Etherstone quickly stood out its us last year, thanks to its striking presentation and its blend of familiar mechanics with clever twists. Set on the forgotten planet of Nobura, the game casts players as faction leaders attempting to prevent an impending catastrophe while navigating political tension and looming threats.

Etherstone combines card drafting, dice drafting, and hand management in a dynamic way. Players recruit followers, manage resources, and resolve challenges while rolling and assigning Etherstone dice to activate powerful effects. Multiple scoring paths and evolving objectives ensure strong replayability, while the game’s pacing keeps tension high throughout. It’s a polished strategic experience that rewards careful planning and adaptability.

Designers: Simone Luciani, Virginio Gigli
Artist: Paolo Voto
Publisher: Thundergryph Games

This game was an immediate hit for us! Galactic Cruise offers a deeply thematic and meticulously crafted eurogame experience centered around running a luxury space tourism company. Players take on the role of supervisors competing to become CEO by designing spacecraft, planning voyages, and delivering unforgettable interstellar vacations.

At its core, Galactic Cruise features worker placement, resource management, and engine building. Players must carefully balance logistics such as fuel, food, and oxygen while timing shuttle launches and upgrades for maximum efficiency. With its strong production values, incredible art (by the incomparable Ian O’Toole!), and interconnected systems, the game delivers a satisfying strategic arc and rewards long-term planning.

Designers: T.K. King, Dennis Northcott, Koltin Thompson
Artist: Ian O’Toole
Publisher: Kinson Key Games

Vantage is an ambitious cooperative adventure game that only a games publisher like Stonemaier could bring — emphasizing exploration, discovery, and shared storytelling. Players crash-land on an unfamiliar planet and must work together to survive, adapt, and uncover the mysteries of their surroundings.

The game features a vast open-world structure built from interconnected location cards, allowing players to explore freely without a fixed campaign. Communication, cooperation, and strategic decision-making are essential, as players are often separated and must coordinate their efforts across the map. Vantage really stands out for its sense of scale, freedom, and emergent narrative moments.

Designer: Jamey Stegmaier
Artists: Valentina Filic, Sören Meding, Emilien Rotival
Publisher: Stonemaier Games

Leaders is a streamlined two-player tactical game that delivers depth and tension in a compact format. Each player assembles a small team of unique characters and attempts to outmaneuver their opponent on a tight battlefield.

Using clever positioning and distinct character abilities, players aim to capture their opponent’s Leader or force a strategic checkmate. With fast playtime, minimal setup, and meaningful decisions every turn, Leaders offers a refined and highly replayable experience that appeals to fans of abstract and tactical games alike.

Designer: Hugo Frénoy
Artist: Naïade
Publisher: Studio H

Zenith is a fast-paced strategic game set in a vibrant science-fiction universe where competing factions vie for influence across the solar system. Players align with one of three groups—humans, robots, or animods—each offering unique approaches to victory.

The game emphasizes hand management and area control, with players shifting influence on planets and pursuing one of several win conditions. Tension builds as alliances shift and endgame triggers approach, keeping all players engaged until the final moments. Zenith’s accessible rules and strategic depth make it a standout title for both casual and experienced players.

Designers: Grégory Grard, Mathieu Roussel
Artist: Xavier Gueniffey Durin
Publisher: PlayPunk

Tend is definitely not your average flip-and-write game! Coming from IV Studios, the production alone really sets it apart. It’s a remarkable and dynamic experience that invites players to cultivate thriving farms on an alien world. Each round, players choose from a shared set of task cards and simultaneously mark actions on their individual sheets to till soil, plant crops, water seedlings, and harvest goods. 

The game’s evolving task decks, shifting goals, and unique resource types ensure that no two sessions feel the same, fostering both strategic planning and adaptability. Tend’s streamlined mechanics and simultaneous play keep the pace brisk, making it enjoyable at a variety of player counts and offering plenty of engaging choices without unnecessary complexity. 

Designer: Max Anderson, Zac Dixon, Austin Harrison, Toby Sarnelle
Artist: Kelly Nakamura
Publisher: IV games

March of the Ants: Evolved Edition is a significantly updated iteration of the acclaimed ant colony strategy game, refining and expanding the original while preserving its fast-paced 4X feel. Players take on the roles of competing ant nests, exploring the meadow, gathering resources, evolving new species traits, and expanding intricate tunnel networks.

What sets the Evolved Edition apart are its revised mechanics and refreshed presentation: all-new artwork and graphic design enhance readability, wooden ant meeples replace generic tokens, and additional elements such as Resting cards and Great Tunnel Battles enrich strategic options. These enhancements, combined with the same brisk playtime, make the Evolved Edition a compelling choice for both new players and fans of the original. 

Designers: Tim Eisner, Ryan Swisher
Artists: Lina Cossette, Ryan Swisher
Publisher: Weird City Games

Kikai: Bricolage Heads reintroduces the celebrated two-player urban strategy game to a broader audience with its 2025 global edition, refining and localizing the original Japanese release. In this asymmetrical contest, each player embodies a street artist competing to construct expressive mechanical “Kikai” sculptures from scrap and capture the public’s attention across districts. 

The new edition balances and expands on the original resource economy — including tools like ladders and megaphones — and clarifies key interactions to improve competitive tension and pacing. These adjustments, combined with thoughtful component and presentation upgrades, make this edition more accessible and better tuned for tactical head-to-head play, while preserving the game’s unique thematic flair and strategic depth.

Designer: Yasuyuki Yamagishi
Artists: Ylann Braunscheiwer, SNAC
Publishers: Ramble Odd Potato / FENTasy Games

Faraway: Sous un Ciel d’Étoiles builds elegantly on the acclaimed base game by introducing a celestial twist that reshapes the way players approach exploration and scoring. The 15 Météorite region cards are shuffled into the standard region deck and remain visible during end-game scoring, unlike most region cards. These meteors reveal other cards in a player’s tableau that share the same unit digit in their exploration time, creating new chains of visible cards that contribute to scoring and resources. This fresh layer of interaction invites players to rethink their card placement and timing, deepening strategic complexity without complicating the core ruleset. It’s a compact yet impactful expansion that enhances both tactical depth and replayability for fans of the original. 

Designers: Johannes Goupy, Corentin Lebrat
Artist: Maxime Morin
Publisher: Catch Up Games