We love games! We started our company because we care about the games that we play.

This time we decided to take a look at the best 10 games that we played for the first time in 2025.  

 

10. Khora: Rise of an Empire

Publisher: IELLO

Players: 2-4

Playing Time: 75 minutes

Mechanisms: Dice Rolling, Income, Drafting, Race, Simultaneous Action Selection, Tech Tree

Sleeves: TCG 63,5x88mm, BST 70x120mm

Gameplay: Players try to get the most victory points by chosing 2-3 actions per turn. Actions will let you draw and/or play cards,  get money, VP, military conquests or improve your Empire's special abilities. 

 

My thoughts: A nice combination of drafting cards that all look great (but they are actually not and with time you will manage to see the best ones for your Empire's abilities), and improving on the tech trees make this game a fun race with a shorter play time.

 

9. Trio

Publisher: Cocktail Games

Players: 3-6

Playing Time: 15 minutes

Mechanisms: Matching, Memory, Questions and Answer, Set Collection

Sleeves: BUS 65x100mm

Gameplay: Players in turn order try to find a trio of same numbered cards out of player hands by asking two simple questions: »Show me the lowest or highest card in your hand«. Trying to deduce where certain cards are and doing it before opponents steal your idea, is a fun family and gaming activity.

 

My thoughts: We are playing this game like crazy as per request from our children. It's a good game, but when a game brings a family together few nights a week, it makes it a great game.

 

8. Trinket Trove

Publisher: GameHead

Players: 2-6

Playing Time: 30 minutes

Mechanisms: Open Drafting, Set Collection

Sleeves: TCG 63,5x88mm

Gameplay: Players will bid with cards from their hand to take other cards from the table and improving their total score. The more cards that you offer, the earlier you will go in turn for choosing new cards. 

 

My thoughts: This is a very easy and yet deep game of trying to make the best sets in your hand, while not allowing your opponents to get a better hand than you.

 

7. The Reckoners

Publisher: Nauvoo Games

Players: 1-6

Playing Time: 60-100 minutes

Mechanisms: Cooperative Game, Dice Rolling, Simultaneous Action Selection, Solitaire Game, Variable Player Power

Sleeves: MEU 45x68mm, BST 70x120mm

Gameplay: Players will cooperate to bring down the super-powered humans that have gone bad. Each player will have a character that is better at one of the actions. By rolling dice, players will choose which actions to take in a free flow turn order. They will move around the city taking down EPICS, their minions and at the end the big bad boss.

 

My thoughts: I'm a big fan of the book series, so this is a no brainer for me. If I wasn't, I would probably like some other shorter coop over this one. That said, this is an EPIC experience where each turn you will feel opressed by the enemy forces, and yet somehow manage to push your way forward to reach the boss and hopefully kick his ass before he kills off too many civilians.

  

6. Forest Shuffle

Publisher: Lookout Games

Players: 2-5

Playing Time: 40-60 minutes

Mechanisms: End Game Bonuses, Hand Management, Multi- Use Cards, Open Drafting, Set Collection,

Sleeves: USA 56x87mm

Gameplay: Players will build their own forest and populate it with animals to get the most points by making the best combos. Each card played will be paid by discarding other cards from your hand to the middle of the table, where you can draw them up later if your opponent doesn't take them in front of your nose. To make it even better, you want to discard specific color of cards to get an extra bonus.

Animals will be played to the top, bottom, left and right of trees and their bonuses will stack. Example: having lots of deer but then add a few wolves that get points for each deer in your forest.. animal kingdom ain't a fairy tale.. but points are points.

 

My thoughts: I love the quickness of players turns and the combotastic nature of this game. Players will follow a general strategy but when a great card comes into your hand, there is no reason to not pivot and start some new combos.

 

5. The Lord of the Rings: Duel of Middle-Earth

Publisher: Repos Production

Players: 2

Playing Time: 30 minutes

Mechanisms: Area Majority, Hand Management, Multi- Use Cards, Open Drafting, Race

Sleeves: NDV 54x80mm

Gameplay: Players will compete on three tracks and whoever reaches the top of one will win the game. It's that simple. That said each turn players will buy cards from the available cards on the table and playing them right away. Cards will provide resources for future cards, warriors, ring movements or BFFs for the diferent possible victories. If you will ignore one of tracks, your opponent will probably win.. so you have to keep track of what they do and also what cards will be left etc etc etc. A deep game in a small package.

 

My thoughts: I like 7 Wonders: Duel but I like this one better because of the IP and because it's streamlined. Winning with one of the 3 options is better than mostly winning with the highest score in 7W: Duel.

 

4. Archeos Society

Publisher:  Space Cowboys

Players: 2-6

Playing Time: 60 minutes

Mechanisms: Hand Management, Open Drafting, Set Collection

Sleeves: TCG 63,5x88mm

Gameplay: Players try to send their expeditions of explorers to the deepest corners of the jungles. On your a players turn, they will draw new cards from the available explorers or at random from the top of the deck OR they will play an expedition that consists from same colored cards or same type of explorers. The color of the top cards will (usually) define which jungle you will explore (if the expedition is big enough). While the type of the top explorer will grant you a certain special action or bonus. The rest of your hand is discarded to the display for future use by all players.

 

My thoughts: This is a great game for smaller number of players. 2-3P will enjoy quick turns and big points, while bigger number of player will score much less points and have to wait between their turns. With a lot of different explorers in the base box, each game will feel different.

 

3. Etherstone

Publisher: ThunderGryph Games

Players: 2-4

Playing Time: 30-60 minutes

Mechanisms: Closed Drafting, Hand Management, Variable Player Powers

Sleeves: BTR 61x112mm

Gameplay: Each player will play a different hero that has a special ability which will promote a specific faction or type of cards. Each turn you will do one of the actions like pick a dice to get 2 resources of the dice color and maybe activate abilities on your played cards that match the dice color or number, or play cards from hands, or attack common enemies. Game will end once all the enemies are dead, a player played all of their 7 cards or collect the available points.

 

My thoughts: The game shines because of the draft, where you will try to find cards that combo nicely with your hero and with other cards. Once that is done, the game is race with many great moments and not much player interaction. Interaction between players is on the basis of denying resources or sniping an enemy under the enemy nose etc.  

 

2. Natera: New Beginning

Publisher: Horizon Games

Players: 1-4

Playing Time: 60-120 minutes

Mechanisms: Area Majority, Draft, End Game Bonuses, Hand Management, Set Collection, Variable Player Powers, Variable Set-up, Worker Placement

Sleeves: MEV 44x63mm, TCG 63,5x88mm

Gameplay: Players will place workers and play cards around the table to bring their animal mafia to the top. This game offers a lot different ways to score points and each faction pushes you into a slightly different strategy. At the same time there is a race for some good scoring opportunities during the game as well as an area majority part at the end of the game.  

 

My thoughts: This game came out of nowhere for our group and we love to play it. We will keep on playing it at least until we try all the different animals and their interesting strategies. Of course the fact that the game is also beautiful, helps out a lot.

 

1. Vale of Eternity

Publisher: Mandoo Games

Players: 2-4

Playing Time: 30-45 minutes

Mechanisms: Combos, Hand Management, Multi-Use Cards, Open Drafting, Race,

Sleeves: TCG 63,5x88mm

Gameplay: Players will draft cards to play them later or discard them to get some coins. The trick of this game is that players have a limited amount of coins but the value of coins can be 1,3 or 6. And the game doesn't give change, so you don't want to overpay for cards, but sometimes is the only way. Combine this interesting mechanic with a game that offers plenty of interesting combos between cards and you have a great and interesting game.

 

My thoughts: I'm sorry that I didn't get to play this game earlier than 2025. I'm sure to make it up for it. I love the quick tempo of this action packed game. Each turn is full of interesting decisions and most of the cards look great for you … but you can only play so many of them.

 

Which games were the best ones you played for the first time in 2025?