The 3 Hottest Games at Essen Spiel 2026 – Worth Waiting For? #boardgames

0:00 What are the most exciting, most anticipated games at Essen Spiel this year in 2026? Let's go over the top three hottest games according to BoardGameGeek. And number one is Avalon: The Riven Vale. Now, this was a crowdfunding campaign that raised over $2 million and features insanely thematic miniatures. Mechanically though, the heart of this game is card-driven area control. But what's interesting about it is that before battles are resolved at the end of the round, there are three phases of card play during the preparation phase. Actions are paid for by discarding cards and at the end of each action, you're going to be drawing more. So, in this way, you're strategically refining your hand preparing for that battle. Battles themselves are interesting too because instead of resolving with dice, you're using your cards with a press-your-luck style mechanic. So, for me, what draws me in isn't actually the miniatures, but the card play mechanic. It sounds really cool. Queen Alice. Now, you're going to hear this described as chess meets a Eurogame. Let me tell you what's going on here. Players are holding a hand of cards. On their turn, they're going to play one card with an illustration of a chess piece. Now, that that chess piece is actually a worker on this chessboard light. Players can move that worker and where the worker lands corresponds to an action and a resource. The catch is those workers move with the same restrictions as traditional chess pieces. They can even capture other pieces. But the whole point of the game

1:31 isn't about capturing a king or getting checkmate. Rather, it's using those pieces to get strategic actions and resources. I think it's super cool to finally see chess movement in a Eurogame. So, yeah, I want to try it out. And number three is 60 Below, a game by Alexander Pfister and Peter Prinz. Now, this game has elements that will be familiar if you've played Great Western Trail. The thing that sets it apart though is the preparation phase before actions are performed. They'll be drawing cards and they can choose when to stop. That's important because there's two types of cards, expedition cards which will go below and storm cards which will cover the stations. Now once those stations are covered, you lose the ability, but the expedition cards are helpful. So when do you stop drawing? It's up to you. Not only that, but if you cover those stations, storm cards can be helpful in another way because you will actually be saving and therefore you'll have more energy. So there's actually a strategic payoff in a press your luck game. For once it's not just like oh, you busted, you lose, but rather you busted, now you get something else instead. How does that influence your decision? Really interesting element here. So that's my take on the top three hottest games according to boardgamegeek. For more of my perspective, be sure to check out my shelfie on the perfectboardgame.com.