Top 10 Games from the Gen Con 2025 Preview List | Games I would Most Likely Play Soon

0:00 Hello everyone and welcome back to the board gaming doctor. My name is Phil and I'll be your board game doctor today. In this video, I'm going to talk about some games that I find interesting and would put to the top of my list of games that I would want to try if I were going to Gen Con, uh, which is taking place in a couple of weeks from now. In addition to that and and in addition to some of these games that look really interesting to me, I'm also going to be talking about a couple of games that are out this year that are also being featured at Gen Con, or some of them might even not be mentioned on this Gen Con list. And by the way, if you're not aware, there is a preview list for Gen Con 2025 on Boardamegeeek. The link is uh you can find it by going to Board GameGeeek. I'll put a link to it in the uh notes down below. But in any case, uh a lot of these games look really interesting. I don't know if and looking, you know, realistically looking at my situation now, just having moved, having the energy to play new games is harder to find these days. And a lot of these games I've already played like Galactic Cruise I've played. I've also played Nature as well and so uh Luier as as well. So, you know, I'm not going to be talking about those games that I've already played and talked about on the channel and just to highlight the ones

1:31 that look interesting to me and and highlight the ones that I feel like I would most realistically get to the table in some fashion uh within the next couple of months or so and and talk about those because if I go back and look at some of my other types of videos that I've done for this as well as for Essen which will come out in a couple of months. The the ratio of games that I actually have played even a year after the video is released to the ones that um you know that I haven't is usually pretty small, right? Like I I really don't get a lot of these games that I am interested in to the table. And so, well, you know, things could change and now that I'm in a new place, you know, perhaps I'll meet some people that I can uh more easily access some of these games in the future. But in any case, let's just go through a list of games, whether they're on this list or not. Uh just talking about some games that I feel like I really should play and that I'm really interested in playing. All right. So, the way that I'm going to talk about this, I think I'll just go through this in one take and informally just kind of go through my thoughts on some of these games and why they are making my list. And as I mentioned before, the the majority of these games h are found on the preview list. I'm I'm pretty sure everything here is on that

3:02 list. If not, well, if not for purchase rather, some of these might be demo only. But one game that is available for um purchase as well as presentation is Vantage. And let's just talk about these two games. These are both um Stonem games that are out this year. Vantage and Finsspan. Uh Finsspan is interesting because uh it was it was really cute. I went to the local board game store not too long ago with my children and my oldest and my youngest as well, but you know, my oldest pointed out that there was this game about fish and she's really into marine life and she saw the cover of this game and and thought it looked really cool, you know.

3:49 And then when I took it and opened it up and there was a there was a demo game of Finsspan there and you know we were looking at the cards and and the board and everything and you know she was enamored by it and u you know I obviously do own Wingspan and have played Worms Span and so it's natural for me to at least try Finsspan. I haven't had the chance to do this yet, but I am hopeful that Finsspan delivers for me in a way that Wingspan almost does in my anecdotal testing or or play, you know, not play testing, but like play experience with Wingspan is that Wingspan hits really well uh in complexity for teaching new players and everything, but for the time length that it requires to play, it's often a little long for what is comfortable to me. I don't know about everyone else who I've played with, but I know that Finsspan is a somewhat lighter version, a unique version of Wingspan, but lighter nonetheless. And so, I hopefully think that I mean, it says it can play in an hour, and I hope that is true, even at higher player counts. And that might be my go-to u you know um game that I would introduce new players to the system of Wingspan which you know features a lot of individualized cards and engine building etc. And so Finsspan hopefully

5:21 fits that but thematically I know it will be a hit with my family and that's something that I am interested in. Vantage is another game directly designed by Jamie Stegmire, the owner of Stonemer Meyer, which is very, or not very unique, but somewhat unique amongst these types of games, these exploration type of games where you uh cooperatively explore a planet, but everyone has limited communications because you uh crash land on different portions of the the world and are trying to explore and share expertise amongst each other through the communications to for you know achieve the goals that you try to to find. And so it's very much a an explorative uh Breath of the Wild type of experience uh you know from from video games in the board game fashion.

6:19 This one, you know, obviously catches my eye because this is Stegmy Meyer's uh venture into these types of games that is unique amongst the catalog that is offered at Stonemire. Uh but it also resembles a game that I have yet to play that I want to that's in the top 100 of all time, which is Sleeping Gods, which is very reminiscent of this type of game as well. And so I'm hopeful to get a chance to try this at least and see if it's engaging enough for me. It's not the type of game that I would gravitate towards over and over again. But it might be a game that I would play over and over again to experience the story, the art, and the uh the sensations, the uh you know, the things that you naturally find out throughout the game.

7:08 you know, if there are any plot twists or or really interesting things that you come across during your game play, I think it would be fun in the video game world. As a tangent, I've really um had a chance to dive into Hollow Knight once again, a game that is inspired by my um my daughter who thinks that, you know, the bugs are really cute and wants to watch gameplay of it. And so, uh, in addition to wanting to, you know, play it and and show it off to my daughter, I've become invested as well. And so, Vantage, I think, in the board game realm might fill that niche as well for me and be interesting enough to uh, merit repetitive plays. So, I'm excited about that.

7:55 Next is Lightning Train. So this one caught my eye because of the designer Paul Denan uh who is the designer of Dune Imperium which is a game that I have played many times digitally uh with my family members. in this game, just from the look of it, I'm there may or may not be like a pick up and deliver type of uh experience here, but mechanically, but it kind of gives me the vibes of uh Nucleium, which is a game from 2 years ago that I really enjoyed, but with more of a deck building pool or like a bag uh building type of uh gameplay to facilitate the actions that you take in this game. So, not much else is known to me, you know, about how this game plays other than what is mentioned hereatically, but I, you know, I am a fan of the way that deck building is handled in Dune Imperium, and I am a fan of the semi-ooperative experience of nucleium and brass, and wonder if this game would live up to that type of experience as while utilizing deck or uh bag building as the uh the mechanism of you know how you take your actions. So I know this is on a lot of people's lists and it I suppose it's on mine as well.

9:28 Next is a the game makers. Now this game is going to be demoed at Gen Con. It won't be released until next year, but if I get the chance to play this, I think this will be a really fun game. mostly for his theme because you are uh racing to build the greatest collection of classic board games, right? Like Wingspan. So, looks like you're going to have components that resemble these games like Wingspan, Brass, um you know, a Gricola, etc. I think I found a Gricola in here as well in the picture, which might be the only picture that we Nope, just kidding. That we that I thought we had, but looks like we have more. And so, yeah, it's really cool that you have an ode to a lot of these natural uh naturally, you know, popular board games. Um, you know, this would be set up perfectly for expansions to promote or celebrate other board games as well.

10:30 And hopefully all the mechanisms gel well together. And uh you know this kind is reminiscent of another game that I enjoy which is Rolling Realms by Jamie Stegmire that celebrates a lot of these games as well. And so in that game there are a lot of mechanical uh celebrations as well and representations in the game. This may be more flavorful than mechanical. I don't know if this game would utilize a lot of the mechanisms or highlight some of them in these games. It seems like this is mostly for uh the uh you know the experience of having these games in your collection similar to um what is the game age of com no not age of comics but uh comic heroes um the drafting game where you're collecting comics Marvel comics and so uh I I feel like it's thematically and mechanically going to resemble that game more so than Rolling Realms but hopefully this game uh not only is will it be a celebration, but it will also make thematic sense and be interesting uh for gameplay as well and you know strategically. So I'm really excited about that. Now this game I talked about last year. This was a promotion done during Essen of last year. Uh this was Sunnavalo. This is by Andreas Oden Doll, who is a one of the designers of

12:02 Lagrronha and Plantanubo. And I think this kind of gives me vibes of Plantanubo, but for a two-player experience. It features a lot of uh, you know, card play and resource management. And and so when I saw it on the list, I believe another publisher, so it was originally published by the game builders last year, but now it looks like Capstone, yeah, is picking up the game and having this be printed in English here in the States. And so I'm excited to see this game um perhaps get some more light. It it looks really interesting and I hope I get the chance to try this game out as well. Way down the list, I found a game that I tried on Board Game Arena that I really enjoyed and this is just another promotion of this game, which is Naishi.

12:55 This is a two-player card game, more abstract in nature, where you are drafting these cards from the middle and placing them into a tableau. You have some that are face down, not uh pictured here. And the the goal is to draft and discard cards in an arrangement to make these cards score the most points as possible for yourself. And so there's a lot of interaction in, you know, drafting cards before someone else does and arranging them uh as as such to, you know, benefit yourself. And there are some other uh points to this game that you can like uh you spend these these action points or what have you to um you know draw two cards or to discard something. So uh a really neat um you know strategic game that's not long, you know, it's not terribly complex, but uh it was a lot of fun, you know, for for what it is. And so, uh, having this be featured on the Gen Con list, I I thought I would just talk about it again and and hopefully, uh, point someone towards this game on Board Game Arena if you find this interesting and want to try it out. Another game that I talked about was Nata. Uh, so this one I played last year, I believe, when it was on Kickstarter as as a demo, and it left me uh really interested and hyped about this game. This is a uh a worker placement game uh that

14:27 it's not a deck builder, but it's more of the style of like Ark Nova uh and Terraforming Mars where you're playing cards for icon, you know, collection. Not not necessarily set collection, but you're playing a lot of cards, individualized cards for points and endgame abilities, you know, uh during ongoing abilities as well. but also utilizing a worker placement style of experience. A little bit of track advancement as well, all in the theme of the like a postapoc apocalyptic uh setting where animals now rule the earth. And so I really enjoyed this game. I think this was this is a hit. will, you know, it was a hit for me because it uses a lot of mechanisms that I find very interesting and strategic.

15:17 Uh, it's the right kind of strategic for me with all of these different cards that you're trying to combo together and build out as well as um the efficiency of knowing what to put your worker on first and trying to block others or get there before someone else does, that kind of thing. So, I'm excited for this game to uh be expanded upon and reach a larger audience now that it's been I think hopefully it's been funded and and distributed, but if not, uh hopefully this goes to retail or something so other people can experience it as well. Uh Age of Galaxy the second edition. So, this is a game by Jeffrey CCH, a designer that I am a fan of, and I've played Age of Galaxy and have reviewed it on this channel, if not this channel, than the podcast. But uh this game is a kind of a different addition and setting for the game of um uh Age of Civilization, which is a game that I highly enjoy, but this utilizes more, you know, mechanisms and and and things that more resemble a Space 4X experience. And so it's like a tiny epic, you know, quote unquote type of game, a small box, very small box edition of a space 4X. And that is the the approach uh for Jeffree CCH in this type of genre of a game. And the second edition improves on the solo mode as

16:49 well as makes some tweaks here and there. And so I'm excited for this to have some new art, a new presentation, and uh it'll be cool to see what differences are in this game. I'm not as well-versed in this game as I am with Age of Civilization, but uh you know, this looks really good and hopefully uh it um you know, gets to a lot more tables cuz I I really enjoyed it. Furnace Duel is also on the preview list. It is a two-player version of Furnace. Now, this caught my eye because after my video last week of weekn night Euros after thinking about it, reading some of the comments as well, which I'm very appreciative of and will want to try out some of those games that you have mentioned in the comment section of that video. But, uh, Furnace was one of those games that I feel like would fit that list as well. It's a very quick, uh, auctioning type of game, engine building type of game that you can play very quickly. It looks like this one you can play very quickly as well for two players in 30 to 60 minutes.

17:56 But uh other than that, I don't know much about the mechanism differences in this game versus the base game, which I thought played well at two players anyway. But I'm excited to see what differences are here. And we'll look for more information as as needed. And then finally, an expansion to end this on. Of course, it's SI Space Agencies, the first expansion for SETI, a game that I am a big fan of. And uh in this game, in this expansion, let's let's see what is added for sure. So, quick start cards. It's kind of like a prelude type of experience to jumpstart your game of SETI with some of these cards. I think there are some more aliens. Yep. Three new alien species. uh 40 new project cards uh which are I I love the thematic nature. This is one of the most thematically sound Euro games that I've ever played, which is why it's physically in my collection. And you know, I love pulling this out and playing. And I Yeah, so this is not, you know, a terribly huge expansion, but it offers some more variability in addition to these quick start cards to make the game progress faster from the beginning.

19:16 So, I'm really excited about this and hopefully we'll get the chance to demo this and talk about it with you guys at some point. And so, let's see. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 that happened to be 10 games and expansions that I talked about. And so therefore, this game will be the a top 10 uh games that I'm excited about for Gen Con 2025 as well as for this year in general. I know that we've had more news and opportunities to play games like Finsspan and uh like games that I've already played like Age of Galaxy and Nera, but also uh upcoming games that are new like Lightning Train the Game Makers and this new expansion of of STI that I'm super excited for. And so hopefully, you know, these these I think these games have the highest chance to make it to my table, whether it's physically or digitally and for me to talk about on the channel. But, you know, of course, we will be um you know, we'll see how the dust settles and which games kind of rise to the top and and have been um supported by the majority of people who have been able to play it, especially those who go to Gen Con to experience it. And um we'll see where where we go from there. And I'll make a similar video for Essen in about a month or two. So, thank you for uh listening or watching. Let me know what games you're excited about from this Gen Con

20:47 preview list. And I will catch you on the next one. Take care.