Last modified February 3, 2025 by Jarjar

From October 3rd to 6th, this great mass filled with enthusiasts (not to say crazy :)) took place in Essen. 4 days of announcements and game presentations! The 4 days were sold out with more than 204 visitors (000 in 193)!

I wasn't there physically, but I was able to follow it closely via social media. Here's my little report.

BEFORE SHOW

A first image of a kiosk of a game that made noise and started circulating on Wednesday evening before the opening! We were lucky here in Quebec, we received this game the same weekend as Essen 🙂 I was able to try it with my son, and it's a beautiful reimplementation of 7 Wonders duel, more streamlined with a theme that we really feel very well! No doubt that we will be entitled to some extensions!

An announcement is circulating on social networks just before Essen, the expansion of the excellent Clan of Caledonia. I don't know if it was possible to try it in Essen?

DURING THE SHOW, THE GAMES THAT CATCHED MY ATTENTION

One of the games I'm most looking forward to: SETI. I'll tell you about its author further down in the article, who did something quite unique in the history of Essen! In this game, you lead a scientific institution tasked with searching for traces of life beyond planet Earth. The game is inspired by current space exploration technologies and efforts, which makes it even more interesting in my opinion!

Shackleton Base: A Journey to the Moon seems to have been well received, I found several reviews with good feedback: only 10 pages of rules, good depth, lots of interaction, every little point counts and a nice presence on the table, it seems to be a delight!

Saltfjord, a reimplementation of Santa Maria (which I haven't played) looks very nice, with very good feedback. In this game, we find ourselves in a fjord in Scandinavia. We play the role of fishermen, we develop our villages, set sail to fish on the high seas and improve our equipment and our technology.
Right next door, an extension ofEvenfall (already??), a game that I had the chance to try recently, without joining my purchase list, it's a game that I really liked, lots of possibilities, with a magnificent box!

NOTED AUTHOR

A new author, Tomas Holek presents not one, not two, but three new games in Essen: SETI, Galileo Galilei and Tea Garden …and good feedback on all 3 so far. Unsurprisingly, the author mentioned in an interview that Seti was the game he worked on the most.
An excellent article about the author here

NOTED EDITOR

The kiosk and the advertisement from the publisher of Oink Games really caught my attention!
Founded in 2010 by Jun Sasaki, the Japanese publisher made a name for itself with memorable titles like Scout and Insider. Its signature? Compact boxes with bright colors that, despite their miniature format, are full of content. These small boxes actually contain playful nuggets where refined and very original mechanics shine.

THE 2024 SHOW RANKINGS

The final classification Fairplay 2024. If you don't know, well, it's the German magazine Spiel that asks visitors every day to fill out a small sheet to list their ten favorite games that they tried during their visit. This year, they separated them into two categories: games for connoisseurs and experts, and games for children and families. The games are rated on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the best. In each category, a game must receive a minimum number of ratings to be ranked, but there is also a second list of "hidden gems", for games that have received a lower number of ratings.

The full list on this lien, including “hidden gems”.

Boardgame Geek Buzz 2024

OTHER GAMES NOTED

months, by Luciani (Barrage), a slightly lighter game than we are used to seeing from this author, still intriguing.

Agent Avenue, a game in the vein of Mindbug, where the word pleasure often comes up in the reviews.

Spectacular, a dice and tile placement game, is said to offer an excellent drafting mechanism, with a crisp puzzle and a very fast game. In addition to being visually very colorful, all this attracts me!

RatJack, Black Jack reinvented! Up for trying this 😉

Men Nefer, I read a lot of great things about this one, from the author of Bitoku. And visually, wow!!

Naishi, THE 2-player game of the Show for many who have tried it! Possible to play it already on board game arena.

IN CONCLUSION

According to Boardgamewire, a total of 923 exhibitors showed off their games at this year's show, down from 935 last year and well below the roughly 1 exhibitors who showed off games at the 200 fair.
Publishers reportedly told Boardgamewire that they were waiting to see whether the rise in booth costs was entirely due to the inflationary impact, or whether it was linked to the event being bought by Nuremberg Toy Fair operator Spielwarenmesse in 2022.

Rising costs already appear to be impacting the make-up of the show, with many small and medium-sized publishers deciding to team up to share booth space, while larger publishers such as Asmodee, Kosmos and Ravensburger have created several sprawling exhibits.

This year's show also set a record for the size of the event, which increased by nearly 10 percent to more than 68 square feet by expanding entirely into a previously empty space. That's the size of about a dozen American football fields.

Yasin Ates, Managing Director of Ravensburger Germany, Austria and Switzerland, said: “It was an impressive and successful show. The halls were full, but it was still comfortable. It was great to see so many people playing with such enthusiasm.”

Next year, the new owners are planning the event later in October, from October 23 to 26, 2025, which would coincide with the German autumn school holidays.