Fantasy board games are a varied and vital part of the tabletop hobby. It’s the ultimate nerdy crossover, and it’s hard to imagine a world where fantasy and board games don’t mix. In fact, there are so many great fantasy board games, it can be hard to know which to try first. But fret not – whether you like them grand or small, we can recommend the best fantasy board games to pick up.
Many of the best board games ever made dip their toes into fantasy. To help narrow things down, we’re sticking to board games with a classic, high-fantasy feel. Partly because of the focus on expansive adventure, most of these work best with larger groups – if you’re after a two-player experience, try our guide to the best board games for couples instead.
These are the best fantasy board games:
- Gloomhaven – most influential
- Terra Mystica – best heavyweight
- War of the Ring – best Lord of the Rings
- Clank! A Deck-Building Adventure – best lightweight
Gloomhaven
The most influential fantasy board game.
As much a rich RPG as a crunchy dungeon crawler, Gloomhaven presents a unique fantasy world that’s begging to be explored. The titular city sits in a grim fantasy land, where mercenaries happily use magic to earn their gold. If you’re looking for a twist on your typical Tolkien-esque adventure, Gloomhaven is perfect.
It’s also fantastic to play. Thanks to a compelling card-based combat system, hundreds of hours of dungeons, and plenty of exciting secrets, Gloomhaven was ranked the best board game ever for five straight years (only losing its crown recently).
Gloomhaven has a sequel now – read about it in our Frosthaven review – but the original still stands on its own, just as big, brilliant, and engrossing as ever. If you really love fantasy board games, you should play both.
Read our Gloomhaven review.
Terra Mystica
The best heavyweight fantasy board game.
Lovers of heavy strategy board games should try Terra Mystica, a classic Euro title. In the fantasy world of Terra Mystica, you take control of one of 14 factions across seven landscapes. With your people settled, it’s up to you to develop an economy, religion, and infrastructure.
There’s zero luck to rely on here, so only the best big-brain-plays will score you major points. Terra Mystica is a complex game of careful planning and very satisfying pay-offs.
War of the Ring
The best Lord of the Rings board game.
We said we’d steer clear of licensed board games, but an exception needed to be made for War of the Ring, one of the best Lord of the Rings board games there is. Two to four players go head to head, representing either the armies of Sauron or the Fellowship and the free people of Middle-earth.
War of the Ring is a lengthy, highly-thematic wargame that tests your mettle for military strategy. If you want to relive the greatest moments of Tolkien’s masterpiece (or simply reckon you could walk into Mordor no problem), this is one to put an evening aside for.
Plus, if you find you really like it, the same original design team has now made a massive Dune board game with CMON titled Dune: War for Arrakis.
A word to the wise, though – because we’ve played both – these games have huge boards and dozens of minis and tokens to move around, so you’ll need a large surface to play on. If you’re in need of an upgrade, our guide to the best gaming tables has recommendations at various price points to help.
Clank! A Deck-Building Adventure
The best lightweight fantasy board game.
If you like your dungeon-crawlers to be bite-sized, you can’t do better than deck-building game Clank! A Deck-Building Adventure. It sets up a classic fantasy scenario – adventurers enter a dungeon, adventures loot the dungeon, adventurers avoid being eaten by a dragon.
Each player gets their own deck in Clank!, which they can customize as the game goes on. You’ll need the right balance of skills, attacks, and movement to grab precious artifacts, so you’ll need to strengthen your strategy with every shuffle of your deck. It’s fast-paced and a heck of a lot of fun.
These fantasy board games explore what you might call ‘traditional’ fantasy – swords, sorcery, dungeons, and goblins. We’ve got guides to the best tabletop games in many other genres, from space board games for the sci-fi lovers, all the way to our recommended sex board games for romantic gaming nights in with a partner.