Renegade was in strong form, continuing to republish and expand on old classics as well as stir things up with their impressive licensing agreements (see: Transformers, G.I. Joe, Avalon Hill, Heroscape, My Little Pony…) There’s now a two-player Axis & Allies: Stalingrad, an upcoming G.I. Joe RISK, a huge amount of Heroscape (including G.I. Joe again – I’m still waiting for My Little Pony Heroscape) as well as their line of deckbuilders and RPGs based on their licensing.

Axis & Allies: Stalingrad

Axis & Allies: Stalingrad is a 2 player only version of the game played over two maps at the same time. Invade across the map but when it comes time to take the city, units transfer onto a separate map and battle through the city neighborhoods.

---

Unstoppable: Tyrant’s End

Although it’s in the solo series, Unstoppable can also be a 2 player co-op. It’s a card crafting/deckbuilder type game and has been selling well. Its expansion, Tyrant’s End, includes new player characters along with all the other “stuff” one would expect in an expansion. A lot of the expansion is actually stretch goals earned during the crowdfunding campaign.

---

RISK G.I. Joe: Special Missions 

A 2 to 4 player version of RISK but with some extra bells and whistles making it more of a RISK+ kind of thing. Players join either faction (Joes or Cobras) and do their standard RISK thing. As with many modern versions of RISK, there are missions and objectives to complete, rather than simply total domination. The game has different scenarios that can be played to change things up.

Expect lots of cool plastic army pieces, action cards (rather than just RISK territory cards), over a dozen different leader cards, and even two spiffy faction-specific player screens so teammates can strategize out of the eyes of the enemy. If it catches your fancy, the game is on Kickstarter through August 14th.

Naishi

Naishi is a card game brought over from last year’s Essen. Both players place cards in their hand and on their side of a central row. The trick here is that you are not allowed to change the position of the cards. Cards taken from the center must go in the same slot below, etc… There are only very limited ways to change this. Of course, all the cards have semi-cryptic symbols (until you learn therm) at the bottom that govern their behavior. Many of the cards care about their location and/or adjacent ones (as well as nearby opponent cards.) At the end of the round both players reveal their hands and score both their hands and their tableau. Despite my description, it is a lighter-weight game once the cards are learned.

Monsters Menace the World

A remake of the 2005 game, Monsters Menace America (which was a remake of the 1998 Monsters Ravage America), the World version again has 2 to 4 players stomping around the map in search of cities to destroy. Each player has control of a semi-famous monster (good old Konk!), but they also have an arm of the military which can be used against the other players’ monsters. The goal is to ravage around, destroying cities and whatnot to earn the most infamy by the time the game ends.

Heroscape!!!

And now, what you’ve been waiting for (at least you should have been) – the Heroscape photos.

My understanding is that there have been something like 46 new units released in (roughly) Renegade’s first year of Heroscape. Unfortunately for one’s pocketbook (disclaimer, I sometimes do get review copies – squeal!) the releases don’t look like they’re slowing down. Highlights include a G.I. Joe starter set and additional figures to launch at AdeptiCon in March 2026 and the fact that we are now moving into figures that have been entirely developed in-house at Renegade. Up to this point, most of the Renegade released figures have been closely related to figures developed for the failed Pulse Heroscape reboot. Expect some new mechanics and ideas but stuff that is also inspired by figures from “the olden-days.”

RPGs