The Must-Play Board Games from 2026's Biggest Board Game Fair

Highlights include the Cyberpunk TCG, the Diablo board game, and a Gloomhaven spinoff

SPIEL Essen, the world’s biggest board game fair, smashed records again this year, bringing in 230,000 people from around the world to try 2,012 new games from 997 exhibitors representing 53 countries. Attendees sprinted across the convention hall as soon as the doors opened to have the chance to buy some of the hottest games, sign up for demos of games that won’t be available until next year, and pick up exclusive promotional cards and miniatures.

I filled my days and nights in Essen, Germany with playtesting and interviews, trying some of the most anticipated upcoming releases along with small titles from up-and-coming designers worth watching. Here are the seven best games I played at SPIEL Essen and when you’ll be able to buy them.

7 Mercenaries Wanted

Designed by: Dennis Vögele

A session of Gloomhaven takes hours to set up and complete, but Mercenaries Wanted offers a taste of its rich fantasy universe in just 45 minutes. One to six players draft a team of characters from Gloomhaven’s mercenary packs and then send them on jobs. You’ll need to assemble synergies based on each card’s type and special abilities while also carefully considering which ones you’ll want to keep between rounds so they can earn lots of points in the final tournament. Secret loot adds some extra strategy as you try to outmaneuver your opponent by nabbing the best job first.

Expected release date: December 2026

6 Tideward

Designed by: Connie Vogelmann

Hatch sea turtle eggs and navigate them safely onto an algal mat in this sweet board game from the designer of Apiary and Wyrmspan. Each player has a secret scoring condition and is competing for prime spots on the mat. The key is taking advantage of the free movement that comes at the end of every round and from positioning your turtles on the rotating rondel representing the tides. You have to look out for crabs eager to eat your turtles, but luckily, this cozy game is pretty forgiving, so you have plenty of opportunities to evade the predators.

Release date: Jan. 16, 2027

5 Diablo: Unbound

Designed by: Glass Cannon Unplugged

Rather than adapting a specific Diablo game, the upcoming cooperative board game pulls in the best elements from the franchise. Each player takes on a class like the Rogue or Paladin with their own distinct strategies, equipment, and skill trees. You’ll need to complete objectives, grab loot, and kill constantly respawning monsters while protecting yourself from brutal attacks, since if one character goes down, the whole party loses. Luckily, you’ll still get benefits even from a loss, which you can use to try the encounter again. Death can come unexpectedly if the boss or another wandering monster shows up.

Crowdfunding begins Q1 2027 on Gamefound

4 Forest Shuffle: Smoky Mountains

Designed by: Kosch

This relaxing game is filled with beautiful animal art that you can admire as you craft a riverside forest and fill it with creatures like herons, bass, and otters, each with their own habitat preferences, special abilities and scoring conditions. The emphasis on water and new species changes up the mechanics found in the rest of the Forest Shuffle series, adding fresh synergies to be aware of as you choose how to use your cards. There are a huge number of strategies for earning points as you try to efficiently use your turns before winter descends on the forest.

Release date: Oct. 30

3 Cyberpunk Trading Card Game

Designed by: Luohan Wei and Elliot Cook

The Cyberpunk TCG booth had the biggest line in Essen’s card game hall, dwarfing the wait to test out the welcome decks for Magic: The Gathering’s upcoming Star Trek set. I got to test out the Arasaka and Mercs demo decks available for print-and-play for a satisfying, zippy game that’s easy to pick up if you’ve played Magic or Lorcana. Players vie for status in Night City, which is represented by stealing gig dice that range in value from d4 to d20. There’s plenty of strategy when it comes to whether to play a card for its effect or turn it into a resource, and in choosing how to use Legend cards that start as face-down resources but can become powerful attackers. Fortunes can swing quickly as a particularly strong card can steal multiple dice. The game also has a hard turn limit, so if things don’t go your way, you can always try again quickly.

Release date: Nov. 6

2 Timespan

Designed by: Kenneth Minde and Kristian Amundsen Østby

While I love the concept of the civilization-building card game Through the Ages, it’s extremely hard to find the time to actually play it with friends. Timespan offers a far more streamlined and fast-paced spin on the same theme, taking you from the Stone Age to the Space Age in about 90 minutes. While there’s a bit of card drafting, most of the game is played simultaneously as you place workers and build an engine by updating your technology and recruiting historic figures. Asymmetric civilizations and a huge variety of cards provide plenty of opportunities for different strategies as you seek to gather resources and advance your culture.

Expected release date: Q1 2027

1 Prague Unseen

Designed by: Jindřich Pavlásek, Michal Peichl, and Petr Vojtěch

A strong theme and rich strategy made Prague Unseen the game I tried at Essen that I’m most excited to play again. Players vie for influence over a mythical version of 19th-century Prague, rebuilding the city with the help of creatures from Czech stories. Each district has its own minigame and resources, from winding the city’s famous clock to collecting magical items for your display case. While it seems like it would be hard to keep track of everything, I found the mechanics intuitive, though the real challenge is figuring out how to use each of your workers as efficiently as possible.

Available now for $69.99 at Capstone Games