What are some common components found in board games? There’s the board, of course. There are also meeples, cards, and dice. But today we’re going to be looking at tiles and tiles placement games. There are few moments in board gaming as satisfying as the snap of a tile being placed in a perfect fit where needed to complete a set, to fill out a board or to block an attack. This is appeal of tile placement, so let’s explore some of the best tile placement board games.
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The Best Tile Placement Board Games
Buy the Carcassonne Board Game
Carcassonne
No list of the best tile placement games would be complete without a mention of Carcassonne – the multiple award-winning game that introduced tile placement to so many players. You draw a tile, and place it on the table to create the city of Carcassonne and the French landscape surrounding it. Score points by using tiles to complete castles, connect roads or expand farm land. This is an ideal family game – simple enough for children, but with enough depth to keep adults entertained. We highly recommend it!
Average Playtime: 30-45 minutes
Recommended Age: 7+
Number of Players: 2-5
Difficulty (BGG Weight): 1.89/5
The Castles of Burgundy
Castles of Burgundy is a masterclass in elegant game design. It is also very accessible and extremely fun. Players use dice to acquire settlement tiles, and place them on their player boards to build out their kingdoms. Placing a tile can give victory points, and can trigger other tiles that give additional victory points or some other boon. Players also receive points for completely filling regions of their kingdoms. The player with the most victory points wins the game. Some say this is more than one of the best tile placement games – that it is instead one the best games of all time.
Average Playtime: 30-90 minutes minutes
Recommended Age: 12+
Number of Players: 2-4
Difficulty (BGG Weight): 2.99/5
Buy the Patchwork Board Game
Patchwork
This is quilting, the board game. We know that doesn’t sound like the most exciting theme for a game – unless you’re into quilting! But there’s a very good reason the game is on this list – it’s really great, and as a 2-player game, it is especially popular with couples. Players compete to make the best quilt by selecting and placing polynomial (Tetris-like shapes) quilt patches on their player boards. The patches you place provide buttons, which represent victory points and are used to purchase more quilting patches. This is a smooth, quick and relaxing game that is perfect for unwinding in the evenings.
Average Playtime: 15-30 minutes
Recommended Age: 8+
Number of Players: 2
Difficulty (BGG Weight): 1.61/5
Azul
Azul is a game of decorating Portuguese palaces with ornate tiles. The tiles are randomly drawn from a bag and placed in the centre of the table. Players take turns selecting tiles and placing them on their player boards with the goal of creating patterns and completing sets to score victory points. Game play is as easy as that. But the challenge comes from receiving negative points for failing to complete patterns and having unused tiles. And of course, you can take that tile needed most by another player, leaving them with many wasted tiles, and lots of negative points. Of all the tile placement board games on this list, Azul has the chunkiest and most beautiful tiles for placing.
Average Playtime: 30-45 minutes
Recommended Age: 8+
Number of Players: 2-4
Difficulty (BGG Weight): 1.76/5
Buy the AZUL Board Game
Suburbia
Players start with their own little town, represented by three building tiles each has in front of them. From there, players buy and place additional tiles into their towns to grow them into large cities. How the town grows has the effect of increasing or decreasing a player’s income and reputation – income is used to buy more tiles, and reputation attracts people to live in the city. Parks and schools increase reputation but decrease income, while industrial facilities increase income but decrease reputation. Balance city growth with income growth, while trying to maintain a good reputation. Population represents victory points, and the player with the largest population at the end of the game is the winner.
Average Playtime: 60 – 90 minutes
Recommended Age: 8+
Number of Players: 1 – 4
Difficulty (BGG Weight): 2.77/5
Galaxy Trucker
Galaxy Trucker is a fast paced and challenging game of building spaceships that will survive dangerous encounters as they trek through the galaxy. But it’s a game that doesn’t take itself too seriously, resulting in lots of laughs and a good time for all. The game is played in two distinct phases. The first phase is real-time ship building, with players frantically grabbing tiles representing spaceship parts and trying to fit them into their spaceship. The second phase of the game has the ships flying through space, fighting pirates, dodging asteroids and collecting cargo to earn credits – all while the ships get bashed to pieces. The player with the most credits is the winner.
Average Playtime: 20-30 minutes
Recommended Age: 8+
Number of Players: 2 – 4
Difficulty (BGG Weight): 2.30/5
Samurai
The classic tile placement game of Japanese warlords vying for control of feudal Japan. The game board is a map of Japan, and players take turns placing their tiles onto the map to try and earn the favour of three different factions – priests, farmers and samurai. Each faction is represented by different statues that players collect. At the conclusion of the game, players compare how many statues of each faction they have. The player who has the most statues of two of the three factions is the winner.
Average Playtime: 30-60 minutes
Recommended Age: 10+
Number of Players: 2 – 4
Difficulty (BGG Weight): 2.47/5
We Have The Best Tile Placement Games & More!
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