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Daytime at the library desk

Eight browser games kept awake
through a fruit bat's sleepless noon

Fruit bats are meant to doze through the daylight, but Woodruff often slips down the bookcase stair at noon, pulls the curtains and opens a laptop on the library desk. These are the eight free browser games he keeps for those wakeful afternoons: two medieval realms and a dieselpunk war, a garden of planting beds, two football clubs and two very silly role-playing adventures. Each one opens in an ordinary tab.

8games on the library desk
4also have an official app
Freeto sign up at each one
Molehill Empire 2 key art
The herbalist's own plot

Molehill Empire 2

Gardening sim of beds and orders · Farm, town & zoo

Woodruff spends his nights among dried herbs, so a garden that only needs tending is his favourite rest. Molehill Empire 2 is built on planting beds: you sow, water and harvest on time to fill orders, unlock new crops and decorations as you go, and trade surplus with other gardeners until a tidy plot has sprawled into a big one.

Good for
Players who like short, regular tending sessions.
Typical session
Several few-minute visits each day
Where it runs
Desktop browser; mobile app also available
Cost
Free to play; optional in-game purchases.
Your first session
  1. Plant the quick crops first so orders fill early.
  2. Water and harvest on schedule rather than letting beds sit.
  3. Trade spare produce with other gardeners once you have some.
Play Molehill Empire 2 freeOpens molehillempire2.upjers.com/en in a new tab

Seven more beside the inkwell

Travian Kingdoms key artStrategy & war

Travian Kingdoms

Realm strategy split between kings and governors

A village-building strategy MMO where players split into kings and governors, each role with duties of its own. You settle fresh villages, keep trade routes busy and help hold territory across a round that runs for months, so the bigger plan matters more than any one battle.

  • Brief look-ins scattered across the day
  • Desktop browser; mobile app also available
Whose desk it suits & first moves

Good for: Strategists who enjoy a clear job inside an alliance.

Your first session
  1. Settle on the king or governor role before your first village fills.
  2. Get resource fields growing before anything else.
  3. Talk to the players around you before the round heats up.
Play Travian Kingdoms freeOpens kingdoms.com
Iron Order 1919 key artStrategy & war

Iron Order 1919

Dieselpunk alternate-history grand strategy

Here the Great War never quite ended. You run a province economy, research new technology and trade with rivals in real-time matches, where infantry march alongside towering walking iron Titans and a coalition partner can turn on you the moment it suits them.

  • Several visits spread across a day
  • Desktop browser; mobile app also available
Whose desk it suits & first moves

Good for: Planners drawn to 1919 rewritten with iron Titans.

Your first session
  1. Build up the province economy before raising an army.
  2. Research towards the units you plan to rely on.
  3. Choose coalition partners carefully, and keep an eye on them.
Play Iron Order 1919 freeOpens ironorder1919.com
KingsAge key artStrategy & war

KingsAge

Medieval village conquest

Old-school medieval conquest where wood, clay and iron pay for everything. Spearmen, swordsmen and cavalry march from your barracks, scouts look a target over before committing, and in time take whole villages outright with noblemen rather than simply raiding them.

  • Quick visits to keep queues moving
  • Desktop browser
Whose desk it suits & first moves

Good for: Players who like traditional village-conquest strategy.

Your first session
  1. Keep all three resources growing together.
  2. Scout every target before you send troops.
  3. Save up for noblemen once your home village is safe.
Play KingsAge freeOpens gameforge.com/en-US/play/kingsage
goalunited LEGENDS key artSport & management

goalunited LEGENDS

Football management through the seasons

A football management game in which you train a squad, set its tactics and develop the stadium, then take the club through season after season. Progress comes from steady planning across the year rather than any single afternoon of clever moves.

  • A short visit most days
  • Desktop browser
Whose desk it suits & first moves

Good for: Football-management fans who like a long view.

Your first session
  1. Pick a training plan and stick with it for a while.
  2. Settle on one tactic before trying variations.
  3. Grow the stadium gradually as the club earns.
Play goalunited LEGENDS freeOpens legends.goalunited.org
Sokker key artSport & management

Sokker

Football management built round a youth academy

Woodruff likes a club that is raised like seedlings. Sokker's youth academy brings young players up into the first team, its own tactics editor shapes how they play, and each fixture is rendered in full 3D, with two league rounds weekly and international competition besides.

  • Quick visits either side of the two matches each week
  • Desktop browser
Whose desk it suits & first moves

Good for: Managers who enjoy developing players from scratch.

Your first session
  1. Look through the academy before signing anyone.
  2. Draw up one plain formation in the tactics editor and adjust it slowly.
  3. Invest in the ground a little at a time.
Play Sokker freeOpens sokker.org/en
Kingdom of Loathing key artRole-play & adventure

Kingdom of Loathing

Comedy stick-figure RPG

Stick-figure art, a cult following and six joke classes, Seal Clubber and Accordion Thief among them. Combat goes turn by turn, thousands of ridiculous items pile up in the inventory, yet underneath sits a deep system players have studied for years.

  • A handful of turns or a whole evening
  • Desktop browser
Whose desk it suits & first moves

Good for: Players who would rather laugh than gape at graphics.

Your first session
  1. Choose the class whose name makes you giggle loudest.
  2. Read item descriptions; the jokes are half the game.
  3. Ask the community when a puzzle stumps you.
Play Kingdom of Loathing freeOpens kingdomofloathing.com
Shakes & Fidget key artRole-play & adventure

Shakes & Fidget

Comic fantasy RPG on timed quests

A cheeky fantasy RPG whose hero heads off on quests timed by the clock, returning once the minutes run out. Its twelve classes differ sharply: a Druid may become bear, tiger or eagle mid-fight, while Berserkers land a flurry of blows within one turn.

  • Quick visits between other tasks
  • Desktop browser; mobile app also available
Whose desk it suits & first moves

Good for: Players who want humour alongside their character sheet.

Your first session
  1. Read the class descriptions before you create a hero.
  2. Match quest lengths to how soon you will be back at the desk.
  3. Join a guild for company and arena advice.
Play Shakes & Fidget freeOpens sfgame.net

All eight side by side on one shelf card

Title on the deskSort of game Woodruff playsPace between napsWho else is thereA sitting at the deskRuns on, per its studio
Molehill Empire 2Gardening sim of beds and ordersLittle and oftenTrading with other gardenersSeveral few-minute visits each dayDesktop browser; mobile app also available
Travian KingdomsRealm strategy split between kings and governorsA round that lasts monthsKings and governors working as oneBrief look-ins scattered across the dayDesktop browser; mobile app also available
Iron Order 1919Dieselpunk alternate-history grand strategyLive, unfolding over several daysCoalitions forged and broken in each matchSeveral visits spread across a dayDesktop browser; mobile app also available
KingsAgeConquering medieval villagesSteady real timeNeighbours you may end up raidingQuick visits to keep queues movingDesktop browser
goalunited LEGENDSFootball management through the seasonsSeason by seasonLeagues where other managers lie in waitA short visit most daysDesktop browser
SokkerFootball management built round a youth academyTwo league fixtures every weekLeague rivals plus international matchesQuick visits either side of the two matches each weekDesktop browser
Kingdom of LoathingRole-play drawn in stick figures, for laughsTurn by turn, as slow as you likeA long-running cult communityA handful of turns or a whole eveningDesktop browser
Shakes & FidgetComic fantasy RPG on timed questsQuests that finish on a clockGuild life and duels in the arenaQuick visits between other tasksDesktop browser; mobile app also available

All 8 cost nothing to play; in-game purchases are optional.

01

Free from the first bed to the last match

Woodruff never paid to join any of the eight, and their gardens, realms, provinces, clubs and quests arrive whole rather than as tasters.

Studios do keep optional shops of speed-ups, premium currency and ornaments. Woodruff ignores them, as many veterans do, and on a household laptop each account usually lets you cap what can be spent.

02

Starting a new game from the desk

Each button here sends you on to the studio behind that game, opening a separate tab. Give that studio an email address, and soon enough a garden, village, province, club or hero is yours to tend.

All eight begin with a guided opening. Follow it right to the end, because the menus and resources make far more sense once it lets you go.

03

Short visits and long afternoons

Shut the lid and most of the eight keep busy: crops ripen, troops march, quests end and fixtures kick off. Woodruff checks once at dusk before work and once at dawn after it.

Kingdom of Loathing is the one that waits for you, since its turn-based adventures only move on while you are playing. Save it for a longer sitting and use the brief visits for harvests, orders and training plans.

04

Keeping your logins locked away

Enter a login only on the web address each studio publishes, and treat look-alike pages as traps. Woodruff keeps a different password for each game in a locked drawer, and turns on two-step login wherever it exists.

No genuine studio helper will ever want that password. Strangers who dangle free premium currency in return for it want the whole account; report them and leave the note unanswered.

How each of the eight won a corner of the desk

  • Each one runs in an everyday desktop browser, so a laptop on the library desk is all the kit it needs.
  • Woodruff paid nothing to join a single one, and none of them locks its main game behind the studio shop.
  • Villages, beds, provinces and clubs tick along with the laptop lid down, so a glance between naps keeps them growing.
  • Every one has been running for years, which means old hands on hand to untangle a confusing menu.

No. Every one of the eight runs inside a normal desktop browser tab; Molehill Empire 2, Travian Kingdoms, Iron Order 1919 and Shakes & Fidget also come as official phone apps.

No. Registration is free at every studio, the full game is playable without spending, and buying any extra is entirely your own choice.

Not a line of them. Stillroom Jars had no hand in them either: eight outside studios make and maintain them, and each button merely points to that studio's official site.

No. Separate studios mean separate sign-ups, so sampling the whole desk takes eight free registrations.

Molehill Empire 2, Travian Kingdoms, Iron Order 1919 and Shakes & Fidget each publish an official app beside the browser edition. KingsAge, goalunited LEGENDS, Sokker and Kingdom of Loathing appear here as browser games only, so Woodruff keeps those at the desk.

Molehill Empire 2, where a bed needs watering and little else, or Shakes & Fidget, with a hero off questing against the clock. Travian Kingdoms and Iron Order 1919 reward longer planning sessions.

Yes. Travian Kingdoms pairs kings with governors, Iron Order 1919 runs on coalitions, Shakes & Fidget has guilds and an arena, Molehill Empire 2 lets gardeners trade, and both football games fill their leagues with other managers.