Kulkmann's G@mebox - www.boardgame.de

The SPIEL Doch!
Games Convention at Dortmund / Germany

1st to 3rd July 2022

[SPIELDoch]

[SPIEL]

Here we are again! After two long years, the SPIEL DOCH! games convention is back. Thanks to COVID the fair was cancelled in the last two years, and even this year the convention had to be moved from March to July. And not only the time had to be changed: due to a lot of other events another place had to be chosen too.

That's why the convention no longer took place in Duisburg like in 2018 and 2019, but moved to a much bigger place, one of the halls of Messe Dortmund (hall 5). Ok, the atmosphere around the hall was better in the industrial atmosphere at Duisburg, but here in Dortmund there was the full infrastructure of a modern fair. Large halls, enough parking spaces, plenty of toilets, a catering and - most important in these COVID times - enough space. Broad gangways between the booths, large booths and enough room to place all the tables for playing the new (and older) games.

[SPIEL]

Click on image to enlarge!

[SPIEL]

Click on image to enlarge!

[SPIEL]

Click on image to enlarge!

[SPIEL]

Click on image to enlarge!

The first game I played at the convention was a small card game, printed on beer coasters! Savango is its name from the small, but successful German QUANGO Verlag. The game is called an animal chess.

[SPIEL]

Click on image to enlarge!

Following a quare set-up, the players alternatetly move one of their animals one or two steps in an allowed direction. Each animal card has their own movement rules, similar to chess and printed on the beer coasters as you can see in the picture. Whenever you beat an animal of your opponent, you take that animal, flip it to your side and can use that animal as your own in a later turn.

As in chess it is the players' aim to checkmate the enemy lion. What a nice small game!

Of course I couldn't leave the booth of the QUANGO VERLAG without playing several games of QUANGO against my son. Honestly, I didn't know this game, although it was already published in 2013 and there are great tournements here in Germany. 26 years reporting from ESSEN and not knowing this game, tss, tss.....

[SPIEL]

Click on image to enlarge!

With the big Nuremberg convention cancelled in January, SPIEL DOCH! was the first bigger fair to present the novelties from the first half of the year. And so you could find a lot of the bigger publishers proudly presenting their new games. For example, Reiner Knizia's The Siege of Rundedar ( Die Schlacht von Rundedar) was presented by ASMODEE and was in great demand most of the time.

[SPIEL]

Click on image to enlarge!

But, of course, you also had the chance to play some older titles like Rüdiger Dorn's Rune Stones from QUEEN GAMES.

[SPIEL]

Click on image to enlarge!

Big names, Reiner Knizia and Rüdiger Dorn. Another one, Richard Garfield, is working hard with AMIGO again, and so I was automatically driven to his newest title Würfelhelden (Dice Hunters of Theorian). With their dice, the players roll for gold, more coulered dice to be used in later turns and for beating villains to get rewards. The game is a competetive one with the player with most coins winning the game. So, for beating the villains it is necessary to play the most sword symbols on your dice against the villain. A simple, but effectice game, short and entertaining!

[SPIEL]

Click on image to enlarge!

At CORAX games I felt to be young again. Lego stones in a game! I have seen those stones so many years during my own youth as well as the youth of my two sons, but still they fascinate me whenever I came in contact with them. As a result I had no choice, I had to play Temple Rush with my younger son...

[SPIEL]

Click on image to enlarge!

As you can see, there are Lego stones. And they also have to be piled up. But only to form them in a shape that they can outline the silhoutte of a given building. A funny new approach to get back those great stones on the table. Entertaining, sometimes even a little bit challenging and always a little bit under pressure, because you want to be faster of course than your opponents.

[SPIEL]

Click on image to enlarge!

MOSES had some success with the adoption of Sebastian Fitzek's Safehouse. The game was quite successful and so there is now a new variant of the game as well as a stand-alone dice-game. As I haven't played the core game yet, I took my chance and played the first chapter of the old game from 2017. Maybe not really a must-have, but a nice change to all those heavy games I normally play.

[SPIEL]

Click on image to enlarge!

Now, let's end the fair with another older title from KOSMOS: Catch the Moon, a funny dexterity game in which you alternetly roll a die that shows you how to place a wooden ladder on top of the already placed ones:

[SPIEL]

Click on image to enlarge!

To sum it up: SPIEL DOCH! is back and that's great! I really enjoyed being there. Looking already forward to next year!

[SPIEL]

Click on image to enlarge!


[Gamebox Index]

Google Custom Search

Copyright © 2022 Frank Schulte-Kulkmann and Ralf Togler, Essen, Germany