Most Anticipated Board Games of 2025

A new year is upon us, and the churn of new board game releases relentlessly tempts hobbyists one and all. You can either flee from it, or you can welcome it with open arms. I’m the open arms type, so come peruse my Most Anticipated Board Games of 2025! This list will be roughly ordered by date of release, for convenience. Heck, maybe I’ll even sneak in an exclusive look at a yet unrevealed Knizia game this time around…

Note: This list will also include a few titles published by us here at Bitewing Games (noted below) — because why wouldn’t I be excited about those?

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The Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game

Expected Release Date: January 17, 2025

I must confess: I already own this game. But that’s only because I picked up an early copy at PAX Unplugged before its retail release in January. If you like the sound of The Crew (cooperative trick taking) within the Lord of the Rings narrative, then this is probably right up your alley.

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Power Vacuum

Expected Release Date: February 2025

Trick taking meets political power grabs between anthropomorphic household appliances? I’m in. This game sounds supremely wacky and social for a trick taker.

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Azul Duel

Expected Release Date: Q1 2025

Just when I say I’m out, they know how to draw me back in. Azul was already an amazing game for 2-players, so a Duel version wasn’t necessarily needed. But usually “Duel” means a more focused, interactive, and intentional experience for 2-players. Most of the Azul spinoffs have been less interactive and less tense, so hopefully this one takes things in the opposite direction.

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Freigard

Expected Release Date: Q1 or Q2 2025

Freigard sees inPatience (publisher of the acclaimed Onirim solo series) teaming up with Reiner Knizia (designer of my favorite solo series — For One) for a 15-minute “deceptively simple game of risk taking and hand management”. Say no more… except for exactly when I can pick this up!

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Calimala

Expected Release Date: March 2025

It’s never ideal when a game ends up on my Most Anticipated Games of the Year list two years in a row. In the case of Calimala, its timeline ended up being delayed by six whole months. Regardless, I’m still looking forward to this one when it finally releases. Here is what I said about it last time:

Calimala is another reskinned edition of a game I’ve played and discussed in the past.

This one originally hit my table at a time when I was burnt out on beige Eurogames with generic themes and presentations (and my initial thoughts on the game certainly reflect that mood). Ultimately, this was one design that I purged from my collection, but I never quite purged it from my mind. Something about the bitey gameplay lingered with me, and I’m thrilled to see that it will soon break free of its original look with a new presentation from Ian O’Toole. I’m hoping that this new version will help me uncover a newfound love for the clever Calimala.

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Iliad

Expected Release Date: April 2025

Published by Bitewing Games

It’s gonna be another killer year for fans of 2-player only games! One major reason why is because 2025 will see the grand debut of our Mythos Collection — 2-player games of strategy and mythology. As huge fans and evangelists of so many great 2-player games, we are thrilled to finally be contributing to this genre of legends. 

In many ways, Iliad reminds me of Lost Cities and Battle Line / Schotten Totten in how it is such a tight, tense, and elegant Knizia game of hand management and competitive dueling. It felt like an instant classic the moment Reiner created it and pitched it to us. I’m excited for folks to get the chance to compete for the favor of the gods as Hector vs Achilles.

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Ichor

Expected Release Date: April 2025

Published by Bitewing Games

Our Mythos Collection is (fittingly) coming in waves of 2 — 2 killer titles at a time. Ichor has quickly become my favorite abstract strategy game ever. The concept of moving your figures around like rooks in a race to leave behind a trail of all your tokens first is super slick and refreshing. And the infinitely combined asymmetric powers of Greek gods and monsters lead to gripping new opportunities and challenges every time. The expansion (releasing alongside Ichor) is also fun to dive into — it offers 8 more characters and a powerful gate tile module.

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Magical Athlete

Expected Release Date: Q2 2025

CMYK is a publisher who rarely (if ever) misses, and one of their next releases will be a new version of Magical Athlete with development updates by Richard Garfield (creator of Magic: The Gathering). This chaotic roll & move racing game has been on my bucket list for years because I hear it is a delightfully silly game. It appears that CMYK is definitely preserving that spirit by the looks of the teased art style.

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Toy Battle

Expected Release Date: May 2, 2025

I’m always on the lookout for the next release from designer Paolo Mori, and Toy Battle (also codesigned by Alessandro Zucchini) appears to be his next big 2-player dueler. Seeing how this game is 15 minutes long and coming from publisher Repos Production (known for 7 Wonders, So Clover, Just One, and more), I get the vibe that this will be a very approachable experience.

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Line of Fire: Burnt Moon

Expected Release Date: June 10, 2025

This spinoff game of the Undaunted series fuses the beloved deck building of its predecessors with fast-paced lane battling. For a 30 minute game with presumably an easier setup and teardown, this has the potential to become my favorite game in the Undaunted universe.

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SILOS

Expected Release Date: July 2025

Published by Bitewing Games

Between his two Mythos games, this Cosmic Silos Trilogy, and another trick still hidden up our sleeve, this may very well go down as one of Reiner Knizia’s best years ever. The reason I say that is because in 2025 we are releasing 5 of my Top 20 Favorite Knizia Games out of the 200 that I have played.

This entire trilogy feels unlike anything else that Reiner Knizia has ever created (aside from Municipium and Beowulf: The Legend — the two games that inspired SILOS and EGO, of course). SILOS (Secret InterLopers from Outer Space) is a three-pronged area majority game where players are competing to abduct cows and humans, brainwash Earthlings, and invade a town. Unlike most area majority games, SILOS is not a competition for the most points, instead it is a race for societal power (by collecting five sets of humans first). It feels much more dynamic and shifting than your standard game of this genre — players will constantly be repositioning their figures to set up for the next big invasion event.

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EGO

Expected Release Date: July 2025

Published by Bitewing Games

EGO (Extraterrestrial Greeting Organization) evokes a feeling of adventure that I’ve never seen in another game. That’s largely thanks to the series of cosmic events you’ll progress through together. As you visit various alien civilizations, you’ll try to outcompete rival ambassadors by offering more gifts or being more persuasive in epic game-of-chicken auctions. You’ll often be tempted to take big risks…. at least until you realize how badly you’ve offended the aliens.

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ORBIT

Expected Release Date: July 2025

Published by Bitewing Games

ORBIT (Orbital Race Between Interstellar Tourists) is a refreshingly unique race of riding planets along their orbital paths as you zig zag between them. While many of the decisions are highly tactical, you’ll also have to decide whether it’s worth slowing down to upgrade your ship for a later comeback. ORBIT is one of our most approachable big box games yet, making it perfect for any combination of hobbyist and casual gamers.

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Regicide Legacy

Expected Release Date: Q2 or Q3 2025

I’ll be honest, I didn’t do much research on this game back when I pledged for it. I suppose my love of Regicide made me blindly trust this team to make a killer legacy game based on this concept. As long as it still plays smoothly and offers a similar tension as Regicide, I’ll be a happy camper.

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Alibis

Expected Release Date: Q3 2025

I’ve had the pleasure of trying Alibis and it only has me more excited to eventually acquire my own copy. Alibis is basically So Clover (a cooperative word association party game) on a shared board. Each player must come up with one alibi (word clue) linking the two suspects who they know are innocent. All players will share their alibi and then must guess which characters everyone else’s alibi’s connect to. By ruling out suspects correctly, the table will be able to narrow it down to the one guilty character who has no alibi.

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Exclusive Knizia Sneak Peek — Merchants of Andromeda

Expected Release Date: Q3 2025

Seeing how this is the unofficial unveiling of a new big-box Knizia game, we’re gonna dig into the juicy weeds with this one. Buckle up!

After acquiring Reiner Knizia’s Merchants of Amsterdam, it sat unplayed on my shelf for months before I eventually sold it. What kind of sicko would do such a thing? One with insider trading information, that’s who. Well it’s time to leak that insider information, baby! Ok fine, it’s not a true leak… I got Allplay’s permission.

Once I heard that Allplay was developing a new version of the game, the burden of playing my ugly old copy was lifted from my shoulders. But it’s important to emphasize that this is NOT simply a reskin of Merchants of Amsterdam. The core concept of a Dutch auction (a bid amount that winds down until somebody loses their nerve and stops the countdown to claim the reward first) is one of the most interesting parts of this design, and that part has been preserved in Andromeda. The key is to not overpay for rewards while securing the most important ones for yourself.

Another core highlight of the original game happens every time it is your turn — draw three cards and pick one to discard, one to keep for an immediate action, and one to auction off. This has been preserved as well, but it is more fun in Andromeda because the discarded card grants a resource to the active player, the kept card grants an action to the active player, and the winner of the auction gets both an action and a resource (making the auction even spicier than it used to be).

One problem with Merchants of Amsterdam was that everything surrounding the Dutch auction and three-way hand assignment was pretty dry and dull. It was nothing more than multiple shades of vanilla area majorities. But with Andromeda, all of the game board competitions/mini games have been completely reworked by Robert Hovakimyan (designer of our own Bebop and Shuffle and Swing). The central area majority competition of Amsterdam is still one of the mini games of Andromeda (and the merchant goods tracks are preserved as well). One new mini game sees players casting votes for different policies that will influence upcoming events or public objectives — this voting system feels like the delightful Castillo in El Grande. The other debuting mini games are competitive space defense and push-your-luck exploration. The thrilling variety of thematic mini games is by far one of the biggest improvements to the design.

Robert also adapted the event system, concocted the new deck, and reworked the concept for how you use the 3 cards on your turn (described above). All of these changes effectively make Robert a co-designer of this new version of an old, forgotten Knizia game. Reiner essentially handed the design to Allplay (who eventually entrusted it to Robert) with this message: “I trust you to help this game reach its full potential. Do what you need to.”

This is obviously a very different development path from something like our own SILOS, EGO, Cat Blues, or Zoo Vadis. But to you Knizia purists who worry that Reiner’s precious design has been contaminated by another creature, I say this: Go play Bebop (a supremely Knizian-esque game) and then tell me if any other developer was better suited for this task. As another note of comfort: Reiner did provide thorough feedback, impressions, and guidance based on Robert’s development plan, and Robert elected to follow Reiner’s instincts during development.

By the way, you can learn more about the development of Merchants of Andromeda in an upcoming episode of The Bits with Joe & Nick featuring Robert as a guest appearance.

I’ve had the chance to play Merchants of Andromeda during its late-stage development by Robert, and I came away very excited to acquire my own copy when it is finished. Sci-fi/Knizia fans will be eating well this year.

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Animal Rescue Team

Expected Release Date: October 2025

Shut Up and Sit Down is diving into the publishing waters by collaborating with Play to Z on a line of games titled “SU&SD Presents.” My understanding is that SU&SD are helping select, develop, and provide art direction for these games. My hope is that their trained critical eye will help them put out some truly excellent games.

Animal Rescue Team, a cooperative game from Matt Leacock and Lisa Towell, is their debut title. Here is the overview: You and your friends will puzzle out the perfect rescues of creatures big and small. One game might have you arriving just in time to save a coop of distressed chickens, and another may have you fruitlessly trying to rescue a cow with a motorcycle, or cursing yourselves for “unfortunate horse logistics”.

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Dogs of War: Second Edition

Expected Release Date: Q4 2025

Dogs of War has been on my Top 100 Games of All Time list for years, but this tug of war romp has been woefully out of print for far too long. 2025 is the year where dreams come true with Dogs of War: Second Edition. This new edition will be overseen by the team at Shut Up and Sit Down who promise to make it the “definitive version” by “packing more punch with a lower price.” You love to hear it.

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Article written by Nick Murray. Outside of practicing dentistry part-time, Nick has devoted his remaining work-time to collaborating with the world’s best designers, illustrators, and creators in producing classy board games that bite, including the critically acclaimed titles Trailblazers by Ryan Courtney and Zoo Vadis by Reiner Knizia. He hopes you’ll join Bitewing Games in their quest to create and share classy board games with a bite.

Disclaimer: When Bitewing Games finds a designer or artist or publisher that we like, we sometimes try to collaborate with these creators on our own publishing projects. We work with these folks because we like their work, and it is natural and predictable that we will continue to praise and enjoy their work. Any opinions shared are subject to biases including business relationships, personal acquaintances, gaming preferences, and more. That said, our intent is to help grow the hobby, share our gaming experiences, and find folks with similar tastes. Please take any and all of our opinions with a hearty grain of salt as you partake in this tabletop hobby feast.