If you like games where everyone is chasing the same prey but only one of you walks away with the glory, The Hunt should be on your radar. Released on 24 May 2026 from Ares Games and Don't Panic Games, it is an asymmetric strategy game for 2 to 4 players about tracking down members of the German army who fled abroad after the Second World War to escape justice for war crimes.
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Find events near youEach player commands one of four rival factions, the United States, the Soviet Union, the Tzaar or the Network, and every one of them plays differently, with its own ambitions and abilities. You deploy agents into investigation zones, gather clue cards through a deck-building system, and stage targeted hunts across America, Europe and the Middle East. Captures earn influence in military, scientific, political or collaborationist circles, and whoever first reaches 12 World Domination points, the game's victory track, takes the win. So while you are nominally all on the same side, you are really competing to grab the most fugitives and the prestige that comes with them. A session runs 60 to 90 minutes.
It comes from designers Renaud Crocombette, Rémi Laumonier and Antoine Pham-Minh, published under the Ares Games banner, the Italian studio best known for the epic Tolkien grand-strategy game War of the Ring. The historical subject is handled as a serious backdrop rather than spectacle.
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Start organising for freeThe Hunt is in hobby shops now at around $50, after demos rolled out across dozens of stores over its launch weekend. It is a meaty, competitive brain-burner rather than a light filler, so if your group enjoys faction asymmetry and deck-building with a weighty historical theme, it is worth a look. Run a regular strategy night? Find a group near you.
Sources: Bleeding Cool | Ares Games
