How we test board games

More complex than beginner board games, strategy board games heavily emphasize players’ decision-making skills for 45-120 minutes of fun. [A close-up photo of a stack of strategy board games, including Power Grid, Root, Small World, and Cryptid.] James Austin YOUR GUIDE: James Austin Modern tabletop games are wonders of design and narrative, running the gamut from cooperative real-time dice-rolling adventures to elaborate frames for tense negotiation over needed resources. But sometimes you want to walk away from the table knowing that your decisions—not fickle chance—are what led you to sweet victory (or, more often than I care to admit, to painful defeat). That’s where strategy games shine, and we’re in the process of finding the best to bring to your table. When you buy through our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. [Learn more ›]( What we’re testing We’re testing 13 games for this guide. They include: - [Lost Ruins of Arnak]( // about $45 - [Terraforming Mars]( // about $40 - [Cascadia]( // $50 - [Root]( // $60 - [Ark Nova]( // about $70 - [Furnace]( // about $35 - [Brass: Birmingham]( // $70 Testing by the numbers 2 pizzas consumed during testing (so far) 75 estimated average minutes it takes to play each game 11 people involved in testing (so far) How we picked Before we could go about testing strategy games, we had to get through the tricky task of defining what they actually are. There doesn’t seem to be an agreed-upon standard within the tabletop gaming industry of what exactly makes a game a strategy game. So categorizing them often means relying on some combination of mechanics, perceived level of complexity, and a general gut feeling. This “I know it when I see it” vibe wasn’t particularly helpful when we were trying to gauge which games we wanted to test. So we dug into the different definitions we found online. And we spoke with some of the people who work at [The Brooklyn Strategist]( Brooklyn board-game shop and café—and with [Eric Yurko]( a board-game reviewer and committee member of the [American Tabletop Awards](. After having those discussions and examining our research, we’re focusing on games that heavily emphasize players’ decision-making skills, are more complex than the picks in our [guide to beginner board games]( and will take between 45 and 120 minutes to play. Armed with this definition, we dug through other reviews, got recommendations from the experts we talked to, and read over dozens of [Board Game Geek]( entries to end up with the 13 games we’ll be testing. To explore a cross section of how different strategy games evoke that brain-burning feeling, we tried to include games with a good mix of mechanics and feels—big, chunky economic games like [Brass: Birmingham]( war games like [Root]( and [Small World]( engine-building games like [Scythe]( and even [Cryptid]( a deduction game. How we tested Determining the quality of any board game is a deeply subjective exercise, so our testing process for games is different from our testing process for a lot of other things we cover at Wirecutter. Unlike with [vacuums]( or [pressure washers]( with board games there really isn’t one game that can be best for most people. So instead, we invite players with a wide variety of backgrounds and experience with tabletop games to test each contender. As we play, I take notes on things like play time, how easy it is to teach and learn the game, what the game is like to set up, how the pieces feel, and, most importantly, how fun the experience is. I also try to find the context in which the game might fit best—any situation from a simple family game night or a fun bar hang to an intense multi-hour strategy odyssey. Then we talk about it as a group, and I incorporate the other players’ thoughts into my notes. We don’t test every game with the same group of people. This is partially because it’s more fun to bring as many people as possible into the process. But it’s also due to the fact that if we all played all of the games with the same group, we’d have lost the perspective of a less-experienced player by the final one we tested. The early verdict [A close-up photo of some gaming pieces on top of the Root gaming board.] James Austin We’re only a quarter of the way through testing, so there are no conclusions yet, but I was surprised by how well Cryptid works as a game. The deduction aspect is fun, if subtle—most of the game is like a competitive version of Minesweeper, but each player has one piece of vital information they can use to eliminate areas, and trying to take actions that give you more insight into the other players’ knowledge without giving away your own is tricky. Yet this game plays very quickly, and it might be a bit light compared with the other games. I am also curious how some of the [staff-favorite games]( World, Scythe, and [Wingspan]( next to the games we’ve found to test specifically for this guide. What else we’re testing - Margarita mixes - Sewing machines - Toaster ovens [View email in browser]( You are receiving this email because you signed up for Wirecutter’s Newsletter. Getting too many emails from us? To stop receiving these, [unsubscribe here](. 
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