These inventive and difficult board games push their players both mentally and even physically since they often require many long hours to complete. There are even fun banned board games that give thrills and change how people view these games. These board games force players to depend on their skills over blind luck and learn how to handle losing and act and make the right choices under stressful circumstances.

Updated December 15, 2022, by Via Erhard: Thanks to some of the most complicated board games of all time, players can go on epic adventures with their friends and family and explore enchanting fantasy worlds, solve challenging mysteries, and uncover the darkest secrets of humanity’s past and future. Board game fans can test their critical thinking and strategic skills while getting lost in the worlds of some of the most complex board games that prove to be difficult, even for seasoned gamers. These entertaining but challenging board games provide unforgettable and thoroughly stimulating experiences for casual and experienced board game lovers alike.

12 Mage Knight Board Game

Mage Knight Board Game is one of the most complex board games for adults who love fantasy RPGs. It’s one of the most difficult board games that gamers can not only play in teams but solo as well and go on an unforgettable adventure while exploring and conquering the cities of this dark fantasy world.

Players will have to get comfortable with the game’s many and fairly complex rules to learn how to build their Knight’s abilities. It’s also one of the best board games for Catan fans, who loved that game for its complexity and wonder. Gamers will get to travel, and explore caves and dark dungeons while building their army and casting deadly spells to defeat their enemies and conquer the Mage Knight universe.

11 Magic Realm

Magic Realm is one of the oldest and most complex RPG board games that will take its players on a suspenseful and thrilling fantasy adventure. Players will get immersed in a meticulously crafted fantasy world filled with treasures, monsters, and of course, powerful warriors and magicians.

RELATED: The Best Marvel Board Games

Gamers will get to become true adventurers and become one of the sixteen major characters of this magical realm. Even though it’s a complex and often difficult game, it’s also a deeply immersing and entertaining one that’s perfect for fantasy lovers who are ready to make a name for themselves while battling monsters and hunting for the treasures of a lost civilization.

10 Gaia Project

Gaia Project is one of the most complicated board games for adults who love complex space and sci-fi tabletop games. It’s a great option for sci-fi lovers who are looking for tougher and more challenging board games that’ll not only entertain them but test their skills.

Gamers will get to explore many different factions, interesting planets as well as alien species while developing, researching, and terraforming neighboring planets as well as competing with other groups. Thanks to Gaia Project’s complexity and the fascinating variety of its alien species, it has a great replay value too.

9 Gloomhaven

Gloomhaven is one of the most popular and complex board games for adults with a dark and adventures-filled world. Players will have to defeat monsters and use their strategic thinking skills if they want to survive and win this tactical combat game.

RELATED: Top Board Games Based On Gaming Franchises

Gamers will get to explore forgotten ruins and dark dungeons and deal with ever-shifting motives while taking the place of an adventurer who has to use their special abilities while exploring the darkest corners of this dangerous but thrilling game. Players will also have to make tough decisions that’ll determine how their story continues. Gloomhaven is a difficult but highly entertaining board game that’ll keep even the most experienced gamers on their toes at all times.

8 Scythe

Scythe is one of the most beautifully designed and fairly difficult board games for The Witcher fans. It’s set in an alternate version of Europe in the 1920s. It’s a complex board game for adults about war and farming in which players will have to use their courage and ingeniousness to represent and restore their honor and lead their people to power in Eastern Europe.

It’s a fairly short game; it takes around 115 minutes to complete, but it’s hard to play correctly because of the difficult rules. Players will have to perfect their strategic and engine-building skills while trying to control as many territories as possible and use resources wisely.

7 Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective

Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective is one of the greatest detective board games of all time that lets its players experience some of their favorite Sherlock stories and even go after iconic serial killers like Jack the Ripper. It’s a beautiful and entertaining game that’s filled with mysteries and requires the players to use and improve their deduction skills.

Players will have to get lost in these intriguing stories and solve clues, examine objects, and talk to characters to collect more information and evidence. What makes the game especially difficult is that players will have to figure out which information matters and what’s just clutter. While it’s a difficult board game, it’s also a highly entertaining and immersive one.

6 Through The Ages: A Story Of Civilization

Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization is one of the most complex board games where players progress through ages and have to build their own empires. This complicated civilization-building game requires its players to focus on managing a wide range of resources, food, science, and of course, military progression, so they can win their wars and progress faster.

Players will be able to visit five different Ages, and they will have to find new and creative ways to progress their civilization in ways that work best for that time period. Fans will also have to construct buildings, colonize new territories, and create their workers who’ll build their impressive empire.

5 Eldritch Horror

While Eldritch Horror is complex, it’s still one of the spookiest and most fun party board games for Halloween that’ll both challenge and entertain adult guests too. Players will go on an unforgettable Lovecraftian horror adventure filled with mysteries and supernatural creatures.

Gamers can step into the shoes of some of the most world-renowned traveling investigators and will have to solve complicated mysteries while collecting clues and defeating monsters during horrifying adventures. Eldritch Horror’s difficulty level can be controlled to some degree since players can choose to use or not use the easy mythos cards.

4 Dead Of Winter

Dead of Winter is one of the most difficult and popular horror board games for adults. This meta-cooperative psychological board game transports its players into a horrifying post-apocalyptic world in which they will have to fight for their survival under the harshest of conditions.

In this dark wintery world, most of humanity is dead or has become murderous zombies, and only a few humans survived. Players will have to overcome mind-boggling challenges, so they can lead their own faction of survivors and help them survive in a world that has become unlivable for humans. It’s an atmospheric and challenging game that’s perfect for those gamers who love tense and dark psychological games.

3 The Campaign For North Africa

The Campaign for North Africa is famously one of the most difficult and longest board games for adults that most players never complete. It’s a meticulously detailed board wargame set during the Desert War that lasted from 1940 to 1943. This beast of a board game takes more than forty days to complete since it simulates World War II’s entire North African Campaign.

It’s easily one of the most detailed strategic board games that require its players to step up their game when it comes to logistics while managing and tracking all of their units and their individual planes and pilots, as well as supplies. Players will become chiefs and commanders and will have to make some of the most complex and difficult decisions of their lives.

2 Advanced Squad Leader

Advanced Squad Leader is one of the most rule-heavy tactical combat board games set in WWII, and players will have to play through various challenging historical scenarios. This classic board game is praised as one of the most complex and difficult wargames of all time that challenges even avid gamers.

Players will have to use their critical thinking skills to make the best tactical decisions and lead their units to victory, even when everything is against them. While this game has extensive rules, it’s still exciting that’ll make players feel proud when they complete their goals.

1 Twilight Struggle

While Twilight Struggle is only a two-player game, it’s still one of the most difficult board games, and it’s set during the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. This brilliant card-driven wargame simulates the entire and extremely tense forty-five years.

Players will have to start their journeys right after the Second World War and use their best strategic skills, creativity, and bravery to overcome the tough challenges of the game. They will also have to uncover secrets during the intricate and immersive gameplay.

More: Best Board Games To Play If You Like Stranger Things