5 Best Strategy Games for Families Who Love a Challenge

Who doesn’t love a bit of friendly competition? If your family is looking for a challenge then strategy games are the perfect answer. These games offer entertainment for those playing as well as watching.

We’ve played a lot of games in our family, some winners and some losers. Here are our top picks for strategy games. These are games that get better and better the more you play.

You don’t need to be an expert to enjoy them either. Young kids and adults can pick them up and have fun. As long as you can grasp the basics, you can develop strategies to win.

This was one of the first strategy games I ever played. It’s a classic board game that still holds up today. Risk is a strategy game where you use your armies to take over the world.

Battles are handled by dice rolls. The attacker and defender roll dice to determine a winner. While luck plays a role in evenly matched battles, larger armies almost always prevail.

Everyone is given equal army to start. But as the game progresses, players focus on certain regions and concentrate their armies there. Smaller regions are easier to defend but yield fewer armies. While larger regions are hard to keep but produce larger armies.

Cards are also earned every round. Once a matched set is acquired, they can be turned in for a large army. Whether your strategy is slow and steady or a quick blitz, each has its advantages or disadvantages.

Risk is definitely one of the best strategy board games out there. The attacking, defending, and strategizing are an engaging form of entertainment. If you’re interested in strategy games, then Risk is worth looking into.

This is another board game based on war. In Stratego the goal is to capture the opponents flag. The catch is you can’t see each others pieces. The pieces include troops ranked from 1 to 9, plus a spy, bombs, and of course, a flag.

The game starts by placing all your pieces in a strategic manner. Obviously, your flag needs well defended by bombs, or low ranking troops. Once the board is set you can start moving pieces.

When two pieces are brought together, the lowest rank always wins. It cases of ties, both are eliminated. Certain pieces have special abilities to aid you in capturing the opponents flag.

For example, the spy can take the number 1. But any piece can take the spy. The number 8 can remove bombs and the number 9 can move more than one space at a time.

It’s somewhat like checkers or chess, in that you wear down each others forces as the game progresses. However, if the flag is captured at any point the game is over.

There’s a lot of strategy involved in the initial placement of all your pieces. Discovering where your opponent placed low ranking pieces and bombs are also involves a great deal of strategy.

While Risk is for 2-6 players, Stratego is for 2 players only. It isn’t as complex as chess, but is much more involved than checkers. If you’re looking for a two player strategy game then Stratego is an excellent choice.

A surprisingly fun strategy game for 4 players is Blokus. In this game players have 21 different shaped pieces they have to place on a square board. The catch is your pieces can only touch at the corners. Pieces of the same color are not allowed to touch along any side. They can however touch other colors alongside each other.

The idea is to place all your pieces before space on the board runs out. Blocking your opponents from placing their pieces is the name of the game. There’s definitely a strategy to placing oddly shaped pieces to fill in every possible space on the board.

Once the board is full and no more pieces can be placed. The player with the fewest pieces wins. Whether your strategy is ruthlessly blocking others or co-operatively filling as much space on the board as possible, Blokus is a great strategy game.

This board game is a great introduction to strategy games. It’s a simple two player game like checkers, but with a few simple strategies. The idea is to connect four pieces in a row, vertically, horizontally, or diagonally.

Each player takes turns dropping checkers in a vertical board. Players build up two or three in a row in hopes of getting that fourth piece placed to connect four.

Games can be fast paced or slow. Both are entertaining. It’s surprising how many tricks there are to connecting four. Although, many times a stalemate is decided by chance. If neither player gains an advantage and the board is running out of space. It comes down to who is forced to play the piece that loses the game.

While Connect Four is a two player game, it’s great for tournaments involving many people. Whether it’s an elimination tournament or just the winner keeps playing, Connect Four is an entertaining board game.

This classic strategy game is also based on war. The idea is to sink your opponents fleet before yours is sunk. Each player takes turns calling out shots on a grid, which either hit or miss a ship. The first player to sink all 5 ships wins.

The game begins by placing all your ships on the grid. While there’s a huge temptation to cheat, you’re not supposed to move your ships once placed. Once both sides place their ships on board only they can see. Players can start calling out shots.

Another temptation is to lie and reply miss, when it’s clearly a hit. The entertainment value of this game certainly relies on the integrity of each player. If the players are honest, it’s a fun game. If not it can make for a frustrating game night.

Those are the 5 best strategy games our family has found for families who love a challenge. These are strategy games we enjoy playing. Some are only two players. Yet, watching or having a tournament is also an option in those cases. Either way, these strategy games are great fun for families who enjoy a challenge.

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