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Gloomhaven, Disney Villainous, Cascadia, and more strategy games are on deep discount

When Amazon Prime Day arrives, the board games included in the festivities always seem like a bit of an afterthought. Not so this time around. Amazon’s second Prime Day of 2022 is bringing the heat with an excellent selection of critically acclaimed modern board games. There’s also a solid assortment of older titles to refresh the family game closet. Here’s our picks for the very best games available this week.

• 7 Wonders — one of the most influential board games of the decade — is available for $30.99, a 48% discount. So to is it’s recently-released two-player iteration, 7 Wonders Duel, priced at a very affordable $18.99, or 36% off.
• Both Azul and Calico, two of the best tile-laying games on the market, are both on sale at 45% and 55% off, respectively. You can pick either one up for around $20 during the sale.
• Cascadia, another tile-laying game about the Pacific Northwest, was recently given the prestigious American Tabletop Award for best strategy game. It’s also listed among Polygon’s 22 best board games. You can snag it for $29.97, or 30% off the regular price.

• Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion is down to $17.74, a more than 64% discount. It’s an abbreviated take on Gloomhaven, the wildly popular role-playing campaign in a box that has literally changed the face of board gaming over the last five years. Instead of nearly 20-pounds of stuff, however, Jaws of the Lion is a much more beginner-friendly experience. Just be sure to click the box for the base game, not the Forgotten Circles expansion.
• Descent: Legends of the Dark is more than 50% off at $76.99. This is another high-concept campaign in a box, but it comes with a lavish assortment of cardboard scenery. Even if you’re not interested in the game (which is excellent, mind you), this is still a decent price for some fun tabletop terrain and exotic figures to try your hand at miniatures painting.

• Dune, from Gale Force Nine, is down to $28.53 (more than 42% off), and I can’t recommend it enough. This is a remaster of the 1979 strategy classic using fan-made art and I’m still sour that I spent more than $300 building my own a decade ago. (Again, be sure to click the button for the base game, not the expansion.)
• King of Tokyo is down to $24.99 (44% off), making it an absolute steal. Originally designed by Richard Garfield (Magic: The Gathering), it’s an excellent choice for any gaming group.
• Mansions of Madness 2nd Edition is just $60.99 (44% off). This app-enabled game (think digital Dungeon Master) and is an excellent next step for anyone familiar with Betrayal at House on the Hill.
• Mysterium, a game about holding a séance for a ghost, also gets a discount just in time for the spooky season. It’s down more than 50% to $26.99.
• Pandemic is the quintessential gateway board game. It’s just $24.99, or nearly 40% off.
• Scythe is going for $43.39 (32% off). This elegant and demanding strategy game rewards multiple playthroughs with a dedicated group, and this is one of the lowest prices we’ve ever seen.
• That Time You Killed Me is $33.99 (32% off). A game played simultaneously across three boards, it’s a two-player experience that evolves over time — in more ways than one. Additional rules yield additional complexity from game to game, plus a light, sassy storyline will keep you coming back for one more round.

• Twilight Imperium 4th Edition is also on sale, down to $90.99 (45% off). One of the biggest and longest board games around, it’s the product that put Fantasy Flight Games on the map and home to one of the very best communities in all of board gaming.

Finally, there are two game series that are heavily discounted during this sale: Disney Villainous and Catan, with discounts ranging from 30% to more than 50%. Here’s a quick list of the titles going on sale:

Catan

• Catan (base game) for $32.99 (33% off)
• Catan Extension (allows 5 or 6 players) for $17.99 (28% off)
• Catan Seafarers for $32.99 (40% off)
• Catan Explorers and Pirates for $29.99 (45% off)
• Catan Traders and Barbarians for $32.99 (45% off)
• Catan Junior for $18.99 (46% off)
• Catan Histories: Settlers of America for $42.99 (38% off)

Disney Villainous

• Disney Villainous (Captain Hook, Maleficent, Jafar, Ursula, Queen of Hearts, and Prince John) for $16.99 (more than 57% off)
• Disney Villainous: Despicable Plots (Gaston, Lady Tremaine, and the Horned King) for $21.37 (nearly 30% off)
• Disney Villainous: Bigger and Badder (Syndrome, Lotso, and Madam Mim) for $20.99 (30% off)