The Opinionated Gamers

Okay, here’s how the games ended up being rated by those who filled out the Fairplay poll at Essen this year.  These are the games with the best average ratings, based on a minimum of 40 votes.  Again, the ratings range from 1-6, with lower being better.  The number in parentheses is the number of votes.

1. Russian Railroads – 1.73 (85)
2. Concordia – 1.84 (64)
3. Glass Road – 1.91 (65)
4. Bruxelles 1893 – 2.12 (49)
5. Kashgar – 2.13 (63)
6. Rokoko – 2.15 (41)
7. Spyrium – 2.21 (72)
8. Madeira – 2.22 (58)
9. Love Letter – 2.24 (97)
10. UGO – 2.30 (44)
11. Amerigo – 2.35 (85)
12. Coal Baron – 2.40 (55)
13. Yunnan – 2.44 (40)
14. Guildhall – 2.48 (42)
14. Nauticus – 2.48 (42)
16. Sanssouci – 2.61 (59)
17. Tash-Kalar – 2.75 (48)

So Russian Railroads nips Concordia at the end to earn Game of the Show honors.  Congratulations to designers Ohley and Orgler, as well as to Hans im Gluck.  I see there’s mostly gamer’s games at the top, which, as I mentioned earlier, isn’t always the case.  It’s interesting that Glass Road is the Rosenberg game that got the high rating and not Caverna, but that might be due to the shorter duration of the former game (it can be hard to get sufficient ratings for a long game, as fewer gamers will take the time to play it).  Or maybe Glass Road is just the better game.

Other anticipated games that didn’t make the list include Prosperity and Bremerhaven.  There are any number of reasons why that might be the case, so there’s no need to start worrying if you preordered one of these.  The Fairplay poll is always a fun guide, but history has shown it’s far from infallible, so the next step is to see what all the many non-Essen attendees think of the new games in the weeks to come.

I had some significant technological issues while in Essen this year… First off, the wifi signal in my hotel was sketchy at best, so it was hard to consistently post from the hotel.  Second, my camera seemed like it was malfunctioning.  I think that the big problem was that my SD card has somehow become corrupted.  It looks like I’ve lost about a third of my pictures to this – the recovery utility that I found got the rest off the card though!

To start – a McToast from the DUS McDonalds.  I’d never heard of this before, so I had to try one. Anyways, it’s on the German Dollar Menu, so it wasn’t too costly.  It’s essentially a breakfast quesadilla.  Eggs, cheese and bacon are put inside a folded flatbread and then the whole thing is warmed/toasted in a panini grill.  Pretty tasty, I must admit.  It also happens to be the only picture I took in Europe before going to the show…

First things first – here is one of the schematics showing the new layout.  The halls that we are using this year are 1,2, and 3 – they are all connected in the lower left side of the diagram. You can see that the square footage is larger than the old layout which used 4,5,6,9,10,11,12 (and about a third of 7).

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I’m on the way home now, writing this while at the airport but probably not posting until I get to ATL when I have wifi again. 

Saturday was a busy day, and in fact, I spent more time at the fair than I normally do on Saturday.  Usually, I have already figured out how much space/weight I might have left in my luggage, and I go and get the one or two games that will meet the space/weight requirements.  Then, due to the humongous crowds, I usually escape as quick as possible and head back to the hotel room to pack, play games, catch up on sleep, etc.  This year, I ended up at the fair until about 6pm.  I spent a bit of time at the fair using the wifi because the signal in my hotel room is so sketchy this year.  I also volunteered a bit at the BGG booth, and I may have tried to convince Aldie to buy another copy of Wacky Wit to bring to BGG.con. I also had to go back twice as I kept packing, repacking, punching bits, etc – and I kept finding more and more room in the suitcase!

I first went to the Fairplay booth, and I check out the Fairplay list (I think I posted a picture of that list from the fair) – it did motivate me to find my old friend Ronald Hoekstra and see his game UGO.  It had been rising up the Fairplay list, and it turns out to be a clever little card game.  I only played a quick two player game, but I think that it will be good for four as well.  I will give it a full review soon, but the big thing is that the rules give players something to do with both high and low numbered cards – which makes any hand that you’re dealt an interesting proposition. It also gave me a great chance to take a few demos of games in.  Also met up with the Polish guys who are making/selling the mini-crokinole boards.  They are about 24″ in diameter, and they appear to be of high quality.  They are made in Hungary, and honestly, if I hadn’t been told that, I would have been hard pressed to know that it wasn’t made by hand by some grizzled, bearded, Canadian carpenter.  The action on the boards was very nice, and the playing surface was smooth as a baby’s butt. They did not need to have silicone powder on the surface, and a gently flick brought the puck far past the bunghole.  Additionally, the pegs have good bounce off of them – and they do not need rubber bands around them to give the bounce.  The mini pucks come in a variety of colors and they are well crowned on one side while being flat on the other to give the player better strategic choices.  The cost for the mini table was reasonable, though you had to buy the pucks separately. Sadly, there isn’t a good way for me to get this one home, so I had to pass.  I did get the folks from Funagain over to talk to them, so hopefully they will be able to stock it in the shop.  It would probably be easier to send a pallet of them across the ocean, so this would be the best way to get them in the US.

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Here are the most recent results of the Essen Fairplay poll, as of the end of Saturday.  Remember, the grades go from 1 to 6, with lower being better.  These are the games with the best average ratings, with a minimum of 20 votes.  The number of votes cast is given in parentheses.

1. Concordia – 1.60 (30)
2. Russian Railroads – 1.82 (39)
3. Glass Road – 1.97 (35)
4. Kashgar – 2.03 (38)
5. Bruxelles 1893 – 2.16 (31)
6. UGO – 2.19 (31)
7. Madeira – 2.22 (40)
8. Spyrium – 2.28 (54)
9. Rokoko – 2.29 (21)
10. Love Letter – 2.29 (59)
11. Yunnan – 2.46 (35)
12. Tash-Lalar – 2.50 (26)
13. Amerigo – 2.53 (49)
14. Guildhall – 2.54
15. Coal Baron – 2.57
16. Nauticus – 2.59 (22)
17. Sanssouci – 2.67 (36)
17. Trains – 2.67 (36)

There are three heavy games leading the way, which isn’t always the case with the Fairplay poll.  We’ll report on the final results tomorrow (or maybe later today) and see if Gerdts’ Concordia can keep its position as the game of the show.

Yesterday was my final day in the great city of Essen.  Unfortunately, due to the need for packing and sleep, I didn’t manage to post last night and I am soon going to be frantically rushing around this morning trying to get ready for our flight back.  So I will skip the life lessons this morning, instead just jump into the day that was.

Yesterday featured gorgeous October weather, which almost made it a shame to be inside.  Our hotel is just a short walk from the Messe, and the path to the halls is very serene, especially if you are early enough to beat the crowds.

As you can see to the left, this will soon become a parking lot.

I used my first hour at the halls to get some one-on-one explanations of games that I was aware of, but unfamiliar with.  I prefer to simply have a game explained to me (perhaps with a sample turn or two), than to sit down and start playing an unfamiliar game that I might end up regretting.  Perhaps I was in a good mood this day, but I found the morning’s games promising.

Florenza: The Card Game seemed like a clever little engine-builder. My wife wisely vetoed the purchase, but I may try to acquire it at a later point.I got a personal tutorial on Byzantio/Nekken by one of the co-designers.I’m not one for Werewolf games, but this iteration seemed harmless enough (though I was unjustly slaughtered by panicked and coffee-deficient townspeople).

After about an hour, my wife joined me and we feasted on several delicious SPEIL delicacies.

Potato chips on a stick!I don’t know what these were (don’t believe the sign), but they were delicious!Mmmm…cheese pretzels.

Despite what Dale says about the halls being less crowded this year, Saturday crowds still present a major logistical issue.  It seemed no matter which direction you headed, you were bound to get stuck in a mass of people just inching along.  (I took a 30 second video of me stuck in traffic, but I don’t know how to import it right now.)

The demo tables were hopping, as usual.  We tried some dexterity games and observed players attempting a few eagerly anticipated titles.

Caverna in play.Some sort of slingshot flicking game that was great fun.

In the afternoon, I went off to meet up with some people I knew to play a few of the games I had purchased.  It was a great time.    We broke out Wildcatters, which was quite interesting despite having a few vague rules that left us scratching our heads.

I thought I was surely going to win, right up until the time I didn’t.

We also broke out Yunnan, which had some inter-player aggression that I rather enjoyed.  I don’t expect it to have the longevity of something like Hansa Teutonica, but it is another solid medium-weight design from Argentum Verlag.

In the evening, I knew what I needed for my last meal in Germany: more pork knuckle!

I don’t know where the “knuckle” is, and I don’t care.

The I also went for German-style ice cream with the Yu brothers (for the second consecutive night).  The Germans seem to know how to do dairy right.  The cheeses have been delicious and the ice cream is outstanding.  I got the Whiskey Cream, which was more whiskey than cream I think.

We finished the night with a quick game of Bombyx’s Continental Express, a rather simple card drafting game.  This one fell flat for me, and I wonder whether the rules need another good pass through by a translator.  Some of the mechanics just seemed odd given the game’s weight and length.

That’s it for now, as I have to pack the computer.  I saved many of the most-anticipated games for when I return home, since I know I’ll have to play them with my game group anyway.  Nevertheless, I’ll try to post some final thoughts on the Fair in the coming days. Thanks for reading!

Dear gamers, this was the last report by me and Caterina from Essen. Tomorrow mornig we will leave for Modena. I hope to see some of you in Italy in April at PLAY: the games festival or next year here in Essen. In the end we were able to play something more than 30 games that is not bad since we are used to play all the game (not just some turns), some games we played twice or more and we have dealed also with game like Russian Railroads and Rokoko.

Before going in the details about our Saturday in Essen (i hope to have time to write monday) here our top 5. Of course we were able just to undermine the surface of the huge list of Essen releases and we are sure there are outstandig games we missed. We have already ordered/bought (but not played) many games including Venetia, Theseus, Madeira, Twin Tin Bots, A study in Emerald, Concordia, Super Fantasy, Steam Park, Hegemonic, … All game I hope we will play soon and review in the future. Probably we will change mind in the next weeks/months, playing new games and/or replaying old ones but here we are and this is Father in the Messe 2013 top 5

In doing it we used just one simple rule: we liked the game! So no restrictions about target or duration or complexity or publisher … To enter our top 5 the game has just to be fun to play (of course for us).

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