Board games are brilliant. They make for the perfect night in with friends, family, or just that one really special person in your life. With a board game, you’re free to have a conversation and play a game without anyone in the room being glued to a screen, and really feel like you’re getting to know one another.
However, board games can also be an expensive hobby. Many aren’t cheap, and going out to a board game café isn’t really an option when you’re at home, bored, and want something to do that isn’t turning on a console or movie. That’s why it pays to grab them while they’re cheap, and one of the best times is right before Amazon Prime Day. These early discounts can save you a bundle of cash, money you’ll need for what you’ve been holding out for in that sale.
Best board games on sale before Amazon Prime Day
Below, I’ve listed the best board games that I’ve found on sale before Amazon Prime Day. These are games that I think are brilliant because they involve every player and allow time for free-flowing chatter between rounds. Of course, there are also just a few classics everyone needs in here too.
Bananagrams
- Price: $13.99 (
$17.02) - Players: 1-8
Bananagrams is a simple yet thoroughly enjoyable game similar to Scrabble. Each player has a set of tiles and must make as many words as possible before the others do. It’s frantic, quite stressful, but also incredibly enjoyable because it pushes you to really think about the words you can make. As you can see in the image above, you can place tiles everywhere to make words word, ending up with a patchwork of letters by the end of the game.
Dungeons & Dragons: The Yawning Portal Game
- Price: $23.90 (
$55.99) - Players: 1-4
Dungeons & Dragons: The Yawning Portal Game is a different sort of way to play D&D. You don’t need to craft a character, have a stash of D20s, or understand how every spell in the game works. This board game is all about being a server in a classic D&D inn, where you’ll all compete to be the best at serving the 68 unique characters, earning the most points for your work. This game is great for D&D fans and newcomers alike, even those who have never heard of the TTRPG can enjoy with.
Clue
- Price: $17.12 (
$21.99) - Players: 2-6
Clue is a mystery board game that never ends. It takes the iconic setting of so many mystery novels, a group of strangers brought together for one night only for someone to be murdered, and asks players to solve it. Every character has something to hide, and players need to work together to uncover secrets and motivations for the murder. But one player will be trying to get away with it the entire time. It’s a great game for friends who want to try out something new and think they have the acting skills to fool one another. Clear your evening, though, because it can go on for a while.
Scrabble
- Price: $17.49 (
$21.99) - Players: 2-4
Don’t skip Scrabble. It’s an essential board game for everyone. Each player is given a set of tiles with letters on them, and you’ve got to work out the longest or highest-scoring words you can based on where you can place them on the board. You’ve got to use letters other players have placed to snake them out of the best scores and emerge victorious because of your understanding of the English language.
With that said, this game is meant to be fun, too. I’m only okay at it, and I always lose to my mother-in-law, who plays several times a week. It’s the go-to game for my wife and me, because we both love how creative you need to be with letters and words, and it just gets you talking. There’s lots of time to think, eat, drink, and relax together. If you’re after a good board game for date night, it’s this one.
Arkham Horror: The Card Game
- Price: $47.96 (
$59.95) - Players: 1-4
In Arkham Horror: The Card Game, players pick an investigator deck and set out to the town of Arkham, Massachusetts, where a dark presence is infecting the town and causing all sorts of trouble. It’s a cooperative game with scenarios for you to work through, making for lengthy game sin which you’ll uncover secrets and must solve mysteries on the fly. This is a brain-teasing game that requires a lot of thought and attention from each player, so not one you can play casually while chatting.
Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle
- Price: $34.96 (
$49.90) - Players: 2-4
Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle is a cooperative deck-building game in which up to four players must build up their defenses as one of the major characters from the Harry Potter franchise. The key is working together here, so as you gain influence, you get more spells, can heal, and fight back against the dark forces that are once again rising in an attempt to overthrow the balance of power in the wizarding world. There’s a decent mix of roleplaying elements with deck-building here, making it perfect for bridging the gap between fans of the books and fans who just love board games.
Trivial Pursuit
- Price: $38.00 (
$44.99) - Players: 2-6
Trivial Pursuit is a game that requires the full attention of every player. Everyone has a counter and must make their way around the board, gathering wedges by completing tasks in each category. These range from answering questions to performing tasks, and there’s always at least one every player is terrible at.
This game is for group parties who want to have fun but also play something that’ll keep them on their toes. It’s not a game that you can ignore for minutes at a time, but you can also pause here and there to chat before diving into another round. The rounds go quite quickly if every player is quite sharp, and the best games I’ve played have always been the competitive ones.
Carcassonne
- Price: $33.59 (
$41.99) - Players: 2-5
Carcassonne is a board game that should really be part of everyone’s collection, because it’s the perfect introductory game for those who haven’t ventured into board games just yet. In it, players build a map using tiles until they’ve crafted a unique landscape, from which one of them emerges as the winner. Over time, you’ve got to fill the landscape with knights, monks, and all sorts of other bits and pieces of medieval life until it feels like a thriving, living world you’ve built with your friends.
Ticket to Ride
- Price: $43.97 (
$54.99) - Players: 2-5
Ticket to Ride is a fast-paced board game in which you’ve got to build your railway lines linking iconic American cities before everyone else. You’ve got to plan routes perfectly and claim them to ensure you’re the winner because a simple card could be your downfall if you don’t pay attention. It’s easy to learn and lasts up to an hour for each round, so a relatively quick board game you could squeeze two rounds into an evening.
Fallout The Board Game
- Price: $65.98 (
$69.99) - Players: 1-4
Fallout The Board Game brings the beloved franchise to life in an entirely new light. Each scenario put players at the edge of unknown territory and sees them work through stories based on tales from the games. You’ll be battling massive mutated enemies, uncovering unpleasant truths, and leveling up your character while using V.A.T.S. to land precise hits and make the most of your perks.
Everything has been translated here, right up to the faction system tha can completely transform a game if you’re not careful. This board game is probably best for fans of Fallout, but I think anyone could enjoy it as long as they understand the rules and embrace the wasteland.
Chess, Checkers, and Tic-Tac-Toe
- Price: $14.99 (
$19.99) - Players: 2
Chess, Checkers, and Tic-Tac-Toe are all fantastic little board games that most people know how to play. The beauty of this edition is that it includes three games in a single box, meaning you don’t need three boxes to fill up your board game drawer or space on a shelf. I regularly play these with my children and in-laws, and they’re just brilliant to have ready to go at a moment’s notice when friends pop over, and you want to do something a little different to keep the evening moving.
Exploding Kittens
- Price: $17.07 (
$20.00) - Players: 2-5
Exploding Kittens is a pulse-pounding card game that takes about 15 minutes per round, but it feels so much faster than that. This game sees you dodging exploding kittens with various other types of cat that can pass it on, reflect it, or do something absolutely crazy to help you survive the ensuing blast. I love the inventiveness of each card and how they can just take you by surprise, and have you giggling away while trying to play your turn.
Cascadia
- Price: $31.99 (
$39.99) - Players: 1-4
Cascadia is a simple and relaxing board game in which each player takes a turn to pick a token and link up their ecosystem. It’s designed for everyone to have a good time in up to 45 minutes together while looking at how ecosystems naturally expand as it’s reflected in each turn. Think of this one as more of a game you can play while having deep conversations that you can come back to between breaks in the natural flow.
Monopoly
- Price: $19.99 (
$21.99) - Players: 2-6
Monopoly needs no introduction. This is a game about buying up properties as you move around the board, building houses and hotels on them and ruining every other player with the extortionate rents you can charge. My family was always terrible at playing this game because my parents couldn’t go easy on each other, but that ruthlessness has seen me become the best player among my friends. Monopoly is one of those easy games that everyone knows how to play, so it pays to have it ready to go as an activity for a rainy day or night.
7 Wonders
- Price: $50.98 (
$59.99) - Players: 3-7
7 Wonders is a game that feels a lot like the Civilization series. Each player is the leader of one of the world’s seven greatest nations. Over the course of the game, everyone will acquire cards that’ll help them reach their long-term goals and win the game, but they’ve got to keep an eye on each other.
This is as much a game about building your own civilization up as it is about tearing other ones down. If you love a game with a broad scope and like to kick off your own political dramas, look no further. If you really want to spice things up, then you can pick up the Leaders expansion to add even more names into the mix while working to become the world’s greatest civilization.
Deception: Murder in Hong Kong
- Price: $31.89 (
$39.99) - Players: 4-12
Deception: Murder in Hong Kong sees players work together to find a killer, but the killer is among them. Everyone is an investigator, but the killer must deceive and manipulate the rest of the players to get away with murder. It’s a tense game that can lead to some arguments, but the way it pushes everyone to suspect each other whilst also being forced to trust to a certain degree is brilliant.
Catan
- Price: $43.97 (
$59.99) - Players: 3-4
Catan, also known as Settlers of Catan, is a phenomenal board game, but you need a few hours to get through each game. Players start with two settlements and a handful of resources, and must gain more resources through dice rolls and deals with others so they can build roads, cities, and conquer the map. with every player competing to win, there are so many layers to the conversations you have and the deals you can make. I’ve swapped side on an alliance more than once to prevent someone winning.
The base game is fantastic, but you can also get the expansion on sale before Amazon Prime Day. The Seafarers expansion brings new elements to the core game that allow you to branch out and explore the waters surrounding the land. Cities and Knights adds war-like mechanics to the game. Finally, Explorers and Pirates adds even more seafaring elements to the game, and with all of them together, you can get lost for an entire day playing.
Pandemic
- Price: $30.04 (
$39.99) - Players: 2-4
In Pandemic, players must work together to stop a pandemic by making use of each of their character’s skills and crush outbreaks and epidemics as they occur. Four diseases threaten the world, and it’s down to every player to help prevent them from ending the world. This game is a fabulous change of pace from those that pit you against one another, and we all need a game that has you working with other people rather than against them now and then.
There are three expansions for the base game that enhance the gameplay, but it’s the alternate editions you might want to nab while they’re on sale. Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu is similar in style but sees you trying to close four gates rather than stop four diseases. Pandemic: Rising Tide has players battling against the sea itself in the Dutch Water Crisis. Each one is different mechanically and keeps things interesting with loads of new flavor.
Mansions of Madness
- Price: $87.99 (
$109.99) - Players: 1-5
In Mansions of Madness, players take on the role of investigators exploring eerie locales in a mysterious region where some sort of horror is haunting the locals. There are four campaigns to work through, each of which uses an app to help move things along and aid in the sleuthing players must employ if they want to conquer the entities at the heart of this game. This is another cooperative board game, but one that’s great for a group who are really into game when they start to play them because it requires a lot of attention.
The Beyond the Threshold expansion adds two new investigators into the mix for the base board game, and The Streets of Arkham expansion adds a further four investigators and two new scenarios to dig into. I’d recommend conquering the base game first because these expansions, especially The Streets of Arkham, get into this universe’s lore quite heavily and require that background knowledge from the base game.
Star Wars Legion
- Price: $95.99 (
$119.99) - Players: 2
Star Wars Legion is a miniatures game designed to allow two players to battle it out in any Star Wars skirmish they can imagine. The miniatures are unpainted, so you can have a go at finishing them yourself, and the rules are fairly simple compared to other miniature games like Warhammer 40K. The only downside is that it’s limited to two players, so you’ll need to have multiple rounds in a day or organize a few sessions with different people over time to make the most of it.
