We’re down to the end of my Top 5 lists. Epic Fantasy Board Games has to be the biggest group of games in my collection. And I am basically always interested when one comes out. Again, that is interested in checking it out and learning about it. No theme is a must buy, and certainly not epic fantasy because there are so many games that promise that. So let’s get down to the list and see which board games made it.

Top 5 Epic Fantasy Board Games

5. Super Fantasy Brawl

This one is the fastest of these games in this group, but one that is a ton of fun to play. You take in some fantastical characters into a battle arena to see which group will win. It’s not just a drawn out fighting game, it’s a quick and punchy fighting game with goals that you need to think about as well.

And the game play for Super Fantasy Brawl is very simple. You have three activations you can do on your turn. Each one for different colors of cards that you might have in your hand. So it’s possible to have less, but very rare. And those activate cards that match their colors, as I said, so you might activate the same character more than once.

If this was just a knock out the enemy game or just a get goals game, I don’t think it would be as fun. But having both elements in the game, it creates a nice bigger experience. And you can get some epic turns where you start by completing a goal and then knock out your opponents character for a big swing.

4. Dwellings of Eldervale

Next up is the only euro game on the list, though some others might have euro tendencies. Dwellings of Eldervale is about building out a map, fighting monsters, fighting other players, and dwelling. The combat isn’t complex and the itself isn’t that complex but it has those cool moments. And that’s what I look for in an epic game.

One of the coolest parts is that each color you can be has their own faction powers. So you get to do things and break rules in ways that other players can’t. And not only does each color have it’s own faction, they have factions, on each side of the board to pick from. So the game comes with a ton of combinations for how you play.

3. Roll Player Adventures

Roll Player Adventures is one that I’m going through right now and loving. The game offers great story and an interesting puzzle with how you play. If you’re familiar with Roll Player, in that game you basically roll up RPG style characters. In Roll Player Adventures you take those characters through an adventure.

The adventure is great, much bigger and weirder than I’d have expected. But the game play makes it a lot of fun as well, not just the story. It’s built around collecting cards to manipulate dice. As you come across a challenge or a battle, you take dice and need to get them to the right numbers and colors. You seed what you have with colors based off of attributes, but the number is the roll of a die. So how that goes, no one knows, and you need to use your cards to try and get that to what you need.

2. Oathsworn

Oathsworn is the one that I’ve played the least of it. But it deserves to be on the list from what I’ve played. You battle monsters, explore cities, and do a lot of interesting things. One thing I like about the game is how it’s split into two parts. You have a story portion and then a combat portion. On my space game list I had one like that as well, ISS Vanguard, though split differently.

The story portion is going to help you know what’s going on in the world and goals to have. It might give you a bonus to it as well for that combat that is coming up. Or at least help you avoid bad things. And then you get into a boss battle combat. And in that battle you play down cards that flow around your character board, and draw cards or roll dice to see how big a hit you can do, or if you do hit.

Plus as a campaign game, the game offers a lot of epic to it. I think that campaign games lend themselves well to epic. And Oathsworn offers an epic campaign, but not one that is too long.

1. Gloomhaven

Finally we have Gloomhaven. And this one is interesting, because I think that the original Gloomhaven was epic in scope of each scenario but lacked some of the epic story nature that I expect from a big epic fantasy campaign game. It might be getting fixed in version two of Gloomhaven which I’ll likely pick up the upgrade pack for.

But Gloomhaven does have a big story to it, it’s just not as ingrained as some stories. And it also really does provide those epic scenarios. All of that with a really cool system of playing down two cards each activation. You use one of them for a top action and one for a bottom action. When you pick the cards, you know what you want to do. But as the round goes on, if you don’t go fast enough, what you want to do might change. Overall just a great system.

Final Thoughts

As I wrap up the themes that catch my eye, it’s worth noting that there are plenty of themes that interest me. I talk about epic fantasy or epic sci-fi, and those always catch my interest, but I like fantasy and sci-fi in general. Or something odd like The Bloody Inn where you are killing and hiding the dead bodies of guests from the cops to see who can make the most money. It’s a silly premise that is very interesting.

Like any game it still needs to have a good review. Or there needs to be something mechanically that gets me interested in the game. And all of the games on the list, I’m interested in for more than just the theme. Though, a theme and great cover might get me looking at it sooner rather than later.

What’s your favorite epic fantasy board game?

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