Knavecon Boardgame Briefing — Friday, 6 November 2026
The post-Essen dust is starting to settle, and what a week it’s been. The big numbers from SPIEL are now official, the BGG Hotness list is doing that familiar reshuffle where everything from Essen fights for the top spots, and the Dice Tower dropped its Essen unboxing haul plus a fresh news episode. Meanwhile the November release calendar is stacking up nicely. If you went to Essen, you’re probably still sorting your haul. If you didn’t, you’re probably watching everyone else’s hauls and quietly adding things to wishlists. Either way, it’s a good time to be paying attention.
The five things that mattered most this week
SPIEL Essen 2026 officially hit 230,000 visitors, up 10,000 on last year’s already-record crowd. They opened Hall 8 for the first time, pushing total floor space to 81,200 square metres across all eight halls. 997 exhibitors from 53 countries showed 2,012 new titles. Every single day sold out. The organisers have also explicitly ruled out moving the show from Essen, which had been a rumour floating around for a while. That’s the hobby’s biggest public-facing event just continuing to grow year on year, and it’s hard to overstate how healthy that looks for the industry. (GodIsAGeek, ICv2)
Greenwood from Feuerland Spiele (distributed by Capstone in North America) is the breakout Essen darling. It shot straight to the top of the BGG Hotness and is still sitting there alongside The Danes (not out until 2027), Fragments: Solara from IELLO, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance – The Board Game. If you were at SPIEL, you saw the queues for Greenwood demos wrapping around corners on day one. Wargamer’s Mollie Russell sat down for an early demo and came away impressed — it’s a 1-4 player fantasy strategy game from Feuerland (the Terraforming Mars / Ark Nova people) where you play as Primal Spirits trying to save mystical creatures. The hype is real, but first proper reviews are still a few weeks out. (Wargamer first impressions, BGG Hotness)
Tom Vasel’s Essen unboxing dropped on November 3rd — always a useful barometer for what the Dice Tower team actually bothered to bring home. Games from Deep Print, plus a pile of smaller titles. The Dice Tower also ran their November 5th news episode, and the 19th Annual Dice Tower Awards results are still circulating — in case you missed it, Galactic Cruise (Kinson Key Games) took Game of the Year, Best Strategy Game, and Best Game from a New Designer. Luthier from Paverson Games won Best Production and Best Small Publisher. Vantage from Stonemaier took Most Innovative. Solid list, and notably heavy on crowdfunded euros from smaller publishers. (Dice Tower unboxing, Board Game Wire on Dice Tower Awards)
No Pun Included dropped their Essen hot games video — a two-hour-plus monster in their usual post-SPIEL style, covering everything they played on the show floor. It’s loose and chatty rather than their usual structured review format, but it’s the best way to get a feel for what Efka and Elaine actually liked versus what was just getting buzz. Worth your time if you want to narrow down what to chase from the Essen crop. (NPI Essen video)
November’s release calendar is looking interesting. Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship from Z-Man (Matt Leacock’s most mechanically rich Pandemic-system design) is rolling out globally — it launched at UKGE and Board Game Arena earlier in the year, and UK shops should have it by mid-November. Also hitting shelves this month: Hero Realms Dungeons, Mutagen Deluxe Edition, the DOOM: The Dark Ages arena game, and the Heroes of Might & Magic III Stronghold expansion. Kingdom Come: Deliverance – The Board Game launched at Essen and is available through CGE stores — pre-orders for the EU wave should deliver Q1 2027 at the latest. At $200/€150, it’s not cheap, but Vlaada Chvátil and Tomáš Holek co-designing is about as strong a pedigree as you’ll find. (BoardGamesNMore release schedule, Z-Man on Fate of the Fellowship, CGE on KCD)
Worth tracking next week
BGG.CON 2026 is coming up November 18-22 in Dallas. They’re running their official Hot Games Poll now, so keep an eye on what rises there — it tends to reflect what the most engaged hobbyists are actually excited to play rather than just marketing noise. Separately, keep watching for early proper reviews of Greenwood, Drillers (Czech Games), and Fragments: Solara. The Essen first-impression videos are everywhere right now, but the real signal comes when people have played these five or ten times at home. And Ghost Galaxy’s announcement about a new edition of Battlestar Galactica heading to crowdfunding in early 2027 is still generating chatter — if you ever wanted a copy but couldn’t stomach the aftermarket prices, your time may be coming. (BGG.CON, BSG announcement via ICv2)
Ireland
Gaelcon 2026 (October 23-26, Crowne Plaza Dublin Airport) wrapped up recently — Ireland’s oldest gaming convention, running since 1989. If you were there, you know. Looking ahead in November: there’s a Social Games Night in Dublin on the 27th at Jacobs Venue (via Eventbrite, run by the “Young & Figuring It Out” crew — looks like a lighter social-games crowd rather than heavy hobby stuff, but still worth flagging). NeuroGamers Belfast has a board game evening on November 12th at Happy Out Coffee — specifically aimed at neurodivergent gamers, 6pm to 9pm. Board Games Ireland continues its regular Tuesday evening and Sunday afternoon meetups in Dublin — they’ve got over 10,000 members on Meetup at this point, which is genuinely impressive for a board game group anywhere, let alone Dublin. Board & Brewed in Dún Laoghaire is running events through November as well. And the Ireland Card Show hits the RDS in Ballsbridge this Sunday (November 8th) — primarily trading cards (Pokémon, Magic, Yu-Gi-Oh!) but if that’s your crossover interest, doors are 11am-5pm. I didn’t find anything new for Cork, Galway, or Limerick specifically this week, which is a shame. If anyone knows of regular game nights in Munster beyond our own Knavecon crowd, shout in the comments — I’d love to list them here. (Board Games Ireland on Meetup, Social Games Night Dublin on Eventbrite, NeuroGamers Belfast)
For the Knavecon community
Knavecon 27 was back in September at the Castletroy Park Hotel and the next one will come around before you know it. In the meantime, if anyone’s looking at the November releases — particularly Fate of the Fellowship or the KCD board game — and wants to organise a learn-to-play session, the Knavecon Facebook group is the place to do it. Also, if anyone’s heading to BGG.CON in Dallas later this month, report back. We want to know what’s good.
One for the socials
“SPIEL Essen hit 230,000 people this year. Every day sold out. 2,012 new games. And they’re staying in Essen. The hobby isn’t slowing down — it’s the opposite. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have about forty Essen haul videos to watch and a wishlist that’s getting dangerously long.”
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