Knavecon 27 was three days ago and hopefully you’ve all recovered. Good timing to get back to the news because there’s a decent amount happening this week, mostly driven by Essen Spiel being less than a month out and the crowdfunding cycle turning over.
Essen preview season is properly underway. Asmodee dropped their full SPIEL Essen 2026 lineup last week — the headline is the show launch of Forest Shuffle: Smoky Mountains from Lookout Games and an advance preview of The Lord of the Rings: Circle of Conflict from Office Dog. Shut Up & Sit Down had already flagged Circle of Conflict back in their Board Games Direct coverage over the summer and it looked interesting then. Asmodee are also bringing a LEGO Ninjago game from Dotted Games, which is presumably aimed at the family market. The BGG Essen preview list is now live and self-service, so publishers are adding their games daily. If you’re heading to Essen on October 22–25, now’s the time to start building your hit list. Asmodee announcement via Nasdaq, BGG preview list, BoxedMeeples Essen preview video.
The Dice Tower’s Week in Review dropped yesterday and they covered a pretty solid batch: Heroscape Secrets of the Citadel, Greylune, Minikin City, Glimmerdeep, Kingdomino The Lost Treasures, DECKO, Kronologic Babylon 2500, Carcassonne Labyrinth, and — yes — Monopoly Over Three Generations, which apparently exists now. Of that lot, Glimmerdeep and Greylune are the ones getting the most chatter on BGG. Worth a scan if you’re looking for something new. Dice Tower Week in Review.
Several crowdfunding campaigns are wrapping up today and this week. Barbaric: Crown of the Frost on Gamefound ends today — it blew past its $20k goal and is sitting somewhere north of $140k. It’s an expansion for the post-apocalyptic duelling game Barbaric: After the Apocalypse from Hexa House. Tangled Yarns, a co-op cosmic horror game with adorable sheep (yes, really), ends October 1 on Kickstarter. Over on Meeple Mountain’s crowdfunding roundup, Capitalize (Kickstarter, ends Oct 2), Dinomada (Gamefound, ends Oct 4), and Lionwake are all live and funded. Board Game Quest crowdfunding roundup, Meeple Mountain roundup.
Entropy continues to dominate BGG. Board&Dice’s big 2026 release designed by Luciani, Battista, and Mangone — the lads behind Grand Austria Hotel, Tiletum, and Barrage between them — is still sitting in the BGG Hotness at position 16 after selling out in two hours at Gen Con. It’s a cosmic engine-builder with a double orbital rondel, which is exactly the kind of sentence that makes euro gamers weak at the knees. If you haven’t looked into it yet, it’s probably the most-talked-about heavy game of the year. BGG page, Meeple Mountain review.
Shut Up & Sit Down teased four videos for September — including Emily on a small eurogame and Matt on a “much hyped” eurogame — but I can’t confirm whether the latest ones have landed in the last 48 hours. Their Innovation episode went up on their discussion forums on September 11 as part of their 100 Best Games series, which is always worth following. SU&SD September preview.
Games worth watching: Everdell Journeys is on Kickstarter and seems to be doing well. The Great Sea from Garphill Games (distributed by Renegade) is up for pre-order and promises a heavier, more interactive take on the Ancient Anthology series — that’s SJ Macdonald and Zach Smith rather than Shem Phillips at the design helm. Expected later this year. And the Gloomhaven: Buttons & Bugs – Pub Crawlers expansion is fulfilling internationally through late September, so some of you may have that landing soon.
For the Knavecon community: If you were at Knavecon 27 on Saturday, post your highlights and what you played in the Facebook group. Those posts are genuinely useful — they help people discover games they might not have tried, and they keep the community ticking over between events. DARECon in three weeks is an easy trip if you fancy another convention fix before Gaelcon.
One for social media: “Essen Spiel is less than a month away and the preview list is already massive. Meanwhile Entropy sold out at Gen Con in two hours and is still burning up the BGG Hotness. Good time to be into board games.”
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