As the summer comes to a close (*tear*), August brings some hot new games onto the scene, many featuring familiar faces and themes that have dominated the board game  scene for some time now. What better way to finish off a sweltering summer than some hot, HOT new releases to burn up this month's top 5 most popular board and card games. Without further ado, let's get right into it!

5. Carnegie

This game, designed by Xavier Georges, the man behind hits like Troyes Dice and Ginkgopolis, lit Kickstarter on fire earlier this year. The retail release of Carnegie has been hotly anticipated so the Bandit team is glad to see it hit the shelves this month. Inspired by the life of famous industrialist Andrew Carnegie, this economic strategy game features beautiful components, artwork, and a great mix of worker placement and network building mechanics.

During the game, players recruit and manage employees, expand their business by investing in real estate, producing and selling goods, all while creating transport chains to support your economic prosperity. Players will also have the opportunity to work with different historical characters from the early 1900’s. Taking place over 20 rounds, players each get one turn per round. On their turn the active player chooses a specific action from four options, which their opponents may follow. Players manage all of these areas of their business as they try to be the most successful industrialist, by earning the most victory points.

Buy Carnegie strategy game online now!

4. Smash Up: Disney Edition

A simple card fighting game, Smash Up, has is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year. The game’s popularity comes as no surprise to anyone that has played the game, with its endless combinations of factions to add to the fray. Known as a ‘shuffle-building’ game, players take two 20-card decks representing different factions, combining them into their team for the game. Players then compete to crush more bases than their opponents. Each faction has its own gaming mechanisms, with each faction combo giving you a different gaming experience. On your turn, you play cards from your hand, trying to have the most powerful set of minions on a base when it ‘breaks’. When a base breaks, the three most powerful players on the base score points. Win by being the first to score 15 total points.

The release of Smash Up: Disney Edition does exactly what you expect it to, bringing your favourite Disney characters to the game. This version of the game adds the new factions Big Hero 6, Frozen, Wreck-It Ralph, Mulan, Aladdin, The Lion King, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Beauty & the Beast. Combine any of these groups to create a formidable Disney team, or throw in some of the factions with any of the other Smash Up releases, they are all compatible and playable together!

Buy Smash Up: Disney Edition shuffle-building card game online now!

3. Dungeons, Dice & Danger

The Roll & Write board game category has been crowded in the past few years, with the number of games coming out exploding. There have been many outstanding releases, like Cartographers, Welcome To…, and the Railroad Ink series of games. One of the more anticipated releases comes from Richard Garfield, the famous designer behind Magic: The Gathering, King of Tokyo, and King of New York.

In Dungeons, Dice & Danger players are thrust into dangerous dungeons, rolling dice to travel deeper and deeper, collecting treasure and slaying creatures as they go. Each dungeon also contains a larger, epic monster, that players need to defeat to be crowned the ultimate hero of legend. We’re excited about this one because it combines the dungeon crawl feel of a game like Clank! with the roll & write mechanisms of a game like Cartographers.

Buy Dungeons, Dice & Danger roll & write game online now!

2. Viticulture World

The hottest expansion this month comes from the powerhouse Stonemaier Games. Viticulture World: Cooperative Expansion adds what its name suggests, a way to play the worker placement game Viticulture cooperatively with up to six players. The original Viticulture game challenged players to create the most prosperous vineyard in Italy by strategically allocating workers to different tasks across the seasons of the year, with each season offering different choices and opportunities.

The cooperative expansion shifts the game to a collaborative endeavor, having players work with their extended family from different asymmetric locations around the world. Players try to balance the management of their local vineyard while helping their fellow players to gain influence in the region. This expansion includes an all-new game board, tiles, event cards, and tokens that get combined with the original game’s vineyard mats. Working together, players are trying to each gain 25 Victory Points and have the overall influence reach the end of the track by the end of six years. The objectives, asymmetry and cooperative elements introduced in this expansion are similar to the Spirit Island and Orleans: Invasion board games.

Buy Viticulture World: Cooperative Expansion worker placement game online now!

1. Marvel Dice Throne

The dice rolling combat game series Dice Throne has been on the board game scene since it burst onto the scene with season one in 2018. Since then, a second season was released the following year, followed up by the revised and improved ReRolled editions in 2020. The concept behind Dice Throne is simple, select a character, grab their dice, and start rolling. Players go back and forth rolling to attack their opponent with their special powers, while also defending against incoming attacks. The last player standing wins!

To date there have been 16 characters released across 8 different character packs. The Dice Throne Marvel edition of the game brings your favourite Marvel superheroes and villains to the game. The four-character core set releases this month, featuring Scarlet Witch, Thor, Loki, and Spider-Man. Each of these characters features their own unique abilities, special powers, and styles of play. Combining these with the already-released roster of characters give you a seemingly endless supply of options and replayability. We’re also super excited that there are already two additional sets expected in the coming months with additional Marvel characters, including Black Panther, Doctor Strange, Black Widow, and Captain Marvel.

Buy Marvel Dice Throne dice rolling combat game online now!