10 Board Games Like Gloomhaven for Heavy Strategy Fans Seeking Their Next Epic Campaign

So, you’ve finally retired. The city of Gloomhaven has seen its last monster fall, your envelopes are sealed, and you’re staring at a massive box wondering what on earth could possibly fill that void. Finding a worthy follow-up to the heavy strategy, tactical combat, and persistent world-building of Gloomhaven is a daunting task, but there are incredible options out there. If you are looking for **10 Board Games Like Gloomhaven for Heavy Strategy Fans** that deliver the same brain-burning intensity and rich thematic payoff, you’ve come to the right place.

The Mind-Bending Solitaire Giants

One of the aspects Gloomhaven players often cherish is the ability to play a complex scenario solo, controlling multiple characters or just enjoying the puzzle. The games in this section lean heavily into that “solitaire engine” feel where you are optimizing turns against a brutal system.

Mage Knight: Ultimate Edition

If you finished Gloomhaven and felt like you wanted more of a challenge, Mage Knight is the answer. Often cited as the “heavyweight champion” of the solo board gaming world, Mage Knight drops you into a fantasy world where you must conquer cities and fend off marauding armies. The mechanics are deceptively complex; you are playing a hand-building game where movement, attack, and block are all symbols on the same cards.

Unlike Gloomhaven, which offers a campaign story, Mage Knight is more about the individual scenarios and the conquest. However, the “brain burn” is significantly higher. Every turn feels like a complex math equation where one wrong move ruins your entire day. The player count supports up to four, but watching four people take 20-minute turns can be a test of patience. It is best experienced at one or two players.

“Mage Knight isn't just a game; it's an event. It makes Gloomhaven look like a light filler.”

Spirit Island

While Gloomhaven puts you in the boots of ragtag mercenaries, Spirit Island inverts the script. You play as powerful spirits with different elemental abilities, defending your island from colonizing invaders. It is a cooperative game that relies on intricate planning and area control.

The replay value here is astronomical. With a wide variety of spirits, each with distinct playstyles (some defensive, some aggressive, some focused on fear), and a modular invader board, no two games feel the same. It scratches the itch of “playing the map” that Gloomhaven fans love. Just be prepared for a steep learning curve as the interactions between your powers and the invaders can get incredibly dense.

Heavy Eurogames with a Thematic Soul

Sometimes Gloomhaven fans want to move away from dice-chucking combat and focus on tight economic engines or worker placement that still offers a heavy narrative or thematic weight.

Dune: Imperium

This is a hybrid of deck-building and worker placement that transports you to the universe of Frank Herbert. It captures the tension of political maneuvering and military conflict found in the best 4X games but condenses it into a 60-90 minute playtime. While the setup time is significantly shorter than Gloomhaven, the strategic depth is comparable.

You are constantly balancing your need for spice (currency) with your influence over the different factions. The combat is deterministic but relies heavily on your ability to read your opponents and bluff. It satisfies the urge for heavy strategy without requiring you to clear an entire afternoon just to punch through a few doors.

Brass: Birmingham

Don’t let the industrial revolution theme fool you; this is one of the cut-throat economic games on the market. Brass: Birmingham requires you to build networks, manage resources, and sell goods through a fluctuating market. It is a game of perfect information, meaning there are no dice rolls to blame if you lose—only your own inability to predict your opponents' moves.

The table space required is substantial, especially as the map fills up with iron, coal, and cotton industries. It demands the same level of forward-planning as a hand of Gloomhaven cards. You have to think three or four turns ahead, setting up your network so that when the canal era flips to the rail era, you are ready to dominate.

Anachrony

For fans of the sci-fi elements in Gloomhaven, Anachrony offers a trans-humanist setting where you lead a timeline in a post-apocalyptic future. It is a heavy worker placement game with a unique twist: time travel. You can borrow resources from your future self to gain an advantage now, but you must pay them back with interest later.

The component quality is top-tier, and the “exosuits” (meeples with little plastic backpacks) are a delight. Managing your workers, your timeline, and the impending doom of a meteor impact requires serious multitasking. It is a heavy cube-pusher that rewards meticulous optimization.

Narrative-Driven Adventures

One of Gloomhaven's biggest hooks is the legacy campaign. You wake up in a world, make choices, and see the consequences. If that is what you are missing most, these games will fill that gap.

Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon

This game is perhaps the closest thematic relative to Gloomhaven on this list. It is a dark, Arthurian RPG that focuses heavily on storytelling and survival. The mechanics are challenging, forcing you to manage hunger, wounds, and sanity as you explore a cursed land.

Tainted Grail is flexible. You can play a short story or dive into the massive “Last Knight” campaign which offers over 100 hours of content. The game utilizes a “choose your own adventure” book mechanic that resolves your encounters based on your skills and items. It is punishing, but the narrative rewards are deeply satisfying.

Destinies

Destinies is a unique hybrid because it utilizes an app. While some purists turn their noses up at apps in board games, this implementation is seamless. The app acts as the Dungeon Master, revealing story elements, tracking hidden information, and resolving battles. This frees the players up to focus entirely on the role-playing and the choices.

The replay value is driven by the fact that there are multiple characters with distinct storylines. It removes the need for an overlord player, ensuring everyone gets to be the hero. It’s a great “step down” in terms of physical heft, but a step up in narrative immersion.

Epic Table Hogs for the Weekend

You didn't mind spending three hours setting up Gloomhaven, right? You have a dining room table that you are willing to sacrifice for days at a time? Then these are for you.

Twilight Imperium 4th Edition

This is the king of the “Sunday Funday” games. Twilight Imperium (TI4) is a massive 4X space opera game that involves diplomacy, trade, technology trees, and huge space battles. A game can easily last 6 to 10 hours.

The player count is ideally 6 players, managing different alien races vying for control of the galaxy. It requires a massive amount of table space—we are talking a full dining table with the leaves in, plus side tables. The strategy is on a galactic scale rather than a dungeon scale, but the feeling of managing an empire and seeing a long-term plan come to fruition scratches that same epic itch.

Ark Nova

While not a war game, Ark Nova is a heavy strategy game that has taken the hobby by storm due to its incredible “engine building” loop. You are building a zoo, attracting animals, and supporting conservation projects. It is a point-salad game of the highest order.

Why is it like Gloomhaven? Because it is massive. The board is huge, the tableau you build is enormous, and the sheer number of combos available in the cards is overwhelming. The setup time is non-trivial due to the sheer number of cards and tokens. It offers that “just one more turn” addiction that makes you look at the clock and realize it's 2 AM.

Dice-Building RPG Combat

Too Many Bones

This is the “love letter to RPGs” in board game form. Too Many Bones is a dice-building game where you play as a Gearloc (a hero) fighting against baddies. Instead of cards, your attacks and skills are etched onto the faces of custom dice.

The production value is off the charts. The chips are heavy, the dice are gorgeous, and the enemies are menacing. It comes in a massive, heavy chest. However, this brings up a crucial point: storage solutions. Out of the box, it’s a nightmare. Like Gloomhaven, you will almost certainly want to invest in third-party organizers to keep the hundreds of dice, chips, and cards sorted. It is a tactical puzzle that fans of Gloomhaven’s combat scenarios will absolutely adore.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there anything lighter than Gloomhaven but still heavy?

Definitely. Dune: Imperium is a great choice. It keeps the strategy high but reduces the playtime and setup time significantly. Clank! is also a lighter deck-building adventure that offers dungeon crawling without the heaviness of a tactical skirmish game.

Which game has the best storage solutions included?

Most of these games come with piles of punched cardboard and ziplock bags. Brass: Birmingham has a decent insert, but for games like Gloomhaven, Too Many Bones, and Tainted Grail, you will almost certainly need to look into broken token or folded space inserts to make the game playable.

How important is table space for these games?

Critical. Games like Twilight Imperium 4th Edition and Ark Nova require massive play areas. Gloomhaven players are used to this, but be aware that Mage Knight also requires a lot of room for the map and your personal decks.

Do these games have high replay value?

Yes. Spirit Island and Mage Knight are arguably infinitely replayable because the scenarios and card combinations change every time. Even narrative games like Tainted Grail offer branching paths that encourage new playthroughs.