Best New Editions of Board Games Coming to Stores in April, 2026
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Transcript
Hey, I'm Grant with Grant's Gamerecks. Welcome to my monthly video on the best new editions of board games coming to retail. This is April 2026. Uh before I jump into the games, I want to say thank you to everybody. I recently released a video on all of the um projects and the updates and things that I have coming for this channel and the amount of positive response was just overwhelming and I and it made me feel great and I and I just really want to say thank you to everybody. It's that type of encouragement that keeps us creators going. So, you know, keep spreading the love not just to me but to all creators that you like and stuff because it really does make a difference. and I just wanted to say thank you for everybody's uh encouragement, positive feedback, and and everything else. So, yeah. Um, this month we don't have a lot of new editions actually here in April.
Uh, but we do have some really good ones. Uh, so I'm going to jump into eight different new editions we have coming out this month. Thanks so much for being here. First up in the world of new additions, Arcane Wonders is releasing the game lay lines. Uh this plays two to six players in 45 to 60 minutes. And it is uh a mediumweight game, but maybe on the lower end of medium weight, sort of on that straddle between uh medium weight and uh lightweight games. Um this is a reimplementation of a game called Alf Ash. Uh, and Elf Ash came out in 1987 and it actually won the Spiel Dearus long long time ago, decades ago. A a game from the famous designer Wolf Gang Krommer. Uh, and this new game is taking some of the system of Alf Ash and giving it a new theme, giving it some new mechanisms. Like the game has changed a decent amount. Uh thematically the original game was about um truckers delivering stuff, you know, u literally moving stuff on semitrs and things.
Well, this one is about gathering magical resources and then taking them along lay lines to deliver and sell them at markets. Uh so you know much more of a fantastical magical theme for this one but at its core it is still a pick up and deliver game just like the original one. You are going to be picking up resources moving to other spots on the board and then trying to sell those resources. So that is still maintained here. um you know the you're going to uh you it really is kind of like a classic pick up and deliver you know where it is that is the central mechanism of the game. There is a auction part of the game though too. you will be auctioning off these cards. And one of the interesting things is if you win the auction, you will get the card, but if you get second place, you get these animal cards. And those animal cards will get you really good one time special bonuses. Uh, and so you kind of want to be in a lot of the auctions, but you don't necessarily want to win all of the auctions. there are reasons to lose so you can get some of these other cards that will get you cool benefits along the way. So there is, you know, some luck because you'll be rolling dice to help you move. And if you are rolling better, you're just going to move more than somebody that is not rolling as well. And I don't know that there is a
ton of ways to mitigate the dice. Uh so, you know, just know that going in. But, you know, looks pretty cool on the table. I like the art style and stuff of it. So, and really, you know, reimplements a classic game at this point. Speaking of re-implementing a classic game, uh, Asthma in association with Katan Studios is releasing Katan on the road. This plays three to four players in 15 to 30 minutes, and it is a lightweight card game. This is essentially the original Katan or Settlers of Katan if that's what you played once upon a time distilled down into a card game. This is the card game version. So think of like this is Monopoly Deal uh in association with Monopoly. This is taking it and making it quicker, making it smaller, making it tr, you know, transportable. This is a a little hang tag box you can put in a pocket or a purse or a backpack or something like that. And from everything I've heard from people, they really do capture the katan experience but in a small card version. This really does feel like original katan. You will be instead of rolling dice to then produce resources, you're just going to take cards every turn and you will be drawing cards from this deck and you will have resource cards in your hand by just drawing from a deck. And you don't just draw on your turn, you draw on every
player's turn. So, you're just going to constantly be getting new cards. So, you know, some people are like, "Well, that's random." Yeah, but the dice rolling in Katana was random, too. So, there's just a random element to the game. You can then use the resources to build roads to build settlements to build uh villages on top of settlements. You can negotiate with other players. You can trade cards with other players. So, it maintains all of those aspects of Katan that you know and love. And um you know, I've heard from people it's like, well, if you don't like Katan, you might actually like this game because it just makes it such a faster. You know, I'm not a huge fan of Monopoly. I legitimately like Monopoly Deal. And so this is the same thing there. And if you don't, I mean, if you do like Kadan, this is still a nice alternative. You know, yes, you're missing the board. You you don't have that big physical element to the game, but maybe you want to play the game and you only have 20 minutes, you can do it here. Whereas, you know, regular katan takes much longer. So, yeah, pretty cool. Uh, and it's still a race to points here. And this one, it's seven victory points here. But uh if you want Katana in a small version, then check out Katana on the road.
As an in association with Space Cowboys, is releasing Unlock Short Adventures: The Ascent. This plays 1 to six players in 45 minutes. And it is a lighterwe game. This is a deduction style puzzle solving, you know, escape room in a box type of a game. They do a lot of these unlock games and they are mechanically similar in that you will have to figure out puzzles in order to drive the story forward and you don't actually destroy anything which is nice because then you can give it away to someone else. And each of the unlocks has different cases and different themes that come with their own unique puzzles. Um, a lot of the bigger unlock boxes have three cases in them. These unlock short adventures have a single case in them and that case, you know, takes 45 minutes or an hour. So, this is a sort of one-time play game here. Uh, and just pick the theme that you like the most. The the ascent is a 30card mini adventure in the unlock series of card driven escape room games. Uh, and this is the thematically it is take a journey to Mount Celeststeine and find your grandfather.
So, if you like that theme, check it out. Grand Gamers Guild is releasing S'mores Galore: Roast and Write. Uh, this plays one to 99 players, 20 to 30 minutes, and it is a lightweight game. This is the roll and write version of Grand Gamers Guild uh, S'mores Galore. Uh, S'mores Galore was a card game where you were trying to get different cards to make various types of s'mores. And in this one, uh, the reason, you know, they say one to 99 is that if anybody has a sheet, they can play the game. You can kind of a lot of rolling rights you can play with as many people as you want as long as somebody has like a writing utensil and a sheet. In S'mores Glorore, Roast and Write, you will be rolling some dice and then using the results of the dice to write into your grid. And you know the dice will have graham cracker and marshmallow and chocolate and things like that that you use to make s'mores. And then you are trying to fill in your sheet and create a puzzle.
You're trying to solve a puzzle in order to unlock different s'mores. You will play with various s'mores card each game. And some of those s'mores cards are like just build a traditional s'more. You want graham crack graham cracker chocolate marshmallow graham cracker. And so in my sheet, if I can get graham cracker, uh, chocolate, marshmallow, graham cracker on next to each other filled in, then I'm going to get points for that. But sometimes there's other ones. It's like the chocolate lover and you need multiple chocolates in sandwiched in between the other stuff. Maybe it's like a stackable where you need a bunch. You're you're going you're going graham cracker, marshmallow, chocolate, graham cracker, marshmallow, chocolate, graham cracker. Boom. You're wild. You're making a double-decker s'more. Uh and so in this you are just trying to and you know as with any roll and write there are cascading benefits. If you fill a roll row or a column you're going to get bonuses that's going to help you add other stuff to your sheet that's going to help you get more points and boom boom boom boom you know. So if you're a fan of rolling rights this is one that plays you know younger too. Definitely a family weight game. So, if you want to roll and write that plays like ages seven or eight and up, then check out S'mores Galore Roast and Write.
Play to Z Games is releasing a new version of the game, The Brain. Uh, this the Brain originally came out in like 2013. Uh, and this new version has sort of updated artwork, updated graphic design, uh, different box cover, things like that. Um, this plays one to four players in about 15 minutes and it is a lightweight game. It's literally called the brain because it's a bit of a twist on the mind. Um, a popular game. In the brain, you also have limited communication. You cannot tell people what you're about to play or what you have in your hand or anything like that. And so, it is a limited communication game where we are trying to play out cards. Uh we will win as a group because this is a cooperative game. Uh the we will win as a group if we uh are able to sort of play all the cards in our hand and the deck and not have too many cards on the table unplayed. We will win.
However, we will lose if we sort of get stuck and can't play things. Um, you will be every turn you will be placing a card from your hand onto the center of the table and taking the corresponding action of the card. And corresponding actions might allow you to give a card to another player. It might force a player to pick up a card. It might do things like that. And so you are trying to manage your actions and the cards and everything else in order to try to play everything out but with limited communication. So yeah, if you if you liked uh the sometimes people go, "Oh, the mind there's just not that much of a game there." Well, this is like more of a game. If you want that sort of limited comm communication, hand management, play stuff at the right time, but you want a little bit more strategy than the mind ad, then check out the brain.
Ravensburgger is releasing a new version of the classic game Las Vegas. Um, I guess Las Vegas isn't that old, but I feel like it's a classic game in that it's one I still see played all the time at conventions. It's still a very popular game. I think the original version of Las Vegas came out in like 2012 and now we have a new version of it. This plays two to six players in about 40 minutes and it is a lightweight game. Las Vegas is a, you know, push your luck, dice rolling, assign dice to stuff and try to get the most money game. It's a light game, but it is very fun and it is a great convention game because, you know, it's easy to teach and it has big emotional table moments.
There's always big reactions. Uh, in the game, you will be rolling a bunch of dice and then taking all of one number that you rolled. Say you rolled three different fours. You're going to take all three of those fours and put it on the four casino. There are casinos for each number. And you want to have the most dice there at the end of the round. And whoever has the most is going to get the best bill associated with that casino. You're going to get the most money. Uh it's a little cutthroat because if you tie with somebody else, you guys cancel each other out and then the next person there wins the best bill, you know, wins the money there. So, if I have three fours and they have three fours and they have one four, then they're going to win it. It's wild, you know, but it's fun. This uh new addition uh does a few things. They say it streamlines the game with fewer rounds.
Um there are larger casino rewards, so you know, you feel pretty good. Uh this also includes a sixth player, whereas the original Las Vegas was two to five players, this is now two to six players. And it includes powerful big dice. And I can't really tell you what the big dice do because I haven't seen a lot about it and a lot that's out there about it is in German. And I don't speak German, but there are some new types of dice in the game here. And I imagine it's like a it gives you maybe this dice is worth more. Maybe this dice does something cool for you, you know. But if you want a social dice rolling fun table moment game, then definitely check out Las Vegas. This has new art, graphic design. The older version certainly wasn't a looker, and this one looks a lot fancier to me. So, yeah, new version of Las Vegas coming out this month.
Next up, we have Boop Shuffle from Smirk and Dagger Games. This is the card game version of the popular game Boop. Plays two players only, 20 to 30 minutes, and it is a lightweight game. Just like Katan on the Road was the card version of Katan, this is the card version of Boop and maintains a lot of the same theme and mechanism. You will be playing a kitten down that will boop away other uh kittens and you are trying to line up three of your kittens in a row in order to turn them into cats. And then you're trying to line up the cats in order to win the game. And you know, it's an abstract game but with a fun theme on top of it. And it is very puzzly when you're placing stuff down and everything around it sort of boops out. How do you set yourself up to boop things next to other things that then help, you know, get your stuff in the right place? Um, this is, you know, you don't have the the bed board anymore. You have cards in it. And so you will be you have kitten cards and you want to line up three of your kitten cards just like the original game uh to graduate them into cats. Uh there are a few special things in this version though. There is a super kitten in the game which will boop cards two spaces away instead of just one space away. There is a scaredy kitten who gets booped away anytime someone boops next to them. Uh there are fun new specialty
cards that add some different challenges and twists in the game. And so, yeah, if you like uh a cat theme or if you like an abstract puzzly game, figuring out how to get stuff into the right place, then Boop's a great game that I recommend. And this is like a nice travel version of it, a card version of it. You can kind of bring anywhere and play anywhere you want. Smirk and Dagger is also releasing the game Devious. Uh, this is a re-implementation of a game called Fickle that came out a few years ago, came out in like 2019. Uh, Devious plays two to six players in 20 to 40 minutes, and it is a lightweight game. This is an anti-set collection game. So was Fickle. And this just sort of updates the art and the graphic design and things like that. Um, this is an anti-set collection game in that you literally don't want to get two of the same card. You are trying to avoid getting two of the same card. If you have one card of a specific tribe, then you will score its rank. You will score the value of the card. However, if you have two cards of the same tribe, you score zero points. And if you have three to four cards of a given tribe, you are going to lose points. you are literally going to get negative points. And so you really want to try to avoid getting the same thing if possible. And the way we do that a bit is we are going to uh draw
three cards and we're going to stack them however you want. And then you're going to give them to another player and that player can look at the top card and decide whether to keep it and forego looking at the other ones or they can get rid of it and look at the next card. So, there's definitely the mind games of how do you stack something to stick them with something they don't want? How do you how do you outsmart them? How do you um you know, how do you play that psychology game where you can sort of get them to look at the next thing when they don't want to look at the next thing and stuff. Um, so yeah, uh, there are also a bunch of tribes, like factions in the game, and each of them has a unique power and ability to manipulate stuff from around the table.
Uh, and you won't play with them all every game. And so that's like some of the replayability of the game is switching up which tribes you're playing with, which uh the the fairies, the fairy bands in the deck and stuff. Uh, so yeah, you know, if you like uh a a card game with a lot of player interaction and an anti-set collection game, I don't know that I've played too many anti- set collection games, so that makes me interested in this one for sure. It's definitely a a twist on a popular mechanic. So, those are eight different new additions coming to retail here in April. Thank you so much for liking, subscribing, for checking out these videos. Uh, I I'm glad that people appreciate them and enjoy them and uh get a lot of information from them.
There's a lot of information to share. We have so many board games coming out all the time these days and I'm happy to let you know about them. All right, thank you so much everybody. I'm Grant with Grant's Gamerecks.