Top Games of Essen 2016

Edit: Now that Essen is over, check out all the games I managed to play at Essen here!

T-minus 1 week and counting! The biggest games fair in the world opens it’s doors in Essen and with it comes the release of hundreds upon hundreds of games. But of course the real question is what are the best and most exciting games out there? Read on for our top 10 games!

Naturally there are a whole load of releases that didn’t quite make the cut, and that’s just down to my personal taste or levels of anticipation. I tried to avoid 2^nd editions, expansions or games that had a big release at Gen Con (that was months ago! Old news!) Games that I would also add if this was a bigger than top 10 list would be: The Oracle of Delphi, Key to the City: London, Honshu, Jorvik, Gloomhaven (not higher because only demos are available), Flamme Rouge and Fuji Flush.

10 – Fields of Green

Oh, really? The Essen preview list starts with a game about farming!? Could we be any more stereotypical! At least this is modern farming. Plus, it’s based on the excellent Among the Stars with a real focus on engine building and resource management, rather than the chose and done with mechanics of your common, or garden, drafting games. You even have control over what proportion of card types make up your starting hand before you start drafting. These little twists are enough to get me fully enthusiastic about farming. And this is only number 10…

9 – Nautilion

The latest game in the beloved Oniverse series, Nautilion takes us beneath the pastel ocean waves on a quest to slay the Darkhouse before his phantom submarine can destroy our own precious Happy Isles. This new game features 3 dice that must be used to advance you, the phantom sub and to allow the Darkhouse to attack. Needless to say, deciding which dice to give to which is horribly challenging. Having recently had the opportunity to try a few solo games (like our Friday review) I’m keen to try more and this series has a great pedigree amongst the solo community!

8 – The Fog of War

Upping the player count to 2 is a fascinating design that I’m never going to play with my friend Chris because he’s too damn good at bluffing! The Fog of War aims to capture the unending mind games and misdirection of WW2 as players commit forces to assault and defend the various territories of Europe, with limited capacity to see what and where your opponent acting. If this delivers what it promises, this will be epic, and coming from the reliable hands of Geoff Engelstein, I’ve got very high hopes! I’d tell you more but, you know, loose lips sink ships after all!

7 – Kanagawa

Holy wow what a box! This masterpiece even contains a game. With some cards. And apparently some guy called Bruno Cathala worked on it. You know, I’m pretty sure I’d buy this game just to put the box on my wall it’s that beautiful. Go watch this video from the Gameboy geek. Honestly, I phased out when he said “bamboo matt” but there’s some press your luck/bidding mechanics, set collection, multi-use cards and did I mention a bamboo matt? Ok, good…

6 – Great Western Trail

Oh Jesus I should not have put Great Western Trail’s faces right next to Kanagawa, that was just cruel! Fortunately this pick is entirely all about the game… and the designer, a certain Mr Pfister, who has been making my board gaming life a joy in recent months with Isle of Skye, Mombasa (see my First Impressions) and Port Royal. I can’t wait to see what he has come up with in Great Western Trail, a game of herding cattle to Kansas City, building railroads and carving your own little piece of civilisation from the wild west.

5 – Inis

Having received a ton of good press recently and sort of being in the same line and styling as the superb Cyclades (I should really do a review at some point…) I can’t wait to give Inis a try. Part game of war, part area control, part drafting and full to bursting with unique twists and streamlining of familiar mechanisms, if you weren’t already keen for a bit of Celtic lovin’ then nows the time to get keen! Also, I come down heavily on the side of loving Inis’ unique art style. So there.

4 – Fabled Fruit

At first glance Fabled Fruit is a weird pick (pun not withstanding). It’s a worker placement game about collecting fruit and completing recipes. But far more excitingly it’s a legacy game… and also replayable! Say whaaaat!? After exploring the oceans, fighting global disease and all out thermo-nuclear war, fruit juice making is perhaps the quaintest theme for a legacy game ever but mechanically I’m very excited to try this out. Basically, each action space also has a recipe on it, and every time you complete a recipe you take that card and replace it with a new action card from the stack. Thus the available actions evolves over the games as you play, but you can always just reset the deck to start afresh. Let’s just hope the gameplay is as juicy as the theme!

3 – Colony

Into the top 3 now with Colony, the latest city builder from Suburbia/Castles of Mad King Ludwig designer Ted Alspach. Now in the post-post-apocalypse with players rebuilding the world with dice and cards! I enjoy a good bit of dice drafting and I love the variety that comes out of the box (you only play with a subset of cards). Add to that, I thoroughly enjoyed my first play of this at the UK Games Expo!

2 – Railroad Revolution

The latest game from masters of the mid-weight euro game What’s Your Game? is your classic building railroads across America themed game but without any of that horrible 18XX dickishness. This is a clever action selection and pool building game where different worker types let you access different action bonuses but those workers inevitably end up getting promoted away to management positions when accomplishing your company objectives. All while building a network across the country. I was lucky enough to play test this a few weeks ago and can’t wait to play the finished product!

For a full preview, check out Paul Grogan’s articles on BGG.

1 – Adrenaline

Possibly the most surprising game of 2016, Adrenaline is a first-person shooter euro game! It’s the most ridiculous and possibly coolest combination I’ve heard of, and I’ve played it before! Mixing resource management and area control with this unique spatial puzzle is a brilliant idea. There’s a huge pile of unique weapons to play with, and did I mention the areas you are controlling are the wounds the player’s take!? If you seriously need another reason to check this game out, it features the best yellow player piece that board gaming has ever seen. See you in the arena!

For a full preview, again check out Paul Grogan’s other articles on BGG.

 

So enough of my picks! What games are you super excited about!? Let me know in the comments!