by W. Eric Martin

▪️ New Zealand publisher Garphill Games has already crowdfunded one 2026 release — Secret Societies, a S J Macdonald design in which 2-5 players view for control of territories on Earth — but that’s only the start of its 2026 plans.

In March/April 2026, Garphill will crowdfund MacDonald and Zach Smith‘s The Great Sea, a game for 2-4 players that is part of the publisher’s “Ancient Anthology” series. Here’s an overview:

The publisher notes that The Great Sea occupies a niche similar to Circadians: Chaos Order, a 2022 release from the same design team, but “it is a lot quicker and more accessible, with high levels of emergent asymmetry rather than asymmetric factions”.

Mock-up of the game components

▪️ The Great Sea will be crowdfunded with another new entry into Garphill’s “Ancient Anthology” series: Towers of Sifnos from MacDonald and Shem Phillips. Here’s an overview of this 1-4 player game:

Following the aftermath of the Samian invasion, the Greek inhabitants of Sifnos sought to better defend their mineral rich land. Over the course of several centuries, they constructed a network of over seventy beacon towers scattered across the small island. This system would allow them to quickly communicate a variety of messages, and most importantly, warn of incoming sea invasions. Now’s your chance to step into the role of an ancient Greek military commander! Prepare your people against raiding pirates by constructing towers, mustering soldiers, and investing into the future of Sifnos.

Your goal in Towers of Sifnos is to have the most victory points (VP) at game’s end. Points are primarily gained by increasing your influence and successfully defending the mining operations of the island’s three predominant minerals: gold, silver, and lead. Players track their influence over these minerals on their player boards. Several invasions will occur over the course of the game, granting players the opportunity to prove their proficiency and might. After each invasion, the pirates will either grow in number or much needed allied reinforcements will arrive. The game ends immediately after three waves of reinforcements have arrived at the island.

▪️ Ahead of those two titles, Garphill will crowdfund Spirited, a MacDonald/Phillips/Smith design for 1-6 players that — graphically — doesn’t look anything like a “normal” Garphill release:

▪️ A second Garphill title with animal protagonists coming in 2026 is Skute, which is also by MacDonald, Phillips, and Smith. This 2-6 player game takes 30-40 minutes to play:

Below the surface of the North Sea dwell the cheekiest and most colourful of creatures…but don’t let their charm deceive you. With fabled precision, these legendary seafolk strike with fin and fang, plundering the vessels above. As the winds howl and the waves crash, each season brings even greater challenges. For those who survive, what name will they speak, and of which ocean clans will they sing of for ages to come?

Non-final cover

A game of Skute lasts four rounds, referred to as “seasons”, starting with Spring and ending in Winter. Each season, players start by bidding to gain various creatures to their hand and grotto. Next, they attempt to play out all cards from their hand before their opponents can in order to sink the best skute. After four seasons, whoever has the most valuable collection of sunken skutes wins.

▪️ Since the 2014 release of Shipwrights of the North Sea, Garphill Games has been partnering with Renegade Game Studios for distribution of its titles to the U.S. retail market, but as Garphill marketing manager Zach Smith explained in a recent press release, “since the tariff situation Renegade have had to pause printing out games. This has meant that the South Tigris expansions, Assyria, and our upcoming Secret Societies have not been printed for retail, and we don’t know if they will be.”

Garphill is selling the South Tigris expansions through its website, with Smith noting that “a few hundred copies” are available in distribution centers in the U.S., Europe, China, Australia, and New Zealand.

Starting in January 2026, Assyria: Second Edition will similarly be available via the publisher for those who didn’t back the mid-2025 crowdfunding campaign, and Secret Societies will follow the same retail route.

“All this to say that our games have become less widely available, so Kickstarter has once again become the most reliable way to ensure you can pick up a copy of our games”, writes Smith. “For our upcoming games, we still don’t know whether they will be coming to retail. Hopefully next year we will be able to have more information to give you.”