Strategy Bucket List

The first collectible card game, and still the deepest.

Hike a trail through the US National Parks, collecting memories and photos.

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

Factions reshape terrain into their own home ground and race for shared cult tracks.

The role-selection classic that defined two decades of Euro design.

The first expansion, and the one that makes long roads worth the risk.

Run a Viennese cafe and hotel, serving guests dice can never quite supply.

A twelve-month campaign that tears up, writes on and permanently changes the board.

The gateway wargame: the whole of the Second World War on one board.

The expansion that gives Catan a real mid-game and a barbarian clock.

Dice, tiles and the purest small-decisions-add-up Euro ever printed.

The Cold War duel in cards, one card able to lose you the 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.

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

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

Card play and city building beneath the sea, with a tight three-colour economy.

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

The area-majority classic: caballeros, a castillo and one hidden placement.

A two-player market duel of camels, commodities and bonus tokens.

Workers ride giant rotating gears; the longer they stay, the more they earn.

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

The aquarium expansion to the modern zoo-building heavyweight.

A twelve-card engine duel: mages, artifacts and essence, in thirty minutes.

The original industrial-revolution canal-and-rail game, meaner than its Birmingham sequel.

Squad-level Second World War combat with hidden movement.

No dice, no cards; just seven players lying to each other about 1901 Europe.

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

Domino-shaped land tiles and a five-by-five grid; a masterclass in small design.

A ten-hour space opera of diplomacy, war and treachery; the biggest game most groups ever attempt.