Topic of the Week: Essential Games 2026 Edition

[yashima]

The other day there was the question if there were any (expensive) games, we considered essential. This is a thread not about expensive games specifically but about your essential collections.

We’ve had similar topics before, I know this. But new games are made all the time and some of them may be so good that they become essentials? But the focus is not on new, this is just the reason why I feel we can pose this question again even if it has been previously discussed.

To be able to define what essential means for a collection, we need to know what the intended purpose is. In our case of game collections here are a few examples:

• Fun for a solo gamer
• Fun for the family
• A collection of rare out of print classics
• A spread across favorite mechanisms
• An introductory collection to modern boardgames
• A collection of complex Euro-games that take all evening to play and need a dedicated group
• …

Essential in relation to a collection and its purpose means:

• necessary not just nice-to-have
• without it the ability of the collection to fulfill its purpose is greatly reduced
• a minimum subset of items to keep for the collection to still make sense

Here are some questions you could answer in this topic:

• So in 2026 what games are essential to your collection?
• What is the purpose of your collection?
• How many games do you think should be in an essential collection?
• Which essential games got here in the last couple of years since we discussed this the last time? (whenever that was)
• You could solicit recommendations fitting the purpose of your collection, if you feel like something is missing.

[RogerBW]

I tend to think in terms of essential topics/mechanics rather than essential games.

So I think a collection should have a space sandbox game but it’s not hugely important whether that’s Firefly, Xia, or Star Wars Outer Rim.

And if I have one mostly-two-player lane dueller (e.g. Riftforce) I don’t really need another (Spies, Lies & Supplies, Radlands) but another player might choose one of the others and I wouldn’t say they were wrong.

Game that have made it into the notional “first rank” of my collection recently would mostly be Imperium [foo] (specifically the Horizons box reawakened my enthusiasm for it) and, at the other end of the size scale, Sea Salt & Paper.

[lalunaverde]

My latest shelfie feels like (mostly) an Essential Collection. There’s some I might remove and some that I am waiting to add (e.g. Container)

I want to spread out my collection. If mine are just trains then I’m only playing with a small number of people.

The collection occupies certain niches. I think 1 to 3 games on a certain niche is enough.

• I used to have a number of Cube Rails and 18xx but it dilutes the experience. I don’t want to dilute my plays of Chicago Express so I think having this + German Railways + South African Railroad are more than enough. If pushed, I’ll keep Chex. But in this case, I can afford to keep the others.

• I only kept 1830 in 18xx. I might opt for Shikoku, but I don’t play enough to make a decision. 1817 stays as a collectible.

• Splotters is on the “heavy thinky” niche. And having the Great Zimbabwe + Indonesia is enough. Most heavy games I play ends with “Cool. I’d rather we play TGZ or Indo instead”. The other one is Pax Renaissance. I need to play more Pamir but Ren is occupying my time (again, I prefer not to dilute plays).

• Chudyk’s are the heavy card-driven game of choice, along with the Pax titles. Hence why I sold RFTG and Res Arcana. Innovation and Glory to Rome are my essentials in this niche. I’m still deciding on Impulse but I’m really liking this that it might become essential

• Chatty negotiation games: Zoo Vadis, Bohnanza, Goodcritters. I had an interesting problem where I had TOO MANY shouty games. I reduced them down to this.

• Hot Streak is my choice of stupid game.

• Mysterium - non-party co-op game of choice. Spirit Island is top tier but takes too much investment that it will dilute plays from other games I prefer playing.

• Cthulhu Wars and El Grande still my default troops-on-a-map titles. And Cosmic Encounter is nearly reaching the status of essential. I’m just trying to be well verse with the rules enough to teach it well

• Standard shared-incentives games: the Estates, Stephenson’s Rocket, Container, Fresh Fish, Bridges of Shangri-La - how many do I need? That’s a good question.

• I seem to take a shine on some classics: Puerto Rico, Hansa Teutonica, Condottiere.

• Full narrative games: So far, I need something like Eldritch Horror in my collection. I’m waiting for the new Tales of the Arabian Nights to arrive and decide whether which one I will keep, or maybe both?? I like EH’s setting (and without the weirdo racist stuff from the author) and even its philosophy. The original philosophy is how helpless we are against the Unknown. In FFG’s philosophy, you’ll most likely die, but you can solve these problems with a shotgun. My only play of Arabian Nights was pretty memorable and still love how it’s a free-for-all rollercoaster. Travelling from Baghdad to Nubia but got ensorcelled and sleepwalk myself all the way to China was hilarious.

• Monikers - my party game of choice

• Harmonies - might be my choice of I want a chill light MPS game.

[yashima]

My collection’s purpose is to provide fun for my solos and my 2 player occasions more than anything else. My collection’s essential games are almost required to have a solomode and play well at two players but aren’t two player duel games. A bit like @RogerBW I feel I want to have a good variety of game types.

My collection has accumulated various “status” labels over time stuff like “going out”, “collector” or “later”… recently I made a new tag “Sparks Joy” and applied it to whatever games I felt like. This was about ~50 games from my collection. And looking through the list, I find:

• lots of solos
• a few party games
• quite a few cozy games
• a few complex ones
• games I could easily teach (for the most part)

It feels without meaning to I prepared this list for the essentials

Full List of my games that 'spark joy'

7 Wonders Duel
Ark Nova
Fields of Arle
Sanctuary
Beacon Patrol
Bomb Busters
Cascadia
Casinopolis
Codenames
Daybreak
The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine
Lost Ruins of Arnak
Dixit
Dorfromantik: Sakura
Dune: Imperium – Uprising
Everdell Farshore
Evergreen
Factory Funner
The Gang
A Gentle Rain
Harmonies
Iberia
Imperium: Classics
Innovation Ultimate
Just One
Lacuna
Link City
Menara
Forest Shuffle
Mistborn: The Deckbuilding Game
Naturopolis
Nusfjord
Obsession
One Piece Nakama: Friends & Enemies
Oranienburger Kanal
Pax Pamir: Second Edition
Planet Unknown
Red Rising
Revive
Robo Rally: 30th Anniversary
Wyrmspan
So Clover!
Space Base
Spirit Island
Splendor Duel
Sprawlopolis
Star Wars: Outer Rim
Take Time
Tash-Kalar: Arena of Legends
Terraforming Mars
Trailblazers
The Quest for El Dorado
Winter Kingdom

And because @lalunaverde grouped the games into niches… I tried to do the same. My niches are different though because of our differing playstyles

Or grouped into categories

• Cozy Solos: *polis, A Gentle Rain, One Piece Nakama, Red Rising, Factory Funner, Trailblazers
• Solos: Spirit Island, Imperium:Foo, Obsession, Wyrmspan
• Rosenbergs: Fields of Arle, Nusfjord, Oranienburger Kanal
• 2 Player: 7 Wonders Duel, Splendor Duel, Lacuna, Tash-Kalar
• Lots of Cards: Ark Nova, Terraforming Mars
• Tile laying: Beacon Patrol, Cascadia, Harmonies, Dorfromantik Sakura
• Combo-ing: Artengarten, Daybreak, Innovation, Mischwald
• Guess my hand: Bomb Busters, The Crew, Take Time, The Gang
• Party: Just One, Codenames, So Clover, Dixit
• Deckbuilding: Arnak, Dune:Imp, Mistborn:TDG, Quest for El Dorado
• Coops: Pandemic Iberia, Link City, Menara
• Cozy multiplayer: Everdell Farshore, Evergreen, Planet Unknown,Space Base,
  Winter Kingdom
• Multiplayer: Pax Pamir: 2nd, Revive, Robo Rally
• Space: Star Wars: Outer Rim

A few of them are in here because they are new and exciting (Take Time), some of them are more aspirational than actually getting played (Innovation ). There are definitely mostly games in the list that are there because without them my collection would feel incomplete. A few favorites are not in there because ‘sparks joy’ is a very specific feeling and this does maybe not truly apply to a game like Leaving Earth which I would never get rid of but does not feel essential. For some reason despite my love for the Clank! family none of the games managed to “Spark Joy” -.- Possibly because of the overlap with both Mistborn as a random market and Arnak/Dune:Imp map-builder.

If I were to recommend to someone just building up some 'essential games to start' with they would probably be from this list but on the less complex end.

• 7 Wonders Duel
• Sanctuary
• Cascadia (or Harmonies or Beacon Patrol or all of them because tile laying is great)
• The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine (or Deep Sea as I prefer that one)
• Dorfromantik: Sakura
• Everdell Farshore (any Everdell really)
• The Gang
• Iberia
• Just One
• Forest Shuffle (it is growing more on me with every solo I play)
• Mistborn: TDG (probably I’d choose Star Realms over Mistborn unless I knew I had a fan of the IP)
• Planet Unknown
• Space Base
• Splendor Duel
• Sprawlopolis (because a collection needs a good traveling solo)
• The Quest for El Dorado (I don’t have many fixed market builders, maybe Dominion instead?)
• Winter Kingdom (probably the OG Kingdom Builder)

I would probably still mention Carcassonne even though in my collection it has been relegated to the back-shelves.

[SteveB_uk]

“Essential” can be a wide category! I don’t think I own many that couldn’t be swapped with another of the same game type.

I suppose one difference would be “there have been 10 trick-taking games released this month, this is my favourite” vs “here is the one that’s been in the BGG top 50 for five years and everyone knows the name”.

In terms of essential building blocks of a collection I plan more around “do I have one that will make this type of player happy, or can be used in this setting” rather than “have I definitely included every style of game”.

I would say Cascadia is an essential because it’s so universally useful. You can drop it into any pub meet, new players understand it immediately, everyone like the visuals, it’s short enough, it’s just a really solid gateway game that’s still fun for more experienced players. It never misses. That type of game is probably essential for a collection.

Same with Hot Streak (and possibly Magical Athlete, which I will get to play soon). The rules teach is almost zero, decision making is super light (“pick up some betting slips”) and it’s nearly impossible not to have a good time with it.

For me personally it was essential that I own Dune (70s), Inis and Fortune and Glory. I don’t know why. I’d say a worker placement like El Grande or Viticulture should probably be in every collection too.

Looking on the BGG top 100 I’m wondering if Brass Birmingham, Gloomhaven, A Feast For Odin, Dune Imperium etc, all these long-term winners, are considered essential? In terms of that original post about expensive games, “Yes it costs more, but you NEED to own it.”

[Phil]

The topic is too subjective for me – I’m not sure I could describe any game as “essential” for anyone other than me personally (and then the list is just my favourite games).

[yashima]

In some ways it would be. I wanted to keep the wording from the other thread, because at that point I also kind of felt that essential is very subjective.

Have any new games recently acquired “favorite” status on your shelves?

Anything you would definitely recommend to others who are looking to have a larger collection?

[BertFill]

I’m increasingly thinking that Spirit Island is absolutely essential, but everything else is a bit unnecessary really.

Although tbh in our household we’d also keep Carcassonne, Coup, Love Letter and Dorfromantik. And Würfel Bohnanza.

Oh, and I couldn’t imagine no longer having Robinson Crusoe, even though I hardly ever play it, I’m not very good at it, nobody else likes it and I have several scenarios and an entire expansion campaign I still haven’t ever tried…

[lalunaverde]

Have any new games recently acquired “favorite” status on your shelves?

A lot of my games I have been loving were post-2020, so the change in my taste was a bit recent.

Within the last 3 years: Hot Streak as a Stupid game is the obvious one. I do find that some people prefer Magical Athlete over HS.

Zoo Vadis was from 3 years ago and it’s a negotiation game I want to keep over the others. But I did used to have Quo Vadis which was a fave prior to this.

Puerto Banana became a recent essential party game. It’s dumb vibes-based auction but it only goes for 10-15 mins.

Potentially Compile could be an essential 2 player game to me but lack plays. Hive felt meh now that I have returned to Rapid 10-min Chess.

Mysterium was a game I’ve known for a while but I didn’t consider it essential until recently. Glad to get answers from people when I ask about Mysterium on the “what’s your opinion” thread

Las Vegas - dice rolling area majority filler game so straight forward. It asks so little but I get more in return.

I could potentially count Guards of Atlantis which Wyvern and I were so impressed at, but I don’t have enough plays to be confident about it.

[COMaestro]

My essential games, at this point, would just be those I get to play the most. Not necessarily what I want to play the most, but here we are.

So that would be Lords of Vegas, Lords of Waterdeep, Lost Cities, Star Wars the Deckbuilding Game (both varieties), Kingdomino, and Ethnos.

I could probably add Chinatown, Everdell, Mysterium, Quacks of Quedlinburg, and Taverns of Tiefenthal to the list, as while they do not hit the table as often, they are rarely if ever turned down.

Then, adding my personal favorites of Unmatched (all of it), Spirit Island, and maybe Marvel Champions.

[yashima]

Games without which my collection would definitely feel incomplete… are way fewer than the list above. Spirit Island, Terraforming Mars, Cascadia, Sprawlopolis et al, Just One, The Gang … after that it already turns into „I am fine with any from a category of games as long as one of those is in there“ territory.

Having digital plays available is causing some games to be less essential: Daybreak and Revive might otherwise be included above.

[Boronian]

I like the question a lot, for me I have to divide it in two separate time frames. Before 2015 and after.

What’s the difference? Before 2015 I was still studying and had 1-2 board game nights a week in my apartment with different people (though 2 were basically always the same). I even had an excel sheet with people’s preferences, so I could figure out in advance what to bring to the table.

I played a lot back then, it was my most active time as a board gamer. Even went regularly to Essen in that time.

My essential games back then: Coup, Love Letter, Battlestar Galactica, Dixit, King of Tokyo, Wiz War, Terra Mystica, Wizard, Kemet, Village, Castles of King Ludwig.

—

After 2015 life changed. I had to move every 6 months for two years, that disrupted a lot. After that we settled down so to speak but I am not the biggest fan of playing board games with my wife, we play only coop games on our own and I dislike the fiddly setup a lot of games need. And so I prefer video games for the two of us. And we play(ed) a lot of Stardew Valley and puzzle games.

We played a lot of Codenames as a couple which worked great. We love The Crew but it needs 3 or 4 players to be fun. My wife loves being the ghost in Mysterium. These are essentials for sure. And Wizard will always be an essential because it is so good, accessible and easy to bring.

But my wife isn’t a fan of competitive games (she had a lot of bad experiences with bad losers as a kid), Coup as an example is not doing well with her at all (bluffing is genereally not everybody’s cup of tea). Wizard is fine.

The most regular we got after 2017 is Gloomhaven (every week / 2 weeks) till my best friend got pregnant. We almost finished the campaign and unlocked everything. Is Gloomhaven an essential game? It is kinda hard to bring to the table with new people but it gave us so much joy and I remember how much time I spent with it outside our gaming sessions.

And Mechs vs. Minions, though it is relatively short especially in comparison with Gloomhaven.

So are these two essential games? Rather Gloomhaven than Mechs vs Minions. The latter I could even sell tbh.

I would love to play Gloomhaven again or try Frosthaven. It is just when we are at my best friend’s till the kids are in bed it is often too tight for Gloomhaven. Life changes but that’s okay And who knows in some years we could have the time again. Or not because that’s life too. Hard to plan.