As we swing into summer, it’s always worth taking stock of great new games to play on the water. You might think this would be an easy thing, but boats present a challenge. Not only is your watercraft bobbing on the waves or cruising in the wind, a well-stocked board game boat has to be ready to handle all the vibes, from relaxing days on the lake to party-filled afternoons to, yes, heavy war gaming on the water.
Trust me, you haven’t lived until you’ve sent your space marines on a flanking maneuver while sailing the high seas.
Games for the Fishing or Speed Boat
Gaming on the water after dropping a couple of bobbers into the waves, or between runs with the water skis, is both a challenge and an opportunity. Cards and flimsy pieces are liable to go blowing off the boat, so sturdy games (or thick sleeves) are a must. Ditto with avoiding tons of tiny pieces – this is not the time to break out Under an Iron Sky.
It is, however, a great spot for a round of Dungeon Scrawlers, Railroad Ink, or Bomb Busters. Titles that are light on rules and components, but provide plenty of laugh-out-loud silliness. Balance the marker boards on your thighs. Anything involving drawing gets even better on a boat, where the rocking motion will even out actual artistic skill and make everyone’s scribblings a Rorschach Test.
Social Deduction games play great in small boats too – games like Spyfall 2 and classics like Resistance, Avalon, and Coup all have minimal cards and maximum engagement. All are fast, easy to learn, and make perfect pairings with day drinks on the water. Play a round and then stick the loser on the tube, ready to get launched into the waves.
Small box games are also great targets for the boat, seeing as storage space is premium. If you’re floating around with a partner and a big tackle box, Sail is both thematic, slim, and excellent. A cooperative trick-taker with chunky components that won’t blow away, Sail is a rule-light pleasure to enjoy on the sunny seas. Many trick-takers fill a similar niche, just be aware of card sprawl – odds are your boat’s not equipped with a big table, so classics like Hearts and Euchre, or newbies like Cat in the Box or Flip 7 make great choices.
Lastly, consider a speedy skirmish game for a duel away from the dock. Games like Unmatched, Ivion, and card-based battlers Tag Team or FlipToons offer a taut skirmish without too much overhead. I’d clock Dice Throne for this too, but you’ll want to be careful about putting super deluxe titles on the water, where a rogue splash might cause problems. Maybe skip all the extras and enjoy a good game of Yahtzee instead, just use a dice tray to keep those bits out of the lake.
Games for the All Day Pontoon Float
That’s not to say you can’t bring a big game out onto the boat, provided it’s, say, a pontoon with the space for it. One of my fondest memories is playing Container on a houseboat, which was perfect for a day of mobile, scenic gaming. With a bigger boat, games like Jaws become viable, and you can lean into the sea theme, though real monsters are still going to be too big.
Something like Dominant Species: Marine might be pushing your table space, but Oceans is a bit more concise, if you’re looking to play as the same fish you might be catching. These are heavy interaction euros, meant to spice up a lazy boat day with some action. If you’d prefer something friendlier, the vikings of A Feast for Odin (or the lighter, snappier Knarr) aren’t so cutthroat while getting you in that longship mood.
For those rocking an air boat in the bayou, there’s no more perfect option than Feya’s Swamp, a nifty new euro built around moving, yes, your boat around a swamp competing to be the best at developing said swamp. That means exploring abandoned temples, improving your boat, building villages, and all those pleasant things one does as an anthropomorphic, good-hearted animal. Squarely middle-weight, with solid components and a neat theme, Feya’s Swamp is probably a bit big for smaller boats, but bail out the marsh water and play on the floor – any lingering residue will just add to the immersion.
If you’re feeling adventurous, though, you can sprawl out on the floor of your bigger boat and play some Sails of Glory, a Napoleonic miniatures game. Slipping your frigates around for a broadside will feel all the more lifelike when you’re rocking back and forth on the waves. Should the thought of your valuable miniatures slipping into the water fill you with fear — these boats, however immaculate, won’t float — then grab Close Action instead. It’s counters, but very much hits the same tactical combat notes.
For solo players, the always-excellent Nemo’s War offers a diabolical push-your-luck adventure, though, with all the bits, be sure your vessel has a table big enough to hold it. If it does, though, the Ultimate Edition is a cracking good time, and perhaps the perfect counterpart to a solitary fishing trip on your favorite lake.
But if you have a bunch of board gamers on your vessel, ones that demand a little more meat than a party crowd, Forgotten Waters is your game. Even if you’re drifting around a swampy marsh, Forgotten Waters puts you in an adventurous crew, making narrative choices one after another, where your individual skills come into play. It’s a unique style of game, and a great option for five or six players that really want to try their pirate accents.
Those are all one-shots, though. Games to play, enjoy, and count the scores when it’s done. If you’re looking for a campaign to sink your teeth into – if, say you’re taking a sail boat around the world – then going nautical with Sleeping Gods is the way. It’s a big, bold game chock full of intriguing narrative, puzzles, and adventure, but that can be organized to fit in relatively small dimensions. There’s no massive miniatures or dungeon tiles to cart around, and the stories here will last you all summer long.
Games for the Yacht
Yet, if we’re talking boats, why not dream big? Whether you’re renting or, you billionaire you, buying a giant yacht to coast the seas, it’s imperative to stock its many shelves with games worthy of the space. We’re talking the most opulent, ridiculous titles to make the monocle-wearing gamers white-listed for your cruise feel like a million bucks.
Foundations of Rome isn’t the most complex game around, but it’s fun, and gosh darn it, those giant buildings are satisfying. Sure, Catan and Terraforming Mars have 3D editions, but when you’re entertaining magnates, nothing beats literally building Rome. That it’s essentially a friendly euro helps too – no antagonizing business barons who’ll undercut your next big play.
Darwin’s Journey – Collector’s Edition is flush with metal coins, screen-printed components, and wax seals, a critical element of luxury. Its combo-centric, worker-placement gameplay is sure to make your celebrity passengers feel clever, and it’s very replayable, important when you’re using that yacht to retrace Darwin’s, er, journey.
Up top, I said Under an Iron Sky wouldn’t be great for your dinghy, but here’s the time to break out any of Thin Red Line Games’ monsters. With small printings, these incredible games are built for serious grognards. Great options for when you’ve gathered military luminaries on your yacht off the southern coast of Italy for, say, a month of intense war gaming action. A little wine, a lot of World War Three. After that wine, and when the counters start to blur, you can simplify the action (a little) with Nightingale Games’ big, glorious productions War Room and the new Imperial Borders, which lower the rules load while maintaining a luxury table presence and high player count. Borders is the easier of the two, so lean that way if you’ve been hitting the Spritzes hard.
If you’d prefer to enjoy your voluminous floating manse with a few of your best buddies, then break out Kingdom Death Monster, specifically its newer Black Knight expansion, which includes a five session campaign – perfect for a few days at sea. The intense, engaging, and utterly unique boss battler is built to tell stories, which you’ll retell over a gourmet meal beneath the stars.
But let’s be real here. If you’re gathering the world’s greatest on your super-yacht for the most high profile, glitziest tabletop event, there’s simply no substitute for 40,000 points of Warhammer 40k armies – on the eve of its 11th Edition launch, giving every attendee their own immaculately-painted force of destruction to wreak miniatures havoc on the seas in a grand tournament would be a power move yet unseen on this planet. Every faction, from my ‘Nids to the noble Aeldari to those frothing Chaos Space Marines, arrayed in spectacular fashion… all hosted by noted Warhammer enthusiastic Henry Cavill, of course.
You want a game on a boat, that’s going to be tough to beat.
