So, you are stuck having to purchase a gift for that friend who has every game from Catan to Mansions of Madness. Or your own board game journey has reached a point where you want to sink your teeth into a nice crunchy game1.
Then you are in luck as we have compiled a list of the top 12, brand new, titles that will see you and your board game circle spending this festive season battling elder gods, building fantastic cities or go head-to-head with super villains!
Deep Blue
Buying this fabled map was a stroke of genius. The most ancient, legendary, and extravagant underwater wrecks are waiting for divers. Diving suits and oxygen tanks are aboard, and the ship is ready to weigh anchor. There's no time to lose!
Deep Blue is a press-your-luck and engine-building, family game in which players dive for wealth! Players have to collect the right crew of divers, sailors, and archeologists, race to wreck sites to claim the best spots to dive from, and scout the seas to discover new wrecks. Players have to take risks if they want to be the most wealthy diver!
Megacity Oceania
WELCOME TO THE FUTURE OF CITY BUILDING! Tackling overpopulation and rising sea levels has become the planet’s number one priority. Advances in technology enable us to build towering superstructures on immense floating platforms.
Race to collect contracts, construct beautiful buildings and vie for awards as a unique MegaCity emerges each time you play. It’s a competitive business where prestige points are everything! A combination of dexterity and light strategy, MegaCity: Oceania is the city building game in which you actually build a unique city every time.
Wingspan
You
are bird enthusiasts seeking to discover and attract the best birds to your
network of wildlife preserves. Each bird extends a chain of powerful
combinations in one of your habitats (actions).
Wingspan is a competitive, medium-weight, card-driven, engine-building board game from Stonemaier Games.
This new revised edition of Wingspan includes the The Swift-Start Promo Pack. This
pack includes first-round walkthrough guides and specific new bird
cards to use with them. The swift-start guides are helpful for teaching
new players.
Abomination: The Heir of Frankenstein
Abomination is a competitive game of strategic monster building for 2-4 players, inspired by Mary Shelley's classic novel of gothic horror.
Through worker placement and careful management of decomposing resources, you'll gather materials from the cemeteries and morgues around the city, conduct valuable research at the Academy of Science, hire less-than-reputable associates, and toil away in your lab — all in an effort to assemble a new form of life and infuse it with a "spark of being".
Arkham Horror:
Final Hour
You arrived too late to stop the loathsome rite, and a monstrous, transdimensional Ancient One tears through reality. An iridescent rift slashes across the darkened skies, heralding the nightmarish creatures that pour into the hallowed buildings of Miskatonic University.
Arkham Horror: Final Hour is a fully cooperative, fast-paced board game for one to four players. An endless tide of monsters sweeps across the Miskatonic University campus, all while searching desperately for the ritual components you need to put an end to this insanity.
Cthulhu:
Death May Die
In Cthulhu: Death May Die, inspired by the writings of H.P. Lovecraft, you and your fellow players represent investigators in the 1920's who instead of trying to stop the coming of Elder Gods, want to summon those otherworldly beings so that you can put a stop to them permanently.
You start the game insane, and while your long-term goal is to shoot Cthulhu in the face, so to speak, at some point during the game you'll probably fail to mitigate your dice rolls properly and your insanity will cause you to do something terrible...
Release 29 Nov 2019
Ishtar
From the award-winning designer Bruno Cathala, Ishtar is a game in which you play the role of a gardener aiming to transform the dry desert into the Lost Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
To accomplish your mission, you will have to plant flowers, which can help you gather precious gems to spend on actions.
Whether to buy Trees or to purchase upgrades, collecting gems will be a crucial part of the game. Get them before your opponents, recruit apprentices, send them to earn points!
Ecos: First Continent
What if the formation of Earth had gone differently? In Ecos: First Continent, players are forces of nature molding the planet, but with competing visions of its grandeur. You have the chance to create a part of the world, similar but different to the one we know.
Game play in Ecos is simultaneous. Each round, one player reveals element tokens from the element bag, giving all players the opportunity to complete a card from their tableau and shape the continent to their own purpose.
Tapestry
Tapestry is a two-hour civilization game for 1-5 players designed by Jamey Stegmaier.
Create the civilization with the most storied history, starting at the beginning of humankind and reaching into the future. The paths you choose will vary greatly from real-world events or people — your civilization is unique! In Tapestry, you start from nothing and advance on any of the four advancement tracks to earn progressively better benefits. Earn victory points, and gain tapestry cards that will tell the story of your civilization.
Everdell: Pearlbrook
Explore a new underwater society in Pearlbrook, the first expansion for
Everdell!
Pearlbrook introduces a new side board, the river board, where
you'll send your frog ambassador to gather a new resource: pearls.
You'll also encounter new aquatic critters and constructions! Collect
enough pearls and you can construct fabulous wonders and adornments, to
make your city the pride of Everdell!
Marvel Champions
Rhino rampages through the streets of New York, Klaw peddles illegal weapons to the world’s most dangerous criminals, are you up to the task?
The Marvel Champions: The Card Game Core Set gives you everything you need to start your journey in the Marvel universe. Choose to play as Iron Man, Captain Marvel, Spider-Man, Black Panther, and She-Hulk! Combine your powers to take down the rampaging Rhino, the devious Klaw, or the utterly terrifying Ultron!
Funkoverse
Face off in the Ultimate POP! Battle.
In the Funkoverse Strategy Game you’ll combine your favorite characters and go head-to-head
in four exciting game scenarios. Move through memorable locations and use your characters’ unique abilities to capture points and achieve victory!
Funkoverse is a light strategy game, each set including 2 playable maps. Play as a stand-alone game or mix with other
Funkoverse games!
1Describing a game system based on detailed simulations or narratives that require a significant amount of rules, data and procedures, especially in role-playing games.