Best strategy board games for five players

You are five players and you are keen to know which are the best strategy board games for five players?

So I went through the top 50 strategy board games on boardgamegeek and made a list of the best games for five players. There are only six games that play best with five players.

Best strategy board games for five players sorted by BGG rank

	Game	BGG Rank	Playing Time
1	Power Grid	12	120
2	El Grande	19	60 − 120
3	Railways of the World	42	120
4	Kemet	45	90 − 120
5	The Princes of Florence	46	75 − 100
6	Hansa Teutonica	50	45 − 90

 

In terms of BGG ranking, the best choices are clearly Power Grid and El Grande. Power Grid is a very popular economic strategy game whereas El Grande is a classsic area control strategy board game. I personally prefer El Grande (check my review) whose game mechanics inspired me for my own board game Green Deal.
 
 

Interestingly Green Deal is often compared to Power Grid 😉 (my review)
 
 
 
 
 

Best strategy board games for five players sorted by playing time

Game	BGG Rank	Playing Time	Weight	Weight/playing time
Hansa Teutonica	50	45 − 90	3,1	4,59
The Princes of Florence	46	75 − 100	3,3	3,77
El Grande	19	60 − 120	3,1	3,44
Kemet	45	90 − 120	2,9	2,76
Railways of the World	42	120	3	2,50
Power Grid	12	120	3,3	2,75

Hansa Teutonica is clearly the fastest strategy board game in this list. Railways of the world and Power Grid are the longest games.

Best strategy board games for five players sorted by weight

Game	BGG Rank	Playing Time	Weight	Weight/playing time
Kemet	45	90 − 120	2,9	2,76
Railways of the World	42	120	3	2,50
Hansa Teutonica	50	45 − 90	3,1	4,59
El Grande	19	60 − 120	3,1	3,44
The Princes of Florence	46	75 − 100	3,3	3,77
Power Grid	12	120	3,3	2,75

Kemet has the lowest weight in this selection, whereas Power Grid has the highest weight. All of these games have a similar weight though, they are rather mid-weight strategy board games. The average weight of these six games is 3,12 which is fairly low compared to the average weight of 3,3 for the list of best 4 player games, 3,26 for the list of best 3 player strategy games  and 3,23 for the list of best 2 player games.

Best strategy board games for five players sorted by weight / playing time ratio

Game	BGG Rank	Playing Time	Weight	Weight/playing time
Hansa Teutonica	50	45 − 90	3,1	4,59
The Princes of Florence	46	75 − 100	3,3	3,77
El Grande	19	60 − 120	3,1	3,44
Kemet	45	90 − 120	2,9	2,76
Power Grid	12	120	3,3	2,75
Railways of the World	42	120	3	2,50

Hansa Teutonica has by far the best weight / playing time ratio so it is fairly deep despite its short playing time. This was exactly my experience and I personally love it. The good weight / playing time ratio might come at the cost of a rather thin theme but for me the pros clearly overweigh the cons. For a euro game Hansa Teutonica is quite interactive, players try to block each other all the time.