Essen Spiel: What Are You Looking Forward To?

This week is the start of the enormous game fair in Essen, Germany. Many publishers will be there--and they'll be debuting their latest games there. So what's the game from Essen you're most excited about?

It's odd because some of these games are already out--mostly in limited availability. But we're being generous in our definition: Anything that will be available there, or that is available around this time, or which may already be out in the Wilds but will also be at Essen... So here are our Top 5 Most-Anticipated Games of Essen. 

Pandemic: Legacy

Come on, now! A Pandemic game with consequences that permanently affect the game?! It's not just a terrific idea, but it's one that makes the game seem more real, and ups the tension. In other hands, I'd be nervous about whether they could pull it off. But I think Matt Leacock and Rob Daviau will make this one for the ages.

Scythe

We've been drooling over Scythe ever since that first, haunting image was released. And the subsequent images have only cemented that excitement. Add to that the fact that it's coming from the always solid Stonemaier Games, and we can't WAIT to get our paws on this.

Antarctica

This game falls squarely in the meaty Euro category. As the sun rotates around the board and "thaws" ships, you can activate them to do stuff for you. Sounds awesome. And if I didn't know it was a Charles Chevallier design, I would have thought this was a sequel to Stefan Feld's Aquasphere!

Kemet Ta-Seti

I'm (Firestone) a BIG fan of Cyclades and Kemet, both from Matagot Games. Cyclades already has a couple of expansions, but now Kemet gets its own, and I can't WAIT to try it out. It adds another new color of pyramid, so a whole new batch of awesome special powers. There are other new rules, too, and it's all modular, so add what you want and leave out what you don't like. 

Brettspiel Adventskalendar 2015

Finally, we have an Advent calendar! But instead of chocolate, this one's chock full of expansions for a slew of new games, including Castles of Burgundy, Colt Express, Marvel Dice Masters, and Orleans, among others. 

Now, understand that we haven't pored over every single game. These are just the ones that hit our radar. So what are you looking forward to? Let us know in the comments, and thanks for reading!

P.S. There was another new game that we're both looking forward to, but that we've managed to play, so it didn't make the list: Mistfall. We'll have our review of it on Wednesday, so stay tuned!