Essen Spiel 2026 – My One Day Plan #boardgames

0:00 What's your plan for Essen Spiel? Here's what I would do in one day. Now, there are five games that I predict are going to have long lines and probably sell out. From that list of five, I think three of them are going to be harder to get than the others. If I was going to stand in line and get only one of those, it would be Carl von Linné. So, I'm going to base the plan around that. First, I'm going to go through the south entrance. That's going to give me a straight shot to hall four, where I'm going to go straight to Pink Troubadour and get in line for Carl von Linné. I love the lineup from Albi this year, so I'm going to go there next and get Prag an See, Night of the Zoo, and Potemkin Villages. Next, we're going to head to hall three, but before we do, we're going to stop by hall two to Vesuvius Media, because there I might be able to find Flame & Forge. Now, I don't know for sure if they're going to have a copy of that, but if they do, I'm going to nab it immediately. Hall three is always very, very crowded. There's a lot I want to see there, and I'm not going to be able to buy everything. I'm going to start at the north end of the hall, where we're going to see Queen Alice and Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Wouldn't be surprised if they were sold out already.

0:54 Those are going to be fun games, even if I'm just looking at them. Codenames: Critical Role Adventures is available at CGE. Probably buy that, but it's not going to sell out immediately. So, I'm going to go down to Inside Up and get Calypso. Across from Inside Up is Triceratops, where I can check out The Dawn of Pangaea. I'm going to be sure to check out Crowd Games, because they always have awesome stuff. Nippon was delivered to backers this year, and if you haven't checked that out, it's amazing. Mighty Boards has For the Gods. Grand Gamers Guild has Under the Leaves. Devir, another one of my favorite publishers, has Gaudi. The verdict is still out on that one for me. It looks great, has a cool Rondel, but I think Carl von Linné may have scratched the itch on the more like biographical themed board games. Nianix has 60 Below, which I'm really interested in. I just don't know if I'm going to be buying it at the show. And then Time Spanner A Lion Games. It reminds me a little bit of Path of Civilization, which I tried in 2023, but I don't know. The theme in this one seems like a better implementation. Those are my priorities in hall three, the most crowded of all the halls. So, now we can kind of relax a little bit. We're going to head over to Hall 5, but before we do, we're going to stop by Adam's Apple Games, because Gnome Ville is amazing. And then, Defenders of the Dictionary, this one is finally done. I tried to prototype a couple of years ago. Everyone's got to try that. Wonderful World Board Games always has some really cool projects. I think this is a booth worth ducking in on. In Hall 6, Yellow has this new game called Fragments, which I guess is like putting together a puzzle and playing a

2:25 game. I couldn't even find a rule book for this one, so I need to see what that's all about. Finally, at Hall 7, I want to get a copy of Melodies. So, that's my trip. I'm not going to lie, it's ambitious. It might take me 2 days. What are your priorities?