These are 10 board games that have earned permanent shelf space in my collection. No ranking - just games I keep coming back to and think are worth your money. As of November 2025.
I’ve been playing board games and cards since I was a kid, but until COVID, it was mostly mainstream fare and games with a normal deck of cards. Being shut up with my folks during lockdown, searching for other ways to pass the time, I realised this was a proper hobby with many wonderful and varied options out there.
Designer: Jacob Fryxelius
Year: 2016
The quintessential engine-building game that makes you feel like a proper space corporation mogul. I’ve only played this online, which suits me perfectly - I actively avoid on-table games in person to dodge all the admin and fiddly bits. Once you’re deep into your third generation, juggling heat production against oxygen levels whilst your mate steals the placement bonus you desperately needed, you’re fully immersed in the strategic depth. This is tableau building at its finest - every card matters, every decision cascades into future turns, and there’s genuine satisfaction in watching your corporation’s strategy unfold across the Martian surface. I’m also keen to try Ark Nova, which I’m told is essentially Terraforming Mars but with a zoo instead of a planet - if it captures the same engine-building magic, I’m sold.
Coup
Designer: Rikki Tahta
Year: 2012
Bluffing distilled into its purest, most vicious form. I was playing this one well before my board gaming revelation during COVID, which speaks to its accessibility and enduring appeal. In fifteen minutes, you’ll witness friendships tested, bold-faced lies told with conviction, and the sweet satisfaction of calling someone’s bluff at exactly the right moment. The genius is in its simplicity - five character types, a handful of actions, and the constant psychological warfare of deciding whether that smug git across the table actually has the Duke or is banking on you being too cowardly to challenge. Games are quick enough that the inevitable “one more round” chorus never gets old, and it scales brilliantly from intimate three-player mind games to chaotic six-player carnage. Essential filler game that punches way above its tiny box weight.
Biblios
Designer: Steve Finn
Year: 2007
Criminally underrated and consistently overlooked in favour of flashier titles, which is frankly absurd given how brilliant the core mechanism is. The draft phase forces genuinely agonising decisions - keeping the juicy card, giving your opponent the scraps, or gambling on the auction phase. Then the auction flips everything on its head as you watch cards you desperately want slip through your fingers because someone else valued them slightly more than you dared bid. It’s medieval manuscript collecting that somehow creates more tension than games three times its length. The artwork is pleasantly quirky, the playtime is perfect, and it works equally well with three players - which happened to be my COVID lockdown configuration (so one of my most played games). Belongs in every collection, yet somehow remains the game I have to explain most often.
Hansa Teutonica: Big Box
Designer: Andreas Steding
Year: 2020
An ugly game that plays beautifully - and I mean properly ugly, like someone designed it during a particularly uninspired lunch break in 2009. Don’t let the drab aesthetics fool you though; beneath that beige exterior lies one of the most interactive, cutthroat euros ever made. The route-building creates constant player conflict as you jostle for position, displace opponents, and race to grab the powerful bonuses before anyone else. It’s a game of timing, reading the table, and knowing exactly when to pivot your strategy because that bastard just blocked your entire plan. The Big Box edition finally gives it decent production values and includes the expansion content, though honestly, you’re not here for the pretty components. You’re here because screwing over your opponents has never felt this satisfying in a euro game.
Bohnanza
Designer: Uwe Rosenberg
Year: 1997
Trading beans shouldn’t be this engaging, yet here we are. The hand order mechanism - where you absolutely cannot rearrange your cards - creates this beautiful chaos where you’re constantly negotiating, pleading, and occasionally begging people to take beans off your hands before you’re forced to plant them at the worst possible moment. Bohnanza lives and dies on your group’s willingness to engage in the trading, but with the right players, it becomes this wonderfully chaotic marketplace of increasingly desperate deals and opportunistic vultures. Compact, cheap, infinitely replayable, and an absolute staple for groups who like their games with a side of social manipulation.
Tichu
Designer: Urs Hostettler
Year: 1991
Growing up, I played endless games of Big 2 with my Hong Kong friends - it’s probably my most played game ever. Inevitably, the game became stale for me as me and all my friends and family had reached its skill ceiling. Thus discovering Tichu, a partnered version of the Big 2 formula that added extra depth, was a godsend during COVID. The special card combinations, the push-your-luck Grand Tichu calls, the satisfaction of perfectly coordinating with your partner to beat the opposition - it all combines into something genuinely special. The fact I can play it on my phone at any time is brilliant too. Yes, there’s a learning curve, and yes, you need exactly four players for in-person games, and yes, it demands repeated plays with the same group to really shine. But if you can commit to it, Tichu rewards you with one of the deepest, most satisfying card games in existence. The fact it costs about a fiver for a deck makes it almost criminal value. Just be prepared for the arguments when someone makes a catastrophically bad Tichu call.
Dune (2019)
Designer: Bill Eberle, Jack Kittredge, Peter Olotka
Year: 2019 (originally 1979)
The Gale Force Nine reprint of the 1979 classic that proves asymmetric gameplay was solved decades ago and everyone else has just been catching up. Each faction plays completely differently, the alliance system creates shifting political dynamics that would make Machiavelli proud, and the treachery cards ensure paranoia runs rampant. Here’s the thing though - the theme matches the mechanics perfectly, which is a genuine rarity in the board gaming world. When that alignment is achieved, it’s nothing short of perfection. I actually prefer playing this online, where you can message other players in secret, which adds another delicious layer to the Machiavellian manoeuvring. It’s chaotic, it’s long, it’s got more exceptions to rules than actual rules, and it absolutely requires the right group who are willing to engage in the backstabbing, negotiating, and general skullduggery. But when it works? When someone pulls off an impossible-seeming comeback through sheer political manoeuvring? Or destroying the shield wall at the right moment? Gaming doesn’t get better. Just make sure you’ve got four hours and a group who won’t take betrayal personally.
Absolute Balderdash
Designer: Laura Robinson, Paul Toyne
Year: 2004
The only party game that’s consistently made it into my top ten, which says something about both my tolerance for party games and how good Balderdash actually is. Like Coup, I was playing this one well before my board gaming revelation during COVID - it’s that accessible and endlessly entertaining. The premise is simple - someone reads out an obscure word/date/name, everyone writes a plausible-sounding fake definition, then you vote on which you think is real. But the execution is magical because it rewards creativity, quick thinking, and the ability to bullshit with absolute confidence. Games invariably descend into hysterics as someone’s ridiculous definition somehow gets votes, or when the real answer is so absurd nobody believes it. Works brilliantly with non-gamers, scales well, and unlike most party games, it doesn’t overstay its welcome. The Absolute edition includes all the categories, making it the definitive version to own.
Escape from Atlantis
Designer: Julian Courtland-Smith
Year: 1986
The perfect game for kids, hands down. I still remember the excitement of playing this as a 10-year-old after my mum found it in a charity shop (i found the cover art so exciting) - watching the island tiles sink, revealing sea monsters and sharks, desperately trying to get my meeples to safety whilst my sister’s octopus smashed my boats to pieces. Pure chaos, pure fun, zero complexity. The updated definitive version, ‘Survive: Escape from Atlantis’, keeps everything that made the original brilliant whilst improving the production quality. I’m genuinely looking forward to playing this with my own kids - it’s one of those rare games that works brilliantly across generations. The Take-That elements are strong, but they’re cartoonish enough that nobody takes it personally when a sea serpent devours their swimmer. Simple rules, memorable moments, and the kind of gleeful destruction that makes family game nights so much fun.
El Grande
Designer: Wolfgang Kramer, Richard Ulrich
Year: 1995
The original ‘Area majority’ game? And easily one of the best. The power card mechanism is genius - higher numbers give you better actions but worse turn order next round, creating this constant push-and-pull between grabbing what you need now versus positioning for the future. The Castillo is brilliant too, this hidden reservoir of cubes that gets revealed during scoring, leading to those perfect ‘gotcha’ moments when someone’s seemingly dominant position crumbles. It’s a game of reading opponents, managing resources, and timing your moves perfectly. Nearly thirty years old and it still plays better than most modern area control games.
Honorable Mentions
These almost made the list, and on another day, some of them might have:
- Just One (2018)
- Air, Land, & Sea (2019)
- Blood Rage (2015)
- Modern Art (1992)
- Ra (1999)
- Love Letter (2012)
- Dune: Imperium (2020)
- For Sale (1997)
- Galaxy Trucker (Second Edition) (2021)
- San Juan (Second Edition) (2014)
- Secret Hitler (2016)
- Decrypto (2018)
- Splendor (2014)
- Lost Cities (1999)
What are your top board games? Disagree with my picks? Drop a comment and let me know what belongs on my shelf!
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