OK, back again to finish up my Essen coverage – part 1 of this was posted Monday. As always, it was a great time, and a non-stop whirlwind of a trip. I’m fighting through a booked schedule at work and (un)successfully fighting jet lag right now. However, neither of those is going to stop me from talking about the games!
[To see the rest of the Opinionated Gamers coverage of Essen, both previews and reports from the fair… click here]
So as far as the games go, I think that there were a bunch of games that were talked about by my friends as being their “favorite”, though there didn’t seem to be a lot of consensus about a single “hit of the show”. Amongst this list were: Tournay, Funkenschlag: First Sparks, Trajan, Hawaii, Helvetia, Ora et Labora and Coney Island. As these were the games I most often heard people raving about, I generally asked others about them as well, and I’ll also say that for each of the games on this list, there was at least one person for each who did not think much of that particular game. Of course, simple differences in taste could account for this – but there was certainly not a game as in previous years where everyone you met told you that you had to go check out or buy a particular game.
The two rating systems seemed to co-exist peacefully, and each gave a different view of the fair. Both of them attempt to give convention goers a peek at what the crowd thinks of the new games. I think that the audience is a little different for each as is the methodology, and this gave me two different lists to compare. It certainly seemed like most of the English speakers that voted did so at BGG, while German speakers could be found at both.
The Fairplay results were updated a few times a day, and by midday Friday, the ratings seemed to stabilize out – most of the games in the top 10 by that point remained in the top 10, though the actual poll positions may have changed. On the other hand, with the true real-time calculations of votes, the Geekbuzz poll was a lot more variable. This provided me with an ever changing list to consult, which was also helpful as it gave me more games to look at and try out. There was definitely a more “what have you done for me lately” feel to Geekbuzz – it was not uncommon for games that were conducting their video interview at the stand to suddenly have a jump up on the ratings board (as if seeing the game in front of you while voting caused people to rate it higher or more often) – though this did seem to equalize out in a few hours. Additionally, as Geekbuzz usually listed the top 25 games in their poll, there was a bit more information to glean from the standings. In the end, both were useful tools, and I found it nice that they were located around the corner from each other. The proximity of the two stands made that corner of Hall 10 a stop to make about three times each day to see what the current results were on each. By late Thursday/early Friday, the Fairplay stand was a bit more useful to me to see what the hot games were – but then my emphasis switched to Geekbuzz by late Friday/early Saturday to see what the pulse was after that first tier of games.
The final ratings for each were:
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Mastering Both Tiers
I was dumbfounded to discover that there are no strategy articles out there to be found on the deeply strategic game Tier auf Tier. This is a game that requires complete mental focus, a great deal of experience, and a firm grasp on all the possibilities and their potential ramifications. Beginners sometimes overlook the complexity of Tie
r auf Tier, failing to appreciate the nuance of this brain burner. I’m here to help run through many of the classic positions and moves that any self-respecting Tier auf Tier player needs to master.
First off, there’s the classic yet elusive “double hog” maneuver. A fine example of needing to know the attributes of your playing pieces. Just as a chess player must fully grasp the various uses of the bishop as opposed to the rook, a Tier auf Tier player must do likewise, but take it to a whole other level by understanding all of the different possible orientations of their pieces as well. A discerning player will immediately recognize and appreciate the benefits and pitfalls of the ridges on the hedgehog’s back. These can be used for many purposes, but the “double hog” is the most solid and stable. This is when one hedgehog has been placed on its stomach and the other is placed above lying on its back. The animals interlock with an almost zipper-like bond that can be used as the base for a wide variety of follow-up plays.
The “hanging toucan” is another important move to master and also more commonly seen in the wild than the “double hog.” The toucan’s bill is its most important attribute and a feature that must not be overlooked. Through the careful use of this attribute, the toucan can be used almost anywhere. You can place the toucan such that it’s beak rests on another animal’s back, while the body of the bird itself is hanging off in thin air. It can sometimes be a precarious maneuver to execute, but a particularly successful “hanging toucan” will rattle your opponents so much that they’re sure to slip on their next move. The psychological element of Tier auf Tier is something that many beginners overlook but is just as important to consider as the physical element.
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