Gen Con 2026 – Tycoon Games, Smirk & Dagger Games, Snapship Tactics

I enjoy the Tiny Epic line of games published by Gamelyn games. Now owned by Tycoon Games, I was excited to see more of my favorite in the line, Tiny Epic Dungeons. Tiny Epic Dungeons Adventures keeps the same lightweight dungeon-crawl mechanics but it also links up multiple games in a bit of campaign. The Phantom Voyage is a small expansion that adds a new hero, some monsters, and minions. It will serve as a bridge to an upcoming Dungeons Adventures sequel. While the original line of Everdell games has come to a close (no more expansions), there are still more games to be had in the Everdell universe. Everdell Emerland is in the original Everdell genre: an engine-building worker placement game. Everdell Journeys has players building up a little journey route of cards, which are activated as players’ tokens move along the path.

Smirk & Dagger Games had even more Boop in Boop Shuffle the cat-bumping 3-in-a-row abstract game is now available in a more portable, and chaotic card version. Hell of a Deal was a show hit. Here, players cooperate to build up a poker hand capable of beating the boss’s hand. Of course, the boss cheats, and so should the players – if they can. Devious has players collecting faerie cards for points. Players queue up three cards in a stack and pass them over. Everyone then looks sequentially through their pile, evaluating them one at a time, keeping only one but not able to backtrack to a previous card. Cards have powers and actions but generally a player only scores if they have a single card in a specific suit. The slasher-themed line of survival games, This Game is Killer, is back this year in Franchise of Fear where all the players are trying to survive as they are trapped within a fast food store. Blorp! is a tile-laying game in the Carcassonne genre, where players try to create a completed (all sides closed) blorp, earning the most points for their largest Blorps of each color.

Pivoting to a combat-oriented game, the constructable-miniatures space-combat game, Snap Ships Tactics, is back. In addition to reprints of past ships and content, there has been a new crowdfunding effort to release a new series of double-sized ships as well as a Capitol Ships Box with pieces and rules to build crazy big ships.

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Dale Yu: Review of Gunsen: The Battle for Toshi Ranbo

 

 

Gunsen: The Battle for Toshi Ranbo

  • Designers: Ben Rosset and Matthew O’Malley1 
  • Publisher: OfficeDog
  • Players: 
  • Age: 
  • Time: 
  • Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4wvg7rB
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

In Gunsen: The Battle for Toshi Ranbo, Rokugan teeters on the brink of upheaval as the Great Clans—the Crab, Crane, Dragon, Lion, Phoenix, Scorpion, and Unicorn—clash for control of the legendary fortress, Toshi Ranbo. Once a strategic gem on the borderlands, the castle now stands at the heart of a war-torn battlefield, its banners contested by rival warlords seeking glory and vengeance. The air hums with the tension of drawn steel and elemental magic, as ancient shrines smolder and village alliances shift like the wind.

In this strategy game, players take on the role of ambitious daimyō representing one of the seven Great Clans: recruiting samurai heroes, drafting powerful orders, and building their clan’s military might and strategic influence. Through tactical maneuvers and clever engine-building, they strive to fulfill seven victory objectives—from capturing and holding the coveted castle to completing secret missions and claiming sacred locations. Only one clan will write its legend in the blood-soaked chronicles of Toshi Ranbo.

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Dale Yu: Review of Postcards

 

 

Postcards

  • Designers: Eric Dubus, Simon Kayne 
  • Publisher: Synapses Games
  • Players: 1-4
  • Age: 10+
  • Time: 30-45 mins
  • Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4wh4iVY
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

Bonjour, and welcome to Postcards, a board game about exploring the beauty of France — one postcard at a time! Hop on your bicycle and set out on a picturesque adventure, as you compete with your friends to enjoy the most unforgettable holiday! Designed for 1-4 players, Postcards is a family friendly game that takes you on a journey across France, filled with inspiring culture, stunning landscapes, and delicious local cuisine.  

 

Are you ready to set out on a journey of a lifetime?  Postcards is a simple game that the whole family can enjoy, but has plenty of strategy to keep you thinking as you play! Lovingly designed and illustrated by a team of self-professed francophiles, Postcards is sure to make you want to plan your own trip to France.

 

The aim of the game is simple: cycle through the 13 different regions of France, visit as many iconic locations as possible, and share your travels by sending postcards back home. Each postcard you send brings you one step closer to victory, so grab your friends, get pedaling, and let the adventures begin!

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Mark Jackson – Thunder Road: Ignition Review

Cue the game description, thanks to the Restoration Games website: “Like its bigger sibling, Thunder Road: Vendetta – in Thunder Road: Ignition your crew is racing through the wastelands – get your cars across the finish line first to win. But the roads are perilous, the other crews are aiming for you, and those barricades are everywhere. Thunder Road: Ignition is a stand alone game – get into gear right out of the box! Or you can mix it in with other Thunder Road: Vendetta and its expansions for endless variety.” (You can provide your own soundtrack – mine includes “Real Gone” [Sheryl Crow] and “Life is a Highway” [Rascal Flatts] – both from the Pixar movie CARS.)

Restoration Games bills Thunder Road: Ignition as “the perfect introduction to Thunder Road” – and as a HUGE fan of Thunder Road: Vendetta, I’ll evaluate that claim as part of my review of the new game. 

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PAX-tastic!: A Board Gamer Goes to PAX West

I had an incredible opportunity over Labor Day Weekend, the chance to go to PAX West as a board gamer and see all the interconnections between the various geekdoms.

Between four huge exhibit areas and maybe 100 other areas, zones, and rooms, there is truly something for everyone, from board games, to mobile games, to pinball, to Steam/PC games, to promotional pins, to scented dice candles.

Here are some of the board games that caught my eye and why. The vast majority were in the Summit building exhibit area, but some were down with the rpgs.

Curious about a clever 1-vs-1 card placement and movement game on a small board, check out Gudnak, published by Chaotic Great. The cards have interesting effects and synergies keep the game manageable at the start while offering expansions to continue the exploration. It feels like a good best-of-three game. It has the feeling of Summoner Wars but with a lower barrier to entry.

Lords of Vegas is coming out in a new version with the same rules from Middle Brow Games, so get ready for Vegas level bling. Along with a Lords of Vegas teaser, Middle Brow was showing off Farms Race. Farms Race is Catan meets Orwell’s Animal Farm. If you can imagine pigs with nukes on a hex grid, you are part of the way there. A full review will be coming but the dice system generates resources independent of location, so on first glance there is less Turn Zero determining who wins. They were also showing Plunder Blunder, so if you want a piratey negotiation game, have a look. Continue reading

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Dale Yu: Review of Pop Art

 

Pop Art

  • Designers: Jeffrey Chin, Andrew Nerger
  • Publisher: R2i Games
  • Players: 1-8
  • Age: 8+
  • Time: 20 minutes
  • Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4gL4Leu
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

Create and arrange silkscreen prints in your gallery and become the next pop art sensation of the 1960s.  Layering a foreground card on a background card blends their colors. Depending on which cards you layer together, you’ll also craft unique goals that score your prints’ colors or illustration types.  Select and combine a foreground and background card from your hand and add them to your 3×3 tableau. Then pass the remaining cards to the player on your left, and draw a foreground and background card. Once all players have completed their tableau, the game ends. The player with the most points wins!

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