Decent week. Not a blockbuster, but Gen Con is six days away and that’s colouring everything — publishers are holding their biggest announcements, reviewers are packing bags, and BGG is filling up with preview lists. In the meantime, we got SUSD’s Board Games Direct, a strong Dice Tower roundup, some crowdfunding worth noting, and the ongoing glow from Knizia’s Spiel des Jahres clean sweep.
The five things that mattered this week
Shut Up & Sit Down dropped their second Board Games Direct video on Monday — their digital alternative to a convention show floor. This one was the “Chewy & Chunky” edition, covering meatier games including Guards of Atlantis II (third printing), Stag, Six Sojourns, Gunsen: The Battle for Toshi Ranbo, Bridges of Shangri-La, and something called DIABLES. Whisperwood also got a spotlight — it’s heading to Kickstarter on August 11th from Cardboard Alchemy, a cooperative game about healing a corrupted forest. SUSD’s Board Games Direct series has quietly become one of the best ways to discover upcoming games without sitting through trade show footage, and this batch looks strong. Worth watching the full video on their site.
Tom Vasel’s Week in Review for July 20th covered two games worth flagging. Dwarves of Elvenland — the follow-up to Nidavellir — got a 9.5 from Tom. He called it “basically Nidavellir with new scoring methods,” which is high praise given how much he loved the original. Caveat: the Dice Tower is distributing it at Gen Con, so take the gushing with a grain of salt, but Nidavellir fans should have this on their radar. He also gave a 9 out of 10 to another title for its mechanisms and theme. The Dice Tower’s Week in Review is on YouTube.
Gen Con 2026 kicks off next Wednesday, July 30th, and the BGG preview list is already massive. Games generating the most pre-show buzz include The Crew: Journey to the Ends of the Earth (the third Crew game from Kosmos), Forest Shuffle: Smoky Mountains, Circadia, Honeypot, Forbidden Legacy, and Bordeaux. The Gen Con Watchlist on BGG is a good resource — have a look here. Plaid Hat have also announced their Gen Con plans, and Lacerda did a cover reveal for The Resort, his next big euro. If any of these sound like Knavecon games, they probably are.
The Dice Tower’s Crowdsurfing episode from July 22nd covered the latest crop on Kickstarter, Gamefound and Backerkit. Meeple Mountain’s crowdfunding roundup highlights En-nichi — a cozy Japanese festival game ending August 11th — and Goalix, a flicking-based tabletop football game. Over on Gamefound, Relive Alexandria launched mid-July, a fully asymmetric game set during the era of the Great Library. The crowdfunding space is quieter than usual pre-Gen Con, which is normal — expect a flood in August. Dice Tower Crowdsurfing here, Meeple Mountain roundup here.
On the BGG Hotness, Siege Perilous — an Arthurian adventure game — is sitting at position 21. Brass: Birmingham is still lurking in the mid-20s as it always does. The BGG Climbers list for the week ending July 22nd is up (here on BGG), with Entropy, Container, and Stonemaier’s Duel of Meloch all climbing. Board Game Quest named Duel of Meloch — the Scythe vs Expeditions duelling game — to their best of 2026 so far list, which is a solid endorsement.
Worth tracking next week
Gen Con, obviously. That’s the main event. Expect a tsunami of announcements, demos, and hot takes from July 30th onwards. The big question: what does Stonemaier bring beyond Duel of Meloch? They’re exhibiting with Meeple Source at booth 2909 and will also be at Essen in October. The Crew: Journey to the Ends of the Earth could be the sleeper hit of the show — the first two Crew games are all-timers. Whisperwood’s Kickstarter launches August 11th. And Dice Throne teased Nexus, a cyberpunk-themed line, for a Kickstarter later this autumn — that’s one to bookmark.
Ireland
Rogue Gaming opened in The Liberties, Dublin on June 6th. It’s now Dublin’s newest dedicated tabletop gaming space — board games, RPGs, trading cards — and it’s already showing up on the Wizards Store Locator running regular Commander nights and events. If you’re in Dublin, it’s worth checking out alongside the established spots like Gamers World, The Warchest in Dún Laoghaire, and Board And Brewed. Rogue Gaming’s site here.
The Irish Gaming Market Summer Edition ran July 11-12 at the Royal Marine Hotel in Dún Laoghaire. That’s already happened, but if you missed it, the next thing on the calendar worth knowing is the Irish Card Market on August 15th, same venue. Gaelcon 38 — Ireland’s longest-running gaming convention — is October 23-26 at the Crowne Plaza Dublin Airport. Details at iga.ie/gaelcon.
For regular gaming, the Board Games Ireland Meetup group is still running their Sunday sessions at The Black Sheep on Capel Street, Dublin — free, casual, bring-your-own-games setup. Meetup page here. If you know of anything happening in Munster between now and Knavecon, throw it in the Facebook group — I haven’t been able to find anything scheduled down this way for the summer, which is a shame.
For the Knavecon community
Gen Con is next week and the preview lists are enormous. If you’re the kind of person who likes to know what’s coming before it hits your FLGS in September, now’s the time to start following the BGG Gen Con Preview list and the various YouTube channels that’ll be doing floor coverage. The games that do well at Gen Con tend to dominate autumn tables. Worth keeping a shared wishlist going in the Knavecon Facebook group so we can coordinate who’s getting what for the next event.
One for the socials: “Shut Up & Sit Down are now doing a better job of previewing games than most actual conventions. Board Games Direct is free, you can watch it in your pants, and nobody queues for two hours to play a 15-minute demo. The future is now.”
Victor Gannon Games 
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