Knavecon Boardgame Briefing — Friday, 25 September 2026

A big week, and an even bigger weekend. Crowdfunding campaigns are wrapping up, Essen previews are flooding in, and — oh yeah — Knavecon 27 is tomorrow. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Here’s what happened in board games this week.

The Clank! 10th anniversary campaign is closing in on $1.75 million on Kickstarter, with the campaign ending around October 1st. The Cube of Holding storage solution and The Forgotten Vault expansion have clearly hit a nerve with the Clank! faithful. Dire Wolf have been drip-feeding content all month — Master Thief Editions, upgrade packs, the lot. If you’re a Clank! person, the clock’s ticking. Campaign page on Kickstarter.

Everdell Journeys closes today. Tycoon Games ran the campaign to over 900% of its $35k goal, landing somewhere north of $319k. It’s a card-drafting spin on the Everdell world rather than a straight expansion — different system, different feel. The deluxe version scales up to 10 players with solo and co-op modes, which is ambitious. Delivery estimated August 2027. If you’ve been sitting on it, today is literally your last chance. Everdell Journeys on Kickstarter.

Horror on the Orient Express is landing in people’s hands. Chaosium’s massive Call of Cthulhu board game adaptation — which Kickstarted back in 2024 — has started shipping. BGG chatter from the “Best of BGG September” video confirms copies are reaching backers now. It’s a 1-4 player co-op adventure designed by Adam Kwapiński, and early word-of-mouth sounds positive. Paul Grogan from Gaming Rules! has already put up a full playthrough on YouTube. One to watch if you’re into narrative co-ops.

Garphill Games’ The Great Sea is heading to Kickstarter soon — their social media says one week out as of September 15th, so the campaign should be live any day now. It’s a Phoenician maritime trade game for 2-4 players, part of their Ancient Anthology series, with Renegade handling retail distribution (pre-orders showing a November 2026 date on their site). If you like what Garphill have done with the West, North, and South Trilogy games, this is very much in that wheelhouse. Renegade product page.

Entropy continues to sit on the BGG Hotness at position 16, which is remarkable for a game that’s been hovering there since it was announced back in January. The Luciani/Battista/Mangone design from Board&Dice — a cosmic civilisation-building Euro about creating life across the galaxy — is shaping up as possibly the most anticipated Essen release. It featured heavily in the 401 Games Essen preview and keeps getting namechecked everywhere. If you’re heading to Essen October 22-25, this’ll be the queue.

Speaking of Essen, the SPIEL Essen 2026 preview list is now live on BGG. Over 1,700 new products listed. The ticket shop is open. All eight halls of Messe Essen will be in use. If you’re planning to go, start thumbing things on the preview list now so you can sort your schedule. It’s less than a month away.

On the review front, Shut Up & Sit Down covered Otter on their podcast on September 10th — a climbing/shedding card game that apparently got a good reception. Their Board Games Direct 2026 series earlier in the summer previewed over 60 upcoming titles across seven themed episodes, which remains a great resource if you’re trying to figure out what’s worth tracking. The Dice Tower’s Week in Review for September 7th covered Wild Magic and a few others. It’s been a quieter week for the big reviewers — everyone’s saving their powder for Essen season.

Worth tracking next week: City of the Great Machine: The Story Unfolds is live on Kickstarter now with $165k raised from 2,300 backers — the expansion to CrowD Games’ asymmetric steampunk game, running until mid-October. Gallery Gambit launches September 28th. And the Food Chain Magnate Special Edition leftover copies campaign went live on Gamefound September 1st — if you missed the original campaign and want that Lucky Duck treatment, check if copies remain.

Ireland

Right then. Knavecon 27 is tomorrow. Saturday, September 26th, Castletroy Park Hotel, Limerick. Doors at 10am, running until the wee hours. €20 adults, €10 students/unwaged, kids free with an accompanying adult. Full games library, free coffee all day, raffle. If you haven’t got your ticket yet, sort it at victorgannongames.com. Cork people allowed under license, as always.

Looking ahead, DARECon 2026 is the next Irish board game convention on the calendar — October 17-18 at the Osprey Hotel in Naas, Co. Kildare. It’s run by Naas Board Game Club and features two days of open play, organised games, and family tables. Tickets are on Fienta and Eventbrite, ranging from free (kids under 10) to €25 for a weekend pass, with half-price concessions. Worth supporting — the more Irish board game events that exist, the better for everyone.

After that, Gaelcon 38 runs October 23-26 at the Crowne Plaza Dublin Airport. Ireland’s oldest independent gaming convention — RPGs, board games, card games, wargames, LARP, the lot. Advance board game bookings are on Warhorn.

So between Knavecon tomorrow, DARECon in three weeks, and Gaelcon a month out, it’s a genuinely good autumn for tabletop in Ireland.

For online shopping, BoardGamer.ie in Waterford continues to operate as a solid Irish-based option with free delivery over €90. Meeps Gaming is another Irish indie shop worth a look. Dublin-side, Rogue Gaming on Instagram looks active for TCG and board game events. If anyone knows of new shops or regular game nights popping up around Munster, drop it in the Knavecon Facebook group — always good to have that info shared.

Talking point for the Knavecon community: Tomorrow’s the day. Sixteen hours of gaming. If you’re bringing a game you want to get to the table, post it in the Facebook group today so people can read up on rules tonight. Nothing worse than spending the first hour of a con teaching a game nobody’s prepped for. See you all in the morning.

One for social: “Knavecon 27 tomorrow. Sixteen hours of board games, free coffee, and Cork people allowed under license. This is what September is for. See you in Limerick.”

Knavecon Boardgame Briefing — Tuesday, 22 September 2026

Four days out from Knavecon 27 and it’s a good week to be paying attention. There’s a new Kickstarter launching today, Essen Spiel is exactly a month away, and a couple of crowdfunding campaigns are in their final stretch. Let’s get into it.

The big thing landing today is Bookwyrm, a cozy midweight strategy game about book-hoarding dragons organising their shelves. It’s 1-4 players, designed by Lizzy Ives at Sword & Rose Press, and it goes live on Kickstarter today. The pitch is charming — it’s a spatial puzzle where new books keep arriving from the bookshop and you’re trying to curate a glorious collection without it descending into chaos. They tried the traditional publisher route, got nowhere, and are self-publishing. A Place For All My Books proved there’s an audience for this kind of theme, and this looks like it goes a bit deeper mechanically. Worth a look if that kind of thing appeals.

The Clank! Cube of Holding and The Forgotten Vault Kickstarter is heading into its final week, sitting at about $707k from nearly 5,800 backers. Dire Wolf are celebrating 10 years of Clank! with a new expansion, a deluxe storage cube, and updated Master Thief Edition components across the whole line. If you’re already a Clank! person this is probably a no-brainer, but the Mastery Pack upgrade path for existing copies is a nice touch — you don’t have to rebuy everything. Campaign page here. Ends September 29th.

Meanwhile, Space King: The Board Game from Flashgitz — the Warhammer 40K parody from the YouTube animation lads — has blown past $4 million on Kickstarter with a few days left (ends September 25th). It’s a HeroQuest-style minis-heavy dungeon crawl thing. The numbers are absurd for what’s essentially a comedy IP board game, with pledges averaging over $370 per backer. There’s apparently a trademark dust-up with Games Workshop brewing too, which is entirely on brand. Tech Times covered the phenomenon here. Not for everyone but the crowdfunding numbers tell their own story.

On the BGG Hotness this month, Entropy from Board&Dice (Luciani, Battista, Mangone) is sitting at #10 and continuing to generate buzz since its GenCon debut. It’s the rondel-driven eurogame about building solar systems and evolving life. Reviews have been broadly positive — Meeple Mountain gave it a “Fair” but BGG ratings are sitting at 7.8 from 500+ ratings, which is solid. If you like crunchy euros from the Teotihuacan/Messina 1347 school, this is the one to track heading into Essen.

Essen itself — SPIEL 2026 runs October 22-25 — and the BGG preview list has been live since early September. Deep Print Games have their pre-order system running through the official app, and publishers are now in full preview mode. If you’re going, or even just tracking what’s coming, the BGG preview list is the place to start.

In Ireland, the only thing that matters this week is Knavecon 27 on Saturday. Castletroy Park Hotel, Limerick, 10am, running into the small hours. Tickets are €20 adults, €10 students/unwaged, kids free with an adult. That includes the games library and free coffee all day. The raffle is reportedly a big one this year. If you haven’t sorted your ticket yet, this is the week. After that, Gaelcon 38 is the next big one on the calendar — October 23-26 at the Crowne Plaza Dublin Airport in Santry. Four days of RPGs, board games, LARPs and wargames. Their online RPG tickets are already on sale. Beyond those two, I couldn’t find any new Irish game shop openings or local event announcements in the last couple of days — if you know of something happening, drop it in the comments.

For the Knavecon community specifically: if you’re coming Saturday, have a think about what you want to play. The library will be massive as always, but if you’ve a game you’ve been dying to try, bring it along and rope people in. That’s how the best Knavecon sessions happen.

One for social media: “Bookwyrm launches on Kickstarter today — a cozy strategy game about dragons hoarding books. Meanwhile Clank! is about to close out its 10th anniversary campaign at over $700k and Space King has somehow cracked $4 million for a Warhammer parody game. Oh, and Knavecon 27 is Saturday. See you in Limerick.”

Knavecon Boardgame Briefing — Friday, 18 September 2026

A properly stacked week in board games, and honestly one of those weeks where there’s enough going on that you could lose an afternoon just reading about it all. Essen season is cranking up, crowdfunding is relentless, and there’s a major leadership change at one of the hobby’s most iconic publishers. Plus, Knavecon 27 is exactly one week away. Let’s get into it.

Steve Jackson steps down. The biggest industry story this week is Steve Jackson stepping down as CEO of Steve Jackson Games after decades running the company. Sabrina Gonzalez, who’s been with SJG since 2013, takes over as CEO, and Allison Page moves up to COO. Jackson says he’ll stay on to help design games, though it’s not clear whether that’s full-time or more of a winding-down role. Either way, end of an era. The man basically defined a corner of this hobby. Gonzalez’s statement was solid — she talked about weathering the pandemic, navigating tariff changes, and wanting to keep developing new titles alongside supporting the classics. No drama, just a clean handover. (ICv2, Tabletop Battles)

Clank! turns 10, makes a million dollars. The Clank! 10th anniversary Kickstarter — “Cube of Holding and The Forgotten Vault” — launched on September 9th and absolutely flew past its funding goal, hitting over $1 million at 2000%+ funded. It’s a deluxe storage solution plus a new expansion, and Dire Wolf are offering Master Thief Edition upgrades for the entire original Clank! line. If you’re a Clank! person, this is as good as it gets. If you’re not, this probably won’t convert you, but the campaign numbers speak for themselves. (Dire Wolf, r/boardgames)

Everdell Journeys hits 912% on Kickstarter. Tycoon Games launched Everdell Journeys on September 8th and it’s now sitting at over $146,000 against a $35,000 goal. This one’s interesting because it’s not just another Everdell expansion — it’s a card-drafting game set in the Everdell world, a different system to the worker-placement core game. Players lay paths of landmark and city cards. The deluxe edition scales up to 10 players, which is mad but could be brilliant for convention play. Campaign ends September 25th. (GodisaGeek, Kickstarter)

Rheinlander is back, and it’s gorgeous. Knizia’s 1999 area control game Rheinlander has been given the full 25th Century Games treatment with Ian O’Toole art and new expansion modules designed by Knizia himself. Game Boy Geek put out a review earlier this month calling it “Acquire with area control,” which is a hell of a pitch. It plays under an hour, it’s card-driven, and O’Toole’s work on it looks stunning. This is the kind of Knizia reissue that could genuinely find a new audience. Due in September/October. (Bitewing Games preview, Game Boy Geek review)

Dune: Imperium – Conspiracy confirmed for fall. Dire Wolf’s next Dune: Imperium expansion is called Conspiracy and introduces an asymmetric “Overthrow Mode” where one player is the Emperor and the rest team up to take them down, 3v1 style. It’s cross-compatible with both Dune: Imperium and Uprising. Pre-orders are showing an October 31st date. If you’re already deep into Dune: Imperium, this feels like a must-have. If you’re not, well, Dune: Imperium remains one of the best deck-builders of the last five years and this might be the excuse to jump in. (Screen Rant, BGG)

Worth tracking next week: City of the Great Machine hits Kickstarter on September 22nd. The Food Chain Magnate Special Edition on Gamefound is down to its last copies from the print run — if you’ve been on the fence, the fence is about to disappear (Gamefound). And the BGG Hotness is currently being dominated by Entropy (Board&Dice), Horror on the Orient Express, Medico, Dewan, and Avalon: The Riven Veil — all jostling for attention ahead of Essen preview season. SPIEL Essen itself runs October 22–25 and the BGG preview list is already filling up (BGG Previews).

Ireland round-up. This is a big weekend. The Glendalough Gaming Retreat run by Board & Brewed is happening right now — September 18–20 in Wicklow, with board games, wargames, and RPGs in the mountains. Non-residential tickets were €40, residential €150pp, but they were selling fast so might well be gone by now (Board & Brewed). Meanwhile Board Games Ireland on Meetup has a game night coming up in Celbridge on the 17th and Dublin on the 23rd (Meetup). Looking further ahead, DAREcon in Naas is October 17–18 (darecon.ie), Gaelcon 38 — Ireland’s longest-running gaming convention — is October 23–26 at Crowne Plaza Dublin Airport (iga.ie/gaelcon), and Comic Con Northern Ireland is this weekend too if that’s your thing (cons.ie). The Irish tabletop scene is in good health — Rogue Gaming opened in Dublin’s Liberties back in June, Board & Brewed continues to be excellent in Dún Laoghaire, and Imirt in Naas is still going strong.

And of course: Knavecon 27 is next Saturday, September 26th, Castletroy Park Hotel, Limerick. Kicking off at 10am and running into the small hours. The raffle is shaping up to be a big one. If you haven’t sorted your ticket yet, now’s the time.

One for social media: “Steve Jackson stepping down from Steve Jackson Games after all these years. Whatever you think of Munchkin, the man shaped an entire corner of tabletop gaming. Meanwhile Clank! just turned 10 and raised a million quid in a week. This hobby doesn’t slow down.”