The holiday gift-buying season is upon us, and that can mean only one thing: it's time to buy way too many board games.

For this year's board game buyer's guide, we went big—close to 10,000 words big. We split the guide into categories for easy reading, with around five solid choices for each type of gamer. We couldn't include all of our favorite recommendations, of course (we have a lot of opinions about board games), but we love all the games on this list. Whether your giftee is a new gamer, a grizzled veteran, or someone who doesn't know the first thing about board games (and didn't even ask for one), we've got you covered. And maybe you're in the market for a new game or two for yourself—let us be your guide.

Be sure to tell us your go-to or off-the-beaten-path recommendations in the comments.

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Table of Contents

For fun, here's a giant gallery of the box art for every game in this guide: