Top 10 Most Anticipated Board Games of Gen Con 2026!
/pic575079.jpg)
Transcript
Gen Con is upon us. The largest tabletop game convention in all of North America is here. It's actually the second largest one in the world, I believe. Gen Con in Indianapolis is coming up what, July 30th through August 2nd, and I'm excited. It's always an awesome time. You get to see so many great new board games. You get to try things. You get to see friends from all over the country. I will be there and I will be doing a bunch of events. If you want to come watch me do stuff or come meet me or anything like that, I'd love to see you there. Here, I'll tell you some of the places I'm going to be. I will be on a show with Good Times Society playing through some games from 4:00 to 5:30 on Thursday in Capital Ballroom 2.
I will be at the Floodgate Celebration Party doing some board game stand-up at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday in Wabash 1. I will be doing Gibber Jabber Live with All Play in the ICC 144 room, a stage show with that from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. On Thursday, I will be on the Gen Con Comedy Gala on Thursday from 9:00 p.m. to 11:30 to 11:00 p.m. in the ICC 101. So, I've got four live shows on Thursday afternoon and evening. Then on Friday, I will be doing the King of Tokyo tournament in at 9:00 a.m. in the ICC Hall B. So, if you want to come try to beat me at King of Tokyo, the new version Godzilla, I'll be doing that. I will be in the All Play booth from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. on Friday.
So, you know, playing games with people there. If you want to come check out some All Play games, I'll be in their booth hanging out uh playing games. I will be hosting the Meeple Mayhem Show uh with a bunch of professional wrestlers, a bunch of board games. It's going to be wild. It's going to be silly. It's going to be fun. That is at 7:00 p.m. on Friday um and it is at 416 Wabash. Then on Saturday, I will be in the um Asmodee booth uh playing a giant version of the new party game Cross the Line uh with Grey Matters Games from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. So, if you want to come play this silly big party game, it's a lot of fun. I'll put all that information in the uh description of this video. But, there's a lot of places to see me and a lot of come, you know, come hang out and play some games and, you know, say hello. So, um but, this video is about the 10 games I am most excited about at Gen Con. So, let's talk about some games.
I believe all of these games are for sale at Gen Con, and I believe they're all debuting at Gen Con. That was one of the things I wanted to do about this video. These are all games that you can get for the first time at Gen Con, which is why I'm excited about them and why I think you should check them out. So, uh let's talk about 10 different games that are debuting at Gen Con. Uh in my 10th spot is the game Drillers from CGE. Plays one to four players in 30 to 120 minutes, and it is a medium-weight game. This is a a strategy game. I like medium-weight strategy games. That's some of my wheelhouse, you know, a game that takes 90 minutes or less, but still has a lot of interesting decisions. And Drillers seems like it's in that world, in that wheelhouse. Uh this is a deck-building game. I like deck-building. Uh but, it also has multi-use cards, and that's one of my favorite things in a game because, you know, it's easy to wrap your head around, but always makes for some tough choices where you're like, "Ah, do I want to use this card for this or do I want to save it for that? Ah, what do I but I need both of those. What do I do?"
Um, there's also like a bit of uh push your luck in Driller's, it seems like. I haven't played this game before, but I know you're drilling down and you're trying to go as far down as you can, but if you drill too far, you can leave yourself stranded, which is not going to be good. So, you want to like get as far as you can without overextending yourself, and that seems like an interesting tension in the game as well. So, you know, that's Driller's. Number nine is the game One Round. This plays two to 12 players in 15 minutes, and it is a lightweight game. Uh I actually got an early copy of this game just like a few weeks ago. I brought it to a convention with me in Reno a couple of weeks ago, and I think I played it four times, [snorts] five times in the weekend, and I and I really If you're looking for a new cooperative game, a new party game, I I really like One Round, and I think it's going to be one of my top, you know, party games, one of my top cooperative games of the year. If you're a fan of games like Just One or Codenames or So Clo- Clover, things like that, this one slots in really well into that uh genre.
Um, you are starting off with just a few random words on the numbers 0, 33, and 66. And then one person is going to get a uh draw a number card, and it will say a number, and they have to give a clue that makes you pick between two of the numbers out there. You know, you got an 18, you need to think of a clue that will make everybody else guess between the zero and the 33. But as the game goes on, as it progresses, it gets harder and harder because the number gaps become smaller and smaller, and the associations get closer and closer. You know, one game I played it, we had like it ended up being like harvest, potato, fried, [snorts] and poutine were all like next to each other. And so, then having to give a clue for a number between that um range is a lot harder. So, it it I like how the tension rises as the game goes on.
So, again, it's clever, it's fun, it's easy to play. This is One Round is like the type of game I'm going to bring home to my family, and I think my family will really like it at the holidays. You know, this is definitely I can see it being a hit with like different ages and and, you know, just a casual group of people. It's a lot of fun, One Round. Number eight on uh my list of the games I'm most excited for at Gen Con is the game Pirate King. Plays two to five players in about 15 minutes, and it is a lightweight game. This is a push-your-luck game, and push-your-luck is one of my favorite mechanisms in games. It's something that I will If you tell me you got a push-your-luck game, I'm like I'm I'm in. I don't care what it is, I will try it for sure. Uh Pirate King is a uh a game where we all start with the same deck of cards, and you're going to be flipping out cards from your deck, and you are trying to get money and swords in order to buy new cards or fight monsters. But, there are also curses on some of your cards. So, do you want to keep pushing your luck and trying to get more money and points?
But, what if you get too many curses and you bust? Uh and then there's also like a little light, you know, deck-building aspect of it where you're going to buy cards, add it to your deck, make your deck a little bit stronger so you can push your luck more in future rounds. It's a small-box card game, you know, really easy to get into, but I just like the the aspect of it of like buying better cards and still pushing your luck. So, that is Pirate King. Number seven on my list is the game Skyward Republic. This plays two to four players in 30 to 75 minutes and it is a medium weight game. Um one of the most underrated mechanisms in board games, I think, is the mechanism I split, you choose. Where essentially one person has to divide up cards or resources or whatever it is. It's usually cards in games, but it can be other things.
You're going to divide up cards. You're going to show both of those two groups of cards to another person and then they're going to choose which one they keep and then hence which one you get to keep. Well, Skyward Republic does it a little bit differently. There are going to be everybody's going to get dealt some cards and then in the in the center of the play area, you're going to add a couple of face-up cards. And then a player has a choice. Do they want to take one of those piles or do they want to add one of their cards to one of their piles? So, if they add a card, then the next person gets to make the same decision. Do they want to pick up one of those piles or do they want to add another card? And then I make the same decision, you know, and and so at some point you're like, "Ooh, that's so juicy. I got to take that one." But then you don't get the cards that were dealt to you. And so, I I just think it's like a interesting way to kind of mix drafting and I split, you choose. You know, you're drafting cards, but you're doing it in this unique I split, you choose way.
And then, you know, after that the game is really about card combos and stuff. You're going to play cards in front of you into a tableau and you want cards that combo well together that you want to find good synergies and I always like that in games, too. So, I'm excited to check out Skyward Republic. Number six on my list is the game Raindrops. Two to four players in about 45 minutes and it is a, you know, a lighter weight game but still a strategy game, maybe on the upper end of lighter weight games. And Raindrop Raindrops just attracted me because of the theme. You are literally, it's a rainy day, you're sitting at your window and you're watching raindrops come down the window. And what a like cozy chill vibe. And it also just is a great representation of the fact that you can kind of find all different themes in board games. You know, when someone's like, "Well, what's a good game?" I'm like, "Well, what do you like?" What do you like and then I'll go off of that because you can find games for everybody based on different themes and I just love the theme of Raindrops as a game.
And so, you're doing basically you're trying to add your raindrops to fall down these tiles and then you'll get tiles and try to do some pattern matching. And so, you know, it's still like a puzzly game where you're trying to fulfill cards with the tiles that you get with the, you know, different symbols and colors you need. But, you know, mostly it's just about the theme for me. That's why I'm excited to check it out. That is Raindrops. Number five on my list is the game Six Sided Seas. This is a two to four player game, though really it's a two player game. I think of this as a two player only game and so should you. Play 15 to 20 minutes and it is a lightweight game. Six Sided Seas is a really fun um game that combines push-your-luck dice and worker placement. So, essentially, you roll out this playmat, and you're playing head-to-head with one other person. And you roll a single dice at a time. And you have a limit for the value of your dice. You know, you start at like 12. And so, if I roll a four, okay, great. And then I rolled another four, ooh, I'm at eight. Do I want to push my luck and roll another dice? But if I go over 12, then I bust. So, what do I want to do right now, you know? I like I like that push-your-luck aspect.
And then you're going to be assigning your dice to various worker placement spots. Uh sometimes you'll be trying to like fire your cannons to hit your opponent. Sometimes you'll be trying to send out dice to different islands, and those islands will get you special abilities as the game goes on. Sometimes you're trying to raise your coin limit, so you have more you you're allowed more pips on all your dice, you know? And there's three different ways to win, and I like when games have multiple paths to victory because it keeps it interesting, you know? You're like, I'm going I I I thought I was going to go for control of the islands, but I keep rolling really well, and now I'm raising my coin value, and maybe I'll go for a win of coins, you know? And And it's it's just a quick game. It's also a really good game that has zero reading on it. So, if you are trying to play a game with someone that you don't speak the same language as as much, Six-sided Seas is a great game for that because it's it's just rolling dice and assigning dice, and all the iconography really makes sense. Uh and so, it's you know, it's a good game if you have a language barrier or something like that.
All right, number four on my list is the game Oasis: New Life on a Distant World. This plays one to five players in 45 to 60 minutes, and it is a medium-weight game, but maybe on the lower end of medium-weight game. Uh one, I love the artwork of this. I love the like the vibrant color scheme and stuff like that. It just looks really cool. And I also So, in the game you will be playing cards in a subterranean row and then like an above-ground row. And in order to play cards in the above-ground row, you need to have cards built below it subterranean on the subterranean level that support the card above. But, sometimes a flood comes and wipes away the cards in the subterranean level. And so, it's almost like you're racing to get cards built on the bottom level so that you can put cards up on the top level before the bottom level is wiped away. And I I think that's an interesting idea, you know? And then this is another one that's a lot about the the card combos and card synergies.
You want stuff that works well together. So, yeah, I I love I love a good card combo game. So, that's Oasis: New Life on a Distant World. Number three on my list is the game The Game Makers. Plays one to six players in 60 to 90 minutes, and it is a medium-weight game. Um this had a big crowdfunding campaign, and those games are delivering to people here in the month of July. So, you might already have The Game Makers, but if you did not uh if you did not crowdfund it, if you did not back the campaign, this is a game that won't ever be in retail. Uh so, this is an opportunity to go get the game if you want it and you didn't uh back the campaign. And I'll say I I have had a chance to play The Game Makers just once. Uh so I I certainly don't know everything about it, but I really enjoyed my play of it and I feel like um it it's kind of comparable to a game like Foundations of Rome. And what I mean by that is it's a very big box. It looks like it has a lot going on, but it is a surprisingly easy teach and a surprisingly easy game to play. It looks like a lot, but it's really not that complicated and it's not that hard. Um the central system is really cool where you will be sort of sending forklifts out and um if you played a game like Fromage before, it has a little bit of that feeling where it's like you can go to one spot away on
the wheel and get some, you know, level one resources, but you'll get your forklift back the next turn. Or you could go three spots away and get a really good resource, but you won't get that forklift for multiple rounds. And so it's balancing those choices. And then once you get all of these resources, you're essentially just making one decision. You're like, do I want to assign those resources to spots to get upgrades and cool special abilities? Or do I want to save those resources to build games and fulfill requirements on cards? And it's really not that hard, you know, of a decision to make, but there's a lot of different options you can do with various resources. And it, you know, The Game Makers is a love letter to the board game hobby. There are a ton of cards in there, games that you can build that you already know and love. And so, you know, The Game Makers is not a game that I would probably recommend to someone that doesn't really care about board games, but boy is it a fun game if you are already kind of deep into the hobby.
Like that this game was made for people who are hobby board gamers and that's fun too to have like a love letter to that community. I just I was just impressed with like how big it is but how simple it is to jump in and to play and to teach and still plays pretty quickly as well. So I like that too. All right, number two on my list is the game Honeypot. This plays one to six players in about 30 minutes and it is a lighter weight strategy game. I mentioned earlier in this video that I really like I split you choose, one of my favorite mechanisms. Well, Honeypot is the first game I've ever seen that does a mechanism where they they call it I stack you choose. Essentially, you get six cards and you're going to arrange them in a folder in any way you want and then pass that folder to another player.
And then that person can only look at the top two cards and then they're going to decide right then whether they want to keep those two cards or whether they don't want to keep those two cards and then they can look at the next the next two cards in the stack and make the same decision. But once you pass on a couple cards, you can never go back to that. And so it's all about the mind games of like, "Ooh, did you bury some good stuff on the bottom or did you bury some bad stuff on the bottom thinking that I would try to get down there?" And then, you know, beyond that sort of psychological fun decision, it's mostly then a set collection game and there's all different types of cards. There's there's enough replayability in that in like this is going to score me if I have it this many and this one's going to do this and this one's going to get me this special ability. There's a lot of different types of cards, but it's all about those mind games of how people stacked your dossier and and I like that a lot. I feel like it's a fun unique way to do that mechanism that I feel like is underrated.
[snorts]
Uh and then the number one game uh that I'm excited for at Gen Con that I think you should check out is the game Flip Tunes season 2. This plays one to four players in 15 to 30 minutes and it is a lighter weight card game. I've talked about the Flip the first Flip Tunes a bunch. It's one of my favorite card games of all time. It's so fun and they've done a great job with this season 2. And sometimes people are asking me, "Oh, well, which one's better?" And I honestly don't think either one of them is better. They are largely the same game in terms of how they play, but there's a ton of new special abilities in this, so it feels different. I would honestly say that my answer to like which one is better or which one should I get is like which type of a deck-building person are you?
If you really want to cut your deck and trim it down and thin it out, then probably season 1 is the better version, but if you want to just add more cool cards to your deck, then season 2. Uh and so, you know, the game is a deck-building game, but every round you shuffle your your your whole deck and then you flip out six cards into a grid and you get various different points based on how the cards come out and that's I love games that have strategy and interesting choices, but also just fun, exciting, unknown moments. And you can make all of the best decisions in the world in Flip Tunes and get cards that combo well together and build an awesome deck, but at some point you're just like, "I hope these come out the way I need them to come out." And I love that fun, exciting moment in it. Um they do add some cool new abilities in season 2. Like there's this ability called return, uh which wasn't in season 1, where you can pick up a card from your grid and put it at the bottom of your deck and then put out a new card, and so you're often times able to return the worst cards and then try to get out a better card. Um, there are cards that reward you for having a a fat stack, you know, there you get you get you points based on how many cards you have in your deck. There also fish cards that combo well together. There's just a lot of cool stuff. If you like deck building If you like card games, if you like fun,
check out Flip Tunes season 2. So, those are 10 games I'm really excited about. I hope to see you at Gen Con and I hope you get to see a lot of amazing games. All right, see you soon everybody.