Spiel 2025 is getting near and I am fortunate enough to have found a bunk in the AirBnB appartement of a friend. For some shady reasons, my own hotel reservation got cancelled, so I wasn’t so sure about my travel plans. But now I do have the luxury to travel to Essen once again. And it will be my fifth edition, so I am very happy that I can make it this year for my anniversary!
So once again, I’ve watched my favorite Boardgame Tubers and worked my way through the BGG preview list to come up with a list of my most anticipated board game releases for Essen Spiel 2025. And yes, I’ve once again tried to list different kinds of games, so hopefully there’s something of your tasting in this list. I’ve limited myself to games that are available for purchase and are stand alone. Let’s start!
Must Haves
At the beginning of the year I’ve made a list of my most anticipated board games of 2025, and I have decided to exclude these games from this list (which doesn’t mean I am not hyped about them anymore and I will certainly try to check them out). So, if you haven’t seen that list yet, you might want to start reading there first.
Orloj: The Prague Astronomical Clock (Perro Loko Games // €60)
I am absolutely in love with the colorful design of Perro Loko’s 2025 release Orloj: The Prague Astronomical Clock, by designers Abraham Sanchez Hermida and Paloma J. Pascual with art by Amelia Sales. Admittedly, the game also looks a bit daunting and overwhelming, but the clock mechanic looks so incredibly intriguing.
In Orloj players are assigned to renovate the famous Astronomical Clock in Prague. Center piece of the board is a life-like representation of the double dial of the actual clock which serves as a rondel in the game. The other main mechanics seem to be worker placement and track progression. Everything you might come to aspect from a beige euro game, accept this is one is everything but beige.
After last year’s big succes Phoenix New Horizon (which I still haven’t played), it looks like Perro Loko has a new hit on their hands. Orloj is one of the most liked games in BGG’s Essen Spiel Preview, raking up over 1100 thumbs up.
TagTeam (Scorpion Masqué // €23)
TagTeam is an auto battler card game with deck building mechanics, designed by Gricha German and Corentin Lebrat. So how does auto battling work in a physical game? Each player starts out with two fighters, and one starting card per fighter in hand. Each player chooses in which order these cards are played, and makes an upside down fight deck of these two cards. Then the fight starts and each player simultaneously reveals the top card, triggering the card effect, reveals the next card, triggering that effect, etc.
Once all cards have been revealed, each player draws three new cards from the combined build deck, chooses one of these cards, putting it somewhere in their fighting deck without changing the order of the cards already in there (with the knowledge of the previous fight). You get the idea.
To me this sounds so much fun! The mind games are probably crazy in this game. The base game comes with 12 asymetric fighters, with 10 cards each and their own unique play styles (think Dice Throne, without the dice). Without a doubt, more fighters will be added when the game will be successfull. But hey, even with the starting twelve many combinations are possible, 66 if I am not mistaken. And that is a lot of replayability for such a small box game.
Origin Story (Stonemaier Games // €??)
A late surprise by Stonemaier games! They will not only be having Vantage for sale at Spiel, but they’re bringing a complete new and unknown trick taking game with engine building elements. The game is called Origin Story and is designed by Jamey Stegmaier and Pete Wissinger (whom I mainly know as one of the presentors of my favorite board game podcasts Decision Space).
In five rounds you will be building a comic book like tableau, which tells your origin story. In this game you don’t start with asymmetric player powers but you will end up with complete different player powers, that will turn you into a certain kind of trick taker, heroic or villainous. Even though I am getting a bit fed up with trick takers with a spin, this one does sound very intriguing. And yes, trick taking is still my favorite mechanic out there, so I will need to try this one. The game will be limited available at the Stonemaier stand.
Medium Weight Euros
My favorite board games are medium weight euro games and I always try to pick up a few new ones during Spiel. Last year’s successes were Endeavour: Deep Sea, Daitoshi, and Shackleton Base. Not a bad bunch, if you ask me, so 2025 has a rough job topping that. This year I have my eye out for some new games by designers whose previous games I already love a lot.
Feya’s Swamp (Fractal Juegos // €38)
Feya’s Swamp is the ‘new’ game by the brothers Helge and Anselm Ostertag, and is a reimplementation of their 2004 game Kaivai. Helge Ostertag is best known as the designer of the many different games within the (in)famous Terra Mystica universe. Infamous because of its complexity, famous for what it did for the board game hobby and the classic status these games now have. Being rated at ‘just’ a 3.40 on BGG, Feya’s Swamp, seems to linger on the lighter side of Ostertag’s oeuvre.
Feya’s Swamp is an economic tile placement and worker placement game with asymmetric player powers. You play as a faction of Swamp dwellers that try to become the most powerful ruler of the bog. Over four rounds, you settle, you fish, you trade and you explore, and be doing so, aiming for complete domination of these marshes. The game has an easy and advanced mode. And most importantly: the game as a very gentle retail price.
Druids Of Edora (Ravensburger / Alea // €60)
Last year’s Civolution by Stefan Feld was one of those games that everybody was talking about. It had been teased for a while and it was finally available in Essen in 2024. Feld’s next game seems to be released without that amount of fuzz.
Druids of Edora will be published by Ravensburger/Alea, the publisher that also brought us The Castles of Burgundy, probably the most popular Stefan Feld game out there. And just like in this classic, dice play a prominent role in this new game. In Druids of Edora players are druids – duh – and witches that brew potions and craft menhirs and stelae. This all happens in a dense forest board with some clearings, where dice from different colors can be placed. A lot more than this, isn’t known as of yet on BGG.
Re-release Heaven
The year 2025 might be the year of the board game re-releases and reimplementations. The Essen Spiel preview on BGG is over 1200 titles long, many of which are games that have been around for quite a while, but were out of print or in need of an update. I’ve already mentioned Feya’s Swamp, but there are more.
Manhattan Project: Energy Empire (Frostbite Games // €75)
Manhattan Project: Energy Empire is a rerelease of the classic game by designer Luke Laurie of Dwellings of Eldervale en Andromeda’s Edge fame. According to many fans of Manhattan Project is the game that has innovated the worker placement mechanic. There is a before and an after this board game.
Energy Empire is a game that combines worker placement, tableau-building, and resource management mechanics. On a turn, each player can choose to either work or generate power, which you need to infuse your work actions. The innovation in the worker placement area is mainly in the fact that you can power workers to overtake taken worker placement spots on the board and the free recall of workers (combined with power generation).
A price tag of 75 euro feels a bit steep for a rerelease, but it is the Kickstarter edition of the games, which also includes two small expansions and has received a wonderful thematic make-over by artist Heiko Günther. And I’m really loving this stencil like WOII propaganda art style.
Merchants of Andromeda (Allplay // €40)
We all know that Reiner Knizia probably is the most prolific board game designer that has ever lived. And with more than 700 published games, it is an accolade that is not very likely to transfer to another designer any time soon. And this year the Doctor’s work ethics are more visible than ever, with 26 entry’s in Essen Spiel 2025 preview. Most of these titles are rereleases or language ports, but it is an impressive sign of the productive of Knizia and the fanbase he still has in the world of board games.
Merchants of Andromeda is a 2-5 player game that plays in about 45 minutes. Players are galactic merchants that have to compete in a set of mini-games to earn as many galactic bucks as possible. This game is Allplay’s reimplementation of Reiner Knizia’s 2000 classic economy game Merchants of Amsterdam. This might be one of my first buys, because it ticks a lot of my boxes.
The original was all about being the most cutthroat merchant in 16th century Amsterdam. That game came with an actual spring clock that would be used during a Dutch auction. But now the game has been translated into a futuristic and galactic setting. How cool is that! The spring clock from the original is gone, but the Dutch auction is still there and happens in an app in the new game. Count me in!
4X Lite
I have a strong fascination with 4X games but most classics in the genre, like Twilight Imperium or Stellar Horizon (which I’ve recently played for 12 hours), just take too long for my tasting and attention span. So, I am always on the look-out for a lighter version within this genre. And this year I am in for a threat, because there are (at least) three games being released at Spiel25 that are all dabbling within that space. Get it? SPACE! I’ve already mentioned Merchants of Andromeda, but that game is getting some serious competition.
Age of Galaxy – Second Edition (€28)
Age of Galaxy is a reprint of the 2022 mini-box game by Polish publisher Portal Games. That original game was received quite well and really packed a punch for such a small box. For the second edition the illustration and production are completely overhauled which means the box isn’t that mini anymore. But the core rules haven’t been changed. What is new, are the added solo rules for the game, which could be just that extra incentive to purchase this game.
The core gameplay of Age of Galaxy, is that of the more traditional 4x games, but a game will only take about an hour. Players play as an alliance of (eventually) three factions (of 40 available in the box, leading to 9880 different combinations of factions). Each faction follows one of five ideologies: science, militarism, diplomacy, industrialism and culturalism. This results in many different paths to victory based on how well your chosen factions will work together and the main ideology of your alliance.
Transgalactica (Devir // €55)
Transgalactica is one of the many new Devir titles at Spiel. This one is designed by Daniele Tascini of Tzol’kin, Tiletum and other T-titles fame. The beautiful and colorful illustrations are done by Edu Valls, and they really lift the aesthetic to another level.
In this game you are a starship captain that has been send out to explore new planets, and while doing so dabble a bit in political intrigues and technological advancements. This game promisses to be a worker placement and engine building game with a high level of player interaction and a tight resource economy. Sign me up already!
According to many reviewers the rulebook needs a redo but hopefully that’ll be taken care of before Spiel25 and you should really play with 4 or 5 players. Something to remember. The price tag for Spiel seems quite a bit lower than the retail price I see online at the moment, so that could be a reason for taking the leap for this game during Spiel.
Quick Lil’ Deck Builders
As a long time Magic: The Gathering and Hearthstone player I have a certain love for deck building games, but I really don’t like the constructed way of playing. I rather draft a deck during gameplay. Since Hearthstone Battleground came out, I haven’t touched the standard way of playing that game. Nevertheless, I am always keeping my eye out for some new deck builders. And it looks like this year, many quick and small deck builders are hitting the market.
Etherstone (Thundergryph Games // €35)
Sometimes you come across a game that you will want to buy, just because of the artwork. Only sanity and the sound of your screaming bank account will stop you from doing so most of the time. In the case of Etherstone I do not know if that will be enough though. The art in this game designed by Virginio Gigli and Simone Luciani and has been illustrated by Paolo Voto, looks just jaw dropping beautiful.
But is it fun? In this game players draft a deck of seven cards and the game ends when one player has played all these cards (or deplete the stack of enemies cards or victory points). Sounds easy, right? But the game comes with over 100 different cards of different types, so the number of combination of 7 card hands is huge, so the gameplay must be different every time you play. Dice Tower compares Etherstone to the engine builder Res Arcana, which I like (but not a lot). So will this be a game I love?
FlipToons (Thunderwork Games // €20)
Fliptoons is a quick card game that is about deck building and card synergy (within a tableau). The game is designed by Jordy Adan and Renato Simões. In this game you try to cast a cast of six cartoon animals that rank up the most fame points, the quickest. Each turn you flip a grid of six animal cards, calculate the fame and use that fame to scout better animals from the shared market. You will repeat this until a player scores 30 fame in one turn, which then triggers the end of game.
Publisher Thunderwork Games claims that FlipToons is suitable for players that like games like Dominion, Scout, Sea, Salt & Paper and Flip 7, and I happen to like all of these very much. So this probably will be a must buy. Even if it is just for the retro Cuphead-like illustrations by Diego Sá. The beta of the game is playable on BGA.
Heavy (and Expensive)
I do not own a single Vital Lacerda game, simply because these games are too expensive for their weight. This sounds counterintuitive, since a heavy game is probably more complex, with more components, so more expensive. But really heavy games don’t hit my table that often, so – for me personally – they are not worth the investment.
And even though Lacerda’s games are still some of the priciest in the hobby space, more and more games are going above and beyond the 75 euro price point, which for me is kind of the acceptable maximum for a box full of cardboard (with all respect). Still, some of these games sound really interesting. Speakeasy (€160), Luthier (€95) and Vantage (€85) were already mentioned in my Most Anticipated Board Games of 2025 post, but these games are also worth checking out (if your budget is on the bigger side).
Recall (Alion // €80)
I don’t owe Revive but I’ve played it quite a few times with friends and absolutely love that game. So it won’t be a surprise that a new game of the same team of designers must be on this list. According to the designers, Recall is a a strategy game about engine building and exploration, in which each player leads one of 14 unique tribes, each associated with one of 18 distinct gadgets that significantly influence strategy and opportunities.
In a turn you will take an action by slotting a key card in a specific slot of your – once gain – very intricate player board, or you will produce resources and recall your used key cards. In each game there are three moments where the player must choose one of two possible paths, which helps to define your strategy more. Tribes can be saved within an app, and will become part of the lore of the world of Recall. Really the only thing that is holding me back, is that price tag of 80 euros…
Galactic Cruise (Dranda Games // €100)
Galactic Cruise is one of those games that look like a LaCerda game but isn’t. The fact that the artwork for this game is done by Ian O’Toole might be of big influence there. But that is not all. Galactic Cruise also is this complex hybrid of many mechanics that are all so often used by Vital LaCerda. Action points, worker placement, end game bonuses and hand management are just a few of the 15 listed mechanics for this game.
In Galactic Cruise players try to run the Galactic Cruise Space Travel Agency as efficient and profitable as possible. You will be acquiring blueprints, buying and selling resources, constructing space cruises, luring in those space tourists, and building connections between different locations to improve your space game. With a complexity rating of almost 4.00, Galactic Cruise is not for the faint hearted board games enthusiasts. During Spiel, the game will be sold with a 20 euro discount, so that might be a reason to take the plunge.
Asian Games
The popularity of board games by Asian designers is on the rise in western board game community’s. Just like many other, I have been on the hunt for Nokusu dice for quite some years now. It may not come as a big surprise that during Spiel Asian publisher are more and more visible each year. OINK, Saashi & Saashi, Origame, Playte and Hobby Japan are just a few of the publishers from the East that will have a stand during this edition of Spiel.
Orapa Space (Playte // €22)
Orapa Space is the follow up to Orapa Mine, the deduction game that makes Battleship look like child’s play. In Orapa Space players “shoot laser beams” at the hidden tableau of their advisary. The way this beam bounces back, should give information about the sort and position of the different planets. This sounds genius and brain breaking at the same time. I might be picking up both Orapa Space and Mine.
Batam (Playte // €22)
As mentioned above, there is an exceptional amount of remakes of existing games being released at Spiel this year. Half of those games is by Reiner Knizia. But not Batam, which is a remake of Stefan Dorra’s game Tonga Bonga, which was actually nominated for the Spiel des Jahres in 1998.
This small box game packs a real punch. Batam is brutal dice placement game, in which you must hire a crew, roll your sailer dice and assign them to the ships of your competitors. With your ship you navigate the archipelago to buy and sell goods. Speed is important, but profit even more. And let’s agree that Batam is just a better name than Tonga Bonga.
Petiquette (Oink // €20)
For me personally, Oink is more often a miss than a hit. At this moment I do own Moving Wild, Startups and Scout (which probably is my most played game in recent years). And besides that, I am still doubting whether I want to own Deep Sea Adventure Boost and Dropolter.
One of this year’s new Oink releases will be Petiquette, a pattern finding game for the family. Each round 5 cards are dealt open and each player has to choose the most logical next card from their hand. Once two or more players choose the same card, they will each earn a point. Game design doesn’t have to be that complicated. This sounds like a quick and fun filler game.
Yes, but no, but yes if so
These games were the talk of the town during GenCon 2025, but their titles haven’t shown up in the Essen Spiel 2025 preview yet. And my questions about it haven’t been answered by the publishers (yet). So, these games are big question marks at the moment of writing, but if they will be available, at least one of the two will end up in my collection (and it most likely will be Kinfire Council).
Kinfire Council (Incredible Dream Studios // €65)
Kinfire Chronicles was the well received cooperative campaign game released in 2023 by publisher Incredible Dream Studios. This game is set in the fantastical city of Din’Lux and the art is stunning. Just as is its price tag starting at a minimum of 120 euro’s… A cheaper option would be the Kinfire Delve trilogy, the second game in the Kinfire Chronicles universe, and a cooperative dungeon crawler with push your luck elements (as in dice chucking). And that games looks stunning once again, but I am not that much into coop games.
But lo and behold! This year Incredible Dream will release the third title in this universe: Kinfire Council. A spicy political city building game, with worker placement and voting as main mechanics. Now we’re talking! Players play as members of the Din’Lux city council who are rebuilding the city and resurrecting the five light houses that will protect the city against the cult of Altan. You will send your (upgradable) workers out to arrest cultists, battle threats and rebuild the city. Besides that you are voting on laws and decrees and by doing so changing the rules of the game ever so slightly in your advantage. Incredible Dream Studios is not mentioned in Spiel’s exhibitioners list.
Lightning Train (Dire Wolf // €55)
The train game genre is niche that is quite unfamiliar to me. Sure, I’ve played Ticket to Ride and (the much better but old and beige) Trans America/Europa, but I have never came near an 18xx game. Chances are though, that one of the go-to games at Spiel25 will be Lightning Train by Dire Wolf. It was one of the most anticipated games for GenCon. At first glance, Lightning Train looks just like a new Ticket to Ride version, but underneath the hood this new game by legend Paul Dennen, designer of Clank and Dune: Imperium, promises to be more than just the next route building board game.
The core gameplay of Lightning Train revolves around the mechanic of bag building, and then using your chips to build routes, drop off goods and passengers and improve your company board. To be honest, this really sounds like any other train game, but knowing the fun way Paul Dennen was able to combine worker placement and deck building in Dune: Imperium, a train game combined with bag building could be fun. Hopefully some reviews will be rolling in before Spiel25, because I am not sold on this one completely. Dire Wolf seems to be present at Spiel, according to the Spiel website, but nowhere Lightning Train is mentioned.
Wrapping up
So, these are some of the games I will be looking at during my two day stay in Essen. If you want to see my complete list, check out my personal picks on BGG, which also includes expansions and games that are only available for demo. And if you want to talk board games some more, feel free to follow or contact me on Bluesky. And if you go to Essen: have fun and let me know what games are on your list!