The Best Board Games Of 2021

Whether getting together with old friends or settling down for a weekly family game night, great tabletop games bring people together and ­create lasting memories. The game industry continued to create amazing projects, even after many game night cancellations and postponements.

These are the 10 best 2021 games, from cooperative parties to fierce asymmetric strategies competitions, and everything in between.

You can find more information on the top tabletop games of the past years at our Top of the Table hub.

7 Wonders Architects
Publisher: Repos Production

While the 7 Wonders original is amazing, newcomers can be intimidated by its numerous strategies. The core gameplay is preserved by Architects, which simplifies and streamlines the process. It is a simple card-selection process that allows players to create a marvel of the ancient world. The landmark is built using attractive cardboard pieces. Architects has earned a reputation as one of our favorite new gateway games. 

This gateway experience is a great way to introduce new members into the theme board gaming community. And since the game plays so fast, you don’t need to worry that inexperienced players will lose focus. Architects is an elegant and engaging release; it doesn’t replace the larger and more complex 7 Wonders – it’s better than that since Architects perfectly complements its older sibling.

Ankh: Egyptian Gods
CMON Publisher

This sumptuous strategy game follows in the footsteps of Blood Rage, Rising Sun and its myth-focused predecessors. It casts players as Egyptian gods who struggle to keep their relevance as old worship methods disappear. An asymmetrical power system, non-random fighting, and tight control over the area can lead to intense confrontation. In a unique way, the game’s fantastical artwork captures imagination like no other.

While Ankh isn’t exactly a great entryway into board gaming, its subtle, tight strategies and exceptional production values easily win over veterans. One particular feature – the way players in the back of the pack eventually merge and begin to work together – is a perfect encapsulation of the game’s thematic drive, where we see old gods dying off, combining, and changing as the epochs pass. You should definitely check this game out.

Legends of the Dark: Descent
Publisher: Fantasy Flight Games

Don’t be fooled by the name; the massive new entry in the Descent franchise is a standalone dungeon-crawling experience, separate from earlier games. This is a fantastic cooperative fantasy adventure that features 3D tiles and a digital application that can run the game, telling the story and running combat. It’s perfect for large groups who are looking to have a long gaming session.

Fantasy Flight has toyed with app-aided design for years now, but Legends of the Dark is the company’s most comprehensive and rewarding implementation of the concept. While some might be offended by the reliance on digital elements, it’s important to recognize that the artistic and narrative aspects of this game can blend the two, creating something extraordinary.

Machi Koro 2
Publisher: Pandasaurus Games

This family-friendly game of city building has seen small but important changes. The goal of the game is to create a city with bakeries, gardens and stadiums. Each urban center will be unique. The game is quick and fun with easy-to-learn guidelines. It also has significant luck. The definitive version, with its better replayability and pre-game strategy makes it a great choice for casual gaming.

These randomly chosen cards make all the difference to giving Machi Koro an entirely new life. If you’re an established player of the original (and its expansions), you have a tough decision in front of you. Machi Koro 2 is the necessary revisions to the game and gives it a stronger overall experience. But whether you’re ready to abandon the familiarity of the original and its quirks is a decision you’ll have to make for yourself.

The Dark Road Merchants
Publisher: Elf Creek Games

One of the most innovative releases in recent months, Elf Creek Games’ newest release is a fantasy adventure in which intrepid merchant caravans must brave the night, deliver goods, and recruit heroes between isolated cities. To win, players must balance money and prestige. Success requires you to always be three steps ahead. Richly imagined and lavishly illustrated, this is an excellent fit if you’re looking for a novel new twist on tabletop strategy, awash in fantasy styling.

The game’s use of action dice, and how it interacts with the way you move your wagon across the board is one of its most fascinating aspects. There are a lot of distinct play mechanics at work in any given game of Merchants, but there’s unique fun in seeing the way they all tie together, especially to fuel your travel to new locations. For many, it’s the innovative connections between different gameplay systems that will be the chief draw here, but for players who prefer a more straightforward gameplay experience, Merchants of the Dark Road has the potential to overwhelm.       

Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile
Publisher: Leder Games

Leder Games has a reputation for creating asymmetric games that allow each player to leverage their different strengths and win. Oath follows the progress of an expanding empire. Each player plays a different role within that complicated mix. The game’s results are used to determine the starting conditions for subsequent playthroughs, and sometimes, even introduce new cards or situations. This is a unique twist. 

It’s that final dynamic that sets Oath apart. It isn’t a legacy title by any standard, but Oath is one that builds a story and chronicles events with each session. That’s an appealing possibility for playgroups who are willing to return to the same game multiple times, instead of moving on to something else. If your gaming cadre is willing to invest the sessions to see the empire develop, there’s a fascinating sense of continuity that begins to bubble up.

Sleeping Gods
Red Raven Games Publisher

As the steamship cruises across mysterious terrains and waterways, the crew must battle monsters, track down hidden totems and find their way back home. The board is accompanied by a spiral-bound Atlas book, which opens up new perspectives with every session. A storybook provides rich detail and explains the events. Even after playing through a whole campaign over many sessions, subsequent campaigns could play out entirely different – with over a dozen possible endings.

It’s hard to overstate the fun in store for storytelling enthusiasts. Sleeping Gods is full of brilliant writing and clever narrative twists. Echoing the theme of a boundless sea voyage, your explorations in a given campaign playthrough always tease that there’s something else to discover and learn just over the horizon.

Clover, So Clover!
Publisher: Repos Production

Sometimes even the simplest ideas can prove to be most valuable. Clover! This is a fun cooperative game of word association. A group of players will arrange random cards on a 4-space grid. Then, they’ll write clue keywords linking specific terms to the cards. The grid must be arranged in a correct order by other players. This is a simple but effective staple that you can use whenever you want to please others.

While comparisons aren’t always the best way to articulate a game’s identity, it’s worth mentioning that So Clover! This game fits well in the same place as other Repos titles like Concept, Just One or Codenames. All three games rely heavily on word association and deductive reasoning. However, they are simple enough to be understood by anyone, no matter their age. Clover! is another success story in that style of play, and quite frankly, it’s one you should feel comfortable adding to your library without hesitation.

The Unsettled
Orange Nebula is the publisher

This game is a new adventure in survival and exploration that all Sci-Fi fans must play. It allows players to work together and face the risks of deep space. Unsettled features a core game system and connected “planet boxes” that plug into that framework, each offering a standalone and unique experience. This is a cooperative adventure for experienced players looking for an engrossing thematic and complex play.

Unsettled, like any sci-fi TV series, succeeds by setting expectations and establishing baseline parameters. These expectations become more challenging as each individual planet box presents new surprises to you. The explorers also face unexpected threats and find out how they can best meet them. There’s a lot of joy in how the game has your group effectively crafting its own rich science fiction narrative. If you’re up for the complexity it takes to put all the figurative pieces together, you’ll be delighted with the results.

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
Z-Man Games Publisher

Pandemic has a proven winning formula that has endured the test of times. In this new cooperative twist on the formula, the board gaming juggernaut franchise aligns with its first licensed partner, transporting players to Northrend and into the roles of Azeroth’s heroes as they stand against the Lich King. A fun questing system demands teamwork, and each hero brings awesome unique powers to the table, leading to a climactic battle atop Icecrown Citadel to end Arthas’ reign. 

Especially for players familiar with both Pandemic and this classic World of Warcraft expansion, you’ll be surprised at how smoothly the concept and mechanics combine to capture the epic conflicts described. Another thing you’ll be amazed at is the beautiful components and cards that make up the game. Z-Man has nailed the vibe here, and brought one of MMO gaming’s most memorable periods into uncanny focus.

2021 was filled with any number of other remarkable tabletop games to discover, and you’ll find at least some of those highlighted in our Top of the Table hub. If you’d specifically like to delve into the backlog of selections for the year’s best, you can jump straight to the best tabletop games of 2020, 2019, 2018, and 2017.