Daniele Tascini has built a career on dense, satisfying euros, and his next one is heading to Greece in the 4th century AD. Thessaloniki, due in 2026 from Polish publisher Board&Dice, drops players into a port city during the Roman Tetrarchy, scheming over grain, oil and grape shipments while jockeying for political clout.
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Set up your group for freeFor anyone who has spent an evening turning the cogs in Tzolk'in or chasing influence around Teotihuacan: City of Gods, the pitch is familiar. Tzolk'in, co-designed with Simone Luciani, made Tascini's name with its iconic interlocking gear board and sits at a 7.7 on BGG. Teotihuacan: City of Gods came in five years later with chunky action selection and timing puzzles, and is currently parked inside BGG's top 100 strategy games. Thessaloniki sits in similar territory at a 2.67/5 weight on Board&Dice's own assessment, where 1 is a filler card game and 5 is a Sunday-stealing simulation, putting it firmly in "medium-plus" territory.
The mechanical hook is fulfilling shipment contracts at port and climbing an Influence track to push the popularity of destinations you are already invested in. Tascini's design DNA usually shows up in two forms: a single clever core engine, and a forest of small efficiency choices that punish you when you nudge them out of order. If Thessaloniki keeps to that pattern, it should slot somewhere between Teotihuacan and Tiletum on the brain-burn scale.
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Find events near youBoard&Dice has not confirmed an exact release window beyond "2026," and player count and component details are still under wraps. Heavy euro fans tend to take the publisher's lineup as a yearly highlight reel, and Thessaloniki is likely the one to watch. If your group runs to long Sunday afternoons over a meaty optimisation puzzle, find a community that is into the deep end of euros and pencil it in.
Sources: Mr Boardgames | Board&Dice | BoardGameGeek
