With Essen Spiel 2025 just around the corner, and as none of the Devon Dice crew are able to attend again this year (booooooo!), I’ve gone through the entire preview list on BGG and filtered on a core set of games that I’d be interested in checking out if I was going. Unlike last year, I’ve collated down to just the bare minimum – my top 10 games of interest, + 2 expansions. If you want to see my full list, it’s here.
Games
- 7 Wonders Dice – A roll & write version of 7 Wonders, this looks pretty cute. I mean, I’m kind of burned out on roll & write games these days, but I still want to see what this is like. I like the idea of the “dice box” in which you roll the dice, and ridges in the box cause the dice to tumble. Not sure there’s enough interaction between players though; the playthrough’s I’ve seen don’t show much interaction. But I want to try it anyway!
- La Cuenta – A cute card game of ordering as much food as you can, and then skipping out to leave one player paying the final bill. Looks pretty cute.
- Forest Shuffle: Dartmoor – I’m not counting this as an expansion, although it’s basically a reworking of the original Forest Shuffle with its expansions, into a single more-balanced standalone version. And based in Dartmoor, really nearby Devon Dice HQ? Yes please! The DD crew has played this on BGA, and it’s good. Real good. Do you need it if you own the original + expansions? Probably not, but if you don’t own the original, or don’t own its expansions, this might be worth looking at.
- The Hobbit: There and Back Again – The second roll & write on my list, and it’s here pretty much only because (a) it’s Lord of the Rings themed, and (b) it’s Knizia doing roll & write. His My City was pretty good, but this is more a campaign game vs a legacy game. And because of that, it interests me a lot.
- Keyside – Dávid Turczi joins Richard Breese in this Key-world design. It looks like crunchy euro fun in the classic Key style, and I really like Breese’s other recent Key games, so I’m looking forward to checking this out some time.
- The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers – Trick-Taking Game – MORE LOTR TRICK TAKING! That’s pretty much all I need to say. I loved the Fellowship of the Ring version, and this is more of the same but set in the second LotR book’s (The Two Towers) timeline, with tweaks to the mechanisms to fit the fact most of that book has a split storyline interleaved. Fascinated to see what they’ve done to achieve this.
- Sanctuary – The cut-down, quicker, simpler version of Ark Nova. The playthrough’s I’ve seen look great, and although I doubt this will replace Ark Nova in people’s minds (it’s at #3 on the BGG rankings, after all), I think Sanctuary is definitely going to be worth checking out.
- Space Aztecs – A card game which looks like it’ll be about the same weight as Faraway and the like. Thematically: Aztecs are trying to build their village while trying to avoid alien abductions. Aww yeah. Mechanically, you’re (in turn order) drafting a card from your choice of one of 8 piles, adding it to your village, to try comboing up the scoring, while trying to foist UFOs on opponents. Sounds intriguing.
- Tenby – Technically a bit of a cheat, as I’ve already played this (as it came out at UKGE), but this is being newly published by Mighty Boards, and it’s a super-cute but surprisingly strategic card drafting game that more people need to try!
- West Story: A Town Building Game – A card-tableau-building game of building up your Wild West town, by building a little engine of actions triggering off the dice rolls each round, buying cards to improve their engine, and occasionally battling against villains. It has the feel of Sierra West from the look of it, and I really enjoyed the aesthetic and mechanisms in Sierra West, so looking forward to finding out more about this one.
Expansions
- The Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle-Earth – Allies – A mini expansion for Duel for Middle-Earth. I enjoyed the base game a lot (far more than 7 Wonders Duel, the game on which it was based), and adding more variety to the game would be very welcome. I really want to see what this adds / changes.
- Trickerion: Arcane Arts – Adding more variability to Trickerion is always welcome, and this is somewhere between a mini-expansion and a full-expansion. I’m interested to see what it’s changing/adding to the base game to keep it fresh.