Catan is popular. By some accounts, it’s the most popular game of the modern era. Known as a gateway game that’s sold over 45 million copies and introduced countless families to a life of board-games beyond Monopoly, it’s a game that enforces interaction between players.

A good board game should not only engage the table in what each and everyone is doing, but more importantly – who is doing what with who? A great game not only entertains the imagination, but also inspires creation. Few games embody this as well as Twilight Imperium.

It was in 2012 that the obsession began. Starting out as a nagging question that has been repeatedly asked both before and since. If chess was designed today, how would the game differ? Would we continue riding horses into battle and do royalty still fight their wars on a square grid with two biomes?

At first glance, Talisman looks harmless; a fairy-tale spiral of adventurers, monsters and magic. But anyone who’s sat at the table knows this is no stroll through central park. Beneath its nostalgic artwork and relentless dice rolls lies one of the most unpredictable, polarising and enduring fantasy board games ever made.

With over 275 million copies sold globally across more than 100 countries and translated into over 45 languages, Monopoly is not only the most popular board game released in the last 100 years, but it’s also one of the most frequently modified, with more variations than Barbie has outfits.

From Abraham Lincoln to Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein to Stephen Hawking, John Lennon to Ray Charles, William Shakespeare to Oscar Wilde – chess has permeated the very fabric of culture, politics, science and art. It has inspired poems, revolutions and even a few bar fights.