I wasn't expecting a board game to unlock this primal fear of the sea within me, but here we are. Trapped beneath the waves and running out of oxygen with an armful of treasure weighing you down? Er, no, thank you. I'll pass.

Except I won't, as Deep Sea Adventure is a bloody excellent board game.

Developed by Oink Games (those of Scout fame), this aquatic board game is all about nabbing as much loot from the ocean floor as possible before running out of air – you're playing chicken with the sea, basically. It's clearly taken notes from the best travel board games, too; it comes in a tiny box, doesn't take ages to play, and is pretty simple yet very replayable.

The tricky part here is knowing when to call it quits. There are four tiers of treasure with increasingly high points values to choose from, but the most valuable gear sits right at the bottom of the ocean. Because this uses up the most oxygen to carry back, and the round ends once your shared air reaches zero, you've got to weigh up when to keep going or when to rush back to homebase. Plus, these treasure tiles being so far from the sub means you've got more ground to cover on your return journey. Seeing as you only move as many spaces as you can roll on two dice, going that deep is a risk – particularly late in a round.

Sure, luck plays a definite role – if you roll badly, you're in trouble. But that's why it's so important to judge when to stop. That's where the skill is; knowing your limits, as in many of the best board games.

I found this to be a really enchanting challenge. It's not difficult to grasp, but requires a lot of thought to come out on top. For me, that makes it a great choice for taking on vacation. OK, so I might not recommend it for a cruise – my nerves have limits, after all. But as a travel board game, it really cuts the mustard.

I'll just try not to think too hard about the imaginary divers who perished on our playtest sessions…

For more tabletop recommendations, don't miss the best family board games. As for something else on the go, you need this travel-size pirate card game.

Vacations are looming and time off is all anyone can think about, so the only thing left to do is clear some space in your suitcase for the best travel board games. No matter whether you're taking a break with family, friends, or your partner, these portable favorites will brighten up the trip. Personally speaking, my family and I adore trying to outdo each others' high scores over the course of a holiday.

Where should you start, though? I've been writing about and reviewing the best board games on GamesRadar+ for almost eight years now, and that means I've got plenty of recommendations. These are the best travel board games our experts and I make a beeline for when we head on vacation, so they'll hopefully add a little sunshine to your trip as well. Bananagrams always finds its way into my suitcase because of how replayable it is, for example, while Hive is an excellent choice if you want to play something compact on plane or train tray tables.

These choices span a range of interests and costs, so there should be something to suit you regardless of your budget!

Quick list

Best travel board game overall

Countless fans (and our own writers, no less) swear by Scout, and honestly? I can't argue with them. It walked away with the industry's most prestigious game of the year award in 2022, and it continues to be highly recommended by the community now.

For starters, it travels exceptionally well due to coming in a small box while only using a few cards and tokens. That means you've got a lot of entertainment crammed into one small space.

Secondly, it's dead easy to learn but has a hidden depth that should keep you coming back. Your aim is to create sets of the same number or sequences of a higher value than the last one laid down, but you can't change the order of the cards in your hand. That means you've got to be clever in the way you gather and play new cards, giving plenty to think about. As our Scout review notes, "its emphasis on speed and uncertainty makes for an addictive 'just one more match' feeling that's hard to beat."

Best travel board game for families

Looking for a game everyone can enjoy, regardless of whether they like board games or not? Try Bananagrams. It's a high-speed crossword that anyone can understand, and it also travels brilliantly. For one thing, it's all stored in a single soft case that's easy to find room for. Next, it can be played anywhere with a flat surface.

The idea here is to use up all the letter tiles in front of you to create your own crossword, with words that all connect to one another. Each time you use up the supply, you shout "peel" and everyone must grab a new tile. Play then continues until every single tile is gone. It can become incredibly speedy once everyone gets the hang of things, and what may have sounded like a dry word game becomes a frantic race to the finish.

Enjoy competitive challenges? This will very much be your jam. It's a test of speed, skill, and flexibility, because rearranging your crossword when progression becomes impossible is key. While that can be overwhelming if you fall behind, there's no better feeling than outsmarting your rivals - particularly if you've gone from the back of the pack to pole position. You'll be dining out on that high for a while if you win.

Best travel board game for friends

There's nothing better than a hidden role game, if you ask me - and this one streamlines the mechanics of my favorites, including Unfathomable (which I said was brilliant but took too long to play in my Unfathomable review).

The aim is to take the gameplay excellence of those fan-favorites and condense them down into a 20-minute experience that's easy to understand and even easier to play. One side are pirates, while a small number take on the role of mutineers (the number of which varies depending on how many players there are). The pirates are trying to build up the value of their treasure chest and meet a specific goal, like 11 points in total. Meanwhile, the mutineers are trying to reduce that chest's value. To do this, everyone places a card from their hand into the chest each turn - and these cards have a value of +1, 0, or -2. If you're a pirate, you'll want to add as many +1s or 0s as possible. If you're a mutineer, it's all about those 0s or -2s. Once a pirate thinks the required goal has been met, the game ends and you check the chest... but you won't know if you've succeeded until you flip the cards over.

Things get interesting because you're encouraged to play fast and loose with the truth as a mutineer. You're meant to discuss what you've put into the chest each round, and mutineers can obviously lie. "Oh," they say after slapping down a -2 in secret, "me? I put in a +1. Definitely, yes sir." A pirate's only defence is to give anyone they're suspicious of three 'walk the plank' cards and banish them from the game, though they can also use ability cards to turn the tide.

Best travel board game for 2 players

It's impossible to discuss the best 2-player board games without Hive being mentioned. This is an utterly stone-cold classic that's been going strong since 2001, and there's a good reason for that. Despite being very accessible and portable enough to be used anywhere (be it a plane tray or a beer garden table), there's enough strategy powering it to keep you coming back.

Basically, Hive is like an easier-to-understand version of chess. Your aim is to surround and trap your opponent's queen, but all your tiles have to be connected to something else - you can't have bugs out on their own. Because they all move in different ways, you have to cleverly outmanoeuvre your foe whilst keeping you queen safe, all as they try to do the exact same thing. It's a shame only two people can play at once, but hey; it's good enough to make up for that shortcoming.

Enjoy competitive games or head-to-head challenges? Make sure this is in your collection.

Best strategy travel board game

If you want a travel board game that'll make you think but isn't going to stretch your gray matter too far out of shape, Catan: On the Road is a great choice. Actually, I started recommending this travel game to everyone after playing it once. That's the highest praise I can give.

This on-the-go spin-off condenses everything brilliant about the original (which our Catan review calls a must-have) into a streamlined version that takes between 15-30 minutes to play. Your aim? Build up seven Victory Points by settling the island of Catan. How players do that is up to them, though - you can increase your score through building cities, constructing the longest road, or gathering the largest army. Each path offers advantages that may tip the scales in your favor, so choose wisely. Cities allow you to draw extra resources every turn, for example, while knights protect you from Robber cards that may steal your goods.

When you throw in wrinkles like trade (which provides a short-term boost but may nudge your opponent one step closer to their goal), Catan: On the Road provides more nuance than you might expect. It's not perfect by any means, and those with an early advantage may run away with the game. However, it's just as easy to catch up if you've played your cards right... and there's something deeply satisfying about leap-frogging your foe into first place.

Best travel board game for kids

Even though it isn't just for kids (everyone can have a great time with this vacation board game), Sushi Go is particularly good when travelling with younger family members. On top of an inviting cartoon style, it's very easy to get the hang of and only lasts 15 minutes or so per session. It also comes in a hard-wearing metal tin, so can be taken pretty much anywhere.

Your aim is to create the most delicious sushi menu around, and you do that by choosing cards from a deck that's being passed between players. Each card scores differently, so you've got to choose wisely; they either provide points straight away or can be combined for a more powerful combo if you collect enough of an item. That gives plenty of options, but it also risks you winding up with nothing if you (literally) don't play your cards right. When multipliers, sets, and 'puddings' that only count at the end of the game are added to the mix, this straightforward game shows that it's got more than enough to chew on.

Honestly, Sushi Go is one of my ride-or-dies in terms of travel games; it goes with me everywhere.

For more recommendations, don't miss the best tabletop RPGs.

Wingspan Pocket has just been revealed as a smaller, travel-friendly version of the family-friendly birding board game – and you'll be able to pick it up in just a few weeks.

Although it uses similar gameplay and comes from the same designer, Wingspan Pocket "distills the Wingspan experience down to a lighter, shorter, card-driven game" according to the official description. It'll be available to buy from publisher Stonemaier Games this July 15, 2026, followed by a wider retail release in late August.

While we adore the original here at GamesRadar+ and gave it four-and-a-half stars in our Wingspan review (putting it in contention with the best board games), there's no denying that it's a chunky critter. It contains a flock of playing pieces and takes up a lot of space on the table, so isn't exactly easy to stuff in a suitcase. Wingspan Pocket is the opposite, however; it's a card-based game that sees players activate just one row of cards per turn rather than an entire board of birds. These all provide benefits as usual, but each card is double-sided with food on one side and a bird (one of 106 from around the world) on the other. That means you've got to weigh up what to play, and when - a level of strategy that should hopefully put it on par with the best travel board games.

I'm a huge fan of this idea. I'd argue that the series stands amongst the best family board games around (Finspan became my summer obsession last year, for instance), but they're not the easiest to get into… or travel with. A more accessible, portable entry-point fills that niche, and it means we can take the experience with us. That means Wingspan doesn't have to stay home this summer if you're going away.

There's certainly an appetite for portable games like this. More of them are emerging from the woodwork with each passing year, and they usually make a point of streamlining things without compromising what made the original so beloved. I played Catan On the Road once and am now recommending it to everyone, for example.

Will you be picking up Wingspan Pocket, or migrating to something else?

If you want something with a little more bite, a Kingdom Come: Deliverance board game with all the gritty RPG elements fans love is on the way from the award-winning developers of Codenames and SETI.

A Kingdom Come: Deliverance board game is coming this Fall from a pair of award-winning developers, and it's every bit as grungy as its inspiration.

This sprawling RPG is set in 15th Century Bohemia and looks every bit as gritty and sim-heavy as the video game it's based on; you'll need to hunt to stave off hunger, for example, while the condition of your clothing (which may get messy if you move through 'muddy' spaces) can have negative effects… like getting you kicked out of town if your get-up is in a state. The Kingdom Come: Deliverance board game also features "rich storylines unfolding in the background" chosen from several possible options, meaning you're unlikely to have the same playthrough twice.

This is all very exciting, but the most eye-catching news is that it's being made by developers behind some of the best board games. Vlaada Chvátil put together modern classic Codenames, while Tomáš Holek is the rising star behind SETI: Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence – a critical darling that swept the awards scene last year. The fact that they're responsible for Kingdom Come: Deliverance The Board Game is enough in itself to get me invested.

Rather than playing as video game protagonist Henry, you'll see a peasant from rags to riches. Well, in theory; there are plenty of jobs to complete, side-quests to chase, or NPCs to work for, but players must also contend with Encounter cards that can put a twist in the tale. Whoever earns the most points at the end of five in-game days will be declared the winner, so you better hustle.

We don't have an exact release date for the Kingdom Come: Deliverance board game yet, but it's due to launch at some point in Fall 2026. You can pre-order it direct from publisher Czech Games Edition's store, and that seems to be the best way of securing a copy in the short term; while CGE is hopeful it'll go to retail later on, there isn't a timeline for that yet.

In terms of price, the core game weighs in at €149.99 via the publisher's EU store. Meanwhile, the US version costs $199.99. Why is it so much more? Well, Czech Games Edition CEO Petr Murmak notes on a BoardGameGeek post questioning the decision that it's due to a mix of tariffs going into the US (15%), shipping, and an uncertain future.

"Shipping to US also costs us something, so we have slightly less profit on one copy in US than in EU," Murmak points out. "Moreover there is uncertainty about tariffs in the future (they might go up - there were some threats already from US government), or dollar might go down like last year..."

For recommendations of what to play next, why not check out the best tabletop RPGs or the best card games? As for something lighter, Wingspan Pocket shrinks the beloved board game down in size.

What's great about Prime Day board game deals is that they make keeping up with a tabletop gaming obsession slightly more manageable on the wallet. While we've spotlighted some of our favorite board game deals that lean a bit nerdier, I have to admit that the classics like Monopoly still have a place. And, with big discounts, there's never been a better time to revisit the game and one of its newer licenses.

Monopoly has come a long way since the '30s. The iconic, economics-driven board game used to feel like simple reskins when adapting partnered franchises, with varying results. Now, a lot of the licensed Monopoly games introduce special rules and set-ups that fit the franchise, such as Dungeons & Dragons using a D20 dice, or the FIFA World Cup one using the idea of collectible soccer stickers of your favorite footballers.

Monopoly isn't just a single game type, either. Monopoly Junior is more approachable for younger players. Monopoly Deal is a (thankfully) speedier way to play with just cards. Monopoly Go, the mobile game, even has its own board game adaptation. Across them all, I've picked out some of the best Monopoly Prime Day deals that should be of interest, no matter how long you have to play, and which licenses you prefer.

Take a look at my best Prime Day PS5 RPG deals for more bargains!

The Prime Day board game deals are always welcome, as being into tabletop can be one pricey hobby. We've been spending the last few days picking out board game deals, but I've noticed that Unmatched has been standing out. This ever-expandable board game is as much a tabletop system as a game in and of itself, which does mean a ballooning collection can get pricey. But, that just makes it a good time to stock up.

The premise of Unmatched is simple. It's a unified combat system of abilities and manoeuvres that make for iconic face-offs between legends. Almost every set is playable on its own as two to four characters are included, but can also be used alongside one another for epic crossover clashes across your entire Unmatched boards and characters collection. In our Unmatched: Battles of Legends Vol 2 review, we said it's "a striking lesson in how designers can get maximum variety from simple rules".

Unmatched sets range from myths, historical figures, and licensed properties, including The Witcher, Marvel, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and many more. Almost like the VS System many years ago, this makes for the tantalizing promise of proper crossover bouts. For a new player, I'd recommend getting a four-character, bigger set for variety, and it's worth keeping in mind the couple of 'Adventures' set introduce new co-op rules. But, otherwise, grab the characters you're interested in! Stick with me, and I'll run you through the best Unmatched board game deals for this Prime Day.

Take a look at my best Prime Day PS5 RPG deals for more bargains!

There's been a real resurgence of interest in board games over the past few years, and it's trendier than ever to roll dice together at game night or in your local board game cafe. However, while the industry is a vibrant and electric place full of incredible ideas that put old favorites like Monopoly to shame, it can be overwhelming if you're new to the hobby - there's almost too much choice. That's why I've gathered up some good starting points here.

I've been reviewing and writing about the best board games on GamesRadar+ for nearly eight years now, but I've been playing them for a lot longer. That means I've got plenty of suggestions for where newcomers should start... and I've listed my four favorite beginner-friendly board games below. For me, these are the ideal starting point and should ease you into the hobby.

It's worth noting that a few of these are on offer for Prime Day, too; most have been heavily discounted as part of the sale, so now's a great time to dive in. Just remember, the event ends tonight (June 26) so you don't have much time to take advantage of the discounts!

Looking for other tabletop recommendations? Don't miss the best family board games, the best 2-player board games or the best card games.

I've been completely caught off guard by this year's Prime Day board game deals. They're usually somewhere in the vicinity of "fine" and "good," but 2026's offering? It's downright great.

I've been rolling dice for longer than I can remember, and have picked up more than a few lifelong favorites in that time - the sort I think deserve a spot on every shelf. They're the kind of experience that sets up camp in your brain, keeping you coming back for more. And luckily, more than a few are on offer in this week's Prime Day board game deals. The best board games for a whole chunk less, with some at or near record low prices? Uh, yes please.

That's why I've used my decades of experience to pick out absolute must-have titles included in the sale, ranging from modern classics like Catan to award-winning newcomers such as Sky Team. If you buy anything in the 2026 Prime Day board game deals, I'd suggest it be these must-haves.

If you want to see what else is out there, why not drop in on our guide to the best card games or the best tabletop RPGs?

Sometimes, you want a board game with more bite - and family fare just isn't gonna cut it. That's where the best strategy board games come in, and oh boy, but you need to be careful with these. Give them a try and they may sink their claws into you, never to let go.

I'm a huge fan of strategy board games, and while I appreciate something a bit more straightforward here and there, they're my true tabletop love. That's why I've rounded up a few of my favorites here. If you like to think of yourself as an armchair tactician as well or just want something with a bit more depth, these are the options I'd recommend first. We've reviewed each and every one here, and they're amongst the best board games overall.

As it so happens, plenty of them have been hit with discounts in this week's Prime Day board game deals as well. That means now is a pretty good time to pick them up, because most are weighing in significantly below their usual price.

• See today's best deals on board games at Amazon

For more recommendations, don't forget to check out the best card games or the best tabletop RPGs!

If you are a board game fan, then you know it is a blessing to get your family hooked on the hobby. After all, it's easy to organize a play session when you are all (lovingly) stuck together. I'm a big fan of family board games myself, and after hours of hunting Amazon's store page, I've rounded up the best Prime Day deals for any fellow fans looking for a new offering to bring to game night.

Now, it's important to remember that all the games listed below are family-centered. That means I've looked for titles that both adults and kids can enjoy, and that also means that while young children can play most of these, a lot have an 8+ age recommendation to them. They strike the perfect balance between being accessible and simple enough for everyone to understand, yet never boring or too easy. Most also need 2-4 players (though four is ideal in most cases). For more recommendations that span age ranges, you'll have to head to our main Prime Day board games round-up, or you can look over our list of the best board games of 2026.

But if you are ready to make some new cherished memories with your love ones or start some good old-fashioned family feuds, read on to see the best board games that Prime Day currently has on offer.

For more savings, check out our guides on all the Prime Day Lego deals and Prime Day Nintendo Switch deals.

Prime Day board game deals don't always pull their weight, but this year? Phew. The sale is firing out genuine bangers, with huge price cuts on both modern favorites and all-time classics.

I've been writing about and reviewing the best board games on GamesRadar+ for around eight years now, but have been collecting and playing them for decades more. That means I've got a pretty good idea of what's worth checking out in the sale, not to mention what's a decent saving. (This isn't my first time covering Prime Day board game deals, after all.) That's why I've rounded up what I think are the very best offers below, split across a variety of categories so that you can head straight to the stuff that interests you.

Of all today's offers, two really stand out - and they stand at drastically different ends of the spectrum. At one end is Oh My Pigeons, a really daft party game that's currently 29% less than normal at Amazon. It's thoroughly silly fun that has became an instant favorite amongst my family. At the other end of thew scale is Sky Team, a truly brilliant two-player strategy game that has you trying to land a plane together. It's been reduced by 25% at Amazon right now, and I can't remember the last time a board game had me so on the edge of my seat.

Of course, that's just the tip of the iceberg. Let's dive in, shall we?

• Get top-rated board games from just $7.39 at Amazon

Prime Day board game deals under $15

Prime Day board game deals for families

Prime Day strategy board game deals

For more recommendations, why not check out the best card games or the best tabletop RPGs?

I love a good board game, but I don't impress easily. That's why Catan: On the Road caught me so off guard. It only took a single session for me to fall head over heels in love with this 15-minute family game. Did I win? No. But that tells you something about how much fun I had. Now I'm recommending it to anyone who'll listen - and I'd argue that it's a must-have for vacation, not to mention one of the best travel board games overall.

Designed for three to four players, Catan: On the Road is a streamlined version of classic Catan (AKA one of the best board games ever produced, in our humble opinion). Despite being much smaller, it's surprisingly similar to its classic; like the original board game, your aim is to earn the most points. You can do this in a variety of ways from gathering the largest army to constructing vast cities, so you've got plenty of strategies to try.

Rather than using a crap-ton of board tiles and tokens like the original, though, On the Road whittles all that down to a single deck of cards. While you'd think that boils off most of what makes Catan unique along with its nuance, nothing could be further from the truth. Actually, both my family and I were surprised at how much it felt like OG Catan.

Basically, you're still gathering resources each turn (they're randomly-drawn cards, mimicking the probability-based nature of the original Catan) and using them to purchase items or buildings. These, in turn, allow you to get more resources or special bonuses that will help you in your mission. Once you've gathered seven Victory Points overall, it's game over.

Plus, its size and the fact that it plays on a smaller surface makes it ideal for travel or taking with you on vacation. Besides fitting into a pocket, it doesn't require a massive dinner table for setup. That's ideal if you want something that you can chuck into a suitcase for your summer holiday; you can play it wherever you're staying, on the train, or at the airport while waiting for a flight.

Now, I will point out that it's not perfect despite being a ton of fun. I found in my test session that those who managed to buy a City card early (which gives you extra resource cards each turn rather than just one) can quickly build up steam because they're obviously getting more to work with. But at the same time, this doesn't mean those who take a different approach will get left behind. I came in second despite taking an entirely different approach, for instance - I focused on getting the longest roads and the biggest armies instead.

Similarly, there are a host of new 'event' cards that adjust the balance of power each time they're drawn. These range from the classic robber who steals resources to special festivals that provide free resources for those who are struggling. Oh, and don't forget players' ability to trade (with others or the bank) when needed.

All this comes together to make a game with that 'special sauce'; I was very eager to try again once we finished. For me, that makes it a very easy recommendation.

For more suggestions, don't miss the best card games or the best tabletop RPGs. As for portable games, Wingspan Pocket shrinks the beloved board game down in size.

The tiny Gloomhaven spinoff, Buttons & Bugs, is getting its first expansion that introduces a new quest and classes.

Due to launch later this year, the Gloomhaven Buttons & Bugs: Pub Crawlers add-on features new enemies to battle, an all-new adventure with 17 scenario cards, two classes with teeny miniatures, and more. Although we don't have a release date yet, it'll be shipping in September (though fans of the best board games can pre-order it for Gen Con 2026 pick-up via publisher Cephalofair if they want early access). Just bear in mind that you'll need the original Buttons & Bugs – which you can find for $20 at Miniature Market or £15.99 via Wayland Games UK – to play.

In terms of specifics, it looks like our pair of new mercenaries are the Fungal Monk (which looks like a walking pink mop with a bone staff) and Whistlecry, which seems to be a cross between a flying squirrel and a fairy. It's unclear what adventure they'll be going on, but it adds a new Struggle/Ease Difficulty Deck alongside a new enemy dial and cube. Because of the title (not to mention the cover art), I'd hope we're scurrying around a pub causing mischief like boozy Borrowers as well.

If you haven't encountered Buttons & Bugs before, it's a much smaller take on the original Gloomhaven that's designed to work as a travel version of the popular RPG. While you're still getting the deep, tactical card-based combat the franchise is known for, it's playable in under 20 minutes and comes in at a fraction of the size. That makes it even more accessible than the slimmed-down entry-level game, Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion.

Buttons & Bugs: Pub Crawlers will launch toward the end of this year and costs $17.99/£17.

For more recommendations, why no check out the best tabletop RPGs or the best card games?

I've had my eye on the Toniebox 2, the upgraded audio entertainment system for kids, for months now ever since a family friend gifted us the previous version of Toniebox. There are any number of reasons to make the jump, but the simple fact is that there are now some interactive characters or materials that simply don't work on the original.

That includes, but is not limited to, the newly revealed Tonieplay Hasbro Collection, which brings some of the best board games like Monopoly, Guess Who?, and The Game of Life to the Toniebox 2. When the opportunity arose to give some of them a shot for myself, bringing together something my family already enjoyed with new board game experiences, it felt a bit like kismet.

If you're completely unfamiliar with Toniebox – let alone Toniebox 2 – you can think of it a bit like child-friendly experiences by way of proprietary amiibo. Both are soft red (though you can get other colors, this is the baseline) cubes with little ears to turn it on and adjust volume for the speakers on its sides that also has a reader on top for the magnetic "tonies" to sit on. They're fairly simple devices that do still require an internet connection, but once you've bought the box itself and the figure, there are no ads or screens or unintended offramps to worry about.

They're designed for kids, and my family has had a grand time letting ours listen to kid-friendly podcasts, Spider-Man stories and songs, and so on. They've also had their fair share of time with the Nintendo Switch and locked-down tablets, so playing games isn't beyond them. The Tonieplay Hasbro Collection felt like it would be a natural extension of what they've already done.

And having now played both the Guess Who? And The Game of Life Tonieplay games, that is, by and large, true. Both are specifically designed for 5+, and we even had a newly minted 5-year-old kid play and win Guess Who? the first time we broke it out. The Toniebox 2 basically does all of the work with relatively little setup required.

To begin, you have to put a punchout on top of the Toniebox 2 that sort of sits over the aforementioned ears to provide a series of options along the edges. You then have to use the proprietary Controller in the middle, which has a button and an arrow, to pick and choose various elements. In Guess Who?, for example, the Toniebox 2 walks players through a series of stories that feature clues about colorful, playful monsters to try and determine which one is the culprit at the end of the day.

It's hard to say whether Guess Who? Or The Game of Life is more complicated in this format. Guess Who? features 30 total monster pieces with required stickers while The Game of Life has a full-on foldable board and pieces. Up to 4 players can take on The Game of Life while only 2 can do Guess Who?, though both are more playful than cutthroat.

The positive aspect here is the closed garden nature of the Toniebox 2 – you can hand these off to kids and they can play all on their own without any concern that some unfiltered internet might seep in around the edges. They also encourage imaginative play, as several different parts of The Game of Life had us acting out silly scenarios. But it's also not a cheap investment; the Toniebox 2 is roughly $150, another $25 (when discounted) for a game, and then $15 for the proprietary Controller. All told, $190 before tax to play Guess Who? is a bit of an ask.

More likely, this is aimed at people that are already within the ecosystem. Have a Toniebox 2 for all your favorite tonies to play on already? Why not extend that to games for a nominal fee? It's certainly more deliberately interactive than simply listening, and from direct experience, I can tell you that there's nothing quite like the look your kid gets when The Game of Life suggests a career they really want and then has them act out different scenarios about it.

Not that my kids picked "writer" when it came up.

The Tonieplay Hasbro Collection is currently available to pre-order on the official Tonies site, and is expected to be available at all major retailers on July 7.

The Toniebox 2 and relevant games and controller were provided by Tonies PR for coverage purposes.

For more game recommendations, don't miss the best card games or the best tabletop RPGs.

I will openly admit that I have never been someone who has given much time to playing board games solo. Alongside my collection of the best board games are shelves of video games, saying nothing of my Steam library (I’m a sucker for a good Steam sale), so typically, whenever I get the urge to play a game, I opt for the digital variety, saving me from the setup time and space requirements that tabletop options require. Unstoppable from Renegade Game Studios may just bring enough to the table to get me to put my controller down.

Designed by John D. Clair, Unstoppable is a cyberpunk/sci-fi deck-building title where you and up to one other person work to fight off waves of enemies while trying to take down the looming and ever-present boss before either time or your life runs out.

At the start of your turn, you will draft a new card into your deck and utilize your hand to take out that round's line-up of enemies or prepare as best you can to absorb the damage of anyone you can’t take out. Much like games such as Star Realms, cards can be associated with various factions and building out a deck whose cards synergize with one another and can take advantage of faction bonuses, will help see you through and truly become unstoppable.

The big twist comes in the form of Unstoppable’s card crafting system, where each card is composed of a core side - attacks, allies, resource generators, or other boons to help you out - and a threat side, which are enemies that are trying to kill you. Coming with a bunch of card sleeves, you will be putting both a core card and a threat card in the same sleeve as you play, with additional upgrade cards that can be purchased, slotting in between them. It really is pretty nifty.

Going solo

Being a part of Renegade’s “Solo Hero Series” line of games, Unstoppable shines with single-player, but does come with official rules if you want to team up with a friend, though I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it. The two-player rules feel more like a tacked-on afterthought included on the back of the box, as opposed to doing anything particularly exciting. You double the health points on the boss, but everything else plays out the same as if you were playing solo, with the only exception being that you can attack enemies on your partner’s side. That said, if one of you goes down, you both lose. The couple of times I tried it, having a partner almost felt more like a hindrance than an exciting addition.

I’m someone who loves deck-building games, with the likes of Dune: Imperium and Clank frequently coming off my shelf for game nights, and I even have a small-box copy of Star Realms in my car’s glovebox. Compared to those others, Unstoppable forces you into a much more offense-focused style of play. Unlike other deck-builders, where you have a draw phase in which you replenish your hand of cards, the only way to draw more cards is by defeating enemies, on whose reverse side are the cards you have previously drafted or that compose your starting deck. You can’t simply turtle up for resources here; you need to always be working out the best way to dish out the most damage you can in the most cost-efficient way, as each card you play has an associated action point cost. As I played Unstoppable, it almost felt more like a puzzle game than a boss battler, and certainly distinct from other card games like it that I’ve played.

To help you along in tackling your objective and enemies, you will need to upgrade your cards, done by slotting modifiers into the sleeves your cards are in. Cards feature cutouts, with upgrades filling those cutouts, such as allowing you to deal more damage or earn credits that you can spend on even more upgrades. But every upgrade is a double-edged sword, as each will not only benefit you, but also the enemy that appears on the other side of your card. More than once did I find myself cursing my earlier decisions as I got smacked for extra damage or made a particularly nasty enemy sturdier courtesy of an upgrade I bought and applied to it. Unstoppable does tell you what enemy upgrade is present on the other side at the bottom of the good side, so the information isn’t hidden from you, but it still feels like stubbing your toe - you have no one but yourself to blame, but it doesn’t stop you from wanting to shake your fist at the sky.

When it comes to the bosses your end goal targets, you have three options to pick from, including the Harbinger (your most basic foe, where you simply need to dish out damage before time runs out), The Triumvirate (basically a cartel of three gangs whose bases you need to take down before you can take the boss itself down), and Duomo’s Menace (which really changes things up, featuring a branching story deck you need to get through until you reach specific victory cards). While I certainly wouldn’t be against a couple more options, I really do enjoy how varied each of the three victory conditions is, and how they manage to pose vastly different puzzles to solve. It’s unfortunate, however, that the four characters you can choose from don’t rise to the same standards.

Chores

Saying that Unstoppable has characters to pick from feels a bit disingenuous, as outside of their own unique portrait cards, the “characters” themselves are just a set of three unique cards in their starting decks. These are fine as a jumping-off point and help direct you, but I enjoyed doing a sort of draft at the start instead, picking three cards from all 12 unique cards. This little bit of homebrew paired with the adjustable difficulty options is great for mixing things up and keeping the game challenging.

Some games, take The Lord of the Rings - War of the Ring board game, for example, have their theme and aesthetic so intertwined with what the game is that it almost becomes a component of the game’s design itself. Unstoppable falls on the opposite side of that spectrum, where its science fiction visuals never felt like more than set dressing, and you could swap out the guns and corpo cards for swords and brigands and have a high-fantasy version without batting an eye. This is a mechanic-centric game, and thankfully, Unstoppable’s mechanics are solid!

Perhaps the biggest mark against Unstoppable for me is the component management and, more specifically, the teardown process. Considering that a core aspect is slotting cards and upgrades into sleeves, that means at the end, you will then have to unsleeve those cards before you box up the game. I’m no stranger to putting cards into and taking cards out of those handy protective covers, being a TCG player, but it isn’t something I necessarily look forward to. Having that chore looming like a space creature peering over the box at me is more menacing than the boss itself, and has stopped me from sitting down and opening the box more than once.

Should you buy Unstoppable?

While I wouldn’t say that Unstoppable has turned me into a complete solo tabletop believer, making me want to take my consoles and handhelds to an e-waste disposal site, occasionally a solo board game will come around that manages to entice me enough to cause me to set down my controller. Even with the annoying unsleeving process at the end, I’ve found myself reaching for Unstoppable instead of a controller a couple of times now, but I found it to be a particularly good game to bust out during my lunch at work, thanks to its fairly compact box size and a game time of under an hour most times.

With a new addition focusing on the Dungeon Crawler Carl book series coming out soon, I’m excited to dive in and see how well Renegade designs the games to work with one another (if at all), and with the ample space in the box yet to be filled, it’s clear that the plan is for Unstoppable to be an expanding game system and not a one-and-done affair, and that does make me excited. Even with its blemishes (some of which could be solved with a digital version, just saying), I hope that Unstoppable is true to its name and doesn’t stop anytime soon, as it's one of the most unique deck-building games I’ve played in a long time.

This review was conducted using a sample provided by the publisher. For a complete overview of our process, don't miss this guide to how we test board games or the full GamesRadar+ reviews policy.

Even if I'd set aside a week to browse every board game at UK Games Expo 2026, I don't think it'd be enough. Walking into the show is like being faced with a buffet including every delicious meal you can think of; as one of the biggest tabletop shows around, and certainly the biggest in the UK, there's no shortage of cool shit jostling for your attention. That includes secret projects and hits-in-waiting which are primed to set the industry on fire. Trying to make your way around the show is even harder when all you can think about is a game tailor-made to eat up your free time.

I was able to playtest my way through the show while quizzing developers on the board games that visitors were loving, and Horrified: Dungeons & Dragons - Ravenloft was the most popular game at publisher Ravensburger's booth by a long way. Actually, it became so sought-after that more playtest tables had to be set up to cater for demand. Having now seen the D&D crossover in person (and having followed it since we exclusively revealed the project a couple of months back), I understand the hype. Classic horror fans, pay attention. Besides resurrecting mechanics that draw inspiration from the best board games, it's sublime gothic eeriness in a box.

If you're new to the Horrified series, think of it as a cross between Pandemic and Betrayal at House on the Hill. It challenges you to defeat a collection of monsters – ranging from classics like your garden-variety werewolf to legends from Greek myth – before they chow down on innocent civilians. This serves as your countdown timer, and it leads to a masterful balancing act. You've got to juggle each foe's unique takedown quest (they can only be defeated after completing specific objectives) with making sure you protect villagers at the same time. If too many innocents die, it's game over… so some difficult sacrifices may need to be made.

That concept carries over to Ravenloft, but there are some twists in the tale you should beware.

For starters, it builds on the class mechanics that helped last year's Horrified: Dungeons & Dragons stand out. These provide unique powers for each hero that are activated using D&D's iconic d20 die, and Ravenloft provides a host of extra classes not included before – the Warlock, Ranger, Druid, Sorcerer, and Paladin are being brought to bear this time around. Their abilities range from adding a bonus to your dice rolls or ignoring damage to a character, but that's not the interesting bit. No, the thing that caught my attention was the ability to furnish them with 'Dark Gifts' from eldritch patrons. These provide a vital boon such as moving monsters or characters out of danger, but they come at a literal cost that may see you discarding cards… or worse. Plus, this requires flipping over your character card to reveal a 'corrupted' version of the hero. You may save the day, but you aren't coming out of it a paragon of virtue.

This ties into the second change Ravenloft introduces. To be precise, it exchanges high fantasy from the last D&D Horrified for a more gothic approach. That's because it's based on the most popular Dungeons & Dragons campaign of the current edition, Curse of Strahd. This is basically Dracula meets D&D, so expect big Van Helsing energy. Vampires and a Baba Yaga-style walking hut are just some of the enemies you'll face.

Such classic horror vibes mean their mechanics are rooted in the unsettling. The demonic Gulthias Tree has the power to keep summoning hordes of Twig Blights that'll overwhelm your party, for example, and it won't stop until you've torn it right out of the ground like a weed.

I adore the original Horrified thanks to its similarly gothic tone, and it's still my favorite entry in the series. As such, Ravenloft harkening back to that vibe is music to my ears.

In much the same way, its aesthetic is doused in the macabre. Shadow-drenched artwork, baroque stained glass depicting the heroes, and a color palette that says "you can never have enough eerie purple" make it feel like wrapping yourself in a blanket of pure Halloween. Similarly, the board's locations (which are pulled directly from Curse of Strahd) echo the OG Horrified's Transylvanian backdrop. While they don't always tally with what we get in the D&D campaign, it's all about vibes here – and Ravenloft passes that particular check with aplomb. Why not stick skulls on our architecture or construct every house from sagging gray stone that looks as depressed as our villagers, it says.

In other words, it'll go down very well if you love classic horror – and because it arrives in July, it'll be more than ready for spooky season once summer turns to fall.

I just hope we'll be able to get our hands on a copy, considering how popular it was at the UK Games Expo…

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The original Brass was named after northern British slang for money, which was not only a fitting title for a board game that simulated the booming economy of the industrial revolution but, as it turned out, a prophetic one. Brass (later renamed Brass: Lancashire) was popular, but a second iteration on the design that smoothed out its harder edges, named Brass: Birmingham, proved one of the most popular hobby board games of all time – if not one of the best board games overall. Not content with resting on their laurels, publisher Roxley is now working on a third version set in the gilded age of the United States called Brass: Pittsburgh.

You might suspect this is mere cash-in on a popular title, but it’s something fans have been thirsting for since the previous version came out in 2018. "People have been asking for another sequel for years," explains Gavan Brown, who designed Brass: Birmingham based on Martin Wallace’s original. "I have always believed the Brass system has a vast unexplored design space."

A greater challenge

For those familiar with the series, the new board and cards will be instantly recognizable. There’s still a network of cities, with spaces for different types of industry tiles, and players still have a tree of industries they can pay cards, cash and resources to place onto the board. Many of these create resources that other players can utilize, using networks created by their opponents. Spending up all the resources on an industry flips it, creating profit for its owner. It’s this clever circularity, where players are partially dependent on each other, that's made the game so popular: a rare mix of demanding strategy with enough theme and social interaction to keep it varied, engaging and believable.

Once you dive into the details, the new aspects of Brass: Pittsburgh become apparent. Brown cites three key changes identified by playtesters as standing out. "First, we have decentralized markets: you now sell resource cubes to different connected cities instead of to a centralized market," he explains. "Second, one of the new resources, coke, takes time and clever tactics to set up, but rewards the player with 4VP for every cube sold. Third, the oil resource has special pipelines, which allow players to 'prospect' an oil field. Oil travels first by pipeline, which awards the pipeline's owner with various possible rewards."

The result is a game that boasts a much greater strategic challenge, with many more factors and resources to juggle, while still retaining the social interdependencies that characterize the original. Brown has deliberately rejigged aspects of the game to ensure players have to react to the dynamism on the board rather than relying on tried and tested strategies.

"There is no rail on the board that will guarantee you a ton of points," he says. "When you place a rail, you need to forecast what your opponents will want to build in the locations adjacent to it, or have a plan yourself of how to make those rails worth something. There are also no tiles on your player board that are 'auto develop.' Every tile has a use in the game, and you need to figure out a plan for how to maximize their value."

[Rail]roads paved with gold

In both the existing games, there’s a mid-point switch between the canal networks players begin with to transport their goods and resources, and the more efficient railways that come later. This is a thematic abstraction of how the industrial revolution unfolded; the canals are literally removed from the board and players start re-building their networks. In Pittsburgh, players start with railways initially but there’s still a similar mid-point switch with existing networks disappearing and needing to be re-built, unless they strategize around investing in another new option, more expensive 'heavy' trains which stay on the board.

This can feel jarring, but Brown is broadly aiming to make the game feel more thematic, not less. "Historical accuracy is of paramount importance to me, so the research performed during the design of Pittsburgh represented an immense amount of work," he explains. “An example of this is making all resources travel by rail, versus having iron 'teleport.' Also the decentralized market system better represents that different regions of the map may need to pay more for commodities than other areas." He also suggests that the gilded age is a better fit for the game’s social dynamics than the industrial revolution, noting that "the interdependence of the main industries of the time was a perfect fit."

Interestingly, much of the playtesting for this game has taken place on the digital board gaming site BoardGameArena. This is a novel approach that allows the team to get faster and wider feedback from testers, supported by measurable metrics. It means that Brass: Pittsburgh will have a ready-made module for the site when it hits retail, a useful selling point. It’s also created a baseline from which additional creative possibilities can be explored, and Brown reveals they’re in the pipe. "For Pittsburgh I had to come up with the most innovative mechanisms and dynamics I could think of, which led to many more ideas that we will explore in future Brass titles," he says.

It sounds like there could be a lot more brass to come, in every sense, for players and the publisher alike.

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Things went wrong for me in Kill Team: Terror on Devlan as soon as boots hit the dirt. Our crack Kill Team of Spectre Squad operatives fanned out across the Imperial ruins, ready to seal tunnels that xenos scum kept scuttling out of. Yes, the fabled 'Red Terror' – a monster famed for eviscerating platoons with ease – was still out there. But we had time before it arrived. The key was speed and focus. Right? Wrong. This wasn't our ambush; it was theirs.

Lesser Tyranid bioforms darted in and out of cover to pin us down, firing from all sides. Others hurtled forward in a swarm, ripping into my sniper as if he were a sack of jello. Flanking maneuvers made us pay for every inch gained, and while we killed plenty of them in return, they kept coming. Then the Red Terror (the undisputed star of Kill Team: Terror on Devlan) showed up. And yep, shit really hit the fan.

All this is to say that Kill Team: Terror on Devlan is hard. Bloody hard, in every sense of the word. As the first box set to focus exclusively on co-op and single-player gameplay, it's also an anomaly. Whether that's a good or bad thing will depend on what you want from Kill Team, but I came away impressed.

Kill Team: Terror on Devlan features & design

• Features solo/co-op missions
• Astra Militarum commandos vs. Tyranids
• The iconic Red Terror returns with an all-new model

Unlike most large box sets for Kill Team (Warhammer 40K's smaller, faster sibling), Terror on Devlan doesn't kick off a new competitive season with fresh terrain. It doesn't pit two new squads against each other like usual, either. Rather, it's all about you (and maybe a friend) taking down alien hordes. These can be controlled by another person, but they don't have to be; deigned 'non-player operatives,' their behaviours are dictated by a clever mix of if/when scenarios.

No matter who does what, it's all based on an old piece of 40K lore from previous editions: the loss of the planet Devlan to a hideous Tyranid offshoot, nicknamed 'the Red Terror.' However, this set expands and enriches that idea with horrifying context. Half the rulebook is dedicated to backstory, and it's a chilling read. The mounting tension is palpable as reports trickle in of unexplained murders and missing bodies, making Tyranids feel like inscrutable monsters that can't be defeated – only outrun.

Then you get to take it on yourself in a series of missions that can be run as one-offs or as part of a larger campaign. If you string everything together, your wins or losses dictate which scenario gets played next.

Of course, you'll have to build everything first… and despite the impressive Red Terror scything through scenery in a gravity-defying pose, it's a pleasantly straightforward process. I didn't struggle with the Red Terror, its push-fit Tyranid underlings (making a reappearance from the Warhammer 40K starter sets) or the Astra Militarum Spectre Squad. The only thing I'd say to do is paint your Red Terror before attaching it to the base. It'll be so much easier.

Speaking of easier, one quick thing to note: Terror on Devlan is designed to work with the Volkus Kill Zone terrain pack, sold separately. You can adjust things to make other scenery work, of course, but scenery is needed even so. You don't get any in the box, so bear that in mind before charging in.

Here's what comes in the pack:

• Dossier: This is the box set's rulebook, combining lore and backstory with mechanics and missions for all the models contained within.
• Data, ploy, and equipment cards: You'll need these to run both Spectre Squad and the Tyranids.
• Tokens: You get tokens for Spectre Squad and the Tyranid Red Terror, allowing you to keep track of their special abilities in play.

Gameplay

• Missions are a real challenge
• Spectre Squad are finicky, but hugely effective
• Will likely be too tricky and complex for beginners

Terror on Devlan has a very different feel compared to previous Kill Team sets; while the likes of Kill Team: Tomb World were tense, tactical head-to-heads, this has more in common with the best board games. Even if you're going into battle with a friend at your side, your goal is to overcome an automated foe powered by cards and an easy-to-follow set of behaviours.

Don't think it'll be straightforward if no-one's on the other side of the table, though. It's an exercise of cat and mouse, but I'm not sure we're the cat. Enemy behaviours are meticulously detailed, and there's an emphasis on them doing whatever will make your life harder each turn. No, really, that's what it says in the rulebook – it urges you to take whatever action will benefit the Tyranids and jeopardize your mission most. In addition, they… well, they just keep coming. Trying to wipe them all out is an exercise in futility as a result. More can, and probably will, emerge in their next activation. As such, getting around them to your real objective is challenging enough… and that's before the Red Terror gets involved.

The trick is working out how to use those set (and therefore predictable) behaviours against the foe, luring them into traps or distracting them so you can sweep in and complete your mission. This is immensely satisfying when done right, and a worthy challenge for those already familiar with Kill Team.

It's even more gratifying if you can avoid being mauled by the Red Terror in the process. This monster lives up to its name – if you aren't afraid, you should be. The first time I faced it, it eviscerated one of my strongest fighters in a single attack. It then re-emerged a short while later and swallowed my heavy gunner whole, at which point it vanished back underground in the biggest "up yours" I could imagine. Just like that, my meticulously-laid plan was in tatters. When combined with the smaller Tyranids that are still likely to be sprinting around the battlefield, you'll really feel up against it. Difficult decisions will need to be made.

That's what Spectre Squads excel at, though. This Astra Militarum Kill Team thrives on finesse, clever planning, and a willingness to pivot. While few of the individual troops will stand out much, the group's special abilities help it punch far harder than you might expect. Its Elite Fieldcraft power lets you act before a foe uses an action, for instance, potentially giving you a (devastating) bonus shot or allowing you to regroup to a more advantageous position. It takes some getting used to, and there's a fair amount to juggle where ploys are concerned, but the team will sing in the right hands.

With that in mind though, the one thing I'll say is that this won't suit beginners – or at the very least, it'll be one hell of a trial by fire. For one thing, Spectre Squad is tricky to get the most out of. Secondly, the missions are difficult as is. Indeed, they'll strain even the most experienced commanders.

Should you buy Kill Team: Terror on Devlan?

Whether you buy Terror on Devlan depends on a couple of things. If you're an experienced player, you'll find so much to dig your teeth into. If you want a way to play Warhammer solo, it's also ideal. Oh, and if you already have Kill Zone: Volkus, were gonna buy that terrain, or are happy to DIY a solution using scenery you already have? Great.

If you're new to all this, though, I'd steer clear. There are better entry-points to the hobby, even playing solo (I'd recommend Hivestorm), and it's punishingly hard. You need an established setup with terrain as well, none of which is included in the box. Beginner can obviously have a blast here, but it's an uphill battle.

Hoping to test your mettle as a seasoned veteran, on the other hand? I'd definitely recommend trying this set. I've had a lot of fun so far, and am desperate to even the score with the Red Terror. I doubt it'll go well.

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How we tested Kill Team: Terror on Devlan

This product sample was provided by Games Workshop.

After familiarizing myself with the rules, I went about assembling every model in the box and painting whatever I could over the course of a few weeks (that included multiple members of Spectre Squad, the Red Terror, and some lesser Tyranids). I then dove into test matches direct from the pack to see how they handled in practice.

For more on our process, see how we test board games or the GamesRadar+ reviews policy.

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Have you ever been tempted to say "screw it" and go lose yourself in a galaxy far, far away? Short of booting up the movies or hopping on a plane to visit Galaxy's Edge at the Disney Parks, the best way of immersing yourself in the Star Wars universe is by breaking out one of the many excellent Star Wars board games currently lining shelves.

They're not all created equally, though; some are definitely a cut above the rest. My colleagues and I have tried a galaxy's worth of Star Wars board games between us, and as card-carrying Rebel scum, there are a handful I'd always recommend over all the others. Besides taking inspiration from some of the best board games, these cover a range of interests and skill levels – there's something to suit every kind of fan, no matter whether you want to hit the battlefield and command the Galactic Empire or adventure as a forgotten Jedi in an RPG quest.

Naturally, there's no shortage of Star Wars board games I could recommend to you. But for me, these are the cream of the crop.

Are there any you'd add to the list? Shout about them in the comments below!

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Warhammer Quest has been around for a while now – 31 years, in fact. It's arguably become one of Games Workshop's most beloved titles, with a fiercely devoted player base and a place amongst the best board games. Despite that, Games Workshop itself has never seemed able to quite settle on a consistent format. Darkwater is the sixth title in the series and the fourth entirely new take on the game.

The most recent editions, Blackstone Fortress and the appropriately-named (given its many behind-the-scenes troubles) Cursed City, seemed to have perfected a more modern take on the dungeon crawler format, but took an age to set up and pack away. For the latest edition, Darkwater – which is once again set in the realms of Age of Sigmar – it's clear that speed and convenience are the order of the day. This feels like it's taken the core elements of the last two editions and pared everything back into a more compact and streamlined game.

Warhammer Quest: Darkwater features & design

• Take on Chaos in a ruined chapel
• Fight through a hardback map book of missions
• 49 miniatures, including seven heroes

First impressions are important, and Darkwater makes a good one. The old school artwork is printed on a sturdy box that will survive plenty of wear and tear. Unlike some of Games Workshop's big boxes, this one feels built to last and the envelope system used to store your cards during a campaign is simple and efficient.

Inside the box you get 49 miniatures. They break down as seven heroes and four enemy bosses, plus the rank and file monsters. The heroes are:

• Edmark Valoran, The Manticore Knight
• Bren Tylis, The Renegade Saint
• Drolf Ironhead, The Grizzled Explorer
• Inara Sion, The Cleansing Blade
• Drasher Vorn, The Rampaging Beast
• Kelthannor, The Forest Prince
• Jacobus Vyne, The Jade Wizard (plus an accompanying forest spirit named Wisper)

Of those, Edmark, Bren, Drolf, and Inara are playable right out of the box, while the remaining three are "unlocked" as you play through more of the game, much like Gloomhaven. They're all really great models, with my personal favorites being Jacobus Vyne (gotta love a nature wizard), Edmark, and Bren.

The monsters are one of the areas where Darkwater really excels. Where the previous Quest game went fully goth with its town full of vampires and zombies, this one concentrates on the servants of Papa Nurgle. The Jade Abbey is a flooded temple, so there's a manky, dingey theme to most of the enemies here. In the box you get five different types of enemy:

• Mire Kelpies: Annoying little beasts that vomit toxins on your heroes
• Pox-Wretches: Basic shambling 'ham baddies
• Pestigors: Plague-themed Beastmen – some really nice models
• Blight Templars: Bloated and rotting champions of Nurgle
• Cankerborn: Two hulking and suitably nightmarish daemons

There are also four bosses: Shaman Foulhoof (a Pestigor who I can't not call Falconhoof); Mulgoth the Cleaver (boss of the Blight Templars); Belga the Cystwitch (half witch, half worm and the best model in the box); and the big bad, Gelgus Pust, who is prone to showing up in early games and laughing at your heroes.

The game itself also looks quite different to previous editions of Warhammer Quest. While the early games all used cardboard tiles as their play surface, Darkwater's biggest innovation is the use of a large book that opens up to reveal 19 different playable maps. The concept is not new – it's already been used by games like Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion – but the Darkwater book is fully hardback and works exceptionally well. It feels high quality and, crucially, lies perfectly flat.

Gameplay

• Play one-off Encounters or a three act campaign
• Campaigns are made up of shuffled Encounter and Event cards
• 19 maps and lots of variety

A Darkwater campaign is split into three acts, with each involving opening new decks of cards. Each session consists of drawing a deck of 15 cards, which are split into Encounter and Event cards, plus one randomly selected boss card.

Encounters are your skirmishes and missions where you turn to a new map and lay out the miniatures. Events are brief things that happen during the campaign – for example you encounter a strange character lurking in the Jade Abbey.

You draw two cards from the deck and choose which one you want to play, discarding the other. So, for every act in the campaign, you play seven Encounters/Events and then take on a boss. When those are done you've completed the act and move on to the next one. Because you'll have discarded half of the cards, however, you'll have to work through the game multiple times if you want to see everything. The large number of treasure cards to be found also means that completists will need to put in the time to get their hands on everything.

You draw two cards from the deck and choose which one you want to play, discarding the other. So, for every act in the campaign, you play seven Encounters/Events and then take on a boss. When those are done you've completed the act and move on to the next one. Because you'll have discarded half of the cards, however, you'll have to work through the game multiple times if you want to see everything. The large number of treasure cards to be found also means that completists will need to put in the time to get their hands on everything.

An event takes place on one of the 19 maps. In the Hero Phase you position your miniatures in the starting hexes and then use a three card Core Ability system for each character. The abilities are Move, Attack, and Aid. Move and Attack correspond to stats on your character cards. To use these you must expend "energy" by turning one of your Ability cards horizontally. The jist here is that while you have the Move, Attack, and Aid cards, they are basically interchangeable.

For example, I might want Drolf to move twice, then attack. To do so I would first use the energy of the rarely-used Aid card to move. I would then expend the actual Move card to move again. I would then use the final card, Attack, to take a shot at one of my foes. These cards are all recharged at the end of the Hero Phase.

In the Enemy Turns you follow the instructions on each enemy card and roll for each relevant model. These actions tend to be fairly self explanatory: Advance and Reposition are movement actions, Onslaught, Quick Attack, and Grievous Blow are different ways that they lash out at the heroes. It's pretty straightforward and works well enough as a system, though it can sometimes feel like a repetitive slog rolling through hordes of enemy models.

All Encounters take place on a timer – you have four Battle Rounds to complete the Encounter and reap the rewards. If you fail and lose the encounter, that will have its own impact on your ongoing campaign.

And that's kind of it. For the most part, this system works well. There's a good deal of variety across the Encounter cards, while the different character and treasure cards add their own twists to the rules. Some cards do feel significantly tougher than others, though. The Act 1 card Deep Trouble has already become infamous for its cryptic wording that renders the Encounter almost impossible unless you have movement-boosting treasure. Thankfully Games Workshop has since amended the wording in an errata. Still, if you lose an Encounter each character must discard four reward cards. If they can't do that, then the campaign is immediately over. That's pretty stark!

Should you buy Warhammer Quest: Darkwater?

Warhammer Quest remains Games Workshop's truest game-in-a-box experience. You really do just buy this one set with no need for any additional armies or warbands. It's super-easy to get to grips with and neatly solves the problem of how long the previous editions took to set up before you could start playing.

It's also pretty good value – as these things go, anyway – especially if you can pick it up at an independent game store and take advantage of the price discounts. You get loads of miniatures which are all to Games Workshop's usual high standards, and the boardbook feels really good quality. I've been playing the game for months and there's a lot of variety in here to keep you busy.

It's not my favourite version of the game. That's still Blackstone Fortress which, for all its fiddliness, felt like a characterful game with a lot of depth. I will also always have a big soft spot for the 1995 first edition, and – as I wrote here – I really wish Games Workshop would make my nostalgic dreams come true and do a made-to-order reprint of that.

Still, this is Warhammer Quest through and through, just in a slightly more streamlined form. It's a huge amount of fun and ideal for those nights where you've got some mates round and fancy adventuring into a peril-filled dungeon over a couple of beers. Just make sure you keep the drinks well away from the map!

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How we tested Warhammer Quest: Darkwater

This review was conducted using a copy provided by the publisher.

Our reviewer was able to spend many weeks testing Warhammer Quest: Darkwater, allowing them to get a full sense of how well it plays alongside the game's longevity. They started the process by familiarizing themselves with the game's rules before playing it multiple times, all with different player counts to see how the experience differed.

For a more thorough understanding of our process, don't miss how we test board games or the GamesRadar+ reviews policy.

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Popular zombie board game series Zombicide is rising from the grave, and it's shuffling back onto our tables with a swashbuckling pirate spinoff set on the high seas.

Zombicide: Dead Men Tales is the franchise's comeback after its previous publisher, CMON, hit rough financial waters last year (if you missed the news, industry giant Asmodee then swept in to rescue Zombicide from an uncertain future). This piratical version of the game shakes things up with fresh traversal options, cannons, grog, buried treasure, and foes that come at you from everywhere – even under the waves.

While it's still early days, those selling points seem to be doing the trick for fans of the original (which is often viewed as one of the best board games for co-op players); the project just started a crowdfunding campaign on Gamefound, and it's more than 490% funded already as I write this. Zombicide: Dead Men Tales being handled by veteran studio Fantasy Flight won't be hurting those prospects either, as that factor certainly piqued my interest.

In terms of how it works, this is still a combat-heavy team game for one to six players that sees you face off against a horde of undead… but the twist comes from nautically-themed mechanics that have washed ashore. Characters can swing from ship to ship via rigging on what appears to be a modular board, fire cannons to take out larger enemies, seek out buried treasure, or consume copious amounts of grog (here called "Grom") for buffs mixed with drawbacks. Your foes also seem capable of walking the ocean floor to erupt from the beneath the waves, making it harder to predict where they might come from next. Good luck planning for that.

We enjoyed the core Zombicide game enough to give it four and a half stars out of five in our Zombicide 2nd Edition review, so Dead Men Tales has a lot to live up to. However, the pirate theme gives it one hell of a headstart. I think there's only so much you can do with the core, modern-day zombie experience without retreading old ground (short of adding Marvel superheroes, I guess), so finding quirky ways into that genre makes it feel suitably fresh. Well, fresher than the corpses you'll be fighting, anyway. The franchise has previous with this tactic, of course; it visited the Wild West a few years back with Zombicide: Undead or Alive in 2023.

Speaking of unique approaches, this campaign appears to bundle a few extra goodies in for good measure. Pledges include the core Dead Men Tales game, yes, but you can also pick up Zombicide's upcoming tabletop RPG (Plaguebearer) and graphic novels. That's enough to keep any self-respecting fan of Zombicide busy, in other words.

It's unclear when Zombicide: Dead Men Tales will be available at retail, so for now, your best bet is to pledge on Gamefound if you want to guarantee all that booty for yourself.

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Elizabeth Hargrave, the esteemed board game designer who brought us the avian delights of hit Eurogame Wingspan, has returned with the delightfully seaside-themed Sanibel. In this latest board game, Hargrave delivers us to the sandy isles of Florida for a nature-inspired foray into the timeless hobby of beachcombing. But as does every scavenged shell and gnarled piece of driftwood, Sanibel harbours a hidden story.

Speaking to Hargrave, I learned that Sanibel isn't just a game about collecting and collating oceanic detritus. It's as much a cozy contender for best board game as it is a time capsule, seeking to reawaken the nostalgia-starved hearts of kindred holidaymakers. It's a delicate dive into deep-seated family values of curiosity and compromise. Moreover, Sanibel marks a final farewell of a dedicated daughter in mourning of her late father.

A wave of inspiration

For we quiet few, tabletop gaming has long provided a sanctuary from the outside world. From board and card games to TTRPGs and solo journaling, tabletop gaming is a space to recharge and bolster our mental health, ready to take on the horrors of the world. For designers in the space, too, our beloved hobby has an incredible capacity to heal our wounds through the process of creation. Having lost her father back in 2025, Hargrave announced in the wake of Sanibel's release that it was a game dedicated to his memory. "This one has a special place in my heart because I made it for my dad who was an insatiable shark tooth collector and who loved shells as well," the post recalls.

"There are thousands of shark teeth in my parent's house", Hargrave tells me. Her father's love of which is clearly reflected in the game's scoring, since the player with the largest cluster of shark teeth gains a trio of bonus points. Collecting them is as easy as breathing, too. Players simply wander along the beachy board at their own pace, picking up the best if they get to a section first, or the most if they take their time. The challenge then is arranging your collection in an almost Tetris-like fashion on your personal board to create clusters and score points.

Years before Sanibel's creation, following an afternoon stroll along the real-life shores of that Floridian island, it was Hargrave's father who first sparked the idea for the game. "I have family that live near the beach in Florida, so my immediate family would go and stay with my aunt and grandmother near the beach. We'd go out for a good chunk of the day and read books on the beach, take long walks, pick up shark teeth and seashells" Hargrave remembers. "One day we came back and we were eating lunch, and my dad was like 'You should make a board game about collecting seashells on the beach!', and I was like 'Oh yeah! I can't think of one, and it seems like such an obvious thing to do a board game about'", she says. It's clear how palpable the idea felt at the time. "There's an immediate spark: We collect things in games, we move around in games. That clearly can fit with game mechanics," she muses. "It's just such a universally enjoyed thing that so many people can relate to."

Of course, plenty of games feature seashells as a resource – Doggerland, for example, lets you harvest shells and turn your stash into handicrafts to earn points – but very few games focus their entire theme around it. While Kula Kula uses collected seashells as a central currency to be traded up or stolen in a sail-by robbery, it seems most similar games lack that "chill but positive" vibe Hargrave tells me she was aiming for.

Warming the cockles

Sanibel could easily have been a chaotic race against the clock, but Hargrave says she "wanted it to be literally walking down the beach picking up seashells". No rushing, no panic, just the tranquil sensibilities that her family instilled in her through all those years of carefree beachcombing. "The style of games that I like to play is usually pretty chill without a lot of direct confrontation," she notes. It's something we've seen spill into her design work time and time again. "The only confrontation in Sanibel really is people picking up things before you do, but that creates a really nice point of tension."

Using a Tokaido style of movement in which it's always the lagging player's turn and players choose exactly how far to move, you're constantly pushing your luck and potentially sacrificing a treasure trove of goodies along the way. As Hargrave puts it, "The further forward you jump, the farther back you fall." It's almost as if you're in contest more with your own self than you are with each other.

"All of my designs are naturally nonconfrontational," Hargrave says. "That's just my personal vibe and probably something that I got from my family". This is a family who she says used to play a lot of Scrabble, a game many consider a classically cozy word game… until of course someone starts with the two letter words. Even as a peaceful soul, that kind of gameplay ruffles Hargrave's feathers as much as it does mine.

"My brother broke out 'za'", she says. "I was like 'what the f– what's za?' Apparently it is an acceptable abbreviation for pizza." Maybe on the East Coast, my dude.

Hargrave laughs as I remark on the stresses of knowing how far behind you are in a board game, and how easily that can create a confrontational atmosphere. In games like Sanibel, where obscured scoring keeps you guessing as to your opponents point total until the final moment, she says "I don't really know how I'm doing until the end, and I just enjoy the process and enjoy building up the thing". I can certainly relate as an avid detailer, and creative gamer.

Speaking about her games in general, Hargrave makes it clear that "They all have a sort of curiosity about the natural world, which definitely comes from my family and my upbringing." From Wingspan to Undergrove and beyond, nature is a constant theme in her work, and one many of us are drawn to on an almost primordial level.

As a fellow nature lover and board game designer, I'm excited to see what conches she's keeping up her sleeve with Sanibel, because a stroll down the beach sounds idyllic in light of current world events. We have the full review on the site now, so keep an eye out for that if chill seashell collecting is your kind of bag.

For more tabletop recommendations, be sure to try out the best card games or the best tabletop RPGs.

One of last year's most anticipated Star Wars board games, Battle of Hoth, has come down to what is very nearly a record low price… and just in time for May 4, AKA Star Wars Day. Unlike C-3PO, I don't have a bad feeling about this.

There was a lot of buzz for the game when it dropped a few months ago, and as noted in our Star Wars: Battle of Hoth review, it's an "excellent introduction to a whole galaxy of gaming." That means today's price cut of 20% (bringing the Star Wars board game down to a few cents off its lowest ever price) is well worth paying attention to. Want an easy-to-learn wargame or more competitive strategy? This should scratch that itch, yet won't overwhelm you. Indeed, it'll also serve as an introduction to the best board games if you're trying to tempt fans to the Dark Side of tabletop gaming; it's much more accessible than you'd think.

The name doesn't lie; this Star Wars board game is all about reliving the Battle of Hoth, only with you and a pal commanding the Rebels or Empire. You'll vie for dominance across 18 scenarios, each one underpinned by the excellent 'Commands & Colors' system. There's a reason this has spawned an entire series – it's something you can quickly get your head around, but offers enough tactical depth to keep you invested.

While existing fans of Commands & Colors may find Battle of Hoth a little light, that makes it the perfect choice if you want to play wargames but find them too overwhelming or time-consuming. Like our review notes, "If you’re new to the game system as a whole this is an easy recommendation, an accessible and thematic introduction that will let you experience what’s made it so popular and perhaps give you a taste for the bigger, more complex versions like the outstanding Commands & Colors: Ancients."

Sure, it may not have the longevity its siblings do. But the appeal of commanding vast Star Wars armies outweighs any of that, in my experience. It's a great on-ramp for more complex wargames such as Star Wars Legion (which we've made a guide to starting, by the way) or Star Wars: Shatterpoint, too.

Have you got any Star Wars board games on your wishlist, or any you'd recommend? Let me know in the comments!

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The Horrified board game series is returning to the world of D&D, this time taking players to the appropriately terrifying realm of Ravenloft.

GamesRadar+ can exclusively announce Horrified: Dungeons & Dragons – Ravenloft, a new installment of the Horrified franchise and the second title to merge the monster-hunting board game series with D&D. In this new version, players will work together to face off against four new threats, including the iconic vampire Count Strahd Von Zarovich. The game will be released on July 19^th, with pre-orders available now through Target if you want to add it to your collection of the best board games.

In Horrified, players roam across the board, collecting items used to defeat various monsters. In Horrified: Dungeons & Dragons – Ravenloft, players will challenge up to four new monsters: Ravenloft’s most dangerous Darklord, Strahd, the murderous living doll Carrionette, the witch Baba Lysaga and her walking hut, and the sentient, supernatural Gulthias Tree. Each monster has different conditions needed to defeat it and can fell innocent bystanders with a single attack. Players will have to protect bystanders and guide them across the board, while simultaneously avoiding the monsters and collecting items along the way.

The first Horrified: Dungeons & Dragons game introduced unique characters based on D&D classes, each of which had abilities that were activated by the roll of a d20. Ravenloft builds on this by introducing five new player classes: the Ranger, Druid, Sorcerer, Paladin, and Warlock. As with their predecessors, they all have abilities that are activated by a d20 roll, with the number rolled determining which ability is activated.

As with some previous Horrified games, players can mix and match the monsters of Horrified: Dungeons & Dragons – Ravenloft with the previous Horrified: Dungeons & Dragons game, along with several previous installments.

The new Horrified game was designed by Peter Lee, who has designed 15 other Dungeons & Dragons-based games to date (including last year’s Horrified: Dungeons & Dragons). Lee is also behind the popular Lords of Waterdeep and the Castle Ravenloft game, which features Count Strahd as a villain.

The timing of Horrified: Dungeons & Dragons – Ravenloft comes shortly after the reveal of another visit to that horror-soaked realm. D&D publisher Wizards of the Coast recently showed off Ravenloft: The Horror Within that brings back our favorite setting with new subclasses, new ancestries, and new details on the iconic Darklords who are both prisoners and rulers of the setting. This is part of D&D’s "Season of Horror," the first in several planned seasons coinciding with the release of various D&D products announced at GAMA 2026.

"We’re always looking for new ways for players to immerse themselves in the worlds of D&D. Since its introduction in 1983, Ravenloft has been a beloved campaign setting," says Kara Kenna, Franchise Creative Director at Wizards of the Coast. "Being able to continue our collaboration with Ravensburger by bringing the rich characters and lore from the Domains of Dread through the mists and into Horrified’s narrative-driven adventure and cooperative gameplay felt natural. Timing couldn't be more perfect as we enter the Season of Horror celebrating Ravenloft: The Horrors Within, the newest Ravenloft release available June 16."

The 2025 Horrified: Dungeons & Dragons was one of the strongest installments of Horrified yet, with the d20 roll providing an extra twist to ensure that no player’s turn went unwasted. With new character classes to choose from and new monsters to fight, Horrified: Dungeons & Dragons – Ravenloft will be great for either longterm fans of Dungeons & Dragons or for those interested in immersing themselves in one of D&D’s best-known worlds.

The new game is available for pre-order at Target now for $29.99 (slightly less than the $34.99 MSRP).

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Please join me in pouring one out for another fallen board game franchise that's gone too soon, because the Gloomhaven-style Descent: Legends of the Dark is no more.

Developer Fantasy Flight has announced that its dungeon-crawling series (Descent: Legends of the Dark and its expansion, Act II) is being discontinued. This is because, "Simply put, the game is too expensive to make." That means the upcoming Act III expansion is no longer in development either, so the franchise's ongoing story has come to an abrupt end. I was a big fan of how Descent combined mechanics from the best board games with a video game-style app that heightened its RPG elements, so the news has taken the wind right out of my sails today.

However, I do get it. Increased costs are taking their toll everywhere right about now, and the tabletop gaming industry has been hit particularly hard. As we've discussed on GamesRadar+ at length over the past year, tariffs made life difficult for publishers across the board because much of their printing infrastructure was/is based overseas – thus making production far, far more expensive than it had been. While things have since calmed down due to a variety of factors (not least of which was February's Supreme Court ruling that use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to instate tariffs last year was illegal), it's still rough out there. This development is proof of that.

"Between ever-increasing manufacturing costs, lengthy and pricey app development timelines, and global economic shifts making everything more expensive to produce, it became abundantly clear that continuing to make this game is just not feasible," Fantasy Flight writes in a post announcing Descent: Legend of the Dark's end. That also goes for the unreleased Act III. Although Fantasy Flight investigated a variety of strategies to deliver the expansion (even if it was digital-only), none of those options "proved to be feasible, and so the only path left to us is to cancel the expansion outright."

It's not all doom and gloom, though. The Terrinoth: Heroes of Descent video game is still on its way, for example, and Fantasy Flight hasn't ruled out a return to the Descent franchise. "While we don’t have anything to share at this time, there is always a possibility that we will revisit Descent in the future. It would take a different form and would not be Legends of the Dark, but this game universe is near and dear to FFG’s heart."

Fans should keep their fingers crossed, in other words. It's goodbye for now, but this might not be the last we ever hear of Descent.

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Combining the exceptionally relaxing hobby of board gaming with the all-time favorite pastime of beachcombing, Sanibel swaps the usual heated competition you'll find in the best board games for warm sands and sea views. As a gently-paced game with Tokaido style movement and Tetris-like tile placement, Sanibel is a tranquil race up and down the shell-strewn sands to collect and collate the best set of treasures ever to be happened upon.

You'll spend your turns building up your own personal patterns with the items you collect, working on tricky goals that will fall into place as time goes on. Sanibel is a game of constantly weighing up how much you're willing to sacrifice for a potential leg-up in subsequent rounds, because, in the words of Elizabeth Hargrave herself, "The further forward you jump, the farther back you fall."

Sanibel features & design

• Push your luck to claim more shells but go last next turn
• Collect and bank specific shell arrangements without blocking yourself in
• Work toward personal goals as you Tetris your way to victory

After choosing a counter and matching board, players spend their turns meandering away from the deckchairs on the far left of the central beach-themed board, along the seafront to the lighthouse, and back again in a loop. Along the way, you'll build up your shell collection, with your bag growing fuller and more complex as you sift along the strip of sand. As you play, you'll work toward the personal goal (or goals) printed on two lighthouse tiles randomly dealt to each player at the start. These goals are cemented at the half-way mark, which we'll get to in a moment.

Movement works on a last-player-first basis, though as long as you move from your current beach segment and remember to stop at the lighthouse for others to catch up, you can move as far up the board as you like. The further ahead you go, the more shells you earn, but the reverse turn order means you risk sacrificing precious shells next round. Once you've picked a spot, you'll gather up the number of shells printed on your chosen space – everything from different Echinodems, to Bivalves, to Snails, and even Shark Teeth – dropping them in to fill up the grid on your player board. In order to actually score points with them, you'll need to cleverly slot them into specific combos. There's a handy Sanibel field guide for every player so you don't have to remember every potential arrangement, too.

Now, dropping shells into the bag requires some spatial planning. Shell tiles can't poke out the sides or top, and have to touch either the bottom of the bag or the top edge of another tile. The grid and tile shapes means it's easy to accidentally block off small sections if you're not careful. It's a case of carefully selecting each shell in perfect order, so you're not left with unfilled gaps or incomplete chains.

While the beach will start to deplete as you round up the most applicable marine detritus, it's consistently replenished by the rolling wave that follows along behind you. The wave spits out a certain number of hex or diamond tiles per beach section, depending on the number of players. And while there always manages to be a surplus, their usefulness varies.

Stopping at the lighthouse the first player there gets their pick of bonuses. Again, the furthest forward gains the most benefit but misses out on going first in the next round. This is where your lighthouse tiles come in, with either one or two now being slotted into your bag for a (hopefully) big bonus alongside any shells you've nabbed. Lighthouse tile bonuses range from easy to downright impossible: everything from a point per triangle piece or unique bivalve, to impressive arrays like pinwheels or rows of horizontal diamond pieces.

Racing back along the final stretch is much of the same game-loop, with the final round offering yet more bonuses to top off your score. These include some extra points, to a final stash of shells for your bag – provided you can fit them in!

Gameplay

• Two player is a tranquil stroll, while four player is comparatively stressful
• The agency to slot tiles as you see fit is incredibly satisfying
• Precarious player boards stress me out

As with many competitive board games, the more players you're up against, the more intense the run. While a two player game is a gentle stroll with little take-that action, a four player game has far more potential to end in death stares and broken friendships as you scramble for the perfect shells. It betrays the tranquility the game promises a little, but while other players can jump in and grab the shells you want first, there's no direct take-that action. Besides, player count is at least a factor you can control.

Control is a big theme in Sanibel too. While you're beholden to whatever treasures the wave washes up, there's a great deal of agency offered around movement and tile placement. It makes the journey a very personal one, and cleverly encourages the first player advantage to ebb and flow as players naturally relinquish the first move for a bigger stash, or vice versa. Players with a hankering for pattern arrangement are certainly catered for with each completion sending a little hit of dopamine.

While the components are lovely, adorned with painterly illustrations that infuse perfectly with the theme, a triple layer player board would have been much appreciated to help prevent accidental slips. One knock of a player board almost ruined the game for us several times, since scoring hinges on some pretty precarious arrangements. It's almost like playing Buckaroo with children or pets running around.

With the addition of sand crabs that let you steal tiles from other beach sections, and random goals for everyone, play is elevated with little moments of cheeky delight and novelty. It doesn't sound like much, but these really go a long way to add layers to otherwise very simplistic gameplay.

Should you buy Sanibel?

Weighted on the simpler side, Sanibel is a lovely short board game that doesn't require too much player interaction or brain power. With gentle, satisfying gameplay and a speedy setup, it's definitely one for interim game sessions or after dinner game nights that you don't want to last into the early hours. Sure, it's unlikely to hold the attention of players leaning into the heavier side of strategy, but it's definitely worth a play whether you're a beachcombing enthusiast or just looking for something a little lighter. Plus, you can play it over and over, and never end up with the same pattern twice.

Ratings

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How we tested Sanibel

This review was conducted using a copy provided by the publisher.

As with all our tabletop review content, our reviewer was sure to familiarize themselves with the game's rules before playing it multiple times with different player counts to see how the experience differed.

For a better understanding of our reviews process, check out how we test board games or the GamesRadar+ reviews policy.

If you want more tabletop recommendations, be sure to drop in on the best card games or the best tabletop RPGs.

I was being forced to choose between a quirky farmer and aspiring (but sketchy-looking) businessfolk to live in my village when the Cozy Stickerville board game clicked for me. "Ah," I thought. "So it's tabletop Stardew Valley." And if that doesn't sell you on the idea, lord knows what will.

I've seen fans of the best board games going nuts for this since the beginning of the year, and gosh, now I regret all the time I wasted not playing it. Cozy Stickerville isn't your classic head-to-head challenge; rather than scrambling over your foes to victory, it's a gentle team experience that's all about building up a settlement from scratch and watching it thrive. While you can't 'lose' in a traditional sense, the challenge comes from the decisions you've got to make and keeping all your villagers happy. Every choice has a consequence in this board game, be it the buildings you can construct (the two settlers I mentioned earlier provide different options based on whoever you choose, for example) or making sure you've stored enough food to get through winter.

As the name would suggest, those decisions are permanent thanks to stickers; you add stickers of buildings, residents, and plant-life to the board. This means everyone's village will end up looking different, providing a rare sense of ownership you don't always see in board gaming. This is your home, and you can make it into whatever you want.

Your decisions start early. In year one of your settlement, you'll have to decide which of several stickers to place first – including the kind of home you want to have. Many of these feature storybook entries that provide various challenges like fishing or foraging, but they also include either/or decisions that permanently change your town… even if the results won't be obvious until later.

This choose-your-own feature may sound like a gimmick, but from what I've seen so far, it's anything but. These seemingly simple decisions have a butterfly effect on the rest of the 10-session campaign, so it's satisfying to see what happens based on your choices. Allowing mysterious visitors to stay may lead to the construction of a not-at-all-suspicious 'lodge' building, for example, while letting the aforementioned businesspeople settle in your town could result in an influx of industry.

It isn't just about deciding who lives where, though. You'll also need to balance resource management in Cozy Stickerville too, as these are needed to build many of the buildings or homes that become available later. Because there can be time limits on certain options (like seasonal traders who will trade goods for cash, but only until the end of the 'year' AKA the session), making sure you have everything you need becomes a balancing act. My wife and I didn't have enough resources to build a new settler's home before time ran out in year one, for instance, so that'll need to wait until the next session to finish it and earn any resulting rewards. Because more decisions are sure to emerge then as well, things will suddenly start to stack up and we could fall behind unless we're careful.

I suppose time will tell. I'm only at the beginning of my Cozy Stickerville journey, but I'm already all in on it – and it's shaping up to be one of my favorite board games of 2026 so far.

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A beloved family board game series is about to go Golden, because Labyrtinth is getting a KPop Demon Hunters makeover.

This long-running series by Ravensburger is no stranger to crossovers (a quick glance at Amazon reveals versions based on Super Mario, Pokemon, Disney, Harry Potter, and more), so it's no surprise that the publisher is giving Labyrinth the KPop Demon Hunters treatment. This seems set for a summer 2026 release, so mark your calendars if you want something new to spice up your collection of the best family board games.

According to a profile on ACDDistribution (thanks, Comicbook), Labyrinth: KPop Demon Hunters has an order-by date of June 15, 2026. That means we're staring down the barrel of a summer launch. With any luck, the long-teased Lego KPop Demon Hunters set will launch around then too.

In terms of what this version of Labyrinth will look like, I wouldn't expect a massive overhaul. Based on previous crossovers, it'll be more of a palette-change with the puzzle-based gameplay of shifting maze tiles to reach your objective remaining intact. The treasures you're hunting and the player tokens you'll use will almost certainly be swapped out for KPop Demon Hunters equivalents, for example.

Because Ravensburger previously stated that it was going to be launching a variety of products based on KPop Demon Hunters, this is just the beginning of that collaboration - expect plenty more in the near future.

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I've yet to win a game of Nemesis: Retaliation, and now that I think about it, I've died in almost every game of the original Nemesis that I've played as well. The universe telling me I don't have "main character energy," perhaps, but it's also a glowing testament that Nemesis is still my favorite game (and arguably amongst the best board games) of all time. And I'm happy to report that this action-packed sequel is just as good as its forebear.

If Nemesis is "Alien," with all the registered trademarks sanded off, then Nemesis: Retaliation is "Aliens" in all but name, too. While the original saw a hapless crew of space truckers fending off alien invaders with makeshift weapons and harsh language, we're not messing about in the sequel, as here we take on the role of a squad of highly-trained and heavily-armed marines.

This vastly changes the power dynamic, as your marines are packing state-of-the-badass-art firepower that can mow down entire swarms of bugs in a single burst. But, make no mistake; this is still Nemesis, and you'll be lucky to make it out alive.

Nemesis: Retaliation features & design

• Action-horror for 1-5 players
• Games last for around 3 hours
• Expensive, but worth every penny

Nemesis: Retaliation is a 1-5 player semi-co-op sci-fi horror game, and actually the third title in the Nemesis series, after Nemesis and Nemesis: Lockdown. Whilst Lockdown introduced some new mechanics, it was still fundamentally the same game as the original; aliens are here looking for the buffet cart, and you're the buffet.

In Retaliation, you and your fellow players are a team of marines, here to kick ass, get tactical, stay frosty, and all the other military cliches that Aliens made famous. Your team arrives at the landing pad outside a secret research facility with a mission to complete.Just one problem: Mission Command didn't give you the layout of the facility, which means you'll need to procedurally generate it using a system of exploration cards, corridors, and tiles.

As fans of the series might expect, Nemesis: Retaliation is a big game. Inside the hefty box you'll find 50+ plastic miniatures, 350+ cards, 5 double-layered character boards, 60+ cardboard tiles, the rulebook plus 2 help sheets, and 200+ other components including dice, cardboard tokens, and acrylic cubes.

Amongst the awesome miniatures you'll find the five included player characters (Heavy Gun Operator, Combat Engineer, Officer, Recon, and Contractor), each of which matches their beautiful card artwork, and a hive full of alien beasties including larva, adults, drones, and the fearsome Queen. The hordes of lesser monsters come in a variety of dynamic poses to avoid repetition, and they all look suitably nasty.

If I had one criticism of the models, it would be the needlessly buxom Queen. The rest of the intruders could have come straight out of H. R. Giger's mind, yet for some reason the Queen has Chun-Li thighs and a big ol' pair of jumblies. I know there's lots of sexual symbolism in Giger's designs, but this feels a bit gratuitous (so much so that Kickstarter backers had the option to pay for an alternative model).

Gameplay

• Secret objectives build tension in this "co-operative" game
• Hordes of aliens present unique challenges
• It's still brutally difficult

Once everyone has picked their character, picked some starting equipment, and been assigned their objectives, the game can begin. The box claims it takes about 60 minutes per player, and I've found that to be pretty accurate, so if you are bringing a full team of five along, be ready for a full day of gaming.

A turn of Nemesis: Retaliation looks a lot like a turn of Nemesis. Each player takes two actions, discarding cards from their hand as currency for their moves. You can use these actions to move, interact with rooms, use items, or perform the character-specific actions on your cards. Oh, and shoot… You can — and will — be using a lot of these actions to shoot.

When everyone is out of cards and passes, you draw an event card (these do bad things, or sometimes really bad things), and then the aliens get a chance to move, attack, and generally cause problems. This is also very bad for you. And then you draw a new hand, advance the time track, and go again. It's deceptively simple at its core.

Each player has two objectives they can pursue, and unlike in Nemesis, you aren't forced to choose one of them once the bugs turn up. Instead, you can choose to lock in your objective at anytime and gain a number of bonus actions that turn, potentially giving you a burst of extra moves to escape a hairy situation, or to perform some dastardly deed once everyone else is out of moves and powerless to stop you.

Most of the time, one of those objectives will just be to complete the mission, whilst the other one will often (but not always) ask something more selfish of you. Perhaps they need a certain player to die, or for the mission itself to fail? As a result, Nemesis: Retaliation can best be described as co-op… ish. You're broadly working together to complete the mission, but you'll never know if your teammates are working towards their own ends. What usually happens is that everyone works together until it hits the fan, at which point it's every man for themselves.

It's so beautifully Machiavellian, and it's a non-stop moment-generating machine. The emergent narrative that forms from the team's discoveries, successes, failures, and inevitable betrayals is a thing of beauty. You end up building your own Aliens movie, cheering on the plucky survivors and jeering the cowardly traitors, begging the dice gods to deliver their comeuppance.

It might be my imagination, but betrayals seem more common here than in the original game. Perhaps because the co-operative missions are so tough, but also because of the sheer speed at which things can go from fine to FUBAR this time around. On a bad day in Nemesis, one alien would show up. In Retaliation, corridors can fill with hordes of the blighters, and you can find yourself surrounded in a heartbeat.

Fortunately, you have the firepower to deal with this pest problem, as Retaliation introduces the bursting mechanic, letting you unload ammo into corridors to splatter multiple intruders in one go. This is vastly more efficient than trying to fight them in the same room as you, forcing you to think carefully about how you engage.

If you do mind yourself getting snacked upon by the aliens, things can unravel quickly. Infection cards make a return, gumming up your hand with useless cards and potentially killing you in the endgame. You'll also have to deal with serious injuries, which limit your maximum health and have their own special debuffs depending on where you took the hit.

You'll also need to manage your supplies, with each player starting the game with a limited selection of ammo, grenades, medkits, and oxygen. Oh, did I not mention? Until you activate the life support, there is no air in the facility, so you're breathing on borrowed time. You can replenish all these supplies at the landing pad or within the facility, but that takes precious time, and who knows what you might run into along the way.

One of the major differences between Nemesis: Retaliation and its forebears is the game board itself. Previous iterations used fixed layouts and just randomised the room locations, but Retaliation takes things up a notch, using a deck of exploration cards to determine corridor locations. Core rooms show up in every game, but the rest are up to chance, meaning the tools at your disposal will change each time you play. There's even a robot helper in the facility that can be one of six variants. The result is the most replayable version of Nemesis to date.

Which brings me to the core thing that might rub some people the wrong way. Nemesis: Retaliation is just like its predecessors; it's a stressful charge through an unrelenting torrent of challenges that can at times be downright unfair, and that's by design. Aliens wasn't fair, and it would have been a bloody boring movie if everybody survived. It's about emergent storytelling, not mechanical mastery. Sure, you can play well, and you can certainly play badly, but neither of those things guarantees your success or failure. Sometimes, the plot says you die, and you just gotta make sure you make the most of your final scene. At least that's what I keep telling myself. I'll survive a game one day, I swear.

Should you buy Nemesis: Retaliation?

What do you think I'm gonna say? Yes, buy it at once. That is assuming you're a fan of big, chunky board games and have a strong hatred for your character being alive.

Nemesis Retaliation is a glorious continuation of the franchise, providing an action-heavy twist on the traditional gameplay while still retaining all the stress, drama, and backstabbing of the original. The new mechanics force you to consider new tactics, and the completely modular nature of the game board allows for even greater replayability. Just as Alien and Aliens are impossible to choose between, I love Retaliation exactly as much as the original game.

Once you get a feel for the characters, you'll want to play them again in different scenarios… or you'll want to play a different character to see how you fare. And even if (or in my case when) you die horribly, you’ll be excited to rerack and try again.

My only hesitation would be that if you're new to the series, you should probably get the original Nemesis first. You don't need to have played the original — and you could certainly start here — but it just feels right to start at the beginning. If you're a series veteran though, it's a must-have.

Note: At time of writing, you won't actually be able to buy a copy. Nemesis: Retaliation was funded by backers on Gamefound, and developers Awaken Realms are still in the process of delivering to some backers.

Ratings

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How we tested Nemesis: Retaliation

This review was conducted using a copy the writer brought themselves (they were a Kickstarter backer).

Because the reviewer already owned Nemesis: Retaliation, they played it multiple times with differing player counts. For a better look at our process, check out how we test board games or the GamesRadar+ reviews policy.

Want more tabletop recommendations to try out? Be sure to see the best tabletop RPGs or the best card games.

One of the best board games of recent years is Ark Nova, a dense zoo-builder that involves a mix of tile drafting and placement, while also meeting certain randomly chosen requirements. While Ark Nova is a triumph, it’s also an extremely complex game that takes hours to complete. That's where Sanctuary comes in.

Publisher Feuerland Spiele has now released Sanctuary as a simpler, quicker alternative to Ark Nova, one that uses many of the same mechanics but without the layers of complexity. Want to go hands-on with the critically-acclaimed zoo board game, but aren't keen on losing half your day to it? This is for you.

Sanctuary features & design

• Build and run a modern, scientifically-managed zoo
• For 1-5 players, taking about 20mins per person
• A more focused version of Ark Nova

In Sanctuary, your aim is to create and manage the ultimate zoo. Take in animals, work toward conservation goals, and increase attendance to earn the most points. Enjoy video games like Planet Zoo? This will suit you down to the ground.

The core of Sanctuary comes in the form of 135 hexagonal tiles containing a mix of animals, buildings, and projects. They're laid out six at a time on a market board that’s refreshed after every turn, and each player will have their own zoo board on which to play them.

These tiles all have different points values or benefits. Animal tiles always contain a victory point count that’s either fixed or is variable based on various circumstances, for example, while project tiles represent partner zoos, animal experts, and other zoo programs that provide a bonus. Meanwhile, buildings also grant victory points but usually can only be placed into a zoo that meets the right criteria. That means you have a variety of approaches you can take in terms of strategy.

No matter what you choose, these options all become more affordable as players draw tiles. The longer a tile remains on the board, the cheaper it is to pick up at the start of a player’s turn. That raises an interesting conundrum. Do you wait for a better deal, or grab something now to avoid a rival scooping it up?

That's not the only thing to juggle. The final Sanctuary board is the Conservation board. At the start of the game, five Conservation goals are randomly selected from the five animal types and five continents. When players have a certain number of each conservation symbol on the board, they can play one of their conservation achievement markers, scoring victory points and inching things closer to the endgame. That puts a ticking clock on everything you do.

Gameplay

• Players compete to complete conservation goals, drafting tiles on each turn
• Animals can score flat victory points or add them based on circumstance, offering a variety of strategies
• Completing conservation goals pushes Sanctuary to an endgame, with the first player to complete four triggering a final round of play

Every turn in Sanctuary is dictated by four action cards placed at the bottom of each player’s zoo board. At the beginning of their turn, players take a tile from the display equal to or less than the value of their project tile. Then, they choose one of their four action cards. (If players choose a habitat card, for instance, they play an animal with a corresponding habitat.) Once the action is played, players place the action card on the far left action slot and slide the rest of the action cards to the right.

These sliding action cards are similar to the core action mechanic of Ark Nova, with an action growing more powerful the longer a player has waited to play it. However, there are less actions to choose from (Ark Nova has five action cards) and the actions almost always correspond to a player placing a tile onto their zoo. The fact that actions become more powerful the longer a player waits to utilize it also encourages a biodiverse zoo – a player can get bigger animals into play by cycling between actions. Of course, this also requires some forethought – players may need to wait several turns before playing a certain action, so there’s a need to think several turns in advance.

This is true for the tiles themselves, too. Each tile has a victory point value, ranging from a flat amount of points to a variable amount based on completing certain conditions. As a case in point, a peacock scores points based on the number of projects in play, while the greater flamingo scores points by the number of adjacent Africa icons on tiles connected to it. Some tiles even score points for every unused tile in the game, while petting zoos collectively score 18 points if players place three petting zoo tiles next to each other. Because almost every tile scores points in some way, players will largely have to decide what to prioritize as they collect tiles and place them in their zoo.

Loosely speaking, which tile a player takes is determined by the game’s conservation goals. Each player has a collection of four conservation goal tiles, with values ranging from 2 to 5. At any point in the game, players can place one of their conservation goal tiles on the goal board as long as they have the corresponding icons in their zoo. Once a player places all four conservation goals onto the board, they trigger a final round of play (and also collects extra victory points.)

Of course, the major issue in Sanctuary is that all players are seeking out the same conservation tiles. This generally means that these tiles are hard to come by and the drafting board isn’t a reliable source for endgame points. Although players can score victory points by ignoring the conservation goals, they’re generally too valuable to give up entirely. This means that players will either burn actions to randomly draw tiles from the supply or find other ways of circumnavigating the display board. For a game that’s built around drafting, there’s a high amount of chance that comes into play, especially in higher player count games where the display board is picked over far more often.

The game ends when one player either fills their entire zoo or completes all four of their conservation goals. Every other player gets one more turn to play final tiles and then victory points are added up by scoring animal tiles, building tiles, project tiles, unused conservation markers, conservation goal tiles, and also open area tiles. The player with the most victory points (often the player who completes all the conservation goal tiles first) wins the game.

In my playthroughs of Sanctuary at least, the key to winning is grabbing as many tiles that correspond to conservation tiles as you possibly can. While every animal tile scores points, the reality is that you can simply score more points by focusing on conservation goals than you can trying to build up alternative strategies. This sadly means that there will be tiles in every game of Sanctuary that are nearly worthless or function as tempting traps for players frustrated that the right tiles never seem to fall into their grasp.

Should you buy Sanctuary?

Sanctuary is a great alternative to the bulkier Ark Nova. While Sanctuary exists in the same general space as Ark Nova, it’s a much quicker and less complex game that can be played in less than two hours. Although chance plays perhaps a bit too much of a role here, it features the perfect amount of strategy and decision-making to keep players coming back over and over.

If there’s one weakness to Sanctuary, it’s that early decisions can either reap dividends or wreck the game. A player who snags the right project (such as one that corresponds to a conservation goal) can quickly outpace their opponents, especially if they can build off of it. Completing conservation goals is crucially important in Sanctuary, and every playthrough of Sanctuary I’ve had has ended with the player who completes their conservation goals first ultimately winning the game.

Even though I’ve had some struggles playing Sanctuary, the act of building a zoo is very rewarding. It’s fun to try to figure out good-scoring combos on the fly and adjust your strategy based on the tiles that are available to you. Plus, even if you can’t pull off a victory, you’ll still have a full zoo at the end of the game to marvel over.

Ratings

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How we tested Sanctuary

This review was conducted using a copy provided by the publisher.

Our reviewer studied the game's rules in full before running multiple test sessions with a variety of player counts to see how the experience differed each time, as well as to test longevity. This allowed them to make a more informed and well-rounded critique.

For a better look our process, see how we test board games or the GamesRadar+ reviews policy.

Want more tabletop recommendations? Check out the best family board games or the best card games.

I'm gingerly stepping outside of a safe room having just scribbled my progress into a typewriter, not knowing what lies on the other side of that old crusty door. I've got two handgun bullets in the chamber, an orange health bar, and a talisman-shaped hole in my inventory. I know where the zombies are, and I know I need to get past them to reach the final piece of the puzzle - just how I'm going to survive the journey, though, is pretty much down to chance at this point.

The Resident Evil games I was raised on would have me sprinting through these corridors, shotgun cocked without even a green herb for reassurance. I'm a child of Leon S Kennedy, taught to fear only chainsaw wielding sack-heads and lake monsters. I've never really had to sneak efficiently, I came up through gunpowder and parries, far from the '90s echoes of Spencer Mansion.

I could be playing Resident Evil Requiem right now, or I could be playing the SteamForged Resident Evil: The Board Game that's been sitting in pride of place on my shelf since release in 2023. Both force my hand into playing a more considered, strategic Resident Evil experience than I grew up with but the latter has made my time with Grace Ashcroft make far more sense.

At first I was confused when I started playing the tabletop adventure all those years ago. Closing doors can save my life? I don't need to shoot everything that moves?

Steamforged's take on the survival horror classic showed me how the game was supposed to run. You can love or hate modern Resident Evil's more action-oriented sensibilities, but there's no denying that the original respected cunning, scrappy manoeuvres in a way that hadn't quite been matched until the latest instalment.

It's got all the makings of a classic Resident Evil video game, boiled down to a series of considered steps, slower actions, and finite options per turn. Each run takes you through a map that only expands as you discover it - any door could lead to any number of possibilities on the other side. Whether you open it could be the difference between success and a bloody death, working out when to (quite literally) roll the dice takes time, strategy, and inventory awareness.

Translated into a modular map, character cards, and item tokens, Resident Evil: The Board Game has reigned in my trigger-happy ways through its emphasis on considered actions and reactions. I didn't even realise I'd been trained in the art of survival horror until Requiem booted up on my PS5. It was only when I found myself counting bullets, sprinting past fodder zombies, and making elaborate escape plans around the whims of a mutated chef that I realized how much I'd learned from these little cardboard squares.

The old me would have given up, bored of getting caught or having to manage an impossibly small inventory. The years of working it all out on the kitchen table have paid off, though. I can enjoy failing, I've got the patience to dig into the strategy, the horror of my own powerlessness is all the more delicious.

So, if - like me - you've largely stuck to the explosive Resident Evil action sequences of 4, 5, 6, and Village, give the physical version a go. Resident Evil: The Board Game is more than a tabletop spin-off, it plays like a masterclass in the technicalities of traditional survival horror. I don't think I would have stuck with Requiem if it hadn't been on my shelf for the last three years.

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I've been in the business of reviewing board games for a long time now, but I used to be wary of recommending "limited communication" co-op games for two players. The fun of playing in a pair is quality time and bonding, right? If you're not talking to each other, doesn't it defeat the point? Dear reader, I was an idiot – and my game of the week demonstrates why.

In Sky Team, your job is simple: land a plane. Or more specifically, the mission is simple. Actually bringing the plane to a safe stop will require top-tier teamwork. Seeing as you can only talk before each turn, this is all about good communication without saying a single word. What follows is one of the best board games of the last few years, and it's had me right on the edge of my seat every time I've tried it.

I hope you don't mind heights, because this game puts you in the shoes of a pilot and co-pilot charged with bringing a passenger plane back to the runway from several thousand feet. To avoid inconveniencing your customers by becoming a fireball of mangled metal on the tarmac, you've got to deploy landing gear, flaps (steady), manage your axis, to stay level, and adjust speed. Success relies on you being in sync with your partner.

This is a dice-based game, and you'll assign the four numbers you roll to specific tasks like the ones listed above. However, you'll do this without having seen the other player's roll - and without being able to talk or otherwise communicate once the round has begun.

This is way more important than it sounds.

Even though certain tasks allow you to work independently (you each have specific jobs, like clearing the airspace ahead of other planes), two of your dice must always be used to adjust your axis and engines. You and your partner's dice are added together to dictate speed, and getting too high or too low a number means you'll either not progress, move at a reasonable pace, or charge ahead.

Similarly, axis is decided by the difference between the numbers you've put down... and your plane will veer to one side or other because of it. That then forces you to adjust later or try to match numbers to stay level.

In other words, not being able to talk (or give specific orders before a turn, like "use a 3 for that") is a pretty big deal. This forces you to communicate in other, more novel ways - like seeing what the other player is putting down first to decide what you should do in response, or veering away from the plan in the hope they catch your drift and respond accordingly. It's way more exciting than you'd think, because you're hoping against hope they understand and don't damn you all to oblivion with a badly-placed die. Yes, you can adjust those scores by using up dice on coffee (which gives a +1 or -1 when needed), but paying very close attention to what your partner is up to is crucial.

Honestly, I can't remember the last time I was this locked in on a game - and I'd highly recommend giving it a go this weekend as a result.

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Nemesis Legacy, a campaign-based version of the popular horror board game, is crawling through the vents toward a 2026 crowdfunding launch.

Revealed with a chilling teaser on Gamefound, Nemesis Legacy promises fans "the first-ever full campaign experience set in the Nemesis universe." We've made no secret of being massive Nemesis fans here (and for some of our writers, it's hands-down one of the best board games), so I'm already sold on the idea.

If you're not familiar with the term, "legacy" usually means a connected, long-running campaign where your actions – and your success or failure during each session – have consequences. Mess up a mission and the consequences will come back to haunt you, while success can give massive benefits later on. Considering how water cooler-ready Nemesis already was (something that really endeared us to it in our Nemesis review, not to mention the sequel Nemesis Lockdown), adding a long-running narrative feels like a perfect fit.

Unfortunately, there aren't any details on what the game will be like beyond the short, animated trailer (which is suitably chilling, showing a marine trying to set off a warhead while being stalked by creatures unknown), but the new miniatures teased for it look absolutely gnarly. I mean, just get a load of the spider-like limbs on the back of the monster seen in the image above. Those are gonna mess up everyone they encounter.

While I wouldn't say Nemesis is necessarily the best fit for broader audiences (it takes a bit more setup and organization than the likes of Betrayal at House on the Hill), it's an absolute masterclass in semi-coop gameplay and creeping tension. While you're all trying to survive an encounter with creatures that are clearly, unashamedly based on xenomorphs from the Alien franchise, you're trying to juggle personal objectives too… which are often at odds with your fellow players. It's a fantastic setup that leads to gripping game nights, and I suspect the Legacy version will produce even more "oh my god, do you remember when…" moments with your friends.

We'll presumably know more about Nemesis Legacy when the Gamefound campaign releases soon and I've reached out to publisher Awaken Realms for more info, but until then, it's gonna be a long wait until the proposed Q4 2026 launch window.

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Most days, you'll find me testing board games or writing about them. Reviews, features, news stories, and guides about the finest tabletop treasures are my bread and butter, but sometimes, there's a specific title that makes me want to drop everything else. A game so good, I thoroughly irritate everyone around me by insisting we play it at every opportunity.

This week, that board game is Life in Reterra.

Despite being set in a post-apocalyptic world, there are no road vikings or mutant raiders to be seen here; it's a surprisingly upbeat and cheerful doomsday scenario, making a nice change from many of the best board games. Actually, it's all about rebuilding after civilization's over, so matches that optimism with a lovingly cheerful aesthetic. It never fails to put a smile on my face.

The gameplay is far deeper than you might expect, too. As noted in my Life in Reterra review, it's easy to learn but will keep you invested for the long-haul. That's because each type of building offers different bonuses and ways to earn extra points, but they're also double-sided with an alternate set of rules. In addition, there are multiple building packs to choose from… all of which can be mixed and matched. That means you'll rarely run out of things to try, or do.

Am I terrible at this game? Yes. I recently started to bring it in for our weekly board games session at the GamesRadar+ office, and have lost every single match. But I don't care. It's a delight even if you come stone-cold last because it feels like a personal puzzle you're trying to solve, and I enjoy the Tetris-style challenge of fitting your patchwork world together.

In short: give Life in Reterra a go if you want something new to play. You really can't do any worse than me, and even if you do, you'll have a blast regardless.

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It's that horrible time of year where things are glum 'n gray with spring just out of reach, so there's nothing for it but waiting out the weather with a good board game. If you want to add a little coziness to a dreary weekend, I've got some recommendations that will do the trick.

Besides writing about the best board games for a living with news, reviews, and guides, I also spend much of my free time playing them. This has given me a collection that makes my house feel like an impromptu board game cafe, but I'll always gravitate toward a few in particular when the weather closes in. Life in Reterra always helps me get out of a funk thanks to its puzzle-like mechanics and cheery style, for example, while Finspan provides a dose of the tropical when I'm missing summer vacations. And those are just two of my go-tos - I have a whole list of them. If you want something to brighten up a winter weekend, here's my full first-aid kit of board games you need to play.

Personally speaking, the game that's been getting me through the last few weeks has been Life in Reterra. It's exactly the kind of cheery, colorful game I need after a deluge of seemingly endless rain where I live, and although I've discovered in the process that I'm not brilliant at it (I've spent several days having my butt handed to me), it's done a great job of brightening my mood.

Similarly, The Hobbit: There & Back Again has been a real bright spot in February. This roll-and-write adventure game is like a personal puzzle, and it's totally engrossing. If you've not tried it yet, I can definitely recommend giving it a go. (It's currently $34.99 at Amazon.)

Is there anything you like to play when the weather turns gray? Shout it out in the comments below.

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When it comes to board games with table presence, few studios manage to deliver a spectacle of plastic miniatures and cardboard goodies quite like Awakened Realms. Games like their Alien-inspired Nemesis series or their premium rereleases such as Castles of Burgundy are all wonders and easy to marvel at. One of their brand new releases takes that same quality the studio is known for and injects the bloody and visceral creepiness of FromSoftware's beloved Bloodborne series, resulting in the massive Grimcoven boss battler game.

Having run through the gauntlet a few times now with friends and on my own, Grimcoven may just be my favorite boss battler I have played, though it unfortunately still has some annoyances that prevent it from reaching some of the loftiest heights of the best board games.

Grimcoven features & design

• Set in a dark Victorian universe
• A boss-battler rather than a dungeon crawler
• Gorgeous miniatures available separately/in premium editions

In Grimcoven, players take up the mantle of Hunters dispatched to deal with Griefbounds – the vicious and deadly prey that serve as your goal for victory. In order to successfully complete your missions, Hunters need to rely on Lament, a special resource that allows you to evolve and strengthen your Hunter, but at the risk of corrupting them to the point where you may turn into a Griefbound yourself, requiring your former teammates to put you out of your misery too. All this is done through a deceptively simple yet tactically rich gameplay rotation of slotting dice you’ve rolled into set actions, letting you take actions such as moving, attacking, or helping others. Despite its appearance and the sheer size Grimcoven can take up on your table, actually playing it is surprisingly quick to grasp, which my friends and I were pleasantly taken aback by.

Playing through Grimcoven reminds me a lot of my time with CMON’s – well, now Asmodee’s – Cthulhu: Death May Die series of games, being a heavily modular game, allowing for massive amounts of ways to enjoy it. But in place of working to complete objectives as you do in Death May Die, Grimcoven is strictly focused on combat and surviving until you can defeat the boss. This modularity stems from three core pillars: your character, the enemies, and the level. You can then add to the experience with numerous expansion packs featuring extra foes, Hunters, or even gorgeous miniatures. (While they're not featured in the standard version, deluxe editions and miniature add-ons do exist.)

However, it is in all this content that my two biggest issues reside – the setup and the storage of it all.

For my friends and me, the most annoying aspect of Grimcoven wasn’t the attacks that killed multiples of us at once, or the unfortunate events that spawned monsters; it was the actual setup of the game. While playing the game itself is surprisingly smooth, getting the game going is where the worst pain we felt came from. Picking specific cards from the various decks, finding the correct tiles, placing them correctly, laying everything out, and trying not to jostle anything out of place is a hassle. This half-hour to 45-minute-long setup (though I could see more intricate layouts taking easily up to the hour mark and beyond) is by far the biggest detractor for me to actually bust out Grimcoven and play it. Which is a real shame because, right now, all I want to do is have my friends over, test out our new character build ideas, and see how well we do. But every time I look at the looming pile of boxes in the corner of my room, leering at me, that excitement drains out, knowing that the setup comes before the fun part.

Speaking of the boxes, my current setup is as follows – the main box containing most of the miniatures, tokens, rulebooks, and player boards; a second, smaller box containing all of the map tiles and some expansion miniatures; and a third box (the one that the card sleeves came in) containing all the cards. While admittedly I do have all of the content for the game, even trying to fit just the base game’s content back in the box once punched proved to be too cramped and a hassle of an endeavor, with no space set for the tiles. The cards will also not fit in the provided space, period, if sleeved.

Awakened Realms isn’t known for having fantastic storage solutions, and I understand that with so much stuff, you can only fit so much safely, but the prospect of lugging all my necessary boxes to my friend’s place is almost as uninviting as the thought of actually setting up the game. Almost. Even the geniuses over on the Grimcoven page forum on BoardGameGeek are still trying to work out and design the best way to store the game. For as gorgeous as all the components are – from the intricately detailed miniatures, dual-layered playboards, and the other high-quality bits – it’s just a shame that the solution to store them is lacking, though I do appreciate the guide they include in the box on how to put things back.

Gameplay

• Huge variety in Hunter gameplay
• 'Lament' corruption is a thrilling feature
• A staggering amount of variation to fight through

The various Hunters that you can pick from all feel completely unique and behave vastly differently from each other, and every game I played with a new character, I found myself having to approach it from a new angle and mindset. The Gunslinger, for example, I loved for its ability to enhance its attacks using bullets I had crafted in previous turns to unload a bunch of hits all in one go. Or, if I felt more like channeling my FF14 character and wanted to go the tank route, I could play as the Keeper and their giant sword. What is extra fun is that each Hunter comes complete with an assortment of weapons and armor you pick from before each game, further letting you tailor and adjust your playstyle to whatever you are feeling for that game. Keeping on the Keeper as an example, one set of gear is more tailored to that tank role, while another gives you more options to dish out the hurt instead of taking it, letting you be more of a frontline fighter instead.

As you battle enemies, you will gather Lament, which will serve as Grimcoven’s experience points that you will use to level up your Hunter, unlocking new abilities from your respective evolution deck or receiving other beneficial boons. Leveling is by far one of my favorite parts of Grimcoven, with every opportunity my friends and I had to pull from our decks of goodies accompanied by a wave of "ooooo"s and "oh damn"s as we read through what new toys we could pick from to add to our arsenals. However, that power doesn’t come free, and there was always a delicious bit of danger in using the Lament, watching our corruption tracks rise. The higher it rose, not only would we get to swap out our awesome Hunter miniatures for even more epic and wild monstrous corrupted versions, but we also would begin risking turning into a Pretender – a wild creation, part Griefbound and part Hunter – resulting in our dear friends turning into just another boss we would need to put down to win. Thankfully, we never reached that point, but simply looking at the various Pretender stat sheets sends shivers down my spine.

Encounters with the Griefbounds offer even more options for players, too. Each of the bosses comes complete with their own booklets featuring increasing levels of challenge that you and your friends are able to attempt to tackle at higher levels. One of the more clever mechanics of Grimcoven that impressed me is how you actually defeat these bosses. The Griefbounds themselves don’t have a health pool per se that you are ticking down with your attacks. Instead, your goal is to deal enough damage to the individual attack cards that compose their attack decks (built from a randomly drawn assortment of possible cards) to destroy them, thus removing them from the rotation, potentially being drawn again.

These attacks hurt. A lot. And unless you manage to deal enough damage to that card, additional, extra painful effects will trigger—and trust me, you do not want those to happen. Single-target attacks can be boosted to deal damage to all players in an area, for example. To help balance things, however, you will always have advance warning as to what attacks will be coming up in the following round, giving you and your team of Hunters time to plan and act accordingly. This advanced notice alleviates nearly all feelings of "cheap draws" that suddenly result in a loss.

Despite your goal being to tackle the boss, that doesn’t mean they are the lone adversary you will be contending with. Smaller minion enemies will be spawning across the map that will further stand in your way, but thankfully are (usually) quick to dispatch, along with more challenging Elites that prove more troublesome. Depending on the challenge of Griefbound you select, different minions and Elites will be picked from the roster of options, with special "named" Elites available for even more of a challenge if you really want to get a swift kick to the shins.

Even at the lowest difficulty levels, which add in some restrictions in terms of what attack cards can be added into the Griefbound’s deck, Grimcoven still manages to deliver a challenge that pushed my friends and me hard, making those rare victories sweet and each loss a hard-fought lesson learned.

When it comes to the battlefields themselves, the layouts are composed of hex-based tiles whose main configuration is set by the boss and challenge you are fighting against, along with some randomized elements such as events and special tiles mixed in. Each Griefbound boss comes with its own book and multiple difficulty levels that dictate different abilities they may have and the specific map setup that you will be doing battle on, composed of various hex tiles that you will need to construct. A smarter person than I would be able to do all the math involved to get the exact number, but all of this culminates in Grimcoven providing what I will simply refer to as "a crap-ton" of possible variations in which to fight through, saying nothing of the additional expansions that add even more Hunters and Griefbounds to pick from.

Should you buy Grimcoven?

When I have managed to push through those thick barriers, with the game set up and my friends and I sat at the table, Grimcoven is an action-packed adventure where nothing is for certain until the final strike lands. This is a game that we gladly take the hits and ask for more, just to keep playing, with bloody smiles on our faces.

It’s unfortunate that the storage and setup are so frustrating, but thankfully, the smoother flow and relatively easy-to-play nature of the rest of the game, on top of just how many options it lets you explore as you play, make this by far one of the best boss-battling board games I have ever played. Setup be damned, I am already chomping at the bit like a ravenous Pretender, waiting for more.

Ratings

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How we tested Grimcoven

This review was conducted using a copy provided by the publisher.

As with all of our board game reviews, the reviewer made sure they were intimately familiar with the rules before running multiple sessions with a variety of player-counts to get the most in-depth experience possible.

To find out more about our process, don't miss this guide to how we test board games or the full GamesRadar+ review policy.

Looking for something new? Be sure to drop in on the best adult board games or the best card games.

Global toy giant Hasbro has now gained the rights to produce action figures, board games, and more for Harry Potter.

Revealed as a multi-year partnership starting in 2027, this deal makes Hasbro "global primary toy licensee" for Harry Potter movies, the Fantastic Beasts series, and HBO's upcoming show. Because Hasbro also owns one of the best card games alongside many of the best toys, Magic: The Gathering (to say nothing of D&D), this opens the door to a possible crossover set.

"The world of Harry Potter and its unforgettable characters align perfectly with our mission to deliver a lifetime of play to generations of fans,” says Hasbro's president of toys, games, licensing and entertainment, Tim Kilpin. Meanwhile, Robert Oberschelp – Warner Bros. president of global consumer products – notes that the partnership "will deliver fresh, innovative toys, collectibles and games."

We don't know for sure what this collaboration will look like yet, but I think we can guarantee Wizarding World-shaped interactive plushies, family board game tie-ins, and elementary school toys that Hasbro is known for. However, what's more interesting is what that means for the brands Hasbro owns. It's responsible for the best Nerf blasters, for example, so will we see wand-style dart shooters? I mean, probably. What about wizarding water pistols from Super Soaker, AKA one of the best water guns? I'd bet on it.

In much the same way, I'd be very surprised if Magic: The Gathering didn't get in on the action. Considering how crossover-happy it's been in recent years, there's no way it'll miss out on a Potter-shaped tie-in. There will be a Secret Lair winging its way to Hogwarts in the not-so-distant future, mark my words. It feels like a foregone conclusion that Hasbro studios such as Avalon Hill (which is responsible for some of the best board games) are going to be working on Potter-related products soon, too.

Does this mean other licensed Harry Potter products are going away? Some probably will, but not all – I'd assume the best-selling Noble Collection wand replicas will stick around. Equally, there's absolutely no chance that Lego's losing its ability to make Potter models. These sell absurdly well and arguably make up some of the best Lego sets, so I sincerely doubt Warner Bros. would let that cash cow go.

The upcoming HBO Harry Potter series, on which J.K. Rowling is an executive producer, has been the subject of criticism and debate due to the author's public stance on gender identity, which continues to challenge the inclusivity at the heart of the Harry Potter community. It was a similar situation with the Hogwarts Legacy launch, and you can read more about the Hogwarts Legacy controversy in our explainer.

For more collectibles from nerd-culture, don't miss the best Star Wars toys. As for an escape from the current chaos of the world, it's worth trying the best tabletop RPGs.

It's traditional to wheel out chocolates for your beau or squeeze into jam-packed restaurants to get a romantic meal, but I prefer settling down with cozy board games on Valentine's Day. A cheese and charcuterie board to one side, a glass of red on the other, and an evening rolling dice? I'd swoon.

If you want to do things a little differently this year, there are plenty of board games I'd recommend for Valentine's Day. However, there are a few in particular that I'll be breaking out for my wife and I. Besides being some of the best board games for couples to play on the most romantic day of 2026, they're just as good at any time of year. Actually, I'd go so far as to say they're must-have additions for any collection...

Of all these, The Hobbit: There & Back Again is the one I've enjoyed most over the past few months (in fact, it was one of our top board games in 2025). While it's more competitive than I'd usually go for on a romantic holiday like Valentine's, it's the perfect game to cozy up together with. It's one of the rare few you can feasibly play on the sofa as well; all you need is a coffee or side table to roll dice on.

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For more suggestions, don't miss the best 2-player board games or the best card games.

Odin's Ravens sets two players head to head in a mythological race around the world. Taking the form of Huginn and Muninn, two legendary corvids with a taste for competition, players must balance their need for speed with the Norse god-like urge to thwart their opponent at every turn.

In their attempts to get ahead, this fast-paced race to return to Odin from an Earth-bound scouting mission sees players pushing their luck with rocky decisions, executing crafty tricks, and timing clever take-that actions for maximum bafflement. Imagine Heat: Pedal to the Metal meets Magical Athlete, but in a gorgeous Nordic expanse and with far fewer rules to concern you as you fly onward to glory. Is it one of the best card games, though? Those looking for deep strategic depth may leave disappointed, but everyone else should find it worth raising a horn of mead to.

Odin's Ravens features & design

• Scarper to the end of the track as fast as corvidly possible
• Move and change the board's layout with Loki cards
• Push your luck or bide your time

Odin's Ravens is a heated marathon in which the fastest raven wins. The catch, however, is that your tricksy opponent is encouraged to tamper with the landscape, creating shortcuts for themselves or forcing you to take the scenic route.

To begin, players collect 25 flight cards, and eight Loki cards, while a path of 16 land cards (32 spaces) is laid out – this is the game board and it won't look this neat for long. There should be no matching consecutive spaces on either side of the track at this stage, which will make sense once you learn how your token will advance. While one player moves their raven clockwise along the track from top left to bottom left, the other moves anti-clockwise from bottom left to top left. Whoever reaches their opponent's start position first wins… Sort of. We'll get to that in a moment.

Drawing five of your flight or Loki cards in any combination to make up your hand, you take turns to play any number of cards you see fit. Playing a flight card that matches the next space lets you move your raven to it, while two matching cards count for one of any other kind. Sort of how Eurogames like Everdell let you trade two for one resource of another kind. Should you come up against several of the same spaces in a row, you can skip to the end of that row.

Loki cards are far fewer, and once depleted they aren't shuffled back into your draw pile like flight cards would be. These give players a choice between two powerful, game-changing moves on every card. Loki might let you push your raven forward a space, or your opponent's back; maybe draw, delete, rotate, or swap cards around; you might even add new land cards to make the track longer with a 'loop' that can stack indefinitely. While you can change the board in a multitude of ways, you can't affect any card with a raven currently on it.

Once you've played any number of cards in any order, your turn ends by drawing three cards and passing on to the other player. It's a simple game loop, and very intuitive on the surface, though there are a few technicalities that the brief ruleset has sadly overlooked.

Accompanied by gorgeous artwork from the formidable Johan Egerkrans, the box and cards pop with immersive illustrations of landscapes and characters. Players with certain types of colorblindness may struggle discerning the purple and red cards, but otherwise the game's made super accessible with clear diagrams and simple rules.

Gameplay

• Unnecessary to avoid matching card rows in setup
• Anticlimactic fix for first player advantage
• Rulebook's brevity means some scenarios are overlooked

Odin's Ravens allows for some brilliant take-that action that keeps you constantly on your toes as you wonder how the other player will toy with your next turn. Whether you decide to spam Loki cards early or save them for a chaotic final stretch, every move is a satisfying, on-the-fly tactical choice with immediate payoff. It doesn't have as much strategic depth as some of the best board games, but for a short two player sprint it really doesn't need to.

That said, it's not perfect. The rulebook itself is a short leaflet offering some mythological background on Huginn and Muninn. There's practical diagrams and descriptions of each Loki move, as well as some potential scenarios that might cause confusion. In its brevity it overlooks a few potential scenarios: What happens when a card is shifted away from a loop leaving a gap where it connects, for example? It's been a common occurrence at my table and has meant we've had to insert a house rule. Still, it's a minor oversight and doesn't make the game any less entertaining.

I will say the final moments can be a little anticlimactic thanks to the designer's attempts to quell the first player advantage. Should the player who went first finish first, their opponent has until the end of their turn to catch up, whereby players compare their final hand size to determine a winner. I prefer when games even out the first player advantage early on, so it doesn't compromise what could be a perfect photo finish. Thinking thematically, however, it works well here as it's in character for Odin to reward tactical frugality as well as speed.

Should you buy Odin's Ravens?

As a well-balanced game with heaps of replayability, Odin's Ravens is a sharp contender for an addition to the best two player board games. Simple rules make the barrier for entry super low, while interesting tactics will arise as you respond and retaliate (or realize you've used up all your tricks). It's one for casual gamers with a taste for competition, and a love of mythos.

It isn't going to keep fans of deeply strategic games like Scythe or Agricola busy for long, but it's a great distraction for any Vikings short on time.

Ratings

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How we tested Odin's Ravens

This review was conducted using a copy the writer bought themselves.

Because the reviewer already owned a copy of Odin's Ravens, they have been able to play it multiple times over a long period. That means they are intimately familiar with its workings, which helped provide a more in-depth critique.

For a more in-depth look at our process, check out how we test board games or the GamesRadar+ reviews policy.

Want more suggestions? Don't miss the best adult board games or the best tabletop RPGs.

One of the hottest tabletop games of 2025 was the Fellowship of the Ring Trick-Taking Game, a cooperative campaign-style project by Bryan Bornmueller and Office Dog. Given that the game only covered a third of the expansive Lord of the Rings novels, it was inevitable that a sequel game would be published, especially since the first was so popular. Due out in early 2026, The Two Towers Trick-Taking Game introduces several new wrinkles to a familiar gameplay cycle, with enough variance that each round feels fresh and exciting. Every new addition added to various chapters feels like a natural progression of gameplay, with even subtle changes layering more strategy to each round.

While it'll be a better experience all-round if you've played the first one, The Two Towers Trick-Taking Game is still an adventure worth going on if you're a fan of the best board games.

The Two Towers Trick-Taking Game features & design

• A trick-taking game, e.g. submit the highest-value card to win a round
• Part two of a series, but can be played standalone
• Revisits the same unique stained-glass aesthetic

The Two Towers Trick-Taking Game is divided into chapters. The narrow box for the game is split into three sections, with players adding new cards (typically character cards and descriptive chapter cards) as they prepare for the next round of play. There are a handful of tokens that eventually get added as well, primarily serving as visual cues to represent who has what critical card or whether or not a certain suit can be used in play yet. Each component is made of plastic, which means they’re sturdy and won’t degrade from constant use.

The cards themselves utilize a stained-glass aesthetic with unique designs for the various Lord of the Rings characters. These designs aren’t based on the Peter Jackson movies, but rather are uniquely designed based on their descriptions from the books. Some characters are instantly recognizable, but fans might be distressed to see a clean-shaven Aragorn as opposed to Viggo Mortensen’s decidedly scruffier visage. Personally, I like that the game keeps to the original books, as it allows for a deeper breadth of characters than what the movies would have allowed for.

The card quality is standard for an Asmodee game. While the cards themselves are generally sturdy enough to survive frequent shuffling, it’s a wise move to at least sleeve the cards in the deck, as they’ll be used a minimum of eighteen times, not including long chapters where multiple rounds are required or chapters in which players fail and will need to try again. The box also doesn’t have any room for dividers, so players will need to keep the cards organized in between play sessions, especially if they want to eventually re-use the game by playing through it a second time.

Gameplay

• A pure cooperative experience (players will need to work together to take tricks)
• Can be played with 1-4 players, but ideal size is 3-4 players
• Each character has unique win conditions, with some required to complete each chapter

Every round of the Two Towers Trick-Taking Game begins with players being dealt cards from a deck containing 5 suits (Hills, Mountains, Shadow, Forest, and Orcs) and two special cards – the White Tower and the Black Tower. After the cards are dealt, players choose which character they’ll play as, with each chapter requiring certain characters for completion. Typically, the player holding the White Tower card (and in later chapters, the One Ring card) will be required to play as a certain character. After characters are selected, players can trade cards with restrictions as to whom they can trade with listed on the character card. Once trades are completed, players can proceed into the actual gameplay of the round. Outside of trading and the White Tower card, players aren’t supposed to know what cards the other players have, so limited table talk is recommended.

The gameplay itself is almost identical to the Fellowship of the Ring Trick-Taking Game. The first card played in a trick is the chosen suit and players win a trick by playing the highest numbered card from a suit. While the Fellowship of the Ring Trick-Taking Game (usually) had a single trump card in the form of the One Ring, Two Towers features two trump cards – the White Tower and the Black Tower. While players always know who has the White Tower, the Black Tower’s holder remains hidden until it’s played. This is important as some characters require the holder of the White Tower and the Black Tower to complete certain tasks, so it may be advantageous to use the Black Tower early to get the information out for players as soon as possible.

The White Tower and the Black Tower cards are by their nature more powerful than the One Ring card that dominated the Fellowship of the Ring Trick-Taking Game. Neither card is limited by a suit restriction, so they can be played at any time during a round. There are some wrinkles to what happens if a Tower card is played first or what happens if both cards are played at the same time, but those rules are pretty easy to remember and rarely happen during gameplay.

The other new wrinkle in the game are Orc cards, which are dead cards that can’t be led with at any time. Orc cards follow the other rules of the game. Since they’re always off-suit, they can only be played when a player has no cards of the lead suit in their hand. This means that Orcs typically are held in the hand until late into a round, when options become more and more limited. If a player has to lead with an Orc at any time, the players automatically lose the round, which becomes especially tricky if a player has multiple orcs in their hand late in the game. The presence of Orcs adds an auto-lose condition to every round, adding an additional subtle layer of strategy. Of course, some characters also require players to take tricks containing a certain amount of orcs, so players will occasionally need to save orcs for the right point in time.

While characters are the most frequent way that chapters feel different from one another, there are other wrinkles that the game adds during set-ups. Some chapters add new cards to the deck, while others feature “long” chapters that require multiple successful rounds to complete. Eventually, other cards such as the One Ring card from the Fellowship of the Rings Trick-Taking Game also come into play, as well as new burden tokens that replace the Threat cards from the previous game. All of these wrinkles are properly laid out in the chapter cards, with some further elaboration provided in an instruction booklet that contains a chapter-by-chapter FAQ that covers just about any question you might have.

The key to the Two Towers Trick-Taking Game is being able to hand over “control” to other players. The lead player has a built-in advantage of dictating which suit to lead with, so a good strategy is to complete your character’s objective and then pass off control to another player by playing a weak lead card. The biggest frustration in the game is when, especially in later chapters, a round is ruined when one player has a less than ideal hand and a character with a difficult victory completion. Because of the limitations on trades, there are few ways to mitigate a bad hand of cards, which can result in multiple replays through a round.

The good news is that rounds of the game move fast, so players shouldn’t be too frustrated if they’re dealt a poor hand. Most short chapters take about fifteen minutes or less to complete and there’s almost no setup time, since the game consists of a deck of cards and a few tokens. The ease of setup comes into handy in later chapters, as you will eventually need to replay rounds as the win conditions become harder and harder to complete.

While the game supports 1-4 players, it’s recommended you play the game with at least three players. A two-person game involves the use of a card pyramid that’s laid out on the table and is controlled by the first player to choose a character. Players still have to complete the card pyramid’s victory condition, but they are limited to what cards they can play based on what cards are uncovered on the pyramid. This mode is fine, but it’s far inferior to having three or four players trying to get in sync and conquer a round together. In other words, this is not one of the best 2-player board games.

Should you buy The Two Towers Trick-Taking Game?

The Fellowship Trick-Taking Game was one of my favorites of 2025, and The Two Towers Trick-Taking Game effortlessly builds on that foundation and finds new ways to surprise and challenge players. The only reason I can’t call the Two Towers a unique experience is because it feels so similar to its predecessor. That’s not necessarily a bad thing – I think the cooperative trick-taking format lends itself to a lot of variability and wrinkles, and these games make sure that every last nook and cranny is explored in detail. However, I do think that players should start with Fellowship of the Ring Trick-Taking Game first and then move on to the Two Towers after completing those challenges.

Ratings

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How we tested The Two Towers Trick-Taking Game

This review was conducted using a copy provided by the publisher.

As with all of our tabletop reviews, the reviewer made sure to familiarize themselves with the rules before beginning testing (a process made easier by them having tested this game's predecessor beforehand). They then played multiple test-matches with a variety of player counts, all to help them judge the game's longevity and to see how the experience differed with a variety of people.

For a more in-depth look our process, see how we test board games or the full GamesRadar+ reviews policy.

Looking for other recommendations? Don't miss the best adult board games or the best card games.

I’m a sucker for a good social deduction or hidden movement board game, and that's why Veiled Fate appeals to me. Ever since I got into the hobby, the allure of playing detective and trying to figure out the true identities or end goals of my opponents has always drawn me in. IV Studios, known for their other titles like Mythic Mischief and Brink, offers a slower and more strategic take on this genre that may be up your alley if you want a break from loudly proclaiming the person next to you as a traitor.

In Veiled Fate, you and the others around the table are all divine beings and have found yourselves with secret demi-god children (depicted as lovely little miniatures), and as any doting parent would, you want to do everything you can to put your little kiddo in the best spot possible. Only, as a god yourself, this is less about making sure you bring the best cupcakes to the school holiday party, and more about working and changing fate to earn your demi-god more renown points, while lowering the renown of others. With everyone’s progeny being secret from everyone but themselves, Veiled Fate requires you to maneuver the pieces around the board, completing quests, and trying to have your demi-god kid end up with the most points at the end. This is a similar setup to many of the best board games, but the trick is doing so subtly to try and keep your motives obscure for as long as you can.

Veiled Fate features & design

• Play as gods trying to get their children ahead
• All about deception, misdirection, & skulduggery
• Stunning & unique visuals

Veiled Fate’s turns are pretty simple – you either move a demi-god one space or you use one of the special god powers by spending Fate cards (cards you’re dealt that you use to secretly vote for quest outcomes or for these powers). Portal allows you to move a demi-god to any location or open quest spot; Transfiguration lets you swap places with another demi on an incomplete quest; Smite sends a demi miniature to the Abyss (a special spot that delays a demi from moving elsewhere) and their point marker to the back of the line on their current renown space; Omniscience lets you shuffle a random Fate card into a quest vote pile and then look at the existing pile; and Influence lets you add an additional Fate card to a quest from your hand after placing one.

I’ve mentioned “quests” a couple of times now. For anyone who has ever played similar social deduction games like Coup or Resistance, these will feel fairly similar. Those taking part vote with cards from their hands, either with Feather cards or Scorpion cards (basically “in favor” and “against” votes), with the highest value resulting in a specific outcome for the quest, usually resulting in either the demi gaining or losing favor, depending on the slot of the quest they find themselves in.

At the end of the game’s three ages, each ended when all players pass (i.e., rested) or all quests are complete, everyone reveals who their secret demi-god is, and whoever controls the one in the furthest ahead spot wins.

Gameplay

• Not as aggressive as some hidden role games, allowing for more nuance
• Lacks some replayability
• Tribunal expansion is almost a necessity

What I appreciate the most about Veiled Fate is how subtly it scratches those social deduction and hidden movement itches of mine, while rarely feeling as aggressive as others in those genres. As Veiled Fate is a longer game than something like Coup, it rewards being more observant and trying to plan for the future. As exciting as it can be to shout across a table proclaiming someone to be a traitor or arguing that you can be trusted, I found myself really appreciating the nuance that Fate provides. And the fact that the identity of everyone’s demi is hidden from the others, despite all the miniatures being on the board and being able to move any of them, meant that I was never completely certain if that last piece my friend moved was their demi or not.

In one of the most memorable games I’ve had, a friend of mine purposely put a specific demi in rough spots, losing them renown early in the first age, even smiting them. As a result, we all wrote that off as their demi, but seeing as they did this earlier on, they had plenty of time to stealthily and delicately work their demi-god into the top spot by the end. When they turned over their card for the big reveal at the end, it was a big shock to all of us and really solidified Veiled Fate on my game shelf.

Veiled Fate’s board, composed of a central piece with wedges that slot in and result in a circle, is surprisingly large considering the game’s box and what it’s for. Each slice is able to easily house the tarot-sized quest cards and a spot for the Fate voting cards. I wish that it was more compact, but what I would love even more is if on the backsides of each was an alternate zone that perhaps added unique properties or rules when you’re on them. As it stands, the backsides are just solid black, and even with as much as I have enjoyed the base game of Veiled Fate, it doesn’t offer much spice to keep the game from losing a bit of shine.

The Tribunal expansion, which was released last year, does come with three modular expansions that can be added in and bring with them special roaming hazards, new victory conditions, and even unique roles that a player can choose to play as. Tribunal is great for keeping things exciting; it would have just been nice if some of that had found its way into the base game too, but at the very least, if you find yourself enjoying Veiled Fate, then Tribunal is an easy recommendation to follow up with!

Should you buy Veiled Fate?

Veiled Fate manages to mix clever social deduction and hidden (but out-in-the-open) movement and delivers a game that feels more chess-like than I was expecting. Maneuvering my demi-god around the board and shifting others, I felt more like a spymaster moving my pawns around than a frantic town crier, proclaiming the player on my right as a traitor or that they couldn’t be trusted. The fact that on any turn you can move any piece is a big factor in that, and a welcome twist.

While I do wish the base box included some additional elements that could be dropped in or made additional plays more exciting, it still is a solid offering, and Tribunal addresses those issues in spades.

IV Studios continues to deliver, and Veiled Fate is just another notch on their belt of bangers.

Ratings

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How we tested Veiled Fate

This review was conducted using a copy provided by the publisher.

As is procedure for all of our board game reviews, the writer made sure they examined and were familiar with Veiled Fate's rules before running multiple test sessions with a variety of player counts. This allowed them to see how the game fared with repeat play, and with a varying number of people.

For a more in-depth look our process, check how we test board games or the GamesRadar+ reviews policy.

If you want something else to play, don't miss the best adult board games or the best card games.

The original Doom came out two years before I was born, but that doesn't mean I can't dance with the demons. I've been ripping and tearing for as long as I can remember (which means I first met Doom Guy far too young), so couldn't wait to take that experience to the tabletop.

The Doom Arena Board Game distils the core of the original release, from its blocky graphics to its weapon management mechanics. Coming from Modiphius games, the brains behind some of the best board games based on digital properties, there's a pedigree to this Kickstarter but it's still got a big challenge ahead of it.

Doom itself runs on speed and action. If you're standing still you're dead. Translating that into a turn-by-turn combat game is always going to come with its own thematic hurdles.

Are there elements of the source material missing from the prototype I've been playing for the last couple of months? Yes. Is it still fun? Absolutely.

Deathmatch for the tabletop

At launch, the Doom Arena Board Game is set to be playable between two to four hell-dwellers. Right now, though, the prototype is set up for two.

One takes on the role of Doom Guy himself, while the other commands a demon army of nicely detailed miniatures (and not-so miniatures, looking at that Cyberdemon). The goal is to rip and tear each other across a map, running attacks and movements based on weapon and character stats, over six turns. Once everyone has exhausted their tearin' arms, the winner of each round is declared based on the amount of 'blood tokens' they have collected from their enemy's HP, earning themselves a keycard. Simply win best of three keycards to take the match.

In between rounds, our Doom Guy has the opportunity to buy new weapons ranging from the Plasma Rifle to the trusty Chainsaw or upgrade his stats or add skill upgrades to his repertoire. The demons are brewing up their own plans as well, though.

Whoever controls this horde has the ability to buy new demon classes for their army, swapping their loadout for different movement and attack types.

That's not the only way to get extra blood for your buck, though. The first time damage is dealt you'll receive a Tempo token, granting extra abilities. In the case of Doom Guy, you're choosing between adding stun to your attack, retaliation damage, or - of course - a BFG shot. Demons all have their own special abilities granted by building up their Tempo pool.

A traveller's guide to Phobos

I've only got one map in my prototype box, but the final version will include two double-sided large maps and a single double-sided small map to play with. All use the same hex movement mechanics, with different layers of terrain representing various hazards. A yellow hex, for example, represents a trickier terrain that will cost an extra movement point to traverse. Meanwhile, red tiles are dangerous spots that will lead to damage. Fall in a black pitfall and you'll conk out immediately.

The map I've received is fairly standard; a nukage lined arena that forces combat into the center while still providing routes of escape around the edge. It's symmetrical so, while the demon player can choose which side of the board each faction starts on it, spawning positions don't feel like they make much of a difference to standard gameplay.

There's enough in this prototype map for the landscape to have a real effect on gameplay, though. Weighing up whether to escape through dangerous green goo or hold firm and blast the thing in the face with a shotgun is a very Doom decision to make (we all know which way it goes).

Elsewhere in the box, you'll find character cards for both Doom Guy (two versions are available) and the demons themselves. Each displays their health, speed (number of movement points available), Tempo abilities, rules of engagement, and weapon slots.

Knee-deep in the dead

The prototype version I've been playing comes with four fodder demons and two heavy demons to play with, as well as the big boss, a Cyberdemon. Modiphius has managed to wrangle a solid gang here, with Lost Soul, Imp, Shotgun Dude (as opposed to Shotgun Guy?), Zombieman, Pinky, and Cacodemon representation in the core set. There's definitely space for expansion here, but the core set provides enough variation in strategy and rules to keep repeat games interesting.

They're well matched with their video game counterparts. A Lost Soul, for example, can't move with thought or strategy - it simply either attacks or charges in a straight line towards the Doom Guy. The Cacodemon flies over dangerous or difficult terrain, with a lightning ball attack that runs infinitely over a straight line.

Everything about these characterisations and skillsets feels like proper Doom. It taps into muscle-memory knowledge of how these creatures act, rewarding those with an appreciation for their different strategies and roles on the battlefield.

My only criticism would be the lack of Spiderdemon, nearly everyone else from the original game is accounted for.

The Lost Levels

So far so good, the Doom Arena Board Game's central mechanics navigate the move from fast-paced run'n'gun to strategic tabletop 1v1 as well as they possibly can, with real flavor from the original running through not just the art, weapons, and tokens but the core mechanics themselves.

Unfortunately, there's a side of Doom that is completely ignored here - and including it in the final game would solve one of the only problems I can feel creeping into my playthroughs. Everything feels a little one dimensional at the moment. Changing your roster of weapons and demons and choosing which Tempo abilities to activate (and when) adds a little depth to the arena setup, but overall strategy is still pretty flat.

Secrets, hidden areas, and navigating enemies on different terrain levels are just as much a part of the core Doom experience as the bloodshed and yet they seem to be absent here. Resident Evil: The Board Game explores this core mechanic of its own source material with hidden cards, dynamically evolving maps, and separate puzzle mechanics. That extra layer of strategy, prioritization, and loadout building feels missing here.

Of course, this is the Doom Arena Board Game, not just Doom as a campaign. That means we're instead focusing more on the time-sensitive kill-fests that exist separately to the full games. Playing with terrain heights, different movement methods, and potentially some extra puzzle elements could add extra texture to the experience overall with more variation in repeat playthroughs.

The Doom Arena Board Game perfectly captures the intricacies of the original's combat strategy while navigating the inherent challenge of a slower pace particularly well. This feels like Doom combat - just slowed down and more considered. Easy to explain, quick to pick up and play, and relatively replayable with different demon factions and weapon cards in play, it's a particularly delectable slice of a franchise.

While its strategy could use extra depth, and I'm still waiting for my Daisy figure, the theming across both combat mechanics and art is spot on.

We're also hunting down all the best 2-player board games and board games for families. Or check out the best card games for something a little faster.

The Spiel des Jahres is one of, if not the, most prestigious tabletop awards around, with past winners including a who's who of the best board games such as Catan, Carcassone, Ticket to Ride, and Dominion. 2025's winner was Bomb Busters, a cooperative deduction-based game that involves players working together to defuse a bomb.

There were numerous worthy nominees, but Bomb Busters stood out because of its elegantly simple gameplay that focuses on logical deduction and low margin for error.

Bomb Busters features & design

• A true cooperative game, players need to work together to cut bomb wires
• Victory is dependent on cutting all the wires, save for the red wire
• Has a friendly, cartoon style

As the name would suggest this game is all about defusing explosives before they go off. The key is good teamwork to ensure you cut the right wires. Otherwise? Boom.

At the core of Bomb Busters are 48 numbered tiles representing wires in a bomb. The wires are numbered between 1 and 12, with four of every wire. Each player takes a small stand and then the wires are evenly distributed amongst players. In the center of the table is a board containing several pieces of equipment that are unlocked as wires are cut, along with a countdown tracker to keep track of errors and a "validation tracker" to help keep track of which numbered wires have been cut in their entirety. Generally speaking, players can collectively make as many mistakes as there are players, although there’s some exceptions that result in an automatic loss.

The game comes with 66 scenarios that are distributed through a number of sealed boxes. Roughly speaking, Bomb Busters is technically a campaign game, with players tasked with defeating various villains who sprinkle their bombs throughout the city. After a series of training missions designed to get players accustomed to the variable rules, the campaign starts in earnest, with new pieces of equipment, new variant rules, and other surprises sprinkled through each box. Although new rules are occasionally introduced via stickers placed into the rulebook, I wouldn’t describe Bomb Busters as a true Legacy game (for clarity on what that is, see our guide to the types of board games), as the campaign adds new material but never permanently removes any pieces.

The game itself supports up to five players, although in smaller groups of two or three, players will need to take multiple stands. Each stand contains its own separate set of wires, but both sets are counted collectively as the player’s hand, which matters when using equipment or giving out precious info tokens. Personally, I think Bomb Busters is played best at four or five players, as each player will only have one stand at this level.

Gameplay

• Using scant information provided by other players to make informed guesses to cut wires is key
• Equipment can be used to either give out pieces of information or prevent disastrous mistakes

Bomb Buster’s gameplay is incredibly simple. On a player’s turn, they attempt to match one of the wires on their stand with a wire on another player’s stand. For the most part, this is done by indicating which tile they want to match and calling out the number they think the wire is. If they correctly guessed the wire’s number, both players remove their wires from the stands and place them face up on the table. If incorrect, the detonation timer drops one tick and the player "reveals" the wire’s correct numbering via an info token.

In addition to the standard numbered blue wires, players also have to contend with yellow and red wires. These wires have numbers with decimals (yellow wires are marked in intervals of 0.5, for example) and are interspersed among the blue wires when tiles are doled out. Each mission has a number of yellow wires and red wires to contend with. Yellow wires are always in pairs and must be cut with another yellow wire, while red wires are to be avoided at all costs. If someone ever attempts to cut a red wire, players automatically fail the mission.

Gameplay moves from one player to the next until one of three scenarios are met. Either players correctly cut every wire on the board, the detonation timer reaches red and players fail the mission, or they fail the mission by cutting a red wire or some other mission-specific fail condition. The key here is that players have a very limited number of wrong guesses, meaning that each piece of information given out is important. That injects a notable sense of pressure.

But how do players determine which wires to cut? At the start of the game, each player either chooses (or in later missions, is given) one info token. These tokens mark a blue wire’s number for all to see, providing crucial information to players. What info token a player chooses can provide snatches of extra information. Players might mark a 2 or an 11 sitting next to a 1 or a 12, which provides an extra hint. Or they might mark a 5 or a 6 at the end of their stand to signal that they don’t have a lot of high numbers on the board. Of course, each unsuccessful guess also provides valuable information, as the guesser reveals that they have a number on their stand and another player reveals the identity of the tile that was incorrectly guessed.

Players start with one tool at their disposal – a single use Double Detector. When using the Double Detector, they can pick two wires to potentially cut instead of one, lessening the risk considerably. The Double Detector is especially valuable when guessing a number close to a red wire – if players choose the red wire as one of their two options, they won’t cut the wire even on a miss. Of course, the Double Detector is only a one-use tool, so players have to use it wisely.

Once certain wires are cut successfully, players also gain access to random tools laid out on the board at the start of the game. These tools range from batteries to allow for an extra double detector, to a triple detector that allows a player to pick three wires instead of two, to a radar that allows a player to call out a number to determine who has a certain wire. These tools are also all single use and can be used by any player, so they can be helpful ways to get a player out of a rut or to get extra information out on the table.

For the most part, the best angle is to work from the extremes to the middle numbers. It’s easier to suss out a 1 or a 12 then it is a 5 or a 6. Players can also luck out if they have a pair of numbers on their stand. If players cut the other pair of wires successfully, then a player can choose to reveal their pair of numbers instead of taking a guess. Of course, that requires the other pair to be cut and sometimes it’s easier to sacrifice a pair of known wires to make a successful guess on another player.

Should you buy Bomb Busters?

Bomb Busters is a fun game, especially for those who enjoy deduction-based gameplay but don’t necessarily want to dive into social deduction games like Werewolf. The game rewards social deduction, but there’s no real benefit to having a hardy psychological understanding of another player. There’s no incentive to lie since it’s a cooperative game and the clues that players do provide can ultimately be followed to their natural conclusion, regardless as to the order that they’re laid out.

I personally love Bomb Busters because every mission is a different puzzle that needs to be solved, yet there’s not a single fixed solution. Each player has a different train of logic and as long as the wires are cut correctly, there’s no wrong way to reason through a guess. Even players who aren’t naturally gifted at logic puzzles should still enjoy Bomb Busters, because a lack of logic adds a dose of chaos to the proceedings and ups the tension even further.

I’m not sure whether players will want to run through 66 missions worth of content, but my gaming group has turned back to Bomb Busters a lot over a six month period, as it’s a great game for a 4-5 player group.

Ratings

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How we tested Bomb Busters

This review was conducted using a copy provided by the publisher.

Our reviewer made sure they studied the game's rules before getting stuck in with multiple testing sessions that used a variety of player counts. Besides helping them familiarize themselves with Bomb Busters, testing the game in this way allowed them to see how the experience differed with different amounts of people.

For a broader look our process, see how we test board games or the GamesRadar+ reviews policy.

Want more recommendations? Check out the best adult board games or the best card games.

Strategy board game series Disney Villainous is adding some big hitters to the lineup in 2026, drawing Frozen, Hocus Pocus, and Coco into the action for this year's expansions.

Launching in July, Disney Villainous: Success at Any Cost sets Ernesto de la Cruz from Coco and Frozen's Prince Hans loose on your game night. This will be followed by Disney Villainous: Come, We Fly! later in the year, starring the Sanderson Sisters from cult classic Hocus Pocus. All of these characters can be mixed and matched with others from the Disney Villainous series, which I'll always argue deserves a place at the table as one of the best board games.

While it seems as though the Hocus Pocus version is a single-character pack like the Nightmare Before Christmas expansion (meaning you'll need other villains to play), Success at Any Cost can be used as a two-player standalone box or added to the main game. One of the things I enjoyed most about the franchise in my Disney Villainous review was how much battling other villains changes the experience and forces you to adjust your tactics, so I'm intrigued to see what these baddies bring to the mix.

Ravensburger's international product manager of family games, Lysa Penrose, says that Success at Any Cost adds "devious new matchups [...] packed with back-stabbing and betrayal." Meanwhile, Come, We Fly! continues the trend of adding live-action villains started by last year's Pirates of the Caribbean pack. More specifically, Davy Jones "unlocked a treasure trove of possible playable Villains from beloved Disney stories. When it comes to family-friendly Halloween movies, 'Hocus Pocus' is as iconic as it gets, so we knew we wanted to conjure the Sanderson Sisters this fall."

I was able to catch a glimpse of these sets at the London Toy Fair earlier in the week, and as a longtime Villainous fan, they had me practically rubbing my hands together while doing a Mr Burns "excellent" impression. Although I'm a huge fan of Coco and it's the main draw of the pack for me, I'm astounded we've had to wait this long for a Frozen villain. Seeing as Prince Hans is all charm (much like Ernesto de la Cruz, who I hope will be able to steal the success of other players like he does in the movie), this could provide a more subtle approach to gameplay. More subtle than the Sanderson Sisters are likely to be, anyway. I adore both Hocus Pocus and Halloween, so I'm already booking out an evening to play that pack in the fall.

Disney Villainous: Success at Any Cost is priced at $22.99 and will launch with a Target-exclusive edition inspired by the traditional papel picado art style common to festivals like Día de Los Muertos. As for Disney Villainous: Come, We Fly!, it'll cost $14.99 and appears primed to land in time for spooky season.

• Disney Villainous Treacherous Tides: $22.99 $18.76 at Amazon
• Disney Villainous Filled with Fright: $17.99 $16.55 at Amazon

For an idea of what to play next, why not check out the best 2-player board games or the best family board games?

The designer behind board game mega-hits Root and Arcs is leaving the publisher to create his own studio.

Revealed via Leder Games earlier this week, Cole Wehrle says that he and long-time collaborator Kyle Ferrin (who's illustrated many of Wehrle's tabletop projects in his signature style) "will be forming an entirely new company called Buried Giant Studios." Although Leder is retaining control of the Root IP, it has agreed to sell Wehrle the rights to Arcs and another game he designed, Oaths. Because Wehrle is responsible for beloved titles that are often included amongst the best board games of recent years, it's a significant move.

Fortunately, none of this seems to have stemmed from animosity or a falling out between Wehrle and Leder Games. Instead, Wehrle writes that the latter has always supported each of his projects, but these "offered a challenge for the creative direction of the company and for [founder Patrick Leder]'s original vision for Leder Games. Over the past few months we've pursued several possible paths forward and have arrived at something deeply fair-minded and almost singular in the history of the tabletop industry. I suppose it shouldn't surprise anyone that Patrick and his team would find a way to innovate even at a moment like this."

Wehrle and Ferrin are therefore aiming to establish Buried Giant Studios with Cole's brother Drew, Ted Caya, and other longstanding collaborators over the coming weeks. Leder is also selling them ownership of Oaths and Arcs.

Buried Giant's first order of business is to handle fulfillment of expansion Oath: New Foundations alongside producing an add-on to Arcs, but new projects have been promised too.

So, what about Root? Wehrle notes that the series which allowed Leder to triple its staff size and move offices twice "will remain at Leder Games. In addition, if additional illustration is needed, Kyle will be able to support the game. I’m happy to take a look at whatever new factions the team might cook up, though the world of Root has no shortage of talented designers and interesting ideas."

Because of how potent the Wehrle-Ferrin combo has become (it's an instantly recognizable art-style paired with consistently innovative design), this initially comes across as a huge loss for Leder… but a win for gamers. It sounds as though both parties wished to go in different directions creatively, so both are now free to pursue those interests without being hampered or stepping on toes. That's a net positive for us, because now we can look forward to more cool stuff. I don't know about you, but I'll never say no to that.

• Root: $60 $47.58 at Amazon
• Oath: $120 $97.83 at Amazon

For more tabletop goodies, be sure to check out the best 2-player board games or the best card games.

As a kid growing up in the Midwest United States, more specifically Michigan, learning the card game Euchre felt like a rite of passage. When our Scout Leaders banned us from playing with our Magic: The Gathering cards on camping trips, much of our free time turned to this classic trick-taking game. This genre feels like it has taken off over the past few years, and one of the newest offerings is Origin Story from Stonemaier Games. After discovering my superhero (and villain) origins a few times, it reminded me why I love Euchre so much, even if it made my head spin a bit doing so.

Origin Story features & design

• A trick-taking game with a twist
• Mechanics make great use of the superhero theme
• Jessica Jones-style watercolor art

Adorned with lovely watercolor-inspired artwork that would make the best board games jealous, Origin Story tasks one to five players in a contest over five rounds with eight hands (tricks) per round to earn the most points (the tricks). Origin Story has a number of really nifty and thematically awesome inclusions that set it apart from your typical trick-taker. At the start of each round, before any hands are played, every player will choose whether they will pursue the path of a hero or villain, both with different methods to earn points, with heroes scoring for winning tricks and villains requiring you to lose all tricks to score. Additionally, players will draw three cards and keep one that will bestow different abilities on them, giving them unique ways to alter the game mechanics or how to win points. Each one portrays perhaps a super suit, gadget, power, or an arch-nemesis of your character, with a special Event card being drawn at the start of turn three and the big reveal of your hero at the beginning of the final fifth turn, further throwing a super-powered wrench into the mix.

Gameplay

• Abilities shake up gameplay in fascinating ways
• Excels as a two-player/solo game
• Becomes unwieldly with 4+ players

While the theme and the surface-level description of Origin Story – trick-taking with superpowers – may make it sound like this could be a good starter trick-taking option, this is anything but. The trick-taking aspect is straightforward; you have a lead player who plays a suit, and everyone has to follow that suit if they can, with a trump suit (the Heart Love cards in Origin Story's case) beating out the leading suit. Things ramp up as each character gets more powers, and what I would consider the double-edged sword of Origin Story.

As players get more and more abilities that they can ready up and use each round, it can become overwhelming and challenging to keep track of how all of the different powers trigger, the criteria for said triggers, and how they impact things like the points you win. Cards like the Gauntlet let the player earn a point whenever they lead with a Strength suit card, for example. Meanwhile, another player may get the Dexterity card with "if an opponent would win a trick with a 13 and you play a 1 of any suit, you win that trick instead." Or maybe someone just restarts that hand with the Time Travel ability and puts them in the lead seat.

With smaller player counts, this can be a lot to keep track of (especially since players can choose which modifications are active or charged each round, changing things up), but at four or five, with everyone spread across a table, it can be unwieldy. And this is all before you throw in the one-time "Event" that happens on the third turn (it’s really weird to me that this only happens once and not every round), and then the Superhero card effects in the final round.

My preferred way of playing Origin Story has honestly been with just myself and one other person, and the game has a pretty crafty way to still make this fun. In a two-player game, each player controls not just themselves but has a sidekick that serves as a pseudo-player, as they can never lead, earn powers, etc., but are affected by the powers of the actual players. They can win tricks, though, but their wins don’t count towards their hero/villain. This fact alone makes it more novel to play a round as a villain, as they get rewarded for not winning any tricks. This lower player count also addresses my main flaw with Origin Story, which is just the upkeep and keeping track of what everyone’s heroes can do in a given turn.

Basically? I'd recommend Origin Story alongside the best 2-player board games, but not for a large group.

Should you buy Origin Story?

I love how thematically all the ideas fit with the idea of showing off your character’s origin: by the end of the game, you are kitted out with gadgets and gizmos, allies, and maybe an arch-nemesis. Solid trick-taking foundation, but it isn’t a game I could recommend to newer or less-experienced players.

Origin Story is a wild ride, and the fact that it all fits in a box the size of the complete series of your favorite Saturday morning superhero cartoon is impressive (though I wouldn’t mind a slightly bigger box just to make things fit better). There is plenty of room for the game to grow, as Stonemaier Games loves their expansions, and they have already announced packs of new heroes to pick from coming soon.

Ratings

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How we tested Origin Story

This review was conducted using a copy provided by the publisher.

As with all our board game reviews, our reviewer made sure they were intimately familiar with the rules before tackling multiple test sessions with a variety of player counts. This helped them see how Origin Story's mechanics worked in practice under different circumstances, along with how the experience changed with differing numbers of people.

For a full look our process, check out how we test board games or the GamesRadar+ reviews policy.

If this isn't hitting the spot, why not check out the best adult board games or the best card games?

A brand-new Wingspan expansion is kicking off 2026, and it's a serious shakeup.

Wingspan Americas Expansion is the fourth add-on to the popular board game, and it'll be up for purchase on the publisher store this January 21. (Shipping will take place in February, followed by a wider retail launch from March 2026.) This pack includes well over 100 new bird cards, many of which are hummingbird 'mini' cards. If you're a Wingspan veteran – which many of us seem to be, considering how often it's included on lists of the best board games – these will significantly alter gameplay. That's because they travel between player boards and a new, central 'garden' board.

I've been digging into the rulebook, and this isn't a novelty; it'll change how you approach the game, which is perfect if you're getting a little fed up with standard Wingspan. Basically, hummingbirds dart from the shared garden board to your personal board (so long as there's space for them) or back back on your turn. This provides added benefits, and you'll want to do so because attracting each of the five hummingbird 'types' advances you along a new score tracker. The more kinds of hummingbird you can attract, the more points you'll earn.

As noted in our Wingspan review, the numerous paths to victory are some of the best things about the board game – and this introduces another layer. While it'll likely be too much for newcomers, it'll be a welcome addition for more experienced players.

There's no word on pricing yet, but I suspect it'll be in line with the other expansions – e.g. somewhere between $30 / £30 and $40 / £40.

• Browse Wingspan expansions at Amazon

For more ideas of what to play next, don't miss the best family board games or the best card games.

Whether it was fighting hordes of orcs keep Middle-earth safe, plumbing the ocean depths, stalking an alien nest, or squabbling over an empty throne, it's been one hell of a year for board games. Actually, the shelves are creaking under the weight of new favorites.

With so many board games setting the community alight in 2025, we wanted to doff our proverbial cap to a few now that the year is nearly through. These entries gave the best board games a run for their money, and some might even go down as modern classics. That's why we've dragged our expert reviewers away from their mulled wine and mince pies to celebrate the games which really wowed us this year - along with why they're worth adding to your collection, if you haven't tried them already.

Ready? Here are the GamesRadar+ team's favorite board games in 2025.

What was your favorite board game of 2025? Were you able to try the choices listed here, and will they be going on your wishlist for next year? Let us know in the comments!

Looking for something to play next? Don't miss the best card games, or the best tabletop RPGs.

With a cost of living crisis that refuses to die, finding presents that won't make our bank balances yelp in horror is… well, it can be hard. This is why I've been trying to make more gifts myself recently; nothing says "I love you" like an ill-advised project you've poured blood, sweat, and tears into, especially if you're lucky enough to have access to gear like 3D printers. Because I test these for work, and because my in-laws love the best board games as much as I do, I settled on a thoroughly silly idea. Can you see where this is going yet?

My family adores Catan, and it just so happens that there are numerous free files that allow you to create a fully 3D version of its board (this community is a gem, I swear). "Perfect!" I thought. "I'll print the tiles off, paint them, and away we go. How hard can it be?" Oh, the sweet summer child I was.

With a proverbial spring in my step, I downloaded the files and set about crafting my 3D printed board game. And yes, it was bloody tricky. But you know what? It's been some of the most fun I've had all year.

After finding the most up-to-date version of the community-made files at Thingiverse (which collects user-submitted designs for free), I had to make an important decision. No, not questioning my sanity; rather, should I use resin or filament? If you're not familiar with 3D printing, there are two kinds of printers and materials you can use. Resin machines use a gloopy liquid to form incredibly high-detail models, and these are often used for miniatures in wargaming or the best tabletop RPGs. Meanwhile, filament printers rely on those classic reels of plastic that are melted into almost any shape you want (perfect for sturdier creations like terrain or cosplay, in other words).

Because resin looks amazing but can be brittle, I opted for filament – these pieces would hopefully be getting a lot of use, so they needed to stand up to punishment. Happily, today's filament printers can also pump out some high-detail results as is, so opting for one of those would get us the best of both worlds.

Next, I had to decide whether I was going to opt for a multi-color print or paint the pieces myself. While the former is very tempting and can provide stunning results (as I gushed about in my Anycubic Kobra 3 Combo review last year), I decided against it because it felt less cost-effective. I'd need to buy a lot of differently-colored reels to make it work, which somewhat defeated the point. And because I have an overabundance of miniature paints for Warhammer, I felt comfortable enough to try it myself.

Yes, drastically underestimating how hard something is going to be is a weakness of mine.

With all those decisions out of the way, I got to printing. Since my Elegoo Centauri Carbon review a while back, it's been my go-to machine – it's fast, reliable, and gives good results no matter what I throw its way. Fortunately, that was the case again here. While it took longer than I'd anticipated to get everything finished (there were a lot of pieces, so leave ample time if you're hoping to do something similar), I can't fault how it all turned out. As with so much 3D print-related shenanigans, good prep can help a lot; printing a test piece first to work out the kinks will save plenty of bother later, for example.

That left me with the fun bit – painting and adding effects to it all. I decided to avoid painting the ground green despite the fact it'd be much faster because it can look quite… plasticky unless done well, so I opted to go full wargamer instead. When I'm putting together terrain, I usually slap down a basecoat of brown followed by drybrushing (AKA remove as much paint as possible from the brush before dusting it over the model, hitting only the highest points) with something lighter. I then go in with a couple of different flock colors to provide that mottled fauna effect. This proved really effective, particularly when the pieces were assembled together, and it properly brought the scene to life. A bit of snow effect for the mountains and gloss for the water, and we were away.

Because I don't know when to stop, I decided to finish off this mad project with magnets. These would mean the pieces snapped together nicely, without the need for clips or any worry of them coming apart in play after being nudged. Funnily enough, this was the fiddliest bit and had me cursing my life decisions.

What I was left with was a (hopefully) impressive tabletop array. I'll be just handing it over as you're reading this, so with any luck, it'll go down well. But even if it doesn't, the whole experience was one I'm so glad to have undertaken – it was an example of the frankly amazing things we can do now with the right tools. While I appreciate that I'm very, very fortunate to have access to this gear, the problem-solving I've had to use along the way will prove useful regardless of what I'm making. It's made me eager to try more ambitious projects in 2026… which I'll no doubt regret a few months from now.

Want to try something new in 2026? Be sure to check out the best card games, or the best family board games.

Greetings, comrades. If you're checking out our Scythe review, I'll assume you're seeking a deeply strategic challenge to rival the best board games around. Designed by Jamey Stegmaier of Stonemaier Games, Scythe is a complex, competitive, asymmetric Eurogame for the ages. It pits up to five unique player factions against one another as they vie for control of resources and map areas in an alternate history 1920s scrap for superiority. With king-of-the-hill style area control mechanics, worker placement, press-your-luck combat, and peekaboo power building, it's an incredibly varied game with deep tactics and expansive strategies abounding.

But as much as Jakub Rozalski's glorious, dieselpunk artwork might scream 'wargame' to the uninitiated, Scythe can be a relatively peaceful experience… giant, armed mechs notwithstanding. That depends on the type and number of players around the table, with this economics-focussed engine builder quickly devolving into a card-based mech battler in the face of extreme scarcity.

Scythe features & design

• Score by doing literally anything ever, as long as the people like you
• Combo of asymmetric faction & player mat ups the complexity and replayability, but also minor imbalances
• Peekaboo powers give players room to improve

As a point-salad game, there are more ways to gather victory points in Scythe than than you could shake a sickle at. During play, you'll be filling the triumph track with stars as you unlock achievements (anything from completing personal objectives, to deploying all your mechs, to winning in combat). The second someone drops their 6th star on the Triumph Track, the game is over and scores are counted. The other major tracks are Power, which is spent in battle, and Popularity, which is lost by starting battles. For the latter, the tier you end on offers powerful multipliers to coins gained from the resources, territories, and stars that form your final score.

But before you can reap, you must first sew.

Players start with a random faction and player board combo. A few combinations are generally frowned upon by the community, so you may be asked to redraw if deemed too powerful. We'll get to that nugget in a moment.

All players get the same number of structure, mech, and worker meeples, along with an equal collection of technology cubes, recruit tokens, and stars. These all line up neatly on your faction and player mats, which have symbols to denote how much power and popularity – along with how many objective cards, combat cards, and coins – you start the game with. These will be different for everyone, and this is where it starts to get really asymmetric.

Aside from each faction's unique abilities (unlocked by deploying mechs), your player mat will show different costs for each of the standard abilities, weighing each player mat entirely differently. Basically, you'll have a specialism.

The bulk of the game involves placing your action token on your player board to take (none, one, or both) actions in that column, paying the costs and reaping the benefits. That could mean improving your power score with the bolster action, moving your meeple around the board, or deploying your stash of mechs. Players are able to steal from, fight, and even bribe one another, or form alliances, so the potential for interaction is both high and broad. That's especially true in a 4–5 player game as avoiding conflict over minimal space becomes far more difficult.

Here's where it gets interesting: each row of meeple or cubes covers a track with hidden 'peekaboo' powers that will unlock through the game, some of which are detrimental. You'll reveal a higher cost every few times you produce workers, while taking the upgrade action means you can up the yield of one top row action while reducing the cost of any bottom row action.

Enlisting from any of your columns adds another layer to peekaboo powers, allowing you to piggyback off your neighbours with ongoing bonuses that trigger every time they take that bottom row action. Mech peekaboo powers are by far the most intriguing, since each faction has its own special powers that make the game more asymmetric as the gameplay shifts gears (heh).

Gameplay

• Specialization is key, going broad will waste precious turns
• Imbalances are inevitable, but easy enough to work around
• Indeterminate mid-game scores & avoidable battles make it relatively chill

At its core, Scythe is not a game about mechs, but about the cultivation of ultimate efficiency. It's a heavily strategic romp that requires players to make the most of everything at their disposal quickly, or be left in the dust. Plans are swiftly thwarted as players attempt to plot several turns ahead, while anticipating the moves of both peaceful neighbours and potential aggressors alike.

There are evident attempts to level the field, including powerful factory cards, objectives, and encounters that can turn the tide for anyone, as well as player mats that offer higher track positions to account for expected lost turns, but a highly asymmetric game like this is always going to have a few imbalances. Ranked games allow players to bid for more highly valued faction and player board pairings, which is always an option as a house rule, but new and unaware players will be susceptible to overpowered combos storming the board.

My major gripe is that Scythe tends to end just as it's getting going. Stars start to drop fast after about six rounds, and if you're not on the brink of enacting some masterful chain of actions, the final star will send you reeling – you just spent a whole game prepping for nothing to actually pop off. But therein lies a portion of its brilliance: Scythe is a game that unlocks your will to tighten up your strategy and retry. One playthrough is, like many Eurogames before it, merely a taster of your economical potential.

Should you buy Scythe?

Scythe is a highly replayable board game for seekers of economical perfection. The sheer breadth of possible faction and player combinations affords (demands, even) differing playstyles for every run, and while the expansive nature of scoring can lead to an initially scattered approach, discovering techniques for building high-scoring engines is incredibly satisfying.

It takes time to tighten up your strategies, making skill and tactical prowess a huge factor against other veteran players, but procedural boons can offer newbies a powerful leg-up to keep the running close. It's well worth a look for fans of the Eurogame genre who are looking for more combat, or wargame fans in search of more economical depth.

Ratings

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How we tested Scythe

This review was conducted using a copy the writer bought themselves.

Because the reviewer already owned Scythe, they played it multiple times with differing player counts and difficulty levels. For a better look at our process, check out how we test board games or the GamesRadar+ reviews policy.

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