Hello friends, and Happy New Year! 2018 is looking to be an exciting year in board gaming, and because of that, we decided to get around the table with Punchboard Media one more time to share what games we’re looking forward to in 2018!

—

Marti Wormuth – @FluffyMeeple
Open Seat Gaming –www.openseatgaming.com

Sometimes, I feel like I’m still catching up with board games from previous years, so picking one that I’m excited for next year was a bit of a daunting task. That being said, the game I’m most excited about for 2018 is Spy Club, by Foxtrot Games and published by Renegade Game Studios. I backed it when it was on Kickstarter, and there has not been a Foxtrot Game that I didn’t like. The theme caught my attention and I saw Eric (From What’s Eric Playing, another member of Punchboard Media) had a preview of it as well. I love games that have you put together the pieces and clues of a puzzle, and this seems to fit the bill for what we like playing around here at Open Seat Headquarters.

—–

Joe Sallen- @goodboardugly
The Good, the Board, and the Ugly
The Sallen Coefficient
The Long View

Most looking forward to: more plays of Gaia Project. I love Terra Mystica and had no idea how much the system could be improved. I might start exclusively playing Gaia Project and ignore all the other games. That’s a possibility.

—-

BJ from Board Game Gumbo – @boardgamegumbo
Gumbo Live! talk show (www.facebook.com/boardgamegumbo

My theme will be something old, something recent, and something new:

I have been enjoying diving into Concordia (although 2013 is not really *old* so I am cheating perhaps), so the chance to play some of the expansions is really exciting to me. I have the Brittania / Germania maps, and plan to try them out in January.  As for something recent, Charterstone arrives next week, so I imagine that campaign nights will be busy in January and February with Stonemaier Games’ latest release.  And then finally, for something new in 2018, Wakening Lair from Rather Dashing Games has me intrigued. It is a card-based dungeon crawl game with a lot of fun art and good backstory. The first quarter of 2018 is shaping up for some good gaming, so laissez les bon temps rouler!

—

Eric Yurko – @whatseplaying
What’s Eric Playing? – http://www.whatsericplaying.com

Helpfully, most of the games I’m looking forward to in 2018 are games I’ve had a chance to preview already in 2017 / 2016. Short list is easy, for sure — Cake Duel’s super high on my list, as it’s the 2-player bluffing game I always wanted; Mars Open: Tabletop Golf is an absolute triumph and I’m excited beyond belief to have a permanent copy for my table; I struggled with Wok Star when I tried it (we just weren’t fast enough), so I’m hoping that that I can get better at that and Now Boarding when I try them, next; Near and Far: Amber Mines is going to definitely make it to the top of my list, once it comes out, given how much I loved the base game; and obviously getting a few more plays of Spy Club in are going to be well worth the wait.

That said, there are almost certainly more games that I don’t know about that are still coming, or games that I haven’t previewed but only heard rumors of, like Overlight from Renegade Games Studios or the Kingdomino expansion that was just announced.

Either way, the best games are yet to come, so here’s looking forward to 2018!

—-

Andrew Denison-@denisonscience
The Good, The Board, and the Ugly

I’m looking forward to getting my copies of John Company and Bios Megafauna 2 in so that I can play them.  If I can afford it at the time, I am most looking forward to Stellar Horizon.  It’s a simulation game about the future of space exploration, and it was designed by a Nasa Ph.D. who also designed scenarios for another game called World in Flames.

—–

Sarah Mahood – @confuzzldmeeple
Open Seat Gaming

I’m looking forward to several games in 2018, so it was hard to get it down to just one. The one that I’m most excited about is Stuffed Fables, designed by Jerry Hawthorne and from publisher Plaid Hat Games. Stuffed Fables is a cooperative storytelling game where your characters are stuffed animals protecting a child’s slumber.

On top of that, I’m also very excited for Root designed by Cole Wehrle and to be published by Leder Games. Root is an asymmetric, area control and hand management game where your faction is battling for control of the wilderness region. I’m also very excited for Way of the Panda, which is going to be published by CMON. It’s a worker placement game where you are placing your Pandas and fighting against the forces of evil in order to protect your people. 

—-

We’re really excited to see what 2018 brings. Are there any games that you’re excited for this coming year? Or maybe you’re getting an old favorite to the table, or you have an event you’re going to? Leave a comment or send us a tweet to let us know what you’re excited about for 2018!

Game On!
Your Friends at Punchboard Media