Zuiderspel 2018 was a blast. It’s a smaller Dutch board game con, but it is also one which is accessible for a lot of people interested in tabletop gaming and it sets itself apart with being very easy-going, casual and very friendly. This year they celebrated their 10th year anniversary and made this a two-day experience instead of the regular one-day event.

At the last moment Erna and our oldest, Penny, could come along and we had the best time together playing games, having huge laughs and seeing a lot of board game friends from all around the Netherlands. This was by far the highlight of the con for us, but besides some photos on it, later on, we won’t bore you with our family stuff. But it is the cornerstone of our being nowadays as parents and it’s an integral part of our board game life. Hence the name of the blog. 🙂

Let’s get the show on the road

Another highlight was playing the new Quined Games game which is coming soon, Carson City The Card Game. It was only one game and there still we are some little tweaks done, the playing cards Paul, but this game is really going to capture the Carson City feeling. It’s such a good puzzle. Cool duels (the trick of the game) with the other players to try to grab the tiles you want for your city. The variety of persona from the original game are here too and added a lot of fun stuff to the game. Watch out for this title, it’s gone be a wild ride with a lot of proverbial shooting going on.

One of the other fun and Zuiderspel traditions are the daily shows with Nox Spellenzolder and this year Dave Luza was also added for even more board game related fun. Both gentlemen gave their all and entertained the crowds a few times a day. Well done!

Being a con very early in the year and having just a small footprint there aren’t that many new games around yet, but a lot of last year’s hotness is being eagerly played by many. There are some Kickstarter being showcased, like Heroes of Tenefyr and the just starter Chartered The golden Age and Keep Exploring Games had demos of Tour Operator.

Now let us get into what you are here for right? Board games and fellow gamers at their natural habitat, the tabletop and surrounded by like-minded individuals. There are a ton of photos, so take a drink and we hope you like our adventures we had the last weekend.

Keep Exploring Games

Martin and his crew were joyfully present and demoing their new title Tour Operator which will hit Kickstarter soon. But also the earlier titles like The Dutch East Indies still got a lot of attention.

Game Brewer

One of our favorite publishers at the moment. The guys & girls behind Game Brewer are doing an amazing job with their current line of games. The step to work closely with Tasty Minstrel Games was a smart move too. Chimera Station, Pixie Queen, and the new release Castellum are looking the part and are also playing so very well. The new release is set in Maastricht, one of the cities in The Netherlands which has its own unique feeling. The game is set in the 200 year period where the city was under historical sieges from the Spanish and the French invaders. Make sure you have your defenses up and that you train your troops to withhold these attacks to be victorious. Not a complex game, but one with a lot of interaction and still a lot of game in such a small footprint. Sadly no sign of the coming Gentes reprint yet.

999 Games

Busy tables all day long and the most recent hits like Rajas of the Ganges only called the Ganges in the Dutch release, and Majesty: For the Realm were being explained with a lot of passion by the demo guys and girls from 999 Games.

Queen Games

Like we are used to with Queen games, they come with many and they come in plenty. A lot of variety in games were up for grabs and a lot of fun stuff was being played. Merlin was one of the main games from designers like Stefan Feld and Michael Rieneck, but 12 Thieves, Urban Panic and Risky Adventure got their share of love too.

White Goblin Games

Now onto the Goblins, what did they bring along in their mischievous bag of goods? Altiplano for sure and that was being showcased with a lot of passion! But what about the classic, but now new and shiny, Torres. And as you would expect they brought the Essen hit from Sophia Wagner, Noria. and not last, and for sure not least, the good old Orleans was getting huge laughs and is still being one of our personal favorites.

Portal Games

The Benelux Portal team, under passionate leadership of Rindert, always brings the hotness to every con they participate. Alien Artifacts, Cry Havoc, and the punishing, but the wonderful experience you get with, First Martians, were eagerly awaited by the visitors at Zuiderspel. One thing that always stands out with a Portal published game, is the stories it will tell you and the way it will include you at the center of it.

Lovely miniatures are always extra pleasure

The headless head of the Dutch Portal team, Rindert, explaining one of our favorites, Cry Havoc.

Are you ready to die? Well, get to work than and keep your space station working and explore with care.

Another one of the recent hits from the Polish publisher, Alien Artifacts. A 4x cardgame!

Various publishers & other people at Zuiderspel

Now some more randomness to the adventures and just some walking around and capturing the gist of Zuiderspel 2018. 

Anybody knows this tall outlaw looking guy? He was so happy to see me. I’ve heard he was from some awesome Dutch publisher doing a demo game of a hot & new upcoming title from them! (Quined Games)

Maybe this hint will help out on who that outlaw is?

Some nice looking thick paper money and colorful cubes. Only we as gamers can see the beauty in this right?

Zuiderfruit, a free game gifted as a visitor. Great gift from the organizer. A light game about getting different fruit, with your monkey, who can get stung by a bee..

It surely does look very colorful Rhodes, but we haven’t played it yet. Should we?

Barpig, the perfect game to play in the bar? They were being so funny both days. A really entertaining bunch.

Lifeboat, was put away in the corner of the con, so found it too late to try, but really does look very nice.

Not sure what the game is about, took the picture and moved on. On looking through the photos I saw there are regular style cards and spots to play those. and

Love these little animals!

Het oog des Meesters is a beautiful rpg style game

It’s translated in No Monsters under My bed.

Yes, I was just there for a chocolate easter egg…

Broken Mills is bringing their game, Tenefyr, to Kickstarter soon.

Rows of cards and a lot of nice card art there

Well, go and have a look at this one. The art is awesome

Another abstract run by a regular deck of playing cards. This one looked quite good though.

Yes, we love this, looks so inviting to explore.

They were on the ball with their hustling to get the word out.

We love these style maps and these dice. Those are the bones of our board game passion.

Passaportas had a huge presence on this Dutch con. It looks very happy and they did set themselves apart with it.

Well of course you will need one of these to travel the world

Kids corner and family fun!

Day one we spend the time at the fair with each other as just a family enjoying our love for gaming and we played a bunch of board games.

• JakkieBak! Kippenkak! by 999Games, a game at which dad stinks and Penny destroyed me and mom also got some well-deserved heat from her little girl. Memories games are just tough and she was a straight ace at it. The winning gesture says it all.
• Coconuts by Jumping Turtle Games, this was the game Penny eventually choose to bring home and play with her little brother Ryder. It’s a crazy fun dexterity game where you will try to shoot your little coconuts into the cups. Steal them from others or hit grab them from the center. Loads of fun.
• Villa Paletti by Zoch, it looks wonderful and with the huge pillars, you are able to build huge structures which can come crashing down hard.
• Worm Party by Queen Games, to be fair, we did not like this game at all. It looks great, but the guessing game with where your fingers are hidden is just boring after a few rounds.
• Ist das wurm drin by Zoch, this one was quite funny to play a few times, but besides the betting/guessing who will come out first on two occasions, there isn’t much game. Roll the dice and pick the color piece you may add to the worm. It did win the Spiel des Jahres for kids games, so maybe we missed a rule somewhere?

After con games

With the ladies going off to bed after a long day at the con, dad joined some friends from SpelSpul and the chairman, Jeroen, from Ducosim (the dutch board gaming association) for some late night gaming. We played Las Vegas with six and Machi Koro with 5 and some added expansions like the Harbor.

Las Vegas is a fun dice-chucker where you try to gain the most money by getting the most dice out on the given numbered (1-6) casinos and hope you win the jackpot. Tactical area majority game and perfectly suited for this kind of nights. The added purple dice from expansion is a welcome addition and makes it a better game.

Machi Koro is a city building dice game which we played with a few expansions directly shuffled into it. It’s a  fun one, but I think I like the Valeria Kingdom one due to the theme and setting more. The card combo possibilities are great and give the game a lot of possible ways to go about it. I got to turning four out of the six landmarks, so I wasn’t doing to bad, but i’ve got no chance against the others who played this one before.

We enjoyed ourselves quite a bit and the Talisker whisky and the Duvel beer made for some extra fun chatter around the table and a worthy night of Zuiderspel gaming at the NH Koningshof Veldhoven.

Well, that was a very long, but hopefully very satisfying read and done in such way you get a sense of the fun we had at Zuiderspel through our blog post. We had a fantastic few days at Veldhoven and the best way to show you all this is these last three pictures with the three of us captured by our almost neighbor now and dear friend Henk Rolleman. He is THE board game photographer you want to capture your board game experiences with, thanks, my man! We love these 🙂

One happy family!

Penny and me playing giant King of Tokyo, she kicked my little b!

Giant Azul, this can become a smash hit!

Thank YOU for your time and please let us KNOW what YOU think, we WANT YOU to be part of this board game life we are living, sharing and LOVING so much!

Subscribe to the blog, leave a comment or just share it forward would make us so happy, thanks!

~ Marlon & Erna