Time marches on, and as it does, great board games keep appearing! In this piece, we’ll look at some of the stellar titles to emerge in the 2nd quarter of this year, spread across a number of different categories. As ever, and especially with newer releases, using Noble Knight’s Want List is the best way to ensure you’re able to get a copy when one comes available. Now, read on and find the star of your next game night:
Climb the world’s mountains in Peaks
Peaks, a beautiful first effort from designer Sam Gray, sees you doing exactly what the name suggests: climbing mountains. You’ll score points by planting your 
flag on various, er, peaks across the globe, a simple enough objective made compelling thanks to very tight thematic integration. See, you’re literally playing as a climber here, and your actions every turn consist of climbing activities – you might rest, gather supplies, or climb, with each action growing more effective as your climber gets more experienced (as everyone knows, for every mountain you climb in life, you get bonus cards and dice). Those rewards include increased stamina, letting you tackle bigger mountains without so much risk from dreaded danger dice, rolls that might blunt your rewards, but that could be rebuffed with bonus cards—think a climbing companion that helps you up to the top before you’re ‘ready’, thus scooting you ahead of your pals.
Speaking of, Peaks tackles the problem of downtime (and plays up to 6) with a clever tag-along mechanic, whereby players climbing the same peak can help one another. It’s a mutual benefit, but there’s only one winner, so deciding whether to join your buddy in a climb is a strategic calculation. Who gets helped more? Do you want your friend to see the top of K2, or twist in the mountain wind? Either way, you’ll stay engaged with Peaks because that helping hand might come along at any time. As might the opportunity to cackle at someone else’s bumbling summit attempt.
And who doesn’t love a good cackle?
Anyway. Peaks takes care to blunt the most frustrating aspects of many euro games – you’ll gain endgame scoring cards, for example, but if they’re impossible for your climber, you can burn them for useful one-time effects. The player boards are crisp and tactile and using flags instead of generic cubes helps keep the board state clear and fun to look at (it’s a little like a Risk map that gets more fun every time another flag mini gets planted). All told, for a light to middle-weight euro playable in one to two hours, Peaks is excellent, and perfect for anyone in your life with a passion for mountains, or bright color palettes, because boy does this one pop.
Ascension Tactics Gets a Superb Expansion
In 2022, Stone Blade Entertainment took their fun fork on the deckbuilding genre, Ascension, and gave it a grid, units, and, well, tactics (thus, the apt name: Ascension Tactics). Their original game, a tight 20-30 minute venture best, in my opinion, played as a scrappy two-player duel, suddenly expanded into an hour-long, area control, no-dice battle. You’d still start with vanilla decks and upgrade them through the market row, but your purchases could now fly onto the field and play
out the conflict. We’re talking demons, soldiers, constructs, and all those fantasy staples that bring out the warm fuzzies as you send them out to score a point or two before their hideous demise. Beyond traditional whacking each other gameplay, Ascension Tactics has a co-op campaign and solitaire modes (plus, in a nod to gamers with shelves of gray plastic everywhere, they released a standee edition too).
Ascension Tactics: Inferno is a standalone expansion released this year, a chunky addition that does what you love to see. We’re talking easy-to-add buffs to core gameplay. Like a new co-op campaign that can play up to four (the original limited its adventures to two), or personalized objectives that add flavor to every game beyond just control this or that point on the map. Champions, those mighty heroes picked by each player, can gain new abilities through transformations. And the big bundle of new ‘market’ cards will feel very different than the original. Like the original Ascension, though, be wary about just stuffing all the expansion and base game cards together – some mechanics lose effectiveness when spread across a huge card pool, so tweak to suit.
And you’ll want to do that tweaking, because Inferno’s an addictive game. Not only are the campaign scenarios interesting and replayable (multiple factions and champions ensure a different experience every time), but the head to head and team-based battles are furious and fun. Drafting and counter-drafting champions, sneaking into a killer combo, or going through that steady, oh-so-satisfying deck-builder ramp up ensures Ascension Tactics is going to have a regular spot in your game night rotation.
The French Revolution gets the CDG Treatment
Card-driven war games, or CDGs, continue to dig into history’s nooks and crannies to pull out unique scenarios. Vendée ‘93 throws two players (or one, via its solo mode) into the French Revolution and, particularly, the revolt against mass conscription to stave off foreign adversaries keen to exploit the troubled country. It’s big government against the little guy, the establishment against the rebels, and it’s all done beautifully: lovely leader standees guide colorful cube troops across a detailed mounted map (check out the little towns drawn in).
Vendée tinkers with the CDG formula just enough to keep things interesting – the game is played over 8 turns (at max, there are instant victory conditions). Each player gets five cards in their hand, and you’ll play one every turn, getting those cards replenished at turns 4 and 7. That means you can sock away an event you’d rather not play, or hold one for just the right time. You’ll also use everything on the card, the event, the points, the free car, everything. Vendée does away with the metagame of ditching cards for ops or finding ways to discard an advantageous card for your opponent, easing up both the rules and keeping the game flowing. No interruptions here, folks.
The back and forth of spawning in units, controlling territory and its associated terrain effects, throwing dice for battles, covers about two to three hours from start to finish. Vendée isn’t exceptionally complicated, the setup is quick (the card deck, for example, is just a single combined stack), but presents compelling strategic and tactical considerations. For the same reason you can hold a card in hand, you won’t have time to play everything. Picking your focus, delivering counter thrusts or holding the line, all those juicy war game elements are here in a unique setting worthy of multiple plays.
Plus, you can leave those counter clippers at home.
Leviathan Wilds finds more Monsters
Campaign games and boss battlers continue to innovate, and last year’s Leviathan Wilds stuck out as a bright spot for two reasons: 1. The creatures themselves formed the board, making movement a dynamic experience rather than just counting spots until you could roll some attack dice, and 2. A production at once beautiful and accessible, with minimal setup time and low rules overhead. This is a game focused on the experience rather than jamming novels of prose or dozens of different keywords down your throat – both of which can be just fine, but it’s refreshing to, you know, just play a game.
This year, Leviathan Wilds: Deepvale expands its predecessor with seven new underground monsters (and a new character and class), essentially giving you more of/pic7976770.jpg)
what you love if you’ve tried Leviathan Wilds. What I’m here for, though, is the accompanying reprint that gives more folks a chance to dive into this game and genre.
On the whole, boss battlers are a different beast than most games. Somewhat related to dungeon crawlers, in that most chuck dice and have characters with classes and skills, they’re nonetheless distinct as you’re working together on a singular challenge: down the big bad. Some, like Aeon Trespass Odyssey and Primal, are massive and tough to recommend as introductions, but Leviathan Wilds hits the mark. Modular difficulty, easy-to-grasp rules, and fascinating battles all serve to bring people to the table for a new board gaming experience. Then, when you’re hooked, Deepvale is just more of what you love.
Once again, I find myself appreciating just how lucky we are in this hobby, at this time. In this piece alone are four vastly different, equally excellent games, and these are far from the only good titles to grace shelves in the last four months. It’s an embarrassment of tabletop riches out there, folks, so dig in, whether with crunchy solo modes or a group of good friends and family.
Check out our previous article!
