Best games released at SPIEL 2007 in Essen 2026

Bohnanza is a unique card game about planting, trading, and harvesting beans. Unlike typical card games, you can't rearrange your hand, adding a strategic twist. The core of the game lies in trading beans with others to manage your hand effectively.

Bausack is a unique and engaging game that combines elements of strategy, dexterity, and auctioning. Players challenge each other to build precarious structures using a variety of uniquely shaped wooden blocks. The game tests your architectural skills and your ability to make strategic decisions under pressure. Players must balance the risk and reward of accepting or refusing blocks, using 'beans' as currency in auctions to influence decisions. The game ends when a player's structure collapses, leaving the last player standing as the winner.

Marrakech is a strategic board game where players take on the roles of competing rug salespeople in the vibrant and bustling market of Marrakech. The aim is to outsmart your competitors through careful placement of carpets and savvy financial decisions.

Pandemic is a highly acclaimed cooperative board game where players take on the roles of disease-fighting specialists. Their mission is to contain and cure four deadly diseases that have broken out across the globe. The game is set on a board depicting major world population centers and requires players to strategize and work together to manage the outbreaks and develop cures before the diseases spiral out of control.

This is an expansion for a classic board game. It adds new possibilities, allowing players to play cards instead of rolling dice. The cards can dramatically alter the gameplay.

Manimals is a beautifully designed animal game that is great for learning in the classroom or at home. Players discover the characteristics of various animals, with a focus on European species. The game features engaging scenarios, like observing sea lions and uncovering hidden ducks, prompting players to showcase their animal knowledge.

Galaxy Trucker is a fast-paced, tile-laying board game that combines space adventure with ship construction and navigation challenges.

Felicity: The Cat in the Sack is a clever and engaging auction-style game where players aim to collect the most valuable cats while avoiding the less desirable ones. The game involves bluffing and strategic bidding, as players use their mice to bid for cats hidden in a sack.

Hive: The Mosquito adds a new layer of strategic depth to the already engaging game of Hive, a tile-based game where players duel to surround their opponent's queen bee while avoiding the entrapment of their own. The introduction of the mosquito pieces, which adapt the abilities of the pieces they touch, introduces a dynamic element of versatility and unpredictability.

Alhambra is a strategic board game set in the historical context of the construction of the Alhambra in Granada, Spain, during the Middle Ages. It combines elements of resource management, tile placement, and strategic planning.

Carcassonne: Expansion 5 – Abbey & Mayor is an exciting addition to the Carcassonne series, enhancing the classic tile-placement game with new elements and strategic options. This expansion introduces three new types of wooden pieces, six Abbey tiles, and twelve new landscape tiles, adding depth and variety to the gameplay of Carcassonne.

BANG! The Bullet! is the deluxe edition of the popular Wild West-themed card game BANG! and its expansions. Presented in a distinctive bullet-shaped 'box', this edition combines the base game and several expansions, offering an enriched and comprehensive BANG! experience.

Players must find the magical ring stolen from the wise king by an evil sorcerer. Racing against the clock, they move their tokens through various rooms on the board to gather clues about who took the precious gemstone. Talking animals assist players by providing hints through a treasure chest, which players must unlock by feeding the animals. Cooperation is essential, as everyone works together to reclaim the stolen ring and either win or lose as a group based on their success in completing assigned tasks.

TZAAR is a compelling abstract strategy game that emphasizes the delicate balance of weakening your opponent versus strengthening your own position. With 30 pieces each, divided among Tzaars, Tzarras, and Totts, players navigate a game of tactical decisions where every move counts. The core challenge lies in managing these three distinct types of pieces, each essential to the game's strategy, as players aim to either deplete one type of the opponent's pieces or trap them in a position where they can't capture anymore.

Condottiere is a strategic game set in 13th century Italy, a period marked by flourishing trade and frequent conflicts among city-states. The game revolves around the theme of mercenary leaders, known as Condottieri, who were hired to fight for different city-states.

Race for the Galaxy is a captivating card game that immerses players in the challenge of building galactic civilizations. In this race through the cosmos, players use game cards to represent worlds, technologies, and developments as they strive for supremacy. Let's delve into the gameplay and discover what makes Race for the Galaxy unique.

Dissatisfaction reigns at court, leading to initial intrigues. The marshal confides in the treasurer, while the lady's attendant secretly whispers to the wizard. Players aim to play their cards so that each character appears only once in their display, as failing to do so allows others to gain favor with the king. The player with the most points at the end wins.

Cockroach Salad is a fast-paced card game where players work together to create a salad but not always truthfully. With 128 cards representing different vegetables and the dreaded "taboo" vegetables with cockroaches, the aim is to deceive your way to victory. The game becomes a test of quick thinking and deception as you navigate through the rules of when to tell the truth and when to lie about the vegetables you're adding to the salad.

Experience the thrill of fencing in a card game format! It features two players where tactics, skill, and a bit of luck determine the best fencer. The game includes three rule levels, offering a gradual learning curve from basic concepts to advanced challenges. Players must decide when to attack and how to counter their opponent’s moves, making for a dynamic and strategic gameplay experience.

A set of half eggs is placed on the table. Players must simultaneously try to match the correct halves that feature the same bird. After all combinations are made, players check their matches. If correct, they can place their game piece with that bird. The first player to successfully discard all their pieces wins. This game is part of the chicken family from Zoch.

Players try to collect as many dinosaurs with a specific trait as possible. They learn about the dinosaurs in the process, discovering interesting facts like how Leedsichthys was likely the longest fish to ever exist. The player who collects the most dinosaurs wins.

An updated version of X-Bugs, this game retains the core mechanics while introducing modified armies and new components like cards for abilities and upgrades, cardboard bases, measuring rulers for special abilities, and large tiles representing unique terrains. The set includes four armies, each with three bases and various bug types, characterized as plastic pieces in different shapes and sizes. Players roll two six-sided dice to determine their movement and can defeat enemy bugs and bases by landing on them, with each bug featuring special abilities that allow for additional moves or projectile attacks.

In Kingsburg, players assume the roles of Lords dispatched by the King to oversee frontier territories. The game unfolds over five years, comprising a total of 20 turns. Each year consists of three production seasons, allowing players to gather resources, construct structures, and train troops. However, every fourth turn ushers in winter, a time when all players must individually confront an invading army. Despite this threat, Kingsburg remains a competitive rather than cooperative game.

Neuroshima Hex! 3.0 is a strategic board game set in the post-apocalyptic universe of Neuroshima, a Polish role-playing game. It offers intense battles between four distinct armies in a world devastated by war and robotic uprising.

Seven quick mice dart from corridor to corridor, often surprising players. The game features a carousel with six holes and seven mice, along with cheese pieces in the center, each colored differently. On their turn, players draw a mouse, and if the mouse's color matches the cheese, they collect it. The player with the most cheese wins.

Players collect goats in this trick-taking game. Each card displays a number from 1 to 50 and 1 to 5 goat heads, with each player starting with eight cards for a total of eight tricks. The player who wins a trick plays first in the next, while the player with the lowest card adds a part of the central hill to the game, which sets the goat limit players must not exceed to win.

The game board in Quint-X consists of five interlocking squares, with a central square and one square at each of the four corners, all featuring an X-hole pattern that mirrors the arrangement of the squares. In the first round, a player places a marble in any hole, but thereafter, they must place a marble in the field corresponding to the position of the hole where the previous player placed their marble, allowing for flexible placement within that square. To win, players must either completely fill a field with their marbles, have the majority of marbles in three of the five fields when all fields are full, or have all their marbles on the board at the start of their turn.

Bezzerwizzer is a dynamic quiz game that originates from Denmark, offering a rich repository of questions across 20 diverse categories. With 3000 questions in the English version, the game is designed to test and reward players' breadth and depth of knowledge. Its name, a playful take on the German word "Besserwisser" for "know-it-all," hints at the competitive and strategic elements that make this game more than just a straightforward trivia contest.

Players take on the role of farmers who constantly forget where they have stored their belongings. The game is set up with seven theme cards featuring different colored backgrounds, and a deck of 49 farm cards corresponding to these themes. During their turn, players reveal a farm card and must quickly name a card of the same color; the player with the most cards at the end wins.

The goal is to have the fewest number of groups of stones on the board by the end of the game. Players take turns placing one of their five stones on a 9x9 grid and then drawing another stone to replace it. Players can capture an opponent's stone by placing a legal stone in its place if it does not split their own stones into more than one group.