Top 10 Games I Want to Play at UK Games Expo 2026

0:00 Hey, I'm Rob from just the road.com. These are the top 10 games I'm looking forward to playing at UK Games Expo 2026. It's currently empty, so let's look at all the games and fill it up together. If you didn't know, the UK Games Expo is the UK's largest hobby games convention. It's at the Birmingham NEC, and it's from Friday the 29th to Sunday the 31st. So, if this is your first time hearing about it, I'm sorry, but I'm a bit late getting to do this preview. But, if you can go, tickets are still available, as is all the parking and stuff. So, if you're going, go. There's loads of places for you to demo and buy games. There's places that you can play tournaments and there's a bring and buy. There is open play areas. There's loads of things for board games, role-play games, collectible car games, all games. If you haven't been before, I have a blog post called Tips for Visiting UK Games Expo over at just the road.com where I've give tips on especially how to save time and how to save money and update it every year. So, hope it helps. So, of course, I'm going to be using Board Game Geeks Excellent UK Games Expo preview, which lists all the games that are going to be there.

0:59 Pretty much all the games are going to be there, and the ones that you see are the ones that I'm interested in. So, all the publishers are in alphabetical order. So, the first one that caught my eye is from Albi, which is quite high up the list. It's called Night at the Zoo. It says, "The goal of the game is to help the animals and guide them to safely back to their home after the animals have secretly snuck out the zoo at night and they're trying to find their way back. And what caught my eye here is the bright pretty colors and the nice little looking meeples you get with this game. You can't see because of my face. There you go. Some different animal meeples there. And it's got a quite nice art style. All the different animals have different ways to move by the looks of it, which is pretty cool. So the cheetah can move extra because it's fast obviously and the penguin slides along the round. That looks quite fun. And there is also a unicorn promo. That's pretty cool. Next up is Amorei Studios with nine tales. You are a forest cammy, ancient, powerful, and a friend and mentor to the foxes of the forest. Help your foxes improve their skills, play tricks on rival foxes and villagers, and earn the ninetails they need to ascend and become the cami themselves. Now, unfortunately, that's all the information they have. So, there's nothing about what it looks like, what else happens, how you win tales by winning tricks. Okay, I found the Kickstart page. So, it's not winning tricks. It says use tricks. It's that was me reading it wrong, but uh it's coming to Kickstarter apparently. And that's what the cards look like. And the art looks really cute and the cards look cool. So, I'm going to notify me on launch for that one. Uh, and then we will see if it's at the UK Games Expo.

2:24 We're going all the way down to Dvilla Games with Shugendo, which is a deck construction/push your luck game. In Shagendo, each player has their own personal deck of cards. During the game, you improve your deck by replacing your weaker started cards with more powerful settler cards. Sounds like a deck building game. In each round, players play three phases: reveal, action, and recruitment. In the first phase, they will reveal cards until they decide to stop or until they explode by revealing seven or more Yo-kai icons. Sounds like Mystic Veil. If this happens, they can only play either the action phase or the recruitment phase. In the action phase, players increase their meters based on the reveal card to perform one of the main action, explore, expand, or develop. Finally, in the recruitment phase, players receive various bonuses based on the reveal cards and recruit cards from the unlocked eras. And there's no images or any other information about it other than it's going to be released at Essen, which I won't be going again this year, so that's a shame. But it does sound a bit like Mystic Veil where you're building your deck and pushing your luck at the same time. And I quite like that gameplay. This doesn't, as far as I'm aware, have the cards see-through cards like Mystic Veil does where you sleeve them and you play by building your cards out. Looks like you're swapping your cards for regular other cards just like any other deck building game. But look, sounds fun. We'll see. onto Drander Games and Jackpot Set the Real, which is a which is a debt building game where you are building a fruit machine and trying to get the symbols to match for points and glory. Trying to find an image of gameplay. I'm just getting all these garish product ones at the moment.

3:50 And this one was on Kickstarter. So, you get a set of three cards from your hand as you're building your deck out and whatever you play gives you different rewards. Um, it looks quite good fun. I didn't bother backing it. So, on the Kickstarter, it says it was £17. You get a free little fruit machine toy, which I'm not too bothered about. And it says save 15%. And that comes to about £1950. And it's going to be available for sale at UK Games Expo for 20. So there you go. It's almost spot on. But yeah, I didn't bat this, but it did sound fun. So I'm hoping to play this at UK Games Expo. If it's really good, then maybe pick it up cuz it's a nice cheap one. Also from John the Games is The Old Ones of Elorado. You seek immortality by any means necessary in this mythical city. Together, you and your rivals are constructing the pyramid to Culu. But within your personal temple, you worship your own elder god. To fulfill your mission, you'll dispatch followers to labor in the physical realm and seek forbidden knowledge in other lands. All whilst driving to cling on to your sanity. And I don't know much about this game, but I know that looks like a nice component I want to see on the table in front of me. So, I'm going to definitely check this one out and see what all that's about. Those meeples look nice as well. from end games. This is Ghost Lift which reimplements the ghost lift. Try not to get haunted in Ghost Lift, a horror themed card climbing game. On a turn, you must play higher or lower than the top card in the discard pile with the direction being indicated by the most recent arrow played. The first player to get rid of their hand of cards is the only one who escapes safely while the other players are haunted by their remaining cards. And I like these little ghost pieces. And obviously, it sounds

5:20 like a very simple game. You're just playing a card higher than lower depending on which way the arrow is pointing, depending what numbers on top of the discard pile. But I like these little ghost meeples. So, I'd be willing to give this one a go and seeing if there's more to it than that. I have to admit, the name of this one got me. This is from Fancrafted Limited, and it's three cobalts in a trench coat. And it's a bluffing party game for two to four players. After spending too long in the dark, the cobalts are ready to see what life is like in the village of Crumble Batch. But there's a problem. The villagers aren't exactly welcoming to monsters. To blend in, the Cobbs have come up with a cunning plan to dress up in a trench coat and pretend to be a regular person. There you go. That sounds very fun. The art on the cards and the art on the front of the box looks cute. So, that's another one to keep an eye open for. Onto Hobby Japan and they have a strange slot simulator which reimplements patchy slot simulator. The only way out of this curse casino is to uncover the secrets hidden inside six slot machines. It's a realtime deduction card game for two to five players. Each of the six slot machines has its own unique settings, a distinct combination of eight symbol card types, and no one knows which machine has which settings when the game begins. So, that sounds fun and weird.

6:22 The reason it caught my attention is because it's the second slot machine game I've come across on this list already and it's not really that much of a common theme and now there's two. Here's another unique looking game. This is from it. This is Candy Tap. Candy Tap is a mysterious candy box. Tap it and some candy will fall out. Players take turns tapping on the candy box to drop the candy out and collect them. Will you drop them out, but little by little or go all in? Again, not too much to go on with that one. Looks like you're tapping this box, stuff falls out. Is there a punishment for too much? I don't know anything about gameplay, so that'll be interesting to find out, but I'm looking forward to giving it a go hopefully. Lumberjack Studios have Mustache. This is a trick- taking game. This one is a trick taking game, unlike last time where I got it wrong. A trick- taking game where teams change every round, and new rules are added as you go. Mustache blends strategy, surprises, and twists in a joyfully competitive atmosphere.

7:08 And I do like trick- taking games where the teams change as you go, if there's teams at all. Teams are randomly shuffled, and new rules shake things up. reversed color hierarchies, wild jokers, card effects, nothing stays the same for long. And again, I like trick taking games where the rules change from round to round because that always keeps things up. And if you also changing all the rules and things and also changing what you're playing partner at the same time, there's going to be a lot going on. This one seems like a good fun one. And the art looks very very silly and it's my style. How cool is that look? Oh, it's apparently was released last year, but the price is only it says £17 there, which 40 on Amazon. So hopefully they've got some copies there and I'll be able to pick one up. Now, Mighty Boards will be there with two games that I nearly backed on Kickstarter. I didn't back this one because my friend did. So, I'm hoping to play this. I'm going to see what it looks like when I get I'm not going to try and demo it if my friend's getting it because I'll play it when when he gets his copy obviously.

7:55 Um, but I want to see what this looks like. This is for the gods, uh, which look really good. The design team, Trevor Benjamin, Brett Gilbert, and David Thompson. There are three good designers that I like. So, that'll be one to look out for. And also Yoteay, which was on Kickstarter very recently with all the potatoes in boxes. putting little potatoes in boxes is all about potato farming um in Japan. Hoping this is there for demo so I can play it and hopefully they prove me wrong and tell me that I should have backed it. No Drinks at the Table be there. Now they did Divide and Conquer. I've already done a video on that so I'm not going to go into that now. That's not one I want to play cuz I've already played it. I want they've got a new game that I've not heard of. This is Boutique Rivals. Become the talk of the town with your stunningly stylish outfits or your crazy looks to be the only boutique that gathers interest. Now it is a two-player game. Always hard to demo when you go on your own. There's not much other information about it except it's the same designer as Divide and Conquer and I quite like Divide and Conquer. So, I'll be willing to give this one a go.

8:47 That is interesting. So, just scrolling down the list, I've got to Office Dog and the Guns, the Battle for Toshi Rambo. And apparently, it is on my wish list. I don't remember putting on my wish list, but I'm sure it's on there for a reason, apart from the fact it's set in Japan. So, it's two to six players, 45 to 90 minutes. It is a dice rolling die icon resolution open drafting game with boxes and those boxes are the different clans and they clash for control of the legendary fortress. Once a strategic gem on the borderlands, the castle now stands at the heart of a wartorrn battlefield. Its banners contested by rival warlords. In the strategy game, players take on the role of the ambitious daimo representing one of the seven great clans. recruiting samurai heroes, drafting powerful orders, and building their clan's military might as strategic influence through tactical maneuvers and clever engine building. Nice. You strive to fulfill seven victory objectives from capturing and holding the coveted castle to competing secret missions and claiming secret locations. I was looking at these bits and I expecting the game to be really big and then I looked at this picture and it doesn't look huge.

9:50 doesn't look big in scale, but I think all these boxes are the different clans, which gives you a different asynchronous powers, which is good. That's something I like. So, I can definitely see why I put this on my wish list cuz it's my kind of game. Unfortunately, it's only going to be available to demo, but it is being released in a couple of months time. So, that's good. Then, we have Pavson Games with Ringo. And as we all know, Ringo means the forestry industry in Japanese. Knew that off the top of my head. This is a game about the Japanese forestry industry in feudal Japan. The reason it caught my eye is because it has simultaneous worker placement which uh I quite like the sound of and it looks really really cool. It's only available to demo unfortunately but um and it looks heavier than it is cuz it's only a 45 to 90minute game. So it's not good to be incredibly in depth I don't think. But it does look nice with these stacked up what I'm assuming are trees at the end of the game. But yeah they it looks really cool. I I like the look of this one. I hoping to give it a demo and sticking with the forestry theme. Pink Trouidor have forestry a bit more straightforward name but a bit longer and a bit heavier by the looks of it. It says players take the role of forester is dedicated to sustainable forest management as a euro game focused on strategic action management. Forester relies on a dual worker placement system in which players control a harvester and a manager each with distinct responsibilities. And that sounds really fun. And if you zoom in on the board you can see the harvester mini there. Is there a manager anywhere? Maybe not. But yep that looks pretty cool on a table.

11:15 Wonder if those are the little managers. If you look at a game in play, it looks very clear. It looks very nice. Um the theme appeals to me with it being sustainability and forestry and that's good. Want to see more of that. But yeah, this looks like a good fun heavy game. Space Cowboys will be there with First Giants, which is a re-implementation of Alleion, which is a game I used to like back in the day, but I'll show you now. There was a lot of symbology and a lot of text on a lot of the cards and there's a lot of different cards and it got a bit dull having to read every single card that came out and that was the only thing that put me off a leisure. I used to have it and I got rid of it. And what appeals to me about First Giants is even though it's pretty much the same game, there's no text on the cards. It's just iconography which is going to be a lot easier to teach. Hopefully there's some cheat sheets and crib sheets that people can use so they've got all the icons in front of them. But if it's that same gameplay which I enjoyed with without having to teach every single card as it came out, that would be that would be great.

12:10 That's First Giants. Sinker games have green city. Players act as urban planners, building a sustainable transit network to connect riders to their destinations before the supply of tiles runs out. You'll score points for every successful walking, biking, bus, or tram connection you make. Longer tram bus route score more points, while bike walking path is best medium short length. Did I read that right? So much like you place a tile, you send riders around your route, and then you draw a new tile, and that's it. But what appealed to me is just it looks really cute and simple. The side of the board looks really nice. So, it's got a very overall very pleasing look to it. Very simple, very nice cartoony artwork. Looks very nice. And that will be coming out there. I guess there's no price on here, though. Here they are. The 10 games I want to seat at the table at the UK Games Expo. I can't see it right now obviously because I'm going to fill this in after I've recorded and edited everything. But I'm sure it's 10 very solid games. But we all know how conventions work. You've got to hope there's a right seat open at the right time. Plus, there's going to be a hundred other games that wasn't even on that list or a seat happened to be available, yada yada yada. So, if whether I get to all of these or not, we'll see. But I will do my best. And here's a tease of a bonus challenge.

13:20 Five non board game playing things that I want to tick off while I'm there. So, wish me luck on that. Let me know which games you're looking forward to on this list or at the UK Games Expo if you're going. And I was just finishing this video at the right time because my budgie just woke up and he makes a noise in the background. Remember to like, share, and subscribe and all that good stuff that only do one video a week. And going forward, it's not going to be one video every week either. So, you'll have some weeks off from my face. If you're going to the UK Games Expo, I hope to see you there. Thanks for watching. I'll be Rob aka Just the Rogue. I'll see you soon.