Our Board Game Highlights of 2025

We work on the same games during office hours, but after work, a wide variety of games end up on the Minclash team’s tables. Some people make an effort to try a new game every week, while others only have time for one or two new titles. Below, the members of the core team share what their board game highlights of this year were.

Atesz

Usually, it is a bit hard for me to choose a favorite board game experience, because I am purely happy just playing any kind of game. Although this summer we had a fantastic, fun time with my core game group playing a simple yet delightful social deduction game called Dracula’s Feast. I especially like it because of its theme. We enter Dracula’s party where we “dance” with others in order to get information about them. It is tricky because you can have multiple mixtures of characters in a game, so it keeps the game fresh. The game itself can be played between 5-10 minutes but with our group we usually play it for hours and hours with multiple rounds, forgetting about time and space 😂: ”Guys it is 2 AM already… oh… so…one last round maybe?”

Dorka

I rarely have the time to sink my teeth into a game that’s heavy, meaty, and long, even though I’d love an occasional 3-4 hour game session. I usually lack both the group and the time. That’s why when this summer I had a chance to try Arcs at the Mindclash Games team getaway, I was really excited. It was sort of a challenge, because ordinarily I consider myself to be a lighter gamer, AND I ended up sitting down with our in-house designer and developer team, Viktor, Mityu, and Robin. Quite the crew… Besides Arcs, we have been playing a lot of Harmonies and Scout with the family. These are the types of games you can pull out anytime, and you can easily fit in two or three sessions in a row. I’m actually really looking forward to a Harmonies expansion to see how such a game could be spiced up even more!

Frici

My biggest discovery this year – and honestly, it was long overdue – was Blood Bowl. As it turns out, my colleague Atesz is a huge fan and even plays it competitively, so during our company’s summer retreat, he was kind enough to introduce me to the cruel and glorious world of the game. Ever since then, when we’re not busy breaking each other’s bones on the pitch, I’m at home wearing out my PlayStation and practicing against the AI in the Blood Bowl video game. The other game I absolutely have to mention is Emberheart. This was the year when my wife not only finally sat down with me to play a Mindclash game, but actually enjoyed it, and now she keeps asking when we’re going to play again. For me, that completely redefines the meaning of success.

Mityu

While I have not played many games this year, I have the privilege of being surrounded by hard-core gamers, who roped me in to play games they consider to be excellent. One that I absolutely do not regret playing is Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring – Trick-Taking game. I had a rough past with trick-taking games in the sense that I had to play a lot while being bad at them. Even The Crew couldn’t help me, even though I really appreciated how it tried to teach the basics of the genre to complete newbies (or hopeless “experts” like myself). Enter Lord of the Rings, and I somehow started winning games. Maybe it was my teammates helping, but I think I actually have gained some trick-taking skills I didn’t have before. Another game is a great classic that I simply never got to play was Brass: Lancashire. While I don’t generally trust top lists based on user voting, this time BGG’s ranking totally lines up with my taste. The ratio of randomness, spatial puzzle, and dry accounting was just right for me, and the relatively fiddly player board setup was compensated for by the extremely simple and clean gameplay. The night after my first game I actually dreamed about how I should have taken out more loans at the first turn, so this game definitely spoke to me.

Réka

I call myself a gamer, but I’m most often found in front of the computer playing roguelikes or watching streams. Nonetheless, I seldom say no to a boardgame, so I’m often the “for fun” player at a heavy euro game that is best with a certain number of people. I believe this is how I ended up playing both Brass: Birmingham and Brass: Lancashire this summer. For the second game, I came all prepared, watching guide videos and researching strategies online. I haven’t tried-hardened a game like that in a long time, and it was all worth it, because I finally wasn’t the last! Despite all this, I don’t think I have a competitive bone in me, so it came kind of naturally that I started in-house testing some of the solo modes of our games. I played it solo last year, but as it just came out, I want to mention Perseverance: Castaway Chronicles Episode 3. As someone who has been a big fan of dinosaurs since being a wee kid, I childishly enjoy the dino-riding and discovery aspects of the game, especially playing as Phoenix, riding a Thunderhorn.

Robin

It’s a bit difficult for me to choose the best gaming experience of the year, since I’ve now counted that I managed to try 59 new titles (and the year isn’t even over yet!). If I ask myself honestly which one gave me the best experiences, I’d say The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring – Trick-Taking Game. However, since we played it at the office with several MCG-collague, with great excitement, I suspect someone else will mention it as well, so I might choose something different instead. This year, I was lucky enough to walk the El Camino Nord with my wife, and because we paid attention to every gram in our backpacks, we only brought a single deck of playing cards. And that’s how we really bonded with Regicide, a cooperative dungeon crawler that requires practically no equipment. Stunning design, exciting puzzles, often enjoyed on the beaches of Northern Spain with a bottle of cidra. There were many other great games too, but I feel like nothing will beat these memories.

Soma

With 68 titles added to my board games newly tried list, this was my busiest gaming year ever – yet only a handful truly stood out. I’m definitely starting to feel the effects of the current publishing spree, but I’m still far from burnout!

My most-played game of 2025 was The Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game, which also ended up being my favorite in the lighter category (though we had a ton of fun with Flip7 and Scout too). On the heavier side, Galactic Cruise stole the show.

But if I had to choose just one game to crown as my personal champion, it would undoubtedly be the mid-weight gem Tea Garden. Tomáš Holek is becoming one of my favorite designers, and I can’t wait to dive into Aquaria as well – maybe I’ll even save it for January so I can include it in next year’s blog! 😊

Tünde

I might be the winner of the “Fewest Board Games Played” award in 2025, at least within the Mindclash team. I still managed to have some fun game nights, though: I thoroughly enjoyed Décorum, which we played in the office at the beginning of the year. I love both puzzly and cooperative games, and this one is the best of both worlds. My most-played game this year has been Harmonies – it’s easy to teach, quick to play, and so much fun! I introduced many of my friends to it, and almost all of them ended up getting their own copies. Last but not least, I had the chance to play Cerebria for the first time this summer. It’s not an easy game to get into, but once it clicks, it’s fantastic: I love the cooperative elements, and Villő’s art is absolutely incredible.

Viktor

When it comes to heavy Euros (which are truly my jam), this year has been a treat: tons of amazing games came out – actually a bit too many for me to properly sink my teeth into, so I’m going into the holiday season with a long list of games to try. When I finally had the chance to play SETI earlier this year, I just wanted to play again and again, and I didn’t think anything would top it – but then along came Galactic Cruise. That game just oozes theme, but what really pulled me in is the gameplay arc: launching a huge, well built ship and then reaping its rewards for multiple turns is such a dopamine rush! The buildup and the payoff reminds me of putting together an epic performance in Trickerion, so the game unsurprisingly hit the right chord with me. On the other side of the spectrum, though, I just have to mention Scout – it flew under my radar for quite a while, but its design elegance is at its finest, and I just can’t get enough of it! I actually carry it around with me and taught it to dozens of people at this point – my colleagues are actually starting to think that I might be a covert operative for Oink Games 🙂

Villő

I tend to enjoy games where you are not only chasing a win, but also building something step by step as you play. This year, Harmonies captured that feeling for me more than anything else. I loved watching the landscape slowly take shape and seeing the animals settle into the habitats that fit them, all living side by side in a calm and balanced way.

For some reason, it reminded me a little of Everdell, another favourite of mine, where it is always satisfying to watch the animals move into the buildings designed for them. Everything feels cozy and complete in a way that really draws me in.