Board Game Arena

Hello

I'm looking for quick games with low randomness. Can you recommend something interesting?

Define "quick" and "low randomness". BGA games?

BGA has short, medium and long sorting categories with long defined as >30 minutes, which I wouldn't consider long at all.

I was gong to suggest Patchwork, but is that quick enough?

niehubert wrote: ↑03 April 2026, 19:10 Hello

I'm looking for quick games with low randomness. Can you recommend something interesting?

Try Khronos. Every player has only 7 action phases in the whole game. Randomness : Each time it's your turn you've got 4 cards to play which come in 3 different colors = 15 different cases. Interesting : One action can sometimes trigger a chain reaction remodeling the whole game state (careful : there is no UNDO)
Drawback : Tiny playerbase.

niehubert wrote: ↑03 April 2026, 19:10 Hello

I'm looking for quick games with low randomness. Can you recommend something interesting?

As other have stated, you haven't defined "quick." This is a subjective term that can mean different things to different people.

That said, many abstract games are short and involve no randomness, or randomness only in the initial setup. Two of my favorites in this regard are Donuts (the board is randomly generated at the start) and Onitama (the legal moves are randomly selected at the start). I've also been playing a recent release Yinsh, which involve zero randomness. I think it's pretty short, but not knowing how you define "quick" I don't know if it suits you.

There are several of these games and anyone who plays abstracts will have their own favorites.

Thanks guys!
"Quick" I meant games around 10 minutes.

niehubert wrote: ↑03 April 2026, 19:10 Hello

I'm looking for quick games with low randomness. Can you recommend something interesting?

If you're playing real time?

Patchwork
Pente


Wait, never mind. 10 minutes? Most 10-minute games have a lot of randomness.

Perhaps Race for the galaxy? I play with two expansions and no takeovers and no goals, and the games are usually around 10 minutes. But I find there to be too much randomness in the game.

Azul

Hive. A two player game, no randomness (both players have the same pieces, there's no dice rolls or card flipping), and bga estimates a game takes about 12 minutes.

fuhjuhp wrote: ↑04 April 2026, 02:58 Hive. A two player game, no randomness (both players have the same pieces, there's no dice rolls or card flipping), and bga estimates a game takes about 12 minutes.

Wow. excellent info. Luck 0, strategy 5, games take 12 minutes. I'm going to check this game out.

Thanks