It’s March, we might not have a “March” break this year, but this list of games is perfect to play during what seems to be our never-ending downtime. Board Game Bandit has a great line up of new and hot games this month to keep you busy.

5. Marvel Champions: Scarlet Witch Hero Pack

If you were as disappointed as we were when Wandavision ended last week, the Scarlet Witch Hero Pack couldn't have come at a better time. Take on evil with Wanda Maximoff using this new pre-built deck for Marvel Champions. Features some of the great powers seen in the Wandavision series, including the reality warping magic used to transform Westview into a sitcom paradise. Extend your Wandavision love even further by playing this new deck alongside Wanda's beloved brother Pietro, with the Quicksilver Hero Pack released last month.

Buy the Marvel Champions: Scarlet Witch Hero Pack online now!

4. Stuffed Fables: Oh Brother!

Secure your copy of Stuffed Fables: Oh Brother! (a new expansion for Stuffed Fables) with Board Game Bandit’s pre-order option. This game is set to release March 15 2021. Want us to hold your copy while you build an order that qualifies for free shipping?  No worries, just make sure you select Bandit Concierge (Hold my Order) at checkout!

Stuffed Fables return for more bedtime adventures! Years later, a new baby brother joins the family, with two toy companions of his own: Pokey the unicorn, a stalwart stuffy, and the muscular Manny, a hand-me-down action figure. With a cute little boy to defend from the forces of the Fall, Pokey and Manny need to learn the ropes from the original stuffies and face new monsters found under the bed!

Pokey the Unicorn and Manny the Action Figure bring new abilities to the team. Pokey does not equip any weapons, however, she uses her Puffy Horn to fight off enemies. Manny, being a macho action figure, is made of strong plastic instead of the typical stuffing of other characters, so status conditions don't affect him like typical stuffies.

The Stuffed Fables: Oh, Brother! expansion offers a new storybook, new challenges, enemies, and fables, plus new tokens, sleep cards, and its own discovery deck to guide you across unique adventures, however you do require pieces from the Stuffed Fables base game to play.

Preorder Stuffed Fables: Oh Brother! online now!

3. Carcassonne: Hunters and Gathers

Carcassonne fans will be excited for this reprint of the 2002 popular Carcassonne standalone game, Carcassonne: Hunters and Gathers. This new edition features updated art and extra tiles with unique effects, surprisingly this feels like a completely new game, but with the original concept at play.

As in other Carcassonne games, players place tiles to make the landscape and place meeples to earn points on the map being creating.

Instead of cities, roads, and farms, Carcassonne: Hunters and Gathers includes forests, rivers, lakes, and meadows. Meeples can represent hunters (in meadows), gatherers (in forests), and fishermen (on rives). They also have huts, which may be placed on rivers or lakes to earn fish from the entire river system.

It includes many of the recognizable mechanics from Carcassonne with some new rules, which include: Menhirs in completed forests gets to immediately draw and play 1 of 12 bonus (menhir) tiles. Meadows are worth additional points for animals (deer 1, aurochs 2, and mammoths 3) in them, except saber toothed tigers, which counteract deer in the meadows. River segments are worth the number of tiles in the segment plus additional for fish in the lakes. Fishing huts score at games end and are worth the number of fish in all lakes attached by rivers.

We may actually enjoy this version more than the original!

Buy Carcassonne: Hunters & Gatheres online now!

2. Royal Visit

Many people have been eagerly awaiting this new reprint release from board game designer rock star Reiner Knizia. Royal Visit is a 2 player tactical card game is a quick and easy game featuring some unique wooden game figures. This new reprint from the original 2006 game begs to be played over and over.

The center of a 17-space track holds the six game figures that players compete to entice to their opposite ends of the board. You play as many cards of the same color on a turn as you want, and a lot of the movement is a result of card play. For example, playing a red 4 brings the red figure ("Rote Lola" or "Dancing Deb") 4 spaces closer to your end of the board.

However, there are special tricks and limitations that must be learned and kept in mind before the essence of the game starts to arise. For example; the central green figure ("Brilli-Lilli" or "Saucy Sue") which wins if the game finishes with her on your half of the board, can only move within the limits of her "bodyguards," two grey figures. The yellow figure ("Blonde Hans" or "Handsome Hal") can call, any of these three figures to his square. The companion green figure ("Schampus-Charly" or "Champagne Charlie") that may also win the game if you secure him on one of the two spaces on your end of the board (your "nightclub"), only travels toward you if the board situation at the end of your turn has both bodyguards on your half of the board and/or one (or more) of the other figures in your nightclub.

Royal Visit is a Board Game Bandit favorite with lots of attack, defense, counterattacking, and some forward thinking.

Buy Royal Visit online now!

1. Red Rising

Red Rising is hot preorder from Stonemaier Games (publisher of Wingspan and Scythe) and based on the popular book series by Pierce Brown, featuring a dystopian society split into 14 castes. The games release date is set for May 2021. Ensure you get your hands on a copy as soon as it releases with Board Game Bandit’s preorder option.

Players are members of a rising house, climbing up through the ladder of power. Gain influence and collect followers to strengthen your social reputation, but once you’ve reached the top of the pile you’ll have to choose to break the chains of injustice or secure your place in the caste system by joining the highest rank of the "Golds".

Red Rising is a game for 1-6 players of combo-building and hand management, with players strategically placing cards down to gain more followers and increase their house’s interests before, their opponents can climb to the top of the slimy pole of influence. Managing a hand of five cards, you play a card each turn to activate one of the locations on the game’s board, earning its benefit and boosting your political machinations.

Preorder Red Rising online now!