10 Most Beautiful Board Games Ever Made | Collection Starter

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Not many people would associate board games with beauty which is mostly the fault of the rather drab air quotes classics i mean look at monopoly it looks like someone ran over an excel spreadsheet with a steamroller for decades even hobby games weren’t much better emphasizing function over form nothing says board game more

Than a map with a muted color palette but in most recent years has the hobbies swollen enough to attract some of the finest artists and graphic designers in the world there are some absolutely stunning board games available now some of them feel like crimes to even play you just want to

Leave them on the table to marvel at now yes i understand that beauty is in the eye of the beholder but also shut up this is my list and my subjective opinions are objectively correct this is the collection starter and here are the 10 most beautiful board games

Ever made and before we crack into the list please please please subscribe to no rolls bard every single subscription means the world to us we really appreciate it just click that little button thank you really appreciate it number 10 tokyo highway how do you make traffic sexy put it in a

Board game tokyo highway is modern art on your table it looks more like a straight up dexterity game with all these little bits but it’s actually closer to an abstract spatial strategy game you start with an entrance ramp and you build roads from there always going one level up or one level

Below the last road you built if you build a road that runs either underneath or above another road you can place one of your teeny tiny little cars on it genuinely the cars are so small you need special tweezers to pick them up that’s delightful whoever runs

Out of cars first wins so you’re always ducking and turning trying to be the first to slip under or over an opponent’s exposed road gradually the highways expand and expand twisting around each other like snakes dancing to create this beautiful minimalist lattice with little bursts of colour throughout

Table presence is a phrase used to describe the kind of game that’ll make you do a double take as you walk past tokyo highway is that kind of game number nine obscurio libeloud make the dixit series beautiful games with beautiful cards they also make the mysterium series beautiful games with beautiful cards so

When i say that obscurio is liberlud’s most beautiful game that’s a take you could fry an airgun gameplay wise it’s mysterium with a traitor mechanics that’s a whole bunch of boxes tick for me right quick you’re a bunch of wizards stuck in a magical library being helped to escape by a sentient book

Whimsy each go six of these gorgeous round cards are put out these are potential magical doorways but only one of them will get the team closer to escape the magic book and bloody look at this component it’s so beautiful tries to help the team pick the right door by picking two more cards

And using these fancy magnetic arrows to point to bits on them that’ll help provide clues but one of the players trying to escape is a secret traitor who is adding red herring cards in the mix to try and confuse people it’s a very fun little communication deduction game but

What really makes it sing is the presentation these weighty plastic chips the stunning artwork the board the magnetic arrows it’s also polished you just want to sit and stare at it number eight inish i’ve made no secret of the fact i love ines the celtic game of area control and

Magical powers the gameplay itself is stellar tense multitask you need to be constantly aware of what everyone’s doing at all times but what made it an essential purchase for me was this beautiful theming in a marketplace so often dominated by greco-roman or arthurian myth irish mythology is such a breath of

Fresh air and look at these cars depicting legendary celtic figures like balor the fianna warriors deirdre all of these cards are beautiful there’s actually two different art styles at play here the hyper detailed dazzlingly coloured style of the cards but also a simple more serene style for these awesomely designed interlocking territory tiles

Creating this occasionally calm occasionally eerie shifting landscape a backdrop for these conflicting tribes chieftains and beautiful legendary heroes number seven azul summer pavilion abstract strategy games ie games with no over story elements beyond conflict or relatable setting beyond the board are often visually striking all geometric shapes and patterned playing areas

After all if your gameplay is solely reliant on playing pieces they should at least look the business and when it comes to playing pieces looking the business the azul family of games are probably the industry leader the original azul was a game about creating beautiful portuguese mosaic quilted lovely gritty

Things made of these wonderful chunky tiles this was followed by azul stained glass of sintra which was more of the tile laying but loads more delicious looking i’ve never wanted to eat a board game piece more and then came potentially the prettiest yet azul summer pavilion all about using these

Chunky lovely diamonds to fill out this fresco style board chaining combos together and genuinely creating something that is just so bloody nice isn’t this nice it’s just nice making a little puzzle it’s nice board games are nice number six takaido you know what else is nice

Japan as expected for a land with such a rich and thematic cultural aesthetic and drop dead gorgeous scenery game designers ready love making games about japan and they’re almost always very pretty indeed from the very pretty hana makoji to the very pretty ohanami to the very pretty takanoko plus one bonus

Point for an adorable panda hello little man to the very pretty rising sun but actually for my money the most beautiful japanese themed board game is takaido when you first look at it it might not immediately grab you in the way that say rising sun punches you in the face with

Its colorful game board but takaido a leisurely game about just having a really nice time in japan slowly begins you with its serene charm you move along this board which manages to burst with information and color without feeling cluttered collecting these experiences some of which come in the form of card sets that

When you add to your collection build these really sweet panoramas man i really want to go to japan all of the art in the game brims with life and color whilst maintaining a simple almost cartoon-like style that complements the journey of the game perfectly also it might have one of the nicest box

Covers in the hobby number five riffraff so this is an adam top 10 list so you know it’s going to include at least one massive toy somewhere and step right up riffraff a game that comes with this wooden ship that you build right onto the box itself

Has a metal weight underneath it meaning that it rocks it quite literally and quite metaphorically rocks you all have a deck of cards you turn over your top card whichever number comes up you have to put one of your eight bits of cargo on that number on the ship all as it swooshes

And sways and bucks underneath the way any bits that fall off that you can’t catch are put in front of you and the first person to place their last bit of cargo wins i mean sure there are games out there with better artwork or cuter components but as someone who has

Once managed a board game cafe trust me few games have more head-turning table presents than riff raff by far in a way it is the game that had the most people calling us over to their table to ask what is that do you have any more copies

And also could you talk us through the rules of game of thrones monopoly one more time number four wingspan hey you know who makes reliably trouser-tighteningly beautiful games stonemire games they made scythe that’s a pretty game they made tapestry that’s a pretty game they made viticulture the board game for

Only the fanciest of alcoholics and to date their visual masterpiece is wingspan an engine building game all about burbs big burbs small burbs some as big as your head wise it’s dripping with avian charm from this little bird box dice tower to these little egg tokens i have to

Constantly remind myself not to eat to bloody hell lads this rule book feels amazing no please don’t leave i’m serious this rule book has just the nicest god damn texture i’ve really lost the plot gameplay wise it’s quite a solitary experience building collections of birds

That give you power to buy more birds to get more points but the artwork totally elevates the gaming experience to a blissful wallowing in nature plus all the cards have little bird facts on them it it’s wonderful number three lotus don’t let lotus fool you it may be a

Beautiful looking game where you’re assembling flowers on the table with cards arranging them piece by piece before decorating them with these whimsical little wooden bug pieces but also lotus is one mean son of a like a yogi with anger management issues hidden under that serene exterior rages a bitter little area control game

[Applause] you’re racing to build these flowers together you see everyone’s contributing cards but only the person who ends up controlling the flower when it’s built actually gets the points for it you can spend ages building this perfect lily only for someone to swoop in with their bug tokens not so cute

Now by the way say hey nice flower i’ll take it and walk away with all your points how could something so beautiful looking so beautifully colored and be so ostensibly calming and also be so so cruel number two photosynthesis people see photosynthesis and they are bound by the law to stop and ask

Questions it’s a game of competitive trees board gaming’s got everything each player has their own supply of cardboard trees of a certain color in varying sizes you’ll be placing these trees on the board so that yours catches the most sun whilst also leaving other players trees in shadow depending on the position of

This sun tile which only slightly looks like the gaping moor of pac-man ready to devour the forest and cool that’s tonight’s nightmares taken care of it’s a perspective hopping blockading style joy catching sun buying seed adding trees to the game board creating not only this clever 3d puzzle that shifts and changes each

Turning of the giant pac-man mouth but also this lush colorful forest canopy it’s stunning to look at when you’re deep in the game but also simple enough to teach the family with intuitive thematic mechanics strong recommend number 1.5 everedell look we would love to properly feature this game but we can’t get our

Hands on a bloody copy of the thing evidel is just stunning you don’t need me to tell you that just look at it it is achingly cute and that tree makes it genuinely one of the most eye-catching designs ever category is disney glade extravaganza and number one parks this is the newest

Game on this list so maybe chalk this up to recency bias but this game was an instant purchase for me the moment i saw it love national parks and this game actually incorporates art from the 59 parks print series an art production house that works in conjunction with a number of superb

Graphic designers to create these stunning poster quality prints of various national parks of america look at this one how about this one look at this guy they’re all in the game which sees hikers moving down this randomly generated trail performing actions taking lovely wooden tokens collecting gorgeous park cards snatching

Up this metal first player token that’s unreasonably satisfying to hold the whole experience is crafted with such love and care be warned playing this game will make you want to take a holiday you can’t afford there are lots of different bits of artwork on this game all combined on the

Table but the simplicity of the five nine park style of graphic design and the warm evocative palette of color means that instead of becoming a visually busy jumble of different iconography which is so often the case with large euro game boards this game’s images all work together to create this lush

Panorama of charm you could say it’s more than the sum of its parks i hate me and that’s our list what do you think is the most beautiful board game ever made let us know in the comments don’t forget to like and share this video around

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