25 Most Anticipated Board Games of Spiel Essen 2026

0:00 Are you ready to talk about the hottest games at Spiel? Spiel is coming up in just under a week and you've probably seen everyone's most anticipated games and everything that they're talking about. So, let's talk about what's actually hot and what's actually hype. Every year, Board Game Geek Admin Purple puts together a geek list filled with all of the rankings, but not just by thumbs, but also with the musthaves, the interested, the undecided, so that each game actually has a more analytical rating for them. So, I'm going to go through it that way. First up is 60 Below. This is the newest game by Alexander Fister. You are going to be exploring Antarctica. This is actually set in the ideas of Shackleton base, not like the game of Shackleton Base, which is actually set on the moon. However, this one I'm calling hype. Yes, B. just hype because all it is is a bunch of treats for you because Alexander Fisser is very popular for Great Western Trail, but they're also very unpopular, I believe, for Blackout Hong Kong as well as the walking through Petra one uh and a few other ones. And El Paso, he even went on to the forums to say, "Yeah, we didn't really test this a lot, so I'm a bit hesitant about this one." The next one is Queen Alice. This one looks really awesome. The art in this is beautiful. The upgraded components are

1:31 really stunning and it has four different mini games and a main mini game where you're going to be largely playing this kind of game of chest. And this one I am calling hot. I actually have the pre-order of the Kickstarter on the way on a ship right now to North America. They're already going to be selling it at Essen, which kind of sucks cuz anyone who's at Essen is going to get it before I get my copy from my Kickstarter backing. Next up, this one is kind of mixed with between hot and hype because I am totally going to call it hot because it is entropy from Simone Luciani and Nester Malone who brought us Newton, which I also love, but people have said that the action selection in this game is cool, but the endgame kind of mechanics uh are a little bit too short. This one is from Board and Dice.

2:17 There's unfortunately not a lot of review copies out there either right now. So, we really can't gauge too much about this. So, it really is more on the hype side than the hot side, but I am very excited for it because of who the designers are. Next up is Time Span from Alexander Oatsby Dr. O and his new company Alion or Allion, I'm not sure how you pronounce it. Um, out of Norway. I love him as a designer. However, the artwork of this game I just do not love at all. But Roto gave it a uh overwhelming review, so I am a little bit excited on it. I will say this is probably in that mid-range between hot and hype as well because not a lot of plays have happened of it. We don't know a lot about it, so it is definitely very hype, but I am excited for it nonetheless. Next up from CGE, their big title Drillers. This sold out at Gen Con. It is expected to sell out at Essen and if you pre-ordered it from their website, you were just starting to get the shipping. Now, I did hear from CGE they had over a thousand sales at Gen Con. Now, a thousand is actually a very small number for a print run, but they do manufacture all of their games out of the Czech Republic. Uh and so their factory there is now been switched over to producing Kingdom Deliverance, which so they've told me that uh Drillers is actually now being manufactured at other factories so that they can help alleviate uh all of the demand uh for their kind of lack of supply that they had at Gen Con. However, that does also once again lead this into more of the hype factor than the hot factor.

3:48 Mechanics themselves, I've watched a couple of playthroughs, is a very cool, interesting deck builder. The theme is really you're kind of have gonna love this this theme to really I think have this game excel because otherwise it's just kind of a basic deck builder. Um Adrenaline was kind of also that same way. Um but Kingdom Deliverance, their other game that's coming out might be a little bit more of a game changer. Next up is Gaudy. This one I am calling hot because it is Danny Garcia. Danny Garcia kind of es and flows between an awesome game and a not so awesome game, but his games are still good. I didn't like coming of age uh last year, but this year god looks amazing. Although it is being published by dve who have not been the best of luck with their rule books. However, I have been told that this rulebook is a bit better from people who have played it and that they have really enjoyed this game. And it's very interesting because this game comes with three different modes of play. You've got this family, solo, and competitive mode. It's kind of got that Azul aspect to it that you can play more casually or you can be a little bit more competitive with which is really cool. Plus, the artwork is beautiful and the components are nice. It's got these nice little chits of uh stained glass that you're going to be doing uh in order to build out the uh I think it's that stained glass covered bridge or not glass. It's just like I think it's just glass um that bridge in Barcelona which is really neat. Um so very excited for this as well as DV is based out of Spain. Um, so I'm going to imagine that the theme in this is very well um thematically baked in uh to the actual mechanics to give

5:19 you this amazing experience. Next up from Alby is Prague Unseen. Alby has been putting out some bangers year over year over the past little while. So I am very excited for this one. This one I actually saw last year at Spiel and I saw this past year at Berlin British Con as a prototype. And so they have been working on this game for quite some time. So, I am excited for the amount of development time that has gone into this to ensure that it is going to be a relatively good game. Um, as well as we're now just starting to see some playthroughs coming through and it does look really interesting. It's you again another one where there's a couple of different mini games going on. Uh, I believe it's four different sections of the of the board. Um, have no idea what the theme is about. I think this is based off of um a tale uh from Prague.

6:06 Uh, so we'll see about that. But I am excited for this one. So, I'm going to give it a hot Delicious Games. New game this year is Chrono Critters. This one I am calling hype. This is in the eighth place so far. Uh, a lot of you really want this game apparently, but there is like no information about it. It will be released in North America by Capstone. That's literally the information I got from the publisher. I reached out to see if there was a a copy available for it. They said I had to go through Capstone. Capstone never got back to me. They haven't even announced it in their newsletters or media newsletters yet. Um, so this one's probably going to be a while before we even get it in North America. So I'm just going up with hype on this one. We just don't have enough information. I mentioned this one a little bit earlier. In number nine, uh, on this list is Kingdom Come: Deliverance. CGE's huge box title. Paul Groen from Gaming Rules seems to love this game. Um, people who are familiar with the video game have loved the game.

7:00 I have no idea what the video game is about. This is a very sandboxy huge lick literally huge physically as well as uh game from Vladthala and uh Thomas Holk who brought you of course STI and Galileo Galilee. So this one has been uh getting a lot of hype and I think it's warranted hype so I will call it hot. Um however it's not a game for me. It's not something I'm going to pick up. So, it's really kind of a maybe a lukewarm hot because you're going to need to be into this theme and you're going to need to be into this style of game to actually have this be hot for you. Number 10 is an expansion which uh or the Lost Ruins of Arnack. Um this one is pretty uh high on the list in its 10th spot. I think if you've got Lost Ruins of Arnac, why not go ahead and grab this expansion? So, we'll call it hot, but I mean it is also hype because it's just an expansion.

7:54 Number 11, another one from Thomas Hollik. You know, they've been on Essen lists for the last three years now. They are hitting it out of the park. This is Night at the Zoo, also from Albi as well. They're hitting it out of the park. Um, so there's kind of this awesome renaissance of of gaming games coming out uh from that region of the world. So, I'm very excited for this. This one is very cool, very light, very strategic. Definitely recommend you grab this one. It's hot. Um, however, grab it with the expansions because you're going to need more content. You're going to very quickly play the heck out of this game and very quickly um, understand different ways of all the way the animals move and so it does need a little bit more variety baked into it. Number 12 is Metico Stefan Feld's new game. However, this is being produced by Pegasus Spiel and they are hit and miss on getting us their games. Civilian or Civil Civilization Civiliz Civil um took a while to come out of North America.

8:51 Their other game uh that came out that year didn't even make it to North America. And so I'm not entirely sold on this, so I'm going to call it hype. Uh have not heard much about the game. Um Pegasus Spiel is once again another one of those publishers that doesn't reach out a lot to uh influencers, so we don't see a lot of this game to understand what it's about. I don't have any press kits available about this game. All I have is everything that you have and so it's just hype for now. This next one, however, I also I have uh thanks to uh Inside Out for sending over a copy of it is Calypso. This one is a really cool tile placement game that you can either play co-op or uh competitive. I have only played it competitive so far, but the co-op mode does sound a really really cool where all four of your player boards connect into one big uh competit uh co-op board, which is cool.

9:39 But competitively, you are going to be drafting tiles, placing them on. The tiles themselves represent garbage that's been floating in the ocean that we're going to try and reclaim uh as foundations for our buildings. Once you've made the proper foundation for the building, you can then build the building. And the building itself is going to give you points and abilities. And away you go. Um very smooth, uh very cool. Although the uh special tiles are designed so that when you're passing the the plate around, they don't fall off of the the plate, which is really cool. and that your board doesn't jiggle around a little bit more. It would have been cool though if the buildings also were made of that same material so that the buildings themselves aren't jiggling around on the board because every time I was trying to stick a building together or maybe put the gardens down between two buildings, I was still knocking my buildings off and around and that was the entire point of this new um innovation in board game uh components.

10:29 So, it's not using magnets. It's like a felt that sticks to each other which is really cool. Um, so not as powerful as Velcro, not as powerful as a magnet. Um, but still pretty cool. Uh, it does give you a very weird sensory texture and it isn't as vibrant of, uh, colorful art as you see other things. So, I'm not sure if this technology itself is going to, uh, lift off with other games. However, Calypso does use this very well and does present very good art, uh, even with the little bit slightly dull appearance of it. 14 is an expansion for Far Away. Hot. Grab it. If you've loved Far Away, grab the expansion. Why not? 18. Another expansion for this time Endeavor Deep Sea Uncharted Waters. This game won the Spiel Dejar. So, this is of course definitely hot. This is an expansion you're going to want to try and pick up.

11:18 Um, it is still in the production life cycle. I do believe it is expected to release fully worldwide in around November. Number 16. This one I am expected is so low. I thought this would be way hotter. This is Carl von Lin from uh Pink Trouidor Games. This is the second in the series around the Galileo Galilee, kind of the famous scientists series. This one, however, is not designed by Thomas Hollik, which is maybe why it's a little bit lower on the list. This is from Michael Pel, uh who is uh the other designer that worked with Thomas on Galileo Galilee, as well as a couple of Thomas' other games. Thomas Hollock actually also works at Pink Trouidor uh as a game developer. So, this does still have his signature in this game. Um, but this one looks amazing. Uh, once again, Paul Grogan from uh, Gaming Rules did a playthrough of this uh, as well as I got a demo of this back in March at Breakout Con um, from Capstone Games. So, I'm really excited to get this one to the table whenever I can manage to get it into my game room. Uh, of course, uh, because this one is also from Capstone. is is going to take a little bit to get to North America. However, this one is expected to release around the same time. Uh so hopefully shortly after Spiel, it will be available to purchase.

12:33 Next up is Greenwood from Furan Spiel, uh who brought us big hit bangers like Feast for Odin. This game I'm going to give it right in between between Hot and Hype. Um Capstone is picking it up. I do trust the games that they choose to bring to North America from Europe. Pure Spiel does produce amazing games, so I do trust that aspect as well. However, I've just heard nothing about Greenwood. I have not seen any playthroughs of it. I have not grabbed my hands on the rule book. Uh, and I've only seen the artwork. And from the artwork alone, it does look a little bit busy. Although most euros are busy, so that's not too unexpected. Um, so I am expecting this to be a little bit medium to crunchy on the Euro side. But with all of the ones we've listed so far, Carvon Lini is the one I'm really really excited for my heavy euro. Uh, so we're Greenwood is kind of out to launch to see still where it will land. This one I think you could go grab a demo of it. Uh, and then decide for yourself. Number 18, another expansion. This one is for harmonies, the Crescendo expansion. If you're a harmonies lover, this is hot for you.

13:33 Otherwise, for me, it's just hype. I don't like harmonies. Number 19, another one from Dere is Shagendo. This one I don't know much about. A friend, I believe, has played it. I didn't hear um anything really good or bad about this one, so this one I'm going to go put it in the hype bucket. Another publisher that has been putting out absolute bangers over the last few years is Perol Loco Games. Their big title this year is Ash's Blackout Protocol. This theme is really not for me, so it's not something that I would call in my hot bucket, but it definitely does uh ring hot to me. They actually have another game also that's been pretty popular called Ninjar that looks a little bit more in my theme range as well. It's more on the medium weight. So, that one for me is also hot. So, I would definitely give a demo of this game first because it is going to be a pretty big purchase. Although, Paralo Games does only bring certain amounts of limited copies as well as they only bring limited copies of promos that they have that add only. So, if you want to be the completionist, you're going to have to get there quickly.

14:34 Isn't that right, Bo? Number 21 is The Mix. This just finished on Kickstarter. This game is much physically larger than I thought it would be. I'm giving this hype. It's all about the artwork and the components of this game. I know, Bo. Yeah, just hype. Uh, so this one I think you can probably give a pass on. We're almost done here on number 22. This is Sethaki. This is the new tea game from David Turtzig. I am not a tea fan, so this is hype for me. However, if you're a teameing fan, this is definitely hot for you because it's his latest title. Otherwise, I think you can pass on it. Number 23 is another expansion. This is the latest expansion for the White Castle called Bokei, I believe is how you'd say it. Uh, this one I have no idea what the expansion is adding. I didn't look too much into the expansion, honestly. Uh, because I don't have this game, so it's hype and hot. My friend did pre-order it, so it's I guess it's pretty hot. Number 24 is Forest Shuffle Smoky Mountains. If you do not have any of the previous for Shuffle games, I recommend you grab for Shuffle Smoky Mountains. This has all of the new mechanics that they've done. It has more balancing in it and it has this beautiful fall autumn artwork that I simply love. Otherwise, this is just hype. Okay, we're almost done bow and then we'll go for a walk. Number 25 is Grey Lon. This one is now available in North America from Pandasaurus Games.

15:51 This is a rethesis but with a much more medieval looking theme. Uh it's very cool mechanics of where you are going to be placing workers and removing workers for different actions and collecting all of your resources using nobo. Um it is up on the shelf behind me to get played. I was supposed to play it last week but we got sick unfortunately. Uh so keep an eye out on my streams for that one. With that said, thanks for tuning in. Please make sure you interact with this video. It definitely helps grow the channel and gives B even more treats. Yes. and play squeakers as you can hear in the background throughout it. And make sure you go check out my Twitch channel, James Stims Games. That's games with a Y because you know I'm gay. Oh, wait. The rainbow's over here. Anyways, we will see you next time. B wants to go outside. Yeah. Okay. Bye-bye.