With over 500 new games being introduced to the market at Gen Con, I fully understand the absurdity of trying to come up with a list of the best new games — especially within a few days of the convention.
Yet, as I’ve done for more than 15 years, I jumped into the 4-day convention in search of new dice-rolling, card-swapping, pigeon-stealing (I’ll explain that later) good times that are worth replaying and recommending to readers.
A few clarifications: This list isn’t where you’ll find multi-hour games that come with novella-length rulebooks. Granted, there are great games of that sort out there, and I look forward to playing some of them and reviewing them. Instead, I’m focusing on the games that I actually had time to play, I would happily play again, and can be learned fairly quickly.
Let’s start with the aforementioned birds
Oh My Pigeons! (Ravensburger) is a simple-to-learn bit of “take-that!” goofiness. The goal is to fill your bench with the winged beasts before anyone else does. You do that by playing cards that allow you to take pigeons from others, swap benches and even fling poo — actually a die — at another player’s bench to knock off their birds.
For nature lovers and players with pending chores
Animal-themed games were big this year and I enjoyed the puzzly nature of Zoomies (Fireside Games), in which players build out a dog park by placing pups, domino-style, in such a way to maximize their packs while also placing tokens to declare pack leaders, make friends with neighboring breeds, etc.
Nature-focused games were also prevalent this year with flower-, mushroom- and park-focused titles popping up like, well, weeds. In the strategic small-box set, Biomos (North Star Game Studio), the player’s mission is to develop a biodiverse planet by strategically placing desert, mountain, forest, ocean and ice discs. Each players’ planet board allows for sliding but not rearranging the discs. Proper placement can change the terrain to better suit your goals. Place an ocean next to a desert, for instance, and the desert can become a forest.
The more mundane task of putting away laundry is what inspires Piles! (Lost Boy Entertainment). The game starts with each player having six piles of four cards in front of them. Without taking turns, they scramble to swap out clothing cards, one pile at a time, with cards from the middle. The goal is to get six sets of the same type — sweaters, bikinis, scarves, etc. It’s frantic fun that can accommodate up to eight players.
Are you a fan of the game Uno?
Any one of these three would be a big plus on a rainy vacation day.
In Cabanga! (Amigo), the goal is to get rid of your cards by selecting a row and playing a card. Easy? Not if someone has a card with a value between your card and its neighbor. In that case, those cards end up added to your hand. It’s quick fun for 3-6 players.
In Mind Up! (Pandasaurus Games), players try to acquire sets of cards by selecting numbered cards from their hands, which are then placed in numeric order. That determines which of the cards already in the tableau they get to claim.
Flip 7 (The Op), is a push-your-luck game in which you take hits a la Blackjack to get a high score — which is all for naught if you get two of the same number. But card counting isn’t easy considering there are 11 elevens, 10 tens, nine nines, etc. in the deck — and special cards allow you to freeze other players’ stacks or force a player to add multiple cards.
Card games with strategy
Try Avant Carde (Resonym), a deck-building game in which you acquire artfully designed cards by playing sets and runs, using the strength of those to buy or purge cards to build a better hand. And, ultimately, to acquire victory points.
Ultimate Dibs (Skybound Tabletop) looks, on the table, like the popular game Codenames, thanks to its array of simply worded cards (i.e. Office Things, Things with Teeth). A turn consists of thinking of something that matches multiple cards, which lets you put a token in that space. The goal is to get three tokens in a row — which isn’t so easy, as you can only lock a space when it has your token on it. While there isn’t one in the box, I suggest adding a timer to this one, especially if playing with teams or someone who suffers from the common board game malady analysis paralysis.
Clever theming can add to the fun of games — and, at their best, such games can bring out the kid in you. That’s literally what goes on in the two-player Fortify (Barrel Aged Games). In the game, each player is a kid building a cardboard fort to wage a water-balloon war with a neighbor. Create an enclosed area and you can add a friend, which can translate into more dice to roll and, in turn, can mean more balloons to throw. No, it’s not as fun as an actual water balloon battle, but it’s as close as you’re going to get from your dining room table.
Journalist Lou Harry is also the host of the free weekly Game Night Social at the Garage Food Hall where more than 50 games — including some of the above — are available to try.
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