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  "description": "Ten publishers (at least!) are bringing this designer's works to stores in 2026",
  "path": "/bruno-cathala-round-up-trok-visions-splendor-duel-and-more/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-06-10T20:30:18.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.wericmartin.com",
  "tags": [
    "Castle Nightingale",
    "in Jan. 2026",
    "On the Trail",
    "Kingdomino: The Lost Treasures",
    "in Feb. 2026",
    "Sea Salt & Paper",
    "in Mar. 2026",
    "Bella Vista",
    "Space Cowboys",
    "Splendor Duel: The Counterfeiters",
    "Splendor Duel",
    "write-up",
    "Matagot",
    "a May 2026 Facebook post",
    "Visions",
    "Olémains Games",
    "TRÖK",
    "GRRRE Games",
    "Mundus Novus",
    "Nidavellir",
    "Carnimal",
    "Mr. Jack",
    "Pixie Games",
    "Frosted Blooms",
    "Synapses Games",
    "recommendation"
  ],
  "textContent": "I've already covered a few designs coming from Bruno Cathala in 2026 — Castle Nightingale (in Jan. 2026), On the Trail and Kingdomino: The Lost Treasures (in Feb. 2026), a collected edition of Sea Salt & Paper (in Mar. 2026), and Bella Vista (in May 2026) — but he has several other titles coming out as well.\n\nOn July 3, 2026, Space Cowboys will release Splendor Duel: The Counterfeiters, an expansion for 2022's Splendor Duel, co-designed with Marc André. (My write-up from August 2022) This expansion consists of four new nobles (with players presumably drawing four of eight at random each game), four glassware tokens, and seventeen counterfeiter cards, which seemingly allow you to use glassware tokens you collect as colored tokens once you purchase an available counterfeiter card...which also requires one or more glassware tokens.\n\n• • • • • • • • • • • • • •\n\nIn October 2026, Matagot will release **_Qu'on leur Coupe la Tête_** (\"Off with Their Heads!\") , a two-player microgame with an \"Alice in Wonderland\" setting from Cathala and Florian Sirieix. (So many Alice-themed games! Lewis Carroll wrote an incredibly rich text that will continue to be mined for decades to come.)\n\nIn a May 2026 Facebook post, Cathala wrote that he's long wanted to create a microgame as he likes the format — so cheap! so small! — and was excited to attack the challenge of creating such a tiny design.\n\nSample cards in __Qu'on leur Coupe la Tête__\n\nIn the game, each player has a hand of seven cards, with three cards on the table between them to create fields of play that hold one, two, and three cards. In each of six turns, each player reveals a card simultaneously, with the higher number being placed, then the lower number, with the power of that card being carried out. After six cards, the player with the highest sum on their side of the field claims the card.\n\nAfter three rounds, players score by multiplying the lowest value in a suit by the number of cards they collected in that suit, summing those products for a final score.\n\n• • • • • • • • • • • • • •\n\nAnother Cathala/Sirieix design is Visions, which Olémains Games released in March 2026. This 2-5 player card game is a basic \"play a card, draw a card\" design in which you build two \"dreams\" on the table, with each dream being represented by its row of cards.\n\nThe deck includes cards showing five environments and five categories, with each combination appearing three times. On a turn, you either start a dream (playing any card) or extend one of your two dreams, playing a card to the end of the row that matches either the environment or category of the last card in this row. If you can't do this or don't want to, take a random card from an opponent's hand and place it face down as a nightmare, which can be followed by any card.\n\nIf you \"echo\" a dream, that is, play a card with the same environment and category as one already present, you play again immediately. If you \"reflect\" a dream by playing a card that matches the environment or category of the card in the same position in your other dream, you advance your reflection marker and add a card to the river, giving you more choices when refilling your hand.\n\nIf a player reflects seven times, they win immediately. Otherwise, when the deck runs out, score each dream, multiplying its most common environment by its most common category, then adding your reflection points to these products.\n\n• • • • • • • • • • • • • •\n\nTRÖK, which GRRRE Games released in March 2026, is a new edition of Mundus Novus, a 2011 design by Cathala and Serge Laget. The new setting moves the action to the world of Laget's Nidavellir, with players collecting dwarven equipment to earn money.\n\nEach turn, you receive at least five new cards, then choose three cards to lay face up on the table. Whoever played the highest sum — with cards going from 1-7 — does the first trade, taking an opponent's face-up card and either (1) placing it in their hand or (2) placing it in the market, then adding one of the three market cards to their hand. That opponent then takes the next turn, and you continue until all cards have been picked up.\n\nPlayers then take turns revealing (if they wish) one combination of cards, either 3+ cards of the same value — which earns them money — or 3+ cards of all different values — which lets them take an upgrade card, the power of which remains active until game's end. Upgrade cards give you more cards each turn, more money when playing combinations, the ability to treat 1s as jokers, take two upgrades a turn, etc.\n\nThe game ends the round that someone has 50+ money or shows a \"perfect combination\", that is, one card each valued 1-7 and an amulet stone, which acts as a joker.\n\n• • • • • • • • • • • • • •\n\nCarnimal pairs Mr. Jack designers Cathala and Ludovic Maublanc in a new two-player deduction game from Pixie Games, with you trying to determine the identity of your masked opponent during carnival.\n\nThe __Carnimal__ box and a sample card set-up from the rulebook\n\nTo win, you must determine which of eight characters, eight masks, and eight objects correspond to your opponent. To set up, each player draws a token from each of three stacks to determine their identity, and you lay out the 24 tiles at random in the pattern above.\n\nOn a turn, swap the white question tile (marked with a (3) above) with another tile, flipping it over, if desired. With the side shown above, your opponent must state how many of the orthogonally adjacent tiles match their identity; with the other side, which shows an arrow, they state how many tiles in front of the arrow match their identity.\n\nA player can attempt to guess their opponent's identity at any point, winning or losing in the process.\n\n• • • • • • • • • • • • • •\n\nFinally, we come to Frosted Blooms, another Cathala/Maublanc design, with this one being from Synapses Games. In May 2026, this title received a recommendation for the 2026 Kennerspiel des Jahres award, which means it's not new on the market, but it's still new to me, so I'm writing about it now.\n\nOver ten turns, each of 1-4 players will draft a pentomino-shaped tile and add it to their garden, ideally matching up the water spaces and three types of flowers across these tiles to create large groups. After placing the tile, you play a landscape card from your hand and score for what's pictured on that card based on the tile you just placed and matching adjacent tiles. If you're scoring 2 points per white flower, for example, ideally you placed a tile with three white flowers (the most possible) and used it to expand an existing white flower field.\n\nFront cover of __Frosted Blooms__ and a promotional image from the publisher\n\nIf you create \"holes\" in your garden — that is, an empty space of 1-4 squares — you fill each hole with workers, barns, or a windmill, earning coins immediately for workers (which lets you have more choices of which tile to acquire) as well as bonus points at game's end.\n\nYou also want to complete public objectives, such as placing three barns in your garden or creating a water area of at least ten spaces.\n\n• • • • • • • • • • • • • •\n\n• • • • • • • • • • • • • •\n\nLike what you read? Leave a tip to support independent board game journalism!\n\nLeave a tip",
  "title": "Bruno Cathala Round-up: TRÖK, Visions, Splendor Duel, and More",
  "updatedAt": "2026-06-10T20:30:18.624Z"
}