Author: Mark M.

For most people, usually, when you invite them to play a game, they only have the idea of competition. Like the point of a game is to beat the other players. Nowadays, there are already a lot of games where all players have to work together toward the same goal. In that kind of games, all players win or lose together.

But there is a 3rd kind of games called semi-cooperative games. Just as an example, in this kind, players are still competing against each other but maybe there is a common threat. This common threat may be an obstacle to one or more players. Unless the players work together, they cannot overcome this obstacle, let alone achieving their own goal.

Some people don’t like that idea because there is a possibility that one player do a lot more to overcome that obstacle and yet the other is the only winner. Of course, this depends on the design but usually they would rather just play complete cooperative or competitive.

Moytura is one of these semi-cooperative games. In this one, players are competing factions trying to take control of ancient Irelands. However, there is a common enemy that may prevent one or both players from reaching their goals. So, will you cooperate or work on your own to become the High Ruler of Ireland?

Title: Moytura
Year Released: 2026
Designer: Trevor Benjamin, David Thompson
Publisher: Bitewing Games
Artist: A. Giroux, Harry Conway

Genre: War, Celtic Mythology, Ireland, Area Movement, Area Majority, Semi-Cooperative, Official Solo Mode, 1-2 players

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Some people might argue that Spirit Island is one of the best tabletop games. Even if just in its own genre of tower defense, threat management, cooperative game. Usually, for those people, there is no point in trying other games unless the game gives equal challenge.

However, for some others, while not denying that claim, feels that Spirit Island demands too much for their brain power. Especially with the expansion, playing with multiple Spirits and playing with the higher difficulty mode, the game might take multiple hours to finish.

Maybe that’s the reason you still see more games in this genre coming out in recent years. The LOOP is one of them and I see it being recommended exactly for that purpose. They say that is like Spirit Island but more approachable and accessible.

Title: The LOOP
Designer: Maxime Rambourg, Théo Rivière
Publisher: Catch Up Games
Artist: Simon Caruso

Genre: Time Travel, Scenario, Deck Building, Variable Player Powers, Cooperative, Official Solo Mode, 1-4 players

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In tabletop game industry, some gamers only look for a good gameplay, regardless of the theme or art. Some others might disagree and this eventually pushed some publishers to develop their game better. Good gameplay with also good presentation to draw more people into playing it.

There was an example when a gameplay is considered great, maybe even the best for some people but somehow had horrible art, theme and settings. Santa Maria was one of the popular example. It was about colonization. Even though the designers explained that they were trying to make it like a satire, it kind of hurts the reception.

So, now, the designers tried to fix it by releasing a new game called Saltfjord. It is not just a change for the theme or settings but there is some additional change to the gameplay.

Saltfjord is about building a fishing village but with the similar dice drafting, dice worker placement and tile placement mechanism from Santa Maria.  I personally have never played that previous title so I don’t know the change and how different both games are. Some might say that they still prefer the gameplay in Santa Maria.

Title: Saltfjord
Year Released: 2024
Designer: Kristian Amundsen Østby and Eilif Svensson
Publisher: Aporta Games
Artist: Peter Bartels and Yan Moussu

Genre: Norway, Nautical, Farming, City Building, Dice Drafting, Dice Worker Placement, Tile Placement, Polyomino, Competitive, Official Solo Mode, 1-4 players

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Walking in Provence is the 2nd title of the “Walking in” series from Taiwan publisher, EmperorS4. At the time of this writing, the publisher already released the 3rd title, Walking in Osaka, in 2025 and about to release the 4th one, Walking in Kamogawa in 2026.

The first 2, Burano and Provence were designed by one designer but the other 2 were done by different designers. All of them have a unique gameplay mechanism. For Provence, you will be laying cards, adjacent to existing or overlap some of them like in Sprawlopolis.

This is one of the more dynamic tile laying games where not only you have end game scoring, but there is a race element to score things during the play. It is less static as you might end up destroying your previous effort in order to afford the next one.

Title: Walking in Provence
Released Year: 2019
Designer: Wei-Min Ling
Publisher: EmperorS4
Artist: Maisherly Chan

Genre: Tile Placement, Card Closed Drafting, Pattern Building, Layering, Melding and Splaying, 2 – 5 players, Small Box, Photography, Provence (France).

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In a lot of tile placement games, usually, when you place a tile, it is considered connected by placing the tile adjacent to it. If then the tile is separated, some allow you to connect them by placing a road line between the 2 like in the Dinosaur Island: Rawr ‘n Write. In cases like that, the game may become a Route Building game.

This next game, Foxglove Farm takes that idea one step further. Not only this is a city building tile placement game and also a network and route building game but this has the engine building feel you get from something like Oh My Goods! game.

The idea is that, each building tile may produce resources that you place on the tile. Players may spend resources to build more buildings or they transport them into other buildings. On those buildings, those resources might be scored for points or upgraded into other resources for better value with the next building to be transported to.

So, there is production chain between these buildings but they have to be connected by the same network or path. In standard play, you can transport any resources through any kind of buildings as long as there is a path. However, players can choose to play the expert variant where the resources can only go through one building that has to do with that resource.

The challenge is not just spatial and resource conversion. Players also have to manage the capacity of each building. Making room to produce more or for some building you want leave some to generate more like for livestock.

Foxglove Farm is the same game as Minecart Town which was crowdfunded and released earlier. The former was from Japanese publisher with their own art and title. This newer one is more available worldwide. Even before these 2, the designers self-published the game with My Trolley Town as the title.

Title: Foxglove Farm
Year Released: 2026
Designer: Shun Taguchi and Aya Taguchi
Publisher: Alley Cat Games
Artist: Isabelle Overturf and Jorge Tabanera Redondo

Genre: Tile Placement, City Building, Manufacturing, Network and Route Building, Competitive, Official Solo Mode, Solo Achievement Scenarios, 1-4 players

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This is a direct sequel to Flamecraft, a worker placement game from 2022 with same designer and artist. Flamecraft is about human living and doing businesses with the help from mystical dragon pets. It was very popular, even though some think that the game is not that deep.

With that success, the publisher then released Flamecraft Duals. This dual version, with completely different gameplay mechanism, is more an abstract game for one or two players.

The two players take turns drawing random dragon chips and place them in the shared board. If they can create the same pattern involving 3 dragon chips that matches with their card, they score the card. Everytime you place the dragon chip, you may activate its power.

Each of the 6 different dragons has different power effect. One allows you to take another turn. Another allows you to draw 3 and keep one to place. Some others allow you to move one or more chips adjacent to it, helping you to match a pattern.

You can place the next chip in any hex and stack up to 3 chips. Only the top one counts for scoring a pattern. So, there is a bit of 3-dimensional challenge. Because you place the chips on shared board, players may accidentally help their opponent scoring the card.

Some chips have dual colors and it works for both in any pattern. Same for the power so they give a lot of flexibility.

Title: Flamecraft Duals
Year Released: 2025
Designer: Manny Vega
Publisher: Cardboard Alchemy
Artist: Sandara Tang

Genre: Fantasy, Tile Placement, 3D Challenge, Pattern Building, Optional Modules, Competitive, Official Solo Mode, 1-2 players

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The original King of Tokyo game was already popular since it was released in 2011. This is about Kaiju monsters fighting each other. For some people, it looks like a game for kids and they might refuse to play. Even the art looks like cartoon for kids. Some others hate it for the randomness of the dice roll. So, I didn’t pay much attention when I got into this hobby.

But now the publisher released a new version with the Godzilla IP which is perfect for what the game is. They even use different art with the style matching the original theme. A lot of people now seem to be interested just because of the theme. Well, especially after the successful movies in recent years. At least I did.

Will Godzilla or the other Monsters become the next King of Tokyo?

Title: King of Tokyo Godzilla
Year Released: 2026
Designer: Richard Garfield
Publisher: IELLO
Artist: Markus Erdt

Genre: Godzilla, Fighting, Push Your Luck, Dice Rolling, Rerolling and Locking, King of the Hill, Player Elimination, Take That, Race, Competitive, 2-6 players

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At the time of this writing, Ark Nova is the highest rated game of the last 5 years on BGG and already at number 2 of the overall ranking. Even to solo gamer community, this is already in the top 10 for a couple of years, even though many suggest using the fan made variant of the solo mode.

While I already knew the game since it was released and heard a lot of praise I only got it at the end of 2025 just to make sure it was really proven by more audience. At this moment, the publisher also already released the simpler game called Sanctuary. I thought about getting that one instead actually but it was not very convincing from the earlier reviews. So, I decided to just go with the big one.

Ark Nova is considered a heavier and longer game to play and yet a lot of people seem to love it. It is already one of the most played games even though most of those plays came from the digital version on BGA.

Title: Ark Nova
Year Released: 2021
Designer: Mathias Wigge
Publisher: Feuerland Spiele
Artist: Steffen Bieker, Loïc Billiau, Dennis Lohausen

Genre: Zoo, Animals, Tile Placement, Hand Management, Competitive, Official Solo Mode, 1-4 players

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A lot of board gamers consider Vlaada Chvátil as one of the best designers in the industry. Before he designed light party games like Codenames, he also had some heavier, more advanced one like Mage Knight.

For a while, it felt like Codenames was his final design which was very successful as he kept releasing different iterations of it. So, when they announce Severton, a lot of people are looking forward to it.

The story in Severton is based on a novel by Jaroslav Foglar which has become a cult classic Czech adventure literature. It’s about a group of 5 young friends exploring an area in Old Prague trying to locate the mysterious Caged Hedgehog.

Title: Severton
Year Released: 2025
Designer: Vlaada Chvátil
Publisher: Albi
Artist: Miguel Coimbra

Genre: Stealth, Thematic, Emergent Narratives, Scenario Based, Multi-use Cards, Point to Point Movement, Variable Player Powers, Cooperative, Official Solo Mode, 1-5 players

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Some say that Shallow Sea is like Calico, Cascadia and Verdant combined with aquatic theme. Those 3 games came from the same game developer and publisher while this next one came from different publisher.

Like in Calico and Verdant, you have a board to fill in Shallow Sea. While Cascadia introduced the idea of drafting a set of 2 things, Shallow Sea took the idea from Verdant. You have 4 columns of 3 things each and from each you can choose to draw 2 of them. One of those two things must be the fish token which is one of the selling points of this game.

In Calico, there are 3 pattern tokens in the middle that if you can follow its rule, you get more points. Shallow Sea took that idea but gives you the freedom to place it in anywhere you want on the board.

If you manage to follow and complete the pattern, not only you get points but also shell tokens. These tokens work similarly like pine tokens in Cascadia. You can spend them to manipulate the market. Get different sets from different column or refresh them.

But that is not all. In this one, you can also use them to move Fish tokens. The purpose of fish tokens is to complete Coral tiles by placing the fish at one corner of the tile with the matching color. After you complete one coral tile, you want to move the fish to help complete the other coral you have taken and placed.

Completed Coral is how you complete the pattern. So, not only you need to take and place 2 different tiles, Coral and Pattern / Sealife, you need to complete them by placing the fishes. Shallow Sea is definitely a more challenging game than those 3 other tile placement games.

Can you manage to create the best ecosystem in the sea?

Title: Shallow Sea
Year Released: 2025
Designer: Yeom.C.W.
Publisher: Bad Comet
Artist: Sophia Kang

Genre: Tile Placement, Animal, Aquatic, Pattern Building, Competitive, Official Solo Mode, Solo Achievement Scenario, 1-4 players

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