The 21 Most Anticipated Games of Essen Spiel 2026

Essen SPIEL 2026 will be here in just over two weeks; the largest board game convention in the world, and a mecca for board gamers of all stripes. Nearly 1,300 games will make their debut into the European market; an overwhelming number. The Meeple Mountain team has spent their time sifting through the list to come up with our most anticipated games of Essen SPIEL.

K. David Ladage

Cascadia: Alpine Lakes

I have the entire Cascadia collection, including the roll-and-writes (one of the dangers of being a completist). I love the structure of the game, the way scoring works… everything. It plays well at two players and at higher counts. So yea, even if this is just a “more stuff” release, I am all in for more Cascadia pleasure!

Publisher: Flatout Games
Designer: Randy Flynn

Read our review of Cascadia: Alpine Lakes

Foundation: Isaac Asimov

Anyone who knows me knows that my absolute favorite book series of all time is Foundation. I have read them all, including the extended universe he managed to create before Dr. Asimov passed away where he took his Robot series and linked it to his Empire series and then turned that empire into the one that was collapsing in Foundation. If you want the whole saga, strap yourself in; it’s gonna be a hell of a ride.

I am excited for the idea of a board game set in that universe (even if only the last epoch). But I have to say, my excitement is tempered by the fact that nobody who has ever attempted to do anything outside of the novels has ever fully understood what makes Foundation so special. The Apple TV series was a travesty – not a terrible piece of sci-fi, just a terrible re-imagining of the Foundation story. I have my fingers crossed, but I am not as hopeful as I would like to be.

Publisher: CREARDO
Designer: Mirko Bazzoli

Andy Matthews

Villa

Villa caught my eye because of the graphic design and the interesting colors. But it kept my attention by providing a spatial tile-laying game of arranging hedges in the garden of your Italian villa. There’s no component pics, other than what’s in the rulebook, but it’s enough to make me want to check back later for more info.

Publisher: DV Games
Designer: Emiliano Castellano

FOMO: Foragers of Mechanical Oddities

I’m a sucker for a good theme; and a “build your own mech from playing cards” really grabbed my brain with both hands. That, combined with the whimsical artwork—like something out of a Tim Burton movie—and the up to 5 player count and 30 minute playtime, means you’ve got something to occupy the troops after a night of heavy gaming, or a fast 2 player game on a Sunday afternoon. I hope I don’t get FOMO from missing out on FOMO: Foragers of Mechanical Oddities.

Publisher: Esper Game Studio
Designer: Rodrigo Esper

Snowy Tricks

One of my favorite things about our current timeline of board games is that designers and publishers are finally branching out, discovering new themes, art styles, and gameplay mechanisms. While Snowy Tricks is a trick-taking game, it seems to have more in common with Torchlit than with Spades or Hearts. And even though I’ve never set foot on a snow-covered slope, the amazing artwork on the cards really draws me in and makes me wish I was wearing a coat. I hope the gameplay is even half as fantastic as the art.

Publisher: Jolly Dutch Productions
Designer: Adrie Drent, Alexander Kneepkens, Esther Jacobsen, Vicky Trouerbach

Justin Bell

Queen Alice

During a conversation with the team at Combo at SPIEL Essen 2025, the publisher gave me a preview of Queen Alice. Even then, I knew the game would be one of the hottest games at the 2026 edition of SPIEL Essen…and more than 1,000 thumbs later, it turns out I was right. Queen Alice is a hard game to describe without seeing it, but here’s a primer: the game has chess pieces, engine-building, exceptional artwork from Amelia Sales (she did Orloj: The Prague Astronomical Clock, Salton Sea, and Koinobori), and a setting inspired by the novel Through the Looking Glass. The publisher pedigree is strong here, with Combo releasing one of the best card games I tried two years ago, Neko Syndicate. Like many players, I’m hoping the hype matches the gameplay with Queen Alice.

Publisher: Combo Games
Designer: Héctor Carrión Benavent, David Heras Pino

Endeavor: Deep Sea—Uncharted Waters

One of 2024’s most popular titles is getting an expansion, and while I thought the base game was strong, I wasn’t overwhelmed with enthusiasm after putting Endeavor: Deep Sea through its paces…it was solid, but never spectacular. With Uncharted Waters, I’m hoping the four new missions (each of which introduces new concepts not included in the base game) achieves the goal stated on the box: this expansion makes the game harder. My bigger hope: it shakes up how the first few turns always looked across my plays of the base game.

Publisher: Burnt Island Games
Designer: Carl de Visser, Jarratt Gray

Oil Rock

Each year, Cranio Creations (and Head of Development Simone Luciani) puts out a few games for SPIEL Essen, with one title typically serving as its lead offering for strategy gamers. The last couple years have provided some real bangers: Rats of Wistar, Railway Boom (the 2025 version), Mesos, and Beyond the Horizon. The studio, which also gave us Barrage a million years ago, is leading off with Oil Rock for 2026, a game designed by a first-time designer with development work from Luciani and others. If you follow my content, you know that I think Luciani is the best designer in tabletop…and his development work over the last couple years has been exceptional. It won’t surprise me if Oil Rock is sensational.

Publisher: Cranio Creations
Designer: Marco Piola Caselli

Wireless

Zhanguo: The First Empire was great. Kingdom Crossing was great, too. Both were designed by Marco Canetta and Stefania Niccolini…so, I’m going back to the well in the hopes that their latest strategy title, Wireless, lands just as high on my list. After reading the game’s designer diary on BGG, I’m even more excited about the concepts in the game, so I made a beeline to the publisher to arrange a review copy at the show. Fingers crossed that the game’s setting—establishing the world’s first telecommunications networks in the late 19th and early 20th centuries—mixed with some interesting game mechanics works as well as it looks on paper.

Publisher: Spielefaible
Designer: Marco Canetta, Stefania Niccolini

Flickering Stars

On the final day of Gen Con 2024, I was invited to try a demo of a flicking dexterity game called Flickering Stars, designed by the guy who gave the world…a bunch of non-flicking games, like Pandemic and Forbidden Jungle, Matt Leacock! Making this demo even stranger (at least, for me) was the fact that Leacock demoed the game with me, now-member of our writing team Kev Brantley, and another friend from Chicago. It was great, and then I heard nothing. Fast forward to the present, and I’ll be attending a party with the team at Pika to pick up a copy of the final version of the game at the show. I already know I like this one, so I’m curious to see the reception for the game at SPIEL.

Publisher: Pika Games
Designer: Matt Leacock

Plotters, Inc.

A trick-taking game with a “may” follow rule, amongst a relatively rules-heavy series of exceptions? I play a lot of trick-takers, but the optionality of the rules in Plotters, Inc.—one of the five games on my personal list from the team at Playte—has me intrigued. BGG says that Plotters, Inc. is a design from 1999, making it ancient by modern standards, so we’ll see how the game has aged with a fresh coat of artistic paint and any changes made to the game’s rules over the years with this new release. Playte is doing a lot of fun titles right now, especially considering the mix of new games, accessories, and older designs seeing a new light of day.

Publisher: Playte
Designer: Klaus Palesch

Thessaloniki

You won’t count me amongst the foolish players who sold their Daniele Tascini stock after the very mixed reception for Transgalactica, in part because I take a long view to almost everything. Tascini is back, as a co-designer alongside Federico Pierlorenzi, with Board&Dice’s SPIEL release Thessaloniki. (Pierlorenzi is best known as a designer of Trismegistus, but I’m a bigger fan of his work on Reef Project.) At the end of the day, Tascini will always be on my radar, because Tiletum, the two Marco Polo games, and Teotihuacan: City of Gods are all classics, and I don’t want to miss out when his next banger hits the table.

Publisher: Board&Dice
Designer: Federico Pierlorenzi, Daniele Tascini

Railway Porters

You’re right to think I have this on my list because it has the title of something akin to a train game. But this is actually a Saashi & Saashi game…and it’s a Saashi & Saashi game with luggage dice. Railway Porters may or may not be a great game, and if I’m being honest, I haven’t played an exceptional Saashi & Saashi game in a while. But I like the look of this one—illustrated, as always, by Takako Takarai—and the feel certainly seems light and breezy. Saashi & Saashi games sometimes arrive at SPIEL in small quantities, so I’ll try my best to jump on the train early in the show with this one!

Publisher: Saashi & Saashi
Designer: Saashi

Andrew Holmes

My Extreme Skatepark

I’m always intrigued by the little monolith boxes of itten games and what they might hold. There’s always a something interesting, something a unusual. They don’t always succeed for me, but I admire what they aim for. This year there are three being released at Essen and whilst Music Nonsense and Mystery Chain sound interesting (from the little information there is), it’s My Extreme Skatepark that has caught my interest. ‘Flick your skateboard and land some awesome tricks in this ever evolving skatepark!’ – I’m sold!

Publisher: itten
Designer: Daniel Arosteguy, Naotaka Shimamoto

Almighty

I just like the vibe of this one. Sure, lots of games let me feel like I’m playing a god, but I want to be a moody god, manipulating the fates of mortals for my own entertainment. And to win, obviously. And the art is deeply pleasing, the multitude of beans all imbued with such character and personality. What’s the gameplay like? No idea, it looks interesting and mildly asymmetric and I so desperately want to believe that it’s good. I want to believe…

Publisher: Keen Bean Studio
Designer: Kevin Privalle, Malachi Ray Rempen

Seagrass

I like Bitewing Games, they’re one of the most consistently solid publishers to have emerged in the past 10 years. It probably helps that they share my respect for games by the great Reiner Knizia, but the designs they keep putting out just scratch an itch for me. Gazebo, Iliad, Bebop, Cascadero – more please! Seagrass looks to combine some satisfying abstract gameplay with an aquatic setting and I am here for it.

Publisher: Bitewing Games
Designer: Trevor Benjamin, Brett J. Gilbert

Faraway: Beyond the Veil

Faraway’s deceptively backwards cardplay packs a lot of thought into a small package. We’ve already had two small expansions, and Beyond the Veil is the latest. Unlike the previous offerings, however, this isn’t a small set of cards to be shuffled into the deck. Instead, the expansion provides a set of common objectives to be claimed during the game, forcing players to reconsider their choices on every turn. I can’t wait to look beyond the veil and find out if it’s any good!

Publisher: Catch Up Games
Designer: Johannes Goupy, Corentin Lebrat

Rheinländer

It wouldn’t be a 2020’s Essen without some form of gussied up Reiner Knizia reimplementation, and whilst I’m looking forward to trying Gold Country, it’s 25th Century Games’ edition of 1999’s Rheinländer that excites me the most. It just looks so damn classy, the opulent production and the elegant art of Ian O’Toole pairing with the deadly simplicity of Knizia’s rules. Call me peculiar, but I want to feel fiendishly clever fighting for control of a major European river and be wrapped up in under an hour.

Publisher: 25th Century Games
Designer: Reiner Knizia

Andrew Lynch

Eternamente Temporário

Don’t get me wrong, I am excited for Eternamente Temporário, but this is a stand in for the five new trick-takers from Brazilian publisher Carteado that will be selling out of the Golden Meeple booth this year. Doppelganger Tricks, DuvidaÊ, Horizonte, and Trunfos e Tesouros will also be there. Not only do the games look great—the card faces for Trunfos e Tesouros are gorgeous—it’s also exciting to see a new country and a new small publisher join the trick-taking scene. I don’t know if Carteado is going to take an experimental approach similar to New Mill Industries, if they’ll be a bit more mainstream, or if they’ll go in some third previously unknown direction, but I can’t wait to find out.

Publisher: Carteado
Designer: Arthur Lacerda

Familiar Feat

I know nothing more about Familiar Feat than “Friedemann Friese designed a solo game,” and I honestly don’t need more than that. I’ve come around to Friese as the most consistently interesting designer in board games over the last few years. Even if his games don’t always work, I love trying them out.

Publisher: Deep Print Games
Designer: Friedemann Friese

High Moon

I know everyone’s excited about Queen Alice, and I recognize that the table presence on that bad boy is considerable, but I’m much more interested in the other new offering from Combo Games, High Moon. The tagline on BGG reads, “Simple rules. Bone-Crunchy Decisions. Welcome to the Weird West.” A tile-layer that promises simple overhead and difficult decisions is exactly what I want from a lighter game. If High Moon can deliver, it has a pretty good shot at being my favorite game of the convention.

Publisher: Combo Games
Designer: Antonio Guillamó “Guilla”

Oil Rock

Like Justin, I too am excited for Oil Rock. It’s been a topic of discussion between us as we’ve been talking about the show. We try to sort out review copies ahead of time, checking for overlaps in our interests and sorting out who picks what up, but the overlap is typically minimal. Justin hoovers up every medium-heavy Euro in Germany and I talk to Brazilian trick-taking publishers. There’s something about Oil Rock, though, that calls to me. I think it’s the aesthetic; I look at that box cover and I cannot help but think of Barrage, one of my favorite games, and an earlier Cranio smash. Oil Rock looks streamlined, it looks interactive, and it looks mean as hell. Sign me up.

Publisher: Cranio Creations
Designer: Marco Piola Caselli

Previously Reviewed

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Check out our previous most anticipated lists for Essen Spiel and find out if we picked some winners!

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• The 39 Most Anticipated Games of Essen Spiel 2025
• The 35 Most Anticipated Games of Essen Spiel 2024
• The 40 Most Anticipated Games of Essen Spiel 2023
• The 43 Most Anticipated Games of Essen Spiel 2022
• The 29 Most Anticipated Games of Essen Spiel 2021
• The 34 Most Anticipated Games of Essen Spiel 2020
• The 48 Most Anticipated Games of Essen Spiel 2019