Upcoming Board Games That Will Blow You Away In 2019

When people say they are into board games nowadays, they are rarely talking about the games of yesteryear like Monopoly and Sorry! Tabletop gaming is huge business; Polygon writes that the largest Kickstarter of last year was a tabletop game (that we'll discuss on this list) that raked in over $6.25 million in crowdfunding. Adweek writes that the tabletop gaming industry made close to $10 billion in 2016. There's some serious money in this industry.

The Guardian has written features on board game cafes and bars that have ridden the wave of the renaissance, meaning mainstream businesses have taken notice that board games are here to stay; the industry shows no real sign of slowing down. Major entertainment properties continue to see board game releases and tie-ins.

Put down your controllers and invite your friends over: today we're talking about some of the biggest upcoming board game releases of 2019.

The intricate PC game Crusader Kings is essentially a massive tabletop game already. It seems like it would be quite an undertaking to distill a game that complex into something that could do it any justice on a dining room table, but that's exactly what the Kickstarter for Crusader Kings: The Board Game is promising: "To win, you will need to groom your family, build mighty castles, develop your dominion, be shrewd in the realm of diplomacy and intrigue, and use your vassals wisely to grow your wealth and military power."

The BoardGameGeek page for Crusader Kings lists a whole lot of mechanics for this beast: Area Control, Campaign, Card Drafting, Deck Building, Hand Management, Partnerships, Role Playing, Simultaneous Action, and Trading. It could be something incredible if it pulls it off. Rock Paper Shotgun says, "The real hook, though, is the social layer, with everyone looming over a map, making pacts and plotting in whispers. Crusader Kings: The Board Game does what Crusader Kings 2 just simulates."

It was supposed to release at the end of 2018, but got pushed back to 2019.

Not every board game is based around creating a massive economic empire or sending soldiers out to conquer the world. Some games focus on much more intimate, personal stories, like the fate of two lovers in the upcoming hidden role game Chiyo's Secret.

Chiyo's Secret takes place in feudal Japan, and will take a group of five to eight players about an hour to play through. Its plot revolves around a secret love between two fugitives, and each player will randomly select one of four different teams. Each player will have a secret agenda where they try to work towards their own goals, specific to their assigned role.

Each role will require its own strategy. One team, the Loyal Allies, will try to capture the two lovers and send them to their death. Another, the Usurpers, will try to use them as leverage to seize power for themselves. A third team will try to betray the Daimyo and take the fugitives directly to the Shogun. And one player will play as their son, attempting to keep his parents hidden until the Shogun arrives.

It sounds like Chiyo's Secret will be an incredibly tense game. It is expected to release in March and will retail for $29.99. It's designed by J.B. Howell, who may not be a huge name right now, but he also helped create the next game on our list.

One commonality among many of the biggest tabletop game Kickstarters is a beautiful aesthetic. Tidal Blades: Heroes of the Reef features great art in nearly every element of its design: unique and easily distinguishable characters, eye-popping boards, and a huge variety of dice. It also looks like Tidal Blades will feature a variety of strategies for each of its different heroes.

In Tidal Blades, each player takes control of an aspiring "Tidal Blade," the heroes of the island world the game takes place in. Over a series of rounds, each player will fight monsters and participate in a series of events at a tournament, trying to earn points for their hero in order to be named the next champion of the island. With a variety of mechanics for each event, including worker placement, drafting, and set collection, Tidal Blades: Heroes of the Reef should provide many ways for players to win and offer up plenty of tense endings.

Kickstarter backers paid $59 for the base game, with an expected release in October 2019. Expect it in stores before the holiday season.

Edge of Darkness is a card-crafting game from publisher AEG and designed by John D. Clair. Those two also teamed together for the classic Mystic Vale tabletop game, which featured the same mechanic. "Card crafting" means that players will pick cards with transparent elements, allowing players to sleeve multiple cards together in order to create powerful effects and combos. It's a fun and flexible mechanic that opens up strategies and allows players to adapt quickly when the board state changes.

Edge of Darkness also features a semi-cooperative element: each player controls a guild, vying for power and control in a massive city. However, an external force called the Blight threatens to destroy them all, which will force them to work together just enough to keep things interesting.

Edge of Darkness will also include worker placement mechanics. The whole thing should take one to two hours to finish. It is playable by two to four players and is expected to ship to Kickstarter backers in June of 2019. Look for it on retail shelves soon afterwards.

When most people think of board games, they tend to think of a group of people sitting around a table, rolling dice and socializing. Unbroken bucks that trend: while many games do have a solo mode, Unbroken is only playable by one person.

Its plot fits the single-player attitude: the player was a member of an adventuring group, but they were ambushed on their latest dungeon crawl, and the player takes control of the only survivor. Unbroken is a resource-management, press-your-luck card game that will allow the player to seek revenge against the monsters that killed their friends before escaping with as much loot as they can. According the the designer, the game is supposed to be quick to both set up, play, and tear down, making it more manageable for a single person to handle.

The game was originally supposed to ship at the end of 2018 but, like many Kickstarters, it ran into some delays. Expect Unbroken sometime this year.

Although not directly based on the video game Darkest Dungeon, it would be hard to look at the art for upcoming tabletop game Brutality and not think of the tough-as-nails RPG. It's a competitive brawler game where each player takes control of a different character. You then have to use your specialized deck to outwit and eliminate each other player in a brutal battle for supremacy.

Each character in the game has a customizable deck of abilities and a highly detailed miniature. Characters include roles like "The Monarch Torturer," "The Plague Baron," and "The God Killer," so you can expect a bit of over-the-top style in the box. Brutality has rules for both one-on-one and two-on-two battles, meaning that there will be plenty of ability combinations to discover as different champions get paired together.

Kickstarter backers are supposed to receive their copies of Brutality this summer, so look for it on retail shelves not long afterwards.