Top 10 Board Games of the Year

0:00 Last year was an incredible year for board games, and I'm finally ready to let you in on the best ones. There's one game in here which replaces every other game in its genre. It's that good. So, let's get to the list. And if you'd like to buy any of them, please use the links below to support the channel. Eternal Decks is a troubled genius. It's that friend I want to warn you about before you meet them. They're a bit out there, bit pretentious, but honestly, they're a lot of fun if you give them a chance. It starts with a cloth. They can't just wear cardboard like every other game. And they're covered in tattoos, none of which really make any sense. There's a witch and a Medusa and a mermaid. Is it a religious thing? You just have to sort of go with it. But what's even weirder is that beneath all that pageantry, it's actually really simple. You take it in turns to play cards into a row. Simple color and number cards. Here, you play them in ascending order. It's a cooperative puzzle. You're trying to fill one of these rows to unlock Eternals, but you can't talk about what cards you've got in your hand. You have to collectively intuitit what the right move is. Like, you're all stuck on a bus with an aggressive drunk person. How do you work together to escape the situation if you can't just say, "Guys, I think we should pretend to get off at the next stop right in front of him." It has the same feel as cooperative trick- taking games like The Crew. You must solve this puzzle together with everyone playing their part. If one person is logged out of the telepathic hive mind, the whole

1:31 thing collapses. But when it works, you feel like you might be the best friends who have ever lived. And eternal decks is an even richer puzzle. Part of that is making sure you don't run out of cards or you'll lose the game. You get more by unlocking an eternal, but the eternals come with curses. Now you've unlocked the skeleton. No one can play a two or an eight anymore. So now you need the right cards to lift that curse. With this curse and this curse, there's a lot to discuss. This isn't a silent game. You can't say what cards you've got, but you can decide which eternal to unlock first to get the colors you need, which curse to lift first. The game breeds cooperation. So, at its heart, it's a brilliant game, but it's so annoying. I hate setting this game up. There are so many different types of cards, and they've given you no way to organize it, so it's impossible to find what you need. And it's so obtuse. The confusing names, the constant checking of the rule book. There's no writing on any of the cards. And every scenario comes with its own special setup that makes you rethink your life choices that have led you to this moment. I wish it had been put in the hands of an editor who could pair down the noise. I don't want eternal decks. I want casual decks. I want spontaneous decks. If you're ready for the commitment, then I'll give you their number. You could be perfect for each other. But if you can't handle the neediness, then make like this Eternal and Ghost. If you want a game with endless replay-ability and more characters than you could shake a stick

3:02 at, it's time to try Raid: Shadow Legends because you can play with Alice from Alice in Wonderland, but this is a dark fantasy take on it. So Alice has gone full goth mode. I mean, look, she's got a rabbit as a backpack. I think she's had one potion too many. Or the Cheshire cat twisted by dark forces. Perhaps he's only been fed vegan cat food. He's become a demonized version of himself. And you can get one of them for free in the first 48 hours if you start playing today. Plus, you will instantly unlock a huge starter pack that includes the high elf legendary Elanaril. And once you reach level 15, you'll get the epic champion Tagawa, who is all about healing and reviving. Wait, I think I met this guy at a convention once. I will never forget that smell. And to complete the Alice in Wonderland set, they've got the Nave of Hearts and Mad Hatter to collect as well. So, all that's left is to choose your free legendary champion. Use the code get Alice for Alice or Kitty Cut for the Cheshure Cat. Or you can get Razelvag with Go Fast or Twold with Big Dog.

4:07 Personally, I'd go for Cheshure Cat because that guy is hench. You can only get them if you download the game with my link. So, click the link in the description or use the QR code on screen to claim your two legendary champions and one epic and dive down the rabbit hole. Thanks to Raid Shadow Legends for sponsoring this part of the video. Flip tunes manages to set itself apart from the rest of its genre by simply offering a card game in 2025 that's not another twist on tricktaking. It's like someone made a fouian pack to make small games popular again. But the catch is they all have to be the exact same game. Sorry, this is Flip Tunes special day and I promised I wouldn't ruin it by getting angry. Flip tunes is a lesson in accepting your fate. Every round you flip cards from your deck into a sixc card grid. You might assume that you pick where those cards go or make some choices when they come out. No, your only choice is to accept your fate.

5:07 Those cards will score based on what came out and where. Like the goat, which scores four, but only if it's in the upper row, and you only have the shuffle gods to thank or curse. But this is a game. We need some agency. So, you use those points to buy new cards to improve your deck. This is how you change your fate. You buy the peacock, which will get you five points next time if it comes out. The shuffle gods don't do favors. It turns you back into a 12-year-old. You've invited the best kids from school to your birthday party, and you're waiting to see who actually shows up. Oh, Snail and Caterpillar. Good to see you. Thanks for coming. Instead of buying cards, you can pay to trash cards like Snail from your deck so they won't keep showing up and killing the vibe and make it more likely that Peacock does make an appearance. When you're buying the cards, you have a dream of how it will all play out. the cow will copy the elephant and get me 14 points. You know it's possible. And like trying to roll a winning six, there's something so fun about seeing if it happens this time. And something so funny about what happens instead. The cow ends up before the elephant. The elephant flips it, so it scores nothing and the alligator eats the cow. It's not just that you didn't roll the six, but the dice fell off the table and smashed a vase. There's always something entertaining happening in this game, and there's enough characters. So that every time you go on a different journey, you're all racing to hit 30 points in

6:37 one round. But that doesn't win you the game. It makes the next round the last one. Who can get the most points then? Because you might luck out getting 30 points one time and your material deck can only muster 17 next round. It's a genius rule that rewards consistency and makes for an exciting end to the game where anyone could win. And when the game is over, all you have to do is accept your fate. Cardia is not an exercise class for Spanish women. It's actually the terrible name for a brilliant card game, Jewel for Cardia. Set in a pointless magical city of the same name, you are competing to win five powerful signate rings, or as we might call them in our universe, points. This is one of the purest, simplest two-player games ever invented. You both play with a deck of the same 16 cards. You shuffle and draw five into your hand. And every round is the same. You both pick a card to go head-to-head against each other, revealing them at the same time, which looks like a blind date between two Eurovvision acts. The highest card wins the round and takes a signate ring. Get five of those and you'll win the game, but the lowest card gets to use its power, and they mess with things like the hired blade, which discards both cards. So, if you think they're going to play a good one, you can kill it. It's such a positive vibe because you don't mind which you get. Sometimes you'll get the point. Be the straight A student.

8:04 But when you don't, you get to be the rebellious cool kid experimenting with special powers. Deep down you are a loser, but you sure don't feel like one because the powers make you feel like you're crafting something bigger. A simple win by having the highest number is basic. It's nepotism. But planning a sequence of turns that results in a win, that's real. That's hard graph. It's stupid, but I've definitely lost games that way by focusing too much on trying to pull off a cool move and losing sight of those unsexy signets. The genius touch is that each card stays down, forming a line of past jewels. It means you can use powers to go back and alter the past, modify a card to swing the signate to your side. There's so many ways that these cards can combine to make magic. Like, if you use the magistra, you can activate the ability of one of your played cards. So, if you have the Jin already out, you can win the game immediately. And you'll learn to watch out for that. There's only 16 cards, so it soon becomes a mind game of when will they try that move. Another strategy is to shrink their hand by forcing them to discard cards. It weakens them, giving them less options.

9:14 And if their deck runs out, that's another way to win the game. And the box gives you more variety. There's another entirely different deck of 16 cards to play with instead. New powers, new twists, but the same cool game. There's a lot going on for something so small. I can honestly imagine going away for a weekend with a friend and only playing this game. I wouldn't because I've got so many other games, but if all of them fell into the sea and all the game shops were shut, we'd have loads of fun playing Jewel for Cardia and still be finding new moves and fresh joy in these 16 cards. I've always wanted a dudes on a map game that plays in less than an hour so that I can feel like I'm playing Risk without having to put myself through the agony of playing Risk. And Rumble Nation is just that. You can get your dudes on the map, let them have a quick war, and get them home in time for brunch. If anything, Rumble Nation is a dudes onto a map game. The map of Japan starts off completely empty, and you spend the game placing the dudes onto it. Once the last one is down, it's over. You work out who's won each region, and the most points wins. The game is in trying to get enough of your dudes in the right places to win the important battles.

10:29 Every region has a castle. If you have the most dudes in the number six castle, you win six points. So, you want the 12 for 12 points. But getting your dudes there requires some luck because every turn you roll three dice. These decide where you can go by adding two of them together. A three and a five lets you place on the number eight castle. Or you could pair that five with the four instead to go on number nine. And the leftover dice dictates how many dudes you can place there. I like that the game gives you your luck and you decide what to do with it because you still get that thrill of hoping you'll roll double sixes, but when you don't, you still feel a bit in charge of your destiny. Okay, so you didn't win the lottery, but you can decide between baked beans or pesto pasta for dinner. Plus, you can have one-roll, one chance to change that fortune. You might roll a 12, or you could end up trading those baked beans for a tin of mushroom soup. And there's no going back. But it's not all about winning the 12 because when it comes to scoring, the winner of every castle gets to place two reinforcements in every adjacent region. It's huge. And you start by scoring the number two castle, the smallest one. If you win that, those reinforcements could win you another region, which means more reinforcements and more castles. And suddenly you're infesting borders faster than Japanese notweed. So you have to decide how strategically important every region is and how many dudes to waste fighting to control them. And maybe you can clean up more points by spreading thin because

11:59 second place in a region gets you half the points. It's a masterpiece of simplicity. Every little detail brings so much to the game. like the tactics cards that give you one special action per game, like swapping their mele with your mele, but it has such an impact. So, if you want a war and you're short on time or patience, then Rumble Nation is the answer. But if you're looking for something epic, then wait until later in this video because I've got just the game. Toy Battle is one of the best two-player games of the last few years, and I've already raved about the game in my couples video last year. So, let me rave about something else. Toy Battle, the product. This is a board game that's been thought through. And when you look at hundreds of new games every year, with so many of them feel rushed out with all sorts of problems, you really notice when a game gets it right.

12:54 Starting with the box, it's exactly the size it needs to be. It doesn't take up too much space. It's the same height on the shelf as two-player classics like Patchwork and Watergate. The box doesn't fall open. It may be a war game, but you won't be fighting the Battle of the Bulge trying to keep it shut. And then you open it up and there's no empty space. It fits perfectly without an insert. And you find it's completely plastic free. There's not so much as a baggie inside. It's wood and cardboard just like Claus Toyber intended. Honestly, it cleanses my soul to have a game that doesn't have plastic in it. If only it could cleanse my vital organs of microplastics at the same time. The point tokens are chunky screen printed bits of wood so you don't miss your bakery too much. And these are solid wood racks. I've never seen a game come with a rack this nice. This rack is so nice it makes me want to shout at someone on the street to tell them how nice it is. And it perfectly fits eight tiles on it. Why? because that's your limit so you never have to think about it. It's the little touches that make a game easier to play. And then underneath all that, you've got four boards crammed into the box that are double-sided, so eight different maps to play on, each with their own rules to give you more variability. They definitely didn't need to put eight maps in this game that's less than 30 quid, but they did. It feels like showboating. And they've gone the extra mile to make it colorblind friendly by making the tiles different

14:25 shapes and with different icons on. Plus, there's a QR code to a rules video. I know this stuff is really common now in new games, but it's incredible how far we've come in making games accessible in the last 10 years. And if you're not sure if you'll like the game, it's on board Game Arena, so you can try it out online before you buy it. Even the game itself feels polished. It's co-designed by Paulo my builds on ideas from his previous games Blitzkrieg and Caesar and turns them into a much more approachable game that anyone could play. And if you want to know why it's so much fun to play, check out my couples game video from last year. There's a link below. There is only one human in this universe that I would trust to design a good cooperative game of The Lord of the Rings. So, what fortune that Fate of the Fellowship is designed by that same human, Matt Lecock. Starting with Pandemic in 2008, he's made approximately 800 great cooperative games since, and it feels like he's combining all of that experience into this game. You take on the roles of your two favorite characters, whether that's Aragorn and Arwin or Galadriel and Gandalf. And to win, you need to shepherd Mr. Frodo across the map to Mordor so he can throw a ring in a bin.

15:41 a fiery bin. But before you get there, you've got other objectives to complete first. A different medley every time. You might need to unseat Denithor or avenge Balin, which usually involves traveling to a part of a map and delivering some cards or some retribution. And while all that is going on, you've got Sauron being a worldclass prick. At the end of every turn, you draw cards from the shadow deck. This is the game's way of throwing problems at you, adding more bad guys to the map or marching them closer to your havens. If they get there and destroy them, you will lose hope. Losing hope is a big deal. It's the Middle Earth equivalent of smashing your phone or finding a slug in your salad. If you lose all hope, you lose the game. So, now you've got to take time out of your busy schedule to travel there and kill the bad guys. It feels like having to go back home to do the dishes when you're out having a great time with your Hobbit mates. Mom, can't you deal with it? I'm in Moria avenging Balin. And it's not just shadow troops. The Nazgal are flying around on the hunt for Frodo. Honestly, Frodo is a liability. He's the little scared kid that needs you to hold his hand the whole time because if he moves when Nazgal are overhead, you risk losing hope every time he moves. Sometimes I think we'd be better off without him.

17:02 And if that's not enough, the eye of Sauron keeps turning up in Frodo's region, and the only way to move it is to distract it by starting a fight somewhere else. There's so many things going on that it needs a real team approach to remember all the objectives and all the threats and work out how you're going to overcome it. What makes a Matt Leot co-op special is that you're blessed with options. You play with two characters each, all with their own special abilities. You can pull other characters along with you when you move to get everyone around faster. You have cards to muster troops, reroll dice, and kill units. You're basically a Middleear project manager. If you send Aoin to the Shire just because she's nearest, you're wasting her talent when she could be recruiting troops in Rohan and killing Nazgirl. It's a puzzle you get lost in.

17:49 It's more involved than Pandemic and it takes longer to play and to set up. But in return, you get a more epic adventure with theme dripping from every surface. And if you're lucky, it ends with a big finish. The whole gang rock up to Mordor and try to sneak in like a group of lads getting into a nightclub on a stagd do. And if you've collected enough cards, Frodo decides to finally be useful and drop the ring in Mount Doom. And then you have one final roll. You roll a dice for every hope you've lost. That's when those dishes you didn't wash come back to haunt you. Every tree you roll will lose you hope. If you manage to survive that without losing all hope, you win the game. It's always a nailbiter and a great end to a great game. Then, like in the films, you have to spend two hours saying goodbye to each other.

18:41 Last year, we got something that no one was asking for. A second edition of Parks, a brilliant game from 2019 that looks so nice, it sat in the background of my shop for the last four years. But now they've ditched the iconic artwork that made it famous and put it in a bigger box. I was ready to set fire to their houses. So, how annoying that this version is actually better. In parks, you send your hikers along the trail deciding where to stop next to collect resources like forests and sunshine. Use them to buy park cards. Those have the points you need to win the game. What makes the trail exciting is that you can only walk in one direction. Nature is like a murder mystery. You can't go back and see it again because you already know what happens. And you can't share spots with your fellow hikers. You're here to commune with nature, not Dave.

19:33 You hate Dave because if he gets somewhere before you, he'll get more resources. So, the game turns you into a type A control freak. We have to maximize the potential of this hike. Do you run ahead and get him before Dave, jumping over spots you can never go back to, or take it slowly and watch as Dave tramples all over the path in front of you? He's got no respect, but he's also got no signal if you push him in a ravine. What's nice is there's no obvious path to follow. You could focus on getting points from taking photographs, getting the shutter bug, which lets you snap twice as often. That can turn into a real fight because the player with the most photos wins even more points at the end of the game. Or you can build up your strength. Spending time buying gear and cantens to make you better equipped. This is part of the game that's really improved. Finding the right combination of gear that bounce off each other feels so satisfying.

20:27 Defying physics as you turn water into sunshine. Now, the cantens let you do two things. So, you can pull off epic turns where you do this, then this, and buy that, which then gets me that, which then unlocks a smug grin on your face. And that's better than anything nature can deliver. They've only made little adjustments to the game, so it has the same heart, but it works much better. The personal goals are more rewarding. There's less fuss to setting up each season. The playerboards help you track everything better. And they've integrated some of the best ideas from the expansions, like these dynamic park cards, which give you more resources when you buy them that can create more cool moments. Parks has always been a great next step game. If you're in the hobby and you can handle Ticket to Ride or Carcasson and you want something with a bit more going on, Parks is a great shout. And this version has just cemented that. It's a concrete step.

21:23 I first played Solstice online in 2024, but it didn't make any sense to me because I hadn't read the rules. A year later, I played it in real life, but I didn't understand a rule, even though I had read them. So, I played it online to help me make sense of it. And since then, I've played it over 500 times on Board Game Arena. I played it just before writing this bit in the script. And after I finish this sentence, I will reward myself by playing it again. I mean, for research, Solstice is a two-player only game in which you're collecting tiles to build a panorama. But since I already explained it in my travel games video last year, let me tell you seven reasons why I find it so addictive. One, the core goal of trying to collect tiles that connect up to form a big group is innately pleasing. As a former Londoner, I do mind the gap. I mind it very much. I don't like my panoramas or panorazan with holes in it.

22:18 Which is why two, every decision matters. When you first play, it seems really simple. You play a tile from your hand to claim one from the market. But there's a lot of little things to consider to improve your odds. If you play that blue five now to get the orange five, you won't have a five in your hand to claim the important purple five if it comes up. And what is your opponent going to take? Because three, it's like sharing a box of chocolates with a sibling. Everything they take will hurt you. So when a target gets revealed that you desperately need, you hold your breath, praying they can't claim it. In 30 seconds, it will be yours. Maybe they won't even notice it. But no, damn it. This game is for lucky. Drawing the right tiles at the right time is a huge help, and it can be hard to beat. There's a good amount of luck in this game, and I found there to be way more luck in the games where I lose, but the luck creates amazing moments.

23:14 Getting the exact tile you need to finish a two by two to get you a spirit, then you choose to draw two new spirits and pull the butterfly, which doubles the points for your fires and wins you the game. All because you had faith. Five, the Firefly expansion adds an instant win condition that makes the game even more tense because you could be killing it on points, but if they claim four Fireflies, it's all over. Sometimes I will give up on points completely just to go straight for the Firefly win. Six, it's nailbiting. To score the points for your fires at the top, they have to be connected to the bottom of the mountain, and you will spend all game trying to join that up. So often it comes down to the final turn, whether you make the connection and win or fail. and lose. And seven, all those decisions and luck and drama are over so quickly, which makes you want to play it again. It takes six minutes on board Game Arena, 20 in real life. And by the way, I love the game in real life as well, but even I can't find someone to play a game with me 500 times, especially when I'm sat on the toilet.

24:18 It's not often that a new game comes along that blows everything in its genre out of the water, but Hot Streak has won the race to become the best betting board game in the world. I've played them all. Winner's circle, Ready Set Bet, Hall Fever, Unicorn Fever, Divinity Derby, Downforce, Long Shot the Dice Game, Win and Camel Up, the former champion. But Hot Streak leaves them in the dust. And it's not a photo finish. It wins through pure entertainment. It's so much fun watching the race unfold because it's fast. You place your bets, then play out the entire race. There's no stopping to take turns. You're flipping cards off the deck that move the races in real time. And it is gloriously messy. The hot dog will fall over and crawl to the finish line. The queen will start running the other way.

25:06 The fish will switch lanes and crash into the hot dog, knocking them out of the race. every time you're guaranteed chaos and you'll be shouting at that hot dog to get back up and cross the finish line. It gives you the surprises and the upsets that you need from a betting game. It's what Camelup promises, but doesn't always deliver. And it does it with a smoother game. There's less fuss and more joy. In the time Camelup takes to play, you get three races in Hot Streak. Each race, you submit one card to the racing deck. That's your chance to throw things in your favor. Either you boost one guy or sabotage another. You take it in turns to take betting slips. The first player to bet on each mascot gets a way bigger payout, which encourages you to bet on an underdog instead and pray for an upset. And you can make any bet risky by flipping it over. You'll get more if they come first, but less for second or third.

26:00 That's the game preying on your desperation when you lost the last race. There's also a side bet available. You can bet on a specific outcome, like, will someone run off the track? Yes or no. It adds to the excitement that comes from those shenanigans cuz you're begging for it to happen. In the third and final race, you pick one of your bets to double. So, there's still a chance to claw your way back if you're in last place. Hot streak is exactly what it wants to be, silly, funny gambling. But, you have to leave your modern game expectations at the door. You won't feel in control, and there's a lot of luck. But that's what gambling is. And without it, you wouldn't get these epic reversals of fortune. I thought I wanted a betting game that gives you control. But Hot Streak has taught me to embrace the chaos. And it only works if people embrace it. I've had nine people shouting at these mascots, being told off by the Eurogamers next door for being so loud.

26:55 But if your group is too cool for school, then you won't find the magic. It's like the tooth fairy. If you don't buy into it, don't expect anything under your pillow. 2025 was a big year for me. We moved house and studio to a new city where we didn't know anyone and had to start from scratch with gaming friends and game groups. So, I want to thank the people of Norwich for welcoming me and playing games with me. And to give back, I'm hosting a social games lounge at the Norwich Games Festival on Thursday, May the 11th at the forum. I hope some of you can come along. And if you're wondering why this video was so late, well, we just moved house and studio again, twice in one year. But now we're settled. It's back to the usual actual old content. And we've got loads of great videos planned for this year. So, please subscribe. Please become a patron to come along for the ride because we've just released an exclusive video for patrons about the 10 games from last year that almost made it into this top 10. But for now, here's my favorite game of 2025.

27:59 One of the purest joys of board gaming is sitting down with some good friends, setting up your pieces on a big map, and settling in for a few hours of allout war. That's why Cichlid's Legendary Edition is my favorite game of the year. It can deliver that experience in an evening, so you don't have to set aside a Sunday to put your friend in a bad mood. Set in ancient Greece, you play as rival factions, sending your people out to dominate these Greek islands, like your British and German tourists competing over who can ruin a culture first. To win the game, you need to control three metropolises. So, you either slowly build towards them, or you wait for someone else to build them and send an army to make them yours. But while it looks like you'll be rampaging across the map, rolling dice and digging graves, it's a lot more considered than that. You're not actually allowed to go to war unless a god says so. Some excuses have been around forever. Every round you're making an offering to the gods. If you want to march your troops in next door to steal their university because you need it to build a metropolis, you have to pay Aries, the god of war. So you offer five gold, but the blue faction also has plans to expand. They offer seven gold and you get bumped off. Now you have to bid on another god. So you choose Poseidon, god of the sea. You've come up with some speurious excuse to invade Greenland, sorry, Greensland, and you need Poseidon to move your boats because once you control the sea in between, you can use Aries to hop your hoplights over it and

29:29 start a battle. Getting around is a multi-stage process, which means you're planning your strategy many rounds in advance and hoping you've got the money to outbid everyone else. Except you can't waste it all on bidding. You need even more money to pay for the stuff, buying more troops and boats. You even have to pay to move them. It feels like a grown-up take on these types of games. You can't just plow through the map getting lucky with the dice. Every unit, every incursion costs you money. If you spend your last gold on an extra battle for funsies, you'll be outpriced on the gods next round and get to do nothing. And yet, it's not without chaos. You can spend any leftover cash you have on these creatures like the Kraken which just eats boats wherever you put it or Pegasus which will fly your troops anywhere on the map. They can feel incredibly overpowered but it's on you to be prepared for them. Win the auction so your enemy can't use them against you. And there are heroes which let you move without Aries help. And they got cool powers of their own. But it's a fight to even get one. Make sure you get one. The game forces you to expand across islands to build more buildings and metropolises. You can't hunker down in one place, so it feels impossible to protect it all. There's always a way in for someone to exploit. Even when you're in the lead, you feel like your Greek tragedy is moments away. It's so much fun. Cichlides gives you a glorious metay of options to craft your own strategy, taking little bits of each and

31:00 seeing whether they work together. and it means it always tells a different story every time you play. It is complicated. If you're new to board games, I'd start with any other game in this list, but as Epic Games go, it's more manageable than most. It could be a good baby's first big game for when you're old enough. You know, when you can make it through a whole game night without wetting yourself. Those are my top 10 board games of 2025. If you want to know the 10 games that almost made this list, then come and watch my exclusive video on Patreon. And if you want to buy any of these games, there are links in the description below. If you like this video, please subscribe to see more. I'm John Peris. Thanks for watching.