Most Anticipated Board Games 2022

hey everybody today i thought i'd do a video talking about my most anticipated games for 2022. now this video might seem like it's getting ahead of itself because to be honest i haven't played a lot of the big titles and that were released in 2021 because it just haven't hit the shelves in the uk yet so you know again getting very very ahead of myself here um and again i apologize if um there's quite a lot of spam this week in terms of my videos and content because i've been off work and i thought i'd make the most of this time and get as much content as i can out there so i've got a few games here um i kind of gonna try and break it down into three loose categories um the first of which is going to be brand new games that have not really been um kind of pre-advertised before the second bunch is going to be games that were supposed to be out last year um but were kind of slipped back in time and the final one is going to be kind of reprints and second editions so um let's um let's get into it i suppose so the first game i want to talk about is a game called terracotta army so this is a um it's going to be a a game a game with quite an interesting setting so this setting about the terracotta army um has actually not really been explored too far um i know there was a game a few years ago called xi'an uh the terracotta army which i really enjoyed um a francesco testini design uh where you're building these statues and then you're trying to get kind of area control bonuses this one that sounds like it's going along those same lines but maybe a more involved game this one is going to be published by board and dice which is actually one of the biggest hooks for me because to be honest everything they put out so far i've really enjoyed and this is a co-designed by shemeslav four now um who i don't really know much about i think he might have designed some smaller games and adam kopinski who is really kind of blown up in recent years making bigger games such as nemesis i had a bit of a miss for me last year with dark ages um but i'm still intrigued about what this guy can do because i think he has got it in him to make a game for me but some of the mechanisms advertised here are area majority you've got worker placement and workers of different types as well um so yeah i quite like like this idea that we're kind of building up this mausoleum of different statues um and again at the end of the game getting uh eric majority bonuses based on a number of different factors so really like that setting really like the theme love the publisher so hopefully the game is going to be good as well so that is a terracotta army i'm certainly of interest to me um side game thank you for joining me today uh mackenzie and um he said that game time that game sounds very cool and a solid publisher yeah absolutely and they've pretty much almost been home runs for me okay so next up i have the thing on the um on the nice train here this is the newest this is kind of a routine thing every year now the new annual this is tea loom um i think that's how you pronounce it anyway this is a new co-design by um by danielle genie who's one of my favorite designers and simone luciani who's also one of my favorite designers so these two in the eyes in my opinion are are some of the best people in business right now um this is very early days don't really know too much about this one apart from again it's going to be that next in the line of those teams it's not even any any um cover as you'd expect this is going to be i suppose a medium to medium-heavy euro dice driven game as you are going to be drafting dice um not only for the actions but for the resources they give you as well but it kind of alludes to here that these these dice are going to be weighted in kind of accordance to the level of the power and also the resources you get for it so kind of the better the power you get the fewer resources you get and vice versa and those kind of conundrums usually hit for me um again i've never played a tashini game i haven't loved really i mean i i rate him very highly in the same with luciani just two incredible designers so this is like a guaranteed buy for me um and this one is not taking the kind of um ancient setting this is going for a i think it's more of a renaissance setting in europe when you're kind of traveling merchants so picking all the boxes made all these kind of games are normally my cup of tea so it's gonna be pretty surprising if uh if this one isn't going to be a hit but still yet to play um tapanusi so maybe that one could be an exception but there we go tillytum certainly very high up on my anticipation list next one is something very different so this is a game called pocket master builder and this one is going to be a a work placement game but you're building the board as you go and through cards and if you see some pictures here once my um once my browser catches up so apologies if there's some delay on my uh on my internet but yeah this is called pocket master builder this is um i think an asian designer but i like the idea and concept here that you are again building these worker placements but these cars as the game develops um and you are i think you're resisting threats as well like invasions from barbarians and says does here um and you want to be basically the person to do the king's favor at the end which i assume is going to be three points but i generally like these games where as the game develops you are building the board and constructing yourself rather than having a preset thing you know not like i'm against but it always intrigues me and i love this idea that when these cards are formed together you're creating other opportunities so it looks like you know once these cards are adjacent you create the worker placement spot and um of course some person can go to this spot some person go to that spot but you can't share the exact same spot that's what i'm presuming anyway and it looks like there's some kind of resource thing going on as well when they're connecting vertically so this for me just does you know tickle my fancy it really makes me feel like this could be a game that i like um let's have a look what information is available on the actual main page in terms of um length and weight category because i know this game was advertised initially as a 2021 game but i'm pretty sure it's not out yet um so let's just take a look it goes okay only a weight of 2.0 on there but i don't know how accurate that is and 20 to 40 minutes sounds pretty intriguing for a game where you build the board yourself so that is pocket master builder i don't know too much about it other than that but picking my interest this is um is gonna be quite a big thing so if you didn't know about that one maybe you want to put on your radar okay next one this is a game i'm quite confident i'll like this is a game called autobahn so autobahn is going to be about the construction of the the german motorway system i suppose and this is a co-design by two designers i think are pretty damn interesting so this is um a co-designed by fabian fabio lopiano and nestor mangone so um you might recognize those names so lo piano designed um merv of recent years which i thought was a really solid midway euro i'm very polished game i used to do zapotec which i haven't got played yet i think is actually due out this year in in europe at least um and also uh kalamala as well and those games um you know despite me only playing um merv and i think i played another one of his games as well this is a designer who shows a lot of promise for me and i think that he's so close to getting his big masterpiece out there and maybe this one could be it especially when you've got a designer like nestor mangoni um co-designing with you so mangoni designed one of my favorite games ever actually with um newton newton i think is a brilliant midway euro but this one again three point six out of five alicat games publishing it which kind of liked other things they put out and this one has that economic edge to it it looks like you're building networks you've got some pickup and delivery as well so all these things i generally like again it says here the autobahn is an economic strategy game about building of the german motorway system over three periods of time spanning from the end of world war ii to the present day so really interesting how this one's going to play out again i don't know if there's much information other than what i told you on there um box covers out it looks great so high high hopes for that one and you know my mind is kind of you know running amok saying what could this be um because hopefully it's as good as i think it will be so yeah that is autobahn um certainly piqued my interest uh next up is a game where i'm really hoping um comes out because i think this one made my list last year and there was a new um i know this one being released um in in actuality this is a game called realms so dice realms i'm pretty sure this one is actually kind of under under um it's probably it's probably closer than we realize so this is uh um lehman who is i suppose more famous for um for race for the galaxy and res arcana uh in recent years but this is using the dice kind of building um mechanism that i think has been so unexplored that is the fact that you are actually have these dyes and then you are clipping on these new faces to these to these die and therefore increasing your abilities and doing things um i think this is going to be a pretty big production you're getting a ton of these die faces um hundreds of them i think and you know obviously you're constructing them accordingly to your strategy and i love this idea that this i think is going to be a more involved game you know it says three out of five here again i don't know how accurate that's going to be but previously i know the dice forge game was really tailored towards kind of more a gateway intro level gamer whereas this one is probably going to be that next level higher with what you'd expect from a designer like tom lehman and i love his his mind and how he works in terms of comboing things together um again creating again creating synergies with his components and things and that mixed with dust building um to me sounds like this could be a big big hit so again so much potential with this mechanism and hopefully it is good and as um as nikolai says here dice rounds designer pedigree and the dice themselves what's not to like so yeah on paper this sounds like this could be um a big big hit um not only you know not only success wise but also how good the game is going to be because again designer pedigree is so so important so that is dice realms uh next up i have a designer well talk about designer pedigree this is the newest design by stefan feld this is marrakech um and rakesh anything puts out there i'm gonna at least try um and i've yet to have a game that i don't i don't like obviously i like some more than others but this one is really intriguing because it is kind of revisiting the cube tower mechanism that was used in um in america and i think that is such again another really underutilized mechanism you'd think that that would be all over the place people will be using it all the time and they just don't there's only a few titles out there that have used it um but yeah marrakech is uh it's going to be a from the kind of steffenfeld collection from queen games i'm not massively sold on the graphic design of these games and they are really pricing them quite high so that's been a bit of a deterrent but i suppose my love for stefan feld has superseded that but yeah this one has a kind of a city building um like vibe to it get that cube tower i'm interested to see how it actually works i know the the actual i think the rule books even out there um but i tend not to look at rule books beforehand um but it kind of takes all the boxes for me again that cube tower the designer says here you play with three rounds each round consisting of four turns on each turn players simultaneously and secretly choose three colored cylinders from behind their screens then in turn order they place matching colored assistants uh on their player board and perform the corresponding action so it looks like there's some kind of um simultaneous play going on and to be honest i'm just going to wait back wait and just get some table read the rule book and then play it first and without getting any pre um you know pre-existing ideas and how it's going to play so uh high high hopes for this one i'm really glad they actually did uh change their mind and do a version because they were actually only gonna do a deluxe version which was priced pretty ludicrously um but stefan feld love him and a new design rather than revisited and remastered old designs um always catch my attention that much more so that is marrakech the next game is one that i think i'm really um well i really think it's unlikely this game is going to get printed but i'm going to mention it anyway because it is listed as a 2022 um this is from what's your game and i think that's the reason why it might not get published um because they are already committed to doing their kickstarter product product uh madeira i know they're having a lot of issues with that project but which is a shame because they are a really good publisher and i'm hoping they can kind of get off you know get through the other side of this but this is a chicago 1920 and i suppose the biggest thing for me and it will draw for me about this game is not near the publisher because i tend to like everything these um these guys put out but also the settings so you don't really see a lot of euro style games and with that kind of 1920s prohibition mafia theme and for me i love that vibe um and this one it looks like you're doing all those kind of um shady things as in earning money recruiting medicine doing it smuggling and bribing politicians all that kind of stuff you know normally it's pretty vanilla the kind of um settings you get in in these euro games and something with a bit more of an edge a bit more cutting like this does appeal to me because it's just different so and there are some images here again i don't know what what kind of um point this was in the design pests but again they are going to be tied up with madeira for quite some time so i think this is highly unlikely this is going to get out um maybe not even launched on kickstarter this year let alone be actually hitting the table so just better if you didn't know about it then check it out because um or at least put it on your back on your on your radar because okay euro games mix for this and more cutthroat theme sounds really interesting so that is cargo 1920 so let's move on then so the next one is something a bit lighter so all the other ones have been kind of mid heavyweight euros this is going to be a smaller game well i've actually backed on kickstarter so i'm pretty sure this is gonna get out there this is a game called the gardens so the gardens is a co-design and it's a a kind of uh i think it's a guitar place or at least a card placement where you're building like a tableau and a physical garden out let's show you some pictures here because this is a very attractive game um and it's a code designed by matthew dunstan and brett gilbert who i think are really good designers they're good at what they do um so yeah this is only weighted at 1.5 out of five so this is feather light by grill games but this one yeah you are you are kind of it looks like you're drafting and then building the board up as you go but then i think once you've built that board up not only are you getting you know the set collection bonuses and things you actually have a kind of a dynamic piece on that board which you're moving around maybe trying to visit things and see things so again i don't know the exact mechanisms in the game um but the overall vibe and feel of it and certainly the look of the game um looks fantastic so yeah just something a bit lighter maybe more family-friendly and you know those games tend to hit the table more often than the other kind of games i tend to play um so yeah i always look for kind of new fresh things i know this is a massively saturated kind of area of gaming where a lot of people have played loads of designs have made their iteration of these styler games but maybe this one could be good because again i do like these designers love the idea of building these botanical gardens so hopefully the game is going to be good and um you know supersede that that light waiting because sometimes the gameplay um is richer and deeper than the whit on bgg suggests so that is the gardens next up i have a gamer i don't think there's a tremendous amount of information about this one this is a game called rod and fall again i think this might be at a very optimistic viewpoint on this one getting to the tables in 2021 but this is a design by christoph bolinga who is the um archipelago but this one visually looks really attractive and quite shocking in terms of his table presence because you have a 3d board 40 20 minutes and this one is described i'll show the pictures in a second but this one is described as an area majority deck bag and pool building game with a fancy theme and you're building these territories as you go throughout so and it's also being advertised as i think it being like almost perfect information so it's borderline abstract um as far as i'm aware um but the rules even says in the description the rules are very low and easy to get into so you can get playing straight away but that depth does rav unravel as you play it more and more but if you have a look at the images here i tend to really love games that add a uh not only like a horizontal element of the game but also like a vertical ultimate element so you know games like ginkopoulos and things like that this one looks like it could start to experiment with that idea as you're building these 3d territories multiple layers different terrains and things um i think there's some kind of confrontation in the game but hey looks interesting and i love these kind of modular boards that you build throughout looks like it's going to be um you know engaging and looks like it will develop in interesting ways each time you play this one so again if you didn't know about that one that's called rise and fall i'm not quite sure about the uh the point of development it's in but hopefully we'll see it this year or at least start to learn more about it this year okay so moving on then so next one is a game called revive so revive there is kind of two reasons why this one appeals to me number one again setting really interesting the kind of synopsis of the game sounds like it's going to be up my alley but this one another big reason is because of the designer at least co-design you know this is four credited designers listed on this one two of them being uh i lift sensing and christian knotsby who designed uh capital lux and that for me is a fantastic game one of my favorite games of the last couple of years so anything with a name on it now is gonna at least again get my interest and get my attention another design by um a porter some early artwork out there but this is um a civilization style game um with variable player powers you've got some tech trees and at least some card play but it says here that it's a civ game but with no direct um conflict and no no fighting so normally you know i'm kind of getting better with more kind of cutthroat in your face conflict-driven games but there was a point where i really didn't like it in my games but this one at least it takes a different approach it says quick rounds lots of possible strategies players build their own decks of multi-use cards again multi-use cards are another big drawing point for me i love sacrificing one thing to play another that kind of thing um so yeah this kind of again takes a lot of those boxes and things i'm looking for great designers great publisher interesting idea and concept some cool mechanisms that i'm looking forward to and um obviously the artwork i'll just show a couple of bits here already looks really gorgeous so that is going to be revive know very little about it but what i do know about it sounds like it could be interesting and you see here you've got some kind of mech as well that looks a bit like the ones from scythe so that is revive so getting through these quite quickly actually so the next one is going to be a game called freya so freya is a game purely um purely my interest has been taken by this one based on the description um it's got some michael menzel artwork which is i tend to like it i think he's a good uh kind of very synonymous with these url games but this one is going to be a design by alberto milan who i don't know anything about i think it might even be a time designer or at least a one of the designs but this one actually there's a picture here actually but this one is set in um in thailand and it says here you are kind of being a floating market so you are kind of traveling um you know on these boats and it has a a pick up and deliver and and commodity speculation um mechanisms in there which are two things i really love i love pickup deliver and commodity speculation i think most of my favorite games have or most games with that in i tend to really enjoy so the two mixed sounds interesting to me it almost makes me think of a game like akrotiri which i liked but it was just a near-miss for me and i'm hoping this one could maybe fix some of the problems that i have with akratiri and of course this one is for two to four players as well i'll just show a picture here again i'm not sure what point of development this picture was taken and i think it's the first time i've seen it but here we go it looks very attractive um again this this point-to-point movement it kind of reminds me again oh yeah acritary mixed with venice as well but if it's kind of a hybrid but improved of those two games then it could be good so again just a just a bit of interest there very little knowledge on it but um but yeah interesting and just go a few comments here so um mackenzie saying a multi-use civilization game from an ace team yeah exactly so once all those things tied together it looks um it looks great it's also commented on on i believe uh that must be dice realms saying it looks great like quacks power setup meets dice forge uh meets lemon yeah exactly so it's got all the hallmarks for a game that we'll uh enjoy uh nikolai um it says revive is new to him um thanks you don't enjoy direct content direct conflict so that one could be interesting to him so yeah absolutely and um david thank you for joining us david and um you missed a few games i'm actually ranting through these quite quickly i'll just talk about them very quickly not not summarizing just listing the games you've got terracotta army uh tiller tomb pocket master builder autobahn dice realms marrakesh chicago 1920 the gardens rise and fall revive freyja and the final new game or brand new very little information about it is another co-design by one of the designs at least is simone lucciani um and this is a game that's going to be rather grandiose by the looks of it this is a thing called annunaki and i know they were actually showing this off at essen this yeah i don't know you know if too many people got to uh play it um but this one no artwork player yet at least no box cover so this is by yes simone luciani and belo sabia i don't know who that is but um and they're published by cranio creations so premium i know they got a bit of stick with their um with their barrage campaign a couple of years ago but the games they put out i tend to really enjoy they really do kind of hit that sweet spot for me the games they publish but this one is being advertised as a 4x euro game and that mixed with luciani is like massive um you know interest peaking there um because i don't think he's ever really dived into that style of gameplay um but this one is taking a weird setting where you are aliens i believe and you are leaving your planet to try and settle on earth so that sounds quite interesting in itself all the tropes you'd expect from a 4x game it says you've got civilization you've got economic you've got exploration fighting card play contracts king of the hill so pretty much a kitchen sink style game but normally that'll be a massive deterrent for me i think you know it's just going to be too much going on but when i hear luciani's name on it it's like i think out of all the designs out there there might not be one i trust more it seems like he has a certain level of brilliance that not many designers can replicate again mixed with a good publisher and interesting theme some early pictures here as well which i think i'm pretty sure i'm components hey this could be um this could be interesting it seems like it might be going for the same uh market as voidfall did you get that euro 4x style game so yeah wait and see with this one i think it's going to blow up quite big it's again i think the kickstarter campaign is launching relatively soon so probably being massively optimistic it's going to get released in 2022 but at least we'll learn a hell of a lot more about it and see what the gameplay is going to be and probably for a 2023 physical release but hey there we go that's anunnaki um and i've got the tag name for that one uh the kind of sub subtitle um dawn of the gods and anakin dawn of the gods so that was kind of the the new games that um all the brand new games that were getting hot off the press that i knew about that i'm most anticipated for but as i said at the start of the video um kind of to re repeat myself on last year's list the most anticipated games for 2021 a lot of them didn't make it out in time um for a number of reasons probably production issues um all that kind of stuff and the the games that i really wanted to talk about were um what i mentioned earlier zapotec um uh kind of a medium light card driven euro by fabiola um i won't go too much into all of these um carnegie didn't make it out in time um which is waiting for the kickstarter to be fulfilled uh another quinnird game i believe that is fired by i really like the games they put now this is again another industrial style game and i tend to like all of those um other games such as o'hamburg and amsterdam as well from the stefan feld collection so they are re-implementations of um is bruges and macau so two games that are being like gold dash you can't get hold of them nice new versions of them i say nice new versions i've not played them yet and the artwork on them is terrible to be honest but hey hopefully the gameplay um overrides that i'm still looking forward to that one stroganoff as well the new uh aries steading game got played and it's not not hit yet so really want to try and finally get that one played really beautiful looking game i think that was gonna gonna be a hit for me uh also uh darwin's journey another luciani design this one looks fascinating and this was actually my number one most anticipated game of last year but of course it didn't make out um i'll just show you the images on this one it was a very successful kickstarter campaign um but it kind of went quiet because it's just been such a long time but it is actually officially listed as a 2022 game now um but yeah this one is obviously about darwin's trip through the galapagos islands discovering these new species and things what a brilliant idea um and again mixed with that pedigree of the um of the designer like i think it's luciani anyway i'm pretty sure it is yeah luke johnny and nego nestori as well um who was listed as a co-designer for autobahn so another um a big big game here yeah i love the look of this one kind of a point-to-point movement one uh lots going on um thunder griff game um publishing it so i think i'm pretty sure this one's got all the hallmark for a big hit for me just a matter of time and waiting for it um other designs what i forgot all hip-hop cookies as well so pepties um i think it's game brewer who are publishing that one and that one is by the team who did trois so at least some of them and that is kind of takes his medical vibe and you're drafting these different patients i think and then using doctors to cure them and you're building up this big network of bonuses that one looks fascinating so really looking forward to finally getting hippocrates out to the table as well and another couple of games i wanted to mention before we um before we stop the video are a couple of reprints so first off there is going to be a new version um it seems like i'm bone smoke up um the ass of board and dice but they they pick great games to publish um legrania is the deluxe master set so i'm not so interested in the deluxe but um this is a game that's very much out of print can't get your hands on it but i will finally be able to this year and what i'm really interested in about this one is that there is going to be modules made or designed by other pretty revered public designers such as stefan feld himself so um yeah this is like another dice driven euro a farming farming vibe economic dice driven pretty involved i think but yeah i think there's some pretty big designers who are getting involved in this one as a really nice new um artwork the box cover looks amazing um so yeah i'm really looking forward to finally getting lagrania on my shelves and getting it played because i've been waiting for a long time to get that one and also a another game called brussels 1893 is being published again um with the expansion so it's going to be called brussels 1893 bell epoch which i think was the name of the expansion um but i recently played the card version of this and i liked it but i really do feel like it's a bit of an appetizer for the main course in being brussels 1893.

um this one is kind of a has a really interesting mechanism in there that i haven't seen before actually where you are moving kind of things around the grid which will manipulate scoring you kind of have this big tableau of actions but it gets divided up as in each round so yeah this has a lot of um a lot of things going on that do seem like they'll be different and fun to play and another game that's just amanda managed to evade me and i've not got my hands on the copy um so looking forward to this being more widely available and getting it played so that pretty much talks about all the games that um that i wanted to cover i know also there's a version of um carson city is coming out as well uh a new printing so not a new game not a new addition just a new printing which is uh i'm very excited for so that's pretty much it everybody so if um if you've got any games that i've missed that you're pretty sure i'll like because i'm pretty sure you guys probably know my tastes by now um please let me know about it because there are so many games out there and um obviously they all bypass me and i can't keep on top of them all but if you leave a comment um then then i'll be more than um excited to have a look and do a bit of a deeper dive i'm just going out a few a couple of couple more comments um one from david saying a 4x euro game i'm looking forward to brazil yeah brazil was one that i think was um was on my last year's most anticipated list but it didn't happen um and it hit retail in a couple of countries yeah i think it is a few more a few countries that aren't that aren't my own i do have copies of this but really excited for that one um yeah that is seems to be a new trend actually these four x uh these four x euros seems to be a whole new niche in a new genre of games that are being kind of looked into um and uh he's also said that interestingly or stroganoff and hippocrates are available in hungary okay um lucky you i'm david i wish uh i wish i had well we had access to it as well but sadly we don't and i'm christopher thanks for joining us today christopher um said he's waiting for brazil as well yeah i am too i'm with you eagerly anticipating the release of that one so that's it really guys um so thank you so much for again this um short short notice um stream and thanks for joining us obviously if you're watching it slow time fantastic leave a comment again if you have any thing you want to mention or have any thoughts on these games and apologies again for the video spam this week um again i've got some free time so i thought i'd make the most of it that's it so thanks again for everybody if you have enjoyed the video please hit like and subscribe to my channel and check out my other videos too i'm also be sure to if you if you want to take that extra step then visit my um patreon uh campaign working back for as little as two pounds per month so that really helps the channel keep going so thanks a lot everyone and i'll see you all next time on chairman of the board bye