We’re always on the lookout for ways to nab genuinely top quality board games for less – and it’s looking like that could get exponentially harder in the coming months. So, while we always recommend buying from your local game store above all, I still feel duty bound to report that Amazon’s current ‘get one, get one half price’ board games sale has some fantastic titles that are very much worth snapping up while you can.
Amazon’s not so catchily titled “Buy 2, save 50% on 1” promotion, as usual for the Bezos-owned behemoth, includes over a hundred games, add-ons, and tabletop doodads – most of them kids board games. But there are also some very shiny jewels to be found with a little digging – including a couple of the essentials in our list of the best board games in the world.
And most of the games already have an individual store discount which stacks with the 50% off on the cheaper of your two choices – so if you’ve had your eye on a couple of games for your collection, this could be a perfect moment to nab them both at a great combined price. You can browse the whole sale to find your ideal combo – or read on to find our top picks.
Azul
One of my favorite games of all time, Azul is a fiendishly competitive strategy game that lulls you into a false sense of security with its serene, creative, mosaic building theme and gorgeous colorful plastic tiles. Before long, though, you’ll be counter-drafting up a storm and playing to win. A must play. The sequel, Azul: Stained Glass of Cintra, is in the promo too, at 20% off!
Read our Azul review.
Ticket to Ride
The ultimate ‘gateway game’ for folks new to the wonderful world of modern board gaming, Ticket To Ride is a stupendous, reliably joyful railway building returns to my table more often than all my beloved, nerdy war board games combined. If you don’t have it, buy it.
Read our Ticket to Ride review.
Splendor
A perennial pick for people’s ‘essential for your collection’ lists, Splendor is a compact, easily learnt, rules light card game that casts you as a canny jewel merchant trying to corner the market and build your own business empire. It’s easily portable and plays in 30 minutes, making it an ideal warm up game, too!
Pandemic
The GOAT of coop board games, Matt Leacock’s 2008 smash hit Pandemic belongs in every gamer’s collection. You and one to three others team up to travel the world, fighting disease outbreaks and setting up research centers to cure four deadly pandemics at once – all against an in built time limit that forces you to balance your limited actions and unique special abilities as the diseases constantly fight back.
Read our Pandemic review.
Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective
I don’t tend to love escape room games or murder mystery types, but my wife adores them, so we’ve played a lot – and my absolute favorite variant on the theme is Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective.
Instead of loosely themed logic puzzles and number-crunching, this game presents you with big, detailed, pre-written mystery stories (adapted from the Arthur Conan Doyle originals) which you’ll have to solve by poring through clues and documents, and interviewing suspects and witnesses via a ‘choose your own adventure’ type narrative book. It’s utterly brilliant, engrossing stuff.
Read our Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective review.
Catan
You’ve already heard of Catan – and if you don’t own it, this is the time. This grand-daddy of modern strategy board games sees you and one to three pals settle an island made of hex tiles, each producing different amounts of five key resources you’ll need to build your towns and roads. It’s incredibly simple to learn, but holds more than enough strategic depth to get even non-nerdy friends and family hooked. You need Catan.
Pokémon TCG: Battle Academy 2024
I’m a huge fan of the boxed, board game-esque Battle Academy boxes as a cheap, super-accessible way into the Pokémon Trading Card Game. You get three balanced, pre-built decks, some fun promo cards (to give you a taste for chasing shiny, rare Pokémon cards) and – crucially – a nice, hard, folding play board that really helps with learning the game, and makes it more of a complete experience out of the box. Say what you want, but it’s a better card based board game than others I’ve tested, without even technically being a board game.
That’s it for my personal favorite deals in Amazon’s buy 1 get one half price board game sale, though I’ll also throw in Alien: Fate of the Nostromo, too.
It doesn’t have a standalone discount, and remains at $29.99 – but if your first purchase is a more expensive game with a discount that leaves it costing more than 30 bucks, I can definitely recommend this as your second pick. A well designed, snazzily presented co-op survival game loosely based on the original 1979 ALIEN movie, I had a great time with it when our team tested it for our Alien: Fate of the Nostromo review.
Like my picks? Think I’ve missed out on some better choices? Just want to jaw about some of your favorite tabletop games? Come join the board games chat in the Wargamer Discord – we’re on there every day, and there’s even a competition on to win a brand new copy of Finspan!