Every October, the German city of Essen becomes the epicenter of tabletop gaming geekdom. Tens of thousands of visitors descend on the International Spieltage fair, where publishers from around the world debut their up-and-coming releases over four frantic days of dice chucking, card shuffling, and cube pushing.
For gamers, it’s an enthralling, bewildering, almost intimidating spectacle. Where gaming events in other countries, like Gen Con in the US or the UK Games Expo, incorporate celebrity guests, panel discussions, and side attractions, Essen is focused squarely on the games—everything from light and fluffy family favourites to impenetrable brain-melters.
Given that it’s the highlight of the global gaming calendar, I headed along for a barrage of board games and bratwurst. Here are the best new games I saw.
A Pandemic sequel is among the reviewer's favorites.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Tuesday November 07 2017, @01:46PM (1 child)
BGG Con is a huge board gaming convention, perhaps the biggest, held in Dallas/Ft. Worth Texas every November. It's coming up in just a few days. Often sells out months beforehand: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1737275/bggcon-2017-sold-out [boardgamegeek.com] . So they started running it twice a year.
BGG maintains rankings for thousands of board games: https://boardgamegeek.com/browse/boardgame [boardgamegeek.com] Chess is currently ranked #401.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 07 2017, @02:24PM
is the only board game I own; I found it in a dumpster (perfect condition, no missing pieces).
I use the front cover as visual room decoration by standing the box upright near my computer.
Screenshot of the cover [museumofplay.org]
Review [boardgamegeek.com]