Don’t know what board game to buy? Let us help! Our volunteers and staff have picked some of their favorite games (names in parenthesis) for each genre of game.
Deckbuilders
Ascension (Michael) $39.99
Ascension is a deck-building game in which players spend Runes to acquire more powerful cards for their deck. It offers a dynamic play experience where players have to react and adjust their strategy accordingly. Each player starts with a small deck of cards, and uses those cards to acquire more and better cards for their deck, with the goal of earning the most Honor Points by gaining cards and defeating monsters.
Clank! $64.99
Burgle your way to adventure in the deck-building board game Clank! Sneak into an angry dragon’s mountain lair to steal precious artifacts. Delve deeper to find more valuable loot. Acquire cards for your deck and watch your thievish abilities grow. Be quick and be quiet. One false step and CLANK! Each careless sound draws the attention of the dragon, and each artifact stolen increases its rage. You can enjoy your plunder only if you make it out of the depths alive!
Lost Ruins of Arnak $59.99
Lost Ruins of Arnak combines deck-building and worker placement in a game of exploration, resource management, and discovery. In addition to traditional deck-builder effects, cards can also be used to place workers, and new worker actions become available as players explore the island. Some of these actions require resources instead of workers, so building a solid resource base will be essential. You are limited to only one action per turn, so make your choice carefully… what action will benefit you most now? And what can you afford to do later… assuming someone else doesn’t take the action first!?
Drafting Games
Azul $44.99
In the game Azul, players take turns drafting colored tiles from suppliers to their player board. Later in the round, players score points based on how they’ve placed their tiles to decorate the palace. Extra points are scored for specific patterns and completing sets; wasted supplies harm the player’s score. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins.
Sushi Go! $12.99
In the super-fast sushi card game Sushi Go!, you are eating at a sushi restaurant and trying to grab the best combination of sushi dishes as they whiz by. Score points for collecting the most sushi rolls or making a full set of sashimi. Dip your favorite nigiri in wasabi to triple its value! And once you’ve eaten it all, finish your meal with all the pudding you’ve got! But be careful which sushi you allow your friends to take; it might be just what they need to beat you!
Bargain Quest $44.99
Bargain Quest is a game of adventure and capitalism for 2-6 players. Players will take the role of shopkeepers in an adventuring town plagued by monsters. Players must draft items and then secretly choose which items to place in their windows to attract wealthy heroes to their shops. Once all heroes have been equipped, they venture out to battle against monstrous threats, earning money and prestige for the shop they represent. Throughout the game players will encounter new heroes and monsters while upgrading their shops and hiring employees. Once the third monster is defeated the player who has earned the most gold and prestige is the winner.
Push-Your-Luck Games
Quacks of Quedlinburg $49.99
In The Quacks of Quedlinburg, players are charlatans — or quack doctors — each making their own secret brew by adding ingredients one at a time. Take care with what you add, though, for a pinch too much of this or that will spoil the whole mixture! Each player has their own bag of ingredient chips. During each round, they simultaneously draw chips from their bags and add them to their pots. The higher the face value of the drawn chip, the further it is placed in the pot’s swirling pattern, increasing how much the potion will be worth. Push your luck as far as you can, but if you add too many cherry bombs, your pot will explode!
Cubitos $59.99
Be fast or be last! In Cubitos, players take on the role of participants in the annual Cube Cup, a race of strategy and luck to determine the Cubitos Champion. Each player has a runner on the racetrack and a support team, which is represented by all the dice you roll. Each turn, you roll dice and use their results to move along the racetrack, buy new dice, and use abilities — but you must be careful not to push your luck rolling too much or you could bust!
King of Tokyo $44.99
In King of Tokyo, you play mutant monsters, gigantic robots, and strange aliens—all of whom are destroying Tokyo and whacking each other in order to become the one and only King of Tokyo. At the start of each turn, you roll six dice, which show the following six symbols: 1, 2, or 3 Victory Points, Energy, Heal, and Attack. Over three successive throws, choose whether to keep or discard each die in order to win victory points, gain energy, restore health, or attack other players into understanding that Tokyo is YOUR territory. The fiercest player will occupy Tokyo, and earn extra victory points, but that player can’t heal and must face all the other monsters alone!
Social Deduction Games
Coup $16.99
You are head of a family in an Italian city-state, a city run by a weak and corrupt court. You need to manipulate, bluff and bribe your way to power. Your object is to destroy the influence of all the other families, forcing them into exile. Only one family will survive… In Coup, you want to be the last player with influence in the game, with influence being represented by face-down character cards in your playing area.
The Resistance (Emma) $24.99
The Empire must fall. Our mission must succeed. By destroying their key bases, we will shatter Imperial strength and liberate our people. Yet spies have infiltrated our ranks, ready for sabotage. We must unmask them. In five nights we reshape destiny or die trying. We are the Resistance! The Resistance is a party game of social deduction. It is designed for five to ten players, lasts about 30 minutes, and has no player elimination. The Resistance is inspired by Mafia/Werewolf, yet it is unique in its core mechanics, which increase the resources for informed decisions, intensify player interaction, and eliminate player elimination.
Bang! $24.99
The Outlaws hunt the Sheriff. The Sheriff hunts the Outlaws. The Renegade plots secretly, ready to take one side or the other. Bullets fly. Who among the gunmen is a Deputy, ready to sacrifice himself for the Sheriff? And who is a merciless Outlaw, willing to kill him? If you want to find out, just draw (your cards)! The card game BANG! recreates an old-fashioned spaghetti western shoot-out, with each player randomly receiving a Character card to determine special abilities, and a secret Role card to determine their goal.
Storytelling Games
Betrayal at House on the Hill (Austin) $55.99
The House on the Hill still sits abandoned, and fearless group of explorers has been drawn to the house to discover its dark secrets. Immerse yourself in the narrative gameplay as you take on the role of one of those explorers. The co-operative board game Betrayal at House on the Hill: 3rd Edition includes fifty haunts and dozens of danger-filled rooms that will terrify even the strongest among you. At first you’ll work together, but beware…one explorer will betray the others and then the haunt begins. This edition of the popular haunted house traitor game features content and gaming elements that help new players jump right in. So gather friends for a game night of monsters, miniatures, and modular board pieces in this immersive, story-driven hidden traitor game.
Dixit $39.99
Each player is the storyteller in turn. The storyteller chooses a card from their hand and gives a clue (word, phrase, song…). The other players choose the card in their hand that best fits this clue. The Storyteller’s card is shuffled with the players’ cards, then all the chosen cards are revealed. Which is the storyteller’s card? Players secretly vote, then the scoring begins!
Gloom (Chris) $27.99
The world of Gloom is a sad and benighted place. The sky is gray, the tea is cold, and a new tragedy lies around every corner. Debt, disease, heartache, and packs of rabid flesh-eating mice—just when it seems like things can’t get any worse, they do. But some say that one’s reward in the afterlife is based on the misery endured in life. If so, there may yet be hope—if not in this world, then in the peace that lies beyond.
War Games
Axis & Allies $27.99
1941: THE WORLD IS AT WAR! Quick and Convenient: Axis & Allies 1941 is designed to be set up and played more quickly than any previous A&A game. In essence, this is a simplified A&A experience that will introduce players to the A&A mechanics and play style. Play time runs between 1.5 to 2 hours.
Memoir ’44 $64.99
Memoir ’44 is a historical boardgame where players face-off in stylized battles of some of the most famous historic battles of World War II including Omaha Beach, Pegasus Bridge, Operation Cobra and the Ardennes. Memoir ’44 includes over 15 different battle scenarios and features a double-sided hex game board for both beach landings and countryside combat. Each scenario mimics the historical terrain, troop placements and objectives of each army. Commanders deploy troops through Command and Tactic cards, applying the unique skills of his units — infantry, paratrooper, tank, artillery, and even resistance fighters — to their greatest strength.
Party Games
Red Dragon Inn (Brian) $37.99
In Red Dragon Inn, you and your friends are a party of heroic, fantasy adventurers. You’ve raided the dungeon, killed the monsters, and taken their treasure. Now you’re back, and what better way to celebrate your most recent victory than to spend an evening at the Red Dragon Inn. You and your adventuring companions will spend the night drinking, gambling, and roughhousing. The last person who is both sober enough to remain conscious and shrewd enough to hold onto his Gold Coins wins the game.
Hibachi (Ellie) $39.99
Throw the egg! Grab the pepper! Being a teppanyaki chef over a hot hibachi grill sure looks entertaining — but could you be one? In Hibachi, players are Japanese teppanyaki chefs who must use their hibachi grill to please hungry customers. To do this, players take turns each round throwing discs (poker chips) onto the board. Where the chips land determines which ingredients the chefs can buy or sell and which special actions they might be able to take. One at a time, the locations on the board are resolved as the chips are turned over to show their hidden values.
Ransom Notes (Katy) $34.99
A creative party game for making hilariously terrible sentences. Players respond to outlandish situations like “Tell someone you’ve clogged their toilet at a party” with just their limited pool of word magnets, leaving even master wordsmiths no choice but to create awesomely horrendous phrases. With hundreds of word magnets included, every round is always fresh, wildly creative, and tears-streaming-down-your-face funny.
Strategy Games
Scythe $89.99
It is a time of unrest in 1920s Europa. The ashes from the first great war still darken the snow. The capitalistic city-state known simply as “The Factory”, which fueled the war with heavily armored mechs, has closed its doors, drawing the attention of several nearby countries. Scythe is an engine-building game set in an alternate-history 1920s period. It is a time of farming and war, broken hearts and rusted gears, innovation and valor. In Scythe, each player represents a character from one of five factions of Eastern Europe who are attempting to earn their fortune and claim their faction’s stake in the land around the mysterious Factory. Players conquer territory, enlist new recruits, reap resources, gain villagers, build structures, and activate monstrous mechs.
Downforce (Michael) $39.99
High-stakes bidding on million-dollar race cars. Frantic bets placed in secret even as the cars race around the track. And to the victor, the biggest purse of all. But in the world of motor racing, the margin between victory and defeat can be a single moment: a steep banked turn, tires screaming and spitting out smoke, and the downforce, pressing you down in your seat and keeping you on the track as you make your move inside to pull ahead. Downforce is a card-driven bidding, racing, and betting game for 2-6 players based on Top Race, the award-winning design by the legendary Wolfgang Kramer. Players first bid to own the six cars in the race, then they play cards from their hand to speed them around the track. However, most cards will also move their opponents’ cars. So figuring out just the right time to play a card is the key to victory. Along the way, players make secret bets on who they think will win the race. Whoever has the most money from their prize money, winning bets, and remaining bank wins.
Splendor (Chris) $44.99
Make a name for yourself in the prestigious and lucrative jewelry business of Renaissance Europe in Splendor, the award-winning game of gems!First, collect raw gems to fund the development of mines throughout the world—then acquire the means to transport them, artisans to shape them, and finally a storefront where you can sell your polished jewels. If you produce exactly the right jewelry, a powerful Noble may become your patron, but even then they won’t just hand you victory: the player whose business earns the most prestige wins.Deceptively simple, Splendor involves quick strategic thinking and intense competition! Deceptively simple, Splendor involves quick strategic thinking and intense competition!
Bullet (Brian) $39.99
Assume the role of one of Earth’s most powerful Heroines as you settle their disputes with each other through excessive firepower! Use your actions to form Patterns, clear your board of bullets, and assault the opponent! Keep up dealing with the curtain of bullets coming at you each round and be the last Heroine standing to win! Each Heroine wields a different power that changes how you experience the game! 4 game modes! Do a solo run in Score Attack, have a Free-For-All with 2-4 players, form 2 player Teams for battle, or fight each Heroine’s dangerous Boss Mode by yourself or cooperate with others!
Family Games
Villainous $39.99
In this epic contest of sinister power, take on the role of a Disney Villain and strive to achieve your own devious objective. Discover your characters unique abilities and winning strategy while dealing twists of fate to thwart your opponents schemes. Find out who will triumph over the forces of good and win it all!
Mysterium (Ellie) $54.99
A horrible crime was committed on the grounds of Warwick Manor thirty years ago. Now, the mansion is haunted by the ghost of the murdered servant, and it’s up you, a group of psychic investigators, to get to the bottom of the mystery! Mysterium is a cooperative game of deduction and teamwork for two to seven players. Over the course of the game, one player takes on the role of the ghost and, over the course of a few scant hours, tries to lead the psychics to the correct culprit. Every member of the team will receive numerous visions, but what is the ghost trying to tell you exactly? Can the psychics determine the weapon, location, and killer, or will the criminal pull off the perfect crime?
Love Letter $14.99
In a quick game of risk and deduction, can you outwit your friends and earn the trust of the noble Princess? The noble Princess is looking for an ideal partner and confidant to help with her royal duties when she one day assumes the throne. You must prove your worth and gain her trust by enlisting allies, friends, and family of the Princess to carry a letter of intent to her. Can you earn the Princess’s trust and become her confidant? Enjoy the classic game of risk and deduction in a whole new way! The new edition of Love Letter features a couple new characters, stunning new illustrations, and gameplay now up to 6 players!
Kill Doctor Lucky $39.99
In this notorious game, an inversion of Clue, you hate Doctor Lucky. Maybe he left you out of his will. Maybe he killed your pet rock. Whatever the reason, you want him dead. Unfortunately, so do the other players. Since you don’t want to go to jail, you need to make your attempt in secret; if anybody can see you, whistle nonchalantly, and let the Doctor live … until next time. Players move around the mansion, collecting murder weapons (to make the murder attempt stronger – doubly so if the weapon is used in an appropriate location); failure cards (to thwart opponents’ plans); and movement cards (to try to get together with Doctor Lucky in a secluded location for his inevitable demise). Players try to convince others to use up their failure cards first, the better for when their own attempts come.
Kid’s Games
Ticket to Ride: First Journey (Noah, Age 3) $34.99
Players of all ages can now venture across America by train in Alan R. Moon’s Ticket to Ride: First Journey! With a brand-new map and simplified rules, First Journey is the perfect way to introduce new players to the game of cross-country travel. Just like in Ticket to Ride, players collect train cards, claim routes, and try to connect cities coast-to-coast. In First Journey, though, routes are shorter, train cards are drawn straight from the deck, and the game ends when one player completes six tickets, claiming the Golden Ticket as their prize. Climb aboard, travelers—your incredible First Journey awaits!
Here to Slay (Sterling, Age 7) $24.99
Here to Slay is a competitive role-playing fantasy strategy card game that’s all about assembling a party of Heroes and slaying monsters (and sometimes sabotaging your friends too) from the creators of Unstable Unicorns. In this game, you’ll assemble a full party of heroes to slay dangerous monsters while working to avoid the sabotage of your foes. The game also includes items you can equip to your heroes, 1V1 challenge cards, and roll modifiers to tip the odds in your favor. The first person to successfully slay three monsters, or build a full party with six classes, wins the game!
Exploding Kittens $19.99
Exploding Kittens is a kitty-powered version of Russian Roulette. Players take turns drawing cards until someone draws an exploding kitten and loses the game. The deck is made up of cards that let you avoid exploding by peeking at cards before you draw, forcing your opponent to draw multiple cards, or shuffling the deck. The game gets more and more intense with each card you draw because fewer cards left in the deck means a greater chance of drawing the kitten and exploding in a fiery ball of feline hyperbole.
Co-op Games
Betrayal at House on the Hill (Chris) $55.99
The House on the Hill still sits abandoned, and fearless group of explorers has been drawn to the house to discover its dark secrets. Immerse yourself in the narrative gameplay as you take on the role of one of those explorers. The co-operative board game Betrayal at House on the Hill: 3rd Edition includes fifty haunts and dozens of danger-filled rooms that will terrify even the strongest among you. At first you’ll work together, but beware…one explorer will betray the others and then the haunt begins. This edition of the popular haunted house traitor game features content and gaming elements that help new players jump right in. So gather friends for a game night of monsters, miniatures, and modular board pieces in this immersive, story-driven hidden traitor game.
Mansions of Madness (Nathaniel) $109.99
Mansions of Madness Second Edition is a fully cooperative, app-driven board game of horror and mystery for one to five players that takes place in the same universe as Eldrich Horror and Elder Sign. Let the immersive app guide you through the veiled streets of Innsmouth and the haunted corridors of Arkham’s cursed mansions as you search for answers and respite. Eight brave investigators stand ready to confront four scenarios of fear and mystery, collecting weapons, tools, and information, solving complex puzzles, and fighting monsters, insanity, and death. Open the door and step inside these hair-raising Mansions of Madness Second Edition. It will take more than just survival to conquer the evils terrorizing this town.
Forbidden Island $21.99
Forbidden Island is a visually stunning cooperative board game. Instead of winning by competing with other players like most games, everyone must work together to win the game. Players take turns moving their pawns around the ‘island’, which is built by arranging the many beautifully screen-printed tiles before play begins. As the game progresses, more and more island tiles sink, becoming unavailable, and the pace increases. Players use strategies to keep the island from sinking, while trying to collect treasures and items. As the water level rises, it gets more difficult- sacrifices must be made.
Two Player Games
Tiny Epic Games (Nate) $29.99
Hive $39.99
Hive is a highly addictive strategic game for two players that is not restricted by a board and can be played anywhere on any flat surface. Hive is made up of twenty two pieces, eleven black and eleven white, resembling a variety of creatures each with a unique way of moving. With no setting up to do, the game begins when the first piece is placed down. As the subsequent pieces are placed this forms a pattern that becomes the playing surface (the pieces themselves become the board). Unlike other such games, the pieces are never eliminated and not all have to be played. The object of the game is to totally surround your opponent’s queen, while at the same time trying to block your opponent from doing likewise to your queen. The player to totally surround his opponent’s queen wins the game.
Patchwork $34.99
In the past, patchwork piecing was a way to make use of leftover pieces of cloth to create clothing and quilts. Today, patchwork is a form of art, in which the designers use precious fabrics to create beautiful textiles. To create a beautiful quilt, however, requires effort and time,In Patchwork, two players compete to build the most aesthetic (and high-scoring) patchwork quilt. Choose your patches carefully and keep a healthy supply of buttons to not only finish your quilt, but to make it better and more beautiful than your opponent‘s.
Resource Management
Scythe $89.99
It is a time of unrest in 1920s Europa. The ashes from the first great war still darken the snow. The capitalistic city-state known simply as “The Factory”, which fueled the war with heavily armored mechs, has closed its doors, drawing the attention of several nearby countries. Scythe is an engine-building game set in an alternate-history 1920s period. It is a time of farming and war, broken hearts and rusted gears, innovation and valor. In Scythe, each player represents a character from one of five factions of Eastern Europe who are attempting to earn their fortune and claim their faction’s stake in the land around the mysterious Factory. Players conquer territory, enlist new recruits, reap resources, gain villagers, build structures, and activate monstrous mechs.
Everdell (Brian) $74.99
From Everfrost to Bellsong, many a peaceful year have passed in Everdell — but the time has come for new territories to be settled and new cities to be established. You will be the head of a group of critters intent on just such a task. There are buildings to construct, lively characters to meet, events to host— you will have a busy year ahead of you! Will the sun shine brightest on your city before the winter moon rises?
Settlers of Catan $59.99
Catan™ the original strategy board game. Your adventurous settlers seek to tame the remote but rich isle of Catan. Start by revealing Catan’s many harbors and regions: pastures, fields, mountains, hills, forests, and desert. The random mix creates a different board virtually every game. No two games are the same! Embark on a quest to settle the isle of Catan! Guide your settlers to victory by clever trading and cunning development. Use resource combinations- grain, wool, ore, brick, and lumber-to buy handy development cards and build roads, settlements, and cities. Acquire your resources through trades, cards, or lucky dice (even outside your turn). But beware! Someone might cut off your road or buy a monopoly. And you never know when the wily robber might steal some of your precious gains!
Thematic
Fallout (Nate) $69.99
A sprawling wasteland lies before you, wiped out by the centuries-old atomic blasts of The Great War. Beyond a smattering of hills, you can see the charred remains of a society you remember shiny and new. Through the bare foundations creep a collection of mutated critter’s whose origins you can only guess, attacking whoever and whatever crosses their paths. Beneath the overgrown soil, vault-dwelling communities fight to survive on limited resources. It is across these abandoned spaces you must now travel, building a new life atop the crushed glory of a destroyed world.Fallout is an adventure board game based on the hit video game series by Bethesda Softworks. In the game, one to four survivors will begin at the edge of an undiscovered landscape with one primary objective: to survive. Staying alive, however, is just the beginning. Players must explore the hidden map, fight ferocious enemies and build the skills of their survivor as they attempt to complete challenging quests and balance the feuding factions within the game. To win the game, players must collect influence, thereby securing their spot in a society struggling to thrive in a world forever changed. Welcome to the Wasteland.
Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective $59.99
Enter the gaslit world of Sherlock Holmes in Jack the Ripper & West End Adventures!A brand-new standalone game in the Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective series, Jack the Ripper & West End Adventures throws ten entirely new cases cases your way. Six cases are one-off adventures, while the other four form a linked campaign that challenges you to stop the murders of the notorious Jack the Ripper!With a new map of Whitechapel, newspapers hot-off-the-press for every case, and ten unique casebooks, it’s time to put your mind to the test!
Haven Games Blog 