The first six months of 2021 has definitely been a year already, but that hasn’t stopped the board games coming, and as a community, it’s definitely been something that has brought us joy during this time. With games constantly coming out, I’ve gone through and found the crème de la crème.

Here I’ll go through our top 5 games to have come out in the first 6 months of 2021! 

1) Sleeping Gods

Are you ready to start your journey home? In this hit game, Sleeping Gods you and your friends have become lost in a new world. The sky is different, the smell of the sea is different and now you’re trying to make it home.

In Sleeping Gods you and your friends will become Sofi Odessa and her crew, lost in a strange world in 1929 on your steamship, the Manticore. During the campaign you must work together to survive, meeting new characters, exploring exotic islands and seeking out the totems of the Gods so you can make it back home.

This game has been highly anticipated and hugely popular and we just can’t get enough of it! With it’s beautiful art and fun and interesting campaign, it’s hard not to understand why it’s been so popular. Your choices affect the characters and whether you will be able to make it home. Your journey starts now.

2) Canvas

In this beautiful game you’re going to be painting up a storm! You are, of course, competing in an art competition! It’s a super cute concept and it’s full of super cute things! The cover is also a piece of art! Literally, there’s a hook hole in the box so you can hang it on your wall!

This light game goes for about 30 minutes and is packed with stunning colours and sweet art pieces. Players will select three art cards and arrange them in any order to score the points based on the visible painting icons. Once all players have made three paintings the game will end.

When playing each card, you will need to take into consideration both the artwork and the set of icons that will be used during scoring! Icons will be revealed or hidden based on the way you choose to layer the cards making for an exciting puzzle!

3) Red Rising

Enter the futuristic universe, based on the book series by Pierce Brown featuring a dystopian society divided into fourteen castes! You speak for a house attempting to gain followers of all kinds.

Your goal in Red Rising is to be the player who earns the most points by the end of the game. To do this you will need to manage your hand of cards and attempt to build up some combos. Each player will start with five cards out of a huge pool of 112 cards! Your main action will have you taking a card from your hand and placing it at one of four locations on the board, this will trigger the card ability that most cards will have. Which could have the ability to earn you bonus points!

This dystopian themed game will have players trying to get their house out on top. Through clever combos and a bit of luck, your house could be the one!

4) Cubitos

Be fast or be last in the annual Cube Cup! You and your fellow players will be taking on the roles of participants of the Cube Cup - a race of strategy and luck to determine the ultimate Cubitos Champion!

Every player has a runner on the track and a support team - which is represented by your dice! Each turn you will roll those dice and use the results to move along the racetrack, buy new dice and use abilities. But if you push your luck too much or you will be left with an undesirable outcome or punished for your greed!

Players will need to make sure they’re building up their decks taking into account that you’ll need to rely on some dice rolls! You’ll definitely feel the rush of excitement when you roll something very lucky! With 8 different coloured dice to choose from to add to your support team, each that can give you different abilities, you’ll have a lot of decisions to make!

5) Bloodborne: The Board Game 

The town of Yharnam is crumbling as a plague that turns people into beasts spreads uncontrollably. As a Hunter, it’s up to you to try to fight through these beasts and try to discover the source to all of this madness.

Players will take on the role of Hunters in this campaign-based action adventure. You will have to work together against the game itself to uncover mysteries hidden within the city, and places beyond! Having to think quickly and adapt tactics to overcome enemies that attempt to stand in your way.

As is the case with dealing with mighty and horrific villains, death is an almost unavoidable situation, but here, death is not final for a Hunter. If you fall in combat, you are returned to fight again, however battles that have been fought and obstacles that you have endured have returned. Not only that, but as the Blood Moon rises once again, your time is running out!

And there we have it! Our Top 5 board games of the first 6 months of 2021! What do you think? Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments below!