Top Games of KublaCon Prime 2026

0:00 Ooh, that looks tasty. Welcome folks to the Hungry Gamer is back with another con recap video and today we are recapping Kubla Con Prime 2026. And as always I had a great time. It is a I would describe Kubla Con as the largest of the small cons and by that I mean there was about 4,000 people there. There is a vendor hall but we're not talking about a Gen Con or a Pax where you'll spend an entire day going up and down and seeing stuff. It's not that big but it's a good size hall and that's kind of what you've been seeing on the screen right now and what was very cool this year is there was a lot of new booths there, a lot of things I'd never seen before and so to me that was very exciting. Some cool stuff in there, some cool games being demoed and all of that and as I always say if you are looking for a con that's about playing games, this is one of the best ones to go to and that remained true this year.

1:08 And in addition to that, it's got a really nice mini painting room. It has awesome war gaming room. There's a huge room that's all set up for war games. There's always got crazy stuff going on. There's a really large proto spiel area for burgeoning designers and and established designers got to test out new things which is always a really really cool to see that. And lots of games that you can get into and everything I've been told there's lots of really good RPG games to get into as well though I'm not really into that scene nearly as much. So all of that super super successful. They have a really good flea market though I got fleeced this year. I actually got fleeced in the flea market and someone was selling something for two bucks and in that thing it had an expansion for this other game that I have. I was like, "Ooh, I can get this little mini expansion." I was like, "Everything's in there, right?" They're like, "Yeah, everything's in there." You You know what wasn't in there? That expansion.

2:01 So, that was a bummer, whatever. I'm out two bucks. I actually played the game. It was actually pretty fun. So, it worked out. But, I also would find a small compact Ticket to Ride for Mrs. Hungry Gamer cuz she loves Ticket to Ride. So, I got Ticket to Ride Berlin, which I'd never played before, but Burgundy Benji and his wife actually played it the last day and they got to check it out and they seemed like they were having a real good time with it. Everything really, really fun. I I cannot complain about anything from KublaCon Prime. As always, I still say it is the one to go to in the Bay Area, bar none. I will say that the food at the convention was not as good this year as it's been in the past. And I'm sure it's up and down and it's provided you know by the hotel, so it's not on KublaCon, but the food was not quite as good. Though, there was plenty of places to DoorDash from and that's kind of what we did. We had a really good time. I'll also say it was a different experience for me this year because this year we had the Hungry Gamer Suite. It wasn't the Hungry Gamer, it was the Occasional Regular Co-Host Suite. It was the Orc Suite as it was because really it was Original Don's Suite. But, we were up there and the cool thing was we actually ran all of the official games for the con that I was running and that Don was running up in the suite. And it was really cool that we had that opportunity because it was quiet. We were able to have food up there, so we didn't spend a ton of money on food anyway. We kind of brought in some of our own stuff. We were able to have some beverages and kind of be away from everything. Though,

3:31 I will say the last night before we knew it there suddenly 35 people in that room. It was just crazy pants. Though, on the other hand, it did mean that I actually didn't get as much of the vibe of the con this year. So, I just had to make a point to go downstairs and kind of check things out and be walking around a bit to kind of get that vibe. And so, I'm thinking if we wind up with the suite again cuz who knows what we do, but if we do, I think I really want to make a point to maybe schedule a game or two actually down on the floor. Make sure I get down there and just kind of get that vibe, cuz every time I was down there, the energy was so, so good. Again, this is a fantastic con that I love to be at. But, moving past all of that, let's talk about my ranking of games for KublaCon this year.

4:17 And so, this year, I'm going to start out with the did not finishes. There was two games that we just we didn't finish. So, I'm not going to rank them in any way, shape, or form. And it's not that I don't like these games. Actually, I like both of these games, but things happened. The first one was Fin Span. We were about, I don't know, one turn in when suddenly the 40 people showed up in the room and suddenly it was so loud, it was impossible to kind of pay attention. So, we just called it after two rounds. And the other one was Factions of Sol. This is a cool little pick-up-and-deliver game, and I had had a game scheduled, and there was like five people in it, and then one guy showed up, and he decided that he wasn't really interested in playing. So, it was just Don and I. So, it was just original Don and I, and we're like, "Okay, we're going to play this thing." And as I learned, it's not the best at two players. It's really best at three, four, five. And we were tired, so we said, "You know what?

5:07 Again, about halfway through, we said, 'You know what? We're just going to call that one.'" So, we didn't finish that one either. I'm looking forward to getting back to it at some point, though. So, outside of that, I have 24 games to talk about. Though, there was one repeat, but it's actually on here twice. So, 24 games to talk about. So, coming at number 24 was Iliad. And this was one that I threw into my bag last second, and I'm working on a review for this. It's a two-player-only game, tile laying, and you're just really trying to outthink your opponent, and it's a lovely, fine little game. It didn't grab me. It was interesting, and I'm glad I played it, and I'm going to play it a few more times. Like I said, I'm working on a video. But, it's just one that served its purpose, which was we had a little time, let's just try this, see what happens. So, it did that, it fulfilled that niche that we had at the moment. The next one is Ink, and this is one that I picked up from Noble Knight Games.

6:00 Thanks, Noble Knight. And original Don and I, we played it one morning cuz we were both up early before a game that we were running, and so we set it up, we were playing through it, and it's really cool. The reason it's at number 23 is because we played it wrong. Hungry Gamer can't read, read the rules wrong, and original Don wound up playing it later on. He said he had a great time with it. But for me, comes in at number 23. Next, we have Castle Combo. This is another early morning game, and Castle Combo is a really good game. It's This is an interesting game to me because if you were to go back to the last time I was at PAXU, and I talked about Castle Combo, I was not high on it. And it seems like I'm not high on it here because it's, you know, down at 23 or 22, whatever.

6:48 But it's a really clever game. It's really good, it's really fun, and it's just a brilliant little filler game. And my only complaint is I didn't really get to experience the oubliette mini expansion that was thrown in there. They just didn't The cards just didn't come up for me, but Castle Combo, great game, really enjoyed it. Next, we had The Dwarves' Duel. And this is the game that I bought at the flea market that I thought was going to have a thing in there and didn't. And this was the very last game that I played on Monday, late in the afternoon, with Mr. Steve. And you know what? It shocked me. I bought it because it was two bucks, and I thought something else was going to be in it. And right now, I think I'm going to hold on to it. This is quick, mean, chuck some dice, hopefully the dice are going to work out in a way that lets you play some cards, and the cards will do things, and once someone's out of cards, the game's going to be over.

7:38 Very random, dice chucky, cute little game. I actually enjoyed it. I'll play this several more times. Now we're coming uh moving on we have Battle for Grey Port. And this is one that's always in my con bag when I am doing the local cons. It's always in there. I love playing it. I love teaching it to people. And I actually got two games over there. And this is the one that I played on Monday just before we played the dwarves with Mr. Steve. And I was just teaching him the game. And so he was just learning and we played a very easy scenario. We rolled it, had a lovely time. Mr. Steve enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. Great game. I love it. Still going to keep playing it. Great time with Battle for Grey Port.

8:23 Next we have Rise of the Gnomes. And this is one of my all-time favorite game. And another one that I almost always play at the local cons. What a great game. It just wasn't a great session. And we lost and just the combination of people that we had around the table, we just didn't communicate very well. And because of that we just well, we were all kind of playing our own individual game. And so it just didn't come together in a way that's really satisfying like this game usually is cuz usually you have this really cool thing if you start working together instead of and trying to figure out, okay, well I'm going to come in and I'm going to get rid of the gnomes here then you're going to come in and you're going to push me out after that and that's going to get you the point that you need to get me out and all these different things and it just did not mesh this time. And that's something that can happen when you're playing a decently complicated co-op. That's not complicated to play, but it's got a lot of complexity in how people interact.

9:23 And so it just didn't jive that time. I think everyone had a decent time, but just not a great session of a great game. Next we have Flip Tunes. And this was one that we played on Saturday night right before we played a big heavy game of Vast Mysterious Manor. And that's a great game. That's one that I never thought of playing before. The original Don introduced it to me, and every chance I get to just throw that out on the table and play it, I do. Just such a delightful little game. Great game, Flip Tunes. Fast. Can't complain about it. Next, we have Space Station Phoenix. And this was kind of cool because the designer is local, and he has the unpublished expansion material to this game. And so, he was kind enough to come up and introduce us to it, and show us what it was, and let us play a game. And it's a cool game. It's one of these games that kind of sneaks up on you.

10:20 It's hard to know really what the game is. It's hard to understand this whole idea of, well, you're going to be using these worker placement spots. And if you want to use somebody else's worker placement spot, not only have to pay for it, you got to pay a little more, you got to give them a little kickback so they can use it. But, once someone's used it, you can't use it or someone can come and block you out of your own stuff. But then, you're building your space station, and to do that, you're going to buzzsaw up your own colony ships. You're going to lose your worker placement spots to get a place to put all these aliens. It's a weird little game. But, it works. Really had a good time playing that. And neither original Don or I was close to beating the designer. But, we had fun doing it. And I will say it's a real tragedy that the new expansion material isn't being published at this point because really cool stuff. I really liked the stuff that we got to play with.

11:09 Next is Aberration. And this is a cooperative tower defense bag builder game. And this is an interesting one to me because I still haven't really decided how I feel about this game. It does some interesting cool stuff. You're moving around these four quadrants of the board. It's a bag builder. I like bag builders. It's kind of a tableau builder. And it's like a little bit crisis management, but mostly it's just tower defense. And you have these worker placement spots all around the board. You go free the end and now you get to do a thing at the end. And some characters, if you build them in certain ways, you're going to be able to activate all these workers. You're going to go around and do all these different things. It's a weird bizarre game that I think I really like. I mean, I I like enough that I painted it. And so, it's one that I keep coming back to and I just can't land on what I think about it. But I had a really nice time playing it with original Don and original Don and one of original Don's sons. Really really enjoyed doing that and that was great.

12:07 And it was one that I had just kind of thrown in my bag as a well, maybe we'll play it. And we wound up with times. That was really really cool. Next on the list is Guest of Robin Hood or perhaps Gest of Robin Hood. I love this game. I decently recently put out a video. I think it's great. I just adore this game. It's so hard for me to get it played, especially in meatspace. But Mr. Steve had it in his bag. Again, this was a Monday morning. We're just kind of hanging out sitting there cuz I had to be somewhere in the evening up in the area, so I just stayed all day. And he pulled it out and what a delightful game. It helped that I obliterated him. Won the game in eight turns, but still just a really wonderful game. And I'm afraid of coin games. This game makes me a little less afraid of coin games. Just brilliant brilliant game. I love it.

12:57 Next we have The Fedz. And this is one that was sent to me by D Finn Games a long time ago. And it was one that I didn't request specifically, but at the time he was sending me his games out and it was a if you get around to playing this thing, great. We'd love to hear about it. And it was one that kind of wound up over there sitting behind some stuff and I just literally lost sight of it. And the other day I found it, and I played a game with improv Dan, and I was like, "Oh, this is pretty cool." So, I took it, and I got to play a game with Micromac's and Bob, who needs no last name, and then another game with original Don.

13:42 And it doesn't have a good rating on BGG, and I think BGG is wrong. It's a clever, fast filler game with this weird little bidding mechanic that you're doing, and has all these different cities that you're able to play, which changes up the rules just a little bit, but that just a little bit is just enough to make it feel like a completely different game. Everyone's going to simultaneously put a card down on their player board, and that's going to say, "Okay, this is where my card's going." And then in turn order, they get placed out. You place it face down, cuz that's the mole, and when someone else comes in and places a card there, it flips up and goes into the field, and that's a sort of like an area control kind of game. But, some of the cards, when you flip them over, have powers that do all kinds of crazy different things. I really think if you're looking for a game that's got a little bit of kind of blind bidding, a little bit of area control, and you're looking for something you can play in 30 minutes, I would chase down a copy of this. I I liked it enough that I sleeved it because Stefan games sadly aren't doing board games anymore, so they're not going to There's not going to be another printing. I really enjoyed it. I definitely recommend picking it up. Next was Takta, and this is a cool game that I played a lot on BGA. It's great on BGA.

14:54 And we played it at the end of the night when suddenly there was 35 people in the room, and it was myself and Luke Laurie and original Don and the gentleman who was sitting to my left and Brad from Level 99 Games. And we had a great time. Everyone was late. Everyone was tired. Some of us may have had a little more beverage, so it made things hard and debating rules and laughing about it, but really quick, easy card game that you just throw on the table. I I picked up a copy from Noble Knight Games the other day cuz it just It just works. It just works. It's one of those games where you're just putting down a card and there's little pips on the cards, and then everybody else can then cover up the pips. And if a card already has a card on top of that, you can't place another one. Whoever has the most pips at the end is going to win.

15:44 It's a little weird counting up the points at the end of the game, and there's some weird kind of overlapping rules here and there, but I bet so many designers are kicking themselves saying, "Why did I not come up with this?" Cuz it's just a sweet little game that I really did enjoy. Next, we have Andromeda's Edge. I've talked about Andromeda's Edge a lot. This is one that we did the first night, the end of the first night with Mr. Steve and Burgundy Benji and Luke Laurie, and it just was great. A great play. Didn't do well. But, that's okay. That's okay. I I'm not particularly good at Andromeda's Edge. I'm better at Dwellings of Eldervale. Not good at Andromeda's Edge, and just really had a great time with that. Next is Castles of Burgundy, and this was another one that I got to play with Luke Laurie. We played several games with Luke Laurie in a row, and this was another one of those, and just it's a game that I never thought I was going to like, and it's got a lot of randomness. You're just chucking the dice and hoping you get what you want, but it's just really fun. It's a really fun game, and I always enjoy playing it.

16:51 It's always cool to play it with Burgundy Benji because he's so good at it, but it's always cool to play play with him. So, that was really really awesome. Really glad I got to do that. Next is Dwellings of Eldervale. Again, I'm not going to go too in-depth about it cuz I've talked about it a lot, but great game. Had a good time. That was another kind of late night game, but really really enjoyed it, and unfortunately, it was a of a a run for Mr. Steve winning a couple of those, but really enjoyed that. Next is a prototype called No No Puppy. And this is one that is coming to Kickstarter or Game Found very soon from my friends over at Dead Alive Games. And designed by another friend of the channel, Tate Wu.

17:36 And I had told Dead Alive, I'm like, "Look, I I know you sent this thing to me. I just don't think I can get this thing covered before I'm going to be gone for a bit." And they said, "Well, could could you play it at the con? Just play it at the con. We'll show you." I'm like, "Fine." And so they came up before a morning game one morning, they brought it up. And I'm so happy that they did. It is kind of a take on the game BS with a bit more strategy and a bunch of cute puppies on it. And it's just a bluffing game. There's a number out. Everyone has kind of a row of cards of puppies. And it's very simple. If there's a five, you're going to put down a card face down on anybody's stack that's either going to also be a five or a six.

18:25 You put it face down. And then you wait a few seconds, anybody can say, "No no puppy." And that's basically calling BS. You flip it over. If you were telling the truth and you got called, nothing happens. But if but if you were lying and you got called, then they get two points. If you If you were lying and you didn't get called and you flip it over, then you get two points. And then there's depending on how the puppies are laid out at the end, there's some more points that you can get here and there. But just really a clever little game that I did not think I was going to care about. And I actually went downstairs and made a point to play it again later with MicroMax, who I learned is a terrible liar. So bad, he became good at the end. Amazing. Clever little game. And I actually I'm going to try real hard to get a video out before the launch.

19:16 Next is Alderman, and this is one that Mr. Steve Ridgel Dolan and I for a were trying to do a kind of play it we were trying to play it at every con, and we kind of fell out of it for a little bit, but he brought it back, and the good news is I'm still your alderman. And we played Monday morning, so we were tired, and we decided next time we're starting the con with this cuz I got a nice championship ring. And so someone's going to get to wear that ring the whole con. Alderman is a the most German of Euro games I can imagine. So complex with the economy and how it works and the limitations of how you get things. It's real clever, though. It is a super clever, super dry, but super satisfying Euro. Really glad we got it back to the table, and hoping and looking forward to maybe continuing my reign as alderman at KublaCon Fall.

20:15 Next we have Fate of the Fellowship, and this was another Monday game, and Mr. Steve was like, "Oh, I didn't get to play this." And I said, "Just set it up. We'll just We'll power through it." And man, we were crushing it, dominating it. At least I was. I accomplished all the quests. Mr. Steve had Frodo and Sam. All he had to do was drop that ring into Mount Doom. And you know what he couldn't do? Drop the ring into Mount Doom, and we lost. Terrible. Unbelievable. There's a reason this was one of my top five games of the year last year. It's so good. It's just that good. Next we have Recall, and this is one that's on my 5x5, and I haven't actually gotten it played yet. It's the spiritual successor to Revive, and I was trying to decide, do I I both of these games? I think the answer is yes, I do. What an awesome game. My head wasn't really in it. This was one of the first games that we played on Friday and Luke Laurie was kind enough to remind us all how to play.

21:18 And so my head wasn't really in it yet. Been a very hard couple weeks at school. But just a amazing game. And the way that everything kind of connects and the fun little discovery as you find new past races that are out there and you're going to be able to use their powers and do different things and you're trying to move around the board. Everything is very seamless but at the same time really creates an interesting brain burn. Really enjoy Recall. What a great game. Now, move Now moving into the top five. Number five we have Terracotta Army. This is another one that I picked up from Noble Knight Games kind of on a whim. And Original Don and I played it once and we're like, you know what, I got to get all the bits. So I got all these bits and I spent all this money on all these bits and here we are and I put it on my 5 by 5. Don put it on his 10 by 10.

22:08 We're going to do this thing. What a delightful game. It's now Now that we understand it though, we did find out that we've been playing a couple rules slightly wrong. Just great. What a delightful fast easy to play game that just has just enough puzzle to keep you curious about what's going to happen next. And it looks great on the table. It's another one that we got to play with It's another one I got to play with Original Don and one of his sons and his son had not played before. And we were able to get him right into the game and just really really clever. A really great time. Had just a blast playing it. Next is DEI Diveday et Impera. And this is one that was sent to me by Ludus Magnus with one expansion I sent about a whole bunch more expansions.

22:56 And got to play a four player game of it and just had a an awesome time. It's just this relatively simple set of actions that you're going to be able to take, but what it does is it allows you to have this very sprawling, very awesome-looking game on the table, and it scales really, really well. And at the same time, it's a low-conflict troops-on-a-map game, which I really, really like. I like that it's not really easy to remove someone else's troops from the map. It can be done here and there, but it's more rare than you would think. So, it's really about troop movement. How do I get troops to the right places? How do I set up an elevator so I can climb up to this area, and I can be the only one that has access to this thing? And by the time someone else gets here, it's too late.

23:46 I've already exploited all the resources. Very clever game. I really, really enjoyed it. And I just wish I could figure out a good way to store all the tiles. Have not figured that out yet. Next, we have, courtesy of Original Don and his son Adrian, Backyard Chickens. Right there. We ran a game of it, and it was just a delightful delightful game. I said it 30 times when I originally made the video. It's charming, and it was a charming play again. We had three people that we taught how to play, and Original Don and I both got to play, and for the first time ever, I won. I've never actually won, I don't think, playing by myself. I've won as part of a team before, but it's just a quick, simple cleansing feeling game. Really a pleasure to play that. Every single time we play, I always enjoy it, and it's one that I wish I got back to the table more.

24:40 So, coming at number two, we have Vast: Mysterious Manor. This is one of my favorite games of all time. It is so hard to get to the table because, in my players going, all five players need to understand the game or it will fall apart. And I just love it. I got to play as the Shadow Paladin, the alternate red the alternate red faction instead of the Spider Queen, I played the Shadow Paladin and I've played it before but I only played it way back during the pandemic, I had only played it one-on-one digitally and that's not how it shines and just had a great time running around. Poor Hissy Chris was playing the Paladin and was chasing me all over like, "HOW DO YOU KEEP GETTING AWAY from me?" And I'm running away from him throwing up ice walls behind me and he just couldn't catch me and I just love this game. I don't know if everyone had as much fun as I did but I adored it and what is amazing to me is there was three of us that were right there to win. If I hadn't won when I won the Manor was going to win and if the Manor somehow hadn't won, the Warlock was going to win. And then Mr. Stephen Hissy Chris also played.

26:00 Great game. I adore it every single time I play which brings us to number one. The best game I played at KublaCon Prime 2026 is Red Dragon Inn Battle for Greyport. Played a hard mission. It was set up where only players who knew how to play could play and there was four of us playing. It was great. It was a scenario I'd never done before. I actually got to play with a character I had actually never played with before and it was awesome. Just awesome and having players around the table who knew what was going on and making suggestions and talking about different ideas. Oh, well this is a contraption or let this person have the contraption or let this person have the contraption. It just works so well. If you are a fan of a cooperative deck building game that my favorite thing I always say is you get more cards, but you always get a card. You're not spending time getting cards to get more cards.

26:57 It's just awesome. And the beautiful thing about playing at a higher player count is you really have to manage your resources because you burn all of your cards on other people's turns and then it gets to your turn and you have any cards left. So you really got to kind of figure that out. It's not something that really happens when you play two players like I did earlier, which is one of the reasons why that was lower on the list, but it just works really well. It's a delightful game. I love it. Love it. Love it. I love it so much I played it twice at one con. So, there you have it, folks. That is Kublacon Prime 2026. I'm really looking forward to Kubla Fall, also 2026, coming up at the end of the year. And it's just a delight. I highly, highly recommend coming and checking out Kublacon or Kubla Fall if you are in the area. You know what? I'd even say if you're not too far away, come on out for it cuz it is just a dang delight. But, there you have it, folks.

27:53 But, there you have it, folks. If you found this video useful, please like, subscribe, share, maybe become a channel member. As always, thank you so much for watching. Have a wonderful, wonderful day.