5 Hotly Anticipated Board Games! The Hype Factor April 2026

0:00 Hello and welcome to board stupiding. My name's Wayne and I'm Matt and here is another episode of

0:05 of the hype factor April edition.

0:11 Yes, it's the factors where we basically talk about the games where we are hyped that they're going to come out or the they're going to come out on Kickstarter game found in the next few months that we can't wait to talk to you about.

0:24 Yeah. Or retail games too. We talk plenty of those as well on this show. So to join us on this voyage of hype and discovery,

0:32 well, hit the subscribe button. Do that. Get hyped. Ding the bell. Let's go.

0:44 All right. Wait, let's start drilling into this episode with

0:48 very good drillers. My check games.

0:52 Too easy. So check games edition typically does an annual game that gets released around Essen and this year's big game is going to be drillers. Now this is going to be very

1:04 drillers drillers. The the Jackson estate is very ligious.

1:12 Yes.

1:12 So be very careful. So, um, but this is going to be a return potentially a return to form depending on how you see it for for CGU because last year's game big game was Whiswood. Uh, they did have the SETI expansion, but Whis was much more of a family game.

1:26 Way lighter. Nice.

1:28 Very good.

1:29 Way lighter.

1:29 Way lighter. Drillers looks like a bit more of a return to the hobby game.

1:33 Yes. And what this game is is essentially it's going to be a deck building game where you're going to be controlling mechs to dig undergrounds in the wreckage of an old mining corporations trying to get gems, useful materials, upgrade your mech, dig deeper, get more stuff to make that money

1:51 and being the biggest driller.

1:53 Be the biggest driller there is. But it sounds very fun. It looks very nice. So I got I do really like this artwork of this like all the the drillers these mechs are made of pieces of like stuff like that.

2:08 That's very cool. It's supposed to be more on the on the medium way type of game but again all run by this this deck building but fast enough that is actually you going to go through the the deck and not not like there's a lot of other games where you yeah you're doing the deck building but some cards you don't get to see enough. This is more like um a very fast one. It's got a quite a quirky things while uh you always going to see the first card of your deck. So you know the first card that is going to come out in the next session so you kind of like can can

2:41 tie the plan a little bit.

2:43 A little bit

2:43 a lot of like give me say a lot of clanks as well.

2:48 Getting cheaper.

2:49 Yeah. And and multi-use cards. So the cards you can either use it to do their action or you can spend it to to be to be fuel or kind of like the

2:59 kind of like the money or all the the energy that you need to use to do set action.

3:05 But yeah, it sounds like super snappy, super cool. Looks super good.

3:09 I'm happy the CG went back to that more

3:12 Arnak style game. I'm I'm in what I we heard what we spoke with people that played the game is that it's more toward that like mid midweight game.

3:24 Setti went in the expert category. Yes. Whisper went in the beginner category. Is it going to be somewhere in the middle? Let's go back to the middle.

3:31 That is something to be very excited about. Uh Roy from our patrons on the WhatsApp group says he managed to play this over in the US and he's very excited about

3:39 Yes. He say it's his favorite game so far that came out this year. Um, yeah, it sounds sounds very cool. So, he scales very well at even like a two players. Uh, it plays quite quickly, like 45 minutes on a two-player game, expecting like an hour on a three, four players. Uh, but I'm I'm really excited because CG again, we we're big fans of CG production of of the games that we did, like I said, um, Anna, Coetti, all this stuff. I really want them Yeah. had to go to that space in in between

4:13 the space though where we occupy them.

4:15 Yeah, exactly. That's that that is super cool. So

4:18 yeah,

4:19 truly on to the next one.

4:22 So Matt, after we've been drilling down into the dirt, getting all of that treasure and making off like pirates. What's the next game that we've got to talk?

4:31 Oh, talking about pirates.

4:33 We're talking about pirates

4:34 and we're talking about zombie pirates. We the new zombie side that men's tale coming out on game found uh 17 days while we're recording this video in 17 days. So

4:49 when this videos come out it's going to be it's going to be it's going to be there. Now uh I told myself never buy another zombie again in your life and you know it.

4:59 Oh yeah. I remember this conversation very

5:02 desire of of zombie side games including all the Marvel I went I went crazy with the Marvel stuff. I got all the fantasy ones or the dark plague one that the my favorite one rather than the um the modern the modern ones. Uh but I told myself never never again. I did skip the white dead or the the last. So now why am I interested in this one? First of all, this is going to be the first zombie side that is not Simon Simony Sony Bomb anymore. This is going to be purely Asodi and Fantasy Flight.

5:36 Interesting.

5:37 So, this is this is first things is is one thing. The second things is they are remodernizing uh streamlining the game. Uh so, they took in um because you always said the fantasy one and the uh and the modern one, they're slightly different. and they're kind of like trying to bring both of them with the same with the same rules. Uh so this one the death mentale is going to be the first step into the new fantasy trilogy or quadrilogy or

6:07 whatever it is if they can make it actually but um so the streamlining some of the rules for example uh now you got different decks of uh of um objects as before the when you search into a room was completely random if you get an epic things or not. In this one has got a rules where you're searching for treasure because of course you are a pirate pirates.

6:27 H so that you gonna know that if you get a map on the on one of the towns it's going to be an X cuz of course the X marks the spot. Of course it does. And you can you can dig out and it's going to be like epic treasures or smaller treasure. Um but for the rest you keeping the the same familiar stuff with the necromancer that in this case is going to be this like big like um uh what's the name? the commission, the um governor. Governor, the governor. Uh there's going to be the necromancer spawning stuff. New mechanics with the governor not creating creating spots of um spawn spots in the middle of the map. Uh and then you got your the usual zombies, the runners, and all that stuff. So, Zombie Side, you know, I always been a big fan of So, I think it's it's a mega fun game. It

7:16 is fun.

7:16 Um it's super uncooperative game.

7:18 Yeah. It's one of those where you're rolling a lot a lot of dice. It's you're having a lot of fun.

7:23 You're killing zombies. It's It's great fun. And this time it's with added pirates.

7:27 Yeah. And it's got a lot of pirate things like you can go to like go into the water. The zombie can walk under the water. Uh you can swing on uh on ropes and there's a lot going on there. I'm I've got my eyes fixed on this. Even if I say I'm not going to get another zombie side.

7:48 I'm not going to get after this.

7:51 After this,

7:53 watch this space.

7:55 All right, we uh leave the pirates and the zombie behind, but we stay in in conflict. Another type of conflict like this now this times in an historical conflict.

8:09 Yeah.

8:10 The games we're talking about is a game from Paulo Mori. is one of our favorite because it's Italian of course. Um, and uh, this is going to be the games that I'll let you talk everything about it, but it's uh, it's the kind of like the third in this um, the series or whatever they or whatever how many they going to do. I don't know. Uh because we had Blitzkrieg first, we had Caesar.

8:38 Caesar after and now Flintlock.

8:42 Flint lock.

8:43 Flint lock.

8:44 Global warfare in 20 minutes, which is the third in this series of two-player games by Palamorei focusing on a specific era of history. I love a historical theme in my games. Me and Matt had the pleasure of playing Caesar, our first visit last year. It's so We still need to get a copy of it. Honestly, it's such a fantastic play. like yes hard to find but it's such a fantastic game. It's a great system and what's extremely exciting about this third iteration but of course the historical theme is interesting because we've got

9:15 a couple of different theaters of war. We've got the seven years war in the theaters of Europe, India and the Atlantic or the French and Indian War in North America. So you have this very interesting.

9:25 So this is already like a difference from the other ones where the other ones the the map would have been that one. You just play the area control game in in that one.

9:33 This is two boards.

9:34 This is already two boards.

9:35 Two boards which you can combine as well for a two versus two battle.

9:38 That is another new

9:40 different because before it's always been one versus one and now it's a one to four player

9:46 which is very cool.

9:47 Okay. I see what what Yeah. Yeah. I see where they're going.

9:50 So there's that's another exciting thing. The third exciting thing, so as well as the new historic theme, the fact that there's going to be two boards, the fact that you can play two versus two, and well, the fourth thing I guess is that Palamorei is working with David Thompson, the mind behind the undaunted series for this one. So

10:07 So Pali,

10:08 yeah, David Thompson also David Thompson also did for the gods. So this is like uh this is going to be a very exciting product and it's coming to retail. It's going to be probably a reasonable price point. Um they all their games are like quite small in production. between the 2025 or 25 $30 whatever it is.

10:27 I am dead excited about this as a concept. I mean I love Caesar anyway. I love the idea of a new one in a new in a new series and the ability to play with more players and with more variety sounds super awesome with a a new design partner.

10:41 Yeah, especially I want to see how they going to develop the because we just saw photos of the um the prototype. I'm sure the photos that you're seeing right now on the in the video that prototypes as soon as we got something else we'll show it to you. It's not going to be that ugly again.

10:57 No, no, it's it's going to be lovely and hopefully we'll get to play it maybe at UK G. If not then but yeah.

11:05 So Matt, as the people may or may not know, this is the year of the reimplementation. In fact, we've kind of seen that in the last few years, but it feels go watch the video. It'll be linked there for sure. So do go and watch that. We have a whole chat about that.

11:19 And here is another example.

11:21 Yes. But this time we're going way back in time. So let me set up the a little story behind

11:28 story time with Grandpa Mateo.

11:30 So um have you ever heard of a game called Star Wars the Queen's Gambit?

11:38 Yes, I have. Yes.

11:39 So Star Wars the Queen Gambit was u a game that came out in the uh in year 2000. So, it's 26 years old.

11:47 So long.

11:48 It's been on my list of trying of games trying to find because of my obsession with Star Wars. It just like it's kind of like one of those things that I want to have. But it's been a basically a white whale. It's a game that is impossible to find. It's a game that if you if you try if you find a copy on eBay, people ask you for basically a kidney or something like that. It's literally impossible.

12:13 It's a crazy game. on like three levels is looks wild. Yeah.

12:16 Yeah. Um but this year uh they are reimplementing the game. So they taking back they taking it from 2000 to 2026. They're stripping out the Star Wars unfortunately IP, but they're adding the Lord of the Rings because Lord of the Rings now is free for all and everybody squeezing in like let's make some money. Yeah.

12:39 And it's going to be Lord of the Rings the King's Gambit. You see, you see what they're doing now.

12:47 But um so we know we know that it's going to come out. It's going to come out in crowdfunding. We still don't know if it's Kickstarter or toward the end of the year. Uh but if he they're basically retaking Star Wars, the Queen's Gambit and it's not the Queen's Gambit from Netflix or that that it's called Star Wars the Queen. The Queen is Queen Amidala. So let's let's let's try to get straight. Um but the game was absolutely absurd. Uh because you had in the in the center of the of the table, you had these three level um miniature games. Um and what you need to try to do is going up on the on the different levels and and trying to to win the game. Uh but you got then another side of the board that is the big Naboo battle. So you got droids and like there a lot of things going on in there. On the other side of the board, you got another battleground that is basically Obi-Wan fighting with Dark Maul and and Qui-Gon. And then you got another board that is that is young Anakin going into space with a spaceship. So basically everything all together mixed together to playing the games. But the game is very a merry thrash. It's literally like just chucking a a lot of dice and having fun and having fun with that. Um

14:09 so I'm really glad that they are redoing reimplementing this game because it's been again a white whale. Um I just hope that they're going to tweak a little bit to make it feel 2026 and not leaving it exactly as it was.

14:24 Okay. creating

14:25 maybe doing a little memoir 44 on it on the battle.

14:29 That will be great. But I'm sure like the production is going to be absurd. So I'm happy about it. Absolutely bar me. Looking forward to that one.

14:37 Next one we got on the list um is an expansion. Yeah. And as I mentioned, we are very excited because it's an expansion of one of the games that came out a couple of years ago that

14:48 literally skyrocketed in our favorite game list. And we're talking about the game is Endeavor Deep Sea and the expansion is

14:56 we are talking about Uncharted Waters. So Endeavor Deep Sea, as Matt said, absolutely smashed into our favorite games ever. We love that game. It is so much fun. It is so interesting to play uh both competitively and cooperatively. But this expansion is going to add even more to a game that is already super fun.

15:16 And what I'm very excited about, there's numerous things about this. Obviously, even more tiles to explore. That's a cool thing.

15:22 That's a cool. Yeah.

15:23 It's learning more tiles,

15:25 more more variety, more stuff that that that is good.

15:29 One of the fun things about that is each of the tiles in Endeavor Deep Sea has normally some sort of special rules. It's quite interesting. So, as well as that, you're going to get like obviously more stuff. So, more journal cards, more tokens, more things to go and do, more variety.

15:44 Extremely exciting though is new specialists, new crew that you can

15:49 That's super cool. That's super cool. He adds he adds more of the like the high end ones. So the ones that do all that crazy stuff at the end. That's that's super cool to see. And they add more like more uh co-op version co-op missions more. In fact expanding out the co-op mode even more. So adding like difficulty tiers um adding new co goal cards creating new different scenarios just for the co-op which is really cool. stool if you're interested solo/ co-op and as well as all of that just a whole bunch I think it's four entirely new scenarios as well so like that's like a massive chunk of extra scenarios that you can play it's chock a block full of content um I am hyped as hell

16:33 for yeah so this is going to be delivered to the backers whoever cuz you backed it on the Kickstarter last year I believe um it's going to be delivered

16:42 in the next few months and then it's going to go retail tail after that. Make sure

16:50 to get it cuz indeep sea the only critics that I had of that game is that it was impossible to find.

16:56 Yeah, exactly. First print just

16:58 if you're interested, you haven't backed it already the Kickstarter. Make sure that you contact your local shop or or somewhere and and and get your hands on this because it's it's going to add more

17:10 to a game that is already fantastic and we can't wait.

17:14 Absolutely. More and more more. Give me more.

17:18 So, Matt, final ones. Surprise me. Give us a curveball. What we got?

17:22 Um, I'm not a DC fan,

17:24 but this game I'm excited. I'm

17:27 Batman.

17:28 No,

17:28 Superman.

17:28 No, no, sorry. I do like Batman. I don't like Superman.

17:31 Okay.

17:31 I don't like Flash. I don't like

17:35 The only No, definitely not. The only flesh that I like it was the '9s TV show. Do you remember that? I love that. with flesh with his um uh like velvety. Ah, just I love it. Well, that show I love it. But I'm not I'm not a massive beside Yeah. beside Batman and maybe Lobo I I do like but I'm not I never been um a big DC fan. I'm I'm more like a anime and Marvel. Um but this game I'm talking about Brave and Bold DC Brave and Bold. Um it's coming retail uh Q3 September more or less. They they got a a very good road map on their website. Um and basically is if you place dice throne uh you know that dice throne is a one versus one game. You can play two versus two as well but it's a one versus one game uh where you rolling your dice and uh depending on what you roll you each character can do different different things. This is the same thing but it's a deck building game. So instead of rolling dice you're going to be building your bag. you're gonna at the start of the round taking out tokens from uh from the from the hero bag and putting them down on the specific spaces that gonna let you do this or that action. But for the rest is it's still like a fight like you can do literally le versus Superman or Batman versus Joker, whatever character they they going to put. They got a quite good roster already of the of the of the ones that they have announced. Um they got

19:07 Batman Flesh, they got um Superman like Slutter, uh Dark Seed and Clayface. They got a a few

19:15 Yeah. a few big hitters.

19:16 And I think what they they trying to do is basically replicate uh the dice drone super stuff. Yeah.

19:24 But um shifting into a into a different

19:28 into a dice bag into that. It sounds It sounds quite interesting and interesting.

19:33 Yeah. Um, it's

19:35 I liked band building. Band building is fun. Like

19:37 is is pulling out the bag is always fun and it's always enjoyable.

19:41 It gives me always like Yeah. Every time I think about a um um deck back building, I always think about Quax and Quax is always is always fun. Um the only things is that it's made by the guys at Resurrection game. They haven't really done anything massively as far as I remember. Uh, but this could be their breakthrough inash something something big. I mean the DC the Justice League license. It's not it's not common. Uh, but I really like the only things I really like about the what DC character they use. They went for the classic look of the of the superhero. They didn't went for any modern revisitation or cartoony version. They went for like

20:29 some golden age

20:30 kind of like yeah comic captured golden age superhero

20:34 and I I do like it. So I'm not a DC boy but this one I'll I'll give it I'll definitely give it a go.

20:42 Yeah, it could be interesting this

20:45 and that wraps up another episode of the higher

20:49 and we do these every single month up until Essen. So, we've got a good few of these left, but they are rapidly racing by. Picking five or six items every single month. There are so many to choose from. Ridiculous.

21:02 And next month is going to be a very special one cuz it's going to be the UKG one. So, it's going to be I'm factor UK special. So, not don't miss it. Click the subscribe button.

21:14 Yeah, do that.

21:14 And do that so you will know when the when the that episode is coming out. We got big plans for UK G. We normally do a lot of tons of content before UKG at UKG post UKG because it's our own turf.

21:26 It's our own turf. It's a big show. So that's really cool. Um on top of that, you could check the Patreon page because on the Patreon we got a lot of nice things, don't we?

21:35 Absolutely. Speaking of those big shows, all of the exclusive interviews and previews and content that we get from those shows goes on the Patreon. So if you'd like to be uh informed of that stuff and you want to know what's going on behind the scenes from the horse. Exactly. Take a look at that if you like it. And we've also got a bunch of stuff there as well. We've got monthly updates. We have a monthly giveaway just for uh patrons. We also have our super secret WhatsApp group full of amazing people who get involved in our exclusive uh meetups as well.

22:04 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it's a lovely community that that that um everyone is building together with us and uh we love it.

22:11 We really really do.

22:13 We really really do. So make sure you do all of those things. Check out the rest of the videos and we're going to see you at the next one. Ciao. What's