2015 was an exciting year, in fact, I probably made more gaming purchases in the second part of 2015 than I have the two years before combined. We got awesome epics like Star Wars Armada and Forbidden Stars, we saw the release of some cool expansions and many great re-prints. It really was a fantastic year for gaming.

The first part of 2016 is already shaping up and there are a number of great games on the horizons worth bringing to your attention!

1. Star Wars: Rebellion

Recently announced, once again leveraging their hold over the Star Wars license Fantasy Flight Games is going to add yet another “insta buy” game for me in 2016. Star Wars: Rebellion information is fairly limited at this point but what is known is that players will be in essence playing out the war between the Empire and Rebel alliance with over 150 plastic miniatures, the complete cast of the original trilogy in a seemingly War of the Rings style multifaceted strategic board game.

A combination of area control, specialty dice, card play, countless miniatures all hunched over a galactic star map in the Star Wars universe. What can I say other than “yes please!!”

2. Star Trek Frontiers

One of the most successful board games WizKids has is Mage Knight, largely popularized by its complex competitive adventure style mechanics with incredible depth. While I consider Star Trek Fleet Captains another huge hit by WizKids, the announcement of Star Trek Frontiers, a Star Trek adventure game based on the Mage Knight mechanic certainly caught my attention. It’s really a perfect marriage as WizKids has collected considerable experience with Mage Knight as a board game and Star Trek as a franchise. There is going to be a lot of experience applied here and while Fleet Captains has cleaned out the taste of never ending failure in Star Trek based boardgames for me, that haunting feeling of hope and disappointment that has existed for years as far as Star Trek board games are concerned is still there. I am as they say, rooting for them, it’s certainly looking good so far.

3. Through The Ages 3rd Edition

I’m really excited about this one for one very huge reason. I really love Through the Ages but it is soooo bloooooody looooong that I simply never play. At this point, in modern design, despite sitting pretty in the number 4 spot on boardgamegeek.com, if this game was released today in its 2nd edition form it wouldn’t make the top 1000 let alone the top 10 on boardgamegeek. It has aged terribly. Thankfully Chivatil agrees and he is working on a new edition of the game that promises to be streamlined and faster, which to me simply means that awesome concept and Idea of a Civilization game in a much tighter package. Now to me that game already exists, it’s called Nations and it’s very good, good enough to make my own top 10 list, but I love Chivatil as a designer, I think he is one of the best in the business and when he makes something, I pay attention. I really hope that Through The Ages 3rd edition is everything its promised to be, because I’m a huge fan of all the ideas in it, just not 8-12 hours’ worth of it.

4. Star Wars Armada

You know I love my X-Wing but one of the most exciting releases to hit in 2015 was Star Wars Armada and its future in 2016 is looking very bright. Not only is there a new Star Wars movie being released from which Armada will no doubt feed, it has already proven itself as a popular concept and the game is clearly succeeding financially. This can only mean one thing, lots of new Armada stuff! While we really have no information what 2016 will bring for Armada, if you want to peek into the crystal ball you need to do nothing else but buy movie tickets to Force Awakens in December and keep an eye out for big capital ships! Force Awakens may as well be an advertisement for Armada at this point.

5. Fury of Dracula 3rd Edition

Ok so technically if you live in America this just released and will be available within days for us living in Europe this is basically a super late 2015 very early 2016 release. I can’t say enough about how excited I am about this one, in particular because I won’t have to wait for it too much longer. Fury Of Dracula 3rd edition promises to be a more streamlined and touched up version of 2nd edition which to me was very nearly perfect. In fact, I was almost worried that it wasn’t a straight reprint but my understanding is that most of the changes revolve around non-core mechanics like expediting the combat mechanic, cosmetics like new art and a few other minor streamlining improvements. It all sits fine with me, I was never able to secure my own copy of Fury of Dracula despite it being in my top 10 list for years so I’m super psyched for this one. A wonderful one vs. all deduction game with adventure elements combined with one of my favorite themes.