Category Archives: Board Games

Gen Con 2025: Ares Games presents Tedoku, a new Roll-and-Write Puzzle Game

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Tedoku

Tedoku, a clever Roll, Flip, and Write game for any number of players, will be presented as preview at Gen Con Indy 2025. Due to release at Spiel Essen 2025 (October 23-26), the game combines the logical satisfaction of Sudoku with the spatial challenges of polyomino puzzles, and it can be played solo or as a group, as players only need a pencil and their own sheet.

Players have a sheet with a 9×9 grid, and over 20 rounds they fill it accordingly with their dice rolls and card draws. At the start of each round, one card is flipped and the Tedoku die is rolled. The card designates a grid zone – a row, column, or 3×3 sector – while the die shows which polyomino shape must be drawn. Rotate, mirror, and fill the grid better than everybody else for the ultimate score – or challenge yourself with a solo game.

Designed by Sandro Blasich, Tedoku is a fast and rewarding game of logic, geometry, and careful planning. All players use the same inputs, placing the shape so that at least a part of it touches the indicated area. After 20 turns, they score points for completed rows, columns, and sectors. The highest score wins, with ties broken by the fewest empty squares.

Tedoku will be present for the first time at Gen Con. Visit Ares Games’ booth (#229) to check out the game and all other new and upcoming releases.

Gen Con 2025: Jam out on the tabletop with Jerry Garcia’s Cosmic Journey

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Jerry Garcia’s Cosmic Journey

For decades, Jerry Garcia’s art and music have opened the door to fun, magic, and memories. Now, Twogether Studios and The Jerry Garcia Family invite you to roll the dice and push your luck with Jerry Garcia’s Cosmic Journey, a new game infused with Jerry’s vibrant artwork and spirit.

Game designers Jenn Ellis and Keith Baker—known for games like Illimat with The Decemberists, Eberron for Dungeons & Dragons, Gloom, and Cool Cool Cool—created a game that they could imagine Jerry bringing to a game night. A dice game that can be played almost anywhere, with people of all ages—and that has folksy roots, a touch of Americana and a trickster spirit. Players press their luck rolling dice to be the highest roller, and win by being the first to leave all their Bummers behind. It’s easy to learn and play, and includes variant rulesets to keep players on their toes.

Twogether Studios will be previewing Jerry Garcia’s Cosmic Journey this week at booth #939 at Gen Con 2025 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Sign up at Twogetherstudios.com for early access to preorder launching the first week in September!

Gen Con 2025: Cephalofair Games announces New Mercenary Character Packs for Gloomhaven, Jaws of the Lion, and Frosthaven

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Cephalofair Games has launched a new product line, Mercenary Character Packs, that are compatible with Gloomhaven, Jaws of the Lion, and Frosthaven. They’ll first be released at Gen Con 2025 and can also be pre-ordered directly from Cephalofair.

Gloomhaven Mercenary Character Packs

For the first time ever, players of Cephalofair’s largest campaign board games can step into the roles of legendary Gloomhaven narrative characters like never before. These Mercenary Packs offer unique new playable classes and modular gameplay content, each inspired by one of Cephalofair’s most popular titles released to date. Mix and match your favorite Gloomhaven characters and campaigns today!

Each Mercenary Pack contains:

  • Miniature(s)
  • Character Mat
  • Character Sheets
  • Class Ability Deck
  • Player Tokens & Punchboard(s)
  • Advanced Class Modifier Deck
  • Solo/Spotlight Scenario
  • Item Reward
  • Storage Tuckboxes
Gloomhaven Mercenary Character Packs

The characters include:

  • Hail, Irritable Enchanter: Gloomhaven’s perpetually annoyed and reclusive enchanter, lets you turn her irritation into resolve, releasing just a fraction of her immense power.
  • Anaphi, Fallen Lion: Mindthief and former member of Jaws of the Lion, Anaphi is ready to aid you and your allies, wielding augments and summoning Gloomhaven’s most unsavory pests.
  • Satha, Mayor of Frosthaven: Leader of the infamous outpost to the North, Satha will command your allies to action, instill confidence in your party, and stand between your friends and their demise.
  • Cassandra, Forgotten Diviner: Inspired by Gloomhaven: Forgotten Circles (out of print), Cassandra creates rifts across the planes to hamper your foes, while using divination to predict the future of your party and its enemies. Featuring brand new design, development, and artwork, Gloomhaven: Forgotten Circles lives on spiritually through this new mercenary.

There’s a $5 Discount on the Gloomhaven Mercenary 4-Pack Bundle through Aug 31st at Cephalofair.com and will be delivered around September 2025. You can find them at Gen Con at booth #1643.

Gloomhaven: Mercenary Packs is a project originally conceptualized by the Cephalofair Team with inspiration from its community members and their constant passion for expanding Gloomhaven lore, making custom classes, designing unique campaigns, and more. Cephalofair similarly wanted to provide some additional and more modular pieces of content that could be integrated across any of their mid-to-large size campaign games and thought no better place to start than with some new mercenary classes. And not just any mercenary classes, but legendary characters found throughout Gloomhaven lore that they could bring to life in new and exciting ways and depict in artwork and gameplay for the first time.

Design began loosely in 2023 and completed 2024 but was put on hold for an intended 2026 release to follow fulfillment of Cephalofair’s outstanding Backerkit projects (Gloomhaven RPG; Miniatures of Gloomhaven), the project has been expedited instead for a Q3 2025 release amidst industry-wide destabilization brought on by current U.S. tariff policy on international manufacturing.

With smaller production requirements and faster production timelines, these SKUs in part represent a more agile project by Cephalofair, who is committed to finding ways to provide its community with exciting new ways to engage with the Gloomhaven product lines, while continuing to secure and fulfill its commitments to its backers on outstanding larger game productions.

Gen Con 2025: Academy Games Freedom: The Underground Railroad expansion, Chronicles of Bravery

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Chronicles of Bravery

Expand your journey through history with ‘Chronicles of Bravery’, the exciting upcoming expansion for the award-winning game Freedom: The Underground Railroad from Academy Games.

This expansion allows players to delve into seven compelling Chronicles, each based on the true stories of courageous men and women who risked everything to seek freedom and help end the institution of slavery. These inspiring tales unfold across all three of the game’s Eras, with Narrative Cards guiding your goals and needs to successfully complete their perilous journeys to freedom.

Sign up to play Chronicles of Bravery EVENTS taught and run by Brian Mayer, the game’s designer:

Thursday, July 31, 2025

5 pm: https://www.gencon.com/events/299854
8 pm: https://www.gencon.com/events/299855

Friday, August 1, 2025

5 pm: https://www.gencon.com/events/299856
8 pm: https://www.gencon.com/events/299857

Saturday, August 2, 2025

3 pm: https://www.gencon.com/events/299858

Brian Mayer will also be teaching and running Chronicles of Bravery games at our Gen Con Booth #2801, every morning at 10am. The number of players are limited to 4 each game in order of sign up. SIGN UP HERE

Gen Con 2025: Renegade’s Risk G.I. JOE: Special Missions Launches on Kickstarter

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Renegade Game Studios, in collaboration with Avalon Hill, the strategy games division of Hasbro, has officially launched its Kickstarter campaign for RISK G.I. JOE: Special Missions, a bold new twist on the classic strategy game, this time set in the world of G.I. JOE.

To celebrate the launch, all backers will receive a free bonus pack featuring extra leaders for the base game, along with surprise unlocks revealed throughout the campaign. Renegade has confirmed that existing pre-orders will be honored, and those customers will also receive the bonus pack and access to all campaign-exclusive rewards.

RISK G.I. JOE: Special Missions blends the timeless tactics of RISK with the fast-paced action of G.I. JOE, featuring over 250 detailed miniatures, five unique missions, and a full-scale battle for global domination. Whether you’re a lifelong G.I. JOE fan or a strategy gamer seeking a fresh challenge, RISK G.I. JOE: Special Missions is a must-play experience.

The Kickstarter campaign runs July 22 through August 14, with a special in-person preview available at Renegade’s booth (#1619) at Gen Con in the exhibitor hall.

CatStronauts Has Landed from Atlas Games. Based on the Comic Series by Drew Brockington

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CatStronauts is the newly released board game from Atlas Games based on the hit comic book series by Drew Brockington. Players guide their favorite kitty crewmates on their most important mission yet …

The International Space Station is a big success! With a green light from President Cat, CATSUP can now expand the station by adding on all the modules. It’s up to the CatStronauts to move them to the right spots as each arrives, bringing them online one at a time …

CatStronauts: The Board Game is the cooperative game that lets you play as your favorite CatStronauts! You win as a team, by completing the space station. The dynamic modular table layout lets you move inside and out of the station, where you’ll encounter side missions and alerts. But with teamwork and communication, the CatStronauts will make it home for their parade

… Before Time Runs Out!

  • CatStronauts features cooperative play that’s only 30-45 minutes long
  • The Fish Finder Satellite expansion adds 2 players, with 4 more character options
  • Includes rules for solo play & younger players, plus a special “How to Play” comic!

CatStronauts: The Board Game is for 1-4 players, ages 10+ with an MSRP of $44.95. It features 12 hex module tiles, 33 poker-sized cards, 44 mini-sized cards, 4 player dashboards, 1 main control panel board, 4 acrylic character standups, and 11 acrylic tokens.

The expansion adds 2 players and retails for $24.95. It features 4 hex modules, 17 poker-sized cards, 2 player dashboards, 4 acrylic character standups, and 11 acrylic tokens.

CatStronauts: The Board Game

Fish Finder Satellite expansion

Off The Page Games launches Grendel: The Game of Crime and Mayhem

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From Off the Page Games, the publisher of the newly released Corps of Discovery: A Game Set in the World of Manifest Destiny and the Harvey-nominated hit game, MIND MGMT: The Psychic Espionage “Game” comes another thrilling game based on a hit indie comic. Grendel: The Game of Crime and Mayhem is a highly asymmetric, yet very approachable, game for 1-4 players that is now funding on Kickstarter.

The game is designed by Alara Cameron and Sen-Foong Lim and is based on the graphic novel Grendel, created by Matt Wagner. Grendel wants to exert his control over New York City using fear, while his nemesis Argent tries to bring him to justice. The Mob try to win back their turf from Grendel, and the Police are trying to restore order. Each faction uses a different mechanic: Grendel pulls chits from a bag, the Mob allocate dice, the Police move around a rondel, and Argent uses deck building to push his luck.

As is the custom with Off The Page Games, they have a really cool new mechanism or hook for this game. Each zone on the board will have a tower, which has a seesaw-like device inside. Players add tokens of different weights to the towers, causing them to fall! Each player gains aggression based on how much they put into the tower, and spend it to attack their opponents!

Two expansions will also be available!
A 5th faction will be introduced: the Press! They use polyominos to complete newspaper pages and are more interested in chasing down leads than punching opponents.
Pursuits and Payoffs: An assortment of bonuses and extra gameplay that can be layered onto the base game, including some surprises pulled directly from the Grendel comic!

The Kickstarter campaign will have 2 rewards levels: Retail and All In (which includes all the expansion material).

The Grendel: The Game of Crime and Mayhem campaign will run for 3 weeks. Exert your influence over the city, spend your aggression, and triumph during the mayhem!

Grendel: The Game of Crime and Mayhem

We open up and show off Exit: Adventures on Catan

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Times are rough and life in your village is getting harder than you ever imagined it could be. One day, sailors tell you about the beautiful and fertile island of Catan. The people speak with admiration about the lush vegetation and the variety of resources. Hoping for better times, you set off with a few friends to explore this new world and settle down there.

What will await you? Will you manage to steer the fortunes together and build a new life in a foreign land?

Your exciting adventure begins when you set off for Catan.

Ages: 10+
Players: 1-4
Game Length: 45-90 minutes

We open it up and show off what you get!

Get yours!

Miniature Market
Amazon

Thames & Kosmos provided Board Game Today with a FREE copy for review
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Steamforged Games’ Rivet Wars: Reloaded is Coming to Retail

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Rivet Wars: Reloaded

Steamforged Games has announced Rivet Wars: Reloaded and a whole host of expansions are now available to pre-order!

Rivet Wars is a fast-paced tactical board game where history meets dieselpunk fantasy with customisable pieces, and a battlefield that changes every game, so no two battles are ever the same.

Rivet Wars: Reloaded is a remake of the original Rivet Wars, created by Ted Terranova in 2014. This quickfire tactical combat game can be played competitively, co-op, solo, or in teams, with fast-paced battles taking 30 – 60 mins. Players take command of either the battle-hardened Allies or the relentless Blight, deploying waves of units with unique abilities, and backing them up with unstoppable war machines.

The innovative swappable plug system allows players to customise their minis and create exciting new combos, giving them the edge at just the right moment. Players will need to stay on their toes to secure the win though, switching tactics from one turn to the next to claim objectives and score victory points.

James Ernest and Crab Fragment have Regained Ownership of Cheapass Games

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James Ernest and Crab Fragment Labs have announced that they have regained total ownership of Cheapass Games. More than two years ago, Crab Fragment issued a cryptic “Cheapass is coming home” newsletter when this change seemed imminent. That turned out to be a false alarm, as the offer was made by someone whose job no longer included making such offers.

But now at last, Flat River Group have signed off on a rescission of the licensing contract, which means all Cheapass IP is now squarely back under Ernest and Crab Fragment Labs’ control.

With their permission, they are already been hosting old PDFs and posting a few updated decks at Crab Fragment, mostly made around the time when they thought the change was coming. But this time it’s for real, and it’s huge for us.

Crab Fragment Labs was already bristling with new games, having created more than fifty new titles since 2019. Now they have tripled its inventory, and they’re rearranging their workload around the updated list.

Cheapass Games has always been dismayed with the cost of board games, and they plan to make a large chunk of the old catalog available for free. Not just the “original” PDF versions, as they have now at Cheapassic Park, but also all-new PDFs featuring old-style presentation with updated rules.

We’ll put the latest versions of our favorite Cheapass card games at DriveThruCards. Games like Lord of the Fries, Give Me The Brain, Button Men, the Spy Game, and more. There’s even have a few unreleased expansions, from back when they were still in charge.

Work is still being done in how exactly to integrate James Ernest’s old brands with his new ones, redesigning the web presence as they work on migrating trademark registrations and URLs.

This mailing list has always been for fans of Cheapass Games and Crab Fragment Labs, so not much changes here. It is expected that Cheapass Games will be the main publishing imprint, while Crab Fragment Labs still represents the design studio. There’s also additional brands to manage including Hip Pocket Games and James Ernest Games.

They’ll be looking for new publishers for their most popular games.

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