Strategy Board Games Bucket List

The two-player animal-farming distillation of Agricola, in an hour.

Trees cast shadows over each other as the sun rotates around the board.

Expedition card runs where starting one you cannot finish is the whole game.

Ten ages of technology in cards, with combos that rewrite the rules mid-game.

Command cards and blocks over the Normandy hedgerows, in under an hour.

Simultaneous role selection and an icon language you learn in one game.

Fourteen alien species terraform a hex galaxy in the sharpest Euro engine on the shelf.

A civilisation game in cards, from bronze tools to space flight, without the six-hour map.

Drive cattle to Kansas City, building your deck and your route on the way.

Roll dice, trigger buildings, race to finish four landmarks.

Borrow resources from your future self and pay them back through a time rift.

Tunnels, ferries and stations on the best-loved map of the series.

Build up a medieval farm and feed your family (2007).

Two-player Cold War tug-of-war (2005).

Tile-laying puzzle of Pacific Northwest wildlife (2021).

Bid and build to electrify the most cities (2004).

Design and run a modern scientific zoo (2021).

Deck-building exploration of a lost island (2020).

The original deck-building card game (2008).

Learn and play shogi, a traditional Japanese strategy board game similar to chess

Lead woodland factions in an asymmetric game

Defend your island against colonizers

Lead Viking clans in the final battle of Ragnarök

Build networks during the industrial revolution

Create and expand your own vineyard

Trade in the Mediterranean in ancient times

Investigate eldritch mysteries