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  "description": "Check out part of asmodee's coming release calendar from Toy Fair NY 2026",
  "path": "/asmodee-catan-on-the-road-detonate-guess-the-mess/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-02-18T06:00:53.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.wericmartin.com",
  "tags": [
    "an overview of games",
    "_CATAN_",
    "**_Detonate_**",
    "Lost Boy Entertainment",
    "**_In a Nut Shell_**",
    "Confident Games",
    "Moodbox Games",
    "**_Guess the Mess_**",
    "_Wavelength_",
    "Golf"
  ],
  "textContent": "At Toy Fair NY 2026, asmodee mostly presented mass market and mainstream games that it distributes rather than games from within its own studios...which is the right approach to take for the Toy Fair audience, which is not typically looking for hobby games, but rules-light fare for a casual gaming audience. Let's see whether any of this will be of interest to you...\n\n• • • • • • • • • • • • • •\n\nIn an overview of games coming from German publisher KOSMOS is early 2026, I lamented that I had failed to get a description of Benjamin Teuber's **_CATAN: Das Kartenspiel_** and vowed to do better at Toy Fair NY — and I did!\n\n**_CATAN: On the Road_** , as the game will be called in English, is pitched as a portable version of _CATAN_ for 3-4 players that can be played in 15 minutes, and that's largely true from the description I received. Each player starts with two random resources from the deck, along with a road and a settlement.\n\nOn a turn, all players draw a resource card, then the active player might draw additional cards based on what they've built, then the active player can trade once with one opponent — and that opponent has an incentive to trade because if they do, as a bonus they receive a random resource from the deck. Next, the active player can build one or more cards on display, gaining any points depicted on the card, as well as the bonus showing at the bottom of the card; the more roads you have, the better the trade ratio when using extra cards to substitute for ones you're missing.\n\nEach you time purchase a settlement, you draw a card from the silver deck, which contains a few robbers along with other cards, and the effect of the card applies to all players (or whoever meets the listed condition). As soon as a player has 7 points in front of them, they win.\n\n_CATAN: On the Road_ will debut in the U.S. on April 3, 2026, and it retails for US$10, which is true of several of the titles listed below. As has been the trend for a couple of years, in general publishers are veering smaller and cheaper with their releases, with \"cheaper\" sometimes coming from going smaller and sometimes from using lower-quality components that you might have found in games from years past.\n\n• • • • • • • • • • • • • •\n\n**_Detonate_** is a press-your-luck design from KC Schrimpl and Lost Boy Entertainment in which up to twelve players are racing to hit the winning point threshold first.\n\nTo set up, lay out a number of point tokens equal to the number of players. In the first round, you can drop out and keep the lowest point token or roll the ten-sided die. If you roll a 1, you go boom and are out of the round, with the lowest point token being flipped to +1 and added to the highest token; otherwise you're fine and pass the die to the next player. In the second round, you blow up on a 1 or 2.\n\nYou can see where this is going: Drop out and make the point haul better for those who drop out after you, or risk blowing up and getting nothing.\n\n• • • • • • • • • • • • • •\n\n**_In a Nut Shell_** from publisher Confident Games is a party game in which your team scores based on its ability to guess answers with as few clues as possible.\n\nEach card shows an answer at the bottom, and up to ten words that form a sentence at the top. The clue giver looks at all of the words and reveals what they hope is enough for their team to guess the answer. (Any guesses for what I've revealed in the pic?)\n\nYou can also play team vs team, with one person on each team revealing one word each turn until a team finally guesses, scoring the points or giving the points to the other team.\n\n• • • • • • • • • • • • • •\n\nMoodbox Games is a new studio within asmodee that will release party games, with one of its first titles being **_Guess the Mess_**, which to my trained eyes appears to be a new edition of Jack Degnan's 2014 game of the same name.\n\nEach round, each player gets a secret place card, then players have two minutes to dig through the pile of mess cards, keeping any that seem like a good match for their place. When time is up, you pass your cards to a neighbor, then additional place cards are added to those used by players so that eight cards are revealed. Everyone places three number cards face down to guess which place is right, and the quicker you find the right answer, the more you score; the mess maker scores as well.\n\nAnother Moodbox title coming is **_Link Out Loud_** , but all I know of it now is its forthcoming existence and the v. party game-looking cover shown above.\n\n• • • • • • • • • • • • • •\n\nA giant mock-up of __Cross the Line__\n\nAnother party game on display in the asmodee booth was **_Cross the Line_** , which seems _Wavelength_-like in that you're guessing where someone's answer falls on a scale of possible answers, with players earning more or fewer points depending on the size of the \"guess bar\" that they place in the grid. This game is aimed more at mass than hobby, however, so you're not thinking of your own answer between extremes on a scale, but working with suggestions on the question cards.\n\n• • • • • • • • • • • • • •\n\n**_Crashed Out_** is another Golf-style card game in which you're trying to score as few points as possible, with this one having various special action cards.\n\n• • • • • • • • • • • • • •\n\nI took a pic of **_Camp Hinterback_** meaning to come back to it in my questions, but I did not. Now you share the mystery of this game with me.\n\n• • • • • • • • • • • • • •\n\nButter was one the minor themes at Toy Fair NY 2026. I didn't see a ton of butter-related toys and kid-friendly items, but I saw a handful, which was more than I would have expected. Maybe this ties in with the \"squish\" theme being widely present with toys and playful objects of all types. Butter is squishy in the right circumstances, and you'll probably have more of an emotional connection to \"butter\" than just a generic squishy thing.\n\nI might be overthinking this, of course.\n\n• • • • • • • • • • • • • •\n\nLike what you read? Leave a tip to support independent board game journalism!\n\nLeave a tip",
  "title": "Build Roads on the Road to CATAN",
  "updatedAt": "2026-02-18T15:04:16.765Z"
}