Top 10 Board Games That Require a Lot of Strategy

Top 10 Board Games That Require a Lot of Strategy
Settle in, we might be here a while. From Sequence, to Cranium, to Monopoly, these board games require more strategy than your typical game night. WatchMojo counts down ten board games that require a lot of strategy.

#10: Sequence (1982)
#9: Cranium (1998)
#8: Ticket to Ride (2004)
#7: Monopoly (1935)
#6: The Settlers of Catan (1995)
#5: Carcassonne (2000)
#4: Risk (1957)
#3, #2 & #1???

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#BoardGames #Monopoly

[pirotehs]

It's like watching list of "10 best movies" where random movies are taken out of Target's straight to DVD movie discount bin...

[DickBurnsTFM]

This list is disrespectful to anyone who buys and plays games at the hobby shop level. This should be called top 10 board games sold at Walmart that non gamers think require the most strategy.

[kristoferjefferson]

You keep using the word ‘strategy’ and I’m not sure you understand what it means when you include more luck based games such as

[ericoffill]

Umm... Twilight Imperium, Pandemic, Suburbia, Dead of Winter, Smash Up, Five Tribes. Just to name a few.

[TheMDXtremeReal]

The Best monopoly strategy is


Overturning the board and ending the game in a rage

[elirosenberg]

Can somebody please explain to me how monopoly takes more strategy than Scythe, Twillight Imperium, Gloomhaven and so much more.

[esayzgy]

This is like someone making a list of the top 10 restaurants in New York and filling it with McDonald's and Wendy's.

[Svelix]

Oh my good, this list is horrible. Have you ever been in a boadgame shop or a boardgame convention in the past 20 years or so?
The biggest convention / fair "Essen Spiel" with almost 200k visitors took just place 2 weeks ago and nobody there would even consider most games on this list. There are so many better games that require more stategy out there.

[Prokasu]

First of all, it seems you guys didn't do your home work so here goes: there are way better games than your very shallow list, most games in the list are here mostly because popularity not quality so here goes.

Strategy: A plan of action or policy designed to achieve a major or overall aim.

Tactics: A plan for attaining a particular goal (think more, short term)

Sequence: is a tactical game, you do with what you have you may have the most amazing strategy but if the cards don't appear for you it's for naught.

Try instead: Ticket to ride


Cranium has no strategy, you move with dice and if you answer right you advance.

Try instead: Wits and wagers, codenames

Ticket to ride: This one I have no problem with. A bit more tactical but at least you have more control of your destiny.


Monopoly: almost not a game, roll and move, you have almost no control of your destiny. Popular because people don't know better.

Try: any other game. But seriously, settlers of catan, Space base, century golem/spice road, power grid

Settler of catan: Same as ticket to ride but way better than the others so gets a pass.

Carcassonne: Good pick. I don't like it but I think it's a good game with enough strategy/Tactics to be compelling.

Risk: It's strategic in the sense you can plan what you will try to achieve all right. Not a good game, specially the first version that took 6 + hours.

Try instead: Memoir 44, risk legacy (good version of risk), small world

Scrabble: Meh game, I can see strategy on where to place your tiles but the game is not really good.

Try instead: paperback

Go: Good pick

Chess: Good pick

Simpler but good: Onitama

Try boardgamegeek.com to find way better more strategic and fulfilling games

[Coyotek]

Holy crap, this list is horrible. The ONLY games they got right were #1 and #2. Meanwhile, some people from WatchMojo might want to ask people who attend the World Boardgaming Championship or EuroQuest, or at least spend at least a couple minutes at Boardgamegeek.com.

I can MAYBE grant Carcassonne and Ticket to Ride, but Puerto Rico should be more than 'honorable mention'; meanwhile, you can add games like Agricola, Pandemic, 7 Wonders, Castles of Burgundy, Castles of Mad King Ludwig, Splendor, Ra, Navegador, Scythe, ...

[darkshadow]

Let me guess number 1 is chess and I haven’t watched this video yet

[stefdeloose]

have you guys even played any modern strategic boardgame of the last 10 years? No way that Monopoly, scrabble or cranium are making this list there's just pure luck in these games! If you guys want to advertise games why don't you do more research and actualy bring some good ones of the last years? for example: Azul, Dragon Castle, castles of burundy, ... some of my favourites but almost no luck in them and still simpler than monopoly but they offer 5 times more depth.

[TrickyTalon]

Guys I’m calling it. Number 1. It’s gonna be chess

[FedouBC]

You can tell how few games watch mojo knows about. When luck is so strong in games like Monopoly, Catan and Risk and so bad the others games are, the list dies on is own.

[wizo]

It says in the description of the video that these games require more strategy than your typical gamenight. What is a typical gamenight then, these are the most mainstream games that exist!

[balazsborbely]

This list is a crap. Why did you make this list if you didn't know anything about board games? Most of these games requires much more luck than strategy. What about Through The Ages, Terra Mystica, Puerto Rico, Caverna, Great Western Trail, Terraforming Mars, Concordia, Brass etc, etc? These ARE strategic games, not Monopoly.

[GrSkyLizard]

Clearly you guys have never heard of Power Grid

[GSpOt]

you guys clearly don't have any clue about board gaming x'D
seeing Monopoly in a "Top 10 Strategy BG" makes me believe the Earth is actually Flat
... you guys have no idea what you doing... Funny Video ^_^

[anthonymahler]

More research is needed here, there is a whole world of boardgames out there. Literally thousands to choose from and a large community built around the hobby.

[jof]

"Number 2 : Go"
Me : Oh no, if chess is in the first place...
"Number 1 : ..."
(overturned my laptop)