The holiday season is a great time to share your love of board games with friends and family. You’ll be sitting around the house, naturally, and in need of something to do with relatives that you haven’t seen in ages. If you’re looking for a new game to enjoy this winter, Amazon is already rolling out plenty of early Black Friday deals on board games, making this the best time of the year to splurge.
This year’s early discounts come from all across the industry, with everything from hardcore strategy titles like Escape the Dark Sector to joyous little roll-and-writes like Welcome To…. But the biggest surprise by far are all the high-end crowdfunded games that have made their way to the discount aisles. We’ll kick things off with some of the real standouts, then move into the modern classics, and finish out with the best of the rest.
The best crowdfunded board game deals
- Exploding Kittens blew up on Kickstarter thanks to The Oatmeal’s art, and you can grab the original version of the game for just $12.99 (was $20).Clash of the Sinister Six — the standalone expansion of Marvel Zombies: A Zombicide Game that features Mysterio, Green Goblin, and Venom — is $44.99 (was $60).
- Similarly, Marvel Zombies: A Zombicide Game – Guardians of the Galaxy adds your favorite pangalactic superfamily to the party for $34.99 (was $50).
- Awaken Realm’s Nemesis, inspired by the Alien franchise, is an excellent purchase for the movie fan in your life. It’s down to just $99.99 (was $149.99).
The best modern classic board game deals
- 7 Wonders, among the most influential board games of the last 15 years, is $38.10 (was $59.99).
- Camel Up, a wacky racing game now in its second edition, is $31.99 (was $39.99).
- Catan, the late Klaus Teuber’s game of viking colonization, is down to $43.97 (was $59.99).
- Century Big Box, which includes three games by Emerson Matsuuchi, is $54.99 (was $79.99).
- Jamaica, the classic pirate-themed board game, is $29.99 (was $44.99).
- Splendor, the award-winning game about gem collecting in the Renaissance, is $21.98 (was $39.99)
- Pandemic, one of the best entry points to the modern board gaming hobby, is just $35.99 (was $39.99)
- Memoir ’44, an easy to play WWII game with lots of expansions, is $48.49 (was $64.99).
- The Prophecy of Kings expansion for Twilight Imperium, the original 4x board game for modern audiences, is down to $64.99 (was $109.99).
The best two-player board game deals
- A Little Wordy, which plays a bit like Scrabble but in reverse, is $9.99 (was $12.30).
- The Mind, a raucous guessing game that’s a riot as a two-player duel, is $8.49 (was $14.95).
- Patchwork Halloween Edition is a spooky variation on the classic quilting strategy game, is $20.99 (was $29.99).
- Tacocat Spelled Backwards, an explicitly two-player game all about palindromes, is $8.08 (was $14.99).
The best party game deals
- Bridgerton: A Love Letter Card Game takes the classic pocket-sized hidden role game and gives it a fun Netflix twist for $9.99 (was $14.99).
- Infinity Gauntlet: A Love Letter Game is here to translate the hidden-role card game to Marvel fans. It’s just $9.99 (was $16.99).
The best strategy board game deals
- Catan Junior, an extremely forgiving entree for younger players new to modern board games, is $25.49 (was $34.99).
- Choose Your Own Adventure: House of Danger, which replicates the act of reading those beloved childhood novels, is just $14.49 (was $29.99).
- Cthulhu: Death May Die, a cooperative horror mystery game from CMON with lots of minis, is $87.99 (was $109.99).
- Elder Sign, a cooperative exploration of the Cthulhu mythos with lots of custom dice, is $29.99 (was $39.99).
- Five Tribes: The Djinns of Naqala, from Bruno Cathalha, award-winning designer of the Kingdomino, is now $44.99 (was $62.39)
- Gizmos, which celebrates science fairs, is just $29.99 (was $39.99).
- Kemet: Blood and Sand brings classic area control mechanics to the ancient Egyptian pantheon. It’s down to $63.49 (was $89.99).
- Marvel Crisis Protocol, filled with amazingly detailed Marvel miniatures, is $59.49 (was $99.95).
- Massive Darkness 2: Hellscape is another miniatures-heavy game from CMON. It’s down to $79.99 (was $109.99).
- Pandemic Legacy Season 2, the follow-up to the groundbreaking Season 1 legacy-style campaign game, is $45.99 (was $79.99).
- Plague Inc, which is literally the opposite of Pandemic with players trying to infect the world for fun and profit, is $32.99 (was $44.99).
- Res Arcana, a game of elemental mage duels, is $28.49 (was $39.99).
- Ticket to Ride Europe let’s you plan the next family vacation in style, now at just $35.07 (was $59.99).
- Ticket to Ride: First Journey, another game that bridges the wide age gaps common among parties in the holiday season, is now $27.99(was $34.99).
- Small World of Warcraft, a mix of Risk-style territory control and the beloved characters from Azeroth, is down to $34.99 (was $46.90).
- The Wolves, a novel survival game, is $34.99 (was $49.95).
Looking for more? Check out all of Polygon’s favorite early Black Friday deals, and subscribe to our newsletter below to get great deals delivered to your inbox every week.
The post The best early board game deals of Black Friday appeared first on Polygon.
