Deliver Goods like Lightning, Grab Gnomes from a Maze, and Experience Seven Years of War in 20 Minutes | BoardGameGeek News

by W. Eric Martin

▪️ How many train-based games can publishers produce? All of them, apparently, at least if given enough time. We can’t really judge this statement as correct or not until all of time has passed, of course, in which case humanity will likely have run its course — the final pick-up-and-delivery, as it were.

In any case, Dire Wolf has announced a new title by Paul Dennen — designer of Clank! and Dune: Imperium — that will debut at Gen Con 2025. Here’s the short description of the 1-4 player game Lightning Train:

Dire Wolf notes that it will have a limited number of copies for sale at Gen Con 2025 with a “retail release after Labor Day”. Its announcement also bore this warning, which will likely be apply to many games due out in the U.S. in 2025:

We’re still a few months away from Lightning Train arriving at U.S. ports, and we can’t even speculate on what the tariff conditions will be at that point. In the meantime, we’ll be continuing to investigate how we can adapt our distribution network to find realistic and cost-effective ways to get games to players, while we hope for a sensible end to the administration’s taxes that threaten the American board game industry.

If you’re in the U.S. and would like to help, contact your representatives, and – wherever you may be – please consider purchasing a game (and not just one of ours!) from your Friendly Local Game Store.

▪️ Speaking of Gen Con 2025, that event’s exhibitor list is now posted, along with an interactive map, so (1) it’s time I send a Gen Con 2025 survey to publishers and (2) let’s see what a few other exhibitors will have on hand.

▪️ In addition to Combo, its fruitified version of Surfosaurus MAX, U.S. publisher Happy Camper will have One Two Many Rabbits, which was first released in 2023 by designers Karl and Julie Archer under their Three Archers brand.

Gameplay in One Two Many Rabbits is along the lines of Shut the Box, with players trying to ditch their cards in hand first. On a turn, roll 1-3 dice, then combine your rolled numbers or use them separately to ditch matching cards from your hand. Special card allow you to adjust the die results or use another player’s die roll.

(For gameplay details on Combo, check out my 2023 review of Surfosaurus MAX.)

▪️ U.S. publisher Floodgate Games crowdfunded Connor Wake‘s Hedge Mage in October 2024 and expects to have it to backers around the end of May 2025, choosing to absorb all tariff costs on those copies in exchange for backers sharing the game with everyone in reach and for a higher than anticipated MSRP, which should not be a surprise to anyone at this point.

Here’s an overview of this 2-4 player game:

In Hedge Mage, you build a hedge maze of polyominoes to prevent your rival from stealing your gnomes, while simultaneously navigating your other neighbor’s maze to nab their gnomes.

In this puzzly combination of polyomino placement and tactical movement, these moderately powered wizards have only two powers: grow shrubs, and animate garden gnomes. To sneak into your neighboring mage’s yard to yoink their gnomes, while keeping another rival mage from snagging yours, it’s going to take both powers you’ve got. Harness your horticulture magic to gather the greatest gnome collection!

Prototype components

In more detail, each player builds their hedge maze piece by piece at the same time. By using clever placement, you’ll both hinder your rival’s mages and gain movement points each round. Each player uses their movement points to maneuver their mages through their rival’s maze in order to awaken each gnome according to specific enchantment cards. If all ten hedge cards have been revealed, or if a player has rescued all gnomes from their rival’s board, the game ends and you move on to scoring. Whoever has the most points wins!

▪️ Floodgate Games will also be demoing Squirrel Away, a Clarence Simpson design for 3-6 players:

▪️ Additionally, at Gen Con 2025 Floodgate Games will conduct demo games of Flintlock: Global Warfare in 20 Minutes, which it describes as follows:

▪️ Ravensburger is continually rolling out new sets for Disney Lorcana, with the eighth set — Reign of Jafar — debuting at hobby stores on May 30, 2025 and elsewhere on June 6, 2025.

Fabled, the ninth set, has a general release on September 5, 2025, so I’d wager it will debut at Gen Con 2025, although Ravensburger hasn’t stated one way or another yet. Of note from the publisher’s press release: “The Fabled set will have a lot of important new aspects to it for Disney Lorcana TCG fans. For those who love to search for stunning versions of their favorite characters, there will be two new rarities to look for in each booster pack: Iconic and Epic. Iconic cards are extremely rare with only two appearing in each set, while Epic cards will appear more often than Enchanted cards and feature special artwork and foil treatments.” This will bring the number of rarity levels in Disney Lorcana to eight, which seems like a lot for fans to track.

Whispers in the Well will be the final set for 2025.