Before the busy season of autumn fairs and conventions finally comes to a close, I had the chance to visit the Süddeutsche Spielemesse, known in English as the Southern German Game Fair. This event takes place in Stuttgart. Just like my visit there in the past, the experience was very pleasant and relaxed.
This game fair is actually part of a larger group of hobby and leisure events. All these different fairs happen during the same long weekend in halls that are next to each other. Since your ticket lets you enter all of them, you are free to walk around and see everything. This is wonderful if you go with a group or family members who have different interests. Your daughter, who loves being creative, can get new ideas at the arts and crafts fair. Your son, who loves animals, can try to make friends with cats, rabbits, and even camels at the animal fair. Your spouse, who enjoys good food, can walk around and taste different samples at the food fair. Then, everyone can meet up at the game fair because you all enjoy playing board games. Right?
With this setup, the Southern German Game Fair has a very wide range of visitors, from serious hobbyists to people who play games very casually. Because of this, you will find many games that are outside of the usual hobby board game group. You can find classics like chess and Go, sports games, and role-playing games. The people showing these games are usually vendors, though chances to test games are rare. Others are clubs looking for new members, like many of the role-playing clubs. Or, which is my favorite, there is a large gaming area in the middle. Here, you can just borrow a game and play it for free. This gives the fair a special convention feeling.
It is now a tradition that the gaming area stays open until 10pm on Friday. This allows for a beautiful evening of gaming. I met a friend there, and we played three different two-player games.
Rival Cities
In this game, the northern German cities of Hamburg and Altona try to beat each other. While you do collect victory points, these only matter if the game lasts the full seven rounds. It is much more likely that one city will beat the other in one of the four areas of competition: alliances, ships, lawsuits, and prestige. If this happens, it is an instant victory. With so many ways to win instantly, you always feel the thrill of trying to get one yourself, while also worrying that your opponent might get one first.
In our game, we both started carefully, trying to get a little bit of everything. Then, my friend made a move for the alliances and was only one step away from winning. However, I could stop his victory and strike back by taking control of the ships. I think players with more experience would fight each other from the very beginning, which should make for exciting games and high replayability, even though the game is not too complex.
Solstis
Two players try to chart a path up a mountain. The mountain is built from a shared supply of tiles. Each tile has a unique mix of a color, which shows its row, and a number, which shows its file. Because of this, you always know that a tile you take cannot be reached by your opponent, and the same is true for them. This is a very abstract game with almost perfect information. Usually, this is not the type of game I enjoy, and Solstis was no different. We were both not excited by its mix of logical planning and the high randomness that happens when you place a nature spirit. However, each game only took 10 minutes, so we did not spend much time to learn that this game is not for us.
Agent Avenue
This might have been the highlight of the fair. In Agent Avenue, two players face off as retired secret agents trying to catch each other. To find the other agent’s identity, they ask their suburban neighbors for help. These neighbors are all talking animals, from brave wolves to codebreaker owls and double agent vixens. You recruit them using a “I cut, you choose” method. But as the active player, one of the two cards you offer is face-up and the other is face-down. This adds a good amount of bluffing and deduction. Combine this with a variety of instant victory or defeat conditions and card effects, and you have a light, but tense contest that finishes very quickly. We played three times in just 40 minutes.
Do any of these games sound like something you would enjoy? Have you been to any nice local conventions or fairs recently? Let me know in the comments!
