Welcome to our regular roundup of the best new board games, where we sift through a stack of newly released tabletop titles to help you find the ones you’ll love. This month, we’re taking a deep dive into submarine warfare, betraying our friends in a battle for loot and vying for power in the Game of Thrones.

Captain Sonar

Each player in Captain Sonar has a different job – and his or her own wipe-clean control panel. Photograph: Owen Duffy for the Guardian

2-8 players, 45 minutes, RRP £34.99

Designers: Roberto Fraga and Yohan Lemonnier

A team-based game of duelling submarines, Captain Sonar takes the core of family favourite Battleship and twists it in strange and wonderful ways. The game separates players into rival crews divided by a screen that runs the length of the table, preventing you from seeing what the other side is up to. Over the course of the game, you’ll manoeuvre your sub around a map, attempting to hunt down and destroy your opponents before they get the chance to dispatch you to the cold, briny depths.

Each player has their own set of responsibilities: the captain charts their submarine’s course; the first mate works to bring weapons and scanners online; the engineer battles to repair damage; and the radio operator tries to discern the opponents’ location by listening in on their conversation. It’s an intricate piece of gaming clockwork, where a breakdown in one part of the mechanism can spell disaster for the whole crew.

To complicate matters, Captain Sonar is played in real time. Rather than taking turns to issue orders, both teams play simultaneously, moving, shooting and deploying recon drones as quickly as they can fulfil the requirements for each action. It means that a moment’s confusion or hesitation can allow the other team to zero in on your position, and it makes for a fast-paced, stressful atmosphere where players slip almost involuntarily into character, shouting “Dive, dive!” and referring to one another as “sir”.

The games’s one major niggle is that it only reaches its full, glorious, pressure-cooker potential with a full complement of eight players. It’s possible to play with fewer, but it dilutes the experience badly. It’s well worth the effort to set aside an evening, round up a big group of friends and enjoy this quirky triumph of game design.

A Game of Thrones: Hand of the King

A Game of Thrones: Hand of the King opts for cartoon artwork over the grim, dark atmosphere usually associated with the series. Photograph: Owen Duffy for the Guardian

2-4 players, 15 minutes, RRP £11.99

Designer: Bruno Cathala

Game of Thrones fans are already spoiled for choice when it comes to gaming, with a wide selection of games aiming to recreate the magic, intrigue and violence of the realm of Westeros. But where previous games have tried to capture the grim and gritty atmosphere of the original novels, this new release brings a welcome dose of levity to its interpretation of A Song of Ice and Fire.

Players take on the roles of aspirational nobles at the royal court in King’s Landing, all vying to be anointed as the king’s trusted adviser. You’ll do this by winning the support of characters from the series’ seven great houses, represented by cards laid out in a grid. On each of your turns, you’ll move Varys, the scheming master of whispers, picking up the support of different characters and claiming their cards for yourself. At the same time, you’ll aim to limit opportunities for your opponents, denying them the chance to grab useful cards and consolidate their own claim on power.

It’s an engaging, head-scratching puzzle, and it’s made trickier by the presence of special “companion” characters such as Littlefinger, Shae and Khal Drogo, who grant you one-off special abilities when you gain their support (although I’m not entirely sure what Drogo is doing in King’s Landing). It benefits from some distinctive cartoon artwork, and it manages to present meaningful tactical decisions on every turn, despite being one of the simplest games to take on this setting.

If Hand of the King has one flaw, though, it’s that its default mode of play isn’t the best way to enjoy the game. Tucked away in the back of the rule book you’ll find a team-based variant, with pairs of players combining their efforts to claim power. This massively improves what is already a fun game, and our review group agreed that we’d always choose it over the standard every-person-for-themself setup.

HMS Dolores

HMS Dolores casts players as villainous wreckers arguing over a stash of loot. Photograph: Owen Duffy for the Guardian

2-4 players, 20 minutes, RRP £13.99

Designers: Bruno Faidutti & Eric M Lang

Legend has is that, during the age of sail, gangs of wreckers would shine lanterns from cliff tops to lure ships towards land, causing them to dash themselves against treacherous rocks and spill their precious cargo. Historians maintain there’s no evidence this actually happened, but that hasn’t stopped the designers of HMS Dolores using the myth as the basis for a quick, simple card game that casts players as pirates arguing over a stash of ill-gotten loot.

Each turn sees two players engage in a rock-paper-scissors-like contest over a set of treasure cards. If they want to split the spoils amicably, they show an open hand; if they want to grab everything for themselves, they show a closed fist; if both players get greedy and try to seize the treasure, it’s all discarded, washed away by the tide as they bicker. It’s a formula known as the prisoner’s dilemma, and it encourages players to negotiate, form pacts and stab each other in the back.

It’s not a new premise, but Dolores brings some innovative elements to the mix. There’s an option to take the first pick from the cards on offer, handing the rest to your opponent, and special cards that grant players a host of new abilities. There’s also a scoring system that rewards players who judiciously collect particular types of treasure, adding a pleasingly tactical feeling to proceedings. It all amounts to a tight little game that takes five minutes to learn and uses its minimal rules to create an atmosphere rife with betrayal and recrimination.