20 awesome board games you may never have heard of

Put down that Monopoly money, cease your Trivial Pursuing. Here are the alternative board games you should really have in your life

We asked for your favourite board game, and you told us. Thank you. From ancient classics like Chess and Go to more modern staples like Scrabble and Monopoly, we heard all your stories and heeded all your words.

One of you has even made your own space add-on to Risk.

Mirroring the recent rise in gaming’s popularity, there were also some lesser-known titles amid the tributes to the likes of Cluedo and Ludo. Accordingly, we have put together a list of twenty of excellent but slightly lesser-known games suggested by our readers that we either have played and can vouch for their awesomeness, or frankly sound amazing and you should seek out henceforth. There are loads that didn’t quite make the list, but sound brilliant all the same (Bloodbowl anyone?): check out the GuardianWitness assignment to see them all.

Some are rather obscure, others are already hugely popular, and you have our permission to roll your eyes (and then your dice) at us if we’ve mentioned a game that, to you, represents the very peak of gaming obviousness. But remember: not everyone is on the same square. Some people out there are more like the person writing this sentence, who only recently discovered all the magic (:the gathering) he was missing. Please pity the man who only got wood a few short years ago.

So here we are then. From the pretty well known to the rare as dragon’s teeth, here are a bunch of games you should consider playing with your friends, families, and future enemies. Maybe start this weekend? You’ll thank us later.

1) Carcassonne

We know. Sorry. But the tile-based farming / castle building / road-based thievery simulator has enduring popularity, and is still winning new fans the globe over. It’s a game that’s a dream to play in pubs, even if you have to wear the curiosity of fellow locals with a fixed grin at times. The game has loads of add-on packs to increase the complexity. “For me, it is the ultimate,” says an anonymous French man who owns a lot of board games.

“Well designed, well crafted, never the same scenarios. Clever extension packs which keep the game fresh,” murmured one reader with approval. “A brilliant game with near infinite re-playability,” said Yarble.

2) Game of Thrones

I’ll admit: I’ve never seen Game of Thrones. But our readers reckon it’s fun even if you’ve not been watching the making-fantasy-acceptable HBO television series. “A superbly nuanced strategy game, with additional fun if you’re a fan of the source material,” says Paul Hetherington.

“So intense that I think of it as ‘high fantasy air-traffic control’,” says AlabasterC. “Just don’t ask me to explain the rules for ports again.”

3) Dominion

Not, sadly, a game based on the main bad guys in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, this card related kingdom-building and ambition-thwarting game was one of the picks of our readers. “It’s an extremely interactive and constantly dynamic game, and it’s not always easy to see who’s winning until the last card count”, said Robert Thé.

4) Dead of Winter

DarkGlen, who provided the picture above (excellent poster), really likes Dead of Winter, as did many of our respondents. It sounds ace. He explains:

“Players have to manage the colonies resources to ensure no one goes hungry and the camp doesn’t get too smelly, whilst trying to achieve an overall objective, that may be finding a cure, collecting enough gear to move on to another town, or just finding enough fuel to keep the generators running. Each player has a secret agenda, that may be nice and safe and just a bit selfish or may be to cause all of your friends to fail by reducing their morale to 0 before the main objective is complete.

“Then there’s the icing on the cake, the Crossroad cards, that add narrative and unexpected events to the game each turn by having the player to your right draw a card and only trigger the event if certain conditions are met.

“Also has zombies which some people think are pretty cool.”

5) Twilight Struggle

“Yes, ok, I know, it *sounds like* The Game of Life but for vampires, but it’s actually a brilliant, nuanced and absorbing cold war simulator,” says richdhw, who really, really, really likes this game.

“Twilight Struggle makes you feel like you’re constantly under attack on all fronts, that every decision you make is important or even globally consequential, and that you have to pick between the best of bad or even catastrophic options... and that’s when you’re winning. Come to think of it, it probably feels a bit like being a superpower engaged in a tense standoff with a similarly powerful but ideologically opposing hegemon.”

kitty82 is also a fan. “Even though it can sometimes take three days, is so tense it causes tears and shouting, and last time ended in deliberate nuclear annihilation in a grand, but ultimately pointless, desire to choose my own method of defeat. Still, brilliant.”

6) Netrunner

Do card games count as board games? The eternal dilemma. For the purpose of this exercise, they do. Netrunner is the cyberpunky card game our tech desk seem to play a lot of their time playing. There can be no greater endorsement.

7) Settlers of Catan

Eye-rollers, move on to the next game. Non eye-rollers: this game is awesome! Give it a go. The regulars at Basingstoke Discovery Centre can’t be wrong.

8) 7 Wonders

I know, I know. I could easy have made this number 7. In lieu of an apology, Victoria McRitchie explains her journey to this superb game.

“I’ve loved board games since childhood, but usually the Mattel, Waddingtons, Ravensburger favourites like Cluedo, Downfall and Monopoly. It was in my 20s that I decided to re-ignite this passion, so I googled “best board game”, and came across Carcassonne, the now-infamous gateway game. It wasn’t long before the expansions were tumbling through my letterbox on a weekly basis, before graduating on to Settlers of Catan and Ticket to Ride.

“But it still wasn’t enough, I needed more. Then I found out about BoardGameGeek.com and their ranking of games. I started working my way through the top 20, and now my shelves are creaking under the weight of the European behemoths like Terra Mystica, Agricola and Through the Ages. Their artwork, mechanics and themes are quite astounding in comparison to the relatively mundane bestsellers like Cranium or The Game of Life. I now regularly host games nights at my house with friends I’ve met through Facebook groups. An Indian takeaway and a 5 player game of 7 Wonders for me is my ultimate night in, sheer bliss, especially when I win!”

9) Ticket to Ride

“Wise guy, eh? Are you trying to punch my ticket? I’ll send you all the way to Chattanooga! All aboard!”

If you’ve ever fancied pretending to be a 19th century rail magnate, then this is the game for you. For reasons I can’t fully explain, we tend to put on terrible 1920s American gangster accents while building or blocking routes across the continent (there’s also a Europe version), but this gets grating after six or seven hours. The game itself does not. “Like rummy but with added trains!” enthused Deviant.

10) Survive: Escape from Atlantis

Those foolish peoples of Atlantis, rightly punished by vengeful gods for their decadent ways. This board game has had a few mutations since it first came out back in the eighties as “survive!”, but our readers seem to like the current version.

11) Pandemic: Contagion

“This is another game that launched at Essen in 2014,” enthuses TheWitchfinderGenral. “The objective is to become the most deadly infectious disease, in a twist on the old “Pandemic” theme.

“The sad face on the right belongs to Martin who just lost. The smiler is Will, who won! Yay!”

12) Civilisation

Not to be confused with the (admittedly awesome) computer game of the same name, Civilisation won strong approval from some of our readers, jolo5309 among them.

“High levels of interaction between players sells me on this game. Every turn there is a frenetic five-minute round of open trading as players try to get matches to the goods they have and dump their calamities on other players,” he or she said. “The game play is long (usually 6+ hours), but everyone is in the game until the very end.”

13) Euphoria: Build a Better Dystopia

14) Firefly: The Game

15) Warhammer Quest

As someone who mis-spent part of his youth hanging around Nottingham’s Warhammer shop, wandering how a few plastic skeletons could be quite so expensive, it was important to get a Warhammer related title on the list. Gregg Lewis-Qualls likes it so much he even sent in a video.

16) Heroes Wanted

17) Merchant of Venus

18) Colt Express

19) Antiquity

20) City of Remnants

Any games we truly should have mentioned, and are scurvy fools for not having done so? Let us know in the comments section below

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