HomeExplore
Genres
Strategy GameCard GameCooperative GameSee more
Themes
FantasyFightingScience FictionSee more
Mechanics
Hand ManagementVariable Player PowersDice RollingSee more
Quick access
Short Games (< 30 min)2 Players GamesLight Playstyle Games

Alternate History

Alternate History in Board Games

Alternate history is a fascinating theme in board games that captivates players by reimagining historical events. This theme allows players to explore what if scenarios, diverging from the historical record to craft unique and engaging gameplay experiences. Following are key aspects of alternate history themes in board games:

Appeal of Alternate History

  • Creative Exploration: Engaging with history in new ways.
  • Strategic Depth: Impact of divergent events on gameplay strategies.
  • Educational Value: Stimulating interest in real historical events.

Manifestations of the Theme

  • Historical Divergence Points: Games often pivot around specific moments where history is altered.
  • Cultural Mashups: Blending different historical periods or cultures.
  • Technological Speculation: Incorporating anachronistic tech or advancements.

Examples of Alternate History Board Games

  • Twilight Struggle: Cold War what-ifs.
  • Scythe: Post-WWI with mechs.
  • Terraforming Mars: Future history of colonizing Mars.

Player Engagement

The alternate history theme excels in fostering a deeply immersive experience, as players get to rewrite history and explore the consequences of their actions against a familiar, yet different historical backdrop.

Alternate History themed Hand Management games

Star Trek Chrono-Trek
Oak
Kingdom Legacy: Feudal Kingdom
Love Letter (2019 Edition)
Era of Kingdoms (1st Edition)
Chrononauts (5th Printing)
Neolithic
Operation F.A.U.S.T
Twilight Struggle: Red Sea - Conflict in the Horn of Africa
1565, St. Elmo's Pay
Deep State: New World Order
Amun-Re: The Card Game
13 Minutes - The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962
Doomtown Reloaded: Doomtown - Reloaded
Bang!: Samurai Sword - Rising Sun Expansion
Spartacus: Shadow of Death Expansion Set, The
Doomtown: Weird West Edition
Cryptid: Urban Legends

Alternate History themed Card Game

Starter Deck - Confucius
$0.00
Starter Deck - Queen Boadicea
$0.00
Timeline Twist: Pop Culture Edition
$16.99
$13.99
Slap .45
$19.95
$10.00
Chrononauts - The Gore Years
$5.00
Bang!: Dodge City (1st Edition)
$5.00
Timeline Twist
$16.99
$13.99
Loka - The Card Game
$11.49
Heroes of History: Epic Combo Pack - Midnight Riders & Echoes of the Plains
$11.95
Anno Domini - Probespiel
-15%
$2.95
$2.50
Kaleva of the Finnish Forests
$15.95
Gunfighter (Kickstarter Edition)
$39.95
Symposium - A Game About Asking Questions
$24.95
D-Day Operation Overlord Battle Card Game
$18.95
$18.00
Tournament at Avalon
$24.99
$21.99
For Glory (Standard Edition)
$39.95
$28.00
Cards of Camelot
$17.95
Leaving Earth - Stations (1st Edition)
$59.95
Crazier Eights: Library of Alexandria - Promo Card
-16%
$2.69
$2.25
VEX DEX II - States and Provinces
$9.95
Victory Through Industry
$24.95
Suitors & Suitability
$20.95
Symposium - The Hosloi
$18.95
Cheese Master
-13%
$14.99
$12.98
Prince, The
$5.00

Alternate History themed Strategy Game

Dia De Los Muertos Tuck Box
$0.00
Conflicting Legends
$15.49
Pax Renaissance (2nd Edition)
$100.00
Vampire The Masquerade - Heritage: Heritage
$84.95
$40.00
Troyes - The Ladies of Troyes Expansion
$49.95
3000 Scoundrels
-80%
$49.95
$10.00
Last Front - The Strategy Card Game
$5.00
$4.95
Front Line - No Komrades (2016 Edition)
$5.95
$5.00
Great War, The
$44.95
$35.00
51st State (2nd Edition)
$11.95
El Alamein (Japanese Photograph Edition)
$50.95
Roll Through the Ages - The Iron Age (Gryphon Bookshelf Edition)
$39.95
$14.00
Peloponnes Card Game
-36%
$25.95
$16.50
Citadels (2016 Edition, Z-Man Logo)
$30.00
$18.00
Olympus Loonacy
$15.00
Fog & Friction - Western Front
$15.95
Fallen Angels
-61%
$12.95
$5.00
Chrononauts - Early American
$15.00

Miniatures and Alternate History themed games

$79.95
$65.00
$0.00
$58.95

Alternate History themed games published by CoolMiniOrNot (CMON)

Rivet Wars - Eastern Front
$39.95
$34.95
Rivet Wars - Eastern Front: War Room Expansion
$49.95
Rivet Wars - Eastern Front: Veteran, The (Kickstarter Exclusive)
$29.95
$25.00
Rivet Wars - Eastern Front: Sturmrad vs. M7 Boss (Kickstarter Exclusive)
$69.95
Rivet Wars - Eastern Front: Elsa Frost vs. Cher Ami
$32.95

Alternate History themed games edited by Sergio Vaquero

Kingdom Defenders

$0.00
Kingdom Defenders is a competitive game where each player will embody a brave hero. By selecting the optimal actions on the board and managing their resources, players must complete missions, complete quests and help defend the attack from the fearsome...
mostly positive, 74%
12 y/o +
2 to 4 players
60 minutes
Involved
Alternate History
Fantasy
Modular Board
Set Collection
Turn Order: Claim Action
Worker Placement

Alternate History themed games published by Corax Games

Pax Viking

-51%
$69.99
$34.00
In Pax Viking each player represents a Jarl, a powerful leader in Norse culture. Your family has grown strong over the centuries, and it is now at a pivotal point in history where it has the opportunity to unite many of the Jarldoms into one state.Settle...
mixed, 64%
12 y/o +
1 to 6 players
60 minutes
Involved
Card Game
Alternate History
Economic
Negotiation
Area Majority / Influence
Open Drafting
Simulation

Alternate History themed games published by Tabletop Boardgames

Incursion: Blitzhund
$10.49
Incursion: Gretel Von X
$9.95
Incursion: German Starter Set
$59.95
Incursion: Droptrooper Reinforcements
$49.95
Incursion: Droptrooper Starter Set
$64.95

Alternate History themed games published by Giant Roc

-28%
$80.00
$57.99
Formidable adversaries are arrayed against you. Your people stand ready. History beckons.In your hands lies the destiny of one of most storied peoples of history. Under constant threat of attack, you must conquer new lands, oversee dramatic scientific...
89%
14+
1 to 4
40 mins
Involved
-47%
$162.97
$85.99
Stalingrad, 1942. Before you awaits a grueling conflict in this cornerstone battleground. As the bullets and bombs tear the city asunder, only through wits and valor can you seize the cornerstone of the entire Eastern Front and change the course of history...
94%
14+
2
45 mins
Relaxed
$34.95
This expansion to the critically acclaimed For Glory lets you brawl with up to four players, or test your mettle against the Ludus Magnus in solo mode.The Champions Expansion introduces upgradeable Champion cards, new hybrid cards, and a new blessing...
91%
14+
1 to 4
60 mins
Relaxed
-30%
$70.00
$49.00
When Elsa von Frühlingfeld used recently isolated uranium to heat up a jar of water and then used the steam to power the engine in a process she called "atomization," a new era has dawned. Her device, called Nucleum, made Saxony the hub of European science...
79%
14+
1 to 4
60 mins
Involved

World War II and Alternate History themed games

$19.49
$0.00
$0.00
$107.95
$45.00

Alternate History themed Variable Set-up games

-30%
$20.00
$14.00
They came to this planet, and they chose you. Their wisdom and resources uplifted you and allowed you to prosper. Having mastered their ways of culture, science, and warfare, you are now ready to take on a new challenge. Under the watchful eye of the...
73%
14+
1 to 4
60 mins
Involved
-40%
$14.95
$9.00
Fill your pheasantry with the most beautiful pheasants in this fast card game. Twelve animal types offer you a lot of exciting games!Fancy Feathers works with up to six players, but to play with more than two people you need additional copies of the ...
61%
8+
2
15 mins
Light
-19%
$99.00
$79.99
The ashes from the first Great War still darken the snow in 1920s Europa. The capitalistic city-state known simply as "The Factory," which fueled the war with heavily armored mechs, has closed its doors, drawing the attention of several nearby countries...
82%
14+
1 to 5
90 mins
Involved
-21%
$69.95
$55.00
NATO, Designer Signature Edition marks the return of a true wargaming classic by Bruce Maxwell. NATO simulates a potential NATO/Warsaw Pact conflict in Central Europe during the Cold War years of the 1980’s. First published in 1983, this game was Victory...
81%
14+
2 to 4
180 mins
Involved

Alternate History themed Solo / Solitaire Game

$239.99
Explore the giant planets of the outer solar system all the way into 1986 in this major expansion for Leaving Earth. Visit the four great moons of Jupiter, see the rings of Saturn, search for life on mysterious Titan, and fly by the distant planets ...
83%
12+
1 to 5
60 mins
Involved
-20%
$55.00
$44.00
No one really knows what triggered the One Day War between the superpowers, but a single day is all it took to end the Before World. After the governments collapsed, leaderless groups of survivors huddled in the ruins of once great cities. The climate...
75%
14+
1 to 4
60 to 120 mins
Involved
-20%
$25.00
$20.00
The modular board adds a new level of variability to Scythe, with the map (double-sided board and 4 big double-sided tiles) and the faction locations (home base tiles) changing every time you play. The modular board adds a drafting element to setup, ...
85%
14+
1 to 7
120 mins
Involved

Alternate History themed games published by Compass Games

$75.00
Blue Water Navy covers the war at sea, air, close-ashore and low-earth orbit from the Kola Peninsula in Northern Russia to the Mediterranean Sea and West over the Atlantic Ocean to the United States and Cuba. The game models the full order of battle...
83%
14+
2
320 mins
$195.00
Blue Water Navy covers the war at sea, air, close-ashore and low-earth orbit from the Kola Peninsula in Northern Russia to the Mediterranean Sea and West over the Atlantic Ocean to the United States and Cuba. The game models the full order of battle...
80%
14+
2
320 mins
Involved
$159.95
The Third World War, Designer Signature Edition, marks one of the largest and ambitious game undertakings to date covering not one but FOUR true wargaming classics by Frank Chadwick, faithfully remastered and updated with this all-new, deluxe edition...
92%
14+
1 to 8
360 mins
Involved

Alternate History themed games published by Maldito Games

$53.56
$19.32
$99.99
$78.85
$3.39
$2.95
$41.98
$28.00

Alternate History themed games illustrated by Antonis Karidis

Red Storm

-35%
$299.95
$195.00
March 1987: The hopes raised by Mikhail Gorbachev's reform efforts in the Soviet Union and nuclear disarmament talks with the United States are suddenly crushed when a military coup removes his regime from power. Hidden behind a disinformation campaign...
positive, 83%
14 y/o +
1 to 2 players
60 minutes
Involved
War Game
Alternate History
Aviation / Flight
Dice Rolling
Grid Movement
Hexagon Grid
Simulation

Alternate History themed games developed by Yves Rettel

Red Strike

-39%
$295.00
$179.99
Red Strike is a war game simulating a hypothetical clash between NATO and Warsaw Pact (WP) armed forces in Summer 1989. It covers operational land, air and sea warfare in Central Europe and the Northern Atlantic, while also keeping an eye on the strategic...
overwhelmingly positive, 96%
12 y/o +
2 to 6 players
120 minutes
Involved
War Game
Alternate History
Modern Warfare
Dice Rolling
Hexagon Grid
Simulation