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!
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…
PAX West is a bit of a deviation from the traditional board game conventions we typically cover here at Meeple Mountain. Nestled in the tree-rich city of Seattle, PAX West offers a convergence of both the video game and tabletop hemispheres.
I had the wonderful opportunity to experience the show as an exhibitor, showcasing For All Mankind from Bad Cat Media. Though I’m fairly well traveled, I had never visited Seattle or attended PAX West, so the promise of new surroundings was absolutely tantalizing.
I’ve been a video gamer all my life, from my very first console, a red Game Boy Pocket, to now, where I recently beat Capcom’s Pragmata (fantastic) and Bethesda’s Ghostwire: Tokyo (very good). Tabletop gaming, on the other hand, is something I stumbled into only within the last six years. Given that I now write almost exclusively about board games, it’s actually a little puzzling considering I’ve had another gaming love for far longer.
So my coverage of PAX West was always going to focus on both worlds. Both have an equal place in my heart, and to say I was ecstatic to…
Once again Gen Con did not disappoint in 2026, and Meeple Mountain scoured the halls in full force with a whopping six members of our team swooping down on Indianapolis for the convention. As always, attendance hit all-new highs in terms of con-goers and vendors as gamers from all over the world joined the festivities. With several new additions including a D&D Tower, drone show, and the ever-present construction downtown as the convention center expands to accommodate, there was plenty to be excited about.
Here are our thoughts on Gen Con 2026!
Crawl Con in Full Effect
With the recent crowdfunding efforts by Renegade Games for their new Dungeon Crawler Carl RPG and Dungeon Crawler Carl: Unstoppable it was already preordained that Gen Con would be beset upon by the full force of DCC fandom. Couple that with the appointment of author Matt Dinniman and voice of the series Jeff Hayes as Media Guests of Honor to the convention, and you have all the necessary ingredients for a DCC takeover.
Sure enough, heart-patterned boxers and tortoiseshell Persian cats were all over the place, especially when the cosplayers put on their Saturday best for the annual contest. Saturday also happened to be the day when 2,000 crawlers—as members of the DCC fandom are called—assembled for a photo at Victory Field. I've…
Last November, I attended the San Diego Historical Games Convention for the first time and it was one of the best events of 2025. When the SDHistCon board announced they would be putting on a new convention outside of San Diego, SDHistCon North, and invited me to attend, I was absolutely thrilled. Even more so when I learned it was just about an hour flight from Chicago, in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Purple and Gold
Given my undying love of Prince, Hüsker Dü, and the Coen Brothers, it’s strange that this was actually my first time in the North Star State. The downtown St. Paul office buildings, ballparks, and breweries definitely gave it a different vibe from the tiny surf shops, bait shops, and oceanside restaurants of Point Loma in San Diego. The convention itself had a distinct feel, as well. To begin with, it was only a two-day event, as opposed to four in San Diego. While this meant that I had to pack my gaming schedule pretty tightly, it also meant that I didn’t spend too much time exploring the city.
SDHistCon North took place at the historic St. Paul Union Depot. Originally built in 1881, it was rebuilt in 1923 after the original burned down in 1915.…
The summer heat is intense, but it’s not as hot as Gen Con 2026. Soon gamers from all over the world will descend on Indianapolis for North America’s largest board game convention. Just like in past years, hundreds of new board games will make their debut – over 600 this year, an overwhelming number. But never fear, the Meeple Mountain team is here to help you find the gems among the coal. Our staff have scoured through the upcoming titles to select our most anticipated games of Gen Con 2026! So without further ado, here are our picks!
As someone who graduated from high school in 1989 I am, as the marketing literature says, “the target audience” for this upcoming release from Paverson Games. Class of ‘89 is set back in time when hair was…
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: Small local board game fairs and conventions are great. You get board gaming fun in a manageable dose of one day, without long trips and expensive accommodation. In many cases, they’re also not quite as full – which means no waiting times and instead just 100% of the good stuff. In that spirit, I attended Spiel doch! in Friedrichshafen (Germany). Here’s how it went.
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Spiel doch! [Just play!/Why don’t you play?] is a new-ish affair: Its western German original was first held in 2015 in Duisburg (and has since moved to Dortmund). It has branched out to the south in 2023 (Friedrichshafen). The name of the fair also indicates who the target audience is – casual gamers who might not have sold their soul to board gaming entirely (yet). That means the focus is on playing – a good part of the fair grounds is dedicated to tables at which you can play ganes (either your purchases r copies from their ample library of games (which you get to check out for free).
Ever saw the Night Witches fight Louis XIV’s musketeers? – Now you can!
Of course, there are also opportunities for publishers and local board game stores to present their goods (and even some new designs). There’s a lot of variety between the sellers – some focus on the bestsellers, others have a more eclectic collection where you might find a rarer gem. For example, I got a copy of A Battle Through History (Erik Burigo/Pär Sundström/Marco Valtriani, Pegasus) as a gift for a friend who is a big Sabaton fan.
Dice, dice in all colors of the rainbow.
In addition to the games, you’ll also find a lot of board game accessories and other items of interest to the nerdy crowd drawn by a board game fair.
Some great pins to wear for game night!
As said, though, the heart of the fair is the big free play area. We had the chance to give Dungeon Legends (Przemek Wojtkowiak, Rebel Studio) a try: Our team of knight, scout, and smith cleared the underground of monsters, kept the castle safe, and eventually extinguished the fire which was the main challenge of our legend.
The bluish hue of the game mat makes the orange fires which we had to fight in our legend pop even more. Great visual design!
We enjoyed the straightforward deck building and the visual style of the game – but I must say that learning the rules was a bit of a challenge. Whose idea was it to list the actions you can take in the middle of the rule book and then describe how you perform them in an icon overview on the second-to-last-page of the scenario book?
The best thing about Spiel doch!, however, may be that it goes beyond buying and playing games, as two particular highlights for me attest: The booth of the European Society of Game Collectors presents rare games through the ages – this year, all of them aerospace-themed.
Some older aerospace-themed games. The one in the left foreground was co-funded by the German Research and Testing Agency for Flight and Space Flight.
Anmelden
Cascadia: Alpine Lakes
