by W. Eric Martin

With SPIEL Essen 25 barely two weeks behind us, German publisher KOSMOS has started teasing new games coming in early 2026, starting with The Gang: More Players, an expansion for John Cooper and Kory Heath‘s co-operative poker game The Gang that allows for games with…more players, specifically up to ten players. We’ve had trouble doing well in The Gang with six players, but perhaps we’re mediocre compared to everyone else. KOSMOS notes:

Ah, okay, exit chips for those who find the game challenging enough already and additional chips for those who want more crooks at their table. You know who you are.

KOSMOS lists Thames & Kosmos and KOSMOS UK for the English-language edition of the game. I’ve reached out to Thames & Kosmos to ask about a release date for this item.

▪️ Another headliner on the KOSMOS line-up is Fantasy Ink, a two-player game from Luc Rémond, designer of Sky Team, which landed KOSMOS the Spiel des Jahres award in 2024. Here’s the publisher’s overview for this game aimed at players aged 10 and up:

A unicorn or a pirate – who will write the best fantasy story?

In this captivating game for two, you’ll compete to create the best fantasy characters for your book. Skillfully use dice to bring your heroes and heroines to life and fill your book chapter by chapter. Every decision brings you closer to victory. Whether you finish your work first or assemble a special group of heroes – only the most creative pen wins!

▪️ Happy Holidays is a 1-4 player game from frequent design duo Matthew Dunstan and Brett J. Gilbert that KOSMOS describes as a “tactical family game”. Here’s a teaser:

Barcelona, ​​Paris — and then a side trip to Amsterdam? Three weeks of vacation in Europe invite careful planning.

Where are you going? What sightseeing are you planning? What’s the best way to get to your next destination? Longer visits earn you more points, while the clever choice of transportation determines the smooth running of travel between cities.

Find out who has the skill for perfect vacation planning: Choose city tiles, organize your stays, and collect the most points with clever travel planning.

Definitely a game geared more toward the German game-buying audience than the one in the United States.

▪️ Travel takes a different form in Der Wanderzirkus, which is German for “The Traveling Circus”. This 1-6 player card game is from first-time designer Max Ostrander and is pitched as follows:

The stage is set – the traveling circus is in town! Step into the magical world of artists: Who will put on the best circus show?

In Der Wanderzirkus, you combine clever deck building with the domino principle to create spectacular card chains and make every performance a highlight.

Round after round, you hire new talent, choose the next city, and plan your grand entrance. Who will make the cleverest combinations and score the most points before the curtain falls?

I think it will be me.

▪️ In addition to these new items, KOSMOS will release German-language editions of:

• Koi, by Rosaria Battiato, Massimo Borzì, and Martino Chiacchiera (designer diary)

• Castle Combo: Out of the Oubliette!, by Grégory Grard and Mathieu Roussel

• Faraway: Sous un ciel d’étoiles, by Johannes Goupy and Corentin Lebrat

▪️ Speaking of Thames & Kosmos, I met a representative at SPIEL Essen 25, and the only German title coming to the U.S. that the company has confirmed is Kasper Lapp‘s combo-driven Wildwuchs, which will absolutely (not) maintain that name in the English-language edition.

In Wildwuchs, German for “wild growth”, players want to bloom as many flowers as possible in their plot. You each start with a random flower, which come in five colors, and 5-7 seeds, one of which starts at the bottom of the track on your flower.

On a turn, draft a new flower from one of the five fields and place a seed on bottom of its track, then all players “grow” flowers in the color of the field from which that flower was taken by moving the seeds on these flowers up one space on their track. (In the image below, all orange flowers would grow, including the one you just took if it’s orange.)

Each track has two effects on it shaped like a dumbbell, with the effect in the upper dumbbell. After growth, in the “arrow” phase, if a seed is on the bottom part of the dumbbell, you can move it to the upper part automatically.

Whether after growth or the “arrow”, if a seed is on an effect, you can carry it out, with you determining the order in which multiple effects happen. If you move onto a color, then all of your flowers of this color grow one space (instead of everyone’s flowers); if onto a butterfly, then all of your highest seeds grow one space; if onto a caterpillar, all of your lowest seeds; if onto a bee, you can place a bee token on one space of a flower’s track, with the seed “jumping” the bee during growth. A ladybug gets you a free flower from the deck, and a grasshopper jumps all seeds on your other flowers to the grasshopper space on those tracks.

All movement and effects are optional, so you can hold off on grasshoppering down a track or moving a seed onto a blue space when you have no blue flowers.

When the seed moves off the top of the track, you place the grown flower in your meadow, and when the flower deck runs out, whoever has the most grown flowers wins.