5 Hotly Anticipated Board Games - The Hype Factor July 2026
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Transcript
Hello and welcome to board stupid. My name's Way and I'm Matt. It's time for yet another episode of the Hype Factor.
And in the hype factor, me and Matt were going to give you five games to get super excited about coming either to retail or crowdfunding this year allegedly.
Yeah, exactly. It's uh all stuff that we are hyped for that we can't wait to play. There's stuff that sounds interesting, some stuff where we know a little bit more. Stop registers. We know very little, but sounds awesome.
Yeah. So, we were just going to run this game with you and you let us know what you think about them as well. But before that, you hit the subscribe button,
otherwise known as the hype button.
Yeah.
Bang that one. It does that sound like try it. Yeah.
Ding the bell and we'll see you after the jump.
Let's go.
Stag. Stag, stag, stag, stag, stag, stag,
stag.
It's Matt. Stag soon.
And he's actually the game.
It's also the game.
Stag.
Stag.
Well, you're not we are not going to be drinking copious amounts of alcohol like this man might be.
Yeah. But instead,
you you're going to be playing a board game, which this man also will be.
Yeah, exactly. The game is is stag is stag. Let's make it let's not talk about that stag, but it's a game about Beatles.
Beatles. Yeah, stag beetles. That's
it's the same thing, right? Kind of synonymous. That's what the English dictionary say. Uh but uh beside all of that, Stag is the new game um from the creator of Mycelia, the strategic mushroom game, the better Mycelia in all the Mycelia board games. Um and from Splittorm games, uh I Jack. Um, but saying that, uh, we've been lucky enough that we actually play the game. The game is going to come at Kickstarter end of July, I believe the 21st of July. So, this video might be going live when the campaign is already live or just or just before that. Uh, but yeah, as you said, um, the game will follow the life cycle of a stack or multiple stack cuz you you're going to be able during the um during the game to kind of like get the uh, no, the the grubs, the grubs. Yeah, the lavi.
Yeah. Collecting resources needed to bring them to the next step of the life cycle. So the this bug get a little bit bigger and then collecting the second half of the resources needed to get a a fully grown adult big and basically sending it into a death match.
Yeah, that's basically it. You are going to be following the life cycle of Beatles with a beautiful artwork from Jack who's done an incredible job. It's absolutely stunning stuff. Uh yeah, growing your various stag beetles. You can have several of them on the go at the same time to eventually get onto the main board and end up as Matt says in a probable fight to the death.
Yeah, that's what stags do. So basically, you're going to go um up on the on the central board collecting some of the some of special resources on the on that main board that is a rotating one. rotating tiny. Yeah, there is a strategy elements of when you actually want to get your your uh beetles from your board to the actual main board because depending on how that things is going to rotate, you might miss or you might get some very special resources. Um, and at the same times whenever the uh your adult ST gets into the into the center of the board, whenever another one or multiple one at the same time is going to arrive, there's going to be a very cool like um almost like um um rock sor pie prisoners dilemma type thing going on.
can decide to uh collaborate and not fight and everybody gets a little bit of um a little bit of points or maybe no, you want to fight and if the other one does and you you you kill them. But it's yeah, the prison dilemma and then will kind of like help you develop in your um your other beatles as well so you can go up some tracks for for more for more points. Uh but the um the main cool things about the um of all the the game I believe is the is the personal um board. Uh so the personal board is going to be divided in in different section. That's something similar to um smartphone uh where you got the two that you need to create the tablet and depending on which icons are are visible that's the action that you can take. This is takes kind of like the same uh the same mechanic
similar approach
with this sliding uh four different type of um um four four pieces of of tiles and however depending on how you going to position your tiles on the boards. Some um resources or type of action will be revealed covering others. So each turn you need to decide exactly how you want to put that and then resolve all the those action um in sequence. Uh but you can upgrade that uh that board so your beetles might get more resources so you can grow them faster. They're going to go uh bigger and they can fight better. So there is it's a very interesting um puzzle as well added [clears throat] to this um absolutely to the game.
So stag like I said will be available on crowdfunding soon. Check the link below. Uh and yeah let's move on to the next one.
Yeah to the to the stag to the actual st. No to the drinking stag. Oh, let's No, do that.
Oh, we finished the stag and uh we're moving swiftly to Kuba Cora El Kubano.
Absolutely. So, why not finish with some Cuban salsa? Uh no, Ian, this is nothing to do with Cuban salsa despite me loving Cuban salsa. This is uh Kubernet which is a reimplementation as this is the year of the reimplementation of a game called Cuba from 2007. So due probably due an update some 20 years later. Um and this is a game that won numerous awards back in 2007 2008 and it's been picked up again by Pegasus and remade
and it is a Euro game that utilizes some of my favorite things in games auction bidding with obviously things like hand management uh some voting as well for various things. I love this stuff when put into sort of Euro game mechanisms and you're voting on stuff and having to bid on various things. Really, really nice. The game is set prior to the Cuban Revolution. You're going to be um various people trying to get more wealth, trying to make the most of uh the uh islands and trying to create independence, buying and selling goods, that sort of stuff. Think something like Puerto Rico, trying to get goods to the harbor, but with a different slum. Uh, this is something that's really exciting for me, not only because I've always been interested in in Cuba, Cuban history, both pre and postrevolution, but also and the culture, but also just the the game mechanisms sound super fun to me. Uh, I love me a Euro game.
Yeah, the Euro game with voting. Love that.
Yeah, this is the original one is on the heavier uh side of the of the gaming. So, this one being a re-implementation is going to be right up the same the same level. Um, I'm yeah, I'm curious to see how they tweak the the rules to make it more 2026 more more modern,
including the expansions as well. So, including that together,
this kind of kind of be like the like an sort of ultimate edition of the game that is very hard to find. Uh, so being all like 19 years old. Um, yeah. Good time dad to to go back to Kuba and um fun. Have some rum.
Oh, Kuba Libre
from Cuba after we finished drinking rum and cokes. Our Cuba libraries for blood which is blood hunt. Yes, Blood Hunt is coming from the same designer of Dracula versus Van Elsing and as well um Saucy Sea Salt and Paper. Um but this is takes um basically it's a spin off of Dra versus Vaneling. Drago versus Vanelings is a one versus one game uh with a beautiful illustration for Webis and Santiago. Blood ants retake the entire team. So, same designer and Webers and Santiago to do the do the thing, but this time instead of being a one versus one um game is a two to four player. Uh this time it's not going to be a fight between uh the Vanel Singh and Dracula, but it's kind of like we are all vampires and we are all thirsty for blood. And um the mechanisms into the um how you play the game is very similar to um to drug versus eling with a couple of twist uh is you like in if you play Dragon Bing you draw a card. You see uh you can discard it for the effect or you keep it in your in your hand. In this case one other option you got that is going to put the cards in one of the of the district. city is going to be the map is going to be different uh different districts with people living in those districts
and whatever all the cards four or more cards are placed on one of the district you reveal the cards whoever's got the highest one can suck the blood off of the of the cities and this is how you this is how you get in points uh now vs is a game that I really really loved and I've been lucky enough to play with one of our patreons um hello yeah check the patron Patreon links is uh is below if you want to part be part of the Patreon family. Uh but um I really really enjoyed it and it's impossible to find. It just like is an impossible game to find. I've been trying very hard to but um nothing yet. Uh but this one sounds similar but um I enlarge the the game to be up to four players.
Enlarge the scope a little bit.
So um uh is it going to be different enough? Probably not. Uh, but if this is going to be easier to find and and uh and the fact that gives you like this four player option um might be preferable. We will see how it plays a two player as well cuz it could be kind of like
should I then replace Draco versus someone else in with this one. We will see. But um again since I I really love the game and I couldn't get a copy and this plays a more player. I'm really really hyped for this one.
There you go. Blood hunt. So we we both kind of like fan of all the Arurian fantasies.
Yeah. Artheran legend. Yeah. I remember like being being a kid like I was kind of obsessed with all the the Romans the like all the King Arthur like reading a lot of books.
Yeah. Yeah. I So yeah, it's a it's a theme that Yeah. both of us really really like. Um and uh there is a game that is going to come out maybe this year. We don't really know much. Uh but and he's themed around around King Arthur. Uh he's from the same designer that did um some uh some light almost party games I would say. Uh something just to say if you anacrony, Vful, Nucleium, Imperium Legends kind of like meaty games.
Meaty games. Absolutely.
And this game is chivalry.
Chivalry. Exactly. The designer being of course uh the inevitable devotey. Um and as M says this is a game of set in the Arththeran legend and you are knights uh who are going to be trying to get the favor of of the famous King Arthur seeking power, glory and influence and to bring honor uh to King Arthur's round table. And there is very little information about this game, but as soon as I saw the name and as soon as I saw the theme and as soon as I saw it was coming out this year, I was like,
"Yeah,
damn. This sounds exciting to me. It utilizes obviously me and Matt love area games.
Yes. This is supposedly to be the like one of the main mechanics of
Absolutely. Some some deck building involved as well. Variable player powers, a little bit of work placement, moving around your knights.
Yeah.
Um, basically the games can be played in sort of phases. You have like a uh your turn is a whole day for your for your for your nights. Uh in the morning you're going to be riding out onto the lands uh to market towns, to ports, countryside, uh doing actions, doing stuff, uh doing adventures. Um and that'll be during the day. Then at night, you're going to be making camp, uh calling your retinue, uh and then potentially attending feast at Camelot if you're famous enough and your D having a party. Yeah, having a party at Camelot. Absolutely. Um, so there's going to be also interesting stuff getting powerful new abilities from Merlin, from Morana, all of those famous characters from Arthurian Legends as well.
It It sounds going to be like some some kind of like elements where you um kind of like discover relics and runes and so um it sounds like adding a little bit of not just like pin purely Euro, but there's some interesting discovery stuff in there as well.
Yeah. talking about the the design itself. Uh so we kind of like know now how it works.
Uh so I'm expecting something deep as as all the other um uh titles and he's always been very good at uh mixing the mechanics uh with the actual theme. Um he always like an anchor is a is a very strong theme to the game. Boyful, of course, he created [clears throat] like a universe like it's a is a very strong one in there. Nucleum as well. He's got this like steampunky radioactive. Um, so I'm I'm really curious to understand what is he going to do with this one because his potentials are high. Uh, it's one of those games I'm not expecting a a mid game. Expecting like an expert heavier game, but we're happy about it.
Yeah, expecting an excellent game as well. really excited for Chivalry.
So, uh, the last game on this list, um, is a game that actually came out in 2020 in the Japanese market or just the Asian market. We we didn't really heard of. Um, it's a trick taking um, and Office has been doing a very good trick taking with all the Lord of the Rings stuff recently. So, they took this game from the Japanese market and they're bringing it to the wider to the w market this year. They gave it a very good coat of paint cuz it looks really really nice.
Yeah,
but I think they should have changed the name because I can definitely not pronunciate this.
What game is it, Matt?
Sharden Freder.
That was really good.
That was Shard.
Shardan Freder.
That's pretty good, man. Okay,
that's the feeling I get watching Matt try to pronounce Sha Prader. Shrader, of course, is the German word for taking sort of humor in someone's misfortune. And this is game. It's just a really cool trick taker.
Yeah. Um again, three to five player um um not cooperative, competitive trick.
Trick taking um wins will get 40 points. Uh but how do you get points? Basically, uh it's um it's a must follow suit uh trick taking game with no trump. So whatever the card is now, everybody needs to follow that that trump. Uh who's getting the cards? It's not the highest one. It's the second highest, okay, of that of that suit. And on top of that, whenever you've um taken taken the cards, um if you can only have in your stock of one card one number of best the same rank, for example, you can only have a 10, you can only have a three, you can only have a four. If you in your winning in the winning stack that you you done you got two threes, you discard the two threes and you cannot use them as a as a scoring mechanism. If you got two tens, you discard both both the tens. So if you can will only score the 10 if you got one of them.
So there could be an interesting way you can like mesh people scoring up by throwing cards in
and on top of that. Yeah, cuz I know you won a 10. I'm going to throw another 10. So you're going to win it. Uh on the the other um twist to the game is that there are negative cards as well. So you're going to play cards that are negative. So it's going to be like yeah, you're going to win this one. Get this minus 100 points or whatever it's going to be. Uh but yeah, it sounds like um very interesting uh a yet another twist on the um on the trick taking the eternal genre of games that seems to be as flexible as you can imagine. There's always something interesting you can play with trick takers and we always like playing them. Always fun.
Yeah. So, uh, this one has got something. It's got something that is really
Yeah. Like you can feel the spice.
Yeah. A little bit of shot and fo.
So, that closes another episode of the factor.
And we run these all the way through to Essen, uh, whereby we'll be in full Essence season, but we're going to be super excited about games cuz there's just so much news. Every single month something new gets announced.
Exactly. So we try these are just the games that we are excited that we heard of. But if you know any other games that we should cover or we should have a look at, please leave it in the in the comment below because uh we want to hear what is on your radar, what is getting you hyped.
Absolutely. Let us know in the comments below. Check out the rest of the hype facts as well to see the other stuff we've been excited about.
Yeah. Yeah. You go there is the playlist on the on the YouTube channel. You can check like we cover games that come out throughout the year. So it's not not time limited.
Absolutely. So go and do that. Uh and if you're interested, maybe check out our Patreon page.
Yeah, it's a lot of goodies in there.
Lots of goodies. Absolutely. You got giveaways. You got exclusive video podcasts. You got access to a secret group of amazing people. So much stuff. All for the price of a coffee. But if you can't do that, well, the subscribe button is always there. You can hit me.
You can hit that one. Get hived. Absolutely. Um Yeah. And uh our hearts always full of joy every time we see that number going up. Bye every single time. We love you all.
Thank you very much. Check out the rest of our videos and we'll see you
at the next one.
to be. Here's what you should play and see.