The best games by Peter Olotka 🇺🇸👨 2026

Cosmic Encounter is an iconic board game that combines elements of strategy, diplomacy, and unique alien powers, set in a dynamic universe of shifting alliances and interstellar conflict.

Players come up with clever words that will be hard to decipher and cleverly combine letter pieces to guess secret words. Decipher is a unique word game for 2-4 players, where players create and solve word puzzles using four differently shaped letter pieces. Each round, a different player constructs a secret word puzzle, while others gather clues and points to identify the word.

Players represent alien races attempting to expand across five foreign worlds. They challenge other players and seek assistance from interested parties. Unique alien powers allow players to bend or break game rules, adding strategic depth to the encounters. This edition includes significant changes, such as one-time-use tokens, categorized moons with varying impacts, and the introduction of new cards and mechanics.

Dune is a captivating board game that plunges players into the intricate and politically charged universe of Frank Herbert's iconic science fiction novel. This game is a blend of strategy, resource management, and negotiation, set on the harsh desert planet of Arrakis, also known as Dune.

A ruthless tycoon meets an untimely end, igniting a fierce competition for his fortune. Three to six players assume secret identities as members of Vargas' family or household. Players aim to eliminate their rivals by catching them in lies, but false accusations will lead to their own elimination. Gathering resources is crucial for launching informed accusations while maintaining the belief in the veracity of their own deceptions. The last player standing wins the game.

The Cosmic Citizenship Council has announced the inclusion of two new alien species, but due to a mishap with the registration forms, only one can join. Players compete for control of planets to determine which species earns the right to become a certified civilization.

Players construct letters with special game pieces in a unique word game. They aim to discover not only the spelling but also the actual letter structure of hidden words.

Players lead a colonization effort, traveling across the cosmos to prove their worth to the cosmic council. Each player represents a race with the ability to bend or break certain game rules. Success comes through a mix of violence, cunning, and diplomacy, with battles determined by card play and alliances. The first player to establish five colonies on planets outside their home system wins.

Participate in one of the most famous science fiction stories of all time. Players control one of four major factions—House Atreides, House Harkonnen, the Fremen, or the Empire—competing for the control of the most valuable resource in the universe: the mysterious spice Mélange, found at great cost on the planet Dune. The game involves multiple phases, allowing players to send troops, harvest spice, seize strongholds, and eliminate their enemies, all while aiming to dominate Dune.

Players command one of the Great Houses of Westeros, using iconic characters in epic battles and strategic planning. They negotiate, bluff, and form temporary alliances while competing for influence and ultimately the Iron Throne. Each round resolves encounters between two players, with opportunities for subterfuge and shifting loyalties that can change the outcome of the game. Winning enough encounters while managing alliances may lead to seizing the throne itself.

Rex: Final Days of an Empire is a reimagined game set in the Twilight Imperium universe, offering a rich blend of strategy, diplomacy, and conflict. Designed for 3-6 players, this game takes you back 3,000 years before Twilight Imperium to the decline of the Lazax empire. Players represent different interstellar civilizations vying for control over the crumbling imperial city in a galaxy teetering on the edge of chaos. Unique asymmetrical racial abilities and a focus on negotiation, betrayal, and warfare make this game an intense experience of tactical mastery.

This is a revised version of an older Eon game known simply as Hoax. Players must pretend to be someone they are not while trying to uncover the identities of others. Each player is assigned one of seven unique characters but can act as any character to use their abilities, acquiring goods to gain clues about opponents. If most players believe someone is pretending, they must either admit it and lose their special powers or reveal their true identity and win the game.

Eon Borderlands is designed to condense diplomacy into a manageable timeframe, where political maneuvering is essential and a free market society fuels ambition for conquest. The game combines conflict and trade mechanics with resource management, drawing inspiration from Settlers of Catan. The German edition, Ascalion, includes elements from both Borderlands expansions.

Players control a tribe of Fremen warriors fighting to gather the scarce resources of Arrakis, develop weapons, and harness the power of sandworms for battle. The gameplay is divided into three sections: the last part of setup, an initiation cycle to ease players into the game, and multiple phases in each cycle until victory is achieved. You can conquer Arrakis by controlling a winning number of territories at the end of the action phase or through unanimous decision of the council when all players agree you cannot be hindered from victory.

The sky people have retreated above the clouds, leaving the Borderlands to decay. In this post-apocalyptic world, scavengers survive on the remnants of the past and the waste from the floating cities. Players gather resources to build towering skyworks, strengthen their military power, and navigate the dangers posed by rival gangs. To succeed, they must effectively transport their resources, protect them, and invest wisely in their constructions. Can you forge a new future from the rusted remains of the past?