15 Games At Essen 2026 You Should Definitely Check Out!

0:01 Hey, I'm Alex from Board Gameco. And believe it or not, in two weeks, the largest board game convention in the world is happening. Essence Spill, which happens generally in October every single year, is happening in two weeks. I don't know. Three weeks. Two weeks. Two weeks. In two weeks. Oh my gosh. It's two weeks. I'm not ready. I'm not ready for this. I'm going to Essen. I'm not ready. I don't know if you're ready. But I can tell you this much. Along with Essen coming up on us, there's going to be the usual batch of videos on this channel. I'm going to have hopefully four videos for you. one today, one Friday, and then probably two coming up next week of four different categories of games that are worth having on your radar for better or for worse for Essen. The best video in my opinion is going to be this one. The most helpful, the most useful video is this one, which is going to be 15 games I recommend you check out at Essenceville. These are going to be some games that all of these are games that I've tried. Some of these will be available to demo, some of these available to buy, but these are the ones that I'm actually telling you, I played them, I like them, that's why I think you should check them out. Then from there, there'll be 15 games that I'm interested in. Maybe I'll do 10. Might do 10 or 15. We'll see. But they're going to be the games I'm interested in personally. Honestly, that's one of the least helpful ones from this batch because they're games I'm just kind of vaguely interested in based on what I know so far, but I don't actually have any opinions to offer you. Then there's going to be expansions. Either 10 or 15 expansions to check out. Some of which I've played, some of which I haven't, but those are going to be expansions to uh games that already exist. And then lastly, there's going to be games that were a miss for me. Some of them I actively didn't like. Some of them I just didn't like enough. but a bunch of popular games that for me I I I just don't feel you need to try them and I'll give you my reasons why. But with that, let's go ahead and start off with this

1:32 list. As usual, I get my titles over here over on Board Game Geek. They have an SN list over here with 1300 titles. 1300 titles. As usual, I recommend sorting by thumbs. Not because like the problem with sorting by thumbs is you can miss some real hidden gems. The upside is you can also not have to wade through a thousand games that might not even be on your radar or represent language editions or things or whatever. There's a lot of stuff to go through. I have gone through all 1300 games and putting together these four lists for you. Uh, but that's just my opinion. So, you might still want to go through them yourself. But either way, that's over on BG. You can check that out. And before we dive into this, we are going to start with our bonus pick number 16 because this channel is sponsored by AllPlay. And for our All Play sponsorship today, we're going to go ahead and talk about Enchanted Ivy. Uh, this would be on the list and it would be high up on the list because these are the games I recommend checking out. And I love Enchanted Ivy.

2:21 Honestly, it's kind of gratifying to see that 8.4 rating. Sometimes when I love a game and other people don't, I'm like, I still love it, but like it's just like a little bit aspect of like, okay, fine, maybe it's just me, maybe it's just me. But with an 8.4, it seems like a lot of people are enjoying Enchanted Ivy. I highly recommend checking this one out. Honestly, I'd still include it on this list if not for the fact that I've included on several lists already, and it likely will be on several more lists. I like Enchanted Ivy. I think it's one of the better solo games in my collection. It is so much fun to play with and it's one of those games that I'm excited and happy that they already have more content planned for the game. But with that, we are going to go ahead starting off with number 15 and working our way down. For the most part, these are in order from least to most excited with some caveats. The last three specifically definitely have some caveats around them. We have melodies. Melodies gets a caveat because I played this one time uh and that's one it's I had one demo session at Origins. I want to say they were running demos of this and I really enjoyed my session of it, but I sometimes a single play is good in a way that a second or third or fourth playthrough just doesn't hold up. But I really enjoyed this one. It kind of has a slight aspect to games like Scout.

3:22 You're trying to create this pattern and sequencing trying to work together though. Think Cooperative Scout. That's the kind of the closest way I can put it. A little bit of handshedding, a little bit of timing, a little bit of trick taking to an extent, but it's a very charming game of trying to make match the right tempo of the game through a degree of teamwork and proper planning with your teammates. Again, only played one session, but I really enjoyed that one session. Coming in at number 14, we have Final Titan. Again, lower down over here, only because I played it so long ago. I do wonder if it does hold up. I have not played the final version of this. I only played it during the prototype phase, but this is coming to you from Nerd Lab Games, and it's a game that kind of doesn't feel like it has as much fun as much right to be as fun as it is. And again, speaking of things where sometimes I I'm glad when I see other people have a similar opinion, I've seen a lot of people kind of express that aspect that they really like the game, but it doesn't feel like they should have. This is kind of King of Tokyo to an extent, but it's King of Tokyo with a degree of, I don't know, boss fighting in the arena. You're going to be taking a variety of roster of champions and then facing them off against others, trying to choose the right timing of when you go into the arena versus when you don't. It's very charming, very fun, very minimal on the actual decision space as opposed to like except for when you choose to actually fight. But once you kind of choose your roster, you're kind of locked for the most part. Again, a little bit of agency, not a ton, but it is surprisingly fun to play it out and see who's left standing at the end of it.

4:34 Coming in at number 13, we have Avalon: The Riven Veil. Again, this one's lower down because I played the prototype way back when. So, this is one again, it's got an 8.6 right now, so it's a solid rating, but I played the prototype, loved it. I gave it a five out of five, which is why like I'm hesitant to put it this low down the list, but it's also one of those games that I have not played the final version. I've been meaning to. I supposed to play at a Dar Retreat. It didn't happen. Things, Listen, things happen in the list. I don't always get to all the games I want to, but I do get to a lot of them. But Avalon the Riven Veil, one of the things that has me very excited about it is how much I enjoyed playing through it. I really loved it. But then the problem is from there, the thing has me holding back a little bit is there's been a lot of people who love the experience, but there's been some people I've seen who said who like kind of just say it's a little bit too complicated for what it is and you'd rather just play other similar games. And I remember really enjoying it. I don't remember it being super complicated, but I also played it a while ago. So, I don't know. I am a draw hesitant on whether it'll hold up as much as my experience with it did.

5:24 But it is one I'm very excited to actually dive into. I probably will find a reason or excuse. They have an upcoming uh relaunch for it. So, it's a good time to get more content out for those who want it. Uh, but I need to dive into expansions because I already reviewed it. So, I only re-review games if there's more content or a drastic enough change of opinion. But either way, Aval, if you like games like Blood Rage, if you like that kind of like three rounds facing off against each other, a bunch of monsters and recruiting and all that stuff, this is a very solid game that I felt uh did did things similar to games that I enjoy while being unique enough to stand out. Coming in at number 12, we have Under the Leaves. This one I'm I'm a drop hesitant on as well. It is a little lower as far as uh like this is now now we're moving into games that I have more recent plays and more experience with. But uh from there working up the way our way up the list under the leaves. I've really enjoyed playing this one from 20th Century from Fractal Year goes. 20th Century Games I believe is the distribution. I think maybe I could be wrong with that. Maybe it's maybe someone else. I thought it was 25th Century. But either way, Under the Leaves is a tile lane game where you're trying to accomplish multiple goals, a whole lot of goals. You're trying to get little sections of same colors, but also filling unique goals that are going to be in each game, as well as a specific kind of complicated way you're going to be getting extra tokens onto the tiles depending on the patterns you create. I found it very charming so far. I've played it like five or six times. I really like it. I'm sure I'll have a review for it on the channel at some point, but it's one of those ones that was a surprise hit. I played it once and I was like, do I actually need this? Is other Thailand games? And I've kept playing it. I've kept going back to this game and that's a pretty good sign so far. I do wonder about the long-term longevity, but five six plays in, I still want to keep playing it more. Into the Machine is going to be our next one over here. If these FA pages will load faster, Into the Machine over here is

6:54 one that I've enjoyed a lot. I was looking forward to this one from AEG for a long time. This is a Gen Con release. I picked it up, was very happy with how it actually played. It's one that I was nervous to play because I had played it way back at Dice Tower West 2022, and I've been waiting for the final game to come out for who knows how long. But having played the final game, it is a phenomen. a phenomenally interesting combination of a race, a tableau builder, worker placement game, a little bit of things going all together as you place your workers out onto the grid. I think my review of this has gone up. I suddenly filmed it, but I don't know if the reviews gone up. I'm backlogged on reviews. There's been so much uh there's so much crowdfunding content happening recently that I'm so backlogged on actually putting the reviews out, but but we'll see. Uh anyways, into the machine. Uh I really I really enjoy it. I like the pieces. I like the components. To me, the expansion is a mustave. Without the expansion, I think it's good for a few plays before it gets a little repetitive. I think the expansion really mixes it up and honestly I hope they give you more expansions to really introduce even more tiles for the the various worker placement spots you can go in the game.

7:47 But if you like racing tableau building and worker placement I think this delivers very well at those things. Frosted Blooms over here is our next one. Frosted Blooms again another one where I have a review filmed may not have gone up yet but Frosted Blooms is a delightful tile laying game in a game in a genre that has so many games that the question is can any one game stand out anymore? What can you do differently? And honestly, this doesn't really reinvent the wheel in any drastic way, but it does come together beautifully. Uh both beautifully literally on the table, but also in terms of the mechanics of the game. You're placing out these uh polyomino tiles, draft them in a patchwork style draft. As you place them out onto the board, you're going to be creating larger and larger sections. So, you want to create sections of like like flowers and water in order to score more points. But you also want to create gaps for various buildings, workers, windmills, barns, all those things because those will help you score as well. Trying to merge those two strategies as much as possible. I've seen someone get 125 points from windmill wheels alone, which is insanity, but I've also seen people get 200 plus points from combining their tiles and accomplishing their goals every single round. There's a lot of ways to approach the game. I think you want to merge the different strategies together. Well, uh, again, replay-ability is a minor concern for me. The goals don't feel meaningfully different in the game, but overall, I've been enjoying this one a lot. Then we have Drillers. Another Gen Con release over here. Drillers has delivered for me. Uh, it's one of those games that again, I've heard mixed opinions going into it. It's a game that gives you uh well, first of all, beautiful components across the board, but then it gives you a uh deck building style gameplay. So, think loss of arnack, but very, very different, but kind of scratches that same itch. You're building a deck of cards. You're going down into the mine in order to mine various components, bring them back up, uh sell them, upgrade your deck further, and continue

9:18 that gameplay loop. So, it is mostly pick up and deliver, which is a genre that I don't usually love. In fact, I usually dislike it with some rare exceptions such as Zia Legend of Dress System and a few others. But drillers does work for me mainly because the pick up and deliver as much as it is is present in the game. There's a lot of ways to try to build out your mech and try to build out your driller as you go deep into that earth trying to figure out how deep you want to go, how much you want to ramp up to the top quickly to accelerate and rebuild the different ways you build out your mech as well as your deck of cards. There's a lot going on here. My biggest complaint is it's a game that I think needs new content yesterday. This is a game that feels like it's a few cards or tiles or abilities short of being a full game. What it does have, I love. I've enjoyed it a lot over multiple plays and I'm still happy to dive back into it, but I do think it is one that's going to take it to the next level if or when they put out an expansion. Then we have Lands of Evershade. Lands of Evershade at 8.8.

10:04 Wow, this has got to be one of Awaken Realms best games overall. I am curious where this one lands. It's already 3,000, but it does need more copy. We'll see. We'll see where it goes. Lands of Evershade over here. Again, another one like along with um Avalon. I gave it a five out of five when I first came out when I first covered the prototype. The difference is I've played this a lot since then. I have not played Avalon since then. and Avalon have had just haven't divven into it. But Lands of Evershade is one of those campaign games that gives you a true like RPG-esque experience. There is combat, there is building your character, getting gear, but it's a lot more about the journey and experience you're going to go on with a little bit of combat mixed in just to keep that combat loop interesting while not being so grindy as far as what it's doing that it risks being repetitive. Every single mission is going to give you different kind of experiences to go through, different story elements, different different boards and sheets, different ways you interact with the game state before coming back to a round of combat to round things off. Overall is it delivered so it has delivered an experience the experience that I wanted it to when I first played it. The one downside is at the end of the day it still is a campaign game which means I kind of want to sit down to get like a full arc done and then I don't want to go back to it to the next arc until a while goes past. I find campaign games kind of do take it out of me in a way that I just don't think that they work as well for my lifestyle. That said, Lands of Evershade is still managed to fit into the cracks there because of how good of an experience it is. We have Mech versus Minions. This actually have a reimplement re-implemented version of this. This is the older version. Where's the version tab over here? We have Mech versus Minions Bandal City Edition over here from uh from from uh from Incredible Dream Studios. They have a new version of this game that just came out. It's a old still linked to the old BG listing over here, but this has

11:35 finally come back out. It came out in 2016, which means it's been 10 years out of print, and now it's finally back in print with a few different editions of the game from Incredible Dream. It's one that's worth picking up. This is a highly sought-after game for a reason. There's a reason the aftermarket on this commanded like $3 $400 for a copy. There's a ton of plastic, a ton of gameplay, a great chaos engine of trying to stamp over as many minions as possible with your mechs, hence the name Mecca's minions as you go through a series of 10 plus missions or whatnot, uh, in order to go ahead and build up, level up, uh, augment, grow, and stamp on as many things as possible. Lots of fun. I have not played the new version. This is an opinion based on the old version of the game, which I still have, but definitely one worth checking out now that it's back in print. We have Wildscape over here. Wildcape is one that was one that I was kind of vaguely looking forward to, but wasn't sure if it would deliver. And I've enjoyed my plays of this a lot. This is a habitat building game. You're building a a habitat that's meant to accommodate predators and uh primates and and um herbivores and snakes, those different animal types, all while you try to score points through a ton of things. Through the tokens you place on the table, through the fauna cards you go ahead that gives you your own little minor goals, a bunch of bird cards that will give you in-game and endgame scoring, different things to manage there. This is another one I'll have a review for you soon, if not already. I have to check my content calendar, but I've really enjoyed playing through this one.

12:48 This is from Karma Games, who have done Clans of Calonia, which is an incredible experience. Clans of Calonia is so good. It's such a good game. Anyways, back to Wildcape over here. Wildcape to me arguably is their best game since Clans of Calonia. Really does an excellent job at giving players a ton of different things to do as you build out your habitat, and it's up to you to figure out what is the slight way you can edge things forward in order to score more points than your opponents. Biggest criticism probably going to come down to the fact that there's a ton of iconography, and I don't always find it immediately intuitive. Then we have codeames critical world adventures. Codenames is uh bringing back a new version of code names and it is indeed a new version of code names. This is not just code names rehash with a new theme. There is a new theme to an extent but honestly like one of the big hesitencies for me is I don't care about critical role at all. So I was like I don't know if I'm I'm I'm here for this. But you don't need to be a fan of Critical Role.

13:33 You do to some extent need to enjoy uh the genre of dungeon crawling in general because that'll give you a lot more context of the various clues you have. but also you can use other sets of code names cards in order to play this game with other sets. And if you're like, well then why would I get this set is because it's not just a new rethe themed version of code names. It also gives you a new way to play the game in a uh effectively a cooperative version of code names that works for more than just two players. Codeames duet gave you cooperative code names at a two-player experience. This can be a two to whatever player count you want in theory. Although I'd probably say two to four makes the most sense probably probably. I think it's actually says two to four, but you could you could just group up and have more people involved in the decisions. But I think it would work best at that two to four player count. But it gives you a cooperative code name with character abilities with going through a sequence of link missions as you try to uh get more stuff, level up your characters, deal with increasing the challenges, things similar to things like code names that you have or code names do they have the little kind of mission path you can go on stuff like that, but then mixing elements of the app to an extent where you have more interesting kind of dynamic areas of codeames and it gives you all that in a kind of a new version of codeames. Codeames critical role adventures. Then we have pop art. Pop art to me is one of the biggest surprises I've had this year. I should do a video of top 10 surprises I've had this year. Pop art would absolutely make the list. I think this is tremendous.

14:44 This is from Ruri Wrote infamy who have previously done canvas and this game definitely borrows heavily from what came does in the sense that you have overlaying acrylic uh sheets and cards. You're basically creating a 3x3 grid over here. You're trying to create a 3x3 grid, but you're doing so with a combination of an underlay card and an overlaying card that together will define both the color of the card, which will matter, but will also define the scoring parameters you're trying to go for. There's going to be like, oh, now you're getting five points for each green to the left of this card. Things like that. You're creating a nine by a 3x3 grid, all nine cards. All you're doing, you're drafting the cards as you go. And across those nine cards, you draft combined with different abilities, either tools you can use or scoring conditions. It gives you a game that plays in 20 minutes and gives you a ton of decision space and a very satisfying kind of a, you know, art print that you're putting together as you do. So, really enjoyed this one. Solid game.

15:29 Definitely check it out. Then there's Rick Second Edition. Rick Tech Edition will be there. I believe this one's just to demo if I'm not mistaken. Uh but Rurick is uh one of my favorite games of all time. It's a again speak of speaking of surprises, this is a game that I was expecting nothing from when I first played it way back when. I got it in a kind of trade as part of other stuff. I was like sure, I'll try this game. It wasn't even on my radar. Then I played it, have absolutely loved it ever since. And Fantasia Games is coming out with a new version of the game which I believe will be available to demo at Essenceville. Definitely check it out. They made some changes to the game that for the most part I think are better changes to the system. They cut the game from four rounds down to three, which I was very against in theory when I first heard of that. In practice, the amount of other things they let you do in the game, made it so that that does work. It does work for me overall. But I was very skeptical as far as how that went. Uh, but it's a beautiful version of the game. This is this is the new version.

16:16 This is the new version. Yes, this is the new version. Just making sure. Uh, but it's a beautiful version of the game as far as the art, the production, the prints, all that, the miniatures, everything. Just took the original game experience and made it look better, but then made gameplay tweaks to also be better. Then this Cascadia Alpine Lakes. I have been playing this game a ton. I have played this game like 30 plus times in the past few months. Uh there's a few games I've been really leaning heavily into. Like if you look at my my my uh games played the past, I don't know, two, three months. Easily. My most played games are probably 10. Uh Cascadia Alpine Lakes, Enchanted Ivy. What else would make the cut? Those three for sure make the cut. I have played so much of those games. Uh each of those has been played over 20 times easily, if not more in the past few months. Uh plus everything else I'm fitting in in between there. But Cascadia Alpine Lakes is the newer version of Cascadia. I love Cascadia. I've played it so many times and I've been diving into Alpine Lakes both cooperatively and solo, both competitively and solo. Uh because it gives you a new version of the Cascadia gameplay in a way that's familiar and yet different. It's a new challenge to the way you have to think about things in a way that elevates the heaviness of the game. I think it's amazing.

17:16 Actually, I'm curious with heaviness. This is a 2.41. Original Cascadia is a probably lower than that. A 1.84. That probably checks out. I think it checks out. there's a lot more thinkiness when you're building up in the game. I think both games are phenomenal, but if you're a little bored of Cascadia or if you just want something heavier, Alpine Lakes delivers on that. And then my number one is Calypso, which I believe will be available. And I hesitate to say that Calypso is my favorite game on this list. In fact, uh if you check my videos in like I don't know 6 months, Calypso might be much lower down. I don't know. Uh but as much as I've played so many of these other games an absolute ton, Calypso is one of those games that I played a lot when it was a prototype. But because of that, I'm still very excited for this to deliver. I've been very It gives you that kind of same thinkiness you get from games like Cascadia. So that kind of puzzliness of how am I going to place things in a way that's going to maximize and deliver, but it does so while building up a tableau in a way that's very very satisfying at the same time. For me, the cooperative way to play is the best way.

18:04 The solo or cooperative is the best way to play the game. Competitive is fine, but I'd rather just play Planet Unknown, at least based on when I played it last. I'm happy to play it more and see if my opinion changes. But right now, like I enjoyed it. Nothing wrong with it, but I think where the game shun was a cooperative and or solo gameplay that was just a satisfying experience. Uh when this shows up, you can guarantee that I will have some content for you around either cooperative gameplay, solo game plays, uh updated reviews, things like that. This is a one of my most anticipated games from inside upgame. Uh I really enjoyed this a lot. I'm very excited that this is finally available. I think Essen is the first time you can buy it and I'm excited for people to get their hands on it and see how they feel about the game. Those are your 15 titles plus one, I guess, enchanted Ivy. Those are your 15 titles that I recommend checking out at Essenceville 2026. There are a,300 games on that BG list. Not to mention the various games that aren't didn't even make the cut to the list that will be available. So many creators don't even bother submitting their games. You'll just see them when you're browsing the floor. As well as of course all the other things that are not even games that you can check out. But these are my recommendations. Check them out if you're going there or honestly if you're not. A lot is available in so many different ways anyways. You don't have to be at essence build to check out these titles. In any case, until next time, I'm Alex Radical from Board Gameco. Hope you found this video helpful and as always, I hope you have a good one.