Each year it is great fun to be back in Essen. The Spiel organisation as well as the employees of the Essen Fair are very helpful and supportive. Many thanks.

The tournament area was set up early in the morning and before the official (!) opening time teams entered to register.

This year another growth of tournament size: the participation of 30 teams (120 players) from 9 different nationalities: United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Suisse, Italy, Austria and the Czech Republic.

Himalaya

Almost verybody was on time, the few players missing were replaced by reserve players brought along by the teams themselves.

The starter for the day was Himalaya. A rather quick paced game due to the time limitation of planning your moves. A good brainwarmer to start the day...though the background are the icy and cold Himalaya's.

Im Schatten des Kaisers

Im Schatten des Kaisers (or In the Shadow of the Emperor). A challenging moment for the organisation as the recorded playing times by some players were exceeding the available tournament playing time. Luckely everything went rather well and all tables were able to complete the game on time.

 

 

 

Louis XIVl

Louis XIV is the winner of the Deutsche Spielpreis award (our congratulations). A reasonable fast pace game and of ALEA. A good combination as usual.

 

Zavandor

Das Zepter von Zavondor has been sponsored by Lookout Games. Lookout Games is a small, young and promissing company of hopefully we will hear much more in the near future. Though the last game to be played, it is certainly not the lightest one. And much will depend on this game as so many teams are very close with their scoring.

With its playing time Zavandor is one of the games with the longest playing time (though with a high deviation). So it was an additional handicap to play and very exhausiting for all the players, but a great way to end a tournament.  

But like the game a lot of magic happened in the scoring as the overall ranking changed a lot after Zavandor.

The end...

After an exhausting day the brain cells received finally some rest. though there are players who seem never to be able to stop and keep on playing, and playing, and playing, and playing...

But what is more to enjoy than a great games, nice opponents and worlds largest games fair.

After some slow ticking minutes the last results were calculated and the final ranking determined. Woheee 4 different nationalities in the top 5!!!

The happy winners of 2005: ESCH Treff

The team results show that it has been a challenging tournament where, until the last move played, it was undecided who would be the European Champions of 2005. Note that per each game a team can score between 4 to a maximum of 20 points.

Hope to see you all next year! Good luck with the qualification rounds.

Nice dice,