Top 10 Games at Gen Con 2025

0:00 Hello and welcome to Board Stupid. My name's Way

0:03 and I'm Matt.

0:04 And are you going to Jen Con?

0:06 We we're we're not

0:07 we're not going to Jen Con.

0:10 We don't have the budget,

0:11 but we're going to tell you everything about the 10 games that you should definitely check if you're going to Jenko. Like not like us.

0:18 Not like us. And then tell us if they're good. But we played a bunch of these games cuz they were UK games.

0:23 Yeah, exactly. A lot of these games are coming now to Jenkon, but they were kind of like first view at UKG just couple of months ago. So, we can tell you a little bit more. Plus, there are a few things that we are really excited and we're going to tell you about it. So, then when you go there and see it, then you come back here and you write a comment under this video say, "Yeah, you were right. This game is good." Or, "Actually, don't waste your time.

0:48 Don't don't buy this thing."

0:49 Yes, that's that's basically what we're doing. So, subscribe and then maybe next year we will have the budget to come to Genum. So, do that. Help out. Uh, we stay in the UK

0:59 and we'll do the research so you don't have to.

1:01 Yeah, exactly. But let's go.

1:03 Rolling dice, feeling nice and games. Click subscribe. It's a vibe. It's all we need. What's game for you and me? wants to be wants to be. Here's what you should play and see.

1:31 So, Matt, no particular order for these games because like I said, we're not going to be there to play them ourselves. So, but we do want to talk about one straight away which is super exciting which we've talked about already before from UK. It's our number one pick which was Battle of Hot.

1:44 Battle of Hoth. You got to go see Battle of Hoth. Yeah, you've got to go play Battle of Art. It is so much fun.

1:49 Yeah. Um I'm sure Ali is going to have a gigantic stand and Battle of Art is the new Days of Wonder title. Uh so you can find it there and is basically um taking the mechanics from Memo 44 and creating this this new revised version. Me 44 is now like quite a little bit old. It's got some gray air. Uh but they basically took the game that was memoir 34 shack of love with some uh with some Star Wars magic and creating this very very amazing fun game that is battle of hot.

2:29 Yeah. If you're not sure where it is just just follow the smell of money as

2:35 going to be some [ __ ] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. the game is going to sell bucket and we played it and we loved it and we can't wait to play it more. So, what we can tell you first things that you should do during your day at Gen Con, go straight and play

2:51 for a demo and have a great time playing that game.

2:53 Onto the next one.

2:54 Let's go. Next one that uh you definitely need to go and check out is Tag Team from Scorpion Mask. So definitely go check out tag team. This was one of our favorite picks from UK Games Expo. This game is just beautiful looking is a fantastic uh auto battler that you play two player game two again you're two player game uh really cool and like an auto battler anyway if you play challenges play wizards cup it's that kind of thing two-player specific with a kind of little bit of deck building as you're doing it.

3:28 Yeah it's it's got a very cool art. So, think about like a Street Fighters versus Yeah, something like that. So, each player will pick two um two characters. Each character, they got their own decks. Those decks is going to going to basically create your deck for for the game. What you're going to do is basically put the stack the the card in a certain order. So, every time they're going to be in that order and then throughout the game, you can put more cards inside the uh inside the deck. It's some Yeah, it's some you don't know in which position your um opponent is going to put them. So, you need to try to

4:07 play the player.

4:08 Yeah, exactly. It's a little bit of play the pay and stuff, but there with this um um you got like 12 characters in the in the main in the in the box. So, basically the Yeah, the combination you can do is that quite quite a lot. Uh two games are never the same and um and Lydaddy,

4:26 it's super fun. Go check a look. Same same guys that not the same team but same time that you brought the the um sky team last year. They know about two-player games and they this going to be the their next seat cuz it's uh it's really really good tact.

4:45 So Matt again with the two-player game. We're going to get this out of the way early. So this is uh one that is kind of a growing hit. It was underrated under the radar and is flying up and it is. We talked about it first.

4:57 We talked about it first. By the way, we are always on the post.

5:00 No, this game was released at the UK GE and uh we're talking about Timbertown from Alicad Games.

5:08 You really like this game?

5:08 I loved it. It's um it's a two it's a two-player uh tow placement games where you try to build your beaver um town. Uh is it beavers?

5:20 Everyone loves a beaver.

5:21 It's a beaver, right? A beaver.

5:23 Yes, it is a beaver. What animals were No, they're not beavers.

5:26 They're not beavers.

5:27 What they are?

5:27 No, they build the dams.

5:29 Yes.

5:29 Yeah, it's beavers.

5:30 It's not otter.

5:31 Oh, they're not otterters. Yeah, we always get confused, but anyway.

5:34 Exactly.

5:36 But basically, uh what you're going to do, you're going to be building your town, taking uh tiles from the from the center board. The twist of the game is that the center board is um a river. So each time the columns are going to move until they're out of the game. So, you need to pick the right tiles at the right time uh to match with the column of your town. And there are uh different uh scoring uh mechanisms at the end. Something like Cascadia style. You got some cards that tells you like in this game you you're scoring in this way, in this way, and this way. Every time that you play, it's going to be um a different uh feeling. But, uh two-player tile games, great. Love it. Love it. Love it. Love it. So that is Kimat Town. Nice.

6:22 I need to tell you something about Wayne. Uh Wayne recently I've been out for work for a while and um I went to his place to play some games finally after after a few weeks and uh it was very exciting cuz say oh I rearranged the games in the house to to what is he done is basically now it's got like a little shrine to Mr. Dr. Kitia.

6:48 I now actually havished Kitia.

6:51 It's I'm I'm not joking. There is a wall in the house where it's just like Kitia games and I I think he just like sits there and and and stares at them. I don't know. I pray to it every morning.

7:04 I'm I'm saying this because because um uh you going to Jenken are going to be lucky enough to see it next game. Not the next two games. No,

7:15 not three games. Not four.

7:17 Keep going.

7:18 Five.

7:20 He's releasing five games all together at Jen. Tell tell us more.

7:25 Oh my god. So

7:26 you Kitia fanboy.

7:27 I am Kia fanboy. So Kitia doesn't stop and thank I hope he never does frankly. Uh but basically this is a cheating one. Just go check out the bitewing game stand. So Dr. Kitchen has released a couple of two-player games which is going to be Ikor and Iliad. These are beautifully produced two-player games playing very different ways. very puzzly, very interactive, very one-on-one, really really cool. But there's also another trilogy which is Silos, Orbit, and Ego. Yeah. All again, very different uh interesting games, all in different genres, all with that standard Kitia vibe where it's going to be easy to learn. Uh but yeah, with some interesting twists. Go like you got a chance to go check out all of these. Yeah. So, it's um it's five games from

8:12 it's mentality this year and Bitewing have just done them all.

8:16 I'm going to I'm going to do them all. I'm going to

8:18 And I I urge everyone,

8:21 we're going to put the link somewhere um to to a little sleeper. Um the the the Kenitia shocking confession video on YouTube, guys. You need to go there and and watch it. It's 4 minutes and half of talking to us.

8:39 Just ranting.

8:40 It It's just like go and watch it. Go and watch it.

8:43 But yeah, in these games you put everything from air in majority to auction to tile.

8:49 Five games. All is done. We can't speak about five games otherwise this 10 list is done.

8:55 15 list. But just know that it's it's going to at least be

8:58 you should you should go and check it out cuz that's uh sounds great.

9:01 Yeah. Minimum expectation. Okay game. Right. On to the next one.

9:04 So Matt, one of our favorite games on the show is of course Cascadia, the Spiel winning classic. Now is it classic? It's too probably too new to be a classic, but it's great.

9:13 It's a it's a modern classic probably. Yes.

9:16 Ding ding ding cliche, but we got a new one though.

9:19 But it is. Yes. So um the guys at FL Games, they're bringing out Cascadia Alpine Lakes. Uh now a lot of people were thinking about this is an expansion. This is not an expansion. Alpine Legs is a standalone game that is u the new what they trying to as as the sequel is the Cascadia number two.

9:44 Same designer, same artist. So Randy Flynn, Beth Soil, same team,

9:47 same rules.

9:49 Oh, so it's right. It's the same game. No, because this time we go 3D.

9:56 So you put your your red and blue glasses

9:59 glasses and you can see animals coming out. No, it's not like that. It's the game now adds um a verticality into the game because the um the the environmental um tiles so where you're building your park now they can be stuck together.

10:16 Something that really brings me harmonies in harmonies

10:20 or Acropolis coming up as well.

10:21 Yeah. So I really want to see. So you guys are Jen. This is going to be seen at first there at Jenin. So, please go there and let us know.

10:31 If you can get a demo, let us know if you can.

10:34 I would definitely, if I was there, this would have been a game that I definitely want to go and see because it's Cascadia%

10:39 is one of those Yeah. games that I played a million times, I will play another million times. And uh if this is a 2.0 version, it gives a little bit more, a little bit more variety, I'm all up for it.

10:52 All up for that. So, beautiful stuff. That's Cascadia Alpine Lakes. talking about uh modern classics still. Yeah. Uh one of the uh more cozy game as well. So more than classic coy games, one is Cascadia, but another one is Roh Railroad Inc.

11:11 really fantastic roll and my game.

11:13 Yes. And finally the uh what was a Kickstarter last year is ready. It's going to be delivered and it's going to be purchasable at uh Jenin. And we're talking about railroad tiles. So, if you take those fantastic sort of mechanisms that you might understand from Railroad Inc. where you're going to be you would have been rolling dice and drawing roots. Instead, you're going to be drafting tiles and placing the tiles to create your roots. Look at this fantastic speed of artwork. A lovely little production. This is a puzzly really good game. We've played it a bunch now. Really, really fun. Um, not earth shattering, not groundbreaking, but it is really good like and certainly worth playing. And if you like something like Cascadia, it's in the same vein. Yeah. But you want something that is more puzzly, this might be right up your

11:57 street. I would say I would not say more puzzle, I will say differently, I suppose. So with the root.

12:03 Yeah. So you got you're building your your roots and you'll do the style placement in a little token placement thing going on as well.

12:10 Um yeah, it's

12:11 interesting timing elements.

12:12 It's really it's really nice. Again, it's it's not trying to break the the market with the the new concept or whatever, but it's make it a very uh nice. Again, I'm going to repeat with this cozy cozy game. It It's got a very much a cozy vibe. It's a but in a in a very nice way that you don't like it's a cozy game. No, it's

12:35 it's really cool. I I really like it. I find it incredibly satisfying to you link all your rails and your highway together. and these beautiful little meuples that you give you adding to score extra points. A really cool timing element as well. Railro is certainly one you need to go check out.

12:47 Yeah, it's um if you can grab the copy, I will not say no. I mean it's it's pretty good.

12:54 Okay, Matt. So, rally racing is a tremendously exciting dangerous sport that's super fun to watch. Highlights of mccra rally was one of my favorite games in the PS1 era.

13:04 Oh, you you unlocked a memory.

13:07 Cool memory.

13:08 Oh, wow. The time they spent on Yeah, call him Craig was incredible. What a great thing. Uh, and we do love a racing ball game like the time that we spent playing heat and the rose vendetta. And there is a new game that is coming out. It's going to be short for first for the first time at

13:27 a combo of those games.

13:28 And we're talking about dirt and dust from the guys at Albi. I think RS game is going to take some of the publishings. I don't know if it's the UK or the US, but um anyway, what the game is, as you said, is is a rally competition and uh you got this kind of like um uh deck building and um dice placement. So, kind of like deck building, it it gives me heat vibes.

13:59 Yes,

13:59 the dice placement we will say like it gives me Thunder. And when you see the the components of the games, it sounds um it looks kind of like there thereabouts and it's does this really cool thing

14:13 and and it's it's not bad. When we say these two things, there's two games that we did.

14:18 I love these games. These games are awesome. So yeah, you're going to be going through different stages of the value zone. Um and you're using action cards like you you've got your cards like you would do in heat, but instead of them just being you played as numbers or values,

14:31 they're going to be playing into like your tableau. Yeah.

14:33 And then you're going to be using dice to allocate to those cards to see how well or how powerful they are. The higher the value, the better that card becomes.

14:41 Yeah. It's kind of like the the pilot skill on performing the action that is coming out from your deck. Basically some some

14:48 exactly that.

14:49 Really cool.

14:50 Yeah. Is this this as soon as came out I was like ooh yes. Can you tell me more tech? The artwork looks really cool. Looks really fun. Looks slightly more complex. more like towards an advanced game than those other games. I feel like well certainly I feel like so um and I'm very excited to give this one a go.

15:09 This one as soon as it's on in the on the UK market will definitely going to whoop coffee.

15:15 But you guys when you're there, go and check it out. Let us know what you think about death and dust.

15:21 Uh Wayne, the next one is a game that we talked about in one of our previous show on the I factor.

15:28 Check out Factor cuz we're always on the pulse. Uh, and uh, you guys at Jenkins going to see this for the first time. They were talking about the new guy, the new games from Direwolf and uh, and and and from Paul Ben Paul Denon that is the creator of one of our favorite game ever that is Dune Imperium. And this time is not anything to do with Iraqi spices or stuff. is moving down to Earth and he's going to pilot

15:59 a lightning train.

16:01 Choo choo.

16:02 What a cool name that is.

16:04 Lightning.

16:05 Kind of like a change between Iraqis and Yeah, a lightning train sounds like a glam metal band to be fair and I'm here for it. Um, so like we said, this is the new game from Paul Denon. Uh, so I'm already excited. You should already be excited. If you like June Imperium and you want to see what he's doing next, this is the game that you go and see. So, this is essentially going to be looks like a a route planning, root building game utilizing uh bag building, which I absolutely love these two things. I love a root building game and I also love bag building games. Um you're going to be opening stations, getting train lines across various regions in North America. Um and you're going to be doing a little bit of what looks like uh pick up and deliver, delivering good cities as well. But it looks like there's opportunities to either work with your opponents or to basically shaft them and cut them out.

16:53 Um, so I like that as an idea of being able to um, you know, potentially work together during the game and then eventually cut someone out.

17:03 Give some brass Birmingham vibe.

17:06 Yes.

17:07 Yes. A little bit of that. is uh but I'm sure that the guys at Dwolf if they are pushing for this game to be their next big release. I'm sure that it's going to be a really really good game. So again, you guys go there, have a look.

17:21 Please check it out. I like bag building. I like the route planning. I like a little bit of pick up and delivery. Let us know what it's like. Go check out Choo Choo Lightning Train. No.

17:33 So, Matt, next one uh on the list, which is the number two, I suppose, for the purposes of this, is a game that you were excited about for so long, literally a full year and a half, and you were waiting and waiting.

17:42 And finally, finally, is here, and we're talking about Secret's Legendary Edition.

17:48 It did not fail to live up to the hype. It lived up to the hype.

17:52 Okay. So, um it's uh it's a it's not a reprint of the original Secret. It's a Secret 2.0 0 or probably 3.0. Uh because it's is basically they took some of the expansions, put them all together, reviewed the rules, redone all the production, and uh the game just is fantastic. It's still is at this point definitely

18:18 in my top 10 games ever. Um and uh and I want to play more and more and more. Uh at the end of the day is a dude on a map. very majority

18:30 with bidding. So you're actually you're going to beat for what action you're going to be able to do mix them Greek mythology Greek some big monsters some cool heroes

18:40 cool production

18:41 on amazing production and then you got you got one of the games that I I believe is going to be stable in the top 10s of a lot a lot of people

18:53 yeah this legendary edition is the definitive edition of Cities if you liked the original if you heard about it but you didn't get the chance to play This is the time. This is the time. Don't even bother with that one. Get this version of it. It is amazing. It is really, really top class. Like I love bidding. I love area control mechanisms and area majority mechanisms. This is that and it's so good.

19:13 It's just fantastic. So the games was delivered from Kickstarter probably like May, June, something like that. So I'm not sure if in being delivered in the US as well, but it's going to be there to buy from the guys at Studio H. So yeah, that definitely that that if you need to buy one game, that is the one that I will tell you go and buy.

19:36 Go buy Six of Dies Legendary. Uh it's really really good.

19:40 Yeah. So the last one on this list is one that a lot of people are hyped about because it's the new game from Stonem and Jamie Stagmire has been spending a lot of time on this game. This is like a huge project for him and it is of course Vantage man.

19:53 Vantage. Um, so this game has been in development for the last 8 years, if I remember right, what Jamie said. 8 years is a is a work of a of a lifetime.

20:04 Yeah.

20:04 Um, and uh, what it is is basically a a sci-fi space exploration game. Uh, something more similar to what I would say to a choose your own or adventure book. Okay.

20:18 Uh, what basically the game is made the game is made of a million cards.

20:22 Mostly card based. It's a million caser. Each one of the those cards, each one of the players will will kind of like that is the point of view of each one of those player. So if me and you are in we both land on this planet, we will um land in two different location. Um I'm going to get card number xxx and going to look at it and be like, "Oh, uh I can see a sun. I can see like a weird creature and um I can do these three action. We can discuss or what you think

20:56 we should do or whatever, but you would not be able to see my car.

21:00 That's your POV.

21:01 Exactly.

21:02 And I'll be like, I've got a lake and I can see this, that, and the other. So, so you work together because it's um it's um it's a cooperative um game, but you kind of leave your own adventure and eventually you might you might meet the the other players, but um it sound it sounds super cool. Um fascinating as a design concept.

21:22 Yeah, exactly. that it's one of those why is it's super hyped because um uh they managed to push the design above the the the the the normal standard. It's like um so I'm really really fascinated about this game. I saw a few um play through um with this dice system that you just basically spend dice to do uh to do the action but then you can't use the the the dice because you're getting some penalties. So there is all this um um very very unique uh dice mechanics linked to this exploration like POV exploration is kind of like very unique.

22:07 I like I like this idea that you're only viewing your own perspective but you can still communicate. Imagine like you're radio to the other.

22:13 Yeah, exactly. You're separated by these vast distances or whatever. Uh so you're free to do whatever you like, but there's lots of little victory conditions as well. It's not a campaign game, by the way. That's not what it is.

22:23 It's because every time you're going to land on the planet on a different position and and a new adventure is going to happen. And the same things like with your with the single cards, you can decide to do an action and then it's going to it's going to link to something different. Or you can simply go I'll go left or I'll go right and the adventures go completely in two separate ways.

22:44 Interesting. Um yeah, this is like reminds me of in a video game analogy of something like No Man's Sky, right?

22:51 Oh yes, No Man's Sky. Yes. Do whatever you want.

22:53 Yes. I think Yes. That's the first things that I thought as well. No Man's Sky, the board game type thing. But I think I think Jamie with this went like Yeah. again is pushing the envelope really hard and he it's trying to create something different, something new. So that's why that advantage.

23:13 Yeah, for that reason alone definitely worth checking out especially in advance of it going on Kickstarter.

23:17 Yeah, it's going to go Kickstarter in a few like next month or some very soon.

23:21 This is a chance to go and see it at least. So definitely go and do that.

23:25 Vantage.

23:26 So Matt, that was a selection of 10 games. This is a big old mixture of stuff. games you can buy, games you can demo, or games it's the first chance that you're going to go and get to see. And that's really exciting.

23:37 And again, there are another million uh games. Uh one of them was Nachu that is is very high on the um on the high list. Uh there is there is a lot of them, but um again,

23:50 lots of games that we've talked about before. Rebirth's going to be there, other stuff. Mighty Boards team are going to be there. Loads of cool stuff that you should go and check out. A lot of stuff that we covered on the show.

23:58 Yeah, exactly. So, all every video that we done in the last um year and last six months, go check out those. Give us some clicks. Uh but no, it's an amazing show and if we were at the show, we'd be doing even more separate previews for you. But this is the best we can do for now. But maybe we'll do

24:13 Yeah, maybe next year. Uh maybe if you go on the Patreon now, you check the Patreon and check all the exclusive content. Uh you buy us a coffee. We're not going to get the coffee. We're going to store that money. Next year we come into the US to buy a coffee in the US.

24:28 Absolutely. We'll buy you that coffee back. That's exactly what we Yeah. Check out the Patreon. You got all the exclusive and you can help the channel cuz again, we're not professional board gamers or professional YouTubers. We do this and uh you can help us like improving, get

24:44 improve the channel. It all goes back into the channel and we can do more stuff for you. Uh but other than that, if you're going to Gen Con or not, we would very much like it if you would hit the subscribe button.

24:53 Hit the subscribe button. That's a really nice thing to do for us even. Uh yeah, if you are going to check on, hit that and then tell us how great it is. Yes. Uh then check out the rest of our videos. Mhm. And we'll see you at the next one. Ciao.