8 Award-Worthy Board Games That Start With A

From abstract classics to modern strategy hits, these are the best-known board games beginning with A.

Every game below is listed with the details that actually decide whether it suits your table: player count, playing time, the age it works from, and who designed it.

Board Games Starting With A at a Glance

Azul

2-4 players · 30-45 min · Age 8+ · Michael Kiesling, 2017

Players draft coloured tiles from factory displays and lay them on a personal board to recreate the azulejos that decorate Portuguese palaces. The catch is that every tile you take leaves the remainder for the next player, so a good move for you is usually a gift to someone. It won the Spiel des Jahres in 2018 and the tiles themselves are among the most satisfying components in the hobby.

Agricola

1-5 players · 30-150 min · Age 12+ · Uwe Rosenberg, 2007

You begin with two farmers, a wooden hut and a bare field, and must feed your family at intervals that arrive faster than you would like. Worker placement spaces are contested and single-use, so being second to a space you needed is genuinely painful. It is the design that pushed heavy Euro games into the mainstream and it remains unforgiving in a way modern farming games rarely are.

Arkham Horror

1-6 players · 120-240 min · Age 14+ · Richard Launius and Kevin Wilson, 2005

Investigators move around 1920s Arkham sealing dimensional gates before an Ancient One wakes. It is long, fiddly and generous with story, and its reputation rests on the narrative that emerges rather than on tight mechanics. The 1987 original was also by Launius; the 2005 edition is the one most people mean.

Abalone

2 players · 30 min · Age 7+ · Michel Lalet and Laurent Levi, 1987

Two players push lines of marbles across a hexagonal board, and you win by shoving six of your opponent’s off the edge. Because a line of three can push a line of two, the whole game is about massing force while staying compact. The rules take under a minute to explain and the strategy takes considerably longer.

Acquire

2-6 players · 90 min · Age 12+ · Sid Sackson, 1964

Players place tiles that found and grow hotel chains, buy stock in them, and collect bonuses when chains are absorbed in a merger. The clever part is that you profit from companies you do not control, so the game is about reading where value will land rather than owning everything. It is more than sixty years old and still the reference point for stock-market board games.

Alhambra

2-6 players · 45-60 min · Age 8+ · Dirk Henn, 2003

You buy building tiles from a market using four currencies, and paying the exact amount lets you take another turn immediately. Scoring rewards having the most of each building type, so the tension is between grabbing what is cheap and building what scores. It won the Spiel des Jahres in 2003.

Apples to Apples

4-10 players · 30-60 min · Age 12+ · Matthew Kirby and Mark Alan Osterhaus, 1999

A judge turns up an adjective and everyone plays a noun card they think fits best, with the judge picking a winner on whatever basis amuses them. Because the judgement is openly subjective, the skill is in reading the person judging rather than the card. It is the direct ancestor of Cards Against Humanity, and it is the version you can play with family.

Axis & Allies

2-5 players · 180+ min · Age 12+ · Larry Harris, 1981

Grand strategy across the whole Second World War, with production, combined arms and dice-driven combat. It is the game that introduced a generation to wargaming without a rulebook the size of a phone directory, and a full game genuinely takes an afternoon. Many editions exist; the 1942 and Europe 1940 versions are the usual modern starting points.

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