Top Anticipated Board Games of 2019

With 2018 in our rear view mirror, it’s time for the BGQ team to set our sights on the new year ahead. In this “golden age of board gaming”, gamers have literally thousands of titles released every year to choose from. It’s impossible to find out about all of the years upcoming titles, but the BGQ team has assembled to list out each of our most anticipated title (at this point in the year at least).

Uboot: The Board Game

Projected Release: Q1 2019
Tony: I have a crazy fascination with submarines. From loving movies like Das Boot or The Hunt for Red October, to playing games like Silent Service, I’m always looking to get my next fix of these quiet hunters. So I have eagerly been following the progress of Uboot, a real time, cooperative board game that not only comes with some great components (3D submarine anyone), but it’s also app driven. This one checks off a lot of boxes for me for things I look for into a board game. Great theme, unique game play, amazing looking components. I can’t wait to get this one to the table.

1-4 Players • Ages 12+ • 30-120 minutes

Escape Plan

Projected Release: Q2 2019
Alex: Heists are one of my favorite movie genres, and I learned to love Vital Lacerda’s designs in 2018. Escape Plan mashes both of these together to make one of my most anticipated games of 2019. After a successful heist, the po-po are closing in, and you have to create a plan to get out of the city after recovering all your stolen cash before the city is locked down. With a modular board, elements of asymmetric gameplay and a killer theme, this game is set to steal the spotlight in 2019.

1-5 Players • Ages 12+ • 60-120 minutes

Pipeline

Projected Release: May 2019
Jon: I had shied away from the Kickstarter for Pipeline before three of the BGQ East crew played a First Look copy at PAX Unplugged, but fell in love with this upcoming Capstone release during that sit-down. I’m not sure if it was the network building, economy manipulation, variability in the engine strategies, or the look on everyone (else’s) face when they realized how heavily product throughput was linked to income, but whatever it was, I was hooked. Perhaps best part of all is that for all of its depth, it is fairly accessible. While this brain burner of a Euro might not be for everyone, I think that fans of the genre (and the weight) will find Pipeline to be well worth their time. It certainly will be worth mine.

2-4 Players • Ages 12+ • 120 minutes

Eclipse: Second Dawn for the Galaxy

Projected Release: April 2019
Tahsin: People from the near future are gleefully playing this improved and streamlined version of Eclipse. At least, that’s what the Inception-eers in my dreams tell me. All I can do is wait and hope that it’s the same future I end up in. With a slightly shortened play time, standardized ship miniatures, and an overall updated production, this is “hopefully” going to be a version of Eclipse worthy of the 20-teens, maybe even the 2020s. It may feel blah that my most anticipated game is a reprint, but that’s just how much I love Eclipse.

2-6 Players • Ages 14+ • 60-200 minutes

Pandemic Legacy: Season 3

Projected Release: 2019?
Andrew: For most anticipated of 2018, I went with Brasil, which still hasn’t seen the light of day yet. While I’m still excited for it and Vital Lacerda’s upcoming On Mars, Pandemic Legacy wins out this year. The first two seasons of Pandemic Legacy rank near the top of my favorite gaming experiences ever. I’m just as excited to see what Rob Daviau and Matt Leacock have in store for what is supposedly the final chapter in the story that the first two games have given us so far. While the release date is uncertain it is rumored to be in 2019 and I’m hopeful we will get it sooner rather than later.

2-4 Players • Ages 14+ • 60 minutes

Machina Arcana ~ From Beyond

Projected Release: July 2019
Brian W: This 2nd Edition is an improvement on the 1st. I was lucky enough to preview a KS prototype for From Beyond in fall 2018. This new edition is still a cooperative, horror themed, tactical dungeon crawl. From Beyond bolsters the cooperative play with more player interaction and increases monster strength without making the game feel punishing. This new version also has a more story driven chapter deck and encounters but the best improvement is the end game which has become a challenging mini-game.

1-4 Players • Ages 14+ • 60-150 minutes

Wreck Raiders

Projected Release: Q2 2019
Tyler: I’m at the stage of my gaming life where I’m looking for a new family game with my kids getting older and able to play more complex games. Wreck Raiders looks like a game that would fit that bill. I was immediately drawn to the theme of leading a team of treasure hunters to explore a lagoon loaded with shipwrecks, aquatic life, and loot. Players use the sunken treasures and sea creatures they find for special exhibits and aquarium at the local museum to earn coins to win the game. The unique core mechanics look interesting and it just looks great from a visual standpoint.

2-4 Players • Ages 10+ • 45 minutes

Wingspan

Projected Release: March 2019
AnnaMaria: Wingspan’s designer, Elizabeth Hargrave, is local, so I’ve been privileged to watch this game grow (Spread its wings? Leave the nest? I’ll see myself out.) Point salad-y collection games are in my wheelhouse for starters, and this one introduces a theme unlike almost anything else in games—birding. And in such a clever way that amateur ornithologists and game lovers alike will be excited to pull this off the game shelf. Not to mention, the art and components are GORGEOUS (the dice tower is a birdhouse – who does that? It’s brilliant.) I’ll be in line to pick this up on release day.

1-5 Players • Ages 10+ • 40-70 minutes

Street Masters: Aftershock

Projected Release: October 2019
Brian B: Yes, this is the expansion to a base game I never played, so I solved that issue by backing BOTH during the Kickstarter campaign. Co-op? Check. Street Fighter/Final Fight/Double Dragon theme? Check. SERIOUS replay value with every hero, boss, and board having a unique deck (similar to Sentinels of the Multiverse)? Check. Minis? Well, honestly, I would have been fine with standees but, for dramatic purposes, CHECK! Hopefully this will deliver in 2019 so I do not have to make this my 2020 Most Anticipated Board Game.

1-4 Players • Ages 14+ • 45-120 minutes