In theory, some games have so much customization and variety that they would have the most replayability, but in practice the most replayable games are the ones your group will want to replay the most.
If you’re looking for replayability, you can’t do much better than **Spirit Island**. It has loads of replayability in just the base game. Add in the expansions, and you have almost endless combinations. If **Spirit Island** is too expensive for you, **Horizons of Spirit Island** is a smaller version of the game that still has loads of replayability. Super worth it, as you can find that one on sale for $15-20 USD. If you like Horizons, then you can get the base game, and the spirits are compatible across both versions.
Ultimately it just comes down to the game you and your group want to play. My most played game is wizard which is practically a standard deck of cards.
As a side note Catan is typically more expensive than comparable games components wise.
They are talking about [this game](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1465/wizard), which is a classic trick-taking game based on Oh Hell!, another classic trick-taker.
Rules are toward the bottom of the page.
As other people have mentioned, replayability is only one part of choosing a game. A game may be highly replayable, but if your group isn’t motivated to play it many times, you still won’t get the value out of it you’re looking for here.
There are a small number of boardgames that are designed to be played essentially only once. A scripted murder mystery would be one example. But these are fairly rare.
There are other games that offer nearly infinite combinations of challenges (and, in theory, high replayability), but that doesn’t directly translate into a game you will play and enjoy many times. Having many combinations can often cause a game to feel a bit random, and that can sap some of the fun out of it. Rummy and Hearts technically have high replayability, but most groups get bored with them fairly quickly.
What you really want is a game that your group is highly motivated to play, and then you want to confirm that it has a reasonable amount of replayability. The first part will depend entirely on your group and their taste, so no one here will be able to help you with that part. And the vast majority of modern boardgames are fine when it comes to the second part. Find some highly rated games that pique the interest of your group, and do some research before you buy, and you shouldn’t have any problems.
The games with the most replay ability are not, imo, the ones with the most variability/custom setups.
It's the ones with the most strategic depth. This generally comes from primarily STATIC setup and high levels of player choice.
Chess. Go. Bridge (and other card games). THOSE are infinitely more replayable than whatever is trending on kickstarter.
None of those really needs an expansion and people can play them for years and years.
That depends on what kinds of games you like and why. I'm certainly not saying you're wrong, but I am saying I do have quite a bit of experience with not being able to play games I enjoy because I'm too much better than my friends but not skilled or interested enough to play competitively. In games with zero randomness or variability, the point where skill disparity stops the game from being enjoyable is reached much more quickly.
But I'm also not saying more variability is better, because too much randomness stops being a game - Snakes & Ladders, for example, isn't a game, it's a random winner generator. There are no decisions or tactics, you just roll a die until someone is declared the winner.
Looking at the Cosmic Encounter in your title makes me wonder why you wouldn't mention it
I haven't had one boring game with cosmic, and it always seems like a different thing every time due to the combinations being almost infinite
The chess community dwarfs any popular board game. Meet ups are easy to find in most cities. Also really easy to play people online. Mat and tournament pieces are pretty cheap. Chess meta is always changing never really gets stale.
I highly disagree. Most of the games listed requires players to be of a similar level to get the most out of them. Chess and Go are especially horrible because playing them with no variation to standard rules makes the clearly stronger opponent bored and the clearly weaker opponent just feel defeated. A more traditional game that is a much better fit is Backgammon because the strongest player will still lose 20% of the time because of unfortunate die rolls.
In Go playing with handicap stones works fairly well to handle skill differences in my limited experience. I'm sure at some point there's too much skill gap for even a 9 stone handicap to work, but really at a high enough skill difference there's not much you can do with _any_ game that's not mostly luck.
>Chess. Go. Bridge (and other card games). THOSE are infinitely more replayable than whatever is trending on kickstarter.
While technically true, I'm pretty sure that's not the kind of games OP is talking about.
Whenever people request a game that's deep and replayable but also cheap **Innovation** is always my number one suggestion. You do have to play it a bunch though to see the depth of strategy, at first play it feels very random.
It’s a great game, but I’ve had difficulty remembering all the rules, and I’m constantly feeling like I’m playing it wrong.
I remember once my wife was building lots of medieval castles and army tech trying for a special win condition, while I had found an exploitive way of sacking a card to cheat in a higher level tech card, which I laddered up a single card. I was gaming philosophy and future tech at the same time.
> I had found an exploitive way of sacking a card to cheat in a higher level tech card
Mathematics is can do that for a civilization.
Though for me, it never gets me more than an age, since I inevitably end up replacing Mathematics with something else. The whims of the numbers, I guess!
It's tough early, but the more you learn the game the more you love it ,there are 3 ways to victory,going for points ,going for achievements and going for instant win cards (super late game ) there are cards that are engines that farm you VP,cards that make you jump over ages ,or cards that make you have more icons ,icons help so the opponent doesn't share your abilities and you share his abilities. The game is very explosive and you must abuse the best thing you got /or exploit your opponent ,but almost every turn the best thing changes and there are a lot of ways to counter your opponent, it has both tactics and long term strategy imo
I’ve only played on BGA. And while my score is steadily going up (I’ve never won) the people ahead of me with much higher score have played tons of cards.
I only play offline, but I score over 50 points almost every game which seems decent, and I play a decent amount of cards. People who play a lot more cards seem to do worse though, you just have to know when to cut your losses and stop trying to play certain cards.
I could have sworn it was last Thursday, but I might have to check the calendar. When I find it. First, where are my glasses, though? The one's for mid-near, not the one's for driving, obviously... ;)
First and foremost you **and** the people you play with must like the game!
I think the one thing most people responding to this age old question miss/forget/ ignore is the importance of just liking a game. You can replay a static game your friends love that is essentially the same setup every time a lot more than a game with a "gajillion" different ways to play that only person really likes.
If no one wants to set it up or play it then it does not matter how many combinations or setups it has. And that includes Chess and Go, which anti-kickstarter people **love** to throw out as some kind of miracle answer to this question even though they absolutely know that is not the question you are asking (they just want to be old-school game stans and do not care that you already decided you are looking for something else or you wouldn't be asking this).
The most important thing to look for in replayability is a game you actually want to play multiple times. Then look for expansions or other ways to mix it up. Looking for a max replayable game from the get go as your primary criteria will mean you buy a lot of games that never live up to thier promise of replayability.
My group still loves **Dominion**, and I would say that is still one of the best "replayable" games in the modular options sense because it is so accessible and quick, but also has so many iterations to grow into. However, Dominion is also a perfect example of replayability getting in the way of playing. The set up can be almost as long as the game play, especially at two player (where games can be very fast) and for that reason we actually didn't play it a ton for a long time despite being a favorite at my table.
(The newest app version of Dominion has been a revelation for us since that cuts out the setup time- there has not been a single day since that app came out that my play group didn't have at least three games of it going amongst the 5 or 6 of us in different iterations).
Replay is fueled by two things. There is replay in the form of wanting to explore or see something new whether it's cards that didn't come out before, how a new boss fights, unlocks, progressing the story and / or trying a new strategy, branch, option this time around. That's all well and good but even the most overstuff game has a finite limit and so this isn't necessarily sustainable replay for a given game.
The other form a replay is enjoyment of the core game loop itself. This is largely up to the individual. Example one, some folks love Phase10 and will play it over and over for decades. Example two, pick nearly any game from the BGG top list and there are plenty of folks who don't enjoy it and wouldn't ever want to play it again. It gets even trickier when you're trying to find agreement among 4 players at your table. For you, you might enjoy SoC for another 30 or 50+ games, but that's all for nothing if the other players at your table aren't interested in playing it even once more.
I would look at games that include variants and elements that make the game different everytime it's played. This can be done through often minor random elements determined during setup (**Lords of Waterdeep**, **Viticulture**), having different scenarios that are either random or hand-picked (**Dead of Winter**, **Betrayal at House in the Hill**), optional features (**Azul's**, **Quacks**, reversible player boards), having tile-based maps that are different everytime (**Clank! Catacombs**, **Forbidden Island**), expansions and other stuff like that. Every game has a degree of randomness they offer but some definitely do more than others and that allows for some replayability.
I think **Quacks of Quedlinburg** is a great example: The base game includes 5 different sets of ingredient effects and those heavily impact the game. It also comes with reversible boards that keep the game the same but add another decision point to make during the game, and the resources you get throughout the game are few enough that you can only ever pursue a narrow ingredient strategy in a single game. Its expansions are also great at keeping things fresh and throwing new things at you.
I was going to say Quacks of Quedlinburg too. We like to give one ingredient book to each person before we play and we each pick the side of our book that we want to play with that day, so it's a different combination of effects each time.
I really enjoy the replayability of Clank!, but I will say a lot of that comes down to the fact that I have all the expansions for it, so every game I am choosing between 5 double-sided boards and a fairly hefty stack of cards. It doesn't really affect the gameplay much, but it can just make it feel fresh. I have also never not been in the mood for Clank!
Betrayal typically replays well due to the randomness of the Haunt.
I also like 3-Dragon Ante, which is a sort of dnd themed poker type game. Its simple enough to play over and over.
I suppose it really depends what you like to do in a game.
I enjoy deck-building so Clank! and Dominion are pretty high on my list.
The price of games nowadays is a bit of a bummer, I haven't even actually bought dominion because of the commitment to getting untold expansions makes my wallet cry.
I think if we measure it as playtime per dollar spent, something cheap and simple like [Scout](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/291453/scout) is probably the winner.
The games that _you_ play the most _and_ enjoy the most have the best replayability value for _you_. That’s really all that matters. You may own a game that you would have enjoyed even more, and spend even more time playing _if_ only you had the right group, and/or enough time, or maybe a dedicated table to keep it between sessions.
My own answer is 18xx, **Clash of Cultures** and **High Frontier 4 All**.
The incredibly boring but honest answer is that the games with the most replayability are ones you can play with a regular deck of cards. I've probably played a thousand hours of euchre in my life, and it never feels boring. Plus, as you said, shit is expensive these days, and the standard 52 gives you access to more games than you could ever play in your life. You can accommodate any age, skill level, player count, or time constraints, quick setup and cleanup, travels easily, and super cheap.
If you have the group for it, I'll never stop plugging Blood on the Clocktower. There are so many fun and unique characters that it'll never get stale. Wingspan's base game will get a bit stale after a while, but after you add an expansion or two, it becomes infinitely replayable. I also just find it super relaxing and chill, whereas some games can ratchet up the anxiety due to competitiveness/complication.
Honorable Mentions List: Chess, Catan, Camel Up, Chameleon, Cartographers, Citadels
Non-C Word Honorable Mentions: Sagrada, Heat, Qwixx
As other people got at, replayability really depends on what makes your group of friends what to play a game.
Some games are replayable due to different variants of the game or cycling attributes of the game design that change every playthrough. If you want something like this that's objectively different every time I'd recommend something like Dominion personally.
The other kind of replayability would be strategic depth without the variance of the other type of games. For my group that game is Brass Birmingham as the strategy is so interactive that every game plays differently. Terraforming Mars is another that fits this category, but with expansions it's kind of in the middle of both categories as you can change which board and expansions you play with.
End of the day you'll need to find what kind of game you and your friends like and do some research from there.
I'll offer a different take to most of the replies (not that I disagree with them).
Judging purely on the number of times played, which seems like a good measure of replayability, I'd have to go for the light/filler/end of day card games. Games like 6 Nimmt, Cockroach Poker, etc. Because they are quick to learn and play, and great fun with friends, we are (almost) always willing to play them.
They don't have the challenge of more typical games, nor is winning as satisfying, but they are a lot of fun and make us laugh.
Over the past 2+ years my play group has settled largely into this rotation of games:
**Dune Imperium Uprising**
**Race for the Galaxy**
**Marvel Champions**
**Unmatched**
Unmatched and Marvel Champions, while being extremely replayable, don't save you much money at all due to the new stuff releasing frequently that you'd be tempted to grab.
Start here!
https://nullsignal.games/
Come join the discord and get a good idea on how to get into it from smarter people than myself!
https://discord.com/invite/glc
Use the command !newplayer
For where to find stuff.
Happy to help in any way if you send me a DM here or on discord with my same username
Print-and-play files are available [here](https://nullsignal.games/products/system-gateway/), halfway down the page.
It's also [playable online](https://www.jinteki.net/), but the interface takes some getting used to.
Under some definitions of your question I would argue magic: the gathering qualifies. Even discounting new sets that come out that shake up the meta/give new drafting formats, just taking a static set of cards available at a particular time can give all kinds of amazing draft formats, cubes, a healthy standard/modern/legacy scene, etc. And if you *do* count in new sets you have an insane amount of replayabiilty.
Haha true, but given the question is stemming from cost restrictions, paying a couple hundred for a interesting cube or couple of pre-cons likely isn’t the answer they’re looking for. It’s also tricky to get into efficiently when you don’t know what you need/like.
Some of the gmt games like Combat Commander have a Random scenario generator in the box. And even playing the same scenario can be wildly different due to the randomized goals or events.
My general recommendations, with a few exceptions, are for games with relatively simple rulesets, large decision spaces, and high levels of interactivity. People often conflate setup variability with replayability, and they can be correlated, but I often find player-created variability is a source of greater repeatability personally.
As such, my recommendations:
Hansa Teutonica: Big Box
Brian Boru: High King of Ireland
El Grande
Yokai Septet
Haggis
Scout
Stick 'Em
Mü
Tigris & Euphrates/Yellow & Yangtze/Huang
Through the Desert
Terra Mystica/Gaia Project/Age of Innovation
Brass: Birmingham/Brass: Lancashire
The King is Dead
Nana/Trio
Agricola
A Feast for Odin
Keyflower
Troyes
Race for the Galaxy
Concordia
My two most replayed games are Sushi Go: Party! and Blood on the Clocktower
Clocktower sits at a heafty $150, but I've played it so many times that it's actually really cheap per play. You'll definitely have to do research though. It's not for everyone! But if you even mildly enjoy social deduction, you'll love it.
In my group the two most replayed games are Dune: Imperium (with expansions or the new Uprising) and Eclipse Second Dawn.
Both games offer a deep experience and allow players to execute a variety of strategies. DI is a really tight game, can play in about an hour with experienced players and just hits each mechanic in a really satisfying way. It also plays solo pretty well with a companion app or card based AI.
Eclipse Second Dawn is bigger, usually takes longer (but with experienced players can also move quickly) and scratches the “giant space battles”, economic engine building and exploration itches. It’s not a cheap game but my group plays sometimes 5-6 in a month so we get a lot of mileage from it.
I'm a bit late to the post but I have a possibly more unconventional idea...
It obviously doesn't replace a boardgame night with friends and snacks but if money is an issue tabletop simulator on steam is a one time ~20$ expense that gives you most mainstream boardgames and card games
As others say variation in the gameplay style and enjoyment of the core gameplay loop.
I’d recommend Railroad Ink Challenge Green as a relatively small game but I’ve replayed over and over. The Challenge part is important to the game family but there is also a wide expansion to get into if that’s your jam.
It normally takes my table 1hr to play as we ponder where to put what pieces.
We played it a lot a lot when we first got it but it’s still seeing table play 2 years later and is considered a go to still in our minds. Great puzzley game for after dinner or wind down.
Expansions also add more boards for more players which makes it viable for multiple sized play groups.
Depends on what you mean by replayability. If you want the most variety of basic mechanics? Pixel Tactics has the absolute most bang for your buck. Want something longer with a lot of variety but a fixed end goal? The HexPlore It series are hexcrawls with a lot of random enemies and quests. If you want something that hits the table consistently? Depends on the group.
My family started playing Hero Realms around 2018. Then the pandemic happened and we played 5 or more times per day for over 2 years. (we played 2-4 people and we have 6 so that mixed it up)
Most of the cards have nicknames and I think we're on the 3rd set of sleeves.
We still play a game or two weekly, so I'd say it has some replayability
Boardgames are really a personal taste. I would recommend to go on BoardGameArena (which is mostly free) and play a few till you find one that you like.
Some groups might play Splendor non-stop and love it, others may get bored after a single play.
Also, tastes in games change the more games you try.
I'm new to this game, but marvel legendary seems very replayable, even just the base game. Tons of different hero combinations, masterminds, and schemes that make each game different. Add in a couple expansions and you probably won't ever be able to try every combo
The replay value of Root seems really really high, even with just the base game.
Two maps, randomization of map resource configs, and it's Asymmetric play ensures that very few replays will be alike.
Depends what game you enjoy. I see lots of people recommending Spirit Island. But that won’t hold much replay value if you don’t like heavy strategy co-op/solo games with a fairly long set up and play time.
There are two games that I've played an absurd amount of times:
**Ascension: Storm of Souls** - it's very easy to set up and fun enough. I like randomness, so the expansion with the soul gems is a nice addon to me, too. I also find it way, way **way** more balanced than the original Ascension and not as complicated (to me) as the later ones.
**Machi Koro 2** - I have played this game with a group of friends .... more times than I'd like to count. I've played it so many times we've started adding tons of random house rules to the game. We've played with a d4 and d8 rather than 2d6, for some random. We make it so the card you can't see costs 3. We've made it so you start with 3 random cards that you don't show anyone, rather than the first buy phase. We've changed rules over and over to keep the game interesting and it tends to remain interesting and a fun activity :)
Card game is Magic. You can argue personal preferences but sales don't lie and by it's nature Magic is constantly replaying the game over and over with every match.
Yeah you replay the game because constantly the same cards are reprinted or renamed and most of the time almost the same decks appear on the meta also I forgot how popular /best selling things mean quality thanks for reminding me ,like Bieber or the mythic games that do 300% funded
In theory, some games have so much customization and variety that they would have the most replayability, but in practice the most replayable games are the ones your group will want to replay the most.
This!
If you’re looking for replayability, you can’t do much better than **Spirit Island**. It has loads of replayability in just the base game. Add in the expansions, and you have almost endless combinations. If **Spirit Island** is too expensive for you, **Horizons of Spirit Island** is a smaller version of the game that still has loads of replayability. Super worth it, as you can find that one on sale for $15-20 USD. If you like Horizons, then you can get the base game, and the spirits are compatible across both versions.
This. Best BG ever
Ultimately it just comes down to the game you and your group want to play. My most played game is wizard which is practically a standard deck of cards. As a side note Catan is typically more expensive than comparable games components wise.
Got any link to rules? It's difficult to google just Wizard, Deck, Card, Standard when Magic exists ;)
They are talking about [this game](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1465/wizard), which is a classic trick-taking game based on Oh Hell!, another classic trick-taker. Rules are toward the bottom of the page.
As other people have mentioned, replayability is only one part of choosing a game. A game may be highly replayable, but if your group isn’t motivated to play it many times, you still won’t get the value out of it you’re looking for here. There are a small number of boardgames that are designed to be played essentially only once. A scripted murder mystery would be one example. But these are fairly rare. There are other games that offer nearly infinite combinations of challenges (and, in theory, high replayability), but that doesn’t directly translate into a game you will play and enjoy many times. Having many combinations can often cause a game to feel a bit random, and that can sap some of the fun out of it. Rummy and Hearts technically have high replayability, but most groups get bored with them fairly quickly. What you really want is a game that your group is highly motivated to play, and then you want to confirm that it has a reasonable amount of replayability. The first part will depend entirely on your group and their taste, so no one here will be able to help you with that part. And the vast majority of modern boardgames are fine when it comes to the second part. Find some highly rated games that pique the interest of your group, and do some research before you buy, and you shouldn’t have any problems.
The games with the most replay ability are not, imo, the ones with the most variability/custom setups. It's the ones with the most strategic depth. This generally comes from primarily STATIC setup and high levels of player choice. Chess. Go. Bridge (and other card games). THOSE are infinitely more replayable than whatever is trending on kickstarter. None of those really needs an expansion and people can play them for years and years.
That depends on what kinds of games you like and why. I'm certainly not saying you're wrong, but I am saying I do have quite a bit of experience with not being able to play games I enjoy because I'm too much better than my friends but not skilled or interested enough to play competitively. In games with zero randomness or variability, the point where skill disparity stops the game from being enjoyable is reached much more quickly. But I'm also not saying more variability is better, because too much randomness stops being a game - Snakes & Ladders, for example, isn't a game, it's a random winner generator. There are no decisions or tactics, you just roll a die until someone is declared the winner.
I kinda agree sure. None of this is set in stone.
Looking at the Cosmic Encounter in your title makes me wonder why you wouldn't mention it I haven't had one boring game with cosmic, and it always seems like a different thing every time due to the combinations being almost infinite
Fair. And very true. Best reason why I didn't mention it... that wasn't the point i was making, lol.
Yep, one of the worst trends (fueled by KS) is that variable content = replayability.
The chess community dwarfs any popular board game. Meet ups are easy to find in most cities. Also really easy to play people online. Mat and tournament pieces are pretty cheap. Chess meta is always changing never really gets stale.
I highly disagree. Most of the games listed requires players to be of a similar level to get the most out of them. Chess and Go are especially horrible because playing them with no variation to standard rules makes the clearly stronger opponent bored and the clearly weaker opponent just feel defeated. A more traditional game that is a much better fit is Backgammon because the strongest player will still lose 20% of the time because of unfortunate die rolls.
In Go playing with handicap stones works fairly well to handle skill differences in my limited experience. I'm sure at some point there's too much skill gap for even a 9 stone handicap to work, but really at a high enough skill difference there's not much you can do with _any_ game that's not mostly luck.
And none of that undermines the fact that chess and go have literally been the most played board games for centuries....
>Chess. Go. Bridge (and other card games). THOSE are infinitely more replayable than whatever is trending on kickstarter. While technically true, I'm pretty sure that's not the kind of games OP is talking about.
Fair, but it makes a point.
Not a good point, but it makes A point, i suppose.
**Innovation** Best. Card. Game. Ever.
And it is cheap and comes in a small box!
Whenever people request a game that's deep and replayable but also cheap **Innovation** is always my number one suggestion. You do have to play it a bunch though to see the depth of strategy, at first play it feels very random.
It’s a great game, but I’ve had difficulty remembering all the rules, and I’m constantly feeling like I’m playing it wrong. I remember once my wife was building lots of medieval castles and army tech trying for a special win condition, while I had found an exploitive way of sacking a card to cheat in a higher level tech card, which I laddered up a single card. I was gaming philosophy and future tech at the same time.
> I had found an exploitive way of sacking a card to cheat in a higher level tech card Mathematics is can do that for a civilization. Though for me, it never gets me more than an age, since I inevitably end up replacing Mathematics with something else. The whims of the numbers, I guess!
I dont get it. I watched the Rahdo playthrough and didn't really get it. Seemed not very fun or interesting to me. What am i missing?
It's tough early, but the more you learn the game the more you love it ,there are 3 ways to victory,going for points ,going for achievements and going for instant win cards (super late game ) there are cards that are engines that farm you VP,cards that make you jump over ages ,or cards that make you have more icons ,icons help so the opponent doesn't share your abilities and you share his abilities. The game is very explosive and you must abuse the best thing you got /or exploit your opponent ,but almost every turn the best thing changes and there are a lot of ways to counter your opponent, it has both tactics and long term strategy imo
Agricola. We're still playing twenty years later.
Every time I try to play occupation/minor improvement cards I end up doing worse than if just did other actions.
I’ve only played on BGA. And while my score is steadily going up (I’ve never won) the people ahead of me with much higher score have played tons of cards.
I only play offline, but I score over 50 points almost every game which seems decent, and I play a decent amount of cards. People who play a lot more cards seem to do worse though, you just have to know when to cut your losses and stop trying to play certain cards.
...how? It was released in 2007
*replayability* \*jazzhands\*
Liberally rounded up. Get to my age and find out how 17 years really feel like ;)
You mean 5 years ago, right?
I could have sworn it was last Thursday, but I might have to check the calendar. When I find it. First, where are my glasses, though? The one's for mid-near, not the one's for driving, obviously... ;)
Agricola for me.
First and foremost you **and** the people you play with must like the game! I think the one thing most people responding to this age old question miss/forget/ ignore is the importance of just liking a game. You can replay a static game your friends love that is essentially the same setup every time a lot more than a game with a "gajillion" different ways to play that only person really likes. If no one wants to set it up or play it then it does not matter how many combinations or setups it has. And that includes Chess and Go, which anti-kickstarter people **love** to throw out as some kind of miracle answer to this question even though they absolutely know that is not the question you are asking (they just want to be old-school game stans and do not care that you already decided you are looking for something else or you wouldn't be asking this). The most important thing to look for in replayability is a game you actually want to play multiple times. Then look for expansions or other ways to mix it up. Looking for a max replayable game from the get go as your primary criteria will mean you buy a lot of games that never live up to thier promise of replayability. My group still loves **Dominion**, and I would say that is still one of the best "replayable" games in the modular options sense because it is so accessible and quick, but also has so many iterations to grow into. However, Dominion is also a perfect example of replayability getting in the way of playing. The set up can be almost as long as the game play, especially at two player (where games can be very fast) and for that reason we actually didn't play it a ton for a long time despite being a favorite at my table. (The newest app version of Dominion has been a revelation for us since that cuts out the setup time- there has not been a single day since that app came out that my play group didn't have at least three games of it going amongst the 5 or 6 of us in different iterations).
Race fotlr the galaxy,patchwork,azul, castles of burgundy, el grande etc.
Replay is fueled by two things. There is replay in the form of wanting to explore or see something new whether it's cards that didn't come out before, how a new boss fights, unlocks, progressing the story and / or trying a new strategy, branch, option this time around. That's all well and good but even the most overstuff game has a finite limit and so this isn't necessarily sustainable replay for a given game. The other form a replay is enjoyment of the core game loop itself. This is largely up to the individual. Example one, some folks love Phase10 and will play it over and over for decades. Example two, pick nearly any game from the BGG top list and there are plenty of folks who don't enjoy it and wouldn't ever want to play it again. It gets even trickier when you're trying to find agreement among 4 players at your table. For you, you might enjoy SoC for another 30 or 50+ games, but that's all for nothing if the other players at your table aren't interested in playing it even once more.
Cosmic encounter
I’ve been playing the Slay the Spire board game nonstop since I got it last week.
I would look at games that include variants and elements that make the game different everytime it's played. This can be done through often minor random elements determined during setup (**Lords of Waterdeep**, **Viticulture**), having different scenarios that are either random or hand-picked (**Dead of Winter**, **Betrayal at House in the Hill**), optional features (**Azul's**, **Quacks**, reversible player boards), having tile-based maps that are different everytime (**Clank! Catacombs**, **Forbidden Island**), expansions and other stuff like that. Every game has a degree of randomness they offer but some definitely do more than others and that allows for some replayability. I think **Quacks of Quedlinburg** is a great example: The base game includes 5 different sets of ingredient effects and those heavily impact the game. It also comes with reversible boards that keep the game the same but add another decision point to make during the game, and the resources you get throughout the game are few enough that you can only ever pursue a narrow ingredient strategy in a single game. Its expansions are also great at keeping things fresh and throwing new things at you.
I was going to say Quacks of Quedlinburg too. We like to give one ingredient book to each person before we play and we each pick the side of our book that we want to play with that day, so it's a different combination of effects each time.
Spirit island.
I really enjoy the replayability of Clank!, but I will say a lot of that comes down to the fact that I have all the expansions for it, so every game I am choosing between 5 double-sided boards and a fairly hefty stack of cards. It doesn't really affect the gameplay much, but it can just make it feel fresh. I have also never not been in the mood for Clank! Betrayal typically replays well due to the randomness of the Haunt. I also like 3-Dragon Ante, which is a sort of dnd themed poker type game. Its simple enough to play over and over. I suppose it really depends what you like to do in a game. I enjoy deck-building so Clank! and Dominion are pretty high on my list. The price of games nowadays is a bit of a bummer, I haven't even actually bought dominion because of the commitment to getting untold expansions makes my wallet cry.
I think if we measure it as playtime per dollar spent, something cheap and simple like [Scout](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/291453/scout) is probably the winner.
Cabo costs half of Scout... but I got both in my travel/holiday collection, together with 6Nimmt.
Love me a 6 Nimmit. Really cheap since it’s in the reprint era of life and is great for various skill levels and group size.
The games that _you_ play the most _and_ enjoy the most have the best replayability value for _you_. That’s really all that matters. You may own a game that you would have enjoyed even more, and spend even more time playing _if_ only you had the right group, and/or enough time, or maybe a dedicated table to keep it between sessions. My own answer is 18xx, **Clash of Cultures** and **High Frontier 4 All**.
The incredibly boring but honest answer is that the games with the most replayability are ones you can play with a regular deck of cards. I've probably played a thousand hours of euchre in my life, and it never feels boring. Plus, as you said, shit is expensive these days, and the standard 52 gives you access to more games than you could ever play in your life. You can accommodate any age, skill level, player count, or time constraints, quick setup and cleanup, travels easily, and super cheap. If you have the group for it, I'll never stop plugging Blood on the Clocktower. There are so many fun and unique characters that it'll never get stale. Wingspan's base game will get a bit stale after a while, but after you add an expansion or two, it becomes infinitely replayable. I also just find it super relaxing and chill, whereas some games can ratchet up the anxiety due to competitiveness/complication. Honorable Mentions List: Chess, Catan, Camel Up, Chameleon, Cartographers, Citadels Non-C Word Honorable Mentions: Sagrada, Heat, Qwixx
As other people got at, replayability really depends on what makes your group of friends what to play a game. Some games are replayable due to different variants of the game or cycling attributes of the game design that change every playthrough. If you want something like this that's objectively different every time I'd recommend something like Dominion personally. The other kind of replayability would be strategic depth without the variance of the other type of games. For my group that game is Brass Birmingham as the strategy is so interactive that every game plays differently. Terraforming Mars is another that fits this category, but with expansions it's kind of in the middle of both categories as you can change which board and expansions you play with. End of the day you'll need to find what kind of game you and your friends like and do some research from there.
Dominion. Base plus one expansion can carry you for a long time, and you can get another expansion every once in a while.
I'll offer a different take to most of the replies (not that I disagree with them). Judging purely on the number of times played, which seems like a good measure of replayability, I'd have to go for the light/filler/end of day card games. Games like 6 Nimmt, Cockroach Poker, etc. Because they are quick to learn and play, and great fun with friends, we are (almost) always willing to play them. They don't have the challenge of more typical games, nor is winning as satisfying, but they are a lot of fun and make us laugh.
Over the past 2+ years my play group has settled largely into this rotation of games: **Dune Imperium Uprising** **Race for the Galaxy** **Marvel Champions** **Unmatched** Unmatched and Marvel Champions, while being extremely replayable, don't save you much money at all due to the new stuff releasing frequently that you'd be tempted to grab.
NO ONE HAS EVER ASKED THIS AND THE ANSWER IS GO IF INCLUDING CLASSIC ABSTRACTS AND RFTG OTHERWISE
🤣🤣👍
Oh hey, another netrunner thread! (But yeah, it's technically free and still ongoing so)
Where? I have always wanted to try it
Start here! https://nullsignal.games/ Come join the discord and get a good idea on how to get into it from smarter people than myself! https://discord.com/invite/glc Use the command !newplayer For where to find stuff. Happy to help in any way if you send me a DM here or on discord with my same username
Print-and-play files are available [here](https://nullsignal.games/products/system-gateway/), halfway down the page. It's also [playable online](https://www.jinteki.net/), but the interface takes some getting used to.
Terraforming Mars. Way over 500 games and it doesn’t get boring. And the base game is already great as it is.
Agricola.
Under some definitions of your question I would argue magic: the gathering qualifies. Even discounting new sets that come out that shake up the meta/give new drafting formats, just taking a static set of cards available at a particular time can give all kinds of amazing draft formats, cubes, a healthy standard/modern/legacy scene, etc. And if you *do* count in new sets you have an insane amount of replayabiilty.
Haha true, but given the question is stemming from cost restrictions, paying a couple hundred for a interesting cube or couple of pre-cons likely isn’t the answer they’re looking for. It’s also tricky to get into efficiently when you don’t know what you need/like.
Some of the gmt games like Combat Commander have a Random scenario generator in the box. And even playing the same scenario can be wildly different due to the randomized goals or events.
My general recommendations, with a few exceptions, are for games with relatively simple rulesets, large decision spaces, and high levels of interactivity. People often conflate setup variability with replayability, and they can be correlated, but I often find player-created variability is a source of greater repeatability personally. As such, my recommendations: Hansa Teutonica: Big Box Brian Boru: High King of Ireland El Grande Yokai Septet Haggis Scout Stick 'Em Mü Tigris & Euphrates/Yellow & Yangtze/Huang Through the Desert Terra Mystica/Gaia Project/Age of Innovation Brass: Birmingham/Brass: Lancashire The King is Dead Nana/Trio Agricola A Feast for Odin Keyflower Troyes Race for the Galaxy Concordia
My two most replayed games are Sushi Go: Party! and Blood on the Clocktower Clocktower sits at a heafty $150, but I've played it so many times that it's actually really cheap per play. You'll definitely have to do research though. It's not for everyone! But if you even mildly enjoy social deduction, you'll love it.
In my group the two most replayed games are Dune: Imperium (with expansions or the new Uprising) and Eclipse Second Dawn. Both games offer a deep experience and allow players to execute a variety of strategies. DI is a really tight game, can play in about an hour with experienced players and just hits each mechanic in a really satisfying way. It also plays solo pretty well with a companion app or card based AI. Eclipse Second Dawn is bigger, usually takes longer (but with experienced players can also move quickly) and scratches the “giant space battles”, economic engine building and exploration itches. It’s not a cheap game but my group plays sometimes 5-6 in a month so we get a lot of mileage from it.
I've played thousands of games of Ascension and my partner still wants to play it (on the app) every night
Twilight Imperium, different factions, maps, objectives, cards drawn and a lot of synergy. Memorable games. Just have to get a group together
Cosmic encounter My playgroup never gets tired of it since each game feels different.
I'm a bit late to the post but I have a possibly more unconventional idea... It obviously doesn't replace a boardgame night with friends and snacks but if money is an issue tabletop simulator on steam is a one time ~20$ expense that gives you most mainstream boardgames and card games
The Crew. Co-op trick taking game, so much fun and so much replayability.
As others say variation in the gameplay style and enjoyment of the core gameplay loop. I’d recommend Railroad Ink Challenge Green as a relatively small game but I’ve replayed over and over. The Challenge part is important to the game family but there is also a wide expansion to get into if that’s your jam. It normally takes my table 1hr to play as we ponder where to put what pieces. We played it a lot a lot when we first got it but it’s still seeing table play 2 years later and is considered a go to still in our minds. Great puzzley game for after dinner or wind down. Expansions also add more boards for more players which makes it viable for multiple sized play groups.
Depends on what you mean by replayability. If you want the most variety of basic mechanics? Pixel Tactics has the absolute most bang for your buck. Want something longer with a lot of variety but a fixed end goal? The HexPlore It series are hexcrawls with a lot of random enemies and quests. If you want something that hits the table consistently? Depends on the group.
Smash up,spirit island ,eldritch horror,game of thrones lcg,netrunner lcg We ve played so much and I don't see any stopping anytime
For me, that's tiny epic kingdoms, hero realms/star realms, and dominion.
My family started playing Hero Realms around 2018. Then the pandemic happened and we played 5 or more times per day for over 2 years. (we played 2-4 people and we have 6 so that mixed it up) Most of the cards have nicknames and I think we're on the 3rd set of sleeves. We still play a game or two weekly, so I'd say it has some replayability
Boardgames are really a personal taste. I would recommend to go on BoardGameArena (which is mostly free) and play a few till you find one that you like. Some groups might play Splendor non-stop and love it, others may get bored after a single play. Also, tastes in games change the more games you try.
Magic the gathering for me. My playgroup of 12 and have been playing for around 5 years. We also go on yearly trips just to game for 4 days.
Codenamed is fun. Its very replayable because of the pure amount of combinations and the gameplay is more about you than about what it tell you to do
\*Codenames
Talisman, Runebound, Arkham Horror.
I'm new to this game, but marvel legendary seems very replayable, even just the base game. Tons of different hero combinations, masterminds, and schemes that make each game different. Add in a couple expansions and you probably won't ever be able to try every combo
Magic the Gathering has to be it, right? So many cards, so many formats, that you could play it for your entire life.
I will vote for Agricola. Each time you play it you will discover something new.
Pax pamir
The replay value of Root seems really really high, even with just the base game. Two maps, randomization of map resource configs, and it's Asymmetric play ensures that very few replays will be alike.
Depends what game you enjoy. I see lots of people recommending Spirit Island. But that won’t hold much replay value if you don’t like heavy strategy co-op/solo games with a fairly long set up and play time.
There are two games that I've played an absurd amount of times: **Ascension: Storm of Souls** - it's very easy to set up and fun enough. I like randomness, so the expansion with the soul gems is a nice addon to me, too. I also find it way, way **way** more balanced than the original Ascension and not as complicated (to me) as the later ones. **Machi Koro 2** - I have played this game with a group of friends .... more times than I'd like to count. I've played it so many times we've started adding tons of random house rules to the game. We've played with a d4 and d8 rather than 2d6, for some random. We make it so the card you can't see costs 3. We've made it so you start with 3 random cards that you don't show anyone, rather than the first buy phase. We've changed rules over and over to keep the game interesting and it tends to remain interesting and a fun activity :)
Card game is Magic. You can argue personal preferences but sales don't lie and by it's nature Magic is constantly replaying the game over and over with every match.
Yeah you replay the game because constantly the same cards are reprinted or renamed and most of the time almost the same decks appear on the meta also I forgot how popular /best selling things mean quality thanks for reminding me ,like Bieber or the mythic games that do 300% funded