Aftermath | SPIEL ESSEN 2026

It has been a long time since I wrote an Aftermath like this, the last time being: Dragonsteel Nexus 2025. I’ve been busy with fulfilling Legions of Kadmon and charting a course on where I want to take the project next.

This Aftermath will be different from many I’ve written in the past. Unlike the many events I’ve attended previously, Spiel Essen 2026 marked the very first time I’m trying to make sales on Legions of Kadmon. While conventions like these were always fun, this time I felt like I’m carrying a tremendous stake behind my back. I’m writing this, hoping not only to share the fun stuff, but also my thoughts as I experienced the biggest board game event in the world.

Before Spiel

Coming into this big fair, I knew I had to bring in some stock with me. It was the reason I shifted fulfillment early for the Kickstarter campaign. I wanted to get some stock into the UK and EU so that I could be in Spiel with a palette worth of games. You see… Prior to experiencing my first Spiel, many of the Singaporean designers romanticised the idea of ‘selling out’ easily in Essen which gave me the impression that bringing more games into the fair would just mean that I can sell more. I made it a mission to get as many games as I could into Europe, and already I encountered an issue in logistics.

Europe Logistical Nightmare

The Issue of Pricing

Before Essen, I too encountered an issue of pricing. I wanted to price the game at 50 Euro which was a tad bit higher than the MSRP I’ve placed in Singapore. Then, after, I realised that transporting the game into Europe at the quantity I’m producing bumped up the landing cost so much that I needed to sell at least 50 copies to make my trip to Essen worthwhile. Given my issues with the logistics, I decided and made a stupid decision of selling a copy for 60 Euro, hoping that I could sell out all the copies I’ve brought by hand and secure lots of Pre-Order. This bit me in the back later on during the fair.

During the Fair

Day 0: Novelty Fair & Setting Up the Booth

I was a little intimidated by how large of a scale this convention is. It spanned eight gigantic halls and it was huge; it would clog an entire city. It was also my very first time in Germany and the country took some time to get used to. I was quite fortunate to be sharing a booth (and living space too!) with Suren and Janis from Burnout Board Games who had attended last year’s Spiel. Honestly, they had the brunt of my foolery throughout the trip and I’m glad they took it well. 😀 Thanks for taking care of me.

In a way, I was quite excited too. In my mind: A convention this big, there will always be people flocking in the booth to try Kadmon. To a point I was worried that I might die running back to back games non-stop for 4 days! Well, I shouldn’t have assumed that the EU crowd is the same as the SG crowd because they are significantly different. I’ll explain this on my Day 1 Reflections.

Another thing which struck me was seeing the price of SETI to be only 70 euros. Immediately, my mind raced, knowing well that I’ve overpriced Legions of Kadmon by a lot. A part of me urged me to reduce it to 45 euros, knowing well that I’ll be making a huge loss coming into Essen. In the end, I decided to keep my price, understanding that given the small number of copies to sell, it could serve as a good opportunity for me to learn more about the EU market.

Day 1: When the Romanticisation Crumbles

The first thing I noticed on the first day was: because the fair was so big, every single publisher—big or small—was playing on an even field. What I meant by that is: the concept of being an Indie Publisher doesn’t exist in Essen. People came by the booth, assuming that you are well-established. Many times I felt like we were just a store in a fair where people came by to buy games. There are pros and cons to this.

The pros? It gives you a good benchmark of where you are in the big board game industry. People who bought your game do it because they like it and not out of wanting to support Indie. It is also way easier to spot mistakes on your own framework. Are you pricing the game too high? Are you not doing something properly, like failing in marketing? All of this is at the back of my head by the time the first day is over and it was something made even clearer because the Spiel visitors are as ‘market’ as it gets.

The cons? You are a small fish in a big pond. If you don’t do a proper promotion and make sure there is word of mouth on your game, it is unlikely that visitors will take notice of your existence. Usually, I would use conventions as a good opportunity to interact with my players as Indie Creators would. Can’t do that in Essen. Most of the time, they don’t even know that you are the designer of the game. Again, they merely assumed that you are one of the employees for the company.

That said, it wasn’t like I had zero fan interactions at all. By selling my book, I could initiate a conversation, letting them know that Stormbraver is pretty much just me working on both the game and book. To me, those interactions were far more important in conventions than making sales. I wouldn’t be able to get it anywhere else. So to the folks who asked for an autograph and spent their morning dropping by the booth to talk about Morbidia… I appreciate ya!

Day 2: A Small Celebration

Friday was without a doubt the best day in Essen. Lots of amazing things happened! I’ve had the most sales during this day. I’ve had many people come by the booth, intrigued why there was a stray author selling his book in a board game convention and ended up getting a copy. Ardan, the guy I hired to help me with my booth, was on fire with his pitches and demos with some folks calling his pitch the “best they’ve heard today!”. Everything that could go well, went well.

The most important: by the end of the day, I’ve sold out all the stock I’ve brought into Essen. It was a small victory given 28 copies wasn’t a huge amount, but to me it was a great sign that we can secure even more pre-orders. There are two days remaining, after all.  I left Day 2 on fire, excited for tomorrow.

Day 3: Blackest Day

Every exhibitor would claim that Saturday is the best day! I started Day 3 with this mentality, full of energy especially after I’ve managed to sell all of my stock the day before. I was certain that I could secure more pre-orders that day, especially because it was supposed to be the big day!

Lo and behold, Saturday turned out to be my worst day in Essen! I don’t know about the other halls, but Hall 6 was dry of traffic. I spent most of the time sitting on the chair, wondering where the crowd could have gone. Maybe they were busy, queueing up for the hot games in Hall 3 which was located very far from Hall 6. I kid you not, it was really bad that my helper Ardan requested that he did not want to take payment for the last 3 hours of the day because he felt that there was no job to be done. And no ‘job’ it was: there were no pitches nor demos. I made a total of only 2 pre-orders and nothing else.

Honestly, I still have no idea how that happened. I guess there was just no telling what Saturdays bring. Though during the downtime, I appreciate the small moments I spent with Ardan. We talked so much about life we could start our own podcast. But the most important thing that came out of that conversation was the prospect of attending UKGE and strategising better for that convention.

Day 4: The Bittersweet End

Before I realised it the four days of Essen came to an end. Honestly at this point, I was exhausted and my mind had already wandered to “what next?”. I took some time off on day 4 to buy some games I wanted to get, and also talk to some of the people at Spiel. One of such people is the gramps who is selling Sci-Fi & Fantasy Books in the Galleria who explained to me that he had been doing it in Spiel since before I was born! WHAT! He was really cool, and I had to pass him a copy of A Crown for the Promised. 

I also used this chance to meet with some content creators that I’ve worked with in the past. One of which is Mark Monk (Ninja Geek Games) who looked even bigger in real life. Such an awesome fella, and I really hope to work with him again in the future.

By the time it was over, I’d had my numbers tallied up and it became quite a reflective day. More than the losses and lukewarm sales, I was more sad knowing that the awesome four days I’ve spent with Ardan were coming to an end and my trip with Suren and Jannis in Germany was coming to an end. Still, the day became quite reflective. I’m still glad that people took notice of my game and at least with what I’ve set out to do: selling out on stock + securing some pre-orders I managed to fulfill it. On top of that, I returned with a valuable lesson and a renewed determination to work even harder.

Transparency Post

I went to Spiel with an expectation that far exceeds my capabilities as an Indie Publisher (a Solo one too!). I blame myself for trusting the romanticisation of Essen too much. In reality, I could have done my fair share of research on the EU market—even doing something as simple as looking through the Spiel Essen app to check the game’s prices. Yes. I made a loss. And if I include flight and daily spendings, it is a considerable amount of loss.

There are things I could have done differently. The price of Kadmon for example was a big one. Sending review copies ahead of the convention and not rushing exhibiting in Essen is another. And the biggest one (for the sake of my not dragging 3 luggages through cobblestone roads as well) was to make sure I have stocked my game within Europe.

So I wanted to use this post to be fully transparent on the numbers. I wanted to be real, so that one day an Indie Publisher may read this and could use the data to strategise better for their first Essen. So here it is:

Legions of Kadmon	Sold	25
	Pre-Ordered	6
	Review Copies Given	3
	Review Copies Promised	2
A Crown for the Promised	Sold	14
	Review Copies Given	6

Gross Total	S$2778.36
Amount Spent on Booth (excl. flight & daily spendings)	S$2973.20