It’s Essen week. That’s really all you need to know. The biggest board game fair in the world opened yesterday in Essen, Germany, and it’ll run through Sunday. But there’s been plenty else going on too — a major award, crowdfunding that’s still cooking, and a stack of reviews from the usual crew. Busy week.
Spiel Essen 2026 is happening right now
The big show kicked off on Wednesday the 22nd and runs through Sunday the 25th. Saturday is already sold out, and Thursday tickets hit 90% before the doors even opened. The organisers are targeting up to 230,000 visitors this year, which would smash the previous record of 220,000 set in 2019. That’s seven halls, 921 exhibitors from 53 countries, and over 1,500 new titles on show. If you’re not there — and most of us aren’t — the flood of “what I played at Essen” content will start hitting YouTube by Monday. No Pun Included have already posted their “Hottest Games from Spiel Essen” video, and various channels are doing live recommendations from the floor. Worth keeping an eye on the BGG Spiel Essen 2026 GeekPreview page (boardgamegeek.com) for the full list of what’s being shown.
Artengarten wins the Deutscher Spielepreis 2026
The big award of the week. Artengarten, designed by Mathias Wigge and published by Feuerland Spiele, took the Deutscher Spielepreis — Germany’s community-voted game prize, announced on Tuesday at Essen’s press conference. It’s a spinoff of Arche Nova (Ark Nova), which won the same award back in 2022. Second place went to Boss Fighters QR (Pegasus Spiele), and third to Galactic Cruise (PD-Verlag). Matt Leacock’s Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship — the Pandemic reskin — came in fourth, and Rebirth by Knizia placed sixth. Best Children’s Game went to Toriki: Eine Insel voller Abenteuer. The Arche Nova connection is interesting — Wigge and Feuerland clearly know their audience, and the DSP voters rewarded it. (brettspiel-news.de, spiel-essen.de)
Forest Shuffle: Smoky Mountains hits retail this week
The third standalone game in Kosch’s Forest Shuffle series launched at Essen and hit stores simultaneously. This one’s set in the Great Smoky Mountains and adds water-based terrain and new species — herons, bass, otters, black bears. The Dice Tower reviewed it back in August and it’s been on a lot of anticipation lists. If you liked Forest Shuffle (and a lot of people did), this is a day-one pickup. Lookout Spiele timed the release perfectly for the Essen crowd. (Polygon, Lookout Spiele)
Tidal Blades 2: Wardian Sky is crushing it on Kickstarter
Druid City Games launched the Tidal Blades 2 expansion campaign on October 13th and it’s sitting at 1,336% funded with a week left to go. It’s a narrative campaign dungeon-crawl with worker placement and dice upgrading, and the original game has a devoted following. If you’re into campaign games, this is worth a look before it closes on October 30th. Separately, Panopticon on Gamefound has hit 251% — it’s a cooperative adventure game from Pick ‘N’ Roll Games Lab. Firesiege, a co-op tower defense game, closes on October 28th on Kickstarter. (Kickstarter, Meeple Mountain crowdfunding roundup)
Dice Tower had a big review week
Tom Vasel and crew covered a pile of games in their October 19th Week in Review. The standouts: Avalon: The Riven Veil got a 7.5 — an Arthurian area-control game with solid multi-use cards but reportedly clunky rules. Prague Unseen scored a 7 — worker placement, four factions restoring Prague, nice visuals but thin theme. They also covered Greenwood, Pirates of Maracaibo, Drawing Dead, and an Army of Darkness game. Worth scanning their channel if you’re looking for something new to bring to the table. (Dice Tower)
What’s worth tracking next week
The Essen aftershock is the big thing. By Monday, every content creator who attended will be posting their top picks, hidden gems, and disappointments. That’s when the real signal comes through — not the preview hype, but the “I actually played this and here’s what I think” takes. Watch the BGG Hotness list next week too. It always reshuffles after Essen as people log new plays and the buzz games climb. Right now the Hotness includes Kingdom Crossing, Arctica, Not Alone Remastered, Braided Skies, Greenwood, Excursions, and An Infamous Traffic 2nd Edition. Expect Essen darlings to start appearing there by midweek. (Board Game Hangover)
Ireland
Gaelcon 38 starts today. October 23rd through the 26th at the Crowne Plaza Dublin Airport — Ireland’s longest-running gaming convention, in its 38th year. RPGs, board games, card games, LARPs, wargames, trade hall, pub quiz, charity auction. If you’re reading this and you’re anywhere near Dublin this weekend, go. (iga.ie/gaelcon)
DARECon 2026 happened last weekend (October 17–18) in Naas — hope people got along to that. The more Irish conventions that exist and thrive, the better for the whole scene.
Coming up: the CATAN Irish National Championship 2026 is on Saturday, November 14th. Winners represent Ireland at the Worlds in 2027 and the Europeans in 2028. Tickets are on Eventbrite. (Eventbrite)
On the retail side, Rogue Gaming in Dublin is still relatively new and worth supporting — they’re running regular TCG events and have board games and RPGs. Meeps Gaming continues to be a solid independent Irish online retailer for board games. And the usual Dublin shops — Gamers World, The Warchest in Dún Laoghaire — are still your best bets for browsing in person.
Knavecon 27 ran last month and was great. We’re already thinking about the next one. More on that when there’s something to announce.
One for social media
Artengarten — a spinoff of Ark Nova — just won the Deutscher Spielepreis. Essen Saturday sold out before the doors opened. Forest Shuffle has a third standalone game. Whatever you think about the state of the hobby, it doesn’t look like a hobby that’s slowing down.
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