Wargamer is officially going to Essen Spiel. The world’s largest tabletop convention covers games of all types, but board games are by far the biggest draw. Essen Spiel is an annual litmus test that decides the year’s hottest board games. That’s why I’m so stoked to attend for the first time – and I’ve already got a huge hit list of games we want to try.
Here’s 10 of the titles we’re most excited to see. Will any of them make it into our best board games of 2026 guide? Watch this space.
Queen Alice
Queen Alice is a mid-heavy eurogame from Combo Games, and it feels like the world hasn’t stopped talking about it this year. Early plays on Tabletop Sim indicated that this was perhaps the game for heavy strategy lovers to watch in 2026.
Players belong to ‘The Court on the Other Side of the Looking Glass’, and you’re competing to be the best advisor to the soon-to-be-crowned Alice (of Wonderland fame). Depending on how you use different chess pieces, Alice might become Red Queen or White Queen, and you’re aiming for a coronation that best suits your personal goals. Classic chess moves and cards drive this unique engine-builder – I’m very keen to try it.
Gaudí
Windmill Valley designer Dani Garcia is having a very busy Essen, with multiple titles releasing. My personal holy grail of his is Gaudí, a tile placement game about the legendary architect of the same name.
You’re competing for victory points in three of his core pillars: Nature, Catalonia, and Religion. Over three rounds, you’ll place tiles, draw cards, and work towards end-of-round and end-of-game bonuses that push your scoring triad ever higher. Balance and careful decision-making sound key.
Harmonies: Crescendo
Harmonies quickly became one of my favorite games of all time, and I’ve played it damn near to death in the past two years. While I still love its soothing tile placement puzzle, some variety is more than welcome. That makes a new expansion an instant buy for me.
Harmonies: Crescendo promises new game board layouts, additional point scoring systems, and plenty of new animal cards, including the mysterious Whisper Creatures. It’s just as gorgeous as the original, and, hopefully, just as addictive.
Dust in the Wind
So far, very little is known about Dust in the Wind. Published by PHALANX, it comes from Srdjan Jovanovski, designer of the Purple Haze series. It’s a narrative-driven co-op adventure campaign, and it’s set for release in 2028. You’ll explore an open world version of the American frontier, with resource management and combat thrown in alongside the typical narrative exploration.
That’s about all we know. What intrigues me is the claim that this is a game about “honor, greed, and choices”. With a branching narrative system, Dust in the Wind aims to be one of those games where your decisions impact the world. And, if the writing is strong and nuanced enough, that makes it a game I could get really obsessed with.
Aridnyk
Aridnyk actually came out in 2024, after a successful crowdfunding campaign from Ukrainian publisher Boardova. However, its availability has been limited outside of this, and I’m yet to get my hands on a copy. Based on the reviews so far, it’s not one I want to miss.
This gorgeous tile game is inspired by the mythology of the Hustuls, an ethnic group from Ukraine’s Carpathian mountains. You play as shepherds taking their flocks to pasture. If you want a successful season, you’ll need to tangle with the mythic creatures of the region, juggling their whims with your regular duties. Ardinyk is apparently surprisingly strategic for its simplicity, though I’m keen to verify this myself.
Blood Hunt
I’ve long wanted to play Dracula vs Van Helsing (of course I have, I’m a goth). However, games designed solely for two players rarely see play time at my table. Blood Hunt solves this problem by spinning the popular system into a game for up to four players.
Players are hungry vampires racing to devour the tastiest mortals in town. You have up to three rounds to assert dominance. Each turn, you’ll secretly draw a card and discard one from your hand, applying the effects of the discarded card. Cards can be placed in Districts, which ‘resolve’ when a fourth card is placed there. Here, the game becomes a power struggle, as the vamp with the highest card for that District claims its citizens for themselves. Collect enough citizen tokens, and you claim victory.
Stonesaga
Max Brooke and Luke Eddy, both veteran designers with a lot of Star Wars titles under their belts, have teamed up to make Stonesaga, a sprawling co-op exploration game with a big emphasis on survival crafting. This hefty game lets you control the fates of entire generations of characters, each of which change the fantasy setting as they journey through it.
Stonesage sounds a little like Vantage, a game of survival and exploration that I adored. It sounds more like a traditional legacy game than Vantage, but that’s not going to deter me. I love a narrative adventure, especially when it promises unique new mechanics.
Greenwood
Greenwood, a fantasy euro about primal spirits fighting to save a corrupt Druid grove, ticks all my boxes. Compelling, replayable, strategic gameplay? Gorgeous production of a unique theme? Double check. I’ve not much experience with the previous work of its two designers, Christos Giannakoulas and Manolis Zachariadis, but the overwhelmingly strong first impression has me intrigued anyway.
Each turn offers you a tough decision in Greenwood. Over three nights, you must gather companions, improve your wayfinding skills, and rescue all the mythical creatures you can. Interestingly, you can use your fellow players’ companion abilities as well as your own to achieve your goals. There can only be one winner, though, and that’s whoever has the most victory points.
Carpet Racers
Tomáš Holek keeps designing board games that grab my attention. I just reviewed Night at the Zoo, and the obvious next go-to is the hotly anticipated Kingdom Come Deliverance: The Board Game, which Holek co-designed. While I am excited to test that behemoth board game, I know less about Holek’s other Spiel release – which makes me more curious about it.
Carpet Racers advertises itself as a “chaotic racing game where players control cards without knowing which one is theirs”. Racing games have been a hot genre recently, so I’m keen to see how Holek will innovate on what’s come before.
Personal Demons
I’ve actually already backed Judson Cowan’s Personal Demons on Kickstarter, but Essen will be my first chance to demo the game. The designer of Deep Regrets is once again tackling the dark complexities of the mind, while also supplying lush fantasy illustrations. This game looks as unique as it is utterly stunning to behold.
Described on BoardGameGeek as a “group therapy” ritual, this game sees one to four players simultaneously drafting demons for their personal summoning circle. Each demon’s unique benefits alter how you play, while courage cards expand your abilities further. Spend sins and crack seals to optimize your plays, and you’ll build a hellish engine that nets more victory points than anyone else. It’s a fiendish, strange-sounding tile placement game that I’m eager to test.
Want to share your own must-buys for this year’s Essen? Let us know your shopping list in the Wargamer Discord.
Source: Wargamer
