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New board games for February 2023: latest tabletop release dates

You'll love these new releases!

Image credit: Wizards of the Coast

The start of February brings with it a batch of exciting new board games, tabletop RPGs, miniatures games and trading card games. Though the beginning of the year might be quieter time for tabletop gaming, February 2023 is gearing up to be a month that's jam-packed with titles that you won't want to miss.

One of those titles is War of the Ring: The Card Game, with concentrates the beloved miniatures board game down into a shorter and more digestible card game. Based on the books written by JRR Tolkien, War of the Ring TCG condenses the epic and notoriously long War of the Ring into a game that takes around two hours to finish – instead of half a day. In the game, players take control of forces either from the Free Peoples of Middle-earth – that's the humans, elves etc... - and the Forces of Shadow, made up of Sauron’s armies of Orcs and Uruk-hai.

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Up to four players can take command of the armies in War of the Ring TCG, with each side needing an equal number of players. The fantasy board game is split into two sections: a path of cards that Frodo and the Free Peoples of Middle-earth need to traverse to destroy the One Ring, and a selection of locations that the players will battle over using their respective decks. Each new location will bring new opportunities for players to get a tactical lead over their opponents, with every win bringing them closer to victory.

Another notable release coming this month are the booster sets and other card packs for the latest Magic: The Gathering set – Phyrexia: All Will Be One. The next big release for the trading card game, Phyrexia heralds the return of the infect gameplay mechanic in the form of Toxic cards, which poison opponents’ cards and damage them equal to the value of the next keyword they play. Players who plant ten or more poison tokens on their opponent wins the game outright. This aspect also comes into play with the Corrupted mechanic, which provide additional benefits to players who have managed to place at least three poison tokens on their opponent.

Besides the new gameplay elements, Phyrexia: All Will Be One has also introduced a ton of new story aspects to the Magic: The Gathering universe – including the deaths of five key Planeswalkers, or major characters in the card game’s world. All of this is in the build-up to the upcoming March of the Machines set, which promises even more Phyrexian mayhem.

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Fans of Avatar: The Last Airbender can finally get their hands on the core rulebook for the official tabletop roleplaying game based on the animated franchise. Avatar Legends is a roleplaying game set within the four nations of the Avatar series and is based on the Powered by the Apocalypse gameplay system. In the TRPG, players get to create and control characters within a variety of different timelines from the show – whether they want to fight in the 100-year War or if they want to experience the legendary reign of the avatar Kyoshi.

Players can create characters based on one of several different archetypes, each one focused around a certain kind of story arc inspired by the animated series. On top of this, players can be benders, as well as characters who specialise in weapons or technology. With one player as the game master, Avatar Legends is the roleplaying game for fans of the franchise.

We’ll be updating this article throughout February to include any new releases expected to release this year, so be sure to check back here regularly.


New board games - February 2023

US board game release dates

UK board game release dates

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Alex Meehan avatar
Alex Meehan: After writing for Kotaku UK, Waypoint and Official Xbox Magazine, Alex became a member of the Dicebreaker editorial family. Having been producing news, features, previews and opinion pieces for Dicebreaker for the past three years, Alex has had plenty of opportunity to indulge in her love of meaty strategy board games and gothic RPGS. Besides writing, Alex appears in Dicebreaker’s D&D actual play series Storybreakers and haunts the occasional stream on the Dicebreaker YouTube channel.

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