10 Most Beautiful Board Games

7. Azul Summer Pavilion *

Abstract strategy games, i.e. games with no overt story elements beyond conflict or relatable setting beyond the board, are often visually striking, all geometric shapes, and patterned playing areas.

After all, if your gameplay is solely reliant on playing pieces, they should at least look the business. And when it comes to playing pieces looking the business, the Azul family of games are probably the industry leader.

The original Azul was a game about creating beautiful portuguese mosaic quilty lovely grids made of these wonderful chunky tiles, that was followed with the Azul: Stained glass of sintra, which was more tile-laying but loads more delicious looking, I’ve never wanted to eat a boardgame more, and then comes potentially the prettiest yet, Azul: Summer Pavillion, all about using these chunky lovely diamonds to fill in this fresco style board, chaining combos together and generally creating something that so bloody nice.

Isn’t this nice? It’s just nice! Making a little puzzle. It’s nice. Board games are nice.