Leder Games, the board game publisher behind Root and Arcs, dropped a sneaky product announcement at this year's Gen Con. All we know for certain is the title: 'Take'. There is also a Kickstarter placeholder page featuring adorable art of a robbery, but no dates or details can be found there. We can only speculate about the kind of game this will be - though if it isn't a trick-taking game, I'll eat my hat.
My conspiracy theory about this new board game comes from Leder Games' recent track record. Its last major release was Arcs, a space opera that combines aspects of trick-taking games with wargaming. Arcs has been an immense success, and it's widely considered one of the best board games of the last few years.
Why, then, would the publisher not want to chase this success further down the path? After publishing the hit asymmetric wargame Root, Leder Games followed up with a strategy board game of similar ilk, Oath, only a few years later. One major trick-taking-like game does not ruin the chances of another.
It's worth noting that all the games we just mentioned were designed by Cole Wehrle. We don't know that Wehrle is involved with the project, but if he is, Take's trick-taking odds go up even further.
Wehrle's last project, this time published by Wehrlegig Games, was another card game, Molly House. While this isn't a true trick-taking game, it certainly takes plenty of inspiration, as the value and suits of cards have an immense impact on play. Card games are clearly on the mind of one of Leder Games' favorite designers.
If a game called 'Take' isn't about taking tricks, then Leder Games has seriously missed a trick. Again, though, this is all speculation. The only other detail Leder has let slipped was spotted in its Discord, where it assured fans that this would not be a co-op board game.
We'll keep our eyes peeled for more updates, so if you're keen, join us in the Wargamer Discord and stay vigilant. Otherwise, here are some of the best card games you can play right now.