by W. Eric Martin

I filmed this video highlighting my picks from SPIEL Essen 25 on Monday, October 20, but thanks to my last-minute planning and an incredibly slow hotel internet connection, it's going live less than an hour ahead of that show opening. Probably not a big deal since you might have a pick list of your own, or you just prefer to wing it and see what's on the table, or you are not looking at BGG since you're about to be surrounded by games, or you are asleep at this hour, or your tastes differ from my mine.

Lots of reasons.

Still, I thought I'd share a summary of game previews and reviews of titles debuting or first widely available at SPIEL Essen 25, while also talking about games that I might see on the table in the future. Might. Once the show opens, I'm mostly talking with publishers about what's next and rarely checking out what's on hand. Maybe that's a character defect; maybe that's the job.

In any case, the show's about to open, so I'll get going for now and be back with pics once I take a breather from the show floor:

Youtube Video

• BGG's SPIEL Essen 25 Preview
• My "picks" for SPIEL Essen 25
• ANTS review
• Feya's Swamp review
• Collect! review
• Faust vs Mephisto review
• Take Time review
• 7 Wonders Dice review
• Qwirkle Flex review
• INK review
• Bombastic review
• Layer Puzzle review
• Sanctuary preview
• A Carnivore Did It! preview
• Biddle review
• Map Masters preview