In a day of digital media, tabletop games can be overlooked by some, but thankfully, there is still a profound group of board gamers out there keeping the hobby alive. Warsims, card games, horror games, no matter what genre draws you to board games, there's something out there for you.

While there has been a push for newer games to be easier for players to move through, there are still some, both new and old, that have pretty severe setup times. Whether they're just in-depth or have a lot of moving parts, these games aren't fast to start, but often, they're well worth the extra time to do it right.

While it is far from the board game with the longest setup out there, Risk earns a spot on this list for being a fairly common household game with a pretty long setup time. Around 15 minutes for people who have set up the game before, and a bit longer for newcomers, it's a pretty decent setup time.

Not too long sure, but for being a common name in the board gaming community, and a game that markets itself as a strategy game for non-strategy gamers, it deserves a spot. The board pieces and map are a bit bigger than most, and it takes some time to get everything organized for what is usually considered a casual game. It also works as a fair litmus test for the rest of the games on this list.

Usually speaking, RPG board games have pretty low setup times, with a lot of the work going into maps and the rest falling into the realm of imagination. Gloomhaven fights against that for the most part.

Dice, cards, hexagon maps, minis, and tokens all add up to a pretty impressive amount of setup, especially if you weren't organized the last time you put the game up. It's a great dark fantasy game to get into. Just make sure you set up ahead of your friends getting there, or buy one of the many organizers on the market for the game.

When you get into sci-fi board games, you are prepared for a lot of lore and rules to get accustomed to, but you may not expect a big setup time from the table itself. Twilight Imperium has a lot of all the above, but what do you expect with a game where you can vie for galactic control as one of seventeen factions?

A full game setup is truly something to behold, with a galactic map full of tokens and data, not to mention the various faction boards each player gets with the info they need to play. It feels like a lot, because it is, but it's also a fun and in-depth way to approach sci-fi board gaming.

Looking at Heroscape is a blast from the past. The hexagon board with its various levels, the fantasy miniatures in their bright colors, and the long setup time are all full of nostalgia. If you're looking to play a fantasy board game like the previous generations, then this is a great start, but you have to put in the work.

It sort of depends on how much work you want to put into the map, with some games being quick runs of just a few hexes, while others take up multiple tables. It can be a fun experience to work together to think of a battlemap with various terrains, though.

Wargames are pretty in-depth as is. It's one of the major things that draws in fans of the genre. But, usually speaking, wargames that are more niche minimize that in some way. Fire in the East flies in the face of that notion. Only focusing on the Soviet attack on Germany in Operation Barbarossa, you'd think it would be a quick and easy setup.

You'd be wrong, considering the developers decided to enlarge the European continent to impressive levels and make the map quite in-depth. With units to fill the map with before the game can start, you'll be spending a solid hour at least getting everything ready for play.

A strategy war game that most people have heard of by now, thanks to its heavy lean into historical accuracy, and for being around for such a long time. Axis & Allies is the go-to for diehards and newcomers to military board games around the world.

With a dedicated website and third-party sites full of add-ons, it can definitely be a game that takes some time to get set up, but even at its base, you'll be spending the better part of an hour getting the board, rules, minis, and dice all ready to roll. Not to mention, the actual gameplay will last you a day or more as well.

Sometimes you can tell when the developer of a board game was incredibly into the niche of the game they were working on. With wargames it is pretty easy to decipher depending on the historical accuracy put into a game. The Campaign for North Africa is pretty niche, but you can feel the care the creators put into it from the very beginning.

Don't buy this game if you aren't okay with at least a few hours of setup. The fold-out map is genuinely huge, with hexes throughout depicting each 12-mile span of North Africa. Not to mention the tokens, charts, time counters, and other bits you'll need to run the game. It's niche, but a runtime of only a couple of hours makes it fairly accessible after the initial setup.

One of the longest lasting sci-fi board games out there, now with plenty of novels, music, video games, comics and other media to build the lore and bring in new fans. The grimdark universe and its sci-fi combat board games take some serious time to set up in a deceptive way. It's all about the buildup.

It starts with buying the minis and box, and from there, it just builds. You can really get involved, getting the paint, tools, brushes, terrain, tape measure, and all the accoutrements. From there, you glue together and paint your minis and terrain pieces until you are happy with them, and finally, get a game set up with a table, terrain, and a plot in mind.