Bart Smit

Mostly the more common games; not much change. Generally a toystore.

Intertoys

See Bart Smit comment

Top 1 Toys

Very different stores. One Top1Toys is not the same as the next. Some may have a great collection, others just the usual.

V&D

Best of the big stores in my opinion. Do look for the bigger ones. Not all that impressive, but quite a good selection of games and always a nice discount to be found. Update May 2008: collection at V&D keeps getting smaller...

Bart Smit
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Used to have a sort-of-interesting small collection, but is downgrading considerably. Does sometimes have huge discounts on popular titles, but for all intents and purposes, avoid.

Intertoys
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Better than Bart Smit. You might find some good popular oldies pining away, as the stores are franchises.

Top 1 Toys: never been there.

Toys'R'Us
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From what I remember, about equal to Intertoys.

V&D
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Used to be the best of the major chains, but after rigorous restructuring to avoid bankruptcy, the product range declined somewhat. It's a bit of a hit & miss with this store: you can get unbelievable discounts, or find games which are long out of print. Don't skip a V&D because it happens to be in a small town!

Not a big selection, but you can find a few interesting games here. A lot of Warhammer as well.

No longer exists. Only the shops in Tilburg and Den Bosch are still there

Really? They're totally gone?

Both Breda and Tilburg are now De Dobbelsteen. The Tilburg branch apparently changed interior and collection, so I'll have to go back and hopefully change my opinion.

Nice! New interior, bigger collection and friendly people. Way better then it used to be. The collection is not BIG, but apparently there's more to come!

Edit April 2007: more & more to be found here. Now added GIPF games and QWG.

Great people, but mostly a comic store. You'll find quite a few imported games here.

As Bas says, more a comic store than a game store, yet I love them because they saved my holiday in 2005 - visiting Eindhoven, I planned on visiting Atomik and Gameforce. Unfortunately, I discovered that Atomik had just shut down, and Gameforce were closed for their summer holiday.

I then found Eppo by chance, and they had Princes of the Rennaisance (which was already OOP and hard to find).

I have just been there a couple of weeks back. If you like comics, ccg and board games this is close to walhalla, but board games are very much the afterthought, despite being at the front of the shop. The selection isn't large, but the friendly folk at eppo certainly try to stock the better current offerings, and the prices are reasonable, but not exceptional. A few older games were discounted, although the more interesting ones seemed to have been triggered by slashed prices at the source. It's the sort of shop where face-to-face customer service counts, and you just know that ordering available titles not on display is only a question away.

They have a small collection of second-hand games as well.

They've stopped selling second-hand games, but still have a good selection. I almost bought Condottiere off them yesterday, but it was the FF edition. Also saw a Queen's Necklace for half price.

For a place whose bread-and-butter isn't board games, they were super helpful and genuinely friendly. Lots of English-language stuff, including all the Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot and Munchkins, Chez Whatever, and Warhammer.

Big collection, small corridors. Not easy to browse around; especially since they're not just a gamestore it can get crowded. But great choices.

I spend my end of the year holiday on Terschelling (nice holiday, bit cold) and Bijenkorf held a clearing sale because they closed down in the new year. I have browsed around for games but there wasn't much left then.

So no more gameshopping on Terschelling

Pleasant store, owner is either native English or American, so foreigners will have no trouble asking for information. Carries a broad selection of the more popular Dutch brands, sometimes a few German titles, but more in English. Large collection of children's games, puzzles, CCGs, chess sets, and accessories. Has a tiny room where you can playtest games or participate in a few rounds of Magic. Not the cheapest, but does have a cabinet of games which are sold at a major discount.

As the first Dutch importer of a handful of Games Workshop titles it also seemed to have pocketed (for a long time) the strict monopoly of the GW distribution catalogue, which in those days included (english) RPGs and board games by the largest producers, for the whole of the Netherlands. It was the Gamekeeper in the truest sense of the word, as it made sure there weren't (m)any other shops in the Netherlands where you could get the imports, and its pricing policy made you think twice about parting with the cash.

However, it is also the shop that opened my door to the wider world of adult gaming (RPGs, miniatures and board games) when the internet didn't exist and Windows were still only the things in the wall of Bill Gates apartment. Boy was it hard to get your hands on anything foreign those days, including news. I would go to Amsterdam just to fondle new releases. Nostalgia makes it easier to forgive.

It's probably the emergence of the CCG market that broke the stranglehold of this shop over the Dutch gamer's market, and the new wave of Euro games has now many more outlets to work with. And a larger audience. Which is a good thing.

The Gamekeeper these days is mostly a board game and CCG shop, and has an extensive selection of games, including some older and harder to get ones. Still not the cheapest though, but always a ritual stop on our trips to the Netherlands. If you love abstract games you will appreciate their specialist selection. Not big, but always with something unusual.

It has lost the flag of best stocked specialist for quite a while now and if I could only visit one shop in the Netherlands it would be the Joker in Utrecht, with Moenen en Mariken in Nijmegen a close 2nd. I am sure there are more equally interesting ones, but between these three we usually spend all our holiday money (and more) without trying hard, so not knowing any others is possibly a blessing. This list poses risks for those with weak grips on wallets.

This shop has a nice variety of Board Games, but I find the prices a bit high and the service mediocre at best.

This is a great shop, though getting your hands on a copy of pandemic seems impossible! The prices are a bit steep -it varies- but I like the service and there is always a batch of really new games to be found there.
Have yet to discover a lot of other game shops in the Netherlands, so I might change my rating in the near future.

Good space, nice collection, but not the variation I'm looking for.

We stumbled into this one by accident, and were simply blown over by the range and stocking policy of this spacious specialist shop. A lot of titles to go through, a great opportunity to pull out the games you rarely see 'in the flesh'. You can spend hours that way, and don't be surprised when it's closing time before you find your way out again.

A big plus has to be that there are multiple copies of the more popular ranges and games, meaning that you are likely to find what you came for, rather than discover that its only copy sold earlier in the day. Stocks board games, classic abstract games, RPGs, CCGs, miniatures, wargames. and caters for younger gamers as well. Thumbs up.

The prices are good (and online), it has a large play area and hosts several events each week. Now, should I substract a star for not having a branch in Scotland...?

Very nice store; big collection, friendly & helpful staff.

Being a resident of Nijmegen, Moenen & Mariken is the store where I go to buy my games. I'm very pleased with the diversity of games the shop offers: not only do they stock a wide range of boardgames, but also a nice assortment of roleplaying books, miniatures and jigsaw puzzles. Most pleasant to behold are the well-made wooden puzzles and chess sets in the back of the shop.

All the above could also apply to mediocre stores. What makes Moenen & Mariken an exceptionally good store, in my opinion, is the friendliness of the shop owner and his staff. Customers (whether they are little kiddies who are buying their CCG fix, non-boardgame players looking for a gift, or boardgame fanatics) are all treated respectfully and honestly. If a game is not in stock, staff offers to order it and call you when it has arrived. The staff is always up for a little chat or a joke, and makes me feel welcome.

In the V&D stores being watched by store security (to make sure the customer doesn't steal everything but the kitchen sink) is offensive to me. It's understandable, but I'm miffed every time it happens. To me being seen by the retailer as a potential criminal just because a certain percentage of the customers is like that makes it less fun for me to shop there. By contrast, once I was the only customer in the store of M&M and the store owner trusted me (as a regular customer) enough to say, "Ah, it's you. Good, because I can have a smoke at the door then." (heavy smoker at the time, cough cough!)
I don't know whether he's so trusting of every customer, but for me the choice between the two treatments is easily made.

Another short anecdote: While browsing the games, I overheard the conversation between the shop owner and an elderly couple. The couple was shopping for a gift for their daughter (could also have been their granddaughter, I was trying not to be TOO nosy ), and asked the shop owner for advice about Settlers. Upon hearing what the game was about the gentleman said to the lady: "Well, in that case we'll better buy the expansions too!". The shop owner advised against it, explaining it's more prudent to see if the base game is liked first, before embarking on the Seafarers expansion.

This behaviour is what makes M&M one of my favorite FLGSs. Giving honest advice is beneficial to the customer AND to the shop owner (albeit in the long run). Too many shops would have chosen the short term gain of selling one extra copy of Seafarers instead.

I placed 4 or 5 mail orders with them last year (when I was hoovering up discounted 999 Games like Medina & Web of Power) and they were great.

Half a star deducted for closing the store for their holidays when I visited Eindhoven last August.

Half a star deducted, that would be 4.5 out of 5 stars then Steve?

I fully agree... Great store and excellent very knowledgable management. However, they had never heard of BGG before I mentioned it to them a couple of years ago. That's a off!

Very friendly, lots of playing room, good collection, but mostly a miniatures store.

I wish I had toy shops like this near me. The trick is to go upstairs where they have a pretty good selection of euro games.

Neunen is also a nice place to visit if you're into Vincent Van Gogh.

Excellent selection of the Dutch-language titles; stocks less-well-known and rare titles in German and English too. The owner is a bit of a boardgame fanatic himself, so prices his games sharply. You can join a club of sorts which for a nominal fee allows you to take home an opened game to playtest. Very good store.

Note that the Elf Fantasy Store in Delft has closed.

Speldorado/Top1Toys also has a large collection of GW miniatures.

Hey, I live in Delft (for a couple of months) but I did not see this store yet, will check it out right now!

There is one games store on the Grote Markt, I forgot the name but I can add it later.

The one on the Grote Markt just closed - but speldorado is right nearby and is very good (it's actually called "Top1Toys")

Along with The Jocker my favourite shop in The Netherlands.

They moved, updated the address.

Bert (the store owner) organizes a lot of Magic and Warhammer tournaments. Not my kind of stuff, but I think activities are a great way to promote a store and games in general. Don't be afraid, the vast majority of the store is reserved for board games. There's one wall with GW blisters and behind the counter the CCG's are stored.

The prizes are on level with the rest of The Netherlands. When a Dutch edition of a game is more expensive than a foreign edition, the foreign will be in stock. There will be a Dutch one as well so you can make sure you won't miss out on anything. You'll get the Dutch rules with it and have a cheaper game on the whole. Of course this only goes for language independent games.

There is space to play games and there is a machine with soda-cans.

All in all my FLGS, part because it's only 15 minutes from my home.

Good, roomy store with a balanced portfolio and friendly personnel willing to explain games. Not an as extensive collection as The Joker or Neverneverland in Utrecht, but still worthwhile. The helpfulness makes up for a lot.

Only 10 minutes driving from my home. I often speak with Bert (the shopowner) discussing the lastes news in Boardgame Country He has a beautiful shop, very roomy indead and the and the tables for gaming are never empty

for foto's see his website.

A second address in Amersfoort is 't Ezelsoor, Achter de Arnhemse Poortwal 21. Originally it was a second-hand bookshop, but now they sell second-hand games as well. Not cheap, but a good selection of (often OOP) titles that you cannot find in regular gamestores.

Great collection, but not cheap.

The second- or third-best store to go to if you're looking for foreign titles and other oddities. It sells Icehouse stashes, for cryin' out loud!

I'll agree to that. Although I usually like the Joker better, so it's for me.

Subcultures,
Oude Gracht 194,
Utrecht.
www.subcultures.nl

Relatively new shop. Well stocked (incl GW stuff). Friendly.

A very cosy shop in a quiet neighborhood of the Hague, a stone's throw away from my highschool way back when (be sure to take a look at the Gymnasium---it's quite a beautiful building) selling Warhammer and boardgames at the same time. Good selection of games, and stocks quite a few German ones as well.

As a note for foreign tourists: It is reasonably close to the 'Vredespaleis' (Peace Palace, International Court of Justice) so a good option to visit when you are there.