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Shut Up & Sit Down literally wouldn’t exist without kind folks keeping it alive with their generosity, and we don’t take that privilege lightly! We really hope that you enjoy the upcoming bundle of bonus bits, and indeed all the other cardboard nonsense that we’ll put on your screens in 2026…
‘Tis the season! We’re back with a bumper stack of great board games to recommend you buy for your best pals, your arch enemies, or perhaps even… yourself?
That’s right! It’s the Annual Shut Up & Sit Down Board Game Gift Guide and it’s beaming directly into your eyeballs right now. Links for any and all games discussed will be directly below!
SU&SD Presents is a new line of board games that we have hand-selected as the best examples of their genre. We think every one could be your next favourite board game! If the theme or co-ops aren't your jam, the second in our line releasing next year will be Dogs of War, so keep an eye out for that in the coming months.
In this week’s video review, Tom’s having a poke around in Vantage - one of the biggest games this year - literally! Over 1,000 cards are packed into this massive box that promises a truly open world… but does it truly deliver?
00:00 Vantage Review
15:15 Spoilers
16:35 Review Continued
We hope you enjoy this week's video, which is an elongated and trundling trip through MOST of the games that we played at this year's Essen! This is a chunky video in a loose, chatty format - we do hope you enjoy it as something a little bit different!
Whales are sky taxis now, and you’re using them to sling goods around floating islands while trying to build outposts and out-hustle rivals in just four rounds. Every move feels like choosing between treasure and trash because the action you really want? Yeah, it’s the one you had to discard.
It’s tight, it’s crunchy, and it’s way meaner than it looks. Network building, resource juggling, and sky-whale betrayals all packed into a fast little package that’ll leave you saying, “Just one more game.”
So, apparently being a Meerkat queen isn’t just about looking cute while standing on your back legs. In Meerkat Kingdoms, it’s all cutthroat desert politics. You’re rolling dice, placing meeples, and battling not just snakes, eagles, and hyenas, but also your “friends” who suddenly think they’re the Beyoncé of the Kalahari. And yeah, if you tie on control of a spot, nobody gets it. Congrats, now the hyenas win.
It’s light on rules but sneaky in strategy. You’ll think you’ve locked down that sweet patch of desert until your rival plops down a meeple and wrecks your whole plan. Toss in some secret objectives and suddenly you’re side-eyeing everyone like it’s a meerkat soap opera. Fast, scrappy, and just mean enough to make you laugh, this is the only time I’ll fight for dominance in the Kalahari without sunscreen.
Tanglewoods: Red is the core box for the 20 Strong system, dropping you into a dark forest where the Big Bad Wolf and his pack are hunting you down. Armed with 20 dice and some questionable decision-making skills, you’ll face challenges, manage gold, and try to reach grandma’s cabin before becoming wolf chow. It’s Little Red Riding Hood, but with way more dice and way less chill.
Realm of Reckoning throws you into a shattered afterlife where five rival factions fight to reshape what power even means. Each turn you’ll draft action cards, collect artifacts, and trigger reckonings. Big clashes that drain resources but let winners rewrite the victory conditions. Build monuments, reclaim relics, and twist the rules in your favor as the ages unfold.
It’s part area control, part engine building, and part “make the rules up as you go.” Across three ages, every choice nudges how the afterlife will be scored, so your path to victory is never the same twice. At the end of the third age, one faction claims dominance, and everyone else fades into ghostly obscurity.