The Outside WorldTwo Games. Two Worldviews. One Perfect Way to Close 2025.
Our final meetup of 2025 at Joto's Board Game Café in Eindhoven. Two incredible games, two worldviews, and the community that makes board gaming special.
Where We Played
📍 Location: Eindhoven, Netherlands
🎲 Venue: Joto's Board Game Café | Follow on Instagram
The Perfect Way to Close 2025
Our final board game meetup of 2025 was exactly what we needed to close out the year. We gathered at Joto's Board Game Café in Eindhoven, surrounded by fellow game enthusiasts, shelves lined with hundreds of titles, and the warm hum of community. What unfolded over the course of the evening was more than just two games - it was a masterclass in game design philosophy, hidden objectives versus transparent consequences, and why the people around the table matter so much.
✨ A Shoutout to Joto's Board Game Café
Joto's opened in September 2025 and has already become an absolute staple in Eindhoven's board game community. The café is spacious, welcoming, well-stocked with modern games, and—most importantly—filled with passionate gamers who love what they do. If you're in the area, you need to visit.
- Website: jotosboardgamecafe.nl
- Instagram: @jotosboardgamecafe
Discworld: Ankh-Morpork — Chaos and Hidden Objectives
Ankh-Morpork is pure social chaos wrapped in a package of hidden objectives and sudden victories. Each player is a scheming power broker in the heart of Discworld's most chaotic city, and your secret agenda is only revealed at the very end.
The magic of this game is that everyone around the table is trying to figure out what you're actually doing. Are you building temples for the Elves? Assassinating troublemakers? Creating chaos? Nobody knows - and that uncertainty creates laughter. The tension builds round after round, and then suddenly, someone reveals their goal, they've achieved it without anyone stopping them, and they win. Everyone laughs in disbelief.
It's a game about deception, misdirection, and the joy of being caught off-guard. No two games play the same way, and that's exactly why it's brilliant.
Discworld: Ankh-Morpork on BoardGameGeek
Saltfjords — Strategy Revealed
If Ankh-Morpork is chaos hidden in darkness, Saltfjords is the opposite: a deeply strategic game where all your moves are visible, all your resources are transparent, and every decision cascades into future consequences.
Our first play took time - nearly three hours - before it clicked. But as the last third of the game unfolded, the design revealed itself. Suddenly, we weren't struggling with rules; we were navigating genuine strategic choices. Which resources matter? How do you balance growth with efficiency? What happens when you try to do too much?
The Lesson
Doing too much makes you fall behind. The correct approach is to commit to a focused strategy based on what your player board enables. I learned this too late to fix my game, but now I know. Next play, I'll approach it differently—and that's the mark of great design. Saltfjords doesn't just entertain; it teaches.
Two Games, Two Worldviews
This is what struck us as the evening drew to a close: Ankh-Morpork and Saltfjords represent two fundamentally different design philosophies.
Ankh-Morpork says: "Your power is hidden. Use information asymmetry. Hide your goals. Let others guess. The tension comes from uncertainty."
Saltfjords says: "Your power is visible. Use strategy. Commit to a plan. The tension comes from the cascading consequences of your transparent choices."
Both approaches work brilliantly. Both create tension. Both make you think. They're just doing it through opposite lenses, and that's why the night was so special.
What Made It Special
What made this December evening truly special, though, wasn't the games themselves. It was the people. It was new faces alongside familiar ones, laughter when someone's secret plan was exposed, encouraging nods when someone made a brilliant move, and the shared appreciation for games that make us think and feel.
That's what the board game community is really about. It's about gathering around a table—whether in Eindhoven at Joto's or anywhere else in the world—and spending time with people who "get it." Who understand that games are more than entertainment. They're stories. They're puzzles. They're art.
As 2025 closes and 2026 beckons, we're already excited about what's next. More games. More people. More moments like this. See you at the table.