Befitting its size, Asmodee had a pile of new and upcoming games they were showing off at the convention. In addition to sequels of previous games (Forest Shuffle Dartmoor, Spot it! Catan, LotR Two Towers trick taking game, Battle for Hoth) there were also a few expansions (Marvel Champions: Trickster Takeover, Forest Shuffle: Exploration.) New games spanned the gamut of lightweight games (Star Wars Super Teams, Happy Mochi, The Hobbit: There and Back Again) medium weight (Duel for Cardia, Fried Potatoes, the LEGO Brick Like This) and the more heavyweight Tessen: The Battle for Toshi Ranbo. There was also a nice little diorama of new/upcoming Star Wars minis on display.

Duel for Cardia

Duel for Cardia (2 player only, available now) has players vying for seals using identical decks of 16 cards. Players each choose a card (from a hand of 5) and reveal it simultaneously. The winning card (compare values) wins a seal, which is placed on the card. Each player draws a card and then it repeats. The first to collect five seals wins the game. The tick to the game is that each card has a special effect. Only the losing card gets its special effect. This could result in messing with previously played cards, capturing the seal already there.

Cards range in value from 1 to 16 and each number has a specific suit/faction which can be a trigger for specific card effects. Examples include the 4, which always causes a tie and if you somehow manage to lose with the 16 card, you instantly win the game. Card effects can be instant, such as adjusting the value of already played cards or provide ongoing effects. To add variety, the game comes with a complete second set of cards to use and players can optionally add location cards which tend to give global effects.

Star Wars: Battle of Hoth

The game I’m most looking forward to at the convention is Star Wars: Battle of Hoth. It is another take on the Memoir ‘44 system, a very approachable wargame for a wide range of WWII battles. Players fight over a game board divided into left, right, and center sections. On a turn, a player chooses a card from their hand in order to “activate” one or more units on the board. An activated unit will move and then attack. These played cards typically allow a player to move X units in a specific section (left/right/center) or possible X number of a type of unit. In this way, players are not just free to activate the same unit over and over again. Managing one’s options in hand is almost as important as picking the right units to attack. In addition to the theme and very cool miniatures, Battle for Hoth keeps the main parts of Memoir ‘44 but creates a faster moving, shorter game. This means a single battle can be easily played in less than an hour, possibly even 30 minutes if the players are more experienced. 

The game is listed as a 2 or 4 player game. With 4 players, each team has their own set of cards and alternate turns. While things can get a little tight with 4 players, this might be a great way to play with a younger or less experienced partner as you can discuss strategy amongst each other.

Although the game is clearly set up along the lines of the Star Wars battle on the planet of Hoth, the game comes with 16 different scenarios setups, providing some variation. A large, 18th scenario is also included which requires two copies of the game (presumably you might have a friend with the game…) In a slight change from Memoir ‘44, players can shuffle a leader (set of 3 cards) into their deck which provides fairly powerful, unique effects. 

Astute Memoir ’44 fans might be able to interpret the above handy player aids to figure out how each unit moves and attacks.

Finally, there are two mini-campaign booklets included. Each is a set of four-ish sequential battles where the next battle setup is adjusted based on the previous result. Did you lose the last battle as the Empire? Maybe Darth Vader is added to you deck – your failure has required him to show up to “take care of things personally.”

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Trick-Taking Game

A prototype of the sequel to The Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game was on display. This Two Towers sequel brings players through the second LotR book via the magic of a cooperative trick taking game. 

It wouldn’t be a Two Towers game without the two towers. Thus, a white and black tower are included in the game (players can decide for themselves which tower they might represent.) These are represented by white and black cards (trump and trump-cancelling) and many of the goals in the game include managing who has each tower. 

Since much of the book tends to jump around, the mechanics tend to change more from chapter to chapter. The first half of the scenarios focus on the other members of the fellowship so there is no Frodo character and thus no ring. Part 2 of the game brings in Smeagol, Frodo, and Sam and brings back the ring. The game will hopefully be released in January 2026.

Brick Like This!

In Brick Like This! (out now) 1 to 4 sets of partners are attempting to build a specific shape with LEGOs. The trick is that only one person can see the shape card, and they must describe it while their partner builds. The shape-knower can describe shapes, colors, or whatever but they can’t point at or touch the LEGOs. In a multiplayer game it is a race. The first builder to complete their task flips over a timer and the rest of the players have until it runs out to finish their structure.

While there are levels of difficulty for the shapes (using 5 to 8 pieces) players may also up the intensity of the game (or simply adjust difficulty for some players) by opting to take on a disadvantage (provided by a card) while completing their shape. These come in three levels – indicated by the number of coins on the back of the card. Challenges range from the simple (the instructor isn’t allowed to say numbers), medium challenges (builder must keep their fingers crossed, the instructor can only say “yes” and “no”), all the way up to hard challenges (the instructor cannot speak at all – no pointing or touching either, or the builder must keep their eyes closed or must build the model under the table.) 

The Hobbit: There and Back Again

The Hobbit: There and Back Again (designed by the famous designer, Reiner Knizia) has 1-4 players working through a dry erase booklet of about 8 different competitive adventures.

Everyone has their own book and turns to the same chapter. Dice are rolled and are drafted by the players. Dice are used to draw a path round the adventure book, evading some squares while trying to reach others. Not everything is path-drawing, some later adventures use polyminos (Tetris shapes) as part of the activity. There are eight slightly different challenges to work through and the game can be played as a one-off or link all eight for an overall adventure winner. The game has a solo mode as well as options to adjust the difficulty of a specific player (up or down) in the group.

Forest Shuffle: Dartmoor

Forest Shuffle: Dartmoor (2-5p, out in October) is a full sequel to the popular Forest Shuffle game. Players are still drafting cards from the middle (and occasionally adding some back into the middle) and trying to build up little ecosystems complete with plant/tree base cards with animals inhabiting the sides. While most mechanics are the same, some changes to the original game (aside from the setting, of course) include fewer tree types (6 instead of 8) to help players score bonuses and plant cards can also be played horizontally. Such locations can fit two cards on the top and bottom which means players won’t be adding so much to the right or left sides. It probably doesn’t need to be said, but all the plants and animals will be found in the Dartmoor National Park in southwestern England.

Forest Shuffle:Exploration

Also displayed was a mini expansion for the original Forest Shuffle game. Forest Shuffle: Exploration has two parts. The first is 15 promo cards previously released in different places and languages around the world. Gamers wanting a complete promo collection (in English) can just pick up this expansion. The other part of the box is a solo mode. One of the best solo modes created by the community was picked up and further developed to make it into this expansion. At the start of play a solo player is given one of 14 or so different “quests” they must achieve by the end of the game. If the “quest” is not met, it counts as a loss, otherwise a player can try to achieve their high score. Each quest card provides different options depending on whether a player is using the base game, base with 1 expansion, or base game with both expansions. In the meantime, there is also an automata deck involved with the game – making sure your precious clearing of cards is not reliable.

Tessen: The Battle for Toshi Ranbo is an engine-building  dudes-on-a-map style game for 2 to 6 players. (All photos here are of the prototype.) Players take on the role of one of seven asymmetric factions, each with their own special deck of improvement cards. On a turn, players pick one of four options, shown in colors on their player board. They may battle (rolling eight-sided dice) using armies on the main map, recruit to put more armies on the map, influence (typically activating one’s clan powers like recruiting a hero – there are three for each faction), or expand by building things and drawing cards. Over time, players can add cards to these actions, making them more powerful as the game goes on. The first player to earn 7 objectives wins the game. There are a wide variety of objectives available including ownership of locations on the map (which can be stolen back), winning battles (maximum of 2), building things, collecting resources, and special clan objectives. While game board objectives will always be fought over, note that only the first two combat wins count towards the objective total. Look for the game to come to your table in late 2026.

Marvel Champions card game: Trickster Takeover Scenario Pack

Another day, another expansion for the Marvel Champions card game. Trickster Takeover is a 78 card scenario pack providing two new scenarios – The Enchantress and Loki. The Enchantress gives each player a hypnotic gaze card and once it gains enough tokens, a trance kicks in, giving the player issues. The Loki encounter is the first “epic multiplayer” scenario, playable with more than the standard 4 players. Players split into groups of 4 with 1 scenario pack per group for the encounter. The expansion also includes a modular encounter (used in both scenarios but can be replaced or exchanged with any other modular encounter set.) This one has particularly strong minions, but the minions become player allys when defeated.

MARVEL: Skirmish! In New York

Keeping with the Marvel theme, MARVEL: Skirmish! In New York is a two player card game where the hero player vies against the villain player over six battlefield spots. (For the true game historians, the game is a reimplementation of Fight for Olympus from back in 2016.) Each player has their own unique deck of cards and must spend cards to play cards onto any of the six locations on the board.

Three of the locations deal with rescuing bystanders – the hero wins if they manage to rescue 10 of the 12 available. Two other locations are a tug of war to gain artifacts which grant useful tiles that have single use or ongoing effects. The sixth location is the battleground spot that grants the winner a battleground card. In a game where players only draw two cards per turn, a third card is nothing to sneeze at. On a player’s turn, they play any number of cards they can afford. Then all of a player’s cards on the board make an attack on the opposing card (if there is one there.) Each card has a set amount of starting health and damage it deals and typically some special effects. Most hero and villain cards actually have two sides which can be flipped during the game. The two sides of the board are compared with the stronger opponent winning the location. As mentioned, the heroes are trying to rescue villagers. If the villains win, they earn victory points instead. A player ends their turn by drawing two cards and then the next player goes. If anyone ever runs out of cards to draw from their deck, it is an instant loss.

Star Wars Super Teams

Star Wars Super Teams (out now, 2-4 players) is a souped-up candyland-adjacent style race. Each player controls a pair of (very cool looking) Star Wars ships and plays cards from their hand (of 6 cards) to move pieces along the board. Not that I said pieces, not their pieces. The twist here is that cards have numbers and colors and cards move a matching colored piece a set number of spaces, no matter whose pieces they are.  Players take turns playing out all 6 of their cards and then new cards are dealt out and play continues.

Many of the board spaces affect how ships move. A ship starting on a hyperspace spot will double its movement, asteroids give the next card for that ship a “1”, black holes (the red sections) must be passed over completely. If there isn’t enough movement to get across they stop at the front edge. There are also bonus cards which can give one’s ship a slight bump, even on someone else’s turn.

Spot It! CATAN

If you are familiar with the game Spot it!, Spot It! CATAN (2-6 players, out in September) is almost exactly what you think it is. The game consists of a bunch of hexagonal tiles of CATAN-adjacent objects, things like dice, wood, swords, pickaxes, etc… Players compete to find matches in their cards as fast as possible. n regular Spot It!, when comparing any two cards there will always be one object the same on both cards. Here there is more variety so that not every two cards will match but the idea is the same. 

The board is set up with a grid of hexagons, like the traditional CATAN board (complete with ports.) Each player takes their own deck of hexagonal cards and then players race to place them onto the board, making sure each placed card matches at least one item underneath. Players are allowed to play on top of each other’s cards. When one player runs out of their deck, play ends. While you could play just one round and declare a winner, Spot It! CATAN is actually set up as a series of contests. Players earn 1 point for going out first, but can earn two points for how their (uncovered) tiles are placed. In part 1, the player with the most tiles showing (each players’ deck is outlined in a different color) earns  the bonus 2 points. In part 2, Players are actually trying to create the longest chain of adjacent cards – the “longest road” so to speak. Part 3 has players playing cards from the center out to the ports on the edge of the map. The player with the most tiles next to ports gets the 2 points. Part 4 has players removing tiles off the board when they find a match. The final game is a head to head match where players flip their cards and try to be the first to call out a match. The final game continues until someone accumulates a total of 10 points.

Happy Mochi

Happy Mochi (out now) is a 2 to 6 player card shedding game – where players start with a hand of 7 cards and try to be the first to get rid of all their cards. The catch in this game is that players start with a hand of 7 cards and they are not allowed to rearrange them. When playing, two cards are placed down onto the table to make a higher two digit number than the one shown. However, players must always play cards in their hand that are adjacent (thus the no rearranging rule.) When playing, players can put down any cards as long as it changes it to a higher two-digit number but if someone puts down two cards of the same color, players must continue to put down cards of matching color (any color, as long as the two cards match.) There are special cards that reverse the direction (playing lower numbers instead of higher) as well as force another player to draw a card. In fact, a player may even force themselves to draw a card because you always play two cards and everyone starts with seven, an odd number. When playing multiple hands, players “score” any cards left in their hands at the end of each round. Players are obviously trying to minimize their score for the game.

Fried Potatoes

Fried Potatoes (out in October) is a family oriented trick-taking game for 2 to 6 players. The hope is that the game is playable by ages 7 and up. A central board displays a scoring track up to 12 and after every hand of four cards, everyone but the winner of the last trick moves forward on the track one space. The spin on this trick taker comes from the hand dealt. Each hand, players are dealt five cards, the four standard cards and one special power-up card.

It is the power-up card that makes the game unique. It can cancel out the color (suit) of all cards, make the lowest card the winner, change the color of a played card, grant a player the ability to go first, or even cancel a special card played by another player. Cocky players looking at a good hand of cards can start the round by saying “I Fry”. This doubles the point loss for losing to 2 points. Players can bow out and only lose one space but if a player calls “I Fry” and fails to win the last trick they move forward 3 spaces

Bonus Miniatures