Essen is a small city in the industrial heartland on the River Ruhr.  One of the less well known German cities, people are often surprised that it features in so many games.

The reason for this is a sort of in-joke:  Essen is the home of the largest games fair in Europe and, arguably, the world, The Internationale Spieltage.  Known by gamers simply as “Essen”, it runs for four days in October every year (18^th-21^st October 2012) and everyone who is anyone goes.

As well as all the major (and most of the minor) publishers, game designers and game illustrators, there are also thousands of people from all over the world who simply like playing board games.  In 2012, there are nearly 750 exhibitors who will be selling and demonstrating their latest offerings to the nearly 147,000 visitors.

This year no-one from boardGOATS will be going, however, you can get a flavour of the event and an idea of some of the latest games by watching the live feed from the BoardGameGeek booth.

Here are some more games that feature Essen, can you recognise the games they are from?