I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: Small local board game fairs and conventions are great. You get board gaming fun in a manageable dose of one day, without long trips and expensive accommodation. In many cases, they’re also not quite as full – which means no waiting times and instead just 100% of the good stuff. In that spirit, I attended Spiel doch! in Friedrichshafen (Germany). Here’s how it went.
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Spiel doch! [Just play!/Why don’t you play?] is a new-ish affair: Its western German original was first held in 2015 in Duisburg (and has since moved to Dortmund). It has branched out to the south in 2023 (Friedrichshafen). The name of the fair also indicates who the target audience is – casual gamers who might not have sold their soul to board gaming entirely (yet). That means the focus is on playing – a good part of the fair grounds is dedicated to tables at which you can play ganes (either your purchases r copies from their ample library of games (which you get to check out for free).
Ever saw the Night Witches fight Louis XIV’s musketeers? – Now you can!
Of course, there are also opportunities for publishers and local board game stores to present their goods (and even some new designs). There’s a lot of variety between the sellers – some focus on the bestsellers, others have a more eclectic collection where you might find a rarer gem. For example, I got a copy of A Battle Through History (Erik Burigo/Pär Sundström/Marco Valtriani, Pegasus) as a gift for a friend who is a big Sabaton fan.
Dice, dice in all colors of the rainbow.
In addition to the games, you’ll also find a lot of board game accessories and other items of interest to the nerdy crowd drawn by a board game fair.
Some great pins to wear for game night!
As said, though, the heart of the fair is the big free play area. We had the chance to give Dungeon Legends (Przemek Wojtkowiak, Rebel Studio) a try: Our team of knight, scout, and smith cleared the underground of monsters, kept the castle safe, and eventually extinguished the fire which was the main challenge of our legend.
The bluish hue of the game mat makes the orange fires which we had to fight in our legend pop even more. Great visual design!
We enjoyed the straightforward deck building and the visual style of the game – but I must say that learning the rules was a bit of a challenge. Whose idea was it to list the actions you can take in the middle of the rule book and then describe how you perform them in an icon overview on the second-to-last-page of the scenario book?
The best thing about Spiel doch!, however, may be that it goes beyond buying and playing games, as two particular highlights for me attest: The booth of the European Society of Game Collectors presents rare games through the ages – this year, all of them aerospace-themed.
Some older aerospace-themed games. The one in the left foreground was co-funded by the German Research and Testing Agency for Flight and Space Flight.
You say „board game fair“, I say “SPIEL” at Essen. It’s the Mecca for the tabletop gaming faithful. Four days of playing, trying, and buying. 200,000+ visitors. I’ve been therea few timesover the last yearsfor two days each and found it an intensive board game experience. I’m looking forward to going again this year!
As always, this is not meant as a „must buy“ list or whatever other consumptionist term some people use. It is likely that I will buy only one or two of these games. Why? Because I have quite some good games already, and I like to make them count before I plunge into new adventures. Generally, there are no musts in buying. And there are no musts in attending board game fairs or conventions – obviously those can come as pretty big expenses for travel and accommodation. Bottom line: No musts. You do you.
One note beforehand: Board gaming is getting ever more international, and this list shows it: The six designers come from six different countries, and, for the first time in the nine years I’ve been making this list, none of them is from Germany or the United States.
Without further ado, on to the games! They are sorted by location on the fairgrounds.
1-6 players, 60-150 minutes, for sale, MSRP: 50.00 €
Many games have great nations compete on the global stage. Yet Limit is different. Few games of this kind have a robust section of domestic affairs beyond the usual political-economic-military competition. Fewer dare to zoom out so much that the game spans not years, but generations over two centuries. And barely any are based on a model that neither promises eternal improvement for everyone nor zero-sum competition between the powers, but rather the limits of industrial development. If you think you have heard of the latter before: Yes, this game is based on the World3 model of the Club of Rome’s The Limits to Growth. All of these uncommon features combine into a game which I expect to feel unique.
Designer Alexandre Poyé will be at the booth to teach the game (not all around the clock, but you have a reasonable chance to meet him there).
Archaeology is a popular setting for board games, and I’m here for it. While I love the civilizations of the ancient Mediterranean as much as the next person, I’m happy to see games shedding light on less-known cultures – like the Marajoara from the Amazonian island of Marajó (in modern-day Brazil), famous for their distinctive style of pottery. You will excavate, restore, and display vases while maintaining the finances of your museum. Mechanically, the game combines inspiration from (peg) solitaire with dice movement. I would have loved the game to lean a bit harder on the unique visual style of the Marajoara pottery (mostly limited to the cover art and the large vases), but I’ll take what I can get!
3-6 players, 45-60 minutes, for sale, MSRP: 35.00 €
If your main takeaway from watching Conclave was how exciting it would be to elect a pope, Pako Gradaille has you covered. Habemus Papam puts you in the Roman curia at the time of a papal election which you aim to influence according to your public (an old pope! An innovator! Someone from the New World!) and private (finish the election early! Have a pope who is exactly like yourself!) goals. You will expend your curial influence to advance the cause of candidates whom you like (or hamper those you don’t), but conserving influence is also valuable in its own right. Whoever balances their competing interests best takes the victory. Sacramental wine and vapes are not included in the box.
1-4 players, 45-60 minutes, for sale, MSRP: 35.00 €
We turn from the wealth and austerity of the Catholic Church to the poverty and indulgence of fin de siècle Parisian artists! You chase the inspiration for artistic achievements by living life to the fullest, crafting exquisite days by skillfully combining activities as varied as wandering aimlessly through the city, discussing philosophy, meeting a muse, or losing yourself in your work. Speaking of work: You’ll have to do some of that, too – mean labor to support yourself lest you avoid the hardships which come with the life of a free spirit (which range from poor hygiene over abject poverty to syphilis). Bohemians is a mechanically light, but thematically rich deck-builder, and, as befits a game about artists, is strictly gorgeous.
2 players, 90-150 minutes, for sale, MSRP: 69.00 €
In 1920, the old world of European empires had been shattered. What the new world would look like was still up for contention, as in this struggle of two nascent states: On the one hand, new nation-states came into being – like the (Second) Polish Republic, the first independent and united Polish state in over a century. On the other hand, ideology transcended nations, and the Soviet Republics (of which the Soviet Union would spring soon after) were emboldened by their success in the Russian Civil War against the old monarchist forces. As Poland reached for the east, the World Revolution got ready to spring to the industrial centers of western Europe. The two sides were to clash in one of the most mobile conflicts in history.
1920: Nest of Eagles is a re-implementation of Rok 1920 (published in 1995 by Encore) which has received the typical Phalanx treatment of pairing wargame mechanics with euro production quality.
I’m a sucker for a Faustian bargain… literarily speaking, I mean. My soul is still mine. Why would you even ask me that? – Anyway, Faust vs Mephisto takes the man and his devil and puts them on even ground (maybe like in the Study II scene of Goethe’s Faust): Mephisto tries to dominate by winning all tricks in a given round – or tempt Faust by winning none of them. Anything in between is a success for Faust. If Mephisto manages to pull it off twice in four rounds, he wins, otherwise Faust has proven that “A good man, through obscurest aspirations // Has still an instinct of the one true way.” Faust vs Mephisto seems like a snappy little card game to play before or after a more involved game – or whenever you have a little bit of spare time with a fellow gamer.
What are the games you are anticipating most eagerly? Let me know in the comments!
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