Quiet enough Tuesday overall, but we’re in the middle of the Essen hangover and there’s still plenty to chew on. Spiel Essen 2026 wrapped up on Sunday after drawing 230,000 visitors — a new record — across eight halls. The dust is still settling and first impressions are flooding in from every corner of the hobby media. Here’s what’s worth your attention today.
The Essen afterglow is real. No Pun Included dropped their Hottest Games from Spiel Essen roundup, and it’s two hours of Efka and Elaine working through everything they played on the show floor. Queen Alice from Combo Games was the darling of the show — a mid-heavy euro with chess pieces, engine-building, and gorgeous artwork by Amelia Sales. It sat at #2 on the BGG Hotness going into the show and it’s still sitting there now. If you like your euros a bit weird and beautiful, this is the one to track. Avalon: The Riven Veil from Shadowborne and the Cold War area-control game -60° were the other two massive buzz generators. Wargamer also ran a nice best-of-show roundup covering some gems that aren’t getting as much attention — Mole Racing, Kinsokuchi, and a horror TCG called Hellbreak that apparently turned heads. Also from Graven Games, worth a look if you want quick hits rather than two-hour videos.
The Osprey Games situation got worse. We covered the Bloomsbury sale announcement back in May, but BoardGameWire reported on October 16th that Osprey has now let go of its entire board and card game development team and cancelled its Essen booth. The sale fell through — Bloomsbury couldn’t find a buyer willing to take on the staff alongside the catalogue. The final two titles, Undaunted 2200: Revolution and Upland & Prairie, will still ship as planned, but after that it sounds like the board game line is done. That’s the publisher behind the Undaunted series, the Imperium games, and a load of other well-regarded mid-weight stuff. Really grim outcome. Bloomsbury’s profits have nearly doubled in the last five years — this wasn’t about money, it was about strategic focus on books. The designers and staff deserve better.
Shut Up & Sit Down posted a review of Yotei. Their latest review is up on shutupandsitdown.com, covering the card game that was featured in their Board Games Direct 2026 previews back in July. Haven’t had time to watch the full thing yet, but SUSD reviewing a card game that was also featured in NPI’s Essen coverage suggests it’s one that’s going to get a lot of table time this autumn.
The Lord of the Rings: The King’s Gambit finished its Kickstarter run. Restoration Games’ reimplementation of the beloved Star Wars: The Queen’s Gambit closed on October 20th, pulling in $1.7 million. Two pledge levels — the Limited Edition at $199 and a frankly absurd Mithril Edition at $499 with over 150 miniatures, 3D Minas Tirith structures, the works. A retail edition through Space Cowboys/Asmodee is planned for 2027 with smaller boards and no 3D structures. If you missed it there should be a late pledge manager coming. Big Boss Battle had it as their easiest recommendation of October.
Chip Theory is learning from Neon Knight. A recent BoardGameWire piece covered how Chip Theory hired former Keymaster Games director Jennifer Graham-Macht to grow their lighter game imprint, Neon Knight. The honest bit: they admitted they were “maybe naive” about expecting their Too Many Bones audience to follow them into lighter games. They’re considering moving Neon Knight campaigns back to Kickstarter to reach a different audience. It’s refreshing when a publisher talks this openly about what isn’t working.
Games worth watching right now: Queen Alice is the obvious one — it’s going to be everywhere for the next few months. Gaudí from Devir (a tile-laying game by Dani Garcia) was getting strong Essen buzz. And keep an eye on Braided Skies, which topped the Board Game Hangover October hotness list and is climbing the BGG charts.
Ireland corner. Gaelcon 38 just finished its run this past weekend (October 23–26) at the Crowne Plaza in Santry — if you went, I hope you had a great time. Ireland’s longest-running gaming convention, 38 years and still going. For anyone who missed it, photos are already going up on their Instagram.
The next big thing on the Irish calendar is the CATAN Irish National Championship on Saturday November 14th at the Teachers Club in Dublin. €20 a ticket on Eventbrite, and it’s reportedly nearly sold out. The winner represents Ireland at the CATAN Worlds in 2027 and the Europeans in 2028. Three guaranteed games, then a top-16 knockout. If that’s your thing, don’t wait.
For the Knavecon community specifically: if anyone went to Gaelcon or Essen and picked up something interesting, bring it along to the next Knavecon. The Essen new releases will start filtering into Irish shops and online stores over the next few weeks. Queen Alice and Gaudí look like the kind of games our crowd would enjoy.
One for sharing: “Osprey Games gone. The Undaunted and Imperium publisher had their entire board game team let go because Bloomsbury couldn’t find a buyer. Profits nearly doubled in five years — they just didn’t want to make games anymore. Support the publishers who actually want to be here.”
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