Alright, this list, unlike yesterdays is a little bit simpler. It’s about the games that I’m going to have coming in from Kickstarter, Gamefound, or nothing from Backerkit yet, but anything I’ve gotten pre-ordered. Too my knowledge all of these should be coming in in 2023, but one that made the list last year, Primal, didn’t come in, nor did Frosthaven, for me. So there’ll be some games that make the list that won’t make it, and others that will be here likely in a week and I could have skipped putting on the list for that reason.

Top 10 Board Games I’m Excited To Get in 2023

10. Fliptown

Now this one is kind of outside the type of game that I tend to back on crowdfunding, but it is one that I’m anticipating. It’s a small roll and write game, or flip and write, where it’s set in the wild west and you are flipping cards and using them in different ways. And that’s what intrigues me so much about it. It’s like Welcome To… in some ways where you use multiple cards each turn. But it offers, what appears to be more options and very interesting options in the game. Plus it looks pretty from what I saw on Kickstarter.

9. HEL: The Last Saga

I’m not sure where I want to place this one on the list. Mythic Games is going through some rough times financially. And I do believe their commitment to getting this game out, but it’s also late. In terms of the game, though, it’s a cooperative campaign game and a Viking saga. So two things that I like. And I’m confident that I’ll enjoy it when it does come, I just hope that the extra time and struggle turn out a great game and get Mythic Games going strong again. Because I really enjoy the games that Mythic has made.

8. Mythwind

This is one that I have no idea how it will be. But it’s from OOMM Games and I own Stars of Akarios which I love from them. Mythwind is supposed to just be a game that you can keep playing and playing and playing. There is no end, like a Stardew Valley. There might be new stuff that come up and stuff that you can build up, but there’s no hard stop win condition. Will I like a game like that? I don’t know. Will a game like that even work? I don’t know. But I’m hoping it’s a relaxing game to play that I can set-up and just enjoy.

7. RoboMon

I went back and forth on backing this one for a long time before I decided to late pledge it. It’s a solo game that sounds like it should be like Pokemon, but with robots. I never was into Pokemon all that much, came about just a little bit too late for me, and my money was going to baseball cards at that time. RoboMon looks like a nice cooperative game though, and I enjoy the artwork. I hope that it’s a simple campaign game that I can mess around with and show off. And if it’s that, and I can get some good fun out of it, I’ll be excited for that, because I want more smaller solo games.

6. Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread

I late pledged this one as well, and this is not a small game. But it is a game that does something that I find really intriguing. It has you play the game at a few different levels. Oh, I should say, epic, big campaign game. But you do one level that’s a country, let’s say, then dive down into moving around in a city, and then dive down into street tactical combat.

All of that in the same game, and I’m excited to see how that works and how easy it is to play it. I’m worried it might end up like Chronicles of Drunagor, a game I love, but that is harder to table. But Arydia seems to have a ton of cool ideas.

5. 20 Strong

A solo game from Chip Theory Games, I’m interested. I’ve enjoyed the Chip Theory stuff I’ve played a lot. And 20 Strong is a whole new setting, so I’m curious about what that will look like. Plus it’s a whole new game system, it uses dice and has a chip, but it’s not like Too Many Bones. And it is only meant to be played solo as well as meant to be a much smaller game and easier to get to the table than a lot of their big ones. Plus they’ve done games in a new setting, space setting, plus versions with two of their existing settings as well.

4. The Isofarian Guard

Another solo campaign game. You might see a theme that a lot of these games can be played solo and are campaigns. Isofarian Guard is one that’s been on my radar for a long time since I watched a Rolling Solo preview for it and I didn’t back it then. I did late pledge it as BoardGameCo and Quackalope did some coverage. I saw that it was still what had intrigued me, this story element and bag building, all at a price that is insanely low for everything in there now.

That price point got me, plus it’s so much story and in a world that looks like it has so much development. It was so cheap to buy and late pledge that I wouldn’t even complain if they came back asking for more. I hope they don’t, but it’d be reasonable. I’m excited to see what the game is in the end.

3. Vampire the Masquerade: CHAPTERS

Another one that I can blame Quackalope for. This is a massive choose your own adventure game set in a world where there are vampires and they try and influence from the shadows. There are a ton of chapters and story to this game. The whole setting sounds great to me, and I like that it’s not just vampires sucking blood and violence. Instead, this game has combat that you can get down to, but also has a lot of interactions and story behind it.

Is it another big campaign game that I can play solo, yes it is, but I hope it’s one that stands out from the crowd, and everything I’ve seen says that it should. And I hope that all the work they’ve put into the story, as there is a lot of story, turns out an amazing game.

2. Sleeping Gods: Distant Skies

I love Sleeping Gods. I get rules wrong in my playthrough, but I still just love the game. In fact, I’d play it the way that I did, it makes it easier, but you get to experience so much story in the game. And Sleeping Gods: Distant Skies takes that system an iterates on it. I’m curious to see how the combat changes up in it.

And I know it fixes or not really fixes, but matches one thing that I did. You keep cards when you hit those big story points, it didn’t thematically make sense to lose them, so I’m glad that has changed. Another solo adventure game, or multiplayer, but this time without that big campaign element to it.

1. Frosthaven

Finally, yes, it’s probably coming in a month or less, I have Frosthaven. The big sequel to Gloomhaven that adds a little bit, a town phase, and then it’s just Gloomhaven combat. From what I’ve heard and know about it, it’s even bigger, the story sounds better, and there are more elements to the game. Will it be too much, probably and probably not, and I’ll enjoy every minute of it. So yes, I’m very excited to wrap up my current campaign game and then get to Frosthaven.

But What About…

There are a number of games that I wanted to put on this list. Tainted Grail: Kings of Ruin, Primal: The Awakening, Unsettled, The Witcher: Old World, Divinus, 7^th Citadel, and Astro Knights just to name a few. If I’ve got it pre-ordered or backed right now, I expect almost all of them to show up in 2023. And, well, I could have just ranked them all, but it was fun to pick out 10 that I’m very excited for, for various reasons. And I’m sure when a lot of them come in, you’ll see them on Malts and Meeples.

What backed game do you have, or pre-ordered, that you can’t wait to have come in?

Send an Email
Message me on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here
Support us on Patreon here