At The Table with The Dice Tower: The Games of Essen 2025

28:37Yeah. Well, I have played one of their other games, which was Phoenix New Horizon, which was a very Euro-y game. I didn't love it. I might need to play it again. I know a lot of people have talked about this. They had pre-orders. And Devere Games is going to be doing an English language of this game. Which does factor into the shopping for it at Essen and space in your suitcase. I agree. It's a big boy. Honestly, if you know that someone's going to make a game in English in a few months, you really shouldn't get it at Essen, frankly. It will come to you. Or, hear me out, a slightly more expensive way but very fulfilling way to play all these new games from Essen, come on a Dice Tower cruise.

29:23They'll all be there. That's true. All right. The next one on the list is one I'm very excited about, actually, and that's Recall. And that's mostly because the designers here, Christian Osby, Anna Wormland, and two others whose names, Heige Meissner, Cagetti's Vincent, they're the same designers of Revive. Yes. And I really liked Revive. It's the same publisher, Allian. and if you look at the pictures, I was like, oh, it's Revive again. So I don't know how different it is and everything, but I am very curious about this one. I did like Revive a lot. And then there's the SETI expansion. There it is.

30:09This is exactly what I wanted in an expansion. More cards, more aliens. Yeah, that's what I like. Also available in the U.S. Yes, and in fact, Czech Games is really good about that now. This will be out pretty quickly after the fair. You won't have to wait long at all. Yeah. So definitely one to think about. The next one, Fea's Swamp. So this is from Fractal Juegos, and this is a reprint of an old game called Kavai. If you look at Kavai, it looks horribly boring. But Fea's Swamp, I like it. I think it's interesting. it's on my top list it's one of the 16 well one of the things about it is the art is just the Miko and I gotta be honest I like the Miko's art a lot but I'm kind of fading on him sort of with his humans his humans look very similar many times so when I see one of his games with humans on it I'm like oh that's a Valeria game or you know it's one of the Garfield games because they all have that same kind of look to him but when he does animals i'm like oh this looks so good i really like his animals and monsters it looks very yes whimsical and thematically engaging um but also like you said it's it's a it's area movement and um an economic scheme and if i'm getting a heavier like and very affordable compared to a lot of the big games.

31:43So I feel like that's why it's hitting a lot of my, if I'm going to do a heavier game, I feel like it's, this is it. And then Nature, this is from North Star Games, this is their umpteenth revival of Evolution. I'm so confused. I have to say, I feel like I'm flooded with titles that are just offshoots. I don't want to say just because I don't want to completely discount it, but it seems like almost everything North Star is making now is some variation on the evolution system, and I find it confusing. Like, I don't know what's new, what's a revision, what's a second edition. I don't know where I sit with this title at all.

32:20Okay, well, nature is kind of a restart of the whole thing, right? They obviously took the word evolution out, and there's some similarities to their Oceans game to some degree. It's a very, very, very streamlined game. I like it fine, but there are five expansions for it. and I've heard tell and I'm guessing the expansions you know you plug and play you pick one to plug there's a dinosaurs there's flight you know different ones so I I have yet to play it with one of those but I think they're going to change up how the game plays a lot interesting so one North Star make sure that you have like like an MCU universe kind of chart flow chart we need one

33:04to Northstar U again, as we can get this in the United States. So that's when I might hold on. Well, yes, there's a lot of these we're going to say. But we know a lot of our listeners are overseas, too. Sure. You know, I was just thinking, though, that Eric Martin needs to add. He has different stats here. Players, playtime, age, release date, MSRP. There needs to be physical weight added to this. Anyway, the reason I mention that is because the next game, Covenant, from DeVere. I have a copy of it. I have not played it yet, but it weighs 100 ,000 pounds. That's not quite true. It's the size of a ticket drive box, but it is jam-packed.

33:39I don't know if you've ever played a DeVere game, but they delight in making the games hard to put back in the box. There's a lot of stuff in there. I love the challenge every time, and I cannot wait to learn how to play this on the cruise. Yeah. Yeah. It's going to be there. I opened it up. I was like, holy moly, all these pieces. Okay. I have not played it yet, but it is from the same designer. German Millen is the name of the designer. He's done a lot of the games people like from them, like Bamboo and Botoku. He also did a game called Mennefer. And I like Mennefer a lot, but his games are definitely not small games.

34:20If you ever played Botoku, you would know. There's a lot going on in it. So much. This one seems to be the same. I'm in. For four-ish hours. It says 100 minutes, but with learning it and set up and then putting it away. There should be – you should have to go to jail for a little bit. Serve a little time for lying on boxes about the time length. I'm getting tired of it. Well, but the thing is, Batoku the first time, three and a half, four hours. But after you learn – like set up and breakdown and learning the game were a big factor of that. the actual playing of it. It's closer to honest on that front.

35:01Closer to honest. That's my mantra. All right. The next one, I'm really interested in it. It's called Ada's Dream. And it's about Ada Lovelace building the first computer. It's an alternate history game. And the designer here is Tony Lopez. And I have not really played. They have Airmail and Chandigarh. I think Chris just played Shondegar. I don't remember if he played that one or not. Airmail, did I play that one? No. Okay. Well, I like how it looks and I like the theme of it. Yeah. Absolutely. And it's from Alley Cat. And Alley Cat makes a bunch of good stuff. They do. Sanctuary is next on the list from Furland, which is sort of an offshoot.

35:48It's not the same as Ark Nova. It's similar in systems. It's kind of like Ark Nova, the tile laying game. Okay. so it's it's a what did i end up giving sanctuary i gave it a 6.5 it was so close for me the problems i have with sanctuary is they streamlined arc nova so much i mean it says 40 to 100 minutes that's that's very accurate it's a much shorter game but i felt like they streamlined it too much if that makes sense you have these big hexagonal tiles you'll build a zoo with them. You have actions. The actions are very simplified. I feel like the luck, which is definitely, there's luck in Ark Nova, but I think it's more noticeable in Sanctuary because it's shorter.

36:34I think a lot of people will like it, but I don't think, I think if you love Ark Nova, you should be careful. It might be too simple for you. Huh. It's a shame then that with this new version that all the copies of Ark Nova have burst into flames. I didn't say that. I'm not saying that. What a way to twist my words. I'm just saying if you like Ark Nova, this may not be as exciting for you. Yes. No, I agree. It's probably for a different audience. It is not for a different audience, Eric. They want that Ark Nova money. Or if your friend keeps trying to get you to play Ark Nova and it's a stretch for you, maybe this is it.

37:14Sanctuary! Next on the list is one I am interested in. It's one from Danny Garcia called Coming of Age. This is a theme that's been tried many times in various ways. Pursuit of happiness. There was the Freedom and Freeze game about sort of the game of life. And this has, you're going year by year. That's a different category that one. Yeah, the Freedom and Freeze game was interesting. But you're growing up one year at a time. You're rolling dice and doing action, spending time doing stuff and trying to have a good life. It's an interesting theme and one I am curious to see what Danny Garcia does with.

37:50Yeah, I think this looks like the most gamified version of that theme because the other ones are usually much, much lighter, right? They're more – They're more silly. They're more about the theme or they're silly and stuff. And this one, is this your whole life or is it just teen to adult? I think you start as a child. You're a child. I have done zero research on this. But from the visual of the art cover art, which has very small children and grownups, one would imagine. I think it goes to at least young adulthood. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. I don't know that you die in the game, for lack of better, or retire.

38:35Again, only referring to the cover, I don't see the elderly. There are no gray hairs. Right. And it also is called Coming of Age. So I feel like getting to be a functional adult is the goal of the game. It's like that movie where when you're 40, you die. What? Or was it 30? I don't know. Is this sci-fi? We're switching to sci-fi? All right, Castle Combo. Next game. Yeah, Castle Combo. This is an expansion for Castle Combo. I'm sure this one will sell really well because it's some more cards. Easy enough. Sure. 12 cards. And then Echoes of Time. Have either of you played the game from Yellow where you slid cards across the top of the board and they eventually fell into obscurity?

39:18No. Oh, oh, oh, oh. Ah, yes. The one where the stuff crumbles and you only have a few turns to use a card. Oh, ancient. Ancient knowledge. Ancient knowledge. Thank you, Eric. Yes. We worked together and we got it. We got that. Teamwork. This game has a similar feel to ancient knowledge where you're putting cards on your board. You pay cards from – everything is like with cards. It's all animals. You put cards on your board. You pay cards as their cost and then they go on a certain time and then every turn everything slides and they come off your board. It's like a lighter version. I liked it fine.

39:57I had a weird – it has a weird thing where there's a little bit of area control in it, which feels slightly off from the rest of the game. But the artwork is beautiful. And I thought it maybe ended a little earlier than I wanted to, which is a very weird thing to say about a game. I'm excited for it. One of the designers of – oh, the cover is amazing too. Yeah. One of the designers of this is Simone Luciani, who I believe is an AI robot. and I always say this because the man is on I was looking at my boxes here he's on every game from Cranial Creations I think he's on staff there works on development there but he has designed so many games that have come out this year he may have more games that are out this year that he's had a hand in than Canizia I really think so and I'm not exaggerating he has done so much so it's very interesting White Castle Duel I have played this twice so far oh the first time I was like interesting the second time I hated it oh so I am not sure I'm gonna try it again it is super tight very very back and forth tight there's not a lot of points in this game you have to think about every decision that you make in it I think there's two four six I think you make twelve actions over the course of the game which is very similar to White Castle hmm But those actions can have multiple actions from them, just like White Castle.

41:27I don't know. I'll give you my final decision eventually. Okay. It doesn't matter. It's going to sell a ton. The next one thematically seems pretty interesting, the Voynich puzzle. I've seen a lot of references to this old document that was discovered that still is baffling cryptologists. Is it just gibberish? Is it a secret code? As a theme, it's kind of an interesting thing. Yeah. I think the theme of this is great. And it's another Danny Garcia game. Hey. Yeah. So, yeah, I agree. This is from Salt-N-Pepa Games, and they like making games that have interesting themes. You know, they did Watergate, I think.

42:03Didn't they do that game about the popes? I'm pretty sure. About the papal election. I think so. Yeah. So, they like to take interesting themes and run with them. Yeah. So, now we got a couple expansions. Yeah, for Underwater Cities and the Lord of the Rings Duel for Middle-Earth. I think they're both pretty small. Well, the Duel for Mother Earth is a very small expansion. It's only eight euros. Eight euro, yeah. Yeah. And Underwater Cities, this is kind of a late expansion because the game came out six or seven years ago now. Something like that. Yeah, well, why not? Why not? Why not? Hey, if you don't have room in your suitcase for a game, you don't have room for Luthier.

42:42Luthier is not an easy game. That's a lot of stuff, yeah. It's cool. I like it. But you can get it over here soon. it's from england though so i'm not sure where's the easiest place to buy it from that's true but if you get a chance stop by their booth dave beck is a very jovial man yeah it's a neat game about making instruments and pleasing your patrons and it's it's a crunchy game and i'm very much excited to play it but again perhaps on the cruise yeah save some time though for that one because it is a lengthy game yeah aquaria this is from delicious games there's always a long line of delicious booth.

43:19This has kind of a funky cover where it's like a 1950s style almost. People looking at an aquarium. It's like a Saturday evening post sort of cover. It is. Yes, it evokes that. Yeah, so you're trying to have the most, you're trying to have a thriving aquarium, which has done a lot but I'm okay with it. Tomas Hullick though is a designer of this. You may know him because last year he had three games released at Essen called Tea Garden, Galileo Galilei, and SETI. Yeah, he's in demand. And he won Essen last year. Yeah. So, and all three of those games have gotten very good acclaim, right? Especially, obviously, SETI.

43:55Did you know SETI's number 32 on Board Game Geek? Wow. It's crazy. Meteoric rise. Anyway. Well, folks, that's all the time we have to go through this list. We'll do a more thorough thing on, or we already have done a video one, where we'll probably talk about some of these same games, but also different ones. But we wanted to take a moment to call out some spotlights that we each have. Joy, what's a game that you are interested in? So I'm going to drop down. You have been going through some of the heavy hitters, and I know that's all the thumbs up, but they're also the ones that were pretty large boxes.

44:26So I'm going to drop down and talk about some of the more pragmatic, smaller games that I know I'm going to be able to fit into my suitcase. And so they weren't as high on the thumbs up, but they were thumbs up in my heart. I like it. I like it. the so i'm absolutely making a stop at charming games collective uh there's a number of games there that i'm interested in but the one i'm going to tell you about is use up all your sick days i did see this i think this is on my list too yeah yep they all have like there's a bunch of them they have super cute art this one's for one to six players it's a 10 to 20 minutes 15 euro and it's a cooperative ladder climbing card game.

45:13So all of these are card games that they have, but that's the one for me that I know is on my must-have. There's a bunch of others. It's more the maybe I go there a little bit later and I pick one of the five I'm interested in. But that's the top of the five list for them. What about you, Eric? So there's a game from Vlad Achvatil that's set in a Czech town. They were going to be showing it off at Gen Con, but I don't think they actually got it onto the table. It's called Severton. I think it's based on a literary theme, so this is an existing property. But it just sounds like a really interesting storytelling game, adventure game, cooperative.

45:53It's on my radar because it's one I want to check out. I am interested in a game called Serial Killer. But to be specific, it's spelled C-E-R-E-A-L Killer. Yes! This looks fascinating. Basically, it's a two - to three-player game. A string of unsolved crimes has left the city on edge as a cunning killer leaves victims in the shadows. Their weakness? A serial addiction. So, one person is the killer, you know, they're trying to kill six people. The other person is the detective, trying to stop them, and apparently there's a third player, Lola the dog. I don't know how that works, but the pieces look like Froot Loops on this board.

46:30It looks like a deduction-style game back and forth between two players. So good. I'm very amused by the name of it, the cover. I hope it's good. I'm not sure, but it also doesn't look graphic. Like, I don't want to play a serial killer game if it's, like, graphic or anything. This doesn't look that way. So I'm kind of fascinated by this. Nice. Julie, what else is on your list? All right. I found, you say there were no scary games. I found the one. Or Halloween-themed games. I found the one. Jelly Jelly Games has the slasher. it's a two player game so it's a cooperative card game and you are you know cooperative so you are trying to avoid being slashed so again another small fit in my box and thematically one that I was looking to survive the night through tricks, trust, tricks and terror okay so next for me you mentioned a few of the things that Arcane Wonders is bringing out.

47:33One other one that I am super excited about is a reworking of the classic pick-up-and-deliver game Alphoxa. It's called Ley Lines. It's from the original designer, Wolfgang Kramer, and Daryl Andrews coming in to revise the system. It now has a fantasy theme. You're picking up magical items, selling them at markets, but it is based on one of the classic pick-up-and-deliver games, which means it is on my radar for sure. This is one of the few must-have titles on my list, and I'm very excited to see what they did with it. That's Ley Lines. I have played it so many iterations. Like, which one is the final version?

48:11I don't know. I know. I very much enjoy the final iteration. I lose every time because I'm only, I don't, you know, the pickup delivery is the point of the game. Mine is to get enough points so that I can get the little woodland creature helpers and just have a little army of mushroom people. Well, all right. Which is not how you win the game, so spoilers on the strategy. This is what we call an alternate victory condition. Yes. All right. Tom, yeah. Chronologic came out last year, and it was part of a trilogy of games. So the newest one is Chronologic Cusco 1450. And I was like, how are they going to make this detective thing work with the ink gets?

48:51But it sort of does. It doesn't matter. It's still Chronologic. This is – I will tell you, in Chronologic, there's basically someone has done something or you're trying to figure something out, like in the first several cases, you're trying to figure out when exactly two people are only in one location and they are the only two people to have visited that location. You're asking questions the whole game. It's very logic. It's fantastic. This one's a little trickier because I don't think the map's as easy as the Opera House was in the last one. It's also harder. The last one, they went from one star to six stars.

49:30Now they're like the easiest cases in this one are three stars to eight. I stopped counting. Oh, golly. And we have eight stars in a row. I'm like, just put a number. But it's very interesting and I like it. And if you like the first chronologic, you'll like the next one coming out. I can't wait for the future one. But, yeah, make sure you understand what you're looking for in that first couple of rounds. And Tom explained it right, but I had it in my head wrong when I tried playing this and I got all sorts of messed up. Oh, you played the new one? I have played Cusco. And yes, you need to know what you're looking for.

50:04We thought that it was just - I know you made the same mistake. A location that had two people in it? We're like, yeah, all right, good. That's what we're looking at. Yes, we thought the same thing. And then we found another location that had two people. And I was like, wait a minute. Uh-oh. Which one's right? And I was like, oh. And they're the only two people to ever have gone to that location. Right. That makes it different. Julie, what do you got? I am. So for my final - There's so many. So I'm thinking, so I'm a sucker for specific themes. And there are a couple of them, but this one is Parks and Potions.

50:40So you are a park ranger that is, you know, but your charges are magical creatures, which, you know, is a theme that is very popular. But this one, it's a smaller box. You are, it's for one to five players. So it has a solo variant that they seem very proud of. So I'm intrigued about that. And you are, and for a small box, it packs a lot of components. So you are trying to go roll dice to gather your resources to then distribute back out and help your magical creatures. I'm hoping it's so that they don't rampage, but, you know, who knows. So I'm at least intrigued enough I want to find out about it.

51:29Cool, cool. I, too, am a sucker for specific themes. And so when you create a game that is childhood characters as grizzled detectives, I'm in. And the game here is from Crowd Games. It's called Winnie the Pooh Serious Detective. Yes! It is a cooperative game where you're trying to solve a mystery with like the cover art is amazing on this. It's this sort of grizzled, serious, concerned Winnie the Pooh wearing a suit. Film noir. It's just delicious. This is absolutely my jam. It's a different take, right? Yes. I was expecting it to be yellow and I got annoyed at first and I was like, no way. It's public domain.

52:09They can do what they want. Yeah, they're doing whatever they want here. It is interesting, though, because while the game is called Winnie the Pooh Serious Detective, and I'm all in for that, that looks great. Like Eeyore and Piglet are in the back brooding. It looks cool, but it also seems to indicate that it's not just Pooh. It's also Lewis Carroll and the Arthurian Legends, which would mean Alice in Wonderland and King Arthur. But there's no indication of that on the front of the box. But it does seem like those are the other two expansions in here. I don't know how much of the game is Winnie the Pooh.

52:40It says it has a lot of puns. I'm in. Winnie the Pooh, Serious Detective. I am checking this one out. Nice. Tom, what you got? All right, my next game is A Carnivore Did It. Oh, yeah. Yes! So A Carnivore Did It is a game that I have mostly played solo. I played it with my family a little bit. But this is you have a bunch of animal suspects, someone committed to crime, and all of them say a statement, but one of them's lying. Well, that's the first 50 cases. Then after that, only one of them's telling the truth. Then they add more people. And eventually by the end, there's 2 ,000 cases in this box.

53:24And there are some that there's like eight animals and one to three of them are lying. Oh my goodness. But here's the thing. I'm enjoying it a lot. My only caveat is I have not yet got it wrong. because I will just sit there and I'll come up with my ideas and then I'll play through every statement and go, well, that doesn't work. Let's try it again. And I'll eventually get it. But 2 ,000 cases is a lot. And this is a small little box game from Horrible Guild. It's 15 euro. Holy cow. And the fact that there's 2 ,000 cases, if you like that, what's the one with numbers? Maybe the same people make chronologic.

54:02Turing test, right? Turing machine. Turing machine. If you like Turing Machine, this is easier than Turing Machine, but I still like it. And even if you don't want to play with other people, just throwing – picking one of the 2 ,000 cases, throwing the cards out and trying to figure it out is a fun one. And this is one I think a lot of people might not see. The name is pretty funny because that is one of the clues. A carnivore did it and some of the animals are carnivores and some are herbivores. All righty. Well, that is 1 % of what's coming out of that. Exactly. Basically. I don't even know if it's 1%.

54:35I think we may have done less than that. But the fact of the matter is, folks, just do some research, really, if you're going. And don't get a ton of games. Get some cool ones. And then get one thing that's not a game. There's always cool things that aren't games. There's cool puzzles. All kinds of neat things you can find there. There's currywurst. I got salt and pepper shakers when you're in meeple-shaped. You know, I've always wanted to get those, Julie. I'm afraid they'll break on the way home. No, you just wrap them in your socks. It's fine. I have done that many times. You're right. I'm always like, I wonder what these guys think when they open my suitcase and there's seven socks full of hot sauces.

55:10They think this is a man who knows how to live.

55:16Now I go there and I get German mustard. Oh, there you go. I do love German mustard. All righty, folks. Well, that is it for our show. We'll be back in a couple weeks, I guess, telling you what happened. Yeah. Did we have fun? Absolutely. Were we cold? Did Eric find a spiral potato? Did we play any of these games? You know that's not going to happen. My goal at Essen is I might play a game. Oh, I guess we'll play the games at our booth with people. But besides those. We will do that. I know I'm playing at least three games. Right. I usually play one more outside of that. Listen, this year I managed at least to get the games from Gen Con played.

55:53All right. Which was a big achievement. So here's hoping for Essen. Fingers crossed. Yeah. All right, folks. Well, thanks for listening. Until next time, I'm Tom Bassel. I'm Julie Ahern. And I'm Eric Sommerer. Have fun gaming. Thanks for listening. At the Table is produced by Tom, Julie, and Eric with assistance from the team at Dice Tower Studios. You can find us online on Facebook or on BoardGameGeek in the Dice Tower Guild. Promotional consideration has been provided by publishers in the form of review copies of games. Dave Culling arranged our theme based on themes by Timothy Pinkham and Search Your Feelings.

56:24You know it to be true. No! brought to you by Empire's End. Until next time, from all of us at the table, have fun gaming.

56:41I don't know. I didn't realize that there was somebody more excited about Spiral Potatoes than me, but here we are. You have the home version, though. I don't have the home game. Don't tell people. I don't need people coming over and taking my potatoes. I don't need a line outside my house. Thank you.