Top 10 Longest Board Games

Sometimes there’s nothing better than to sit down with family and friends on a rainy day and spend the day on a good old fashioned board game. Today we’re going to look at the top 10 longest board games of all time, – I’d suggest you put aside some time in your diary for this one

10) Risk: 4.5 hours

Ah Risk a classic fan favourite, although many of the fans have never played the full game – or at least cheated halfway through. You can shorten the game by using the “secret missions” within the game, but we’re here for the long-haul dammit – let’s conquer the world. The main strategy for this one is the control of continents as you get bonus troops per turn, my personal favourite is Oceania as it’s easy to control and protect and gives you a steady stream of troops for all your dictatorial needs.

9) Star Wars Rebellion: 5 hours

In Star Wars Rebellion the player commands star ships, accounts for troop movements, and rally the galaxy to your cause whether it be through love or fear. You play as either the Empire or Rebels, hunter or prey. As the empire to win, you need to crush the Rebel Alliance by finding its base and destroying it. as the Rebels you need to survive long enough to strengthen your reputation, when star systems know they can trust in you the galaxy goes into a full-scale revolt – what’s the death start going to do about that?

8) Monopoly Longest Game Ever Edition: 6 hours

You’ve really got to be a masochist to enjoy this one. The normal nightmare inducing variety of monopoly can last up to 2 hours depending on how lucky – or unlucky – your dice rolling is. Hasbro decided that the fun wouldn’t stop here and created the longest game ever edition. Ironically this version has less properties, 22, compared to the normal 28 properties – so how is it longer? Each of the 22 properties has 3 “versions” so in actuality, there are 66 properties! The game ends when you have every single property in hand, so you can see how this one might drag on a little at 2 a.m. the morning after Christmas.

7 Ages: 7 hours

7 ages, does well, takes ages. You’ll be looking to put aside 7 hours to play this game – ironically enough – start to finish. Essentially you play as the head of a dynasty and help guide your kingdom through history. There are points for scientific, religious and cultural advances. The game takes place over 6000 years of human history, so in a way we’re lucky that we only have to play for 7 hours. You’ll find this game quite similar to the civilization board game, only this one is a bit longer.

6) Gloomhaven: 8 hours+

This is one of the newer titles on this list published in 2017. There is certainly a clear trend that over the last 50 years the average length of board game has decreased to help keep the attention span of the player. Back to Gloomhaven, sometimes likened to dungeons and dragons there are 95 unique playable scenarios, and 17 playable classes. This is something you’ll really want to get your hands on currently at number 1 on board game geek. This one was a bit hard to place, one game can be as short as 90 minutes by the game is so diverse and each of the scenarios is a new playing experience – It certainly deserves a place on the list.

5) Pandemic Legacy: 6-12 hours

We’re starting to get into some of the lengthier games here, best put aside a whole day for this one. Each game is one month of time in the campaign which takes you through a year on a hellish earth. If the players achieve their objectives they move on to the next month, if they lose, they try again. However, you move on to the next month regardless of what happens in the second game – so you don’t get stuck in July for 4 hours straight. With one game/month lasting 45-60 mins you can see where the time goes; best bit you can play it in parts and come back later. For me, the most interesting mechanic is that the campaign is an ongoing storyline, this means the game board and rules change permanently after each game whether you did well or not in the previous month.

4) Twilight Imperium: 8-14 hours

No vampires in this one unfortunately. This game has gone through a lot of changes since it was first released in 1997 all those years ago. I’d recommend playing the 4^th edition from 2017, the system is much more refined and is vastly different from its predecessors. There are up to 25 different factions to play as with vastly different play styles, if you enjoy this game, you might have made an investment for life. There are public and secret goals which you work towards to eventually have enough victory points to rule the galaxy.

3) The 7^th Continent: 20-80 hours

It’s getting a bit hard to judge the games this far down the list, it depends how many players are playing and how complicated you make it for yourselves. A game can be as short as 5 minutes, but as long as 80 hours. This game is all about exploring, you discover the trials and tribulations of this new wilderness through a variety of terrain and event cards. What’s quite fun is that there is an inbuilt saving system, a bit like a video game, so you can tidy up once it’s time for dinner!

2) World in Flames: 20-100 hours

This game simulates the major conflicts of WW2 over 5 fronts focusing in the European and Pacific theatres. This game has everything a budding general would want: There are 3 combat systems; air, sea, land; supply; weather; and industrial output all play a part in this world domination strategy game. Just try not to lose anything, there are over 1000 counters in the box! The sheer number of pieces you need to keep track of can make the game incredibly complicated.

1) The Campaign for North Africa: 1500 hours

From 5 fronts to 1, our final entry on the list takes a whopping 1500 hours to complete. One reviewer – and only God knows how long he spent on this review – Luke Winkie said: “If you and your group meets for three hours at a time, twice a month, you’d wrap up the campaign in about 20 years”. This is not unsurprising, it’s a board game that simulates the entire North Africa Campaign of World War II which lasted almost 3 years between mid-1940 and 1943. The game markets itself as “designed for maximum realism” and so is hyper-detailed on all aspects of gameplay. A must play for the history buffs among us, but make sure you don’t fall out with your friends between now and the next 10 years or you might never finish it.

Conclusion

Its quite clear to see the trend of the top 10 longest board games. The Campaign for North Africa and World in flames both come in at numbers 1 and 2, published in 1978 and 1985 respectively they came about in an era when board games were designed to be longer. since the 90s board games have become more streamlined. There is no longer an intrest in hyper-realism . While some modern games do go into lots of detail, like Gloom haven, these are few and far between – maybe that’s what makes so successful in recent years because it breaks the modern trend.

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