the game to all the players, keeping track of gameplay and any scoring, and acting as a rules monitor.

You add the AI to the mix by placing a speaker next to the game board and telling it to enable the relevant skill. We tried both an Echo Show 8 and an Echo Smart Speaker, preferring the screen-enabled Show because it added some fun visuals and context during the game—although both provide entertaining sound effects. (If you don’t have a speaker, you can use the Alexa app on your smartphone.)

We started with Ticket to Ride, a Phileas Fogg–inspired romp where you travel across the country by linking train routes. Once invited, Alexa took charge of the proceedings with an interactive setup that walked us through the rules, which were new to everyone at the table. We were impressed by how quickly it got our group of five—ranging in age from 8 to 49—up to speed. Craftily, Alexa didn’t try and throw everything at us at once, instead introducing higher-level concepts a few turns in.

Compared with one of us reading the rules and then clumsily interpreting them for the group, using Alexa was a less frustrating way to learn the game—especially with the option of Alexa rephrasing something if we still didn’t understand. The tutorial continued throughout the game, with Alexa diplomatically telling someone if they made an incorrect move, which helped to dispel potential confrontations. This all works by each player relating their moves to the speaker after each turn (“Alexa, Red got Duluth to St. Louis.”), so Alexa can keep track of the score and your intentions—and ultimately crown the winner.

The murder-mystery game St. Noire (which borrows a lot from family-favorite Clue) also had a good walkthrough, putting the game’s dozen voice actors and thousands of lines of dramatic dialogue to use in an immersive, cinematic tutorial. Frustratingly, we weren’t able to access this on-demand after the first time, so when we tried to teach the game to new players, we had to revert to our own, clumsy interpretations.

What St. Noire lacks in assistance, however, it makes up for in its gameplay. This is a whole new level for board games, virtually taking you into the shady town of St. Noire, where you hunt for a killer. You don’t hear Alexa’s voice at all. Instead, dialogue bounces between your character, a film noir–style detective who has more than a hint of Humphrey Bogart about him, and the various overdrawn suspects you interrogate, such as Wallace Chung, a billionaire businessman, and Izzy Cortez, a waitress who throws out clichés like “I bet you ask all the girls that, Detective….” (cue the girlish giggle).

This was definitely the crowd-pleaser in our testing. “This game is so much fun,” said one 12-year-old player. And an adult commented on how intriguing it was, saying, “It definitely keeps you engaged.”

The main disappointment is that St. Noire is a team-based cooperative game—as I’ve noted, our group is pretty competitive! It’s also extremely short; it’s easily completed within 15 minutes (but there are multiple storylines and endings, so you can keep playing for as long as you like).

These two “flaws” make St. Noire feel like a proof of concept right now. It’s good, but I’d like to see an AI-based game that tackles the more-advanced elements of tabletop gaming we all know and love, such as strategy and cutthroat competition, and elevates them into something even more compelling. I don’t know what this game looks like yet, but St. Noire offers a tantalizing glimpse into that future.

Alexa the opponent

Back in the present, the best way to add Alexa to your board-game repertoire is as an opponent. In fact, with both games, it can be just you and the AI. Yes, board-game lovers, your dreams have come true: With a voice assistant, you can now play a board game all by yourself—no need to worry about being stabbed in the back by that family member or game-night nemesis.

St. Noire works particularly well as a one-player game (you don’t have to listen to anyone else’s opinions as you track down the murderer). You can also play Ticket to Ride solo or with up to three other players. Alexa steps in and takes its own train set, completing its turn on your prompts.

This is a good way to entertain a couple of children for an hour or so with limited adult supervision. It’s also perfect for a lonely senior, and it’s not a bad idea for that board-game aficionado whose family has pushed them to the brink one too many times. It’s not that I’ll never play board games with my family again, but Alexa’s jovial temperament and lack of fiery rage certainly make it my new favorite playing partner.