Spiel 2023 preview

SPIEL23 is inching ever closer - we are ready to go already! 💪
There are so many games to buy and try, that even my excel sheet lost count. 😂
In this post I’ll focus on some exciting games that are only at the convention as playable demos. Let’s take a look! 🕵️

🏛️ Civolution

This recently rose to the very top of the BGG Hotness list, even though not much is known about it. It is however designed by none other than Stefan Feld, and it has his signature style action-selection: Dice! 🎲 You are deities, all leading your own civilization and helping them develop and evolve. Hope we find a free table to try this! 😁

🐝 Apiary

Another one that quickly rose in hotness is the newest title from Stonemaier games. You play as bees, but not just any bees: these are sci-fi bees that have evolved after humanity has perished, and now are even able to travel in space. A quick read of the rulebook gave me good feelings about this. A nice flow of either placing workers, or recalling them to get income; asymmetric factions; tableau building; and so on. 👌

🦕 Perseverance: Castaway Chronicles Ep. 3-4

Even though we are less and less inclined to back crowdfunding projects nowadays, this one will be a no-brainer for us. Perseverance Ep. 1 and 2 are amazing big crunchy euros (which are also surprisingly underrated). This one continues the theme of being shipwrecked survivors on an unknown island - this time you already have a bustling city and are taming dinosaurs to help your everyday life, and you are adventuring deeper and deeper to the center of the island. We have to try the demo of these! ☺️

🚂 Horror on the Orient Express

I am super excited about this upcoming Adam Kwapiński game! 🥳 People who managed to play the prototype of this are raving about it too. A co-operative game played on the iconic train, as you are trying to find out which passengers are cultists, and stop them from performing a ritual, and ensure the train safely arrives at its station. Looks and sounds super unique!