Best Board Games We Played in April 2026. Plus Updates

0:00 Welcome to May 2026 where we're talking about our favorite games of last month, which is April 2026. Hi everyone, it's Stella. And Tarrant here. Welcome to Meeple University. There are a few things we want to do as usual. We're going to do our game carousel as well, which is games arriving. We want to specifically thank you on the notes. So many, many great tips from all of you on our previous flock of not actually last month. It's UKGE anticipated games and also asking you to for our travel to UK. So we've got lots like somebody wrote this long tips of what to do, where to go, at what city. All amazing and then there's still more more tips are still coming. And then also Tarrant Tarrant is doing mainly the planning the planning of this trip this time. Tarrant, look at this. I can we go here? Can we go to this so many great tips. Yeah, I was chatting with someone at work yesterday and they were talking about how they've just planned out their European trip uh by asking a chatbot to do it. Oh. But yeah, he doesn't have access to an army of followers and commenters. So I like our way better.

1:17 It took us a long time to to get to this point. I think next time next time we want to do that. Last time we went to Europe we didn't do this. So next time we will do this. So thank you again. If you have other suggestions, please feel free to write in the comments as well for UK trip. Mainly we're going to London and then going up to Tarrant. The uh the evening the evening stops are in York, Edinburgh, Preston, Chester, Porthmadog, and Gloucester.

1:48 Yes. So and also if you know any board games meet up in the evening one day then

1:53 [clears throat]

1:54 let us know. Maybe we are not sleepy enough and we can go out and then play some board games with you. Who knows? Who knows? We'll also link the UKGE anticipated games video down below in the video description. Yes. All right. Now, let's get to the games carousel, shall we? Yes, what has arrived in the last month? I think it's a slightly short carousel period cuz I think we uh We

2:16 We're a little ways into April when we recorded the last one. We've had some new exciting games that come through the door.

2:22 Yep. We'll give you a look at. Ding ding digga digga ding ding ding. If you feel hungry and you know it, clap your hand. You don't clap your hands, Terran. That's cuz I'm manning the carousel. Yes, that's right. This is Salami. This is a game with some poker chips that look like salami. Yes.

2:37 It's a real-time competitive game. Real-time It's It's real-time push your luck. So, you're going to steal the salami before the barkeep comes and does that. There you go. Yes. And it's App-based as well. Yes. I mean, yeah, App-based. And this is One Round. This is a new cooperative party word association game. Yes. By Devir. Yep. Think uh Think So Clover kind of connections, but with a different twist.

3:03 Mhm. After this, that one's cool. Uh we have this one through from Capstone. This is an asymmetrical uh multi-use card two-player game. Building two-player games. Rising Cultures.

3:16 Um and this is one I think this has been out for a few months and I was interested because a two-player has an B a civilization with multi-use card, like exactly what Terran said why I picked this. Yep. Planet E. This is one that's coming through. You will find a how-to-play from us coming in the near future. What is What's E stand for, Terran? Um environment or economy? Who knows? Cuz you've got to manage both. This is a game of sustainability and it's from a sustainability consultancy company that put this together and you land on a new planet that has had a bit of global warming. Okay, it's a farming E. And you need to you need to try to turn it into the planet of your dreams whether that's a industrial powerhouse or a ecological sanctuary. We're talking about that still.

4:12 [gasps]

4:13 So yes, this is not like Terraforming Mars and this cooperative is much gentler. Yes. And this is Sprout.

4:19 Sprout. All right. This is game about plant. Yes. And this is coming out soon? Uh it's about well, I'm I have a feeling I'm not really good at this because this is about keeping houseplants alive. So I don't know if it's actually translated from real life experience. So if it is, then I'll be really bad at this game. Maybe there should be a plastic plants expansion. You know, probably. It's there and it scores one point. I mean, it's like it's that bad that I can't even keep my cactus alive. Okay. Thank you. They're about to score a point. That's true.

4:53 I can't even keep my cactus alive. Like it's that bad. You know that? Like it's it's either too much water or not enough water. That this is going okay. It's going okay. Okay.

5:04 Chess Rivals. So this is a game not about chess. It's not mid chess mechanically but it's chess championship themed game. Yeah, this is kind of a it's a five think Millennium uh not Millennium Falcon what's it called? Millennium Blades five card battle kind of rounds but you're building up chess components in there and and then there's an engine build component between. So I can see a lot of that in there. Got some very cute art in there. Yeah, very cute actually and then just like each each one is like each card is like it's it's really so cute. So and this one is Moon Colony Bloodbath. We finally get our hands on it. Yes, this was a big one last year and it's it passed us by until quite recently.

5:50 We didn't play it in April so not qualified for our top games of April. Is this a hint for next month? Oh, we played it in in May so who knows? Next month we will next month we will have this top games and also UKGE flop. Yes. And our UK trip flop I guess. And then you're going to have to watch it just fast forward it not.

6:12 And with thanks to Rio Grande as well to Minion Big Box. Yes, yes so this is a second edition. So it's What is not it's not as heavy as the first edition? Is it?

6:24 It's because we have the cuz our first edition box has every single expansion crammed into it. It is Oh.

6:30 It is basically a box of reams of paper. Yes. I was like this is this is not that heavy. I was like oh this is only two games. Yeah. Ah, is that a tyrant? That is that is everything off the gas. No I can't I CAN'T PICK IT UP. LOOK LOOK. The gym paid off.

6:45 Are you good? So now our top games of the month. Yes, as usual we'll take you through the top five games each that were new to us played during April. These could have come to us from many many sources. They could be games we're doing sponsored videos for. They could be review copies. They could be games I kickstarted eight years ago that only arrived recently. They only just got to play. Who knows? Who knows? Who knows? Not not spoiler alert.

7:16 No spoiler. Okay, all right. All right, let's start with you then. We'll start with me. This is my number five game for the month. It is Berlin 1960. And possibly unusual for me cuz it is a social deduction It's a social deduction card play kind of game so it's not pure social deduction. That's why you like it. Yeah, it's got it's got that element in there and basically this is a game where the teams are split or the players are split secretly into CIA and KGB and they're all double agents. So, they're all getting missions from both sides. And every turn you play a card that gives you some actions. And they may let you get more missions or play missions or force someone else to play a mission. There's all these different things. You're trying to get basically point scoring missions on your side and point deducting missions on the other

8:10 Team game, yeah. While trying to work out who's who.

8:13 Who's who, yeah. You don't know who's in your team. Yes. And discerning who's who is the second major way of gaining points and then you shoot them as well. So, it's it's pretty cool. There's a lot There's a bit going on. The first play can be quite chaotic. Uh but it is It creates a lot of fun cuz there's all this Once you get into the matter of it, it's got all this All the things you'd expect to see. You have to try to bluff and double bluff then it becomes harder to work out what's what and then you're just pretending to be spies in the 60s and it's got that little bit of theme to it as well. So, it ends up being uh yeah. Ends up being quite a fun experience. Uh your first game will be clunky. I would stress.

8:57 Yes. Especially our first game was eight with eight players. Yes.

9:03 It was and I will say the first game was clunky but also a lot of fun. Yes. Oh, that's right, yeah. And then somebody like oh, is this a team game? Like oh, I don't need I don't win on my own. What?

9:15 do that. You're revealing that I'm a bad teacher. Oh, no. Okay, yeah, sorry. It was just It was a loud pub, all right, the first time we played. It does thrive with more players. I will say that. Yeah, I know. The six seven So, but seven the rest of seven people understand the rules. So, it was just like a miss. That's all. You're a good teacher, parent. So, I understand why Ty liked it and I know that this is almost made it. This is social deduction mainly, but it's also a little bit of puzzle deduction. And I think that's the element that Taran likes like the Made in Hong Kong. What is it called? It's Deception, right?

9:52 Deception, that's it. Deception Made in Hong Kong. There are some puzzle deduction elements that makes it fun for Taran. So, there's big rules here as Taran said a little bit clunky could be at the start, but once everyone knows what's going on. I mean, even our rules video is only what 10 minutes, 11, 12?

10:14 Only takes Only takes 11. It's explaining it in the right order. That is the tricky part. Yes, so I will link that below as well if you want to learn more about it. And I believe this is a UKGE release for Debir Games. So, check it out if you like that sort of social deduction. It's not as heavy as Avalon Resistance because that's kind of like based on what? Purely based on like body language. That's That's my opinion anyway. And this is based on something else as well. So, it's fun one. Game number five for me. Is it a story book? Is it a board game? Is it a cooperative game? It's all of the above. So, it's got nice book looking so as you can probably see. This is a cooperative narrative game. But it has a very smart card. So, this is There's a story of a girl and the companion. So, and they are going through the like resolving some like a bit of an adventure resolving some things that's happening in this world. Despite of the black color, it's actually it's very cozy and it's very cute game. And it's it's that cozy and then it's They are for example creatures that you don't actually kill, but you heal instead.

11:32 And you need to solve puzzle by playing the right cards at the right the right time. Committing certain number of dice, so it's like risk management to achieve certain successes and proceed with the story. Yeah, it's got a little bit of there's there's four actions that you'll be doing. So it's this world where Luma is this light figure here and the creatures uh have become darkened by shadow and you're trying to battle the shadow. And it has this little Arkham Horror type of thing where you're rolling dice to resolve and and the story moves in one or two ways and build your deck in one or two ways. But the longer you wait for the action to get back to the left-hand slot, the lower the threshold of your die roll has to be to actually meet a success.

12:24 Yeah, I really like that cuz like you managed it. Sometimes you need you have actions that manipulate that. Um like in Arkham Horror, right? And that's that's really it's really fun, I think. Yeah, Cozie is definitely right. This is from Open L Studios who previously brought Mythwind. Yeah, which I also really enjoy. Mhm. So yeah, well with that sounds like you like like who knows maybe they'll bring out something else Story Vault. Whatever. I can't think of anything else. I'll um start with that. I don't know. It's certainly a it is a system that could be implemented across several stories. It is a learn as you go, so there's a prologue where you learn all of the rules and all of that leads to that coziness. Yeah. Well, we have review videos, so any of these games if we have other videos for them and we'll link it below.

13:22 Spoilers no more. This is Terrence's game number four. Yes, number four for me is Seize the Bean, a game that had a famously long Kickstarter delivery time, and this was a game I backed. It was either before we were Meeple University or very briefly after our first couple of videos. And then I think it took a little while to get to the table after it arrived. Yeah. Yes. Um but yeah, ultimately worth the wait. It was a fun game. It is a deck builder. It's a very quick deck builder, but it is ultimately a deck builder which has a little bit of a worker not worker placement, it's kind of action selection where you've got six actions that you can level up with your worker placements. And you can only do two of them each round, and you need to manage resources in uh as with many sort of coffee shop games, you've got a queue that you're not necessarily going to be managing or able to manage. So, if you get customers who build up the hype of your restaurant, then uh you're going to have way too many customers that you can't serve and things like that. So, you're trying to manage all of that.

14:31 Um you know, this this does take us back to the early days of of Kickstarting, I think. You can see there's so much in here from a components and art standpoint.

14:42 It's The components are amazing. The little coffees and you can you can scoop with little teaspoons. It's like a quarter of a teaspoon or a quarter of a teaspoon or something like that. Yeah, it was this this clever thing where they realized that trying to you know, pick up and count six coffee beans every time you were gaining coffee was slowing down the game, so they just made a scoop and worked out that on average you're going to get six beans when you scoop out of the the bag. And so they just like, well, that's what it that's what it is. So,

15:15 Yeah, ultimately there's lots of different combinations of

15:18 of deck that you use each game as well. So, it's like what, like 10 plus? 20 maybe?

15:22 there's about 20 different things. It's like getting a Dominion box. There's about 20 different sub decks that you can all mix together and then try to find the combos. So, yeah, it's a clever game. It That's probably why it takes so long. And Taran has got the name on it. So, if you have this game and you have one of the good reviews that thing that that says that your coffee coffee machine is shiny, that's Taran. Yes. Yes, I did back this at the There was a again, the early days of Kickstarter of the kinds of stretch goals that they were doing back then.

15:53 They still have it? I do. I think so. What do you think? It was a It was a fun one. It was a being included things. There's all these good review tokens in there and you could pledge extra to write one of them and have your name on it. So, mine is in there. Yes. Game number four for me is Companion Quest. And it's game number three for me as well. Mhm. So, this is a another cooperative game in my list this month. It is a dice manipulation game. And it's quite a good one. It's a very good one by that standard. There Yeah, it's from the family of games where you are rolling dice, you're trying to use uh different powers and effects to manipulate those dice. And you've got a limited number of those and you're trying to put specific dice on in this case specific cards to advance quests and problems and try to solve them. Uh yes. And you have to focus on two main things. One is to solve the quests so that the bad guy does not advance. And the second part of it is to advance yourself so you can capture that bad guy by solving a different type of quest.

17:00 So, it's like, okay, which one you want to do? And also build a bit of engine building on your part. So, which one you want to do? You really need to balance it depending what quest comes out, depending what dice you roll, and it is really fun. Yeah, it ends up being quite a tight game. And where I where I think the mechanism really works well here, uh you you get a limited number of companions, and each companion has its own dice manipulation

17:27 Yes. effect. And there's very you know, it's all the standard stuff, increase, flip, reroll, etc. But how you refresh them, each of them has one of six colors of dice associated with it. And the colors, you know, you need the specific colors to do specific quests. But when you place a die of say yellow, that lets you refresh one yellow companion. And so, not only

17:51 again. Yeah. Yeah. So not only you trying to find dice that go on the quests that are on the board, but you're also trying to match them with the companions that you're getting. I think that's unique and I love that part.

18:04 Yeah. Yeah. It It makes for It makes for these nice different threads of thought that you don't get through like a simple dice manipulator like Skyteam or many of the other ones I've seen. Yeah, correct. I agree. Game number three for me is Behind the Lens. This was still a prototype version. It's currently on you just finished crowdfunding. And this is by the publisher that brought out Earth. So, this is kind of like a spin-out in the universe of Earth. And this This is Behind the Lens. This is basically a slide puzzle game where you capture photos of nature by photos. Like trying to line up all all the camera jargons like ISO or you don't need to know anything about that. But trying to capture that, line it up at the right configuration so that you can capture the photo and earn points.

18:56 Yeah, it's a drafting and slide puzzle game.

18:58 That's right. Drafting

18:59 drafting cards that give you a camera token, camera kind of chip, and some power to like press buttons on your camera. And then you slide puzzle them around trying to make a a that matches one of your pictures, and then you take the picture, and that will score points that combo bigger based on the tiles you've taken or pushed around or things like that. So, it's it's quite intricate.

19:20 Yes. Well, the actual puzzle on your own board is quite solo, but there's this interesting card drafting at the start of the round where you just draft a card. So, you just draft whatever action card you want, and it's all up to the opponents, and you use that as actions and then charging your batteries or resources and things like that. So, it's really fun. Yeah. And then it has objectives that are very, very similar to Earth in that uh that's where it fits in that Earth universe, and you I will uh I will admit and apologize there. You were saying before said in the universe of of Earth, and I started chuckling over here cuz I'm just like the universe of Earth is

20:04 [snorts]

20:04 the universe. Ah, but this is correct. Like, technically it's correct. The universe of the game Earth. Yes. And we don't have the game um anymore because we bought it cuz it was a prototype. We forwarded it to another content creator. So, that's Behind the Lens. Game number two for me and Tarrant. Yokohama, we're sharing a few games as well this month. So, Yokohama, this is the newer version. There's not a lot of difference in the older versions. I mean, rule-wise it's the same, just component differences. So, we just bring out one of the two Yokohamas. And this is a really unique game, I think. This is This is a game that is 10 years old. Um and it like seems to be and I think have been sitting on our shelf for even longer.

20:53 Uh it'd been a long time. We never quite got around to it. So, it's a game that has You have to plan out your actions. You have to put tokens down on given spaces. And create and they're arranged in a pyramid and then you have to basically create a path for your meeple to walk around. And when he gets to a spot, you do the action at a strength based on how many pieces you've previously put down there. So that might give you more resources at once. You kind of build up towards it. And then you take the tokens back. So you you're constantly managing this inventory of tokens of houses that you can build up. These tokens, some of them get permanently spent on point scoring actions.

21:35 to unlock more. Yeah. And from there it is to a large extent a contract fulfillment game because a big part of the points is about gaining contracts, fulfilling them with the tokens and then taking the bonuses they give you and caching them in for points as well. Yeah, the unique part is that the assistant action where you just spread out your assistant. Normally you just put three assistant in three different places or two in one different place and that actually determine your strength. And so you can see that your opponent can see, "Okay, um you want to be you want to go to that location next time probably because you keep putting your assistants there or building up the strength of your action slowly." That That's really is unique. It's very Yokohama. Like I have not played any games that's quite like that actually.

22:24 Not even the jewel Yokohama. Mhm. Yeah, it is the closest thing I can it's it's different but the closest thing I can think is how the actions get stronger in Architects of the West Kingdom.

22:36 Oh right, yes, yes.

22:37 However, for that one each time you go there, you're placing your Mhm. taking the action and then someone takes them away from you. Whereas here, you're building it up before you go there and then you take it back. So I don't know. Maybe it's not the same at all. Maybe I shouldn't even have mentioned it. No, it's like it's kind of the same but then it's collectively building the the strength rather than just your own building the strength in Yokohama. Yeah. The on board interaction is uh gentle, but it's very race heavy and you're trying to complete objectives and get majorities on boards that don't have very many Mhm. uh places. And so, that I think is where it becomes more uh more critical and more interactive is in those races for the best point scoring. Yeah. I'm glad that we finally played this. And now we're playing this on board game arena. Yes. It's there.

23:33 And game number one for me and for Taran as well. And this game is on loan and I'll tell you about it after this is Dungeon Crawler Carl Unstoppable. So, this is the Dungeon Crawler Carl version of the game already out by John D. Clair called Unstoppable, which is a card crafting building game based on the popular lit RPG series Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman. And the books really good as well. Yeah, this is So, it's a it's not a pure reskin of the Unstoppable as out, but it's pretty close to it. It's kind of 90% the same with a couple of different mechanisms. They've brought in mana and spells, which give it a bit of a of a different flavor there. I mean, Unstoppable was my in my top games of last year. So, and now this is Dungeon Crawler Carl, which I have read all of the books, well, up to seven at the time.

24:31 At this time, I have book eight because I'm a Patreon member of Matt Dinniman. And I don't know, maybe I'll just wait for the audio book because Jeff Hayes is uh doing the audio books really well. It's a very clever system.

24:46 Very. And I remember saying that last year when we spoke about Very thematic and like Taran doesn't know about Dungeon Crawler Carl and he still put it on number one, right? Yeah, I like the system and I like the system with the original one. It's a game where Yeah, it takes card crafting to like a three-dimensional level almost because you are endorsing two cards together and one of them is a threat, and you have to defeat that threat for it to then join your hand as a card that you play, and then you can upgrade that twice, which makes the card stronger, but also the threat stronger. And you have to manage that. Uh it's part of Renegade's solo series, but it does have a two-player mode that works just as well.

25:30 And we've played the solo, we've played the two-players. And all right, so even Taran does does not know the theme of Dungeon Crawler Carl last again. So, it is a well-done game. You don't need to know the theme to enjoy it. But if you enjoy it, that's an extra enjoyment to see the characters come alive from Carl, Donut, and Katia. I can't think of any Mordecai. Um Imani or all of them, really. Like it's all in there, and even like the I should probably not talk about too much of the characters that I might accidentally give spoiler. But the reason why the game is not here, I have the game still, but it is on loan because I know some people who would enjoy playing it, another authors in the LitRPG series as well, which is uh um Sertraline, um from He Who Fights with Monsters, and Mark of the Cuckoo book.

26:35 Sorry, I know the real name, and then it's like the pen name. I have to think about it a little bit.

26:40 [sighs and gasps]

26:40 Uh Ashley, and there's Kristalyn, and Haylock from Heretical Fishing. So, they Hopefully they really enjoy that. Like they have a They have a meet-up somewhere, and then they're borrowing that to play. I'm very excited about that game as well. I'm starting to see a lot of the hype around Unstable. It's been kind of a slow burn and I'm talking the original Unstable and the new one. Uh it had Yeah, we first played it 2 years ago as a prototype and then it didn't come out until last year as people were receiving it.

27:13 Yes. And I think it had it and this dungeon crawler card one has started to generate buzz about it. I've seen a lot of people asking where they can find Unstable Yes. getting in on this new version and you look at all of the card crafting games that John D plays and

27:30 yeah. And you know, Mystic Mystic Vale was Mystic Vale was the original and it was a classic and it worked in a very standard deck building kind of way, but this is this to me is next level and it's a system that can last for quite a while. I just love love. All right, I can just continue talking about the theme, but imagine that I don't know the theme, but like how smart is this? Like your deck is your enemy. Your enemy got bitten and then that becomes your deck by flipping it and then once it's cycle out and then it becomes enemy again and so on and just like this what do you call it? The treaty cycle? Yeah, it's a thing. cycle cycle You You had a turn. I was like, "Oh, that was smart." and I forgot about it. I guess it's not smart enough otherwise I would have remembered. Sorry, Tarrant. But yeah, that is our number one game. So what game game games have you been playing this month or last month? Please share in the comments and thank you so much for watching and hopefully you have a great day. Maybe I'll bump This is the last vlog before UKGE so maybe I'll bump into you in UK or UKGE. Thanks for watching. Bye.