Top 5 Board Games of 2025
2025 has been a good year for board games – we have played and reviewed over a hundred games this year, and it’s hard to whittle that list down to a top 5. While there are a ton of great candidates for this list, here are our favourite board games of 2025!
Number 5 – Shallow Seas
Shallow Seas was a game I was interested in solely because of the publisher, Bad Comet Games. I love what Bad Comet has done in the past, so I was really excited about tabling Shallow Seas, despite my dislike for games like Cascadia. This game has a similar drafting mechanism to Cascadia, but I think players have more control over their boards and what tiles they are placing down to score points. Instead of everyone working off shared objectives, for the most part what points you score is all up to you and what’s visible in the centre of the table. The fish mechanism is really neat as well, as you plan and place fish across your reef. I love the theme, and I love the experience I get from this game each and every time! | Components Review
Number 4 – Come Sail Away
Come Sail Away wasn’t on my radar at all until The Dice Tower did a video on it, and low and behold asmodee Canada reached out shortly after I saw that review to see if I wanted to check it out. This game has you placing passengers onto a cruise ship, storing their luggage, putting them in parlours and dinner venues, and more. The better you are at placing people in the ship, the more points you can earn. The trick here is that once you start placing a group of travelers, you can only place subsequent travelers that turn in an adjacent room, and so on across the ship. So planning where you put people is really important. It’s a puzzle game I really enjoy, and it’s easy to teach as well!
Number 3 – The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship
It might sound weird based on this addition to the list, but I’m actually not a huge fan of Pandemic. I’ve had a ton of fun playing the Clone Wars version of Pandemic, and a ton of fun playing the Lord of the Rings version of Pandemic, but not Pandemic itself. Of all the games in the Pandemic line, this one might be the best as capturing a specific theme. The characters you can play as are wildly unique, and I love how their special abilities are an extension of who they are as characters in the books and the movies. With moving Nazgul and a fantastic dice tower..tower…there might not be a better game on the market for The Lord of the Rings fans! | Components Review
Number 2 – Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Era
I really love a great cooperative game, and The Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Era provides a fantastic experience. Whether you are a fan of the Elder Scrolls franchise or not, the gameplay here is phenomenal. Built off the Too Many Bones system, this one takes the entire idea to the next level, and builds an immersive world with unique characters. And, this can all be wrapped up in 3, 2-3 hour sessions, making it very possible to finish multiple campaigns of this! | Components Review
Number 1 – Tend
Tend was so much better than I ever could have imagined. It might not be a game I want to consistently play back-to-back in a single day or week, but of all the games on this list, it will be the one I play the most over the coming years. This is one I can easily see myself busting out each and every month, and whether I am playing with friends or solo, I’ll always have time to scratch cards and stamp stuff on sheets! Production is an A+, and the game itself is one of the best designed games I’ve ever played! | Components Review
Article By Adam
