It’s Essen week, basically. Everything in board gaming right now is pointing toward Thursday when Spiel Essen 2026 opens its doors in Germany. That’s dominating the conversation, but there’s still a few things happening closer to home and in the wider hobby that are worth your time today.
Osprey Games is done with board games. This one landed last week but it’s still reverberating. Osprey Games — the publisher behind the Undaunted series, Imperium, and a bunch of other well-regarded designs — has let go of its entire board and card game development team and cancelled its Essen booth. Parent company Bloomsbury announced back in May that it wanted to sell the board game line, and now it looks like the axe has properly fallen. They say the last two titles, Undaunted 2200: Revolution and Upland & Prairie, will still ship as planned. Osprey will continue doing wargaming rulebooks and RPGs, but the board game chapter is closed. It’s a real loss — they punched well above their weight for years. Full story at BoardGameWire.
Essen Spiel 2026 kicks off Thursday. October 22–25 in Messe Essen. The preview list on BGG is live and the content creators are all in full preview mode. The games getting the most buzz: Jamey Stegmaier’s Braided Skies (set in the Smoking Bones universe — Stonemaier’s big release), Gaudí from Devir (a tile-laying game by Dani Garcia that looks gorgeous), Avalon: The Riven Veil (area control from the Oathsworn team — already generating mixed-but-mostly-positive reviews), Greenwood, For the Gods! from Mighty Boards, and the inevitable Kingdom Come Deliverance: The Board Game. If you can’t be there, the BGG preview page is the best way to track what’s dropping.
The Dice Tower’s Week in Review covered a good spread. Tom and Chris reviewed Avalon: The Riven Veil — Tom seemed to enjoy it, Chris gave it a 7.5 but flagged clunky rules and iconography issues. They also covered Greenwood, Restore, Prague Unseen, Drawing Dead, and others. Worth a watch if you want a quick temperature check on what’s landing right now. Dice Tower Week in Review – October 19.
Lord of the Rings: The King’s Gambit is still running on Kickstarter. Restoration Games’ reimplementation of Star Wars: The Queen’s Gambit (the beloved 2000 grail game) launched on September 29 and appears to be doing well. It plays out the final battles of the Lord of the Rings across four theatres simultaneously — Minas Tirith, Pelennor Fields, the Black Gate, and the journey to Mount Doom. It’s ambitious, lavish, and probably expensive. If you ever wanted Queen’s Gambit but couldn’t stomach the aftermarket prices, this is your shot. Campaign page on Kickstarter.
BGG Hotness right now is full of Essen anticipation. Board Game Hangover posted their October rundown — Braided Skies, Kingdom Crossing, An Infamous Traffic second edition, Rebirth II, and Arctica are all trending. Drillers from CGE is sitting at position 10 on the current BGG Hotness. Magical Athlete and Gaudí also appeared in the latest Best of BGG video. Expect the whole list to get shaken up by Friday once Essen demos start.
On the Irish front. DARECon 2026 just wrapped up over the weekend — October 17–18 at the Osprey Hotel in Naas, Co. Kildare, run by Naas Board Game Club. Two days of open play, RPGs, wargaming, and family gaming. Hope anyone who went had a great time — the more of these events we have on the island, the better.
Next up for Ireland: Gaelcon 38 runs this coming weekend, October 23–26, at the Crowne Plaza Dublin Airport. Ireland’s oldest independent gaming convention, going since 1989. RPGs, board games, card games, LARPs, wargames, plus a trade hall and charity auction. Hotel rooms at the convention rate are €185/night single or €195 double. Details at iga.ie/gaelcon.
Also spotted: Cork Explore & Connect posted about a board games meetup that ran last week, sounding positive. And the Cork Action League continues its Monday night sessions at Bodega on Cornmarket Street at 6:30pm — always a good shout if you’re down that way. On BGG’s Ireland forum, there’s also a thread about a gaming group forming in East Cork/Midleton, which is good to see.
For the Knavecon community specifically — with Essen running this week, expect a flood of new hotness and impulse buys over the coming days. If you’re watching for games to bring to the next Knavecon, keep an eye on Braided Skies, Greenwood, and Gaudí as likely candidates for the tables. And if anyone’s heading to Gaelcon this weekend, report back.
One for the socials: “Osprey Games shutting down their board game line is a proper shame. Undaunted, Imperium, Crab Rage — they had genuine taste. Hope whoever’s behind those designs lands somewhere good.”
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