10 Best Engine-Building Board Games to Play in 2024

10. Project L

Publisher: Boardcubator

What do you get when you cross engine-building and Tetris? Project L. One of the best modern gateway games I’ve played.

Throughout the game, you take turns placing Tetris-like puzzle pieces into Tetris-like puzzles.

Starting with a level-one piece that covers one square of the puzzle, and a level-two piece that covers two squares. You can spend turns getting new pieces, upgrading the pieces you have, or completing puzzles.

You also gain a new piece with each puzzle you complete, creating this satisfying loop of gaining more and better pieces as the game progresses.

Project L gives you a great engine-building buzz and works with both new and experienced board gamers.

9. Wingspan

Publisher: Stonemaier Games

It was tough deciding on Wingspan or its dragon equivalent Wyrmspan to add to this list. While Wymspan is the better overall game it’s harder to get to the table.

Plus, it doesn’t have birds.

They are the biggest draw of Wingspan after all. Brought to life by the stunning illustrations of Beth Sobel, Ana Maria Martinez Jaramillo, Natalia Rojas, and Greg May. However, the engine-building is a close second.

Building a bird sanctuary is no easy task. So you spend your turns luring birds with grain, berries, fish and rats. Once they accept your offering, they’ll stick around and provide you with more and more abilities.

There are many strategies to try and plenty of birds to choose from, creating a new challenge every game.

Wingspan is an awesome board game equally appealing to newcomers and intermediate hobbyists alike. As long as you don’t mind too much luck in your games, it makes a great addition to almost any board game collection.

(Also, the expansions are great!)

8. Space Base

Publisher: Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG)

Engine-building doesn’t have to be a slog of weighing up the efficiencies of one card against another. It can also be an exploding rocket through space.

Space Base, a game of dice and resources, lets you build an engine at light speed.

Starting with 12 numbered columns of cards, you roll two dice on your turn. You then choose to activate the cards in the column matching the sum of the dice, or the two columns matching the individual die faces.

You’ll gain resources from these activations to buy more cards to add to your columns. Increasing their power. So, very quickly, your engine starts hitting hyperdrive allowing you to have fun with all the resources you’re generating.

Space Base is another great featherweight entry into board gaming. But it’s fun no matter who’s playing.

7. Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition

Publisher: Stronghold Games

When announced, the first question on my mind was who wants a slimmed-down Terraforming Mars? Turns out I do.

While it doesn’t capture the full engine-building glory of the original. It’s enough to satisfy most board gamers and adds an interesting twist of phase selection.

Before playing each round, every player picks a phase card in secret. This determines which phases are played in the round.

So along with the excellent engine-building we expect from a Terraforming Mars game, there’s now this element of mind games.

It all works exceedingly well when you play with 3-4 experienced gamers.

However, if you’re playing with only one other player, then you’re better off playing another game. Read my review of Terraforming Mars: Ares Edition to find out why.

6. Res Arcana

Publisher: Sand Castle Games

How can a game of 3-card hands and 8-card decks be an engine-builder? I’ve learnt not to question Tom Lehmann and accept that he’s some sort of engine-building wizard.

While he’s made some fantastic engine builders like Jump Drive and Race for the Galaxy, Res Arcana is his tightest game yet.

With so few cards in the game, every card played, or resource spent has a monumental impact on the game’s outcome.

So even though you have a small deck, you always feel extremely powerful. Especially as you build cards and power yourself closer to the 10 victory points needed to win the game.

Be warned, Res Arcana is a lot of fun, but it will turn your brain to mush thinking through all your turns. A fantastic fantasy game for intermediate gamers.

5. It’s a Wonderful World

Publisher: La Boite de Jeu

Drafting meets engine-building in this simple but delightful game of expanding your utopian city.

Over the four rounds of It’s a Wonderful World, you’ll experience some of the most satisfying engine-building I’ve ever played.

Each round begins with drafting development cards and deciding which to build or recycle into additional resources.

After wracking your brains on that decision, you move on to the production phase. Here, each resource type is delivered one at a time, with time for you to build in between.

Correctly time your buildings to create a cascade of building completions and more dopamine than you know what to do with.

For how easy it is to pick up, It’s a Wonderful World produces gameplay that everyone can enjoy.

4. Revive

Publisher: Aporta Games

5000 years after the apocalypse, humanity returns to the frozen surface world. Looking to rebuild society and Revive the planet.

It just so happens that the best way to do that is through exciting and varied engine-building.

Revive offers several ways to build your engine that you can mix depending on your strategy for the game. You can for instance buy survivor cards to give you more actions per turn, invest in technology to improve your abilities, or unlock your machine and power up in ways unimaginable.

Now, before rushing out and buying Revive know that this is the most complex board game on this list and requires a lot of table space.

However, if you still go ahead you’ll be rewarded with one of the best engine-building games of recent years.

3. Splendor

Publisher: Space Cowboys

Most engine-building games use the mechanic as a plus one. Like you’ll get drafting and engine-building, or get to roll dice and engine build.

Not Splendor, it’s the purest engine-building game I’ve played. It’s also amazing. Every game is like a non-stop sprint to collect gems and 15 victory points.

On your turn, you’re either gaining gems or buying cards that give you discounts on other cards.

So at the start of the game, you may spend three turns gaining gems before buying a card. Soon, with the discount cards, you only spend two. Then, before you know it, you’re buying a new discount card every turn.

As a result, you get this exhilarating gameplay where everyone avalanches towards the finish line at an incredible pace.

Splendor is one of those rare games that proves board games don’t need to be complex to be compelling. Making it a great entry game that will delight anyone at your table.

2. Empyreal Spells & Steam

Publisher: Level 99 Games

Empyreal Spells & Steam takes place in publisher Level 99’s world of the Indines. So you’ll see familiar faces from BattleCon and Argent the Consortium dressed up as train conductors and station masters.

Within the game, you build a literal engine for a train, grabbing as many upgrades and special characters as possible. All the while plotting your routes so you can collect and deliver the right goods to the right cities.

Empyreal Spells & Steam combines a strategic board game with all the wild insanity you’d expect from a world of magic. Including teleporting trains, ghosts, and magnetic abilities.

Together it creates a highly interactive heart-pounding race to collect and deliver goods. With outlandish special abilities, satisfying engine-building and more variety than James McAvoy in Split.

1. Terraforming Mars

Publisher: FryxGames

If you want the best engine-building experience (and have 2-3 hours to spare) then you can’t go wrong with Terraforming Mars.

As the CEO of a company trying to terraform the red planet, you spend generations drafting and building project cards.

These range from transporting cows through space to manipulating the trajectory of a meteor to crash into Mars. All in an attempt to raise Mars’ temperature and the water and oxygen levels.

I can’t understate how fun it is weighing up one project against another. With only a few duds within its monstrous deck, Terraforming Mars keeps you glued to the seat wondering which card suits your strategy best.

You’ll find that despite getting a completely new assortment of cards each game, you will always have a deeply interesting combo or strategy to rally around.

Make no mistake though, while it’s a fantastic board game, it’s also draining. Not just because of how long it takes to play, but because of the brain power you burn.

But that’s just the price you pay for playing one of the best engine-builders on the market.