The 12 most anticipated new tabletop games of 2022

Over the past year, events have conspired for us to learn about the fragility and vulnerability of global supply chain. Board games have been particularly hard hit. Shipping delays and container shortages mean that some of last year’s best new board games have yet to even land on Western shores. There are early signs that there will be a lot of great new board games in the coming year. Here are the 12 games we’re most excited about in 2022 — plus one to keep an eye on in 2023.

One thing to be aware of when new boardgame releases are released is that while the vast majority of these games eventually will appear on shelves at your local hobby stores or major-box retailers like Amazon, Target and others, the majority of these titles are crowdfunding products. That means the lion’s share of the initial inventory has already been spoken for by backers who pre-ordered their copies literally years ago. You can place a pre-order now for most of them, but you likely won’t see your copy arrive until much later than everyone else’s. We’ve provided links to where pre-orders are still available, but you’ll need to check with publishers about the delivery timeline.

Let us know what other 2022 releases you’re looking forward to in the comments below.

12. The Elder ScrollsSkyrim, The Adventure Game

This was the Polygon first detailed version of this model. The Elder Scrolls 5 Skyrim: The Adventure Game is the tabletop version of the classic role-playing video game — a game that has already been ported to virtually every electronic platform imaginable. To bring the board game to life, fans contributed more than $1.6million to Gamefound. I find that number to be astounding given that we’re talking about a video game first released in 2011.

The truth is that Skyrim: The Adventure GameThis is actually a prequel. It helps tell the tale of the great northern country BeforeThe rise of Dovakhiin, the hero. It’s also playable as a solo experience, a style of board game that has taken off in recent years. This product has all the potential to be a breakout success commercially.

Pre-orders still possible starting at $91, with an August delivery window of 2022.

11. Paleoamericans: Endless Winter

A prequel tale of another sort. Paleoamericans: Endless Winter celebrates the most ancient immigrants to North America — the nomadic peoples who are thought to have traveled here from Siberia more than 12,000 years ago. But it’s not the subject matter that has critics and fans so excited. Instead, it’s the mechanics.

There are many types of modern board games. These games require the players to create their own deck of cards. They are very much in demand right now. The same goes for worker placement games, such as PandemicThese games require that players manage many vital tasks while juggling limited resources. You can also play area control games like There is always riskOder Axis & Allies) that require players to strategically place their “dudes on a map” to win the day. According to Fantasia Games’ Kickstarter campaign, It’s an endless winterAll three mechanics are combined into one cohesive game. It’s not the first game to try to pull that off, nor will it be the last, but its potential has fans of heavier board games very excited.

According to Fantasia Games’ Kickstarter, English-language pre-orders are now closed. Asmodee Games North America will distribute the retail version.

10. ISS Vanguard

Another Gamefound success story: ISS VanguardBy Awaken Realms. This high-concept science fiction game raised nearly $5 million last year, and looking at the renders, it’s easy to see why. It is a top-quality game with excellent art and great miniatures. Backers also get a lot of value in the first campaign. So yes, the game is pretty enough, but it’s the presentation here that really has me excited.

ISS VanguardIt heavily draws on Star Trek and Mass Effect franchises for its structure. It is up to the players to work together and explore alien worlds. All while maintaining their fragile ships airtight, they must also move toward an unknown goal. With more than 50 characters to encounter throughout the course of play, there’s plenty of opportunity for interesting situations among the crew.

But ISS Vanguard also seems to be pulling together some of Awaken Realms’ best gags, including lengthy choose-your-own-adventure-style narrative encounters. There’s even an optional voice-over app, complete with music to help set the mood. It’s also another game that feels designed from the ground up to be a satisfying single-player experience. Add in a handy binder to keep select ship components properly stowed between games, and you’ve got a very robust product.

Pre-orders for pre-orders starting at $99 are available, but they will be closed on January 15.

9. Unmatched MarvelReihe

Image from Restoration Games and Mondo Games

Restoration Games and Mondo reveal the game board It’s unmatchedGen Con 2019, 2019. Since then, the light tactical miniatures game has taken off, bringing together pop culture heroes like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Jurassic Park’s velociraptors with public domain icons like Sinbad and Medusa. Now they’ve secured a license with Disney’s Marvel Universe, and a whole collection of wild new matchups is on the way.

Redemption Row: UnmatchedFeatures Luke Cage and Ghost Rider as well as the Moon Knight. Unmatched: Hell’s KitchenIncludes Elektra, Daredevil and Bullseye. Unmatched: Teen Spirit chucks Ms. Marvel, Squirrel Girl, plus Cloak & Dagger into the mix. Finally, Unmatched: for King and CountryBlack Widow and Black Panther will be included, as well as the Winter Soldier. There’s also a stand-alone, single-character expansion for Deadpool that you can order right now.

Keep checking the Restoration Games website for information about availability and when preorders will be available.

8. Vampire: The Masquerade– Chapters

Image: Flyos Games

Tabletop role playing game (TTRPG) The Masquerade of the VampireThe company has faced many challenges over the years. These include the botched launch of the fifth edition, and indefinite delays to a highly-publicized video game. But there’s good news for fans in 2022: Not only is there a meaty board game on the way, but it’s headed to retail as well.

Polygon was informed. Chapters Vampire:The Masquerade Flyos Games, a Montreal-based company that makes video games and other products for sale in retail stores found it too complex and large to sell. It announced worldwide distribution after Kickstarter backers had been satisfied. The delivery is expected to begin in the third quarter. For more details on what’s inside, check out our feature story.

7. Frostpunk

Strategy video game FrostpunkWhen it was launched on Steam, the game turned heads. 11 Bit Studios (Developed and Published).The War of MineThe grimy city-builder suggests an alternative history in which an unexpected ice age occurs during the industrial revolution. This story-driven management simulation has many twists. Now it’s being converted into a board game.

It is possible to have board games made from video games, but it can still be frustrating. Case in point is 11 bit’s own This War of Mine: The Board GameThe result is a slow, meticulous, note-for–note reproduction of the original source material. When Polygon interviewed Jakub Wiśniewski, one of the co-founders of developer Glass Cannon Unplugged, he said the goal this time around was more of a localization — essentially translating the look and feel of the original video game into a physical product.

Honestly, I’m still not sure what that means exactly, but I’m eager to get my hands on the final game. The pre-orders start at $113 and delivery is expected in the second quarter 2022.

6. SolForge Fusion: Hybrid Deck Game

Richard Garfield, the inventor of the internet, will be remembered in history. The Gathering: Magic and the Gathering, the world’s most popular collectible card game. But he’s not been resting on his laurels since the 1990s — far from it, in fact.

Garfield made headlines in 2018 Call of the Archons – KeyForgeA procedurally generated game of cards that can generate up to 104 billion different decks. All was well up until September last year, when something went wrong with the algorithm. Fantasy Flight Games, the publisher of Fantasy Flight Games, stated it would have to hold off on future releases until they can fix the math.

This has left the ground for the launch SolForge FusionGarfield co-designed the popular ‘, with Justin Gray (creator of the popular ‘) Deckbuilding: Ascension. You can play the procedurally generated decks online. Tabletop Simulator. This year’s delivery is planned for Kickstarter backers. Additional pre-orders can be made online.

5. Risk Shadow Forces

Risk LegacyHasbro’s 2011 publication of “The Hasbro Game” created a completely new board game. This one remembers what you did in the past and grows into more complicated experiences over time. While the original hasn’t aged particularly well, the genre of legacy-style board games now includes modern classics like GloomhavenPandemic Legacy: Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile. Hasbro will be returning to the well, more than a decade later, having helped create this category. It’s just that this time, it won’t have the help of Risk Legacy’s creator, Rob Daviau.

Risk Shadow Forces is being developed by Hasbro’s newly revitalized Avalon Hill team with the help of acclaimed designer Craig Van Ness. The game will include the classic game of World Domination as well as an interstitial video game which will be more like a first person shooter. Check out the feature story for all details as well as an exclusive interview with the developers.

Pre-orders can still be placed for $68.99 and delivery is expected to take place in October.

5. So, You’ve Been Eaten

The leader of our newest military branch is eager to share his experience that space is not easy. Space is hard, but the future of space labor, according to classic science fiction novels, is harder. It has been the subject of all kinds of ridiculous fantasies, including violent xenomorphstowaways and hard labor.

A board game called “Space-Based Sarcasm” is the latest attempt at space-based sarcasm. So, You’ve Been Eaten. One player plays the role of deep space miner, while the other takes the role as the megafauna digesting them. The hilarious Kickstarter campaign.

Points are earned by the Miner by collecting Crystals, while the Beast is awarded points for developing Immune Responses or attacking it with Bacteria.

A win is scored for the miners if they manage to collect 8 Crystals. After four Bacteria have been attacked, the beast wins the game by eating the miner.

Of course, there’s always the possibility that the Miner will simply pass through the Beast’s system, and then the player with the most points wins!

This game is fun, no matter if you win, lose or draw. You can pre-order the game now at $49.

3. Stellaris: Infinite Legacy

Strategy games and especially 4X strategy can easily consume an entire day. With Stellaris: Infinite Legacy, Academy Games’ Gunter Eickert thinks he can get that playtime down to just a couple of hours. If he’s successful, you could potentially play two or three full games in the same time it would take to play just a single game of Twilight Imperium. But the acclaimed designer’s ambitions aren’t merely limited to brevity.

Stellaris: Infinite LegacyIt will feature a new type of board game that is inspired by the legacy. Together, players will create new factions within a random galaxy. The starting worlds of these factions will remain the same from one game to another. Randomized objective cards will ensure balance between the experienced and newer factions. It will feature both ground-based and ship-based tactical wargaming systems.

It’s an incredibly ambitious project, one that is brimming with unproven concepts. That didn’t seem to slow down the Kickstarter in the least, however, which was successful to the tune of more than $2.5 million in April. I’m excited to get the final product on the table and put it through its paces.

Pre-orders are still available — and at the original price of $110 — with shipping listed as some time in 2022.

2. Frosthaven

No single board game has left as big an imprint on the industry in recent years as Isaac Childres’ Gloomhaven. Fans were willing to spend a high price for quality products when the huge cardboard and plastic box weighed in at nearly 20 pounds. It now has a proper sequel. FrosthavenExpectations are high for a new product.

FrosthavenThe campaign is role-playing in a box. There are approximately 100 missions to complete and the storyline can change in response to players actions. Players will become more powerful and eventually, they will be replaced by nonplayer characters. It will combine exploration, cooperative gameplay, deck-building, and tactical fighting like the original. Best of all, it doesn’t require a game master — someone to run the encounters. This means that fewer people will need to set up a table. You can also play solo.

The original GloomhavenAlthough it was popular, it wasn’t perfect. Childres acknowledged some of these issues when he declared a determined effort to eliminate his successor of problems related to colonialism and race.

Each retailer handles pre-orders. Find a location locator to find one. Although pricing information has not been published, Kickstarter copies were originally priced at $100.

1. Return to Dark Tower

Restoration Games is currently working on various projects, such as the Unmatched series. But Restoration Games’ energy has been focused on the final design and production of these games. Return to Dark Tower. It is now possible to get the reboot you have been waiting for.

Return to Dark Tower It is based upon the 1981 classic Dark TowerOrson Welles was the original marketer of the product. Restoration’s version includes the eponymous tower, a foot-tall hunk of plastic filled with electronics and LED lights, and an app to help control it. You can play through interconnected quests multiple times.

The original shipping date for the project was February 2021. But, it has been delayed by numerous technical and logistical issues. Although many outlets were able to experience the prototypes in action, they are not able to predict how larger campaigns will perform. In the next few months, we hope to complete a final review.

Although pre-orders cannot be placed at the moment, it is possible to keep an eye on the game’s progress through its official website. Expect retail copies to run at $190

For 2023 — Kingdom Death: Gambler’s Chest Expansion

Photo: Charlie Hall/Polygon

Although many board games are difficult to locate, there is a way. Kingdom Death: MonsterThese have been difficult to obtain for many years. Even worse, the delay in releasing a July update for Kickstarter Backers made it seem as though Adam Poots Games may have stopped communicating with its fans. But the publisher came through in November, announcing that more copies of the base game would be available for the holidays — albeit at an increased $420 price point.

The November update revealed, too that long-delayed Kingdom Death: Gambler’s Chest ExpansionBackers could be shipped as soon as November 2022. Gambler’s ChestThis is, in fact, the first major narrative extension for the base game. Although Kingdom Death has proven controversial for its art and thematic choices over the years (which include both baby-eating and phallus-shaped monster miniatures), it’s also an extraordinary game. I’m hopeful that creator Adam Poots will eventually overcome his complex production issues and start putting out new content for sale by 2023.

Unfortunately, there is no word yet on when — or even if — the Gambler’s Chest ExpansionOnly backers who paid previously for the content will have access to it. Nevertheless, here’s hoping that the stars align for fans of this franchise, who have been starved for new content for quite some time now.