Best strategy board games for 2025: Classic games for adults and children

From classic games like Risk and Pandemic to new challenges like Wingspan and Cluedo Conspiracy, a strategy game engages your brain and concentration on a whole other level.

With strategy games you have to plan, plot and be patient as you attempt to conquer the board without your fellow players knowing. Often, they'll lead to more exciting moments, with bigger highs and lows as you juggle all the manoeuvring parts that make these games so intoxicating.

So before you plan your next games evening, take a look at this list of the very best strategy board games.

You can also check out our full guide to the best board games.

Best strategy board games at a glance

• Best overall strategy board game: Ticket to Ride, £44.99 £30 (save £14.99 or 32%)
• Best for adults: Cluedo Conspiracy, £24
• Best for kids: Catan Junior, £34.99
• Best classic game: Risk, £28
• Best two player game: Azul, £36
• Best six player game: Seven Wonders, £39
• Best unique game: Wingspan, £48
• Best for co-operation: Pandemic, £33
• Best game for film lovers: The Lord of the Rings Duel for Middle-Earth, £27.99

Best strategy board games to buy in 2025

Ticket to Ride Europe

Best overall strategy board game

For ages: 8+
Number of players: 2 – 5 players

Ticket to Ride is a fast-paced strategy game which sees players trying to build their train tracks across Europe. Players will try to collect and play matching train cards in order to expand their railway to the desired parts of the map. You can also get points building the longest railway, and you'll have the chance to disrupt others.

Buy Ticket to Ride Europe for £44.99 £30 (save £14.99 or 32%) at Amazon

Cluedo Conspiracy

Best for adults

For ages: 14+
Number of players: 4 – 10 players

Forget the candlestick in the library, this version of Cluedo transports you to the luxe Black Adder Resort, where you discover that someone (maybe even you) wants to murder its manager, Mr Coral. Unlike the normal version, Cluedo Conspiracy sees players split into teams with half trying to keep Mr Coral alive, and the others trying to enact the conspiracy, the only thing is you won't know who to trust!

• Buy Cluedo Conspiracy for £24 at Amazon
• Buy Cluedo Conspiracy for £24 £18 (save £6 or 25%) at Toy Street

Catan Junior

Best for kids

For ages: 6+
Number of players: 2 – 4 players

Get your kids into a strategic mindset early on with the junior version of Settlers of Catan. Like the original game, this version sees players try to take control of lands through puzzles and strategy, but it also has a bit of adventure thrown in. Players are trying to be the first to control seven pirate lairs, but they must avoid perils like the dreaded ghost captain.

Buy Catan Junior for £34.99 at Hamleys

Risk

Best classic game

For ages: 10+
Number of players: 2 – 5 players

It's an all-time classic, Risk is a game of conquest and world domination. The goal is simple: players aim to conquer their enemies' territories by building an army, moving their troops and engaging in battle. Depending on the roll of the dice, a player will either defeat the enemy or be defeated. Get ready for an hour of betrayal, alliances and surprise attacks! Side effects may include family rows afterwards.

Buy Risk for £28 at Amazon

Azul

Best two player game

For ages: 8+
Number of players: 2 – 4 players

Azul has three things going for it, it's easy to learn, fun, and beautiful to look at. The tile-placement game sees players trying to complete a display board, earning points by placing tiles and creating patterns. On your turn, you’ll select tiles from one of the available market discs, but be careful, when selecting you must take all matching tiles from that disc and any discarded tiles will count against you at the end.

Buy Azul for £36 at Amazon

Seven Wonders

Best six player game

For ages: 10+
Number of players: 3 – 7 players

Seven Wonders is the world's most award-winning board game with almost two million copies sold globally. In it, each player is the leader of one of the seven greatest cities in Antiquity. You must develop your city though scientific discoveries, military conquests, commercial agreements, and more, while keeping an eye on your neighbours’ progress. But which city will be victorious and stand the test of time?

Buy Seven Wonders for £39 at Amazon

Wingspan

Best unique game

For ages: 14+
Number of players: 1 – 5 players

This game is beautiful, unique and offers a calmer take on the strategy genre which is so often about war and expansion. In Wingspan, players are bird enthusiasts – researchers, bird watchers, ornithologists, and collectors – seeking to discover and attract the best birds to your network of wildlife preserves. Players will need to gain food tokens, lay eggs and draw from hundreds of unique bird cards to try to win.

Buy Wingspan for £48 at Amazon

Pandemic

Best for co-operation

For ages: 8+
Number of players: 2 – 4 players

Since 2020 this game may feel a little bit more real, but it's still a classic. Pandemic has players work together and plan a strategy for eradicating diseases which threaten to overwhelm the world. Only through teamwork and playing to your character's strengths will you keep the world safe from outbreaks and epidemics.

Buy Pandemic for £33 at Amazon

The Lord of the Rings Duel for Middle-Earth

Best game for film lovers

Why not transport the usual war and conquest of strategy games to the fields and mountains of Tolkein's Middle Earth? You can either take the part of the Fellowship trying destroy the One Ring or as Sauron trying to conquer the land.

Buy The Lord of the Rings Duel for Middle-Earth for £27.99 at Amazon

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