The 10 Best Euro Board Games of All Time, Ranked

If you love board games with remarkable strategic depth, you’re probably a fan of a few tabletop titles that fall under the “Euro” category. Whether you’re growing crops, completing objective cards, or amassing a fortune from trading, these board games are always immensely satisfying. In the list below, we’ve assembled our picks for the ten best Euro board games of all time. There are a ton of games that fall under this classification, but our choices focus on titles that clearly feel like a quintessential Euro board gaming experience.

What is a Euro board game?

A Euro board game typically features complex mechanics, indirect competition, minimal dice rolling, and a scoring system creates multiple paths to claiming victory. There’s often an emphasis on economic development and engine building, while combat with other players usually isn’t front and center. The “Euro” term distinguishes the genre from more traditional American board games, which often emphasized thematic rather than mechanical depth. However, nowadays there are plenty of Euro board games with engaging themes.

10. Great Western Trail (2nd Edition)

Great Western Trail is a game that’s all about getting your herd of cattle from Texas up to Kansas City, and making a few pit stops along the way. Despite the western American theme, the mechanics of this title are firmly entrenched on the Euro side of the pond. You can hire and place workers, focus on deck building to get better cows, or upgrade buildings along the trail so you can charge the other players fees when they stop by. It takes a long time to setup, but once it’s on the table it’s always a hit.

9. Catan

The original Settlers of Catan board game, first released in 1995, helped to define Euro board games and set them apart from their luck and theme-based American counterparts. For that reason alone, it deserves a place on this list. Boxing out other players from accessing parts of the board is still fun to this day, though you can admittedly get into situations where you know you’ve lost well before it’s actually over. The randomized layout of the island’s map allows for lots of variability, and there are plenty of solid Catan expansions to choose from.

8. Le Havre

Le Havre is an economic engine builder that starts off with a few slower turns but quickly escalates up to an epic scale. By the end of the game, you will hopefully have amassed a fortune in coins, building investments, and ships. But to get there, you’ll first need to gather food early on to feed your workers, pick up trade items, and find the perfect time to sell your goods. While the theme is fairly simple, the strategies you can deploy are anything but. Thankfully, the rules are also fairly straightforward since there’s only a handful of actions to choose from when it’s your turn.

7. Scythe

The richly drawn world of Scythe adds plenty of interesting thematic to exciting Euro-like board game mechanics. Each player gets both a faction and a play mat that dictates the combination of actions they can take for the game. In one round, you might be producing food and metal, then building a structure. The player to your left might also choose the production action, but their play mat might allow them to spend metal to build a mech instead. You’ll need six stars to win the game, and only two of them can come from combat with other players. In fact, you might not even need to win a fight to win the game, because gaining popularity and bolstering power can be just as important.

6. Terra Mystica

In Terra Mystica, players choose one of fourteen different factions to control and work to transform the lands around their home region. Building structures around the map is essential, since they allow you to pick up more workers, trade, and unlock a faction-specific ability. There are also four religions to choose from, and investing in them gives you better skills and abilities. It’s the most complex board game on this list.

5. Viticulture

In Viticulture, your objective is to create a world-renowned wine that everyone wants to try. It’s a worker placement game in which most of the actions you can take on your turn are right in front of you on the board. While that might make it sound simple, there will be plenty of tough decisions to make, particularly when it comes to timing your actions in accordance with the changing seasons. The process of harvesting, bottling, and marketing your wares is easy to enjoy and doesn’t require you to worry about the other players too often.

4. The Castles of Burgundy

If you want to try a quintessential Euro board game, look no further than Castles of Burgundy. This kingdom builder primarily focuses on collecting settlement tiles. Smart placement of these tiles will give the player more money, more trade goods, and more favorable dice rolls. Take over an entire region for bonus victory points, and advance your position on the turn order track to create the best duchy in medieval France. The game starts a bit slow, but quickly picks up its pace in the middle stages.

3. Agricola (Revised Edition)

Uwe Rosenberg’s farming and engine building board game Agricola is an epic tale of rags to riches with no shortage of strategic depth. At the start of the game, you’ll have two workers and a handful of basic improvements for your farm. Approximately two hours later, you’ll have a prosperous harvest and a bountiful feast of victory points. Agricola has many similarities with Rosenberg’s other famous Euro board games, A Feast for Odin and Caverna: The Cave Farmers. All of them are great, but there’s arguably only space for one of them on this list.

2. Brass: Birmingham

Brass Birmingham is an immensely satisfying economy-driven board game with a ton of exciting mechanics. Despite its Euro board game status, it’s definitely not lacking in theme. The dark and gritty Industrial Revolution England that players journey back to is engaging, atmospheric, and wonderfully illustrated by the board and other components. Throughout the game, you’ll enjoy building a network of railways and canals, selling goods, and increasing your production power.

1. Concordia

The strategic depth and numerous pathways to victory in Concordia make for an incredible tabletop gaming experience. You’ll start your journey off in Rome, and send your colonists out to build a trade network. As you link regions as far apart as Egypt and Britannia, you’ll get to build houses and gather more resources from them. You can also purchase the action cards available on the board, which are completely randomized. Once the last card is sold or one of the players places their fifteenth house, the game ends. The classic theme, simple yet engaging economy-driven gameplay, and lack of dice rolling make Concordia an essential Euro board gaming experience.