By: Blaze Aldrich | June 26, 2024
10 Best Board Games That Are Hidden Gems
Are you tired of having every new board game that comes out shoved in your face and always marketed as the best game known to man until the end of the earth? Then 90% of those games end up falling flat or isn't your cup of tea? Well look no further because in that cup of tea are 10 hidden board game gems that you may have never heard of but that are amazing. Now and then actual great board games are pushed to the wayside for the newest and shiniest game, ultimately being forgotten. In no particular order, here are 10 board games that are hidden gems that will absolutely but not positively elevate your gaming experience.
1. Pan Am (2020)
In Pan Am, players vie against Pan American Airways and each other to establish a dominant air-travel empire. Compete in auctions for valuable landing rights, acquire planes with extended range to access distant locations, and leverage insider connections to further your interests. As Pan Am expands, you can sell your routes to the company for a significant profit, which you can then reinvest in your network or use to buy Pan Am stock, anticipating substantial future returns. Balancing expansion, strategic sales, and investments is key to achieving success in this dynamic game of aviation industry growth.
2. Space Base (2018)
In Space Base, you command a fleet of ships, deploying them from docked stations to sectors for trade, income, and influence. Establish colonies to increase your influence and aim for promotion to Admiral. This quick-to-learn dice game features the "I roll, everyone gets something" mechanism and strategic engine building with ship cards. The order and type of cards you buy impact your strategy, allowing for explosive gains, steady income, or big end-game combos. The game blends luck and strategy and can be taught in the first round, making it both accessible and engaging.
3. Istanbul (2014)
In Istanbul, you lead a merchant and four assistants through 16 bazaar locations, each offering specific actions. To act, move your merchant and an assistant to a location, leaving the assistant behind. Retrieve assistants by returning to their locations, requiring careful planning to avoid being stuck without help. On your turn, move the merchant one or two steps, leave or collect an assistant, and perform the action, possibly gaining extra actions by meeting others. Actions include increasing wheelbarrow capacity, filling it with goods, acquiring special abilities, buying or trading for rubies, and selling goods for money. The game ends when a merchant collects five rubies, with ties broken by money in hand.
4. Euphoria (2013)
In Euphoria: Build a Better Dystopia, you lead a team of workers (dice) and recruits (cards) to control a dystopian world by producing commodities, digging tunnels, building markets, collecting artifacts, forming alliances, and achieving secret objectives. Workers' knowledge, shown by dice numbers, provides bonuses and affects interactions, but too much knowledge may cause desertion. You start with one loyal recruit and can unlock another by reaching milestones. Victory is achieved through worker efforts, alliances, and area control. Construct markets to impose restrictions on others and collect rare artifacts to trade for land, adapting and strategizing to dominate the dystopia.
5. Pagoda (2014)
Pagoda is a two-player game where players compete to build up to six multi-layered pagodas using colored cards to place pillars and levels. Each player has five face-up and two face-down cards. Once a ground-floor pillar is placed, all subsequent pillars on that level must match its color. Completing a set of four pillars on a level allows a player to place a floor tile of the same color, which dictates the color of the next level's pillars. Players earn points for each pillar placed, with higher floors worth more points. Placing a floor tile also grants special actions. The fourth floor tile is placed upside-down, supporting two pillars worth five points each, completing the pagoda. The game ends after three pagodas are built, and the player with the most points wins.
6. Hanabi (2010)
In Hanabi, derived from the Japanese word for "fireworks," players are immersed in a cooperative challenge to craft an exquisite fireworks show by strategically placing cards in precise order on the table. The game features a deck comprising cards in five distinct colors, each numbered from 1 to 5. The objective for each color is to arrange its cards sequentially from 1 to 5. However, players hold their cards facing outward, visible only to their teammates. To assist others in playing cards, players must provide subtle hints about the numbers or colors of their cards, fostering teamwork and communication. Collaboration is essential to prevent errors and successfully complete the fireworks display before all cards are exhausted, adding suspense and strategic depth to the gameplay experience.
7. Inis (2016)
Inis is a game immersed in Celtic mythology where players compete to become the King of the Island (Inis) by achieving one of three victory conditions: Leadership by controlling territories with the most clan figures, Land by spreading clans across six different territories, or Religion by placing clans in territories containing at least six sanctuaries. Players earn deeds that lower the threshold for victory conditions and balance power in the island's capital. Each round begins with an Assembly where players draft action cards, manage leader cards, and collect "epic tales" cards depicting mythical deeds to inspire strategic actions like clan placement, movement, construction, and special abilities.
8. Potion Explosion (2015)
In Potion Explosion, players retrieve an ingredient marble from the dispenser, triggering a cascade of marbles as others fall into place. Matching marbles of the same color causes them to explode, allowing players to collect them as well. Utilize these marbles to complete potions, which, once brewed, unleash potent magical effects. However, winning the coveted Student of the Year award demands more than just speed; players must brew the most valuable potions to secure victory in this dynamic and strategic game of potion crafting.
9. Ethnos (2017)
In Ethnos, players harness the support of giants, merfolk, halflings, minotaurs, and other fantasy tribes across three ages to dominate the land and accumulate glory. Each game features twelve tribes, with players choosing six (or five in smaller games) to form a custom deck of cards. Cards are divided into six colors corresponding to regions on the board, each with three randomly placed glory tokens. Players start with one card and can recruit new ones or play sets of matching cards to activate tribe powers and place tokens on corresponding regions. At the end of each age, players score based on token control, with additional scoring rounds after subsequent ages. The player with the highest total glory at the end of the game wins, determining the ruler of Ethnos.
10. Ginkopolis (2012)
In Ginkgopolis, the city is built using tiles of three colors: yellow for victory points, red for resources, and blue for new tiles. Initial tiles on the board are surrounded by letter markers indicating where new tiles can expand. Players start with Character cards that grant resources and bonuses, influencing their game strategy. Each turn, players select Construction or Urbanization cards simultaneously, revealing them to add new tiles to expand the city's borders or stack tiles atop existing ones. Unplayed cards pass to the left, affecting subsequent plays. Building over tiles adds their "power" cards to players' tableau, enhancing their abilities and advancing their scoring efforts throughout the game.
Final Thoughts
Many of these hidden gems are very accessible and are reasonably priced. Ethnos and Pagoda are the only board games that are out of print and may be difficult to find. Either way, you'll be able to try out some games that were very popular in their heyday. I would argue when people discover them, they add them to their top 25 board games of all time. Okay maybe I am exaggerating, but these are some incredible games. Let us know what games people don't talk about much anymore but are in your top games of all time. Happy Gaming!
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