If there's one thing board gamers love more than playing games, it's buying them. And what better time of year to stock up on games for a loved one (or yourself) than the holidays? But with so many options coming out of a booming board game industry, narrowing down the choices can be a pain.

Friends, you're in the right place. Whether you're a board game newbie or someone who's been in the hobby for years, we've got something for everyone below. For 2018, we've updated our massive 10,000-word guide by adding new entries, deleting others, and generally just bringing things up to date with our current recommendations. Entries are organized generally into categories, so you can jump around to the stuff that interests you most (some games could arguably be included in several categories, of course).

If we've missed your go-to recommendations, be sure to share them in the comments below.

Table of Contents

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



















































































































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