BP’s Picks for Best Business Board Games for Businesses?
What to Look for in a Business Board Game or Card Game
The best business board games can help you develop skills such as:
- Short-term and long-term strategic planning
- Investment and risk management
- Asset management, financial management, and bookkeeping
- Negotiation
- Logistics and supply chain management
- Strategic decision-making
- Teamwork and leadership
- Problem-solving
Different games focus more strongly on different aspects of business, so you should consider which game best meets your needs.
Other factors to consider when picking out a business board game to play include:
- Recommended ages
- Number of players
- Playing time
- Level of complexity
- Amount of random chance involved
- Format (traditional game board, cards, tiles, etc.)
- Price
- Replay value (difficult levels, advanced rules, shifting game board)
From longtime classic money games like Monopoly to more unconventional games that emphasize strategy, there’s something on our best business board games list that’s sure to please anyone seeking to gamify professional development.
1. Best Overall Business Board Game: Catan
Widely considered to be one of the best board games, period, Catan is also a phenomenal strategy game for established and aspiring business professionals. With nearly 20,000 ratings and reviews on Amazon and a near-perfect 4.8-star rating, the worldwide popularity of this resource acquisition and trading game is undeniable.
How to Play the Game
Originally published as The Settlers of Catan, the game’s wide-ranging appeal is due, at least in part, to its beautifully simple game mechanics. You won’t need to memorize pages of complicated rules that take the fun out of playing. You will, however, need to think strategically, trade resources wisely, and make the best of the aspects of the game that result from pure chance.
You start the game as a humble but ambitious settler on the island of Catan. Dice rolls decide who gets what resources at what times, but how you use those resources to build up roads, settlements, and cities is up to you. The first player to rack up 10 victory points wins.
The gameboard that makes up the island of Catan consists of tiles and numbers that can be arranged in any order, allowing for plenty of new configurations.
What Makes This Game Great for Business
To win Catan, just as to succeed in the business world, you need to expand your position on the board and manage your resources. In the game, these resources include bricks, lumber, grain, ore, and wool. Players fight for control of these resources, and having control over one resource allows for a better advantage when it comes to trades.
Managing your resources is an integral part of playing Catan, because different upgrades require different types and amounts of resources. For instance, without bricks and lumber, players cannot build the roads that are necessary to connect settlements.
The trading aspect of the game itself is another factor that makes Catan one of the best board games for business. Players negotiate with each other to get the resources they need without giving opponents the advantage. Players can utilize ports to trade their resources at a fixed ratio instead of trading with opponents. However, they will pay a higher cost to trade resources and take longer to accumulate the victory points needed to win the game.
Catan is intended for three to four players ages 10 and up, and games typically take 45 to 90 minutes. Extension packs can be purchased to build upon the base game, allowing for five players or even six players to participate. You can also purchase expansion packs for different themes, including Traders & Barbarians.
2. Most Cutthroat Business Board Game: Monopoly
Could any list of the best business board games be complete without including Monopoly? This classic game needs little introduction, with a 4.8-star rating based on more than 20,000 global ratings and reviews on Amazon. Monopoly has been entertaining (and sometimes frustrating) children and adults for more than 80 years.
How to Play the Game
In Monopoly, players roll dice to make their way around the board, buying and building up their properties. Acquiring a monopoly will help you amass the most money while forcing your opponents to run out of cash and have to mortgage or sell their properties. The last capitalist standing wins.
The rules of buying and building up property are easy to learn and fun for the whole family. Kids ages 10 and up should be able to play this board game. There are countless versions of this classic board game, with themes ranging from sports teams to dog breeds. Whichever version of Monopoly you choose will likely have a familiar layout, with eight groups of properties, four “railroads,” and two “utilities” to purchase.
What Makes This Game Great for Business
What makes the classic game Monopoly perfect for business is the mechanics behind it. Players fight for control of the board as they upgrade their properties. The better the property, the more the players earn. Players also are encouraged to trade with opponents, each trying to get the better end of the deal.
Monopoly also utilizes paper money, which players use to purchase and upgrade properties and pay other players. Handling paper cash makes the financial management aspect of Monopoly, including choosing when to spend and when to save, feel more like real life.
There’s a fair amount of luck involved in Monopoly due to the importance of dice rolls—and, of course, luck is a factor in business, too. But it’s not all chance. Monopoly is a strategy game, at least in some respects. Your capital is limited, especially early on, so you must make tough decisions about what properties to buy and what properties to pass up. You have to decide when and on which properties to build houses and hotels. As the available properties become sparse and your competitors race toward putting together their own monopolies, you have to negotiate trades with other players.
