UKGE 2026 Preview - 40 Games in 10 minutes

0:03 Welcome to Allies or Enemies. I'm Jess. And I am Shawn, and today we're going to be doing a preview of some of the games we're excited about for UKGE. And we are going to do a mix of bigger publishers, indie publishers. We're also going to really try and keep this to stuff we didn't talk about last year. So, go back and look at that, too, because a ton of those games are going to be back now, or some of those weren't on sale, now they'll be on sale. But, we got a whole fresh batch cuz there's just too many to talk about.

0:33 And we haven't played basically any of these, so we won't have any pictures, just to let you know. So, the first thing that I want to talk about is our game. So, we are going to be at 3A B19, the Allies or Enemies booth, and you can play both of our games. So, Last Week of Summer is going to have demos there, and that is going to be the final actual real version of the game. Unfortunately, it's not going to quite make it for UKGE. They're showing up a week later, which is too bad, but you can pre-order it, and talk to us at the show about that. But, we are going to have copies of Shakespeare: The Card Game. So, we are going to have copies of that to sell, and also to demo. And we are going to have bookmarks. So, that's going to showcase Kevin Newman's awesome art for the game. So, we're going to have nine different bookmarks that you can get, as well. I'm really happy with those, too.

1:26 So, please come by and say hi, demo our games, buy the Shakespeare: The Card Game. We're really excited. First time we're going to have games for sale. But, let's get into all the other games we want to talk about. Yeah, so we've got a huge list, and the first one I have is Night at the Zoo. And this is designed by Thomas Hollick, who designed Sagrada and Ponzi Scheme. And the animals have escaped the zoo, and it's a tile placement game where you're trying to build paths for them to come back. I I really want to play that one, too. And then my first one I'm going to talk about is King of Tokyo Godzilla. So King of Tokyo is a gateway game that just has a big place in my heart cuz it was one of my key gateway games and I love love love Godzilla. And so this has got a whole bunch of the characters from Godzilla, basically everyone that you would expect. So that is just a no-brainer for me. Railway Porters is the new Sashi and Sashi game and we're always keen to check out their games.

2:24 And as it sounds like you're going to be porters moving the luggage about. Another game I want to check out is Horloge. So this was really popular at Essen, but I didn't really get an opportunity to to see it. So I think Devir is publishing it as well and I really want to check it out.

2:41 And then on the indie side of things, there's this cool thing where there's this one booth that has three different indie publishers all kind of mushed together there and they're all publishers that I know and I like. So Huff no more is going to have Roller Disco which has got a tremendous name and is really fun. And then Kev makes games which is Kevin Newman of Shakespeare the card game art as well. He has got this really great solo game that's all in your hand called One for Sorrow. It is super hard and super clever. And then also Minerva Games is going to be there with Crumbs. And then another one I want to check out is called Sho Ga Ndo. And so this is co-designed by Simone Luciani and published by Devir. And it sounds like a card like a deck construction game where you're pushing your luck and if you reveal too many Yokai symbols you you bust. So it takes place in like that world with Yokai. And then I'm a huge fan of town building in basically any form. So there's a couple of town building games that I'm really keen to play. So one is West Story where you're building a cowboy town. And then another is Tenby where you're building a Welsh seaside town, and both of those look great.

3:54 The next games are games where I've played early versions, and that includes Loosen the Library, where you're collecting historical and fictional heroines to defeat terrors, as well as War of the Toads, which is a two-player 18 card battling game where you're trying to like take each other's toes. And then a few very pretty games that I'm just going to clump together here include Personal Demons, which is the second game from Ted Alspach Games, and it's got a really cool theme, and it looks beautiful. And then there's also Aster from Midnight Trading, and that is a two-to-three player game that's got this whole like lore book connected to it, and it's just this really interesting abstract strategy game. And then For the Gods, which has asymmetric god powers, it has building these towers, it has islands, and I am such a sucker for anything with islands, so that just checks a lot of boxes for me.

4:51 Well, and speaking of For the Gods, another one I'm interested is Under the Leaves, which has two of the same three designers as For the Gods, and it looks like a really cute tile placement game where you're building a garden to attract insects and different things to your garden. And then Hachette is always worth checking out. They've always got so much stuff there, and I think some of the best demoers that are at any convention. And so they've got a bunch of really cool expansions this year that include Shackleton Base, uh Captain Flip, and then also Acropolis, which is this cool co-op expansion. We've actually got reviews coming up of all of those. We've already had a chance to play them, but I highly recommend them. And some really great like new games, too, like Bella Vista, which we really like, like an auction city-building game with really great 3D buildings. And Zenith, which is a two-player game, and that one's I really recommend especially if you like playing at two players. So our very first UK Games Expo, one of our favorite games was Zooli. And so the that publisher Unfringed will have a couple more games including Fetching Feathers, which is a card game with birds wearing hats, as well as Dot, an abstract strategy card game. And then card games are kind of a theme for us this year. There's a whole bunch of card games that I'm excited about. So another one is Jackpot and this is this game where you are making a slot machine, but you're like passing cards around and

6:22 you're trying to make the best slot machine and then each time you're kind of pulling the thing and getting coins. I'm not exactly sure how it works, but it it looks like the sort of thing that I would really like. And then also Before the Rain, which is another UK publisher and this is about bees and it looks adorable. Another card game is Use Up All Your Sick Days. And this looks adorable and it's by the the same publisher and designer as Otter, which is a really cute looking game, too. Yeah, Otter was one of our games of Essen last year. I felt like it flew under the radar, but this publisher makes a lot of really adorable games. And then going completely the other way to a very big game that I've been interested in for years, it feels like, is World Order. And I understand that will finally actually be here at UKGE. I hope I'm right about that cuz I really am excited to get that. A game that won't be here, but that you can demo is Ryo. And so that's published by Paverson Games, who I think do really good like thematic mid-weight Europe Euros, so I'm really interested in checking it out.

7:24 And then a couple that have kind of fashion-ish themes. One of them is Threaded and I actually played a really early playtest of this and I was blown away then and that was basically just like drawn on scraps of paper, but it was a good game then. And it really didn't change that much to where it is now except that now it looks beautiful. And another game that looks very, very cool is Boutique Rivals and this is a fashion-based game and I just I like the sound of that theme. CGE will be demoing Drillers and I'm always interested in whatever game CGE are putting out and in Drillers it's it's a mining game that I don't know much about but I do want to see what it is. And then two games that I'm going to lump together just because they have got the same word in their title are Old King's Crown which I've heard nothing but tremendous things about but still have not had a chance to actually play and then there's also an expansion for Crown of Ash and I think this is the first time that this is going to be out to demo but I actually did get a chance to play test an earlier version of this and I really liked it.

8:30 Flamecraft Duels is one I want to check out and I really like the base game of Flamecraft and this is a two-player specific version that I've heard is great. And then Tulip Season I actually haven't heard that much about but I really like the theme. I'm a big fan of Windmill Valley and there aren't a lot maybe there are a lot of Tulip games but I don't know about them and this is from Sinister Fish who basically have liked almost everything I think that they've put out so I'm really keen on this. Another one that we've liked almost everything of are the Horrified series and so I'm really interested in Horrified Ravenloft and I think it's four new monsters and it's still like in a D&D theme and I really like the last D&D Horrified. Yeah and Castle Ravenloft is one of the only games that we owned in new when we lived in New Zealand weirdly so I've I've got a soft spot for that as well. So that was a whirlwind tour of a whole bunch of games we're interested in checking out.

9:27 And there are so many more games that there are so many games at UKGE. We can't possibly know about all of them so please do let us know about the ones you think we missed the ones you think other folks would be interested in. Please just load up the comments with everything that you are excited about. And please do come by our booth, stop by, say hi, demo our games. We're really excited to be there.

9:50 We are so excited to see folks. We will have Shakespeare the card game on sale. So, and we will also have a bunch of bookmarks on sale. You can also pre-order Last Week of Summer. So, this is a really exciting UKGE for us. So, please do come by. Thank you so much for watching. As usual, please like, subscribe, and hopefully we'll see you next time for some more games.