The greatest board games not only have interactivity and imaginative stories, but they also challenge the players to make meaningful choices and improve their critical thinking and strategic skills. Board game fans can choose from a wide variety of impressive and complex mysteries, thrillers, and of course, from some of the best WWII board games and other spy and war board games.
Related: Monopoly: Best Properties To Buy, Ranked
These inventive and difficult board games push their players both mentally and some even physically since they often require many long hours to complete. There are even fun banned board games that gave thrills and changed 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.
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.
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.
Related: Best Board Games That Feature Greek Gods
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.
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.
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.
Related: Best Board Games That Feature Vikings
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.
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 became 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 became unlivable for humans. It's an atmospheric and challenging game that's perfect for those gamers who love tense and dark psychological games.
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.
Related: Best Board Game Accessories
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.
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.
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 year.
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