Happy new year, everyone! I hope the year ahead brings you plenty of happiness. I also hope it brings you some great board games, which is basically the same thing. The big question is, which games should you look out for? Here are a few 2026 releases that look most interesting to me. Long-time readers of this blog will notice that this year’s list is a bit longer than usual – there are just so many fascinating games scheduled for release this year!
As always, don’t take this as a shopping list, either for you or for me. Your personal taste in games and how many new games you want to buy will decide what ends up on your shelf, and hopefully on your table!
After that reminder, let’s get to the games. Since all of them are set in human history, they are ordered from the most ancient time periods to the most recent.
Triumvir
1-3 players, up to 90 minutes
Once the greatest Roman politician-generals grew beyond the limits of the republican power-sharing agreement, the Republic was bound to fall. Yet it was not predestined that it would fall to Caesar. In fact, two of his associates and rivals, Pompey and Crassus, might as well have taken the top spot… if they had played their cards better.
Triumvir casts its players as the three mightiest power brokers of the last years of the Roman Republic. They will attempt to turn their wealth, popularity, and military force into political success. This uses an adaptation of the negotiation mechanic from the designers’ previous cooperation game, Versailles 1919. Whoever settles the issues in the senate in their favor and deals best with the challenges in the rebellious provinces is poised to become the First Man in Rome forever.
You can still pre-order Triumvir at the P500 price of $60.00. The regular price will be $101.00. Release is expected for March.
Neither King Nor God (Limited Pilot Edition)
4 players, 60-120 minutes
I have a fondness for the early modern period. This was a time when so many old certainties in Europe were shattered by revolutionary new developments – from the printing press to the discovery of America and the Reformation.
Neither King Nor God focuses on the struggle for military, religious, and commercial supremacy in Western Europe. The four main characters are the Pope, the Holy Roman Emperor, and the Kings of England and France. The players will send their courtiers to the big cities of Europe. These courtiers range from merchants to generals to assassins, each with their own action. They form a neat stack in each city. Once all courtiers are placed, each city’s courtier stack is resolved from top to bottom. This means the last courtier placed is the first one to resolve! There are many tactical considerations in choosing which courtier to trigger early or late. Since they are placed face-down, there is also a good deal of bluffing involved.
I had the opportunity to play Neither King Nor God at last year’s SPIEL in Essen. Our Holy Roman Emperor attempted to spread Protestantism in Germany and waged war against the Pope for control of Venice. Meanwhile, France and England expanded their commercial networks on the continent and clashed over Normandy. Everyone had a great time!
The limited pilot edition of Neither King Nor God can be ordered for €69.00 and will be shipping in mid- or late January. The creators aim to have the full epic edition ready for SPIEL in October 2026.
1848: The Springtime of Nations
2 players, 150-180 minutes
The European revolutions of 1848/49 are generally considered failures. After all, the ancient regimes had returned to power everywhere but in France, and even there the Second Republic was soon overthrown by Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte. Yet for months, it looked like all of Europe could shed the old order in favor of liberalism, nation-states, and maybe even democracy. And even when the revolutionaries were defeated, they had changed the way the game was played. From then on, politics was conducted in public, with parliaments, parties, and newspapers. The forces of liberalism and nationalism had to be taken into consideration by even the most conservative of monarchical governments.
Despite the impact of the revolutions, barely any games have covered them. Jules Félisaz’s 1848 seeks to rectify that in an ambitious manner, covering the political, military, intellectual, and social dimensions of the revolutions in all of Europe. Félisaz relies on a mix of tried-and-true mechanics, adding his own twists where appropriate. For example, he uses overlapping scoring regions based on nationality and empire.
You can still pre-order 1848 at the P500 price of $46.00. The regular price will be $72.00. Release is expected for March.
Peace 1905
1-3 players, 30-45 minutes
Let us not say there are only wargames on this list. Look, here’s a peace game!
Making peace is generally a complex business, and so it was in the case of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904/05. The Japanese, emboldened by their military success on land and sea, demanded a large financial indemnity as well as the cession of Sakhalin. The Russian tsar refused to consider either. Yet with revolution rampant in Russia and the Japanese government close to financial collapse, both sides needed to end the war. Their delegates at the US-mediated peace conference of Portsmouth had to figure out how to balance peace, national interest, and saving face.
In the classic two-player mode, the opponent players represent the delegates of Japan and Russia at Portsmouth who negotiate over Japan’s demands. Their hands of cards represent diplomatic approaches – listening or emphasizing, acquiescing or threatening. More aggressive stances are more likely to carry the day on any given issue. However, the more lopsided a round of negotiations is, the more tensions will rise on the side of the loser. If they are pushed too hard, they will resort to war – and the other side will bear the blame for not being ready to compromise.
Other player counts see US president Theodore Roosevelt join as either a third player or the solo role. In either case, Roosevelt is an “honest broker” whose goal it is to find an equitable resolution to the conflict.
Peace 1905 awaits its Kickstarter campaign in the second quarter of 2026. The game will be released in late 2026.
Hammer and Sickle: Hunger and Utopia in the Russian Civil War, 1918-1921
1-4 players, 120-180 minutes
Hammer and sickle are, of course, the symbols of communism. Yet ideology aside, they speak of the material basis of modern societies – the food that everyone needs to eat, and the industrial production that is required for everything from building houses to waging war.
This economy underlies Hammer and Sickle, a multiplayer treatment of the Russian Civil War after the October Revolution. The industrial cities, marked by hammers, produce Firepower. This is provided that their workers are fed with Food from the sickle-marked rural provinces in the south. Otherwise, the workers start to rebel.
The result is a delicate balance between Food and Firepower, exacerbated by the factions’ asymmetries. The Bolsheviks, for example, have easy access to a lot of hammers, but might find themselves short of sickles. But the opposite might be true for the White Army operating from the south. In addition to the game’s two loose alliances of Revolutionaries and Counter-Revolutionaries, new alignments might develop.
Alex Knight has shown his ability to turn a complex political-military struggle into a compelling board game with the Spanish Civil War in the intriguing Land and Freedom. I’m sure he’ll do the same with Hammer and Sickle.
You can pre-order Hammer and Sickle at the P500 price of $62.00. The regular price will be $97.00. Release is expected not before the third quarter of 2026, which might turn into 2027. I wanted to include the game here anyway because it just seems so fascinating.
Lenin’s Legacy
1-2 players, 20-40 minutes
Matthias Cramer has got the range. He has designed great epics like Weimar: The Fight for Democracy, but he is also a master of the short form. His Watergate is a knife fight in a phone booth, and Lenin’s Legacy promises to be cut from the same cloth.
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was the dominant figure of the new Bolshevik government of Russia, but his health started to fail him soon after the October Revolution. Behind the scenes, his lieutenants jockeyed for position to succeed him. The two likeliest candidates were Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin. While they differed in their politics – Trotsky wanted to advance the “world revolution”, Stalin advocated for “socialism in one country” – and their power bases – Trotsky was the creator of the Red Army, Stalin controlled the Communist Party – they had one thing in common: Their drive to take power.
Lenin’s Legacy lets its players fill their shoes and struggle over the army, the party, and the regions and politicians of the Soviet Union in a card-driven game with a twist. Almost all cards are selected from an open market. The players hold only one card each… but they can gamble on playing the opponent’s card without knowing what it is!
You can still pre-order Lenin’s Legacy at the P500 price of $37.00. The regular price will be $59.00. Release is expected for March.
Night Witches
1-2 players, 30-45 minutes
Many of the games in this post are very zoomed-out, grand strategic affairs. The counters you push move armies, the cards you play shake nations. Yet there is also something very charming about games operating on the micro level, and you get exactly that with Night Witches.
You are on the Eastern Front of World War II, serving in the all-women 588th Night Bomber Regiment of the Soviet Air Forces. You have no more than two biplanes at your command in every mission, and they are old, slow, and vulnerable. Still, your goal is to harass the invading German forces with these low-flying, hard-to-detect, and hard-to-engage craft every night. You must do as much damage as you can, or at least wear the enemy out with constant nocturnal attacks, and make it back safe.
You can play each mission separately or in a ten-mission campaign which allows you to carry over upgrades. You can play either solo or as a two-player cooperative effort.
Night Witches awaits its Kickstarter campaign in the second quarter of 2026. The game will be released in late 2026.
The Berlin Airlift
1-2 players, 60-90 minutes
After the Second World War, the victorious powers divided Germany into occupation zones. The Western Allies merged their zones, while the Soviets controlled the east. Berlin, located deep inside the Soviet zone, was also divided. When the Soviets blockaded West Berlin in 1948 to force the Western powers out, the Allies responded with a massive airlift. For almost a year, planes flew around the clock to bring food, coal, and other necessities to the isolated city.
This game simulates that historical event. One player controls the Western Allies, trying to keep the city supplied and the population hopeful. The other player controls the Soviet Union, trying to disrupt the airlift and increase pressure on the Western sectors. The game uses a simple card-driven system to model the logistical challenges and political pressures of the time.
The Berlin Airlift is a game about logistics and willpower rather than direct combat. It shows how a non-violent operation can be just as tense and dramatic as a battle. The game is expected to be released in late 2026.
