Cheap board games
These are the board games under twenty-five euros that we currently have in stock, cheapest first. Card sleeves, dice and storage trays are filtered out; they are not games, and they would fill the entire top of this page.
What you will mostly find here are smaller boxes: half-hour games for two to four players. That is no accident, and it matters less than it sounds. Why, is explained below the products.
Why an affordable board game often works out better than you expect
The price of a board game says little about how good it is and a lot about how much is in the box. A twenty-five euro game rarely has a hundred miniatures, a double-layered insert or a half-metre board. What it does have is an idea.
And it is precisely those small boxes that reach the table most often. A game you explain in five minutes and play in half an hour is one you reach for on a weeknight. The big box waits for a free Saturday that does not always come.
There is a trade-off, and you should know it. Under twenty-five euros you will rarely find a game for more than four players, and rarely one you disappear into for an evening. If that is what you want, start with the top 10 board games or the top 10 strategy board games.
What to check
Three things, and the first is the one most people miss.
Check whether you are looking at a base game or an expansion. Expansions are often cheap and do nothing at all without the box they belong to, and because they are cheap they sit near the top of a page like this one. If the title contains "expansion", make sure you own the box it belongs to.
Then check the player count. Many of the better affordable games are for exactly two, which is ideal if there are two of you and useless when four people come over.
And check the age on the box. A small game is not automatically a children's game; some of the sharpest two-player games in this price range start at ten or twelve.
A few that do it well
Hive Pocket is the clearest example of what this price range can do: eleven pieces each, no board, no luck, and you keep getting better at it for years. Patchwork works along the same lines, two players competing for the same pieces.
For a full table, Hues and Cues is the only game in this range that goes up to ten players. For a quieter evening there are Wispwood and Project L, both for one to four players.
And with children at the table, Splendor Kids is the one we are asked for most in this segment.