The 22 Most Anticipated Games of Gen Con 2026

The summer heat is intense, but it’s not as hot as Gen Con 2026. Soon gamers from all over the world will descend on Indianapolis for North America’s largest board game convention. Just like in past years, hundreds of new board games will make their debut – over 600 this year, an overwhelming number. But never fear, the Meeple Mountain team is here to help you find the gems among the coal. Our staff have scoured through the upcoming titles to select our most anticipated games of Gen Con 2026! So without further ado, here are our picks!

Check our past recommendations and see how we did!
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Andy Matthews

Class of ’89

As someone who graduated from high school in 1989 I am, as the marketing literature says, “the target audience” for this upcoming release from Paverson Games. Class of ‘89 is set back in time when hair was big (both boys and girls), music was rockin’, and the yearbook teams were on point. This game has a modern sensibility with a retro feel. Send your staff around to take photos of classmates, place them onto the printed page in pleasing arrangements, then collect signatures to show just how cool you are. I got a chance to preview this game at GAMA Expo 2026 and it does a killer job of evoking that era. There’s not too many games I could say are insta-buys, but this one will be for sure!

Publisher: Paverson Games
Designer: Kory Jordan

One in a Million

Not much is known about this game, but it caught my attention nonetheless. The description on BoardGameGeek says “The game where every card is random, every pack is unique, and there is only one rule.”. I didn’t understand that until I posed a question on the game’s forums. “Sounds interesting. Tell me more!”. Whereupon I got an answer from the publisher indicating that every game is unique, each with 32 cards numbered from 1 to 1,000,000. To win the game you need to have a card that most closely fulfills the current scoring card (“Highest card”, “Distance between the Earth and Moon in miles”, etc.). If you don’t think your card does, then draw a new one. Can a game this simple be good? I’m not sure, but I’m here to find out!

Publisher: Everything’s on the Table, Spielcraft Games
Designer: Justin Salisbury

Warp 99

I grew up playing light card games: UNO, Phase 10, Rummy, War, etc. So it should be no surprise that I’m attracted to a game like Warp 99. The goal here is simple…be the first player to reach 99 points by playing cards from your hand to your personal discard pile, or to the shared discard pile in the center of the table. There are rules for play based on color and number, but the point here is that Warp 99 is my favorite sort of game; one in which you can shoot the breeze with other people at the table without having to think about the game, until it’s your turn. I can’t wait to give Warp 99 a try.

Publisher: Bézier Games
Designer: Reinhard Staupe

Abram Towle

Moytura

With a board game box that screams Samurai Jack nostalgia, Moytura is a 1-2 person area control game where players are vying for control over ancient Ireland by leveraging the power of deities. But it’s not just the other human you need to worry about; monsters are afoot! A beautiful linen game board coupled with evocative art entices me entirely, before hitting me over the head with the kind of tension that Spirit Island promises. I love a good challenge, and Moytura offers that in droves.

Publisher: Bitewing Games
Designers: Trevor Benjamin, David Thompson (I)

Read our review of Moytura.

Tag Team: Arthur’s Legacy

Last year at Gen Con I was pleasantly surprised by Scorpion Masqué’s auto-battler, Tag Team. It’s snappy, fast-paced, and requires just enough brainpower to keep you engaged and excited to run it back for a second or third game. Tag Team: Arthur’s Legacy features six new fighters centered around Arthurian myth: Morgan, Merlin, The Dragon, Perceval, The Green Knight, and Excalibur. While I continue to get extended mileage out of the base game—over 50 plays to date—combining these new fighters with the originals and finding synergistic pairings is sure to be a delight. My seventh grade Arthurian unit firmly cemented my love of myth and fantasy, so I’m quite excited to bring this…’round the table.

Publisher: Scorpion Masqué
Designers: Gricha German, Corentin Lebrat, Florian Sirieix, Benoit Turpin 

Andrew Holmes

Carcassonne Labyrinth

I’m a big fan of Carcassonne and have discussed it in depth with David McMillian, written a Strategy Guide, Celebrated its 20th Anniversary and even written a haiku about it. I also have fond memories of playing Labyrinth as a kid with my parents, and have played a Spidey version of it with my own children. I was always going to be interested in a hybrid of the two, but the early conversations I’ve heard from UKGE are positive. Players navigate the Labyrinth by sliding a maze of tiles to create roads to move along, and then use the tiles they’ve pushed out to build a Carcassonne landscape. It sounds like a delightful puzzle and I am totally here for it!

Publisher: Hans im Glück, Ravensburger
Designer: Max J. Kobbert, Klaus-Jürgen Wrede

Night at the Zoo

My wife and I have discussed the idea of a children’s book called ‘Night at the Zoo’ for years, building on her knowledge of what various zoo animals get up to after the visitors have gone home (she’s a zoo animal welfare scientist). Night at the Zoo, the game, has players puzzling out how to guide animals back into the zoo after a sneaky night out on the town. The title of this game obviously jumped out at me but I’ll confess I wasn’t expecting much more than a perfectly average cute family game. Having read the rules and seen some early comments, it does indeed look like a cute family game, but perhaps not as average as I first thought. Time will tell but I’m excited to find out!

Publisher: Albi, Albi Polska, Capstone Games
Designer: Tomáš Holek

Will Hare

Brave & Bold: Bag Building Combat Game

I’m a sucker for a few things in board games. First, pretty components, and boy does this game have it in spades. It’s pretty much the sole thing that drove me to insanity trying to collect everything Dice Throne has to offer. Second, I’ve been huge into bag builders recently. Quacks of Quedlinberg is a modern classic, and Wonderland’s War is currently in the running for my favorite new game I’ve tried this year. Resurrection Games is taking that formula and applying it to a combat game. Playable at 1v1, 2v2, or 3v3, this thing has a lot of potential to build a competitive community around it, much like how Roxley has done with Dice Throne getting organized play support at local stores. Toss in some DC Comics flavor, and you’ve got my attention.

Publisher: Resurrection Games
Designer: Brad Zander

Tom Franklin

Ostia: Mariner Edition

A mancala-like game of resource collection and actions. You’re working to get the best trade routes and items to trade. Amass a mighty fleet of merchant ships and establish a sprawling collection of ports across the ocean. Gather vital trade goods, exotic beasts, and the support of the nobility at home to secure your place in the halls of history. This edition comes with both of the previously released expansions and deluxe content.

Publisher: Crafty Games
Designer: Totsuca Chuo

Treeline

Townsfolk cut down the forest to build their city. Now the trees are reclaiming their land.

This small box game comes with four asymmetrical factions, 66 land tiles, and 16 castle tiles. You’ll compete to turn over the most advantageous tiles while placing your 11 workers. Run out of workers and you’ll have to choose which tile to abandon and which tile to claim.

Publisher: Burnt Island Games
Designer & Artist: Christopher Ryan Chan

Stones & Rivers

An abstract strategy game where each player is trying to get five of five of your pieces to your Home Row—a row of spaces behind their opponent’s two rows of pieces. The double-sided pieces show river routes to flow to your Home Row on one side and stones to block your opponent’s river. Knowing when to flip, rotate, and push pieces is needed to win.

Publisher: Blue Heron Games
Designer & Artist: Trevor Harron

Justin Bell

The Six of VIII

I played The Six of VIII two years ago thanks to a friend who grabbed an import copy of the game. We loved it, then I pined for ways to get a copy of my own. Thanks to 25th Century Games, we have a solution: the English version of the game will be available at Gen Con for hungry peasants like myself. The Six of VIII is yet another trick taker with a subtle twist, here with changing trump alliances tied to the various Queen cards, each of which is tied to a real-life Queen who reigned for different periods of time. Grab three friends because this plays best in pairs, as partners work together to win tricks across four rounds. I’m sure this will sell out at the show, so try to grab a copy on Thursday or Friday while there’s still a chance!

Publisher: 25th Century Games
Designers: Carol LaGrow

North American Railways

North American Railways was published in 2016 and designed by Peer Sylvester, the man who gave us Brian Boru: High King of Ireland and The King is Dead 2E. Both are amazing, so I’m inclined to at least pony up the cash to try North American Railways, which one commenter noted on BGG as “18xx in a box.” I do like a good train game, and Sylvester’s pedigree put this on my radar. The box looks smaller and the artwork has changed, but this looks like the same game…we’ll see if that game has aged well or not!

Publisher: Playte
Designers: Peer Sylvester

March of the Ants: Evolved Edition

I tried tracking down a copy of this game—an updated version of the 2015 original—at last year’s SPIEL Essen event, but came up empty-handed. Hopefully, I’ll be successful this time at grabbing this nature-themed 4X-style game because plenty of the people in my network love 4X-adjacent titles such as Voidfall and Twilight Imperium. The game’s designers are Tim Eisner and Ryan Swisher; Eisner was a co-designer of Wonderland’s War and both men worked on the original March of the Ants, so this project feels like the kind of labor of refinement love that I can get behind.

Publisher: Weird City Games
Designers: Tim Eisner, Ryan Swisher

Jesse Fletcher

Machi Koro: Life

Machi Koro is a delightful entry-level dice-rolling, resource-gathering, tableau builder that has had its share of expansions, sequels, even a legacy version. From what I can tell, Machi Koro: Life takes that basic formula, but eschews the city-building theme for a “life-building.” (think Pursuit of Happiness). To me this sounds like it could be a cute game every bit as approachable as the original. If so, I’ll be delighted to add this to my collection.

Publisher: Pandasaurus Games
Designer: Masao Suganuma

Forbidden Legacy

Matt Leacock and Rob Daviau are teaming up again to provide a legacy version of the Forbidden series. (Forbidden Island, my personal favorite Forbidden Desert, Forbidden Jungle, etc.) Forbidden Island already feels somewhat like Pandemic Lite. Likewise, Forbidden Legacy provides a much more manageable 7-game legacy arc, but still providing the mystery unlocks and lasting changes that a good legacy game gives. Given their smashing successes with the Pandemic: Legacy series, I have no doubt based on their track record that this is going to be a banger.

Publisher: Gamewright
Designer: Matt Leacock and Rob Daviau

Joseph Buszek

Trick to the Future

Another year, another Taiki Shinzawa trick-taking game published by GameHead making my Gen Con preview contribution. No Loose Ends, which I included in last year’s list, wound up being one of the best trick-taking games I played in 2025, so my expectations are very high this time around. In Trick to the Future, which totally has nothing to do with the popular (and IP-protected) time travel film franchise despite having a similar name and theme, players earn points from successful time jumps without running out of fuel. Each suit represents a period of time (Past, Present, Future, and Beyond) and players have a certain number of fuel rods to get home, but these same fuel rods can also be used to alter the rules of the trick, so it looks to be an exciting balancing act of winning tricks and pushing your luck.

Publisher: GameHead
Designer: Taiki Shinzawa

Blood Rage: Valhalla

I am a big fan of Eric Lang’s big box games from CMON games, including the excellent Cthulhu: Death May Die, but Blood Rage is my favorite of the bunch. After Tycoon Games acquired many of these games from CMON last year, they announced a new standalone game, Blood Rage: Valhalla, which will be shown off at Gen Con with an event and a tournament. It certainly seems like Tycoon is not messing around with a good thing, as the new title has the same look and feel as the original, including the terrific artwork of Adrian Smith. We’ll have to wait to see what kind of gameplay changes were made, if any, but this game has been on the top of my anticipated list for a while and I can’t wait to check it out.

Publisher: Tycoon Games
Designer: Eric M. Lang

Trail to the Temple

Initially, I was a little confused about the new Reiner Knizia game, based on its description: “In this competitive exploration game, players lead an expedition into a lost city hidden deep within the jungles of Honduras.” This sure sounds a lot like The Quest for El Dorado, a game I thought was his best in years. Digging a little deeper, this isn’t just a race to the finish line, as it seems like Trail to the Temple leans more into the exploration side of things and also has you collecting artifacts and mapping terrain to score additional points. I’m very curious how all of these elements will come together and hope this title continues his recent hot streak of original titles, including Iliad and Rebirth.

Publisher: MindWare
Designer: Reiner Knizia

Kevin Brantley

Drillers

Deck building is probably one of my all-time favorite game mechanics. Here we have something right in my wheelhouse, and someone said it plays like Lost Ruins of Arnak? I can’t rush to the table fast enough! As a Gundam fan, I’m also drawn to the cool mech minis, which should have a commanding presence on the table. The game revolves around moving your mech through a mine to dig for resources, but the puzzle comes from managing your hand. Cards can be played for their effects or discarded to gain fuel. It also has a Clank!-like feel, as you venture deeper into the mine but still need to return to the surface to sell your precious goods and strengthen your deck with new cards. The mine is unstable, though, so the whole thing also feels like a race against time. I’m hoping it lives up to those comparisons because I can’t wait to play it.

Publisher: CGE
Designer: Roman Bednář, Adam Španěl

Neuroscape TCG

I love the idea of Trading Card Games (TCGs), and I spent countless hours and dollars investing in the Flesh and Blood game system. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time or wallet to keep chasing new sets, but I’m still searching for that TCG feel in a self-contained format. Neuroscape, with its awesome cyberpunk theme, seems to combine the feel of Android: Netrunner with the combat of Flesh and Blood. There are a lot of cool ideas here that seem to improve upon existing TCG systems, but in a market already heavily saturated with them, it can be difficult to stand out. I’m excited to give this one a whirl and hopefully find my next favorite TCG.

Publisher: Neuroscape LLC
Designer: Connor Hair, Alex Meader

Headliner

Chris Couch Games is a small but mighty publisher, and its hit Holiday Hills from last year was an absolute knockout that made me wish it were Christmastime year-round. Card drafting and set collection are two of my wife’s favorite mechanics, so I’m always on the hunt for lighter games built around them. Headliner, with its awesome bright neon artwork, has players drafting band members and combining their abilities to create the perfect musical ensemble. It’s a cool mix of engine building and cashing in that engine to score, which makes the gameplay loop sound like a lot of fun. Pair that with cards featuring real-life musician puns like Avril Lastring and Lana Del Riff, and it looks like the perfect casual card game to convince my in-laws to play. If only I got to keep that money in real life after the show was over!

Publisher: Chris Couch Games
Designer: Jaedon Johnson

Previously Reviewed

Meeple Mountain has already reviewed a number of titles which have previously been released, or will soon be released, at Gen Con 2026. You can find links to our reviews of those games below.