Best games where you fill in a grid 2026

Azul is a tile-laying game inspired by Portuguese azulejos: as artisans, players draft colored tiles from suppliers and place them in patterns to decorate the walls of the Royal Palace of Evora, scoring points for clever arrangements.

Silver & Gold is a board game that offers players the thrill of discovering distant islands filled with golden treasures.

Ahoy, Captain! Raise your flag, recruit a crew, and fill your coffers with shiny gold coins. The game is simple and can be explained faster than a cannon shot. On your turn, draw a tile from the bag; if you like it, keep it, and if not, flip it over. Place it on your board to build your crew. With nine characters and four boards featuring different tactics, it offers an engaging and fun experience.

Cartographers: A Roll Player Tale transports players to a realm where they take on the roles of mapmakers, tasked by Queen Gimnax to chart the northern territories for the Kingdom of Nalos. This game combines elements of strategy and creativity, challenging players to create the most efficient and aesthetically pleasing maps.

Sagrada is a visually striking board game where players draft dice to create beautiful stained glass windows, combining strategy and aesthetics.

Encore! (originally published as Noch mal!) is a dice-based board game that challenges players with strategic choices and a touch of luck. In this game, players use dice to determine the colors and the number of spaces they can mark off on their playing sheets.

My City is a groundbreaking competitive legacy game where players develop their own city across multiple epochs. This game uniquely blends city-building with the evolving challenges and narratives of a legacy format.

The Castles of Burgundy is a strategy board game set in the Burgundy region of High Medieval France, where players assume the roles of aristocrats controlling small princedoms. The game combines tile placement and dice rolling mechanics to offer a rich and strategic experience.

Planet Unknown is a competitive and strategic game for 1-6 players set in a future where Earth's resources are depleted. Players are tasked with developing the most efficient and habitable planet among a series of newfound worlds. Using polyomino-shaped tiles, each representing vital infrastructure, players work to efficiently cover their planets and build an effective support system for life.

The Castles of Burgundy is set in the medieval Burgundy region of France, where players assume the roles of aristocrats seeking to expand their princedoms. The game revolves around building settlements, constructing castles, engaging in river trade, mining for silver, and utilizing travelers' knowledge.

Players engage in a tactical battle inspired by pebbles stacked along paths. Each player begins with eight colored pebbles, while a neutral colored set is placed in the corners of the board. On their turn, players stack a pebble on a chosen pile and then shift it, leaving one pebble on each space crossed. The first to stack four pebbles of their color wins the game.

Calico is a delightful, tile-laying board game that combines the art of quilt-making with the charm of cats. It's designed to offer a relaxing yet engaging puzzling experience for players.

Embark on a delightful rescue mission in The Isle of Cats, a captivating competitive board game designed for 1-4 players (expandable to 6 with expansions). This medium-weight game combines card-drafting, polyomino cat-placement, and resource management, offering an engaging and strategic gameplay experience.

Art Society is a new art collection game for 2 to 4 players, featuring easy-to-learn rules. Players assume the role of art connoisseurs, competing to create the most impressive collection by bidding on trendy artworks and arranging them into a stylish gallery. Be cautious, as trends can change quickly, and artworks not acquired might end up in a museum, affecting your collection's value.

Players create a unique city over four chapters, each containing three episodes. A die roll indicates which building to draw on the player board, with new challenges arising in each episode. Players can choose to play through the entire campaign or select individual episodes or chapters to replay.

Each player starts with a 9×9 grid that they aim to fill as completely as possible. At the beginning, players receive different cards that indicate their starting fields and mark them on their grids.

Players take on the role of great rulers from the past to build their own ancient city. Each round, players invest gold to construct tiles that enhance their city’s economy. There are five building types that yield resources, helping the city grow, while monuments and wonder tiles provide victory points but require all your gold. Once a player reaches the maximum population, they are declared the winner of the game.

Tiny Towns is a charming and strategic board game where players take on the role of mayors building their own tiny towns in a forest. The game challenges players to manage resources wisely and plan their towns carefully to maximize prosperity.

Blokus is an abstract strategy game known for its simple rules and deep strategic gameplay. It features colorful Tetris-shaped pieces that players aim to place on the board.

Ubongo is a fast-paced, puzzle-solving board game where players race against time and each other to complete individual puzzles and collect precious gems.

Bunny Kingdom is a charming and strategic board game where players lead clans of rabbits to establish their dominance over a vast kingdom. The game combines elements of drafting, resource management, and area control to create a dynamic and engaging experience.

Galaxy Trucker is a fast-paced, tile-laying board game that combines space adventure with ship construction and navigation challenges.

Copenhagen invites players into the architectural charm of the Danish capital, focusing on the iconic, colorful gabled houses of Nyhavn. This strategic, tile-placement game challenges players to design and construct new façades, blending them beautifully with the harbor’s historic setting.

Players aim to create a lush ecosystem by planting seeds, growing trees, and placing natural elements on their planet to make it the greenest and most fertile of all. They select biome cards from a shared pool to develop different areas each round, while unchosen cards increase the fertility and value of those regions. To build a vast forest, players plant trees and shrubs, and create lakes, strategically positioning them to maximize light without overlapping.

Paris: La Cité de la Lumière is a two-player board game designed by José Antonio Abascal, beautifully illustrated by Oriol Hernández. Set in the enchanting city of Paris during the 1889 "Exposition Universelle," the game captures the era when electricity began illuminating the city, leading to its nickname "La Cité de la Lumière" or the City of Light.