Essen 2026: ten boxes, nine countries, and not one American

1 day ago

8 min read

Occupational hazard: whenever I lay a selection out on the table, I end up looking at where things come from. I prep my geography lessons and my game scouting in the same spot, and it rubs off. This time, picking my notebook back up a month out from the show, I saw something other than a shopping list appear. Ten boxes, nine publishing countries, and not a single American publisher. It wasn't a stance I set out to take, it's just what the sorting gave me.

So here's my last batch before the show, laid out as an itinerary: we start in the far north, work our way down Europe, cross Asia and finish in the southern hemisphere. SPIEL Essen, 22 to 25 October 2026, at the Messe Essen. After that, on to the consolidated selection of 5 October.

Norway and Poland: two boxes tightening the bolts

At Aporta Games, in Norway, Buried Memories carries the cheekiest idea in my whole notebook: the game box is the dig site. You explore the stacked layers of forgotten civilisations, bring up relics, and complete vases and statues. On your turn you reveal as many tiles as you dare, knowing that two identical creatures stop your turn dead and send you back empty-handed. Sealed envelopes unlock as you hit objectives. From 1 to 6 players, twenty to thirty minutes, ages 8 and up, by Kristian Amundsen Østby and his brother Aleksander. Østby is Escape: The Curse of the Temple, Avenue and Deep Blue: push-your-luck is his home turf. The most immediately family-friendly title on my list.

On to Poland, at Portal Games, for the only game in this selection whose release is timed exactly to the show. Robo Runis a co-op strictly for two, and its central rule is brutal: you're not allowed to talk to each other. All communication runs through a single BEEP token, the rest you read in the visible cards and the state of the board. Two faulty robots, or maybe awakened ones, break out of a factory whose security flags the slightest behavioural slip. Five campaigns of five scenarios plus an expert challenge, four robots, events and loot that shift from game to game. Twenty-five minutes a scenario, two and a half hours a campaign. Eryk Nowak on design, Ignacy Trzewiczek on development, Pegasus Spiele co-publishing. No French edition announced, a real shame for a game where nobody speaks.

Italy and France: the ID card doesn't tell the whole story

Crossing Heroes comes out at Cranio Creations, a well-established Milan publisher, and it's written by two Frenchmen, Johannes Goupy and Matthieu Verdier. Greek mythology, dry format: you lay Trial cards on a three-by-three grid with your hero at the centre, then arrange Skill cards around them to satisfy each trial. Only completed trials score. Eight rounds, thirty minutes, 2 to 5 players ages 10 and up. A wink for those following the series since July: Verdier already signed Minikin City, which I told you about in my very first pick. At Cranio too. The man works.

We stay in France and change scale completely. Ashes & Amber is carried by a single person, David Falla de Acebo, author, illustrator and publisher of his own game. A card civilisation game across five eras, from prehistory to the modern age, one per round, that explains in a quarter of an hour and plays in forty minutes per player. A city, in his design, is a stack of cards where only the top one activates: the more you found, the more you activate, but the more you expose yourself, because a disaster strikes at the end of each era and reduces to ashes whatever you haven't protected. From the start you hold an Amber card, a symbol of your people's resilience, which can become your main source of points if it makes it through all five ages. The solo mode is worth a line: no automaton to beat, you aim for fifteen points by filling each Decisive Moment, and it's the tightening of the constraints that builds the pressure.

And then there's the detail that raised my eyebrow. The box contains a real ceramic token, turned and fired one by one by hand by two craftswomen, Ineta in Lithuania and Julie in Taiwan, each piece coming out unique with its own cracks and irregularities. For a game about earth, fire and what survives catastrophe, the object says the point better than any page of rules. The first batch sold out at once, which partly explains the 106,800 euros raised against the 8,500 asked. Two caveats all the same: delivery is announced for early 2027, with pickup at Essen only the best-case scenario if production runs ahead, and the box stays in English, with digital rules and player aids in French. Also worth flagging, because the reader will see it on BoardGameGeek: the game is filed there among titles with AI-generated art. Its author, a computer scientist and the son of a painter, says he produced everything himself with digital tools, some AI-assisted, then reworked by hand.

United Kingdom and Russia: a name that keeps coming back, a box looking for its door

At Alley Cat Games, in the UK, Foxglove Farm has you founding a town of foxes: you build, connect your buildings with paths, and move goods from those who produce them to those who turn them into points. A sequel to Timber Town, written by the Japanese duo Aya and Shun Taguchi, 1 to 4 players in thirty to sixty minutes. And I promised you this back in August: Jorge Tabanera Redondo is back in the credits, on art this time. His fourth title in my scouting this year, after Nakasendo, Camboya and Níjar. One thing nags at me, the recommended age of 14, which sits oddly with the cosy theme and the animal artwork. To check on site.

On to Russia for Flipside, at Hobby World. A narrative co-op adventure in Mountween, a world warped by the force that gives the game its name: strange creatures, dark humour, decisions that weigh. A modular map revealed by tiles, combat mixing dice and cards, characters who level up their skills, multiple endings, 1 to 4 players for one to two hours. The game has existed at home since 2025, with two expansions, and its publisher is now looking to place its foreign editions. In full transparency: I have no confirmation of its presence at Essen. It's a lead, not a meeting.

Japan, twice over

Japan is the only country to come up twice, for two very different reasons. First Elementica, at 14games, whose very first trip to Essen this is. A mana-forge game where you produce energy from elements compatible with your buildings, extend your bases to earn design tokens, and where those tokens drive your actions: the whole thing rests on the trade-off between producing and giving yourself the means to act. From 1 to 4 players, one hour to one hour forty, ages 12 and up, a bilingual Japanese and English box. It's really a rework of Millienea, released in 2024, reworked by Akashi. The least documented title on my list, but a publisher's first international release is worth a salute.

Then Jisogi: Anime Studio Tycoon, from Esper Games, a studio based in Koenji, right in Tokyo, founded by the Brazilian Rodrigo Esper. You run an animation studio, from the side of the people who grind and the economy that grinds them down: you place your staff by type, produce an original anime in three script pieces, setup, plot and twist, and keep your cash flow steady between market, revenue and loans. From 1 to 4 players, one to two hours, ages 12 and up. Two things make it a must here. The French version is secured with Don't Panic Games, which is no small thing in a selection where almost everything comes out in English only. And Thomas Romain is in the art credits, the French animator based in Japan behind his work on Space Dandy and Basquash. A 1.5 reprint has also just clarified the rules, redone the iconography and dropped the price.

South Korea and Australia: the home stretch

Blood Hunt is the title I promised you in August, and it keeps its promises better than I expected. Published by Korea's Mandoo Games, this spin-off of Dracula vs Van Helsing is written by Maxime Rambourg and Théo Rivière, and illustrated by Weberson Santiago, the same illustrator as on Drops of Evil, which I told you about in my two-months-out batch. You play a vampire waiting for night in a quiet little town to devour lonely souls, except you're not the only one hunting. On your turn, you draw the top card, look at it in secret, then either slot it into your display while discarding another, or throw it straight out, and apply its effect. The game ends the moment someone gathers the required Citizen tokens, or after three rounds. From 2 to 4 players in thirty minutes, ages 10 and up.

Last stop in Australia with Skyward Republic, at Good Games Publishing. We're back in the flying city of Skyward, four years on in the fiction: the city has become a republic and its four factions are building a new district to show off their achievements. You draft cards from a pile that keeps growing, connect cards, airships and feathered creatures, and settle things with a fair-division rule, the I-cut-you-choose kind, which sets it clearly apart from the rest of the list. Brendan Evans on design, Steven Preston on art, 2 to 4 players, thirty to seventy-five minutes, ages 14 and up. One quirk: it came out on 19 August. So it isn't a show novelty, it's a box you'll be able to handle and take home on the spot.

What this map tells me

Two things strike me looking at the full itinerary. First, the gap in means. Between Cranio or Portal, rolling out big stands, and David Falla de Acebo, who did everything alone, there's a world of difference. And yet that world doesn't show on the table, which is exactly what I love about this show: once the box is open, a game is worth its idea, not the size of the house that prints it. Buried Memories fits in the same format as a big-budget title, and its idea is cheekier than most.

Second, the box's passport almost never tells you the passport of the people who made it. A British publisher puts out a Japanese duo illustrated by a Spaniard. A Korean publisher puts out two Frenchmen illustrated by a Brazilian. A Tokyo studio founded by a Brazilian has a Frenchman on the art. My nine-country world tour is far more mixed than that, and this circulation is probably the most interesting thing Essen produces, year after year.

What I'm keeping for 5 October

I told you about three titles in August, two are still in the notebook. Fragments: Fungataï will wait, for a reason I'll own: I won't receive Solara until after the festival, and it would be dishonest to tell you about a seven-hour campaign without having played its introductory box. Kano, where painters compete to compose a Japanese scroll, deserves better than a rushed paragraph. Both will be in the consolidated selection of 5 October.

Verdict (provisional one last time)

If you twist my arm, my three biggest wants are Robo Run, because the ban on talking is the most radical constraint I've read all year and because it's the only one on the list truly born at the show, Buried Memories, for its box-as-dig-site and the Østby signature, and Jisogi, for its French version and the slightly chauvinistic pleasure of seeing Thomas Romain in the credits.

I'm keeping three clear reservations. Flipside has no confirmed presence at Essen, Ashes & Amber won't ship before 2027, and above all the vast majority of these boxes will come out with no French version. Nine countries represented, and French stays a rare privilege: the least cheering conclusion of this world tour.

See you on 5 October for the full selection, the one before the suitcases. Until then, tell me in the comments which stop made you want to take the detour.

Missed the first two batches? They're here: Essen 2026: nine boxes already catching my eye and Essen 2026: seven new games nobody's watching.

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