Every January, BoardGameGeek’s ‘upcoming releases’ list swells to something absurd. Right now there are around 2,500 games and expansions logged for 2026, and the vast majority of them are going to sail past without anyone noticing. A small handful, though, are genuinely worth your time, your shelf space, and quite possibly your money well before they arrive. These are my Most Anticipated Board Games of 2026, of course i’ve probably missed laods of really great games.
I’ve done some digging so you don’t have to. Here are the upcoming board games of 2026 that I think deserve a proper look, whether you’re after a heavyweight euro, a beloved series expansion, or something that’ll actually get tabled with people who claim they ‘don’t really play board games’.
TL;DR
2026 has serious heat across the weight spectrum. Brass: Pittsburgh is the headline act for strategy fans, The Great Library is Vital Lacerda’s most ambitious design in years, and Root’s Homeland Expansion brings three fresh factions to one of the best games ever made. There’s also strong stuff for lighter tastes: World Order, Western Legends Stories, and Nippon: Zaibatsu are all ones to watch. Read on for the full rundown.
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The Big Ones: Heavyweight Picks
Brass: Pittsburgh
I’ll just say it: Brass: Birmingham is the best board game ever made. No caveats, no ‘for its weight class’. Best game. Full stop. So when Roxley announced a third entry in the series, from the same design team of Martin Wallace and Gavan Brown, the board gaming internet understandably lost its mind a bit.
Brass: Pittsburgh takes the series across the Atlantic to America’s Gilded Age. You’re playing as the likes of Cornelius Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie, and John D. Rockefeller, building rail networks, pipelines, steel mills, and oil refineries across the Steel Belt’s northeast. Roxley are promising new mechanisms on top of the familiar network-building and resource management structure that made Birmingham so good.
A Gamefound campaign launched in February 2026, with the game targeting a late-2026 release. If you have any interest in economic strategy games or route building at all, this is the one to follow. I’d put money on it being the most-talked-about release of the year.
Players: 2-4 | Weight: Heavy | Categories: EuroGame, Strategy Games | Mechanics: Resource Management, Route and Network Building, Engine Building
The Great Library
Vital Lacerda is not a designer who does things by half measures. Lisboa, On Mars, Speakeasy, and Kanban EV have all earned their place on the ‘modern classics’ shelf. The Great Library is his next big one, published by Eagle-Gryphon Games with Ian O’Toole’s art (which, predictably, looks extraordinary).
You play as Chief Librarians in the Library of Alexandria, managing scribes, translating manuscripts, training scholars, and researching great works in third-century BC Egypt. It’s a solo-to-four-player heavy euro with a reported play time of 45 minutes to three hours depending on player count. Early previews from PAX Unplugged suggest the teach takes around 30 to 40 minutes, so this is firmly in the ‘dedicated games night’ category.
The Kickstarter campaign is live now, with standard delivery targeting September 2026. If you have a group that loves games like On Mars or Inventions: Evolution of Ideas, this is the next must-have.
Players: 1-4 | Weight: Very Heavy | Categories: EuroGame, Solo Games | Mechanics: Worker Placement, Resource Management, Set Collection, Tableau Building
Mid-Weight Titles Worth Your Attention
World Order
From the team behind Hegemony, one of the most thematic euro experiences of recent years, World Order shifts the lens from class-based economics to international relations. Specifically, it models the USA, Russia, China, and the EU in 2010, with asymmetric card decks and starting alliances for each faction.
What’s interesting is that the same team have clearly worked to make this more accessible than Hegemony. The 2-player mode is flagged as genuinely viable, and the teach is supposed to be simpler. You’re still looking at a meaty strategy game, but one that a two-player household could actually get to the table for 90 minutes on a weeknight. For anyone who wants something that plays like a geopolitical simulation, this should be near the top of the list. Deck building meets area control in a way that feels genuinely topical right now, for fairly obvious reasons.
Nippon: Zaibatsu
Nippon from 2015 was a clever economic euro that developed a quietly devoted following. The 2026 reimagining, Nippon: Zaibatsu, is a 10th anniversary edition with deeper mechanics, better components, an expanded solo mode, and some reworked rules. It’s the kind of release that tends to bring people back to a game they’d drifted away from, while giving newcomers a definitive version to start with. If you enjoy area majority mixed with tight resource management, this one is worth a look.
Western Legends Stories
Western Legends was already a good open-world game. Western Legends Stories builds on that foundation with episodic campaign-style play and a frontier town that changes as you progress. The pitch is open-world freedom with a narrative backbone, which is a tricky combination to pull off, but if it lands this could be a legitimate answer to the ‘I want a sandbox game with actual stakes’ problem.
I’d describe it as sitting comfortably in the American-style (Ameritrash) space, leaning into exploration and direct player interaction rather than efficiency. Good fun for groups who like a bit of chaos.
The Expansion Everyone’s Watching: Root: Homeland
Root has been at or near the top of the hobby charts for years, and with good reason. It’s one of those rare games that manages to be both genuinely accessible in terms of rules and genuinely deep in terms of strategy and player interaction. Leder Games have been developing the Homeland Expansion for a while now, and after multiple public playtests and design diaries, it’s finally arriving in late 2026 at around £50.
The expansion adds three new factions and two new maps. The new factions are:
- Lilypad Diaspora: a displaced group trying to integrate peacefully, but hardened into militancy if they face aggression. Plays as a tense balancing act between diplomacy and combat.
- Twilight Council: brings political debate mechanics to replace direct battle. You’re winning assemblies rather than firefights. A genuinely different way to play.
- Knaves of the Deepwood: raid barracks, kidnap warriors, collect ransoms. They’re essentially Root’s Robin Hood faction, and they sound like a total blast.
The two new maps include a Marsh map that changes size during play and a Gorge map described as trickier to navigate. For existing Root players this is a no-brainer. For anyone who’s been curious about Root but hasn’t got round to it, the base game plus this expansion would make an excellent combined purchase once it lands.
Players: 2-6 | Estimated release: August 2026 at £50 | Requires: Root base game | Mechanics: Area Control, Variable Player Powers, Direct Interaction
Also Keep an Eye On
These didn’t quite make the longer write-ups, but they’re all worth tracking:
- Brass: Pittsburgh aside, the other Brass community mention worth noting is that Ringyo has been steadily climbing wishlists. A worker placement title that’s generated quiet buzz on BGG.
- Horror on the Orient Express got strong community votes in multiple ‘most anticipated’ polls. If you’re into mystery and narrative games with a horror theme, this is one to research.
- The Danes, from Gernot Kopke (designer of the Norwegians expansion for A Feast for Odin), is a standalone sandbox sequel that crowdfunds later in 2026. Fans of Odin-style games will want to know about this one, even if you won’t see it until sometime around 2028 at the earliest, given crowdfunding timelines.
- Crits & Tricks promises to blend trick-taking mechanics with RPG elements. Details are still sparse but the concept is interesting enough to watch.
- Cascadia: Alpine Trails adds mountain terrain to one of the best gateway games around. If you play Cascadia regularly, this one’s a safe bet.
Final Thoughts
If I had to pick one game to pre-order right now, it would be Brass: Pittsburgh. I’d normally be cautious about recommending something before it’s in people’s hands, but the pedigree is about as good as it gets in this hobby.
For heavier tastes, keep tabs on The Great Library and World Order. For groups who already own Root, the Homeland Expansion is essential. And if you’re newer to the hobby and want something for the family table, Cascadia: Alpine Trails is a gentle, low-risk pick that plays well with almost anyone.
I’ll be covering most of these as they land, so check back here over the course of the year. The 2026 release calendar is genuinely strong.