Best new board games and tabletop games, according to experts
Classic board games are great but there's much more out there. We consulted the American Tabletop Awards Committee on some of the best games to consider.
Jeremy Glass
Jeremy Glass
Build up your beautiful Japanese garden by delicately placing stones, bushes, trees, ponds, and pagodas on varying levels for the ultimate goal of being crowned the best garden designer of the season.
Made for endless adventures, players design and complete treasure maps on wipeable cards in a game of adventure, action, and luck.
Requiring wit, planning, and patience, strategy games are the next step up from casual games — and typically take anywhere from 45 minutes to two hours to play.
Birds are the name of game. Players draw from hundreds of bird cards and play them, building up their own unique network of wildlife preserves. “I love that Wingspan is bringing new people to the table together,” ATTA's Amber Cook told NBC News. “It appeals to naturalists, birders, casual gamers and those who love engine-building games. It’s one of the most popular games at every convention I’ve attended in the last year.”
Culling from gold standard games like Chess and GO, SHŌBU players move a set of natural river stones across a wooden square to win.
Explore, navigate, and transform a small world from a simple settlement to high culture. Populate your world with diverse cultures while incorporating agriculture, culture, and military power.
Complexity builds on strategy. These games are for older, more experienced players who can take the time — sometimes hours — to play towards victory.
In the town of Tiefenthal, locals lure nobles into "The Tavern of the Deep Valley" where the wealthy are exploited into expanding the town. “Wolfgang Warsch is responsible for some of my favorite games, from light games like That’s Pretty Clever and Wavelength to last year’s ATTA winner, The Quacks of Quedlinburg,” Cook said. “‘The Taverns of Tiefenthal’ brings back some of that magic in an expanded, complex format that is replayable and feels like it flexes the diversity of mechanics in Warsch’s designs.”
Pipeline is all about oil. In this complex game of strategy and skill, players hire experts to build an efficient pipeline network that puts their competitors out of business. It’ll take a clever brain and strong economic skills to make your network succeeds.
Inspired by the world of H.P. Lovecraft, players transform into 1920s-era investigators on the mission of stopping the Elder Gods trying to summon the evil cosmic entity, Cthulhu.
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