Knavecon Boardgame Briefing — Friday, 11 September 2026

Knavecon Boardgame Briefing — Friday, 11 September 2026

A busy week in board games, and an even busier couple of weeks ahead for anyone in Ireland. September is shaping up as a stacked month for crowdfunding, SPIEL Essen hype is ramping up, and Knavecon 27 is now just two weeks away. Here’s what mattered this week.

Clank! turns 10 and heads back to Kickstarter

Dire Wolf launched the Clank! Cube of Holding and The Forgotten Vault campaign on Kickstarter on September 3rd, and it’s been doing strong numbers. The Forgotten Vault is a new expansion with two maps set in a haunted library, and the Cube of Holding is a deluxe storage box designed to hold the entire original Clank! line. On top of that, every base game and expansion is getting a “Master Thief Edition” refresh with rebalanced cards and updated components. There’s a Mastery Pack add-on if you already own everything and just want the upgrades. If you follow Clank! at all, this is the big one. The Dice Tower covered it in their September 10th news stream and it was also featured on the Dice Tower Crowdsurfing segment. The Kickstarter campaign is live here.

Everdell Journeys is flying on Kickstarter

Tycoon Games launched Everdell Journeys on September 8th and it blew past its $35,000 goal almost immediately — it’s now sitting at over 912% funded with about two weeks to go. This isn’t another worker-placement Everdell; it’s a card-drafting game where you’re laying paths of landmark and city cards as a traveler moving through the Everdell world. Different enough to be interesting, familiar enough to draw the crowd. Campaign runs until September 25th. More details at GodisaGeek or directly on Kickstarter.

SPIEL Essen 2026 is going to be enormous

SPIEL announced on September 3rd that this year’s fair will use all eight exhibition halls at Messe Essen for the first time ever — 81,200 square metres of board game madness. They’re expecting up to 230,000 visitors across the four days (October 22–25), which would be a new record. 921 exhibitors from 53 countries. The BGG Essen preview list is already live and growing. If you’re planning a trip, start your homework now. The official press release is on the SPIEL Essen website.

SU&SD wrapped up Board Games Direct 2026

Shut Up & Sit Down have been running their Board Games Direct series — basically a digital convention where they spotlight upcoming games across themed days. They’ve covered thematic games, chill games, co-op and solo games, and two-player games, among others. Over 60 games got a brief spotlight across the whole series. On their latest podcast, Tom and Matt talked about The Queen’s Dilemma — the follow-up to The King’s Dilemma — which is getting very positive early buzz. If you liked King’s Dilemma, this sounds like a proper step forward. Worth digging into the whole BGD series if you haven’t already.

The Lord of the Rings: The King’s Gambit is coming to Kickstarter

Restoration Games and Space Cowboys are bringing The King’s Gambit — a Lord of the Rings reimagining of the classic Star Wars Queen’s Gambit — to Kickstarter this month. It recreates the climax of Return of the King: the Battle of Pelennor Fields, the siege of Minas Tirith, the battle at the port, and Frodo and Sam’s journey to Mount Doom, all running simultaneously on one board. Rob Daviau showed it off at Gen Con and the hype is real. The Limited Edition is Kickstarting in September. If this plays even half as well as the original Queen’s Gambit, it’ll be something special.

Worth tracking next week

Perennial from Flatout Games (the Cascadia folks) hits Kickstarter on September 15th. It’s a puzzly tile-laying game about planting a prairie garden, illustrated by Beth Sobel. If you like Cascadia’s vibe but want something crunchier, this is worth a look. Gift of Tulips: Ribbons arrives on BackerKit on September 16th. And later in the month: City of the Great Machine: The Story Unfolds (September 22nd) and Gallery Gambit (September 28th). On the BGG Hotness, Entropy from Board & Dice has been sitting comfortably in the top 10 for months now — it was reportedly the hottest game at Gen Con and sold out within hours. The September Best of BGG video has the full monthly rundown.

Ireland corner

The big one: Knavecon 27 is September 26th at the Castletroy Park Hotel in Limerick. Two weeks out. Tickets are €20 adults, €10 students/unwaged, kids free with an adult. Full games library, free coffee all day. Get your tickets sorted at victorgannongames.com. If there are games you want in the library, shout now — don’t wait until the day.

Before that, the Glendalough Gaming Retreat runs September 18–20 in Co. Wicklow. Board & Brewed are organising a full weekend of board games, wargames, and RPGs at the Glendalough International Hostel. Tickets are €150 with accommodation or €40 for a day pass, and more than half are already gone. If you fancy a gaming weekend in one of the most gorgeous spots in Ireland, don’t sit on this one.

Comic Con Northern Ireland is next weekend (September 19–20) at the Eikon Centre in Lisburn. It’s more pop culture than board games, but there’s a gaming section and it draws big numbers — over 18,000 last year. Details at comicconnorthernireland.co.uk.

Gaelcon 38 is coming up October 23–26 at the Crowne Plaza Dublin Airport. Ireland’s oldest independent gaming convention — RPGs, board games, card games, LARPs, wargames. Good event if you haven’t been before. Details at iga.ie/gaelcon.

In Dublin, Rogue Gaming in the Liberties continues to build its community — they opened in June and they’re running regular board game nights alongside their TCG events. Worth a visit if you’re in Dublin. And Board Games Ireland on Meetup has weekly game nights running in Celbridge if you’re on that side of the city.

For the Knavecon Facebook community

Knavecon 27 is two weeks away. If you’re coming, get your tickets booked. If you’re bringing games you want to show off, let us know on the Facebook page so we can help get tables organised. And if anyone is heading to Essen in October, let’s talk — there’s always a better deal on games when a few of us coordinate.

One for social media

“SPIEL Essen is using all eight halls this year. 81,200 square metres of board games. 230,000 expected visitors. Meanwhile Knavecon 27 has one hotel function room and a lad called Vic with a coffee machine. Scale is relative. September 26th, Limerick. Come play.”