A new generation of board games is redefining strategy and storytelling, with titles like City of the Great Machine by CrowD Games turning hidden movement into a tense contest of wits. 2023 has already offered players fresh mechanics, rich themes, and table-shaking surprises that prove the hobby is more inventive than ever.
This list is not ranked. Instead, titles are offered in alphabetical order. All are currently in stock and available for sale.
City of the Great Machine
Set in a steampunk metropolis ruled by an omnipotent AI, City of the Great Machine is a tense hidden movement game where players either conspire as rebels or command the Great Machine itself. The asymmetric design keeps every round uncertain, as heroes coordinate secret plans to spark uprisings while the Machine works to predict and suppress rebellion. With modular city tiles and shifting objectives, each session plays out like a cinematic struggle between human ingenuity and mechanical control.
CrowD Games’ City of the Great Machine has been a surprise. One player controls a steampunk mechanized AI whose grip on the floating sky city has tightened. The rest of the group opposes the technocratic authority by inciting dissent and sowing destruction. The goal is to foment three riots before the clock strikes midnight and the machine has squeezed the last sparks of life from the city.
This is a marvelous hidden movement game. Players plot their paths on the map using hidden cards, while the Great Machine attempts to deduce their plans. Location powers and special abilities are triggered during a dramatic reveal each round. There is latitude for creative solutions as you can move sections of the cities around and reconfigure the map layout. Furthermore, it’s a flexible design that includes an alternate rule set for the game itself to control the Great Machine, allowing for solitaire or cooperative play. It’s an underrated design worthy of greater attention.
City of the Great Machine
$63 $63
• 1-4 players, age 14
• Playtime: 60-90 minutes
• Similar games: Mind MGMT
Read More $63 at Amazon
Dark Venture: Battle of the Ancients
Set in a grim fantasy world of ancient powers and dark alliances, Dark Venture: Battle of the Ancients challenges players to command legendary heroes in tactical battles filled with unpredictable twists. Each session combines strategic planning with narrative-driven choices, where shifting loyalties and rare artifacts can change the course of conflict. Its richly detailed artwork and asymmetrical gameplay make every match feel distinct and story-rich.
Dark Venture: Battle of the Ancients is a zany, heavy-metal skirmish game where players control hordes of alien creatures battling in a post-apocalyptic fantasy hellscape. It’s an indie title that promises more than its small stature, offering competitive, solitaire, and cooperative modes of play. You can command armies and clash head-to-head in dozens of scenarios, or you can take on any faction with a simple AI system running your foes.
This is a thrilling tactical endeavor where you spend limited actions to scurry about the map and pursue faction-specific objectives such as destroying enemies or gathering enough resources to build an overlord. Each of the different warbands is unique, with asymmetric play being a significant component. This is a relatively simple core design with a load of features piled atop. There’s nothing quite like it on the market today.
Dark Venture: Battle of the Ancients Core Set
$54$575% off $54
• 1-4 players, age 12
• Playtime: 20-90 minutes
Read More $54 at Backerkit
Earth
Earth puts players in charge of planetary management, where they build cities, manage resources, and face environmental challenges in a race against ecological collapse. This strategic board game from CrowD Games blends city-building with hidden movement mechanics, forcing tough choices on expansion versus sustainability. Guides to its rules reveal layers of depth that reward long-term planning and adaptability.
The tableau-building genre – where players organize tiles, tokens, or, as here, cards on the table – has been revitalized in recent years. Hits like Terraforming Mars and Ark Nova have helped tableau-building games become more mainstream, and now Inside Up Games’ Earth is poised to take things to the next level. It’s a whole world better that its competition.
Players seek to build a self-sustaining engine of flora and fauna. The game has an open-world feel, supporting several different areas of exploration and allowing you to shape the environment however you’d like. The rule set is simple, but the interactions between the various cards and abilities are rich and satisfying. It’s also much less demanding than its peers, clocking in at roughly an hour for experienced players.
Earth
$50 $50
• 1-5 players, age 13
• Playtime: 45-90 minutes
• Similar games: Terraforming Mars, Ark Nova
Read More $50 at Inside Up Games
Freelancers: A Crossroads Game
Freelancers: A Crossroads Game transforms post-apocalyptic storytelling into a lighthearted and richly thematic experience. Players take on the roles of quirky survivors undertaking dangerous contracts in a cooperative narrative adventure filled with tough choices, sharp humor, and branching storylines. Each session feels like a shared storybook brought to life, blending roleplaying elements with streamlined mechanics that keep every decision fast, funny, and full of character.
Plaid Hat’s Freelancers: A Crossroads Game is a silly game. It has an Adventure Time tone, as players take on the roles of a mixed company of trolls, stilt-kin, dwarves, and goblins. You choose one of these species and then pair it with an oddball class, such as dung farmer or divorcee. Once you each have a character, you fill in Mad Libs-style prompts to build a narrative and background. Then you’re ready to start the adventure.
This is a cooperative story game not unlike Dungeons & Dragons in board game format. You travel along a map and then access narrative passages read from the fantastic Freelancers app. Sometimes you make Choose Your Own Adventure-style decisions, while other times you trigger unique entries based on the type of character you’re playing as, or see the game unfold due to a previous accomplishment made earlier in the adventure. It’s an approachable affair, with a ruleset that can be internalized in just minutes. The magic is in the story that emerges and how it incorporates player input to produce a stunning and hilariously irreverent adventure.
Freelancers: A Crossroads Game
$36$6040% off $36
• 3-7 players, age 14
• Playtime: 120-180 minutes
• Similar games: Forgotten Waters
Read More $36 at Amazon$45 at Boardlandia$43 at Gamersroll
Frosthaven
Frosthaven expands on the legacy of Gloomhaven with deeper mechanics, a sprawling campaign, and a fresh northern setting filled with challenges. Players lead a band of mercenaries through strategic combat, character growth, and city-building elements that enhance the sense of progression between missions. With an impressive range of content and replayability, it delivers both tactical depth and a rich cooperative experience for groups seeking long-term engagement.
Frosthaven is the highly anticipated sequel to acclaimed dungeon-crawler Gloomhaven. This follow-up is a cooperative RPG board game identical to its predecessor in spirit. However, it’s even larger than that previous monstrosity. The players control a band of adventurers diving into the tunnels beneath a frozen countryside to the north of Gloomhaven proper. New encounters, creatures, and characters will all be discovered.
The most interesting new feature is an element of base-building. In between adventures, the group manages resources and develops an isolated outpost. Your home is barely hanging on in the harsh elements, so you will have to work to manage survival and ultimately thrive. The classic mechanism of sophisticated card-based combat provides the same engaging gameplay we’ve come to love from the original. Frosthaven is something to behold.
Frosthaven
$190$30037% off $190
• 1-4 players, age 14
• Playtime: 30-120 minutes
• Similar games: HeroQuest
Read More $190 at Amazon
Hegemony: Lead Your Class to Victory
In Hegemony: Lead Your Class to Victory, players take on the roles of competing social classes-working, middle, and capitalist-each with its own interests and strategies. The game blends political negotiation, economic management, and strategic planning, forcing players to balance cooperation with self-interest. Its asymmetric design and sharp social commentary make every session a tense contest of power, policy, and persuasion.
Hegemonic Project Games’ debut title takes the depressing realities of capitalist society and forges those elements into an absolutely gripping game of class warfare. This is a highly asymmetric design that has players taking on one of four roles: the working class, who are fighting for jobs and prosperity; the middle class, who must balance their workforce with the concerns of small-business ownership; the capitalists, who only care about lowering taxes and maximizing the profits of their corporations; and the state, which is trying to establish its legitimacy to govern the other three classes.
This political game is an economic simulation that explores the collisions of varying interests among the populace. Legislation is proposed and passed, taxes and minimum wage are at stake, and a constant stream of immigrants arrive seeking work. It’s a rich and evocative game that fosters contemplation of our society and its various ills. This is one of the most interesting and compelling board games of the past few years.
Hegemony: Lead Your Class to Victory
$68$9528% off $68
• 3-4 players, age 14
• Playtime: 180 minutes
Read More $95 at Amazon$68 at Game Nerdz
Sky Team
Sky Team transforms cooperative gameplay into a tense two-player challenge where communication is limited to body language and intuition. Players take on the roles of a pilot and co-pilot tasked with safely landing an aircraft through coordination and quick decision-making. Every roll of the dice heightens the suspense, pushing teammates to trust each other as they balance speed, altitude, and fuel against unpredictable conditions. Its unique theme and tight timing make it an engaging experience for anyone who enjoys teamwork under pressure.
With copies first trickling out at Gen Con and now Essen Spiel, Sky Team has garnered a great deal of attention and praise. This two-player affair places a duo in the cockpit of a passenger airliner. The task is to get the bird home and land it safely. This is much more difficult than you’d imagine.
Part simulation and part abstract puzzle, players take turns placing dice to trigger various actions. You can deploy the brakes, adjust the flaps, and set engine speed. Cooperation is necessary to achieve success. However, communication is limited during the round, turning teamwork into an experimental process that you’ll have to feel out. In its most basic form, this is a 20-minute streamlined experience with clever twists, but as you progress through the numerous modules, the layered systems become rich and even more impressive. The amount of content to explore is vast, and despite its simple premise, Sky Team is a game with a surprising degree of depth.
Sky Team
$30 $30
• 2 players, age 14
• Playtime: 20 minutes
• Similar games: Apollo
Read More $30 at Barnes & Noble
Snap Ships Tactics
Snap Ships Tactics delivers fast-paced tactical combat with customizable starships assembled from modular snap-together pieces. Players command fleets in modular space battles, snapping ships mid-game to adapt strategies against opponents. Quick setup and replayable scenarios make it a standout for sci-fi skirmish fans seeking bite-sized sessions packed with tactical depth.
Snap Ships Tactics isn’t your average release. It’s a full-fledged space combat system similar to Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game, but it was designed to fit atop a preexisting toy line. Snap Ships have been available for several years and consist of snap-together blocks that allow for the construction of modular spacecraft. You can outfit your ships with various weapons systems, wings, and visual accessories. Now, you can also battle with them.
What’s surprising about this release is that the game is so damn pleasing to play. It’s packaged as a boxed set with two ships and all the cards and terrain needed to battle. Players each control a single ship, selecting how they want to configure their craft and what gear they will take. You alternate turns, moving along a template and activating weapon systems to fire missiles or unleash projectiles.
It’s a tense yet quick experience that doesn’t get bogged down with too many details. It’s more simple and approachable than the previously mentioned X-Wing, and it also supports a steady range of expansion vehicles. The game comes alive and fulfills its promise when each side fields two or more ships. This allows for a larger player count with team play, or for each participant to fly more than one Snap Ship.
Snap Ships Tactics
$67$8016% off $67
• 1-2 players, age 10
• Playtime: 30 minutes
• Similar games: X-Wing Miniatures Game, Star Trek: Attack Wing
Read More $67 at Amazon
Thunder Road: Vendetta
Thunder Road: Vendetta brings chaotic vehicular battles to the table, combining speed, mayhem, and tactical choices in every turn. Players race across modular tracks filled with hazards, rival cars, and explosive collisions, aiming to be the last one standing. Its fast-paced gameplay and unpredictable outcomes keep each match thrilling, making it a standout revival of a classic action-packed racer.
Restoration Games is the company digging up old classic board games and revitalizing them with modern design philosophy. They are responsible for the wonderful re-creations of Fireball Island and Dark Tower, and their strongest restoration yet is the venerable Thunder Road: Vendetta. This new edition of the Mad Max-inspired board game from 1986 is sensational and sleek.
Players control a team of vehicles ranging from small buggies to larger vans. Dice are utilized to activate and move these automobiles along a rugged road, dodging hazards such as mines or oil slicks in an attempt to reach the finish line. Weapons are unleashed as cars take damage and careen like bumper cars in the congested warzone. It’s a fast-paced and visually inspired design that is evocative of its source material, and just a downright joy to play.
Thunder Road: Vendetta
$42$5524% off $42
• 2-4 players, age 10
• Playtime: 60 minutes
• Similar games: Formula D, Last Aurora
Read More $60 at Amazon$45 at Boardlandia$42 at Gamersroll
Votes for Women
Votes for Women transforms a pivotal moment in history into a tense and thought-provoking board game. Set during the American women’s suffrage movement, it blends cooperative and competitive mechanics as players represent either the suffragists fighting for the 19th Amendment or the opposition seeking to stop them. With strong historical grounding, persuasive campaign strategies, and evolving political dynamics, it offers a richly thematic experience that balances strategic depth with narrative engagement.
Tory Brown’s Votes for Women is a stunning product. It includes replica voting registration cards, newspaper articles, and personal letters of historical significance. All of this sets the tone for a card-driven area-control game focused on the struggle of the women’s suffrage movement in America. As a set of systems, it’s similar to a historical wargame; as an experience, it’s a sobering retelling of moral achievement.
There is something particularly nasty about playing the opposition in this game. You utilize cards to sow dissent for the proposed 19th Amendment and rally states against your opponent. Thankfully, the game includes an automated system to control this side of the conflict, allowing one or two players to lead the suffragist movement and fight for women’s rights. This is a compelling release that compares to genre greats like Twilight Struggle, wielding intriguing mechanisms alongside a significant historical moment to produce a splendid educational experience.
Votes for Women, second printing
$75 $75
How does City of the Great Machine play solo versus multiplayer
City of the Great Machine offers distinct solo and multiplayer experiences centered on hidden movement and strategy in a steampunk city. In multiplayer, one player controls the Great Machine while others team up as heroes, but solo shifts to full cooperation against an AI opponent.
Multiplayer Setup
One player embodies the Great Machine, deploying guards, servants, and citizens to enforce control across modular districts. Up to three other players control a shared team of three unique heroes, using secret movement selection to evade detection, gather trust (currency), incite riots, and complete objectives without verbal coordination that might reveal positions. Games support 1v1 to 1v3 formats, with tension peaking in 1v1 or 2-player co-op against a human opponent, though higher counts risk slowdowns from communication limits.
Solo Mode Mechanics
Solo play (or co-op for 1-3 players) replaces the human Great Machine with an AI module using flowchart-driven decks and tokens for automated actions like swapping districts or advancing plans. Players manage all three heroes simultaneously, following base rules with tweaks like revealed citizens for easier income tracking and mission sets for replayable goals. Phases mirror multiplayer-planning hidden moves, resolving servant overlaps (risking lost turns), and checking events-but add solo-specific AI triggers, such as reshuffling movement decks or pushing progress markers.
Key Differences
Multiplayer emphasizes bluffing and psychological deduction as the Machine anticipates hero paths, while solo/co-op focuses on puzzle-solving against predictable AI flows, ramped up by missions and variable trader/citizen placements. Solo avoids multiplayer’s coordination frustrations but introduces randomness in AI actions and potential action loss from overlaps, making it highly replayable yet demanding. Both modes use the same board and components, with solo praised for accessibility and depth comparable to the competitive version.
Tips for mastering the solo AI module
City of the Great Machine’s solo AI module uses automated flowcharts, decks, and tokens to simulate the Great Machine opponent effectively. Mastering it involves anticipating AI patterns and optimizing hero actions despite limited player control.
Setup Optimization
Use solo-specific missions for structured goals, placing traders and citizens face-up to track income reliably. Select heroes with complementary abilities-like a fast mover paired with a crowd-controller-to cover districts efficiently early on. Pre-arrange the modular board to cluster high-value areas, reducing AI guard coverage surprises.
AI Pattern Recognition
Study the AI decks for repeatable sequences: servant swaps often precede progress advances, so plan hero overlaps strategically to lose minimal turns. Trigger AI events deliberately by pushing progress markers, as they reshuffle movement decks favorably about 40% of the time. Track token pools visually; low guard tokens signal safe riots in outer districts.
Hero Action Tips
Prioritize trust accumulation in turns 1-3 via citizen interactions, then pivot to objectives-aim for 2-3 riots per game to hit victory thresholds. Avoid stacking heroes in one district post-turn 2, as AI detection ramps up; use hidden movement reveals to bait servants away from key paths. In longer sessions, replay with varied mission sets to adapt to flowchart branches.
