Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs CNET’s expert staff reviews and rates dozens of new products and services each month, building on more than a quarter century of expertise. If you find your game nights getting repetitive, strategy board games are a good way to add some fun to them. There’s nothing quite like mastering game mechanics and using your brain to plot your way to victory. If you already have a selection of fun family games and want a new board game to add to the roster, we’ve got you covered. We’ve found the best strategy board games that will have you thinking and planning more than you would expect. They also make the perfect gift to shop for your loved ones this holiday shopping season.What’s the best strategy board game?Because of the variety, it’s hard to pick the best strategy game, but I do really like Windward right now. It’s only been around for a little while, but it’s a firm favorite at our gaming table and a great choice for National Board Game Day. With plenty of strategic choices, a striking board and counters, and a shallow learning curve, it’s the best place to start if you’re trying to decide what to play.
This story is part of Gift Guide, our year-round collection of the best gift ideas.
But isn’t every game a strategy game?Strategy board games are games in which players’ critical decision-making affects the outcome. While that’s a pretty broad definition, modern strategy games come in all sorts of subgenres, often delineated by their central gameplay mechanic: Many times, these games are organized into larger categories, such as wargames (which center on a conflict between players’ forces), American-style (which prioritizes direct player conflict and has elements of luck) or Eurogames (which largely avoid chance-based elements and usually depend on planning and resource management).The most important element of strategy board games may be obvious: strategy. There may be small instances where luck plays a part, but the overwhelming mechanics of the game need to rely on the player’s ability to think strategically and to outmaneuver the other players on the board. Despite all the games on the market, few have the perfect balance of replayability and satisfying gameplay, even if you lose. So after testing dozens of the best games on the market, I’ve put together the best strategy games available.The best strategy board games
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Photo Gallery 1/1 Windward isn’t as heavy as some of the games on this list, but it has garnered a lot of love since its release. You play a boat captain who sails the skies of a planet looking to capture giant space whales called Crestors. There is a small amount of luck in the amount of damage you take, but because the wind direction controls your movement, there’s a lot of strategy around how you move and making sure you don’t encounter other players.My gaming table enjoys Windward as our first strategy game of the night, as it’s relatively light but gets you in the mood for something deeper.
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Photo Gallery 1/1 Star Wars: Shatterpoint takes all of your favorite characters from the Clone Wars era and beyond, drops them into a classic squad-based tabletop combat experience, and lets your imagination do the rest of the work. Miniatures are available in simple-to-assemble kits with very little guidance needed, and each can be painted to your personal taste with relative ease. Like the miniatures, the rules of the game do a pretty good job balancing a low learning curve and the flexibility to vary play styles to avoid feeling repetitive. Whether you’re new to the world of tabletop miniatures or a veteran of this classic game style, there’s plenty to like about this game.
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Photo Gallery 1/1 Small World is one of my favorites, simply because this conquest game feels so different every time you play it. Essentially, players are vying for control of a Risk-like board with too few spaces to accommodate everyone, hence the name. You bid for one of dozens of fantastical creatures, each randomly paired with an additional special ability — which can lead to hilarious combinations like Were-Will-o’-the-Wisps or Peace-loving Homunculi. Then you spread using your special abilities, collect coins based on the territory you control and leave that race behind for a new one. It’s an addictive gameplay loop, often equal parts funny and competitive, and you can learn and play it in under 2 hours.
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Photo Gallery 1/1 Twilight Struggle, set during the Cold War, balances the strategic complexity of a “big” game with the simple mechanics of a traditional conquest game like Risk. One player takes the role of the US, and the other plays as the USSR as you struggle for presence, domination or complete control of various battleground regions around the world. Both sides race to put a man on the moon, degrade the DEFCON status through military operations, while carefully avoiding the devastation of nuclear war (an instant loss) and spread their influence across the globe in a tug of war for global power.
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Photo Gallery 1/1 Agricola is one of the best board games ever designed, and it’s one of the best examples of worker placement mechanics, too. The concept is simple: Players each use their farmer and wife (both called “workers”) to complete various actions as the seasons progress, such as gathering wood or vegetables, upgrading their farm house, building pens, buying animals, having children and much more. Over time, players have children (more workers to use) and expand their farm. The problem during all this, though, is scarcity: Agricola is a harsh game. Even without an opponent blocking you from certain actions, it often feels like you’re just scraping by — getting just enough food to feed your family for the winter. Players often end up with very few (or negative) points in their first game, but when you start to learn, it feels incredibly satisfying.
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Photo Gallery 1/1 If you have a full day and want to play a long, rewarding game, you can’t do better than Food Chain Magnate — an incredibly deep game of building and staffing restaurants, designing menus, paying for advertisements and collecting money. What makes Food Chain Magnate so enjoyable is the sheer scope of it: You can hire dozens of different kinds of employees, sell dozens of different kinds of food and use half a dozen types of ads, all with unique effects on your franchise, the customers in the city and your opponents. This fun game is an investment, especially if you get the expansions, but it’s one of the most enjoyable and unique takes on the strategy board game format in years.
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Photo Gallery 1/1 Star Wars: Imperial Assault largely avoids the roleplaying elements of dungeon crawlers like Gloomhaven, opting instead for solid combat mechanics that pit the Imperial player against the Rebel players. While different missions have different setups — the modular board keeps things fresh — players will get better as they understand the bonuses of certain groups, the ways they can play off their allies and the decisions of when to find cover and when to charge into battle.
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Photo Gallery 1/1 Conquest games have come a long way since Risk, and one of the best is Rising Sun — a game in which players vie for control over the various regions of feudal Japan, using their samurai and other miniatures to spread. What makes the game interesting is the untraditional means and ends of conflict: Alliances lend opponents more power, but betrayals can damage your honor; points can be won by winning in battle, but committing ritual suicide, taking hostages and employing historians to write off your warrior’s honor can actually net you a larger victory. What could be a straightforward game about conquering regions becomes about the development of your clan, preservation of their honor and strategic partnerships with your enemies. If you want a game with tons of conflict — but where that conflict is rarely straightforward or obvious — Rising Sun is a perfect game for you.
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Photo Gallery 1/1 Many of the best strategy games take a couple of hours to play, but satisfying strategy need not take all day: The Castles of Burgundy is a perfect example of a great game that usually only takes about an hour to play — often less, once you know how to play — and is surprisingly replayable. Each turn, players roll dice, the numbers on which allow them to pick up certain land tiles from a central board or place them on certain spaces on your player board as you expand your kingdom. The central rules can be learned in a matter of minutes, compared to some of the larger Eurogames above, but Castles of Burgundy will keep you making tough choices about how to respond to a dice roll that’s out of your control.
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Photo Gallery 1/1 In Gaia Project, players seek to expand their alien race’s control over a galaxy, making planets habitable to their race, building structures on them, gaining knowledge and furthering research. This strategic board game has a fairly steep learning curve for those unfamiliar with Eurogames, but once you get into your first game, you’ll understand the basics within a round or two. The strategy is deep: You can play as a dozen different races, with unique abilities and research bonuses; the modular board means the galaxy you’re colonizing never looks the same; and many of the scoring and construction bonuses are randomized each game, so the same strategy won’t win every time. Gaia Project is a masterclass in game design and a complete joy to play.
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For good introductions to modern strategy games, I would be remiss not to mention Settlers of Catan and Carcassonne. While most people who catch the board game bug quickly move past these more basic economy and tile-laying games, they are great ways for people to be introduced to the genre.
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As you can imagine board game testing is a grueling and often stressful experience. I’m kidding; testing board games is awesome. It is, however, subjective in a lot of ways. I tend to look at certain criteria as to what makes a board game “good, however.”Is the board and piece quality good?Are the instructions clear?How long does it take different age groups to learn?How long does the game take to play?How fun is it? (This is incredibly important)Can you replay it and it still feel fresh?Because board gaming is a team sport, my family’s opinions are used to help me average out testing. While I may like a 5-hour-long game with 1,000 pieces, my 17-year-old son may not feel the same. Getting a good spread of opinions helps me find the best overall games in each category.
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