2026, what a year. Here’s what my board gaming looked like in the first half of it.
Let’s start with a statistical overview (as of June 30):
I’ve played 20 different games (slightly down compared to last year at this point).
Only 3 of them were new to me (massively down compared to last year’s 9).
These 23 games resulted in a total of 57 plays (slightly up compared to last year)
The month in which I played most games was June (with 16 plays), the months with the fewest plays April and May (5 each).
Of the 23 different games, 8 are historical. These account for 29 of the plays (half the games, around three quarters of the plays compared to last year).
7 of the plays were solo (up from last year’s single play).
31 of the 57 plays were digital, continuing the strong digital bent of 2025.
The changes are partially due to a changed event schedule – I did not attend any conventions this year, so I played fewer new and fewer historical games.
Here are some of the games I enjoyed most this year so far:
As said, I didn’t play a lot of new games this year. But among them, Pax Pamir is the absolute standout. Cole Wehrle’s first design is a thoughtful exploration of the roles of small power brokers having to deal with big ones, skillfully seizing opportunities and avoiding pitfalls, using loyalty and betrayal as necessary tools in their struggle for security and power. It is also an incredibly clever game blending planning, chaos, and negotiation into a tight, low-scoring affair which usually sees several players reaching for victory until the very end.
End of the game: British Dominance has been warded off (which would have given the victory to either Orange or Gray), Russian Dominance as well (which would have put Red in play). Instead, my Blues have found a way to thread the imperial needle and emerge victorious! From the implementation on Rally the Troops!
At eight plays, Pax Pamir is my most-played game so far this year. I predict a few more plays will follow – facilitated by the excellent digital implementation at Rally the Troops!
New discoveries are great. So are re-discoveries. I was enamored with Imperial Struggle in 2022, getting it to the table (and to Vassal) a few times. Since then, however, I hadn’t played it a single time… until it came to Rally the Troops! this year.
With that, I got in no fewer than seven plays. I delight in the diplomatic, economic, and military opportunities all over the globe and despair when my opponent snatches a key advantage. I carefully plan out the investment tile selection, but sometimes I go with my intuition about what’s the area of contest in which my play will have the biggest impact. And I love both the sheer might of the French juggernaut and the plucky resilience of the British underdog.
British dominance in India has not been enough to outweigh French advantages in the western hemisphere… nor has the almost-complete wipeout of British alliances in Europe helped. From the implementation on Rally the Troops!
If you have also started (or re-started) playing Imperial Struggle and need some strategic pointers, have a look at my strategy post! And if you need the right music to play in the background, here’s my immersive playlist of period tunes.
A game which I had only played online (also on Rally the Troops!) before… but finally, I had the chance to break out my physical copy! I must say, it is a very different experience – the perfect documentation of the digital implementation allows for a lot more analytic play. On the board, you need to rely on your memory – and on your intuition, which suits the bluffing-heavy style of the game anyway.
Caesar’s concentrated forces are ready to strike.
In our game, I led the Caesarian forces against the Pompeians of a newcomer. Antony and Pompey clashed aggressively in Italia; Scipio and Caesar in Asia. All four leaders barely survived their initial battles. After Antony had chased Pompey out of Italia, he rested on his laurels… but old Pompey still had some fight in him and returned with a fresh legion and some elephants to retake Rome! When the Caesarian advance in Hispania was turned into a rout by Jupiter’s divine intervention, Pompey won after only three years of civil war – also proving how accessible the game is to new players who are not burdened with too much rules overhead and can just focus on their schemes and ruses!
Games are fundamentally about people. Legends of Andor is a great series of cooperative games, but I am under no illusions that its main staying power for me comes from with whom I’ve been playing it: My good friends F. and M. started the Andor base game with me in 2014, and since then, it has become one of the mainstays for the three of us – and, since F. died in 2020, for M. and me. We have been steadily playing through the main series and have just finished the fourth big box instalment The Eternal Frost – the first one which M. and I played entirely without F. Legends of Andor is a game, but it is also a celebration and commemoration of our friendship. I can’t wait to start the next instalment: Legenden von Andor: Das ferne Land (The Distant Land – as far as I know, there won’t be an English edition).
Gaming against the heatwave: While we dispelled the eternal frost from Andor, the outside temperatures reached 38°C.
What was remarkable about your 2026 gaming so far? Let me know in the comments!
At a family vacation I took a variety of games … (the vacation was mostly adults, the next generation had an 18th birthday during the trip and two younger children). Catan was played a few times (mostly by my direct family). Flicken Chicken got some play. I took Giants Moving Tiny Furniture but it got no play (and I admit that I declined the one time it was offered) but the big winner was The Gang getting multiple plays on multiple evenings (and even drawing in the older generation, who were initially quite dismissive).
Fliptoons is BACK! I was fortunate to experience the new iteration a few months early, and it was quite hard to keep the excitement under wraps until the reveal.
The first set of Fliptoons was a grand time, and mechanically, there wasn’t much that needed fixing. But Thunderworks Games has doubled down on a framework that’s ripe for expansion. A game built around goofy card effects, conditional scoring, and unpredictable tableau chaos is the perfect stage for a new batch of characters to join the cast. More toons mean more combos, more dramatic reveals, and more opportunities for rounds to go completely sideways.
Thunderworks Games returns to the studio with Fliptoons: Season 2, bringing a new cast of cards while keeping the same breezy energy that made the original such an easy table hit. This standalone expansion is as exciting as an anticipated season premiere: familiar structure, new faces, and plenty of room for the fame race to get wacky.
Previously on Fliptoons…
Fliptoons: Season 2 is still very much Fliptoons. Players are building a little cast of cartoon animals, flipping cards into a 3x2 grid, and trying to squeeze as much fame out of those cards as possible.
Next War: Iran is the sixth game in the Next War Series from GMT Games. It is unique in the series in that the Allied player has to do the attacking while the non-Allied player attempts to defend its territory against neo-imperial oppression. With a long logistical tail, few true allies in the region, and the menace of Iran’s A2AD capabilities, re-opening the Straits is a tall order.
DETROIT is a lovely little two player game from Japan. You compete to build three cars. You share a factory floor, where some spaces are common while some are for you only. You have six game pieces, and you need to move them all through the assembly line, in the process combining the top and bottom pairs to form complete cars. Whoever does so first wins. On your turn you roll four dice,
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