Board game publisher Osprey announced the "ultimate crab claw-down" on February 27, in the form of CRAB RAGE! This is a new brawling board game where you play as rage-fueled crabs. Bring the most muscle to the fighting arena, smash up your competitors, and garner the most fans to earn the highest glory score. It's silly, it's sea-themed, and it's arriving in September 2026.
The core carapace of the game is area control. Your crusty combatants are represented by dice, each with its own muscle value. As they move from arena to arena, their muscle value will fluctuate, and they'll have the chance to team up with other beefy brawlers (or try and make it on their own).
Once everyone has finished shuffling around, the total muscle of each team is counted, and the most muscular wins the rumble. That means they get to bring their rabid, rage-hungry fans into the arena with them. Fans boost your team's rage (a precious resource that you'll spend to seize the first player role, or just bash even more crabs), and they're key for scoring if you can hold onto them as Hardcore Fans until the end of the game.
There's all sorts of odd rules thrown into the main mix here. Crabs that rage hard enough can mutate, and you can gain extra fans from a 'style bonus'. Punching isn't your only strategy either. Depending on the cards you play, you can rush other crabs out of an arena, charm a fan into your supply, or 'go clam' to up your muscle value.
After four rounds, everyone counts the fans they have in the arenas. Players gain glory proportional to the number of fans they have, and whoever has the most takes home the coveted Golden Claw.
Games take around half an hour, and we're expecting that small space of time to be stuffed to the brim with crab chaos. You can learn more about CRAB RAGE! on the Osprey website. For more on the best board games, why not join the Wargamer Discord? We share top news daily, and we're always down to chat about your favorite tabletop titles.