Gen Con opens July 30 in Indianapolis, and the ugly truth about the Exhibit Hall is that showing up isn’t enough. Plenty of these games sell out almost immediately, months before they hit wider release, because shoppers queue up for the first crack at them.
So if you’re going, know your route. Here’s where to find 10 of the year’s most in-demand games, including tie-ins with Star Trek and The Lord of the Rings that people have been circling for a while. Not attending? Preorder links are below.
The vacation game that will wreck your travel budget
Abroad is the latest strategy game from Landmarks designers Rodrigo Rego and Danilo Valente, and it hands you a four-week trip to Europe to squeeze dry. You collect postcards, pick up tips from locals and cross experiences off a bucket list.
The engine is a 240-card deck of locations across the continent. That’s a lot of replayability, and also a lot of nights spent thinking about Czech breweries and seaside forts in Croatia.
Find it at booth 419 or preorder at Portal Games.
Ants is the one I’d sprint to
This was one of the best board games I played at Spiel Essen 2025, and Gen Con is its North American debut. You’re building a colony: gathering resources, chaining cards into combos that make your actions more efficient, and raising specialized ants to fight other insects and push into new territory.
There’s no direct warfare. But you have to watch your rivals closely, because the whole game hinges on knowing the exact moment to stop growing your anthill and start grabbing points.
Find it at booth 611 or preorder at Capstone Games.
A cutthroat 2007 classic, back from the dead
Allplay’s updated version of the out-of-print 2007 game raised more than $1 million on Kickstarter, and it’s finally here. The hook: the price of everything you buy and sell is set by the other players.
That turns every round into a read on your opponents. What will they pay? What should you be producing to fit the in-game economy? New components and artwork improve things, but the fun is in the undercutting.
Find it at booth 2119 or preorder at Allplay.
Take a mech underground and hope you have the fuel to come back
You’re hunting minerals and long-forgotten equipment deep below the surface, watching your fuel gauge so you can make it back up and sell your haul. Every action you take hands new opportunities to other players.
Which means the pressure is on to make each turn as powerful as you can, improving your deck and upgrading your mech so you can go deeper still.
Find it at booth 1003 or preorder at Czech Games Edition.
Build a solar system, then decide what gets to live on it
Stars, planets, asteroids, biomes. You’re assembling a universe and evolving strange creatures based on a planet’s heat, water and radiation levels.
It’s aimed squarely at astronomy people, and the art of the cosmos is gorgeous. Each player has their own missions, so no two people are shaping their worlds toward the same end.
Find it at booth 2527 or preorder at Board & Dice.
Capybaras, pumas and armadillos walk into a preserve
This one puts you in Argentina’s Patagonia region, restoring wild lands and building an ecotourism destination by breeding animals. The map is modular, so the challenges shift every game as you collect sets of cards representing terrain types and creatures to build habitats.
The payoff is a wildlife preserve visitors admire from viewing platforms you’ve placed on purpose. Points come from every animal and unbroken stretch of terrain those platforms connect to.
Find it at booth 215 or preorder at Pandasaurus.
A Middle-earth war game that doesn’t eat your whole evening
Long strategy games are a known problem, and the newest asymmetric board game set in The Lord of the Rings solves it by having everyone take their turns simultaneously. Two to four players run different armies across Middle-earth.
You’re constantly guessing at your neighbors’ plans, both to manage resources and to avoid getting outflanked. Unlock allies like Gandalf or the Witch-king as you push to destroy the One Ring or corrupt the Fellowship.
Find it at booth 817 or preorder at Asmodee.
The Sanderson game you probably can’t buy anywhere else
The trick-taking game based on Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere came out in June and sold out immediately. Gen Con is the only place you’ll find it for a while.
The godlike Shards who fight over influence across Sanderson’s books show up here as cards, some carrying special powers that give you more options inside a trick or rewrite your score at the end. Short, simple rules, which makes it an easy on-ramp to the fantasy world for players at any level.
Find it at booth 339 or sign up to be notified the next time it’s in stock at Dragonsteel.
Captain Sonar, but in space
Captain Sonar is one of the wildest board games I’ve ever played: real-time hidden movement, teams as submarine crews, everyone straining to eavesdrop on the other side’s conversations. Star Trek: Space Hunt takes that chaos into space battles.
Each ship spends limited resources to activate special abilities, scanning for the enemy or warping to safety, and each one plays differently. It’s a way to replay the tense standoffs from across Star Trek history.
Find it at booth 2321 or preorder at Miniature Market.
Wingspan, shrunk down for your carry-on
Elizabeth Hargrave built Wingspan to be an engine builder that actual birders could enjoy without much gaming experience. Wingspan Pocket goes further: a single row of cards, way less text, icons doing the work so you can read a card at a glance.
Smaller box, too. Bring it on a trip and play after your morning bird walk.
Find it at booth 2909 or preorder at Stonemaier Games.
Gen Con is the largest and longest-running tabletop convention in North America, and the Exhibit Hall is its center, with vendors from around the world showing off their newest work. Free demos run all weekend. The games, in many cases, do not last that long.
