Best games released at SPIEL 2021 in Essen 2026

SCOUT is an innovative card game that blends elements of hand management and ladder-climbing mechanics. The unique twist in this game is the dual-indexed cards and the restriction on rearranging your hand, creating a challenging and strategic gameplay experience.

So Clover! is a cooperative word-association game that challenges players to think creatively and work together. The essence of the game is to generate and guess keywords based on shared features, aiming to achieve the highest possible team score.

MicroMacro: Crime City is a unique detective game that immerses players into a detailed and expansive cityscape to solve intriguing crimes. The game centers around a large, detailed map of a city where various crimes have occurred. Players become detectives tasked with unraveling these mysteries using the clues scattered across the city.

Cascadia is a tile-laying and token-drafting board game that features the rich habitats and diverse wildlife of the Pacific Northwest. It combines strategic tile placement with wildlife conservation themes.

The Crew: Mission Deep Sea is a cooperative trick-taking card game that embarks players on an underwater expedition to discover the lost continent of Mu. Building on the foundations of its predecessor, The Crew, this game combines the familiar mechanics of trick-taking with unique cooperative elements and a compelling thematic narrative.

Project L is a dynamic and visually appealing board game that combines tile-matching with engine-building elements. It's designed to challenge players with its strategic depth, encapsulated within an elegant and simple design. The game features unique triple-layer 3D puzzles and attractive acrylic pieces, making it not only a test of intellect but also a delight to play.

Fantasy Realms immerses players in the role of rulers striving to build the most powerful realm. This card game is all about strategic combinations and choices, with every decision shaping the strength and nature of your realm.

The collector's box serves as a storage solution for all existing Terraforming Mars materials, including the base game, five expansions, and the first player rover. It includes 3D terrain tiles to enhance gameplay, featuring 24 city tiles, 40 forest tiles, 9 ocean tiles, and 14 special tiles, along with three new cards related to the special tiles, card dividers, and five plastic markers for global parameters.

Similo is a cooperative deduction game where players work together to guess a secret character from a set of twelve displayed in the middle of the table. Each version of Similo - such as Fables, History, or Myths - comes with a deck of thirty beautifully illustrated cards by Naïade, featuring characters that share a common theme.

7 Wonders: Architects invites 2-7 players into a fast-paced race to leave a lasting legacy in the ancient world by constructing an architectural marvel. Each player starts with an unconstructed wonder and embarks on a journey to gather resources, develop their society, and achieve greatness.

Destinies is a unique blend of board gaming and digital app integration, offering a rich, competitive, story-driven experience set in a dark medieval-fantasy universe. It is the first game in a series utilizing the innovative Destinies system.

Beneath the crumbling walls of Karak Castle lies a labyrinth filled with treasures and monsters. Six brave adventurers enter, each with a unique trick to claim fortune, but they must outsmart their opponents, defeat monsters, and seize the dragon's gemstone. Players uncover the labyrinth tile by tile, engage in battles, and gather treasures, with the most successful adventurer being crowned the true master of Karak!

Cartographers Heroes embarks players on a new voyage through the storied Western Lands, enhancing the acclaimed formula of its predecessor with fresh challenges and dynamic elements. As royal cartographers, players are tasked with mapping these perilous territories, their efforts now intertwined with the valorous acts of heroes who stand against the encroaching Dragul forces. This sequel not only retains the beloved core mechanics of drawing and mapping but enriches the experience with innovative map sheets, scoring cards, and explore cards, all while introducing ambush cards that bring unique abilities into play.

Build your castles, assemble your troops, load your catapults, and employ clever tactics to emerge victorious! The battle for territory has begun again, as players aim to eliminate all opposing troops and be the last standing.

Mindbug: First Contact is an innovative and strategic duel card game where players summon unique hybrid creatures to battle their opponent. However, the twist lies in the Mindbug cards, which can turn the tide of the game by allowing players to take control of an opponent's creature.

Dune: Imperium is a strategic deck-building game inspired by the iconic Dune universe, incorporating elements from both the recent film adaptation and the classic novels. Players lead one of the Great Houses in the interstellar political landscape of the Landsraad.

Port Royal: Big Box includes the base game and its two expansions, offering new graphics and artwork. It also features Gambler promo cards and the standalone game. This edition will be released in Germany in January 2022.

Diamonds, gemstones, and gold are hidden deep in the cave of My Gold Mine, and every dwarf player is eager to dig for gold nuggets. However, the mountain guardian, a fire-breathing dragon, is on your tail. Players must find the most nuggets while avoiding being too greedy and getting caught by the dragon.

Players take on the role of young wizards in a cooperative family game filled with adventure and mysterious investigations. They explore the fairyland of the Summer and Winter Kingdoms with Nils, the Moon Cat, while searching for four magical moon stones. Using unique QR codes for each game component, players engage with the game through their mobile device to uncover clues and experiences in a virtual world. Each session lasts around 30 to 45 minutes and comes with a tutorial and five unique stories.

In the swashbuckling world of 1675 Jamaica, Captain Henry Morgan, after a notorious career in piracy, becomes the Governor of Jamaica. In a surprising turn of events, he invites his former pirate comrades to join him in retirement, celebrating their plundered treasures in the annual Great Challenge – a thrilling race around the island. The cunning Captain with the most gold at the end of the race claims the title of Grand Winner. Jamaica is a pirate-themed tactical race game that combines strategic ship movement, treasure hunting, and player interaction.

The Adventures of Robin Hood offers a refreshing and innovative approach to board gaming, immersing players in the legendary tales of Robin Hood and his merry band in 1193 England. This game distinguishes itself with a dynamic game board that evolves and changes, reflecting the players' actions and choices throughout their quest against the tyranny of Prince John and his minions. With a unique movement mechanism and a story-driven gameplay that forgoes traditional cards for a narrative-driven hardcover book, players will find themselves deeply engaged in the forests and villages of Nottinghamshire.

Players aim to pull the apprentices down the mountain before the witches reach the bottom. They place supports on the board to raise the starting area and set up their pieces. By drawing colored will-o'-the-wisps and moving figures along the path, strategic decisions come into play to either advance their apprentices or delay the witches. Winning requires getting four apprentices down the mountain before three witches do, with options to adjust the game's difficulty for more variation.

Strange noises come from the attic of your grandfather's summer house. When you climb the stairs, you see colorful, furry monsters that seem friendly but are very hungry! Players must feed them with items that match their fur colors in this cooperative card game for 2-4 players, completing levels to unlock new stories and creatures. Choose item cards from your hand and scan them to feed the monsters, but be careful—feeding them with the wrong color combination means starting over!

Calico is a delightful, tile-laying board game that combines the art of quilt-making with the charm of cats. It's designed to offer a relaxing yet engaging puzzling experience for players.

Welcome to the Moon is an innovative flip-and-write game that evolves the gameplay of its predecessors, Welcome To... and Welcome To New Las Vegas. It takes players on a space colonization adventure, combining familiar mechanisms with new twists and a campaign mode that spans eight unique adventure sheets.

Embark on a delightful rescue mission in The Isle of Cats, a captivating competitive board game designed for 1-4 players (expandable to 6 with expansions). This medium-weight game combines card-drafting, polyomino cat-placement, and resource management, offering an engaging and strategic gameplay experience.

Codex Naturalis is a language-independent card and tableau game in which players continue the work of an illuminating monk, assembling a medieval manuscript that catalogs the living species of primeval forests. Card by card you build your own manuscript, and the order in which you arrange the pages determines your success. Its unusual double-sided card design and quick setup make it an appealing, compact tableau-builder.

Everdell invites players to immerse themselves in the enchanting valley of Everdell, where a thriving civilization of forest critters seeks to expand their territories and establish new cities beneath towering trees, meandering streams, and mossy hollows. As the leader of a group of ambitious critters, you have a busy year ahead, filled with construction, character encounters, and hosting events. Can you ensure that the sun shines brightest on your city before the winter moon rises?

On March 18, 1990, in Boston, players take on the role of art thieves who have successfully completed a heist. Now they face the biggest challenge: dividing the loot. Over several rounds, competitors strive to secure a share of four collections while avoiding capture by the FBI by gathering sufficient alibis.

Travel back to the prehistoric era of Kingdomino. Players will experience familiar gameplay with new components that introduce additional actions and scoring opportunities. Regions in your territory earn points when they contain fire, which can be gained either through terrain or by adding dominoes with volcanoes. The game features three play modes that incorporate fire, wood resources, and cave people tiles, allowing for varied strategies and rewards.

Players engage in a clever dice game filled with unique challenges. Each new challenge card reveals how points can be earned and how dice can be re-rolled. After the first player finishes their turn, others can attempt to surpass their score, but taking too many risks might lead to losing out. The player with the highest score after seven rounds wins.

From clucking chickens to rumbling tractors, the sounds of a busy farm are everywhere. Your planning team is tasked with transforming this small farm into a thriving livestock community.

Railroad Ink Challenge: Lush Green Edition enhances the well-loved roll-and-write gameplay of the original Railroad Ink series, introducing lush new strategies and player interactions. This version of the game is designed for 1 to 4 players and emphasizes not only route-building but also competitive objectives that encourage keeping an eye on opponents' progress.

A crime has just been committed! The victim cannot speak but can draw to help inspectors guess the criminal within a large crowd. The crafty perpetrator will do everything to cover their tracks.

Cryptid is a deduction board game centered around the intriguing theme of cryptozoology. Players take on the roles of cryptozoologists trying to locate an elusive creature known as the Cryptid, using a mix of clever deduction and strategic misdirection.

The abstract game of Qwirkle unfolds with 108 wooden blocks, each featuring six different shapes in six distinct colors. Unlike traditional board games, there is no designated board; players utilize any available flat surface.

Undaunted: North Africa is an engaging two-player deck-building game that immerses players in the tactical ground combat of World War II's North African Theater. Building on the success of its predecessor, Undaunted: Normandy, this sequel introduces new mechanics and challenges, focusing on the historical skirmishes between Britain's Long Range Desert Group and Italian forces.

Dice Throne Season One ReRolled is a revamped edition featuring two new characters: the Pyromancer and the Shadow Thief. This fast-paced battle game accommodates 2-6 players and involves choosing diverse heroes, attacking opponents, and using unique abilities through dice rolls. Players can collect combat points to spend on cards that enhance their heroes and manipulate dice.

Jekyll vs. Hyde is a riveting two-player trick-taking game inspired by the classic novella Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. This game pits two iconic characters against each other in a battle of wits and strategy, with one player embodying Dr. Jekyll, striving to maintain his secret and sanity, and the other player taking on the role of Mr. Hyde, seeking to dominate and unveil the dual identity.

Velonimo is a card game that immerses players in the intense struggle of the animal world for the coveted "petits pois-carottes" jersey awarded to the best climber. Players race to the top, aiming to accumulate points and win the hidden jersey by getting rid of all their cards first.

Players experience an adventure while solving 24 original puzzles in a format resembling an advent calendar. The puzzles are set at a beginner difficulty level, leading them through the entire story and uncovering the mystery of the ice cave.

Aeon's End: War Eternal plunges you into the desperate battle for Gravehold, the last stronghold in a world under siege by The Nameless. This standalone expansion of Aeon's End delivers a thrilling cooperative deck-building experience.

Santa needs urgent help! His golden book containing all his wishes and addresses has been stolen, jeopardizing his ability to deliver gifts on time. This Advent calendar offers a 24-part adventure story as players pursue the cunning thief to a remote mountain village, where strange occurrences unfold and items mysteriously vanish and reappear. There are only a few days left to solve the puzzles hidden behind each door.

Cartaventura: Oklahoma is a narrative card adventure for 1–6 players in which you collectively build a story with multiple endings. You play Bass Reeves, born into slavery in 1854, who must find his path to freedom — every card choice branches the tale.

Pandemic Legacy: Season 0 transports you to 1962, at the height of the Cold War, where a mysterious Soviet bioweapon called "Project MEDUSA" threatens global safety. As newly recruited CIA agents and medical graduates, you and your team are tasked with a critical mission: investigate and halt the development of this deadly pathogen. This game stands alone as a thrilling prequel to the earlier seasons of Pandemic Legacy, immersing players in a tense world of espionage and covert operations.

Enter the world of Bubble Stories through two adventures where players are the heroes. Explore new locations by flipping cards to discover what lies ahead and uncover hidden treasures at the end of each journey. In the first scenario, search for friends in school, visiting places like the classroom, playground, or gym to complete your quest.

Mille Fiori is a strategy board game designed by Reiner Knizia where players step into the roles of ambitious glass manufacturers and traders during the Renaissance, striving to maximize their influence and wealth through the artful production and distribution of glass. The game combines elements of card drafting, token placement, and strategic planning across various sectors of a dynamic game board.

The objective is to arrange the cards in numerical order to get rid of the entire row. The deck includes cards numbered 1-8, with six of each number, four frogs, and eight waste cards. Players take turns drawing from the deck or the discard pile, placing cards in the correct order while uncovering hidden cards, and using frogs as wildcards. The game continues until a player completes a single-card row with a 1 or a frog, winning the round.

Furnace is a strategic engine-building Eurogame set in the 19th century. Players act as capitalists aiming to develop their industrial corporations and maximize profits through effective resource management and company acquisitions.

This is the Monk vs. Paladin expansion for Dice Throne. It features a fast-paced battle game for 2-6 players, where heroes attack opponents and activate abilities using unique dice. Players can choose from a variety of heroes, each with different gameplay styles, to engage in combat and collect points for cards that offer various powerful effects.

Bad Company is a dice-and-engine-building game for up to 6 players (plus a solo mode) from the award-winning designers of Automania and Trails of Tucana. You build your own gang, gather resources to pull off heists, and earn money to recruit new members — all while staying ahead of the police.

Mazescape is a captivating labyrinth game for one player that guarantees intense moments of puzzling as you search for the exit. You fold a card on the table, starting with a pointer at the compass rose, and move it along the marked labyrinth paths without lifting it off the card. You must open and close various parts of the map to find the impossible triangle needed to escape, journeying through distinct areas like the docks, the cemetery, and the mountain, with increasing complexity and secondary objectives to explore.

Dice Throne Season One ReRolled is an updated edition featuring the Barbarian and Moon Elf characters. Players engage in fast-paced battles, using unique dice to attack opponents and activate powerful abilities. Collect combat points to spend on cards that offer various effects, including hero upgrades and dice manipulation.

Railroad Ink Challenge: Shining Yellow Edition offers everything you love about the original games, along with a new focus on player interaction through in-game objectives. Players must watch their opponents to be the first to achieve these goals for rewards. Unique dice enable unprecedented track configurations and special structures in the network trigger new effects, enhancing strategic gameplay. This quick roll-and-write game accommodates 1 to 4 players, requiring careful planning to connect exits while avoiding penalties for open connections.

The children's version of the dice game "Encore" brings excitement to the zoo. Players mark off animal enclosures based on the colors of the dice. By quickly filling columns, they collect valuable points, and everyone plays simultaneously, ensuring no one has to wait long. Those who use the dice wisely and with a bit of luck are sure to win.

Travel on the trail of explorer Alexandra David-Neel to India and Tibet. Find the route to the temple or escape the claws of the white tiger. Overcome the Himalayas on foot and gather enough money to complete your adventure.

Paleo is a cooperative adventure game set in the Stone Age, where players work together to ensure the survival of their human characters while completing various missions. The ultimate goal? To paint a woolly mammoth on a wall, leaving a mark of your existence (or just because it looks cool).

Players create subway networks by filling in station fields on their individual game boards. Using the numbers revealed on the cards, they mark their subway plans while making tough decisions about the limited number of stations they can add to each line. Points can be amassed by completing stations with many crossing lines, and bonuses are awarded for being the first to finish routes. The game ends when all indicator fields are filled, and the player with the highest score wins.

Mini Rogue is a minimalist dungeon crawler where one or two players venture into a deep dungeon to obtain a mysterious ruby called Og's Blood. Players must strategically manage their resources to survive increasingly difficult monsters and challenges. Randomly generated levels and encounters ensure that each playthrough is a unique experience.

Travel to different countries in Spinlander through a simple yet challenging top management system. Players must navigate their way through various strategies to succeed.

Rolling Realms is a roll-and-write game designed by Jamey Stegmaier, born out of the desire to connect and engage with people globally during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. This game transcends the traditional board game format by allowing an infinite number of players to join, making it ideal for both live and virtual play sessions.

The English second edition of Fleet: The Dice Game includes an updated rulebook, scorepads, and captain and trophy cards. Players return to beautiful Ridback Bay to reap rewards over 10 rounds, with each round consisting of a boat phase and a town phase. During the boat phase, players roll dice and select actions to mark off boat types and unlock fishing licenses, while the town phase allows them to activate special buildings for bonuses and earn points. A fully integrated solo mode lets players compete against Captain Ruth for high scores.

In a distant future, civilization lies in ruins, and the echoes of the past conceal the tragic tale of its downfall. Players collaborate in a cooperative audio puzzle game, using a free app to listen to mysterious sounds and voices linked to game components. The goal is to piece together 24 parts of the story in the correct order, uncovering clues from the echoes to solve the mystery.

Ark Nova is a strategic board game where players take on the role of zoo planners, aiming to build and manage the most successful modern zoo.

As a witch, you need powerful magical ingredients, but there's a limit to how much power you can wield before it backfires. Choose your recipes wisely to clear your workbench and overload your neighbors with excess materials; the first player to fill their opponent's cauldron with enough ingredients wins. Each round, players simultaneously select and reveal a recipe, using it to transform ingredients, culminating in a challenge to manage resources and potentially force returns to the original player.

Players manage their own wildlife parks with the goal of grouping animals by species. Each begins with the same set of 33 unique animal tiles placed randomly in their park, while certain spaces remain unoccupied throughout the game. Players take turns choosing tiles to place in their parks, and the game ends when all tiles are moved, leading to a scoring round based on the size of animal herds and proximity to water holes, with various game modes to enhance replayability.

Players take on the role of a fisherman in historical Japan, navigating the southern regions of the archipelago near the famous Tokaido Road. To win, a successful day at sea is essential, which includes observing sea creatures, fishing with nets or lines, and collecting crustaceans.

Wild moped racers are ready to tackle the track with their souped-up bikes! While the riders may be crazy, you and your friends choose to enjoy the thrill safely by betting on the races instead. As the mopeds race around the track, players assess the situation each round and wager on their favorite bikes to see who will cross the finish line first.

Qwixx Longo is a fast-paced dice game where everyone participates, regardless of whose turn it is. Players mark numbers on their score sheets using two white dice and colored dice, aiming to mark as many numbers as possible in sequential order. The game ends when a player marks four penalty boxes or a second color is locked, and the player with the highest score wins.

Players navigate a captivating labyrinth game designed for solo play, where they seek the exit through intense puzzle-solving moments. This unique concept involves unfolding a map on the table and maneuvering a pointer along white-marked labyrinth paths, all while ensuring the pointer never leaves the map. Set in ancient Crete, players must overcome the challenges of various cards to escape the legendary Labyrinth of Daedalus and help Ariadne flee from the Minotaur.

Wonderland's War is an imaginative and strategic board game set in a war-torn Wonderland. Players take on the roles of iconic characters like Alice, the Mad Hatter, and the Red Queen, each leading their faction to vie for control in a beautifully chaotic Wonderland.

Players aim to create the best garden while preventing locusts from destroying it. Each player starts with eight bidding cards and must strategically play them to collect different plant cards: corn, strawberries, broccoli, blackberries, and locusts. The player with the most plant cards after eight rounds earns a point chip, and the game ends when the garden deck is depleted.

Living Forest is a captivating board game where players become nature spirits, striving to protect a sacred forest and its tree from the destructive flames of Onibi. With the help of animal guardians, players work to save the forest through a combination of strategy, luck, and cooperation.

Life in the forest is fun, as long as the sun is shining and the leaves are on the trees. However, these days don't last forever. Wise animals start gathering supplies for the long, cold winter before the weather changes, transforming their homes into cozy hideaways with soup, comfortable chairs, and games to pass the dark days.

War has invaded the realm of men. Shadows spread across Rohan and Gondor, from the tangled depths of Fangorn Forest to the eerie ruins of Osgiliath. Players encounter ruthless mercenaries under the command of a mysterious figure and must act to contain the tide of violence before it escalates.