by W. Eric Martin

▪️ To the surprise of no one, Asmodee studio Office Dog has announced the forthcoming release of Bryan Bornmueller's The Two Towers: Trick-Taking Game, with this game scheduled for a January 16, 2026 release.

I spoke with Bornmueller during Asmodee media night at Gen Con 2025, and he said that this game required a different approach from the first game in the series, 2025's The Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game. After all, Frodo is the lead player in each chapter of that earlier game, but he doesn't appear until halfway through J.R.R. Tolkien's The Two Towers, so...who's going to take the lead? Similarly, The One Ring was the sole trump card in that earlier game, but The One Ring goes where Frodo goes, so will this game go trumpless?

Bornmueller's solution was to place the two towers front and center, with early chapters having two trump cards: White Tower and Black Tower. They're part of no suit, and each on its own will win a trick, but if played in the same trick, they nullify one another.

Whoever is dealt the White Tower must take the role of Aragorn and lead the first trick. What's more, Aragorn and whoever plays the Black Tower must win at least half of the round's tricks in order for Aragorn to complete his goal. If Aragorn has both towers, then he must carry that burden on his own.

Boromir also shows up in chapter 19, the first round of play in this game — note that you don't need to play The Fellowship TTG to play this one — and he provides a challenge of his own. Before the Black Tower is played, he must win at least two tricks; after the Black Tower appears, he can win nothing.

Also making their debut in chapter 19 are Orcs, who appear on three cards. You can play them only off-suit, and if you ever must lead with Orcs, you lose the chapter.

Bornmueller says that he and developer Taylor Reiner have had a lot of fun setting up chapters to make the most of characters and events from The Two Towers. One spoilery example: [o]Treebeard shows up as a character who plays their cards one round later than everyone else. One card is left out of play during set-up, and that "lost card" is automatically Treebeard's contribution to the first trick, but Treebeard must also play a card (following the lead, if possible) and that card will be set aside for the second trick. Their second card played will be used in the third trick, etc. That's a great representation of a lumbering player![/o]

▪️ Another Office Dog title being previewed at media night was Tessen: The Battle for Toshi Ranbo, with this being the studio's second Legend of the Five Rings board game following 2024's River of Gold.

Tessen is a 2-6 player "dudes on a map" game from Ben Rosset and Matthew O'Malley in which players draft an action, add it to their tableau (to influence the impact of future actions), then carry out said action. Your goal is to be the first player to meet seven objectives, with you marking objectives on the game board as you achieve them.


By chance, I ran into Rosset shortly after I saw this mock-up, and he said that their goal had been to create a 45-minute Kemet. Tessen is due out in late 2026.

▪️ Upon its appearance in the BGG database, I wasn't sure what to make of Duel for Cardia. German publisher Hans im Glück is releasing a small, two-player-only card game that plays in fifteen minutes?!

After getting an overview of the game in the Asmodee media lounge, I'm still baffled. None of those attributes seem applicable to a Hans im Glück release, yet here we are.

The short decription of Duel for Cardia, designed by Faouzi Boughida and Mathieu Rivero, is "super-powered War", that is, the card game in which each player reveals a card from their deck, then the higher card wins the round.


Each player in Duel for Cardia has an identical deck of cards with 1-16 influence, with each card having an ability and belonging to one of four factions. Players shuffle their decks and draw a hand of five cards. On a turn, they each chose a card and reveal it. Whoever has the higher value claims a signet token and places it on their card; the other player then carries out the ability of their card, which might win all future ties, add influence to future (or past!) cards played, cause the opponent to discard cards, copy a played ability, and so on.

The shifting of past influence can retroactively affect who won a signet in a duel. If you ever have five signets, you win, but you can also win through a card ability or by the opponent being unable to play.

▪️ Dutch designer Tibo Everaerts first released the card game Fried Potatoes in 2023 through his own Fried Potatoes Games brand, and now Asmodee plans to distribute this title in the United States.

The 2-6 player game Fried Potatoes is a variant of the trick-taking game Cucumber or Gurka in which all that matters is who wins the final trick.

In each round, players run through multiple tricks, following suit when possible, with the highest card in the led suit winning the trick and leading the next one. Whoever wins the final trick of the round suffers no penalty, while everyone else advances on the scoring track toward FRIED. Outlast all other players to win.


However, each player also has a random special card that they can play during a round. Maybe their played card is now on suit or the low card wins instead of the high one or losers advance extra spaces toward the FRIED threshold.

▪️ Richard Borg directed all Asmodee media night attendees, telling them in which sections of he room they could activate units.