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March 2020 was definitely a difficult month in the world. With most of us confined to our homes and trying to navigate this new “normal” for the time being, there’s a lot of uncertainty and confusion.

While I can’t in good conscience advise you this month to go back any of these games when there’s a good chance you have more pressing things to spend your money on, I do think it’s important to find things to distract us from the negativity in the world and find things that make us happy and surround ourselves in those things. For me, board games are a great escape and also, coincidentally, a great indoor activity during all this time spent indoors.

So today, I’m still going to run down the 5 most exciting  games that came to Kickstarter in March and, whether or not you choose to back them, I hope you find some comfort and enjoyment in exploring what the world of board gaming has in store for us in the months to come.

FROSTHAVEN

Capping off the month, Frosthaven may well end up being the most successful tabletop project of 2020, if not all-time. It met its $500k funding goal in 10 minutes and has already passed 5 million dollars with 30 days yet to go!

Gloomhaven is the #1 game on BGG, and for good reason, so it’s no surprise that this standalone follow-up has everyone’s attention. Also,  it isn’t just giving us more of what we loved in Gloomhaven (although it’s doing that too), it’s reinventing some aspects of the game and crafting wholly new mechanics to explore. We won’t go into them all here, as we have an article that explores some of the most exciting new features that you can read here.

Frosthaven will deliver to backers in March 2021 and promises over 100 new scenarios, 200+ items, over 20 new monsters, 15 new bosses, 20 new secret envelopes and more and more and more. There’s just too much to go over in this short section. Our four-player group spent two years getting through all the Gloomhaven content out there, so we can only imagine how long Frosthaven will last people.

WINTER KINGDOM

Keeping with the Winter theme and the standalone follow-up theme, we have Winter Kingdom, a standalone follow-up to the widely-acclaimed, Spiel des Jahres winner, Kingdom Builder. Coming from the designer of the original, Donald X Vaccarino, Winter Kingdom looks to blend familiar mechanics and concepts from Kingdom Builder with new twists.

Some of the new features include coins, which are placed in certain locations on the hexagonal boards and are earned by economy cards. They’re used to purchase new asymmetric abilities for each player. There are also new Twist cards that provide different special rules each game you play.

Rather than only placing houses, you’ll also place forts, which count as two houses on a single hex and cannot be moved by abilities. You only get four forts to place in total.

Like its predecessor, Winter Kingdom aims to be the king of game-to-game variability and I can’t wait to dive in and discover all the new possibilities for myself. Winter Kingdom delivers to backers in October 2020!

PARIS

Paris is a beautiful medium-weight, Euro-style game from Game Brewer, Wolfgang Kramer and Michael Kiesling. The look alone is enough to catch your eye and win over your interest, but the gameplay is also very intriguing and exciting too.

In Paris, you’ll add buildings to one of your six districts each turn and after collecting money,  you’ll invest in different real estate projects in Paris, allowing you to collect bonuses along the way. These bonuses will gain you victory points in a whole slew of different ways, when activated. Later stages of the game will even allow you to invest in some of Paris’ most famous landmarks.

This is one of those games that after seeing it for the first time, I just have to play it. It’s on my list and will stay there until I’m able to get it to the table. It ships to backers in October 2020.

LAWYER UP

I really enjoy great games built for only 2 players. Lawyer Up is a new 2-player game from Rock Manor Games that has me excited for that very reason.

In Lawyer Up, you will play asymmetrically as either the prosecution or the defense. Each game will feature a Discovery phase to begin, where players will draft vital evidence to support their cases and attempt to bury evidence that might be detrimental to their case.

Then in the Trial phase, players will call witnesses and play powerful arguments along with the evidence they gathered. You need to chain together your cards by matching bias symbols in order to have a coherent line of questioning.

The theme of this game is perfectly implemented and I’m very pumped to try it out for myself.

Lawyer Up ships to backers in March 2021.

TREKKING THE WORLD

As referenced on their Kickstarter page, it’s a strange time to be featuring a game about world travel. That being said, this game is colourful, vibrant and offers some really exciting mechanics and I think it’s worth highlighting  all the work the team has put into it, despite the unfortunate timing in terms of theme.

Trekking the World is a route management game all about travelling the globe, collecting souvenirs and attempting to become the most seasoned traveller.

It also features variable setup in the form of Journey cards which will be chosen randomly each game. These will alter the rules in different ways, making each game you play just a little bit different.

Extra effort has been made to really nail the travel theme. Each Destination card features a real location  along with an explanation of the location on one side of the card, just for added flavour.

Trekking the World ships to backers in September 2020.

Another great month for upcoming board games on Kickstarter, led by a behemoth that might just end up being the biggest tabletop project ever. I hope you enjoyed the list, but more importantly, I hope you stay safe and healthy and find solace in board games, or whatever hobby you’re interested in, whenever you can.