Amazon Prime Day’s board game sale is the best we’ve seen in years

Photo: Charlie Hall/Polygon Gloomhaven, Disney Villainous, Twilight Imperium and more strategy games are on deep discount When Amazon Prime Day arrives, the board games included in the festivities always seem like a bit of an afterthought. Not so this time around. Amazon’s second Prime Day of 2022 is bringing the heat with an excellent selection of critically acclaimed modern board games. There’s also a solid assortment of older titles to refresh the family game closet. Here’s our picks for the very best games available this week. 7 Wonders — one of the most influential board games of the decade — is available for $29.99, a 50% discount. So to is it’s recently-released two-player iteration, 7 Wonders Duel, priced at a very affordable $19.59, or 35% off. Both Azul, an excellent tile-laying game that looks beautiful on the table, is 44% off at $22.49. Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion is down to $37.95, a 24% discount. It’s an abbreviated take on Gloomhaven, the wildly popular role-playing campaign in a box that has literally changed the face of board gaming over the last five years. Instead of nearly 20-pounds of stuff, however, Jaws of the Lion is a much more beginner-friendly experience. Just be sure to click the box for the base game, not the Forgotten Circles expansion. Descent: Legends of the Dark is more than 40% off at $97.99. This is another high-concept campaign in a box, but it comes with a lavish assortment of cardboard scenery. Even if you’re not interested in the game (which is excellent, mind you), this is still a decent price for some fun tabletop terrain and exotic figures to try your hand at miniatures painting. Dune, from Gale Force Nine, is down to $39.98 (20% off), and I can’t recommend it enough. This is a remaster of the 1979 strategy classic using fan-made art and I’m still sour that I spent more than $300 building my own a decade ago. (Again, be sure to click the button for the base game, not the expansion.) Mansions of Madness 2nd Edition is just $87.99 (20% off). This app-enabled game (think digital Dungeon Master) and is an excellent next step for anyone familiar with Betrayal at House on the Hill. Mysterium, a game about holding a séance for a ghost, also gets a discount just in time for the spooky season. It’s down more than 50% to $27.29. Pandemic is the quintessential gateway board game. It’s just $24.99, or 38% off. Scythe is going for $61.39 (23% off). This elegant and demanding strategy game rewards multiple playthroughs with a dedicated group, and this is one of the lowest prices we’ve ever seen. Twilight Imperium 4th Edition is also on sale, down to $92.49 (44% off). One of the biggest and longest board games around, it’s the product that put Fantasy Flight Games on the map and home to one of the very best communities in all of board gaming. Finally, there are two game series that are heavily discounted during this sale: Disney Villainous and Catan, with discounts ranging from 30% to more than 50%. Here’s a quick list of the titles going on sale: Catan Catan (base game) for $33.49 (32% off) Catan Extension (allows 5 or 6 players) for $18.49 (26% off) Catan Seafarers for $39.99 (39% off) Catan Explorers and Pirates for $30.99 (44% off) Catan Traders and Barbarians for $30.99 (48% off) Catan Junior for $19.49 (44% off) Catan Histories: Settlers of America for $56.11 (20% off) Disney Villainous Disney Villainous (Captain Hook, Maleficent, Jafar, Ursula, Queen of Hearts, and Prince John) for $34.99 (more than 13% off) Disney Villainous: Despicable Plots (Gaston, Lady Tremaine, and the Horned King) for $27.13 (10% off) Disney Villainous: Bigger and Badder (Syndrome, Lotso, and Madam Mim) for $19.99 (33% off) We’ll update this story throughout the day as prices change, or when more board games are added to the promotion.