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  • Spiel Essen (includes Carcassonne world championship): October 08, 2015 - October 11, 2015

Author Topic: Spiel Essen (includes Carcassonne world championship) 2015  (Read 36969 times)

Offline Decar

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Re: Spiel Essen (includes Carcassonne world championship) 2015
« Reply #45 on: October 12, 2015, 06:01:41 AM »
Ah I see, so the previous Champion gets a free slot to defend his title. I hadn't realized this.

Offline kettlefish

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Re: Spiel Essen (includes Carcassonne world championship) 2015
« Reply #46 on: October 13, 2015, 10:23:16 AM »
Herner Spielezentrum - facebook:

Spiel 2015 - day 3 - with the CC - German championship
Spiel 2015 - day 4 - with the CC - world championship

Offline Jéré

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Spiel Essen (includes Carcassonne world championship) 2015
« Reply #47 on: October 13, 2015, 01:27:25 PM »
Where did I read about a Spiel 2015 promo tile?

or was it just my imagination?

I guess I'll find out tomorrow...  ::)

It was mentioned in a German email I received (and probably you did too). Apparently you will get one if you buy anything from the Cundco stall.

Don't forget who your friends are! ;) :(y) O:-)

My Spiel '15 Promo tile:



Sorry Dan, I could get only one.  :(
« Last Edit: October 14, 2015, 02:57:24 AM by Jéré »

Offline Decar

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Re: Spiel Essen (includes Carcassonne world championship) 2015
« Reply #48 on: October 13, 2015, 01:39:03 PM »
Well that tile's ridiculously big.  How on earth is the Dragon going to move across that in a single move?

Offline Jéré

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Re: Spiel Essen (includes Carcassonne world championship) 2015
« Reply #49 on: October 13, 2015, 01:45:39 PM »

Well that tile's ridiculously big.  How on earth is the Dragon going to move across that in a single move?

I posted this via Tapatalk so an admin might want to resize it for me. Thanks!

Offline Decar

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Re: Spiel Essen (includes Carcassonne world championship) 2015
« Reply #50 on: October 13, 2015, 01:50:58 PM »
No way it's amazing!

Offline danisthirty

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Re: Spiel Essen (includes Carcassonne world championship) 2015
« Reply #51 on: October 13, 2015, 09:51:57 PM »
Sorry Dan, I could get only one.  :(

That's OK. It looks a bit big. How many normal size tiles would it be the same as? And how big is your hand?! :o

Offline Jéré

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Spiel Essen (includes Carcassonne world championship) 2015
« Reply #52 on: October 14, 2015, 02:32:24 AM »
Seems that you got distracted by the perspective. My hand is not parallel to the floor and curved with fingers close together to hold the tile and prevent it from falling... (There is something called gravity on this planet).

EDIT:  I updated the image. Should be less confusing now.
« Last Edit: October 14, 2015, 02:58:31 AM by Jéré »

Offline Decar

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Re: Spiel Essen (includes Carcassonne world championship) 2015
« Reply #53 on: October 14, 2015, 03:14:41 AM »
EDIT:  I updated the image. Should be less confusing now.

:(

Offline MrNumbers

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Re: Spiel Essen (includes Carcassonne world championship) 2015
« Reply #54 on: October 14, 2015, 04:17:16 AM »
Hello!

I am safely at home and even have a workday today!
I have a lot of info and photos to share, so stay tuned :) When I will have time (this is hard now), I'll definitely post them all :D
"I never lose. Either I win or I learn." (Nelson Mandela)

Offline Decar

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Re: Spiel Essen (includes Carcassonne world championship) 2015
« Reply #55 on: October 14, 2015, 05:10:43 AM »
Looking forward to it; mainly to see if your Spiele '15 card is as big as Jéré's.

Offline danisthirty

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Re: Spiel Essen (includes Carcassonne world championship) 2015
« Reply #56 on: October 14, 2015, 05:23:49 AM »
Hello!

I am safely at home and even have a workday today!
I have a lot of info and photos to share, so stay tuned :) When I will have time (this is hard now), I'll definitely post them all :D

Welcome back! Hope you had an awesome time... :) :(y)

Offline jazbang

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Re: Spiel Essen (includes Carcassonne world championship) 2015
« Reply #57 on: October 17, 2015, 02:22:48 AM »
Hello

After fluking my way to the UK championship title, I found myself at Spiel on Sunday taking part in the 10th World Championships.  Here's what I remember...

On arriving at the tournament area, I saw a photo being taken of half a dozen competitors waving their national flags, and a guy who looked like a cross between an older Agent Cooper and Chris Noth.  Turns out it was Klause Jurgen Wrede and all the previous world champions who'd also qualified for today's event.  So much for hoping that everyone else was going to be a first-timer.

Here's a weird thing - for years every time I check into a hotel and they tell me the room number, I always say 'Hey! My lucky number!' - whatever the number is.  On this trip it was 115, and my travelling companion (who also happened to be my Dad) pointed out that the sum of the digits was 7.

In the first round, I was drawn to play first on Table 7. OMG IT'S AN OMEN

My opponent was Nicolas from Chile. It was also his first time, and in him I sensed a kindred spirit.  Our hands were both shaking as we started to pick up tiles, and on more than one occasion I forgot to hit the chess clock timer.

The game seemed to hinge on whether I could join up 2 fields, creating one worth 24 points that I would win 3-2. I managed to get the piece I needed (a straight road, so the most common tile) and I won the game (albeit by slightly more than 24).

This meant that in the second round, I'd be playing against someone who'd also won their first game. I was drawn to play first on.... Table 7. CUE TWILIGHT ZONE MUSIC

My second round opponent was the confident Olli from Finland. Carcassonne wasn't really his game, he casually mentioned, and he'd won his opening round 'easily'.

In almost an exact copy of my first game, it all came down to whether I could connect up 2 fields, to create a big one worth 30 points by 4 meeples to 3. The piece required was the one remaining Cloister plus road. Had Olli drawn it, he would have taken the field, and the game. But I did. It was enough of a points swing to give me victory.

"It was a coin toss on that tile" Olli would say afterwards. Repeatedly.

So all of a sudden, I was 2 and 0. Maybe I was the Carcassonne savant that I always secretly hoped I would be?

In Round 3, I was drawn to play second on Table 1 - one of the 'televised tables'. Although it's not necessarily true, I'm interpreting that to mean that after the second game of the tournament I was ranked no. 2. In the World.  When recounting this story in future, I think this is when I'll stop.

My opponent was Daniel from Hong Kong.  I'd met him a couple of hours earlier when we arrived - he was the only competitor to say 'Hello'.  Incredibly friendly, and fun to be around, Daniel had brought a customised giant sized meeple with him.

"You can't just put that on the board and claim victory" I said

He laughed. Thankfully he saw it was a joke.

Just before we started, Thomas, one of the event organisers, noticing me on the top table made a comment about how unusual it was to see the British entrant doing so well. 

"Well, you've just jinxed that" I joked.

Daniel won by 10 points, although that score flattered me somewhat. It's amazing how you remember the details of your victories better than those of your defeats.

So my chances of remaining unbeaten had gone, but my aim had always been to first of all, avoid dead last - secondly, to try and win 3 out of 6.

Game 4, and the last one before lunch saw me drawn to go second on Table 5 against Cheng from Taipei. This was the most exciting, and for me, enjoyable, game - with our points tallies reasonably close throughout.

When it came to tallying up, even though I won the big field (worth 24) by 3 meeples to 1, Cheng had managed to get 3 incomplete cloisters worth 23, which meant that he won by 115-110.  In hindsight, I think this was the crucial game - because I'd invested so much energy into winning, and it hadn't come off.

At lunch I ascertained that even a 4-2 record probably wasn't going to be enough to progress, but I'd been delighted to hear that Daniel was 4 for 4. I decided I'd support him in the final stages, and at least I'd be able to say I got beat by the champ.

After lunch I was down on Table 8 against Timofei from Estonia. He played excellently, and me - not so much, I don't like going 'all in', but I found myself there with many tiles to go, with a road that I just couldn't finish. I doubt it would have made much difference though, he won by 20-30 points.

In my last game, with one last chance to finish 3 and 3, I was drawn against Martin from the Czech Republic - a former World Champion. I think on realising this, combined with my own mental exhaustion, I wasn't really at the races and he was easily able to block 2 of my meeples in, and then we played out his inevitable win.

So I finished 2 and 4. But how had Daniel done? Heartbreakingly, he'd been defeated in both his post-lunch games, so he'd be missing out on the semis.

The semis saw three former World Champions, Panteli from Greece, Els from the Netherlands (who'd just played out the tournaments only tied game) and Takafumi from Japan (last year's champ).  The fourth spot was taken by a rookie! Humberto from Brazil - a nation that had never entered before, he'd finished 5 and 1, clearly by playing crowd-pleasing samba Carcassonne.

I didn't stay for the semis (I went to get a copy of Pandemic Legacy), but my Dad and I came back for the final to find it was a repeat of the 2014 final between Panteli and Takafumi (Els won the third place play-off).  In a tense game, where the lead went back and forth (but that didn't take as long as I'd thought) Panteli with the last tile was able to win a field and take the crown that had looked for a long while like it was going to remain in Japan.

Panteli finished the tournament with 7 wins out of 8, and no defeats - so it's hard to argue with that.

Offline Decar

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Re: Spiel Essen (includes Carcassonne world championship) 2015
« Reply #58 on: October 17, 2015, 03:24:17 AM »
An excellent write right up (+1) - You did us proud.  :(y) :(y) :(y)

Thanks for taking the time to come back and share it with us.  It's good to hear the competition was so tight.

This made me LOL:
Maybe I was the Carcassonne savant that I always secretly hoped I would be?

If you've learnt anything, it might be to take your own table number with you next time.

Good luck at the UK Expo 2016  :(y) :(y)

Offline danisthirty

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Re: Spiel Essen (includes Carcassonne world championship) 2015
« Reply #59 on: October 17, 2015, 05:01:41 AM »
Thanks for that James, it was a great read!

If nothing else, I'm just glad you beat Olli from Finland. It sounds as though the smugness would have been unbearable if you'd lost! Still, you could always pretend that everyone else from the UK Carc championships had died in a fire and that you were named our champion by drawing names out of a hat despite never having played it: "Oh really? So I've won have I? Splendid. I hoped those lying down figures would be of some use..."


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