If you like the idea of managing a workforce without the real-world stress that comes with being an actual manager, then you’ll definitely enjoy worker placement games. Inspired by European titles like theSettlers of Catan, the worker placement genre carries a heavy emphasis on building an efficiency engine that outranks your opponents. The ultimate goal is usually to accrue the most points by sending workers around the board to collect resources and carry out duties.
It’s a charming and relatable concept that has graced thousands of games, but with so many to choose from, it’s hard to determine which ones are the best. Here’s a handful of what we believe to be the best worker placement games currently on the market.
Updated on June 02, 2025, by Sai Vsr:If you’re someone who’s just starting to get into the world of worker placement games, you may want to check out Lords Of Waterdeep. We’ve included it in this update, and you can take a quick look at it just below.
Wizards Of The Coast Dungeons & Dragons: Lords Of Waterdeep
A great place to start.
Lords of Waterdeep is a thematic board game of intrigue and adventure as players recruit adventurers to complete quests and gain influence over the Forgotten Realms city. With strategic gameplay for 2-5 players, this award-winning game offers an accessibleyetdeep experience.
As one of Waterdeep’s secret rulers, you recruit warriors, rogues, mages and clerics to take on quests across the vivid city landscape on the game board. It’s accessible enough to pull you right in, but with endless viable strategies, this game has got serious legs. Every turn feels important as you expand your influence, manage resources, and position agents to maximize your actions. Plus, with the expansion throwing new locations and mechanics into the mix, no two games ever feel quite the same.
Everdell: Collector’s Edition
Everdell is as charming as it is fluid in its gameplay.
Ah, Everdell. It’s as if you took all the adorable, anthropomorphic critters from every Disney movie and crammed them into a box. It’s a sweet little game (that can quickly get bigger if you add any expansions from the wide list of what’s available). Everdell sees players sending their little animal meeples around the forest to collect resources like twigs, resin, pebbles, and berries, which they’ll use to construct buildings and attract new critters to their village. The gameplay is fluid, and the mechanisms give a lot to think about while still remaining closely bonded with the theme. If you’re a fan of “building an engine” and watching it do what you intended it to do, Everdell is a great pick.
Alien Frontiers
A sci-fi take on worker placement and resource management
Alien Frontiers, one of the first major crowdfunded board games on Kickstarter, has become an industry staple for its unique take on dice worker placement where your dice act as ships that you place around the board. It packs a punch with strategy and intense player interaction as players race to colonize a newly discovered planet.
One of many greatspace board games, Alien Frontiers stands out for its innovative use of dice as workers, or in this case, ships. Players will take turns rolling their fleet of dice and using combos of values on them to access different facilities orbiting an alien planet. It’s a clever use of regular D6 dice that gives you a lot of meaningful, strategic choices that stem from random outputs. If you’re a fan of sci-fi themes, this one is a great pick, and easily deserved as one of the best worker placement games of the year.
Viticulture
“An elegant worker placement game for a more civilized age.”
Viticulture takes the seemingly mundane topic of winemaking and turns it into an elegant contest of competing Tuscan vintners. It offers a twist on normal worker placement with the added element of the “Grande” worker.
Viticulture excels at evoking its theme. One of Stonemaier Games' flagship titles, Viticulture is both calming to play yet stimulates the brain. The gameplay loop of hiring staff, planting, harvesting, and pressing grapes, and then aging wine all just makes sense in the context of what you’re doing. And the game manages to convey these concepts through your turns very well. It’s a great design because the game gives you includes more tasks than one player can do in a single game, forcing you to choose a strategic path, and also giving it a higher replay value.
A Feast for Odin
That’s A Lot Of Options
A Feast for Odin is renowned for how ambitious it is. It’s a hugely epic, sprawling worker placement game, modeling Viking clans as they raid, hunt, go whaling, amass plunder, and feast in the name of Odin. It’s incredibly crunchy and offers practically limitless replayability.
A Feast for Odin is, by far, one of the most monumental creations in all of board game media. The scope of the game is fairly simple. You’re the leader of a clan of Vikings, delegating your clansmen out on different tasks to grow your wealth and devotion to Odin. So what makes it huge and epic? It’s the sheer number of options you have to choose from to place your workers. The game boasts a whopping sixty-one worker placement spots. As intimidating as that might sound, players will quickly learn that many of the spaces you have access to are just variations of the same core mechanics. You’ll need to figure out the most efficient way to get things done based on how many workers you choose to commit to a particular task. It’s a wild ride and well worth your time at the table.
Dune Imperium
A surprising and compelling title.
Dune: Imperium blends two beloved game mechanisms; deck building and worker placement. It takes two very different concepts and creates an evocative experience that keeps players coming back to it.
Dune: Imperium was a sleeper-hit at first, but quickly rose to the top of peoples' radar when they discovered how much strategic depth was packed into this unassuming game, preempting the release of 2021’s film, Dune. Dune: Imperium shines for its masterful design in blending elements of worker placement with deck building. The central hook of the gameplay is that your options for where to send workers are dictated by the cards in your hand. You’ll need to balance where you send your workers each turn with gaining resources, affiliating with different power structures, and participating in the ensuing conflicts each round. It’s incredibly satisfying and rewards repeated plays.
Raiders of the North Sea
Simple to learn, but lots of decisions to make.
Raiders of the North Sea is incredibly simple to learn and play, and gives players opportunities for oh-so satisfying combos on each and every turn.
Raiders of the North Sea rises above other worker placement games for its ingenuity and minimalism. Like A Feast for Odin, it’s Viking-themed. Players need to steer groups of ransackers and pillagers across Northern Europe to ravage the land. The theme is beautifully enhanced by the art ofThe Mico, and unlike other entries in this guide, players will take control of a single worker with every turn. They’ll use this worker by placing it on any vacant spot available to gain resources, smith armor, complete contracts for the Jarl, and muster troops for an impending raid. The next half of your turn is used to pick up a workerfrom the board to claim the benefits of that space. If it sounds simple, it’s because it is, and it’s that which makes Raiders of the North Sea so good.
FAQ
What Are Worker Placement Games?
Worker placement is a game mechanic where players will take turns assigning workers (often wooden or plastic pawns occasionally referred to as ‘meeple’). The goal is usually to obtain resources which will then be used to complete tasks that score victory points.
What Is Dice Worker Placement?
Dice worker placement is similar to regular worker placement except your workers are dice and are typically rolled before being used on your turn. Games that use dice worker placement usually have rules and mechanics that are affected by the dice values produced on each roll you make, meaning the value of each worker you use on your turn is variable.
Is Worker Placement Similar To Action Selection?
While they bear similarities, worker placement relies on vacant spaces to be filled on a board or on cards to be able to access certain actions. Regular action selection games usually include a list of options players can take on their turn, uninhibited by the plays of others at the table, although there can be exceptions to this rule.
