Our experts' favorite board games of 2025

The Old King's Crown | View at Gamefound
"As is so often the case with great games, much of what makes The Old King's Crown so utterly absorbing are also part of its weaknesses. Every turn is a whirling vortex of information, layering mechanics on strategies on tactics on bluff until your head is almost ready to explode with the pleasure and the pain of all the possibilities. It can be frustrating, almost stressful. But when it reaches its apex and you're hanging on every card flip, on tenterhooks as the game swings sickeningly between victory and defeat, you'll realize it's worth the effort. Not to mention the astonishing art, by the game's designer no less, that tells its own story alongside that unfolding with such drama on the board."
Matt Thrower, Contributor

The Hobbit: There & Back Again | View at Asmodee
"Much like Bilbo Baggins himself, this game is full of surprises. Actually, the entire thing was a surprise for me - it dropped onto my doorstep as unexpectedly as Gandalf and whisked me away. Whether it's simple but creative mechanics or a series of missions that evolve from one to the next in deeply clever ways, this roll-and-write adventure is a work of genius. Of all the board games to hit our table this year, Reiner Knizia's Hobbit is by far my favorite."
Benjamin Abbott, Tabletop & Merch Editor

"Famed designer Reiner Knizia’s fourth attempt at making a game based on The Hobbit got a lot of mileage out of a simple path-finding formula. Its race-like setup, dice drafting, and the tweaks to the basic concept in each scenario gave it just enough variety to keep it engaging, as well as a good balance of excitement and strategy. It is certainly one of the best ever entries in the sadly moribund genre of path drawing games, and it was nice to see this bring them back to the spotlight. Eventually, the core concept does wear thin but any game that can burn this brightly is worth a nod, even if its flame doesn't last."
Matt Thrower, Contributor

Fate of the Fellowship | View at Amazon
"As well as two top Knizia games, we've also been blessed with two top Tolkien games this year. Since Pandemic launched the craze for cooperative games back in 2006 its designer, Matt Leacock, has revisited the mechanics several times, with new tweaks to the formula. But this transforms it into something barely recognisable and, crucially, adds all the things the system needed to elevate it: variety, narrative, and a ton of additional strategic levers. The almost-indecent number of playable characters and objectives, all based strongly on the novel, give Fate of the Fellowship both a rich story and a ton of replay value. It's lacking only a mechanic to ameliorate the bossy player issue that's endemic to cooperative games, but it does have a Barad-dur dice tower instead, so there's that."
Matt Thrower, Contributor

Nemesis: Retaliation | View at Awaken Realms
"Nemesis is my favorite board game of all time, so I approached the sequel*, Nemesis Retaliation, with some trepidation. How do you follow up a survival-horror masterpiece like Nemesis? Well, the same way you follow up Alien. Nemesis is Alien, but Nemesis Retaliation is Aliens. Instead of puny civilians, you're marines packing state-of-the-badass-art firepower, and the result is a more bombastic, action-packed experience. It retains everything I love from the original — the panic, the betrayals, and the emergent storytelling — while having a unique flavor of its own. It's also still bloody hard; I've yet to survive a game, but I'll be making many more attempts in the new year."
Ian Stokes, Contributor

*Technically, this is the threequel, as there's also Nemesis Lockdown.

Finspan | View at Amazon
"One of the earliest releases in 2025 has also ended up being amongst my favorites. This spiritual successor to Wingspan plunges us beneath the waves for a spinoff fans have been desperate to see, and it more than sticks the landing in my opinion. It's got the same engrossing gameplay as its predecessor but is far more accessible, and it improves on that formula in certain ways - namely, it's less reliant on chance. It became the go-to game over summer in my house, and I still want to go back now. I'd say it's amongst the best family board games at the moment."
Benjamin Abbott, Tabletop & Merch Editor

Iliad | View at Asmodee
"Dr. Reiner Knizia is 68 and he's still the most prolific and feted game designer on the planet, and he's still churning out enough quality to get a second entry in our list this year. Iliad is a shining example of what he does best: starting with a theme (in this case the Trojan war) and stripping away all the chrome to reveal the bare essentials. It's fast-paced, simple, with a fine mix of randomness, interaction and strategy yet remains incredibly tight and unveils surprising new layers of nuance as you play, even if it does get a little repetitive with repeat games. "
Matt Thrower, Contributor

Deep Regrets | View at Amazon
"Horror and fishing are two topics that go together like vampires and sex. All those tentacles, glistening protuberances, and unidentifiable wobbly bits... yes, we are still talking about horror fishing. So it's surprising it took so long to deliver a board game on the topic. While Deep Regrets isn't going to win any awards for deep strategy, its push-your-luck mechanics are addictive and fit the theme brilliantly. As does the hugely imaginative and often grimly hilarious selection of monsters, brought to gruesome life by the designer’s own fantastic art. And the 'regret' cards piece into such a satisfyingly bleak narrative that it's just impossible to resist."
Matt Thrower, Contributor