My Top 10 Tableau Building Board Games!

Hey friends, it is Jenna. What is up? And welcome back to the board game garden. And welcome to finally another video of my top 10 in a specific or with a specific mechanism. I was doing this all throughout 2025 because for the board game garden, we have a like monthly solo focus. Been doing this for the last four years and basically every month we had a different thing.

So in 2025, every month we had a different mechanism and I believe it was for November we had Tableau building and then for December it was track bumping. So we have two left to go. This is the second to last one from 2025. I actually meant to finish these off in 2025 kind of going along with the months but that did not happen and it is okay.

We're still going to finish it off and this is one step closer to that. So today, like I said, I'm going to be going through my top 10 games with Tableau building, or what I like to say is my top 10 tableau building games because in these top 10s, I really like to focus on games where the mechanism is really what makes that game shine and is a really big part of that game.

So, there are some games that I kind of was kind of toying between if they were in fact a tableau building game to me or if they just had tableau building in them. So, I did quickly want to shout out a few games that I knew had a little bit of tableau building, but I felt like didn't really fit in with all of these other games that I'm going to be talking about today because they more so just had tableau building in them and tableau building was just a part of the game.

So, one, Lranha. I absolutely love Lrronha, but that one I more so look at that as a multi-use card game where you are kind of building a tableau, but it's not typically the tableau that I picture in my mind. When I think of tableau building, I think of like games where you're building up a tableau of cards that give you different abilities or give you instant things or give you endame scoring.

just bunch of different types of cards that you're placing into a tableau that is going to help you either like build up an engine or you're working towards, you know, building up this tableau for the end of the game. You will notice with a lot of the games that I put on the list, the tableau building also has a little bit of set collection in them because you are collecting certain icons within that tableau kind of going towards like endgame scoring or something.

So, yes, Lronha didn't really have that. It does have like you're building out your farm with the different cards in different areas, but I didn't really look at that as tableau building. So, that's one. Um, a few others, raising robots, wingspan, worm span. In these games, I know you are placing out cards into the different rows, and then as you're doing different actions, you are kind of triggering their abilities in those specific rows.

And I know that this is Tableau building, but for some reason, for me personally, I didn't really think of them the same as these other games that I'm going to be talking about. So, yeah, Razor Robots, Wingspan, Worm Spam, all fantastic games. But anyways, getting back into the intro of this video. I feel like this intro is probably going to be very long, but yes, those were a few that I wanted to mention, but we are going to get right into this top 10.

So, if you guys are interested in hearing about my top 10 tableau building games, then just keep on watching. Give this video a big thumbs up if you enjoy. Also, hit that subscribe button down below if you've yet to do so. We'd love to have you here in the garden. And without further ado, let's get into my top 10 favorite tableau building games, shall we?

All right, so starting off with number 10. Uh, actually a lot of the games in this list are pretty new to the list. It's actually really cool to see all of these games together because a lot of them are games that are fairly high up on my favorite games of all time because they're just games that I have just been obsessed with recently.

But anyways, my number 10 is going to be a game called Moon Colony Bloodbath, which this space game, it's typically not a game that I would go for, but I tried this and this game is so cool. And just recently actually this got announced for one of the spiel awards which is really exciting. And this game is really interesting when it comes to the tableau building aspect of it because it is not only a tableau builder but it's also a tableau destroyer which I think is a really cool kind of um version of tableau building.

You don't often see that in tableau building games is when you're building up a tableau, but then you are also destroying it to then build it back up. Typically in a tableau building game, you're building up a tableau throughout the entire game, and that is your only sole tableau for the game. But in this one, you can kind of build and then destroy and then build again.

So, you're like having these different changes within your tableau, which is a lot of fun. Um, but with this one, you are ultimately trying to survive the longest and you're trying to have your moon colony last the longest with different bad things happening, things happening to your colony. Um, there's also a little bit of like different actions that you're going to be doing based off of cards and it is a little bit of a semi-ooperative deck builder as well because you're all going through this same deck simultaneously.

You're adding in your own cards to this deck. bad things are being added to the deck as well. And yeah, you're just trying to build up your tableau to give you extra abilities and different things with these different buildings that you're placing into your colony. And then, like I said, the destroying of your tableau is also very fun.

Um, because you're really destroying these different buildings to make your colony last longer. Um, cuz you're getting the different people out of these different buildings and cards that you're destroying from your tableau. So, yeah, this one's fantastic. It is number 10 because it's not really a theme that I love.

You guys will see with a lot of the other themes in this list. They are themes that I absolutely love. And this one, I just feel like the mechanism of the tableau building and tableau destroying is the thing that really shines for me and the part of the game that really makes me enjoy it. So yes, that is my number 10, Moon Colony Blood Bath.

Moving into my number nine. Number nine is actually the only game on this list that I do not have a physical copy of. And I do think that this has made me realize that I do need to get a copy of this game. This is a game that I have played multiple times over the last 3 years and I really enjoy this game.

And when I was going through all of my tableau building games, this was one that I was like, "Wow, I am really surprised I don't have a copy of this one." And that is a game called Rez Arcana, which this game, every time I play it, I'm like, this is such a great game. And like I said, I'm very surprised that I haven't gotten myself a copy of it yet.

But this is a tableau building, like engine building game where you are trying to simply just get to, I believe it's 10 victory points first. And if you're able to do that, then you win the game. If someone is able to get higher than 10 victory points on the round that that is triggered, they would win.

But whoever has the most victory points at the end is uh the winner. And in Resarchana, you are building up a tableau of cards. It's a little bit different from the other tableau builders that I'm going to talk about in this video. And some of your cards are going to give you victory points. Some of your cards abilities are going to give you victory points in different ways as well.

You're going to be gaining more of these different types of cards into your tableau. And ultimately, you are trying to build up this engine of cards that are going to give you those victory points the quickest as possible by tapping them and collecting different resources, putting resources on different cards.

And like I said, ultimately just getting to those uh I think it's 10 victory points first. This is such a fun, very like fantasy themed game. I absolutely love all of the different cards and the different combination of cards. This is one thing that I really enjoy in a lot of tableau building games is just the different combinations of cards that you can put into play and how those different cards interact with each other and the different combinations like I said.

And Resarchana is one of those games where you have so many cool combinations of cards that make you feel so powerful and just a variety of different things that can go together and make some really cool engines. So yeah, that is why Res Arcana is my number nine. Moving into number eight, we have another space game, but this is a space game that Francis and I really, really love.

This is one that is so addicting to me and so much fun again to find those really cool card combinations. Uh, but that game is Terraforming Mars Aries Expedition, which Terraforming Mars, the like base game, I've never played before. Um, but I feel like this one for me is enough. It is really solely focused on that card play, which is one of my favorite things.

Going through and picking out all of these games, I have think I've discovered that tableau building is probably my one of my favorite um mechanisms. I forget where I put it in my like top 12 when I did those like top 12 mechanisms. I might actually go and go back through that and make another list of my favorite mechanisms cuz I feel like it has maybe changed.

But yeah, tableau building is one of my favorites. And really, if a game focuses on that tableau building, that is just like what I am like gravitating towards. But yeah, I feel like I've never really had an urge to play the base game of Terraforming Mars because there is so much other stuff going on in that game and it's not so focused on the tableau building, which I absolutely love in terform of Mars airs expedition.

So yeah, this one so much fun. Also, on top of that, it is simultaneous. You're building up this really cool tableau of cards. Some of them give you actions that you can perform. Some of them give you endgame scoring. Um, some of them just give you instant things. Some of them give you income. Just so many different types of cards.

And it is just such a great game. Regardless of the fact that it is space themed, uh, I still really, really enjoy it. And that is why it is my number eight. All right, moving into my number seven. This is a game that I have only played like three times, three or four times. Uh, once solo and then two or three times multiplayer.

And this is one that I absolutely love and I need to play this one more because I feel like if I had played this one more, it would have probably been higher up on this list because this is a game that puts tableau building and like dice um, it's not really dice worker placement. It's like dice I guess it is dice worker placement.

Uh, but the game that I'm talking about is Creature Caravan, which this game is so good. You have dice that you're going to be rolling every round, and then you're going to be placing those dice on the cards in your tableau. So, you are not only building up a tableau of cards that are going to give you victory points in different ways, but you're also building up this tableau of cards that are going to give you different worker placement spots.

And that is one of my favorite types of tableau building is when you are building up a tableau that you are also building up your kind of personal worker placement spots. I absolutely love that. I do have quite a few other games in this list that has that and it is just so much fun. And with this one being like dice worker placement, I love that as well.

Um, and you're also having a little bit of set collection in a way because you are trying to gather specific types of cards. They're all going to have like different names and if you're able to gather certain types of cards, you're going to get victory points at the end of the game. Um, but yeah, creature caravan is wonderful.

You're also like racing across this main board with your little caravan and all the cards that you're putting into your tableau are all of the creatures that you are having on your caravan, which I think is really cute. So, I do think as of right now, I think Creature Caravan is my favorite game from Red Raven Games, which is quite surprising because I absolutely love a lot of Red Raven games above and below, Near and Far.

I need to play Now or Never more cuz I can see Now or Never potentially being one of my favorites, but right now I think Creature Caravan is at the top of that list and I just think it is such a wonderful game. So that is my number seven creature caravan. All right, moving on to number six. This one I feel like is probably a lot higher on a lot of other people's lists because this game I think right now is either number two or number three on the boardamege geek top games of all time.

Uh but this game is Ark Nova. Ark Nova has definitely been a game that I have gone, you know, up and down on. I have absolutely been obsessed with Ark Nova. It has really fallen a little bit at some points, but ultimately I really do enjoy the variety of cards that you get in this game and the tableau building aspect of this game because there is that set collection again with the different objectives that you're going for.

I love a game with objectives and when I am building up a tableau and trying to achieve different objectives with that tableau that is one of my favorite things and in Ark Nova that is truly what you're doing. You have all of those uh conservation projects that you're going for with the different icons in your tableau.

You also have the what are those other cards? Sponsorship cards you can also add into your tableau that give you different things. And just ultimately I love the theming of Ark Nova obviously with building up your own zoo and then just that tableau building aspect of Ark Nova I really like with so many different cards.

I feel like in a lot of these games like tableau building games the more cards the better because then the more combinations and like variety of cards that you can put into your tableau. So yeah, the amount of cards in Ark Nova is pretty crazy, but it honestly does make the game so much better and really truly gives you so much variety game to game.

So yeah, that is Arknova, my number six. All right, moving into the top five. This next one, I again need to play this game more. I might actually see if my friends want to potentially play this this weekend. I'm going to a convention and we are trying to like build up a list of games that we're going to potentially play.

And I feel like my friend Steph has mentioned that she wants to play this one again cuz I think she got an expansion for it. Anyways, the game that I'm talking about in my number five tableau building game is Evenf Fall. This game is fantastic. More people need to play this game. I feel like this is on my list of games of like hidden gems that like no one talks about this game and it is so good.

I love the theme of witch covens. Each player is playing as a witch coven and you are building out your inner circle and your outer circle which are two kind of uh rows of cards and you have specific workers, you have your elders and then you have your witches that you're going to be placing onto these different cards.

This is another one where some of the cards give you worker placement spots, which I love. And the interesting thing is that your elders cannot be placed on your outer circle. They can only be placed on your inner circle. So, you're building up this tableau, or honestly, you're building up two different tableau.

And at some point, you in this game have to give up your outer circle cards and move them to your inner circle. And if I'm remembering correctly, I do believe that once you move it from your outer circle to your inner circle, you're giving up a little bit of your tableau and your engine in order to do so.

But then by the end of the game, you're also wanting to have a lot of the cards from your outer circle and your inner circle because those are the only cards that are going to be uh scored at the end of the game. So, it's this really cool kind of balance between building up your engine in your outer circle, but then finding what the best timing is for giving up those things and putting them into your inner circle.

So, yeah, I absolutely love this one. It is very unique when it comes to the tableau building and I think that's why I enjoy it uh this much. And then obviously I am a lover of like witchy themes so I love that as well. Uh but yes, that is why Even Fall is my number five. And if you haven't played it yet, please look into it and play it because it's wonderful.

All right, moving into the top four. I will say that this even like the top five were so difficult to rank because all of these games are so good. Two of them were in like my top 10 games of all time when I did that last time. Um, but then two of them are very new to this list as well and games that I have just fallen in love with within the last like half a year to a year.

So, number four is going to be probably the newest. I think the first time I played this one was like mid 2025. Um, I think it was at Breakout Con 2025. Uh, but this is a game that I just like fell in love with the first time that I played it and I've been obsessed with it ever since. and that is Explorers of Navoria.

This game has such a cool tableau building and worker placement kind of thing to it where basically you are drafting or not really drafting, you're just pulling two chips out of a bag. Um or you can draft one from the like middle area. But if you do take two out of the bag, you are choosing one to keep and then you are placing one onto the board that then some player could choose instead of uh taking two out of the bag.

And what you are doing with those chips is they are going to be different colors that then determine the colored card that you're going to be taking to place into your tableau. And that part of the game is so cool. But then not only do you have that, but then once you go into the second part of a round, you are then taking those colored chips and then those are going to be the workers that players can then uh draft and then put on different worker placement spots on the board.

So that's a really cool part of it. But the tableau building in this game is so much fun. there is that set collection aspect of it uh where you are set collecting these different um icons that then if you are the first person to get a certain amount of those icons, you're going to place a token onto some endgame scoring that then you're going to be scoring for the different colored cards that is connected to that person for that game because it's going to change every single game.

Uh but you are then scoring for those different colored cards at the end of the game. Uh so we love that. There's also like endgame scoring cards that you're putting into your tableau. There's instant ability cards. There's income cards. There's just so many different types of cards. And that is truly one of my favorite types of tableau building is when you have all of those different types of cards.

You're collecting them in your tableau for different reasons, for income, for endgame, for instant, for set collection. just all of these different types of reasons and goals that you're going for with this uh like collecting of cards in your tableau. So yeah, Explores of Neoria, absolutely wonderful.

Definitely recommend you check it out if you haven't already. Uh but that is my number four. Moving into my number three. This was pretty high on my top 100 games of all time the last time I did it. Uh which by the way, I've been working my butt off on my top 100 of games of all time for this year. So, expect to start seeing videos for that.

I'm going to be doing that series again of 10 games at a time in my top 100 games. Um, and I'm hoping to start that in June, fingers crossed, but my June is looking pretty busy as of right now. But I'm going to try my hardest. Anyways, this game was pretty high on that list. I think it probably has dropped a little bit, uh, but not too too much.

It's been a little bit since I've played this, and I do need to play it again. But the game that I'm talking about is the Veil of Eternity, which I have recently got both of the expansions for this. There is the Artifacts expansion and then there's also the Curses expansion, which is the most recent one.

But this game is one of those tableau builders where there are just so many different cards. Very similar to uh Resarchana in a way where you're building up this tableau of cards in order to be the first person to get to a certain amount of victory points. In this one, it is 60 victory points if I remember correctly.

So, you are just in a race to get to those 60 victory points by building up this tableau of cards that is your engine that then you are trying to use those cards in different ways, having different really cool combinations of cards that are going to get you the most victory points the quickest way possible.

That is one of my favorite things in a game is when you are doing that and you're able to like create different engines every single game and like there's so many different cards in this game that the engines really never feel the same in any games. So this one so much fun. You're like open drafting each round a card into your tableau and each round you're able to add one more card to your tableau.

So, it's this slow kind of progression of building up that tableau and then by the end of the game where you have all of these cards and you're triggering everything and everything is kind of connected in a way. It just feels so powerful and so fun and I just absolutely love it. I haven't played this one solo, but I do think that I saw somewhere that there is like a fan-made solo for Veil of Eternity, so I should really try that one out.

There's also, I believe, a fan mode for Resarchana for solo, but I've heard not the best things about the solo. So, that's maybe why that's the only game in this video that I don't have physically is because there's not really a great option for solo. But, let me know down in the comments if you guys have played Resurana solo.

If you've played Veil of Eternity Solo, let me know. Um, but yeah, regardless, both Resarchana and The Veil of Eternity, they are both fantastic games, multiplayer, and this one is another one that I would love to play again very soon. So, that is my number three, The Veil of Eternity. Moving on to my number two.

These two were so hard. I was constantly flip-flopping between whether this was going to be number two or it was going to be number one. This one is very high on my top 100 games of all time and I do think it's still pretty high as of right now. But the game that I'm talking about is Wayfairs of the South Tigress, which this is a game by Garfield Games.

They are one of my favorite publishers and this has always been one of my favorite games from them. Uh Francis also really really enjoys this one and I fell in love with this game the first time we played it. I think the first time we played this was early 2023. It might have been early 2022 or 2023.

I do not remember. But Wayfairs of the South Tigris is one of those games that I have played this game so many times. But I still love it so much every single time. You are building up a tableau of these land cards and sea cards as well as space cards. And they all are connected in different ways. the space cards are giving you endame scoring based off of various different goals that you're going for.

Um, you also have the tableau building where each of these cards are going to give you worker placement spots much like creature caravan where you have different cards that are going to give your dice different worker placement spots. And uh, I just absolutely love that. Like I said with Creature Caravan, I love building up my own personal set of worker placement spots with this tableau.

And then in addition to that, you also have the set collection again where you're trying to get the different icons. You're trying to collect a bunch of one icon, but then you're also trying to collect kind of the sets of all of the I think there's four or five different icons that you're trying to collect sets of for victory points at the end of the game.

And yeah, Wayfairs and the South Tigers, absolutely fantastic. There's a lot of other stuff going on. Um, mainly with like the dice and kind of building up what each die face is able to do. That's one of my other favorite parts of Wayfares of the South Tigris, but that is more so in another mechanism that I'm not going to get into.

But the tableau building in this game is absolutely fantastic. And every single game I'm building up a different tableau with different worker placement spots and I'm going for a completely different strategy and it is just such a fantastic game and I like I said cannot get enough of it. No matter how many times I've played this, it has just been amazing every single time.

So that is why it is my number two, Wayfares of the Se. All right, and moving into my number one game on this list, my number one favorite tableau building game. This game is absolutely wonderful and it has been a recent obsession and I am quite surprised that it came in over Wayfares of the South Tigers cuz this has been like one of my favorite games.

But this game that I'm going to talk about now has potential to be one of my favorite games which is really awesome. But the game that I'm talking about is Wondrous Creatures. I have been obsessed with this game. Within like the last 6 months, this has been a game that I am constantly wanting to play.

There's just something about this game that I absolutely love. It recently came on to BGA, so I've been playing it on BGA. There is a new expansion coming out for Wondrous Creatures called Winter Falls, I believe. Um, I actually have it and I'm very excited. We're going to be playing it this weekend.

Uh, but Wondrous Creatures, the tableau building in this game is so much fun. There's just so many cards in this game. Francis and I have also been playing a video game called Pow World recently. And this board game really reminds me of Pow World where you're trying to collect these different pals or these different creatures that are all so cool and so unique and just so cute.

And in this game, you have so many cards that you're able to get into your tableau of these different creatures. There are five different types of cards, and you're also going for that set collection again with the different types of creatures or species of creatures. You're also set collecting the different habitats of the creatures as well for different set collection.

And the five different types of cards. You have endgame scoring cards. You have end of round kind of ability cards. You have ongoing ability cards, instant ability cards, and then these energy cards that you start with some energy on the cards and you can like perform the ability on that card by taking an energy off.

And there's different instances where you're able to add the energy back onto that card to perform that action more. And I just love this game so much and I cannot get enough of it. It is a recent love of mine and you guys will probably see this pretty high up on my favorite games of all time because I have just been loving this game so much and is wonderful and I could say so many good things about it.

It's also worker placement where you're placing workers onto this board and collecting either the different resources that you're adjacent to or taking cards of that specific resource because the resources are the same as the habitats. So, you're able to either choose to take a card with that specific habitat or if you want to take the resource of that specific habitat.

Really love that kind of uh decision there as well. And yeah, overall this game just has so many fun combinations of cards, so many cards that I'm always wanting to place into my tableau and like all of them are so fun in different ways. So, you always have to make the decision of like what cards in my hand do I actually want to add to my tableau.

And yeah, so many so many fun cards. And I love that kind of problem in a game where you just want to play all of the cards into your tableau, but you have to make the decision of which ones do you want to prioritize. Uh just so fun. So anyways, that is my number one tableau building game. That is Wondrous Creatures.

All right, friends. So that is going to be everything for today's video. Those are my top 10 current favorite tableau building games. These are all games where I feel like the tableau building aspect of the game really shines and makes the game what it is. Let me know down in the comments section what some of your favorite tableau building games are.

I would love to know that and chat all about tableau building games down in the comment section. I'm always looking for new ones, so please let me know and I can look into them. But yeah, hopefully you guys enjoyed. If you did, please give this video a big thumbs up. Also, hit the subscribe button down below if you've yet to do so.

We'd love to have you here in the garden. I love you guys so much. Remember, you are somebody's reason to smile. And I will see you in the next board game video. Bye, friends.