21 Long Board Games To Help Pass The Time If You’re Stuck Inside

Also See: The Best Versions Of Risk Number of Players: 2-6 Average Game Length: 1-8 hours (unless your allies turn against you) Recommended Ages: 10+ One of the most epic (and time-consuming) board games of all time, Risk is a game of strategy where players must forge various alliances—and ultimately break them—in order to conquer the world. While it only takes a few minutes to set up, games can last for hours (or more), leaving some players stranded while other lay claim to the various continents. The learning curve isn't very high, bit it definitely takes a level of strategy in order to master the board.

Also See: The Best Versions Of Monopoly Number of Players: 2-8 Average Game Length: 1-3 hours (if you don't cheat) Recommended Ages: 8+ Monopoly is pretty notorious for being a long game, and while many families can sit through a playthrough in under two hours, there are plenty of examples online of people playing for days. The longest game of Monopoly took 1,680 hours to complete, which equates to 70 days! Hasbro has decided to cash in on this phenomenon with the release of Monopoly: Longest Game Ever, which features a doubled board, 66 properties (with three versions of each), and only one die, so no doubles, and no moving up to 12 places. Some may call it fan-service; others may simply call it mean!

Number of Players: 2-4 Average Game Length: 2-5 hours Recommended Ages: 12+ Based on the extremely popular video game series, Civilization takes most of its inspiration from Civ IV, and as such features six different civilizations to choose from, with each civ possessing its own unique set of abilities and skills. If you want to take it up a notch, Fantasy Flight Games also released an expansion pack, Advanced Civilization, which provides new options and features that all help the game more complex. The average game length is between 360 and 480 minutes, but there have been players who spend an average of 10 to 14 hours on a single game.

Number of Players: 2-5 Average Game Length: 2-3 hours Recommended Ages: 12+ Axis & Allies is a World War II strategy game that pits the Axis powers against the Allies from a starting point of 1942. Players manage their units, purchase more, and research new technologies as they fight for territory across the globe. The game can take a long time to complete, as most players will require several minutes to complete a single round. The average playtime for the game is listed at 180 minutes (roughly three hours), but many players who get involved in the minutia of gameplay can drag it out for much longer. Some groups can take days to play a single game, while others can sit through a playthrough that takes weeks, or longer.

Number of Players: 8 - 10 Average Game Length: 62 days Recommended Ages: 14+ The Campaign For North Africa is probably one of the longest board games ever made, as several articles have been written about its complexity. If you play through the game in the normal manner, you might find yourself invested in something that will last an average of 89,280 minutes! That's 62 days of nothing but this game. If you ever wanted to test your resolve when it comes to beginning an impossible board game, and sitting through it until the end, The Campaign For North Africa is the game for you. You have been warned.

Number of Players: 2-4 Average Game Length: 3-5 hours Recommended Ages: 12+ A Star Wars game that's as epic and as sprawling as George Lucas's convoluted universe itself, Rebellion lets players control either the Galactic Empire or the Rebel Alliance as they work to overcome the other. Naturally, each faction has different objectives, with the Empire wanting to crush the Rebels and the Alliance wanting to destroy the Empire. With three different phases of gameplay, it's extremely in-depth and games typically trend somewhere near the 5-hour mark to complete.

Number of Players: 2-8 Average Game Length: 1-3 hours Recommended Ages: 8+ Twilight Imperium pits players against one another in an epic futuristic world where there are many different paths to victory and no two games are ever the same. With 17 different factions to choose from, this game offers an insane amount of replay value, perfect for those days you're stuck indoors.

Number of Players: 1-4 Average Game Length: 1-2 hours Recommended Ages: 12+ If you like tactical co-op games that take place in a fantasy world, Gloomhaven is a great choice. While it shares a few striking similarities with other tabletop games like Dungeons & Dragons, it has a unique style all its own, where most games take at least an hour and a half to complete from start to end.

Number of Players: 2-7 Average Game Length: 2+ hours Recommended Ages: 12+ World in Flames is a WWII strategy game featuring numerous maps on a hexagon-grid style play area. The game is evil in its devotion to the period, and its accuracy is incredibly high. There are a few ways to play, and for some people, a playthrough can take about two hours. For others, who take on the entire campaign, they are looking at a 100-hour experience.

Number of Players: 1-8 Average Game Length: 2-4 hours Recommended Ages: 13+ Arguably the most popular horror board game of all time, Arkham Horror takes a nod from Lovecraftian lore that actually takes place in Lovecraft's fiction town of Arkham, Massachusetts, in 1926. Players are tasked to become investigators as they traverse the macabre city looking for clues. Games typically take 30-50 minutes to set up but can easily take more than four hours to play. And if you include all the various expansion sets (and there are A LOT), players could very well take the whole night before finishing a game.

Number of Players: 2-6 Average Game Length: 2-3 hours Recommended Ages: 13+ Talisman is a game of role-playing and adventure, but it's also about as close as you can get to playing Dungeons & Dragons on a standard board game. A typical game can take about two hours, but if you add the expansions, which affix to the corners to increase the size of the game's space, Talisman can take around 4-6 hours to complete, but sometimes can take more depending on how many people play and how experienced they all are.

Players: 2-5 Average game time: 2-3 hours Recommended Ages: 12+ Feeling cooped up at home? Not sure when you'll be able to leave the house again? Mansions of Madness is a great rainy day game as it's eerie, enjoyable, and easy to pick up. With most games lasting at least two hours, players encounter various monsters and gain clues through various campaigns to help uncover the truth about what happened to the sleepy town of Arkham.

Number of Players: 1-6 Average Game Length: 5 hours Recommended Ages: 14+ The Republic of Rome is a simulation game dealing with the politics of the Roman Senate during the latter days of the Republic. Players control factions and work to compete for offices in the state, military command posts, and more in this insanely detailed game all about the inner-working of Roman politics. A single playthrough typically takes around 300 minutes (roughly five full hours), but it can take much longer once you get engrossed in it.

Number of Players: 4 - 8 Average Game Length: 8 hours Recommended Ages: 12+ With a name like Machiavelli, you have to know this game isn't going to be quick and simple. The game recreated the ever-shifting balance of power that nearly tore apart Renaissance Italy. Players take up one of five major powers, including The Republics of Florence and Venice, the Duchy of Milan, the Kingdom of Naples and the Papacy. There are also three foreign powers in Valois France, Hapsburg Austria and the Ottoman Turks, and they all compete for control over the Italian peninsula. The game can take up to 480 minutes (about eight full hours) to get through a single playthrough, or longer if you manage to get eight people to play. It's a rare find these days, but easily worth seeking out.

Number of Players: 1-4 Average Game Length: 2-3 hours Recommended Ages: 14+ It's hard to take a popular video game series and transition it into a tabletop game, but it's even harder to make it good. Fallout: The Board Game is one of those rare instances where the board game version is actually good enough to stand on its own, giving players enough wiggle room to create their own post-nuclear scenarios without having to rely on the source material too much. Players begin by exploring a hidden—and often dangerous—map, where each turn offers something new. Most games tend to take two hours to play, but if you get enough people you can push three or four hours easy.

Number of Players: 2-7 Average Game Length: Roughly 8 hours Recommended Ages: 14+ 7 Ages is a game of conquest and advancement spread across seven ages, from 4000 BCE to 2000 CE. Across that time, players take the lead as a dynastic head of an empire, and they lead their civilizations across history to become the dominant civilization on the map. The game isn't a war strategy game; rather, it's a highly-complex strategy game featuring war and everything else a civilization might go through from start to finish. An average game will last around 480 minutes (eight hours), so make sure you have a comfy seat.

Number of Players: 3-5 Average Game Length: 2 hours Recommended Ages: 14+ Released in 2016, SeaFall is a colonial exploration games where every unique component and scenario changes per game. Players explore the seas with their ships and are able to explore (and discover) different islands and adventures. Because no two games are ever the same, it's one of the few games that can be played over and over in succession without ever feeling stale.

Number of Players: 2 Average Game Length: Roughly 8 hours Recommended Ages: 14+ Paths of Glory honors the first World War, and it takes almost as long to complete. Like any strategy-placement war game, it's highly complex and detailed, so you can expect to play through a single game in around 480 minutes (or about 8 full hours). Longer games are certainly possible, and the more detailed you go, the longer it will take.

Number of Players: 2-6 Average Game Length: 4-6 hours Recommended Ages: 12+ Here I Stand: Wars of the Reformation 1517-1555 is a historically-accurate game that pays homage to the political and religious conflicts of 16th century Europe, and while that may not sound exciting, it was a turbulent time. The game covers a 40-year period of history, and features action and intrigue the likes of which typical board games can only dream of emulating. A single playthrough can take as many as 360 minutes (six hours), though many people average around three hours once they've nailed down the rules.

Number of Players: 3-6 Average Game Length: 6 hours Recommended Ages: 14+ 2038: Tycoons Of The Asteroid Belt is a space mining game, which is an adaptation of the 18xx series of games. This is the game to play if you ever wanted to pretend you were in charge of a mining operation... in space! The game's complexity in strategy and tactics make it take around 260 minutes to get through a single playthrough.

Number of Players: 2-3 Average Game Length: 12 hours Recommended Ages: 14+ Europe Engulfed is an intricately-designed game that took 13 years of design and development to produce. It has a fast-paced playthrough, but it still takes an average of 720 minutes (12 hours) to complete a game. The game is broken up into campaigns, and going through them all is easily a 14-hour ordeal.