Friday 29 - Sunday 31 May 2026
User Menu UK Games Expo

Surprised Stare Games

About

We design and publish surprisingly good card games, boardgames, and wargames!

We are launching our new Cousins' War Solo Expansion at this year's Expo!

Our Games

We design and publish card games, boardgames, and wargames primarily for the hobby games market. Most of our games are in English, but we usually partner with overseas companies to offer them in other languages too. Designers of our games include: Alan Paull, Tony Boydell, David J Mortimer, Sebastian Bleasdale, David Brain, Matthew Dunstan, Peter Connew and Peer Sylvester.

Pocket Campaigns Series

Pocket Campaigns is a series of small box games with war or conflict themes. All the games in the series have relatively few components, typically cards, wooden pieces, perhaps a board, and a rulebook. The games are designed to take about 30-45 minutes to play. They are within the hobby games market, not family games, and they have significant depth of strategy and/or tactics for such a small package.

Games currently on sale

NEW! Cousins' War Solo Expansion

The first expansion for our popular Cousins' War Pocket Campaigns game is newly launched at the Expo.

Cousins' War

Pocket Campaigns #1. Designer: David J Mortimer. Players: 2. Duration: 30 minutes. Age: 12+

War of the 3 Sanchos

Pocket Campaigns #4. Designer: David J Mortimer. Players: 1-3. Duration: 30-45 minutes. Age: 12+

​Ming Voyages

Pocket Campaigns #2. Designer: David J Mortimer & Alan Paull. Players: 1-2. Duration: 30-45 mins. Age: 12+​

Kingmaker

Published by Gibsons Games. Designer: Andrew McNeil. Developer: Alan Paull. Players: 1-6. Duration: 2-6 hours. Age: 12+

​​Last Bug Standing in the Circle of Doom!

Designer: Bez Shahriari. Players: 2. Duration: 15-30 minutes. Age: 12+

Mission Command: Normandy

WW2 Miniatures ruleset. Designer: Alan Paull and Peter Connew. Players: 2-16. Duration: 1-24 hours (depending on scenario). Age: 14+