Catan is the most obvious answer, if you talk to anyone anywhere who's even slightly into boardgames past monopoly they've probably played Catan.

Ticket To Ride is fun and has a billion versions. The European version is better in some ways than the USA version but they're both good.

If you want something cooperative and you want something pretty easy go with either "Forbidden Island" or "Forbidden Desert" (depending on which one seems cooler to you).

If you want something cooperative, a bit more complicated. but still fairly beginner friendly look at "Pandemic"

There is also a "Legacy" version of pandemic which is basically where you play the game through 12 or so times (usually over a few months or a year) but before you start each game you open an envelope/turn over some cards and it either adds a new element to the game, takes one away or changes the rules on something slightly to make it different (and to spell out a sorta "story" as it goes on). If that's something that sounds cool to you.

If you want a fun beginner game to play at parties with a lot of people look into "Codenames."

Try Santorini with some friends! Incredibly fun game and great for any mythology lovers. Not difficult, but takes more strategy than you'd expect!

1. Check out r/boardgames
2. My recommendations would be Pandemic (got me and many others into board gaming), Ticket to Ride, Catan, Mysterium, 7 wonders, Sherriff of Nottingham, and Sushi Go

Risk. Conquer the world and trash talk the other potential potentates while you're at it.

Stratego. It's a very simple game as far as rules go, but there is definitely some room for strategic thinking during setup and play. It's even got "strategy" in the name!

What games have you played so far? What do you like / dislike? Any complexity preference? How many people do you play with?

Use the template if you want to get better recommendations, cause right now you're just getting blind recommendations.

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Recommendation Requests should be posted to our Daily Game Recommendations threads. Reddit is a great place to pick peoples' brains and get game suggestions, but we get a lot of recommendation requests, so much so that we have the "Daily Game Recs"-threads dedicated for them. Historically, almost all well formatted questions in the Daily thread get answers. If you're looking for further suggestions, we recommend taking a look at our growing list of Recommendation Roundups. There's also the What Should I Get (WSIG) section on our wiki for a more general list of common recommendations.

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Ra

Dune Imperium

Architects of the west kingdom

Everdell

Cascadia

Takenoko

Castles of Burgundy, El Grande, Power Grid and Caylus are all classics that pair strategy with approachable rules.

Civilization 5. Later move on to 6. I don't recommend Civ 4 for beginners.

San start with Prince or Warlord difficulty level and move from there later. Come back after like 4000 hours of game for more :)

Step 1) Pick a game that looks cool
Step 2) Play it

Seriously, why does this question get asked every few days on this sub?

Age of Empires 2 or StarCraft 2. Both have all the classic RTS elements, tutorials, good single player campaign content, and then there's multiplayer once you're into it.

The Strategy genre is vast and its subgenres can be very different from each other. You might love some and absolutely despise others.

Are you looking for a relaxing game where you can take your time and think about your moves ? Try 4X games like Civilization IV, V or VI, Age of Wonders IV, Old World or Stellaris. Grand Strategy games are also a good fit here - Europa Universalis IV, Crusader Kings III, Hearts of Iron IV.

Are you looking for a good single-player story-driven campaign or a game with tense PvP matches ? Real-time Strategy games fit perfectly here. From the Age of Empires series, Age of Mythology, Warcraft III, StarCraft II, Command & Conquer, Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War 1/2, etc.

Are you looking for games where you can simulate big battles between armies ? Total War is the best option.

Are you looking for a story-driven strategy game where you have to use stealth to complete tough missions ? Desperados III, Shadow Tactics and Shadow Gambit are perfect.

There are also many more genres like turn-based tactics (the best games here being X-COM 2 and Warhammer 40,000 Daemonhunters), rogue-like card games (Slay the Spire, Monster Train) or even colony sim games and city builders (Cities Skylines, Planet Zoo, Rimworld, Anno 1800).

Take your time and get informed about each game because the genre is vast and there's a high likelihood that you will be drawn more towards a specific subgenre more than the others.

Steam

depends on what you are looking for. Real time or turn based?

For realtime, probably age of empires series.

Turnbased, civ 5 or 6. If you're more into tactical games, try xcom 2 or into the breach

Total War games are also a good place to start because they dont have too many complicated mechanics (at least the historical ones). Its mainly: conquer regions, use regions to get money. use money for armies. Conquer more regions. Shogun 2 is my favorite

The Civ series for turn based

Stronghold and AoE2 for RTS + Diplomacy is not an option for something more recent

+ Eyes of War for something new that I recommend, early access but you can switch between overhead play and 3rd based action

The new Civ7 is good, fun, and will be supported and improved for years to come

If you want real time, I would recommend trying AoM retold and play the campaign. It's one of the best story telling wise. SC2 campaign is also really good.

Chips challenge

Some great suggestions, would recommend checking out board game arena where you can play some of these online first. Then buy the ones you enjoy, I picked up a bunch of games that way, caper Europe, lets make a bus route, parks, heat, welcome to, tons of options.

social deduction but still on the edge of a party game is Bang! Dice. Avalon and coup are slightly more serious deduction games, and none are expensive.

Your submission was removed by a moderator for the following reason(s):

Recommendation Requests should be posted to our Daily Game Recommendations threads. Reddit is a great place to pick peoples' brains and get game suggestions, but we get a lot of recommendation requests, so much so that we have the "Daily Game Recs"-threads dedicated for them. Historically, almost all well formatted questions in the Daily thread get answers. If you're looking for further suggestions, we recommend taking a look at our growing list of Recommendation Roundups. There's also the What Should I Get (WSIG) section on our wiki for a more general list of common recommendations.

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Easy. War of the Ring.

So me personally, i went to a convention...

It was a small anime convention nearby, and i had friends who wanted to cosplay with me. But they had a board game room hosted by the local gamestore. We agreed to spend a little time there in the evenings to chill since the last convention we ended it off in our hotel room, ordering pizza and trying to learn betrayal at house on the hill (we did try it again a year later)

My intent was to try out a few of those games i saw on "Tabletop." And there were a few there. Although i did have munchkin and a handfull of mass market board games, i wanted one of the ones from the show, and i did my research to figure out the rules beforehand.

The one at the top of my list was "smash up." I was still vaugely into magic, and the idea of a cardgame with abilities that you dont really have to deckbuild for sounded fantastic. And better yet, it was there! ... auctualy, i hated it. The gameplay was slow even though you can't really do much. And every deck is like 2 different card game mechanics that only work together if you are lucky.

The next day we played "smallworld". Risk with fantasy races and the dice rolling is down to only once a turn so the game can be completed in a reasonable timeframe. We had a blast. I couldn't tell you what anyone was doing, but we all felt like we had a plan. And we smacked each other a round a bit quite playfully. After packing up the game and putting it back on the shelf, i went straight to their merchant table to pick up the game for myself.

I think you should do your research. Maybe one of the top 10 videos on the dice tower. If you like a genere, search by that. Get a small list of things, then just find a local game store and see if they have that or could order it for you. They might have good suggestions, too. Honestly, if you like ticket to ride, that is still a good choice.

My first game "smallworld" was something that scales well within its player count as each map is specificaly made for that many players and also changes the ammount of rounds you have so it takes around the same ammount of time for 2 players as it does 5 players. The variability and replayability of stacking both powers and races and combining 2 randomly leads to having never had a game that felt like the last. And the powers, omg. Every ability is made to break or ignore a rule. The halflings can start on any territory (not just the outside ones), and those first 2 territories can not be attacked. The trolls basicly have an extra token per territory. The amazons DO have extra tokens that get taken off the board at the end of your turn, 4 of them, in fact. And although humans only get an extra coin per farm territory, if they get combined with the flight ability, they will just take all of the farmlands dotting the map. Everything is overpowered in its own way. And there are expansions if you want more but, nothing nessicary. " Be not afraid" is really good.

I think you’d like Total War games. It has fairly simple campaign mechanics mixed with tactical battles. You can dive into TW: Warhammer if you’re into fantasy but if you like historical, I would recommend TW: Three Kingdoms and TW: Rome 2.

Diplomacy is not an option for a difficult but relatively straightforward build-up-and-defend kind of game

Otherwise, if you want turn based games - the newest Age of Wonders offers the most variety and customization, much better than something like Civ imho

For games with no random chance: Terra Mystica, Gaia Project, 18xx, Food Chain Magnate, The Great Zimbabwe off the top of my head.

Most modern games involve FAR much luck than the classics you mentioned. Happy to recommend some if you tell me what you like.

Why would you not say that Chess is purely strategic because someone has to go first randomly, and then immediately suggest Stratego being purely strategic where someone has to go first randomly?!? It's kind of insane. I would even say that Chess is more strategic than Stratego since there is no hidden information in Chess but tons in Stratego.

>The only game I can think of is Stratego

Absolutely pissing myself.

Go.

Diplomacy does not have any probabilistic aspects.

There are ton of abstract games that only introduce probability in terms of who goes first. Chess is one example, but there are many, many more.

Also, you are using the term "strategic" to mean "no probabilistic aspects" but that isn't really what strategic means. For instance, a game could be 100% tactical, 0% strategic, and 0% luck. Similarly, you could have a highly strategic game that has a lot probabilistic aspects.

If you are into Stratego-esque games, then there is LotR: the confrontation and Shadows over Kyoto.

Quartermaster General may work. It's a WWII war game that focuses more on logistics, has relatively easy rules, and is well regarded - but it might not quite be what you're looking for - it is axis vs allies, after all. With fewer players you just control more countries, so it works at 2.

Kemet, Inis, and Blood Rage are probably going to be the most common recommendation for something like this, but those don't play 6. While I haven't played Kemet, the rules to it look pretty simple - what about it makes it look like it would be hard to get to the table?

Small World is probably the most risk-like and easiest to grok for casual gamers.

Inis is very rules light too, although I'm not personally the biggest fan.

Kemet isnt Root-level complicated but the number of power tiles still gives you a fairly sizeable learning curve.

Mission Red Planet isn't super risk like because you don't fight really but it is an area majority game that plays 6 (El Grande does area majority better but caps at 5)

Cthulhu Wars is a super expensive option (especially to expand it to play more than 4) but is a great medium-weight dudes on a map game. The Cthulhu Wars Duel games are affordable but require some homebrew to combine into a 4p game.

Condottierre, but make sure to play by the original rules if you get the FFG version. Look is the Files section of its BGG entry.

The King Is Dead.

Maybe Brian Boru.

Quantum if you can get a reasonably priced copy and space theme appeals to you and your group.

Your submission was removed by a moderator for the following reason(s):

Recommendation Requests should be posted to our Daily Game Recommendations threads. Reddit is a great place to pick peoples' brains and get game suggestions, but we get a lot of recommendation requests, so much so that we have the "Daily Game Recs"-threads dedicated for them. Historically, almost all well formatted questions in the Daily thread get answers. If you're looking for further suggestions, we recommend taking a look at our growing list of Recommendation Roundups. There's also the What Should I Get (WSIG) section on our wiki for a more general list of common recommendations.

(If you believe this post was removed in error you can request a re-review by messaging the mods.)

What about something like El Grande? It's not exactly "dudes on a map", but it does have area majority and plenty of screwing over other players. The rules are fairly simple but there's some strategic depth underneath. Certainly no more complicated than Bunny Kingdom or Machi Koro.

FTL and Into The Breach are very well designed and the basics can be learned quickly. These are high on the list of must-play strategy games imo.

I'm leaving out AOE and SC series, they are obviously great choices, but they have been mentioned a lot already:

Company of Heroes Series - Finish campaign on 1st game, then hop into skirmishes/multiplayer on COH2.

Northgard - RTS with 4X elements, chill pace and interesting mechanics.

Halo Wars Series - Way better than I expected, good if you prefer controller over mouse/keyboard.

Sins of a Solar Empire - A little less intuitive but extremely fun once you read a few guides and figure out the interface.

P.S. I don't recommend considering MOBA's a way to "learn" or "train for" RTS. Other than the most basic level of controls/camera, the skills/situational awareness needed don't really carry over from MOBA's. Conceptually, MOBA's are much closer to action RPG's with some strategy mechanics than strategy itself.

Supreme Commander 2 is aging but still holds up quite well, and goes on sale often! It's much more accessible to new players than the original game. Fans of the original game such as myself tend to prefer it to the "dumbed down" systems in the second, but it does make it a great entry point to the RTS genre!

If you want to get into the sub genre of SRPGs you could do worse than Shining Force I and II - they are really easy to get into and will show you the basics that underpin most later efforts. Originally on Genesis they are available in the Sega Genesis Collection available on various newer platforms.

If you're interested in turn based I would start with Civ 5 or 6. You can bumble around fairly casually and still find success in that game on the standard difficulty setting without needing to get too deep into the the mechanics. Plus there's plenty of complexities to build on as you play more. Civ 5 is probably a bit easier to get into, I like civ 6 more though.