Game: Tier auf Tier

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kaylex — 2008-11-30T03:41:35+00:00

English front cover

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Toynan — 2008-11-09T23:54:49+00:00

rule book

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Toynan — 2008-11-09T23:15:19+00:00

the snake

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Toynan — 2008-11-09T23:13:58+00:00

the crocodile !

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Grudunza — 2008-11-08T20:03:20+00:00

My girls playing Tier auf Tier in our motorhome.

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muzfish4 — 2008-09-22T00:22:34+00:00

Animal stack - just before the fall!

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muzfish4 — 2008-09-22T00:20:52+00:00

McGhie concetrates while Wen provides helpful advice

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muzfish4 — 2008-09-22T00:19:16+00:00

Wen concentrating at Tier auf Tier

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skrebs — 2008-09-03T16:06:13+00:00

As we used to say when we collected baseball cards as kids, this is an action photo.

Thread: Best kids' game ever!

cvandyk — 2008-09-01T19:37:30+00:00

Tier auf Tier, or the Animal game as the kids call it, is the best kids game in our collection. We play it regularly, it's fast and fun, it's colourful, and it just works really well.

So this morning, it being a holiday, I was lounging around when my four year-old son decided to come out of bed and see if anyone else was up. Being a gamer's son he of course had only two thoughts on his mind: what game to play this holiday Monday morning, and (in that order) what to eat for breakfast.

He suggested Animal upon Animal, not for breakfast mind you, and so we decided to play a two player game, using two sets of animals each.

We usually play with the rule that after two animals have been placed besides the crocodile you can't place anymore animals on the sides and have to start stacking with all future crocodile dice rolls. However, since we playing with two sets we thought we'd take a break and just follow the normal rules.

My son's not much of a rules lawyer so he didn't care. The neat thing is that at his age he is much more intune with the theme of the game, rather than the mechanics. Have a look for instance at this picture:

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Here he's knocked down the central part of the stack, and he's just loving the ensuing chaos. Check out too the Toucan and the Monkey on the left side, both of which are still standing - when he placed the Toucan he said, "This is the doctor, he's checking the monkey's eyes."

I ended up winning by one or two animals, but I have to concentrate pretty hard not to make mistakes, as this little guy is quite a dexterous monkey.

Meantime, our oldest daughter had decided to come down - so she deserved a game too. During that game I made up a new rule for myself to make things more difficult (you see I am a rules lawyer): on my turn I would always have to stack the pieces on the highest point of the pile. Quite a challenge, as it turned out, and my daughter won handily.

A great way to start a relaxing day. If you haven't tried this game before, make sure you do. It's fantastic.

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cvandyk — 2008-09-01T19:20:57+00:00

Can you spell "mischief"?

Thread: Re: availibility?

Hivemind — 2008-06-26T16:22:47+00:00

I can confirm that the copies I got from Germany had multi-language rule books.

Thread: Re: availibility?

Karlsen — 2008-06-23T14:43:21+00:00

I think there is only one edition which comes with multi-lingual rules, so ordering it from Germany is probably the best way to go.

Thread: Re: availibility?

WalkerRedEye — 2008-06-19T17:53:46+00:00

thanks eric

Thread: Re: availibility?

Hivemind — 2008-06-19T15:54:42+00:00

Had the same problem. Couldn't find any traditional game retailer that had it so I got it from Amazon.DE. Direct link here. Unlike with Amazon.co.UK there was no problem getting a game delivered to a different country.

Years of playing El Grande with the German cards meant that the Amazon UI in German was no challenge to me.

It's a great game, I actually got three copies since I knew I would be giving it away as gifts and now I wish I'd gotten a couple more. Never mind, I've found out that Orchard and Obstgärtchen are actually two different games (with the latter seeming like the better game to me) so I have a good excuse to order some more stuff from them.

Thread: availibility?

WalkerRedEye — 2008-06-18T18:49:51+00:00

anyone know where i can get this in the uk?

thanks in advance

WRE

Thread: Re: Fun, fun, fun, but what the heck is that green thing?

Hivemind — 2008-06-16T10:41:04+00:00

I'm guessing Tier Auf Tier has a subtle second meaning in German based on the meaning of the word Tier in English.

I notice that other languages abandon the direct translation and name the game Animal Pyramid which is what I think I will tell people it is called in future.

I played this with my four year old nephew a few days ago and he liked it a lot. Unlike some of the other games I've gotten him this was pretty enjoyable for the adults as well.

Thread: Re: Animal on Animal for children and adults

LurkingMeeple — 2008-01-08T20:55:55+00:00

Admiral Fisher wrote:
Is it true that you can combine 2 sets for an even betteer game?

Maybe you are referring to my sequential set variant for two players? If so, the box includes four sets of animals. Put another way, there are four of each type of block in the box (except the alligator). I would not advise combining two whole boxes of this game.

I'll leave it to you and others to weigh in on what's true/better.

Thread: Re: Animal on Animal for children and adults

Tatsu — 2008-01-08T20:07:01+00:00

Admiral Fisher wrote:
Great.

I've got this for my son's upcoming birthday and I'm sure he'll love it.

Is it true that you can combine 2 sets for an even betteer game?

You could certainly do that to allow more players - its arguable whether it would be better or not. At a certain point, you'll find the stack reaches a critical mass where its pretty hard to put something on without knocking it over. I doubt that more players would make the stack higher, you'd probably just see more frequent pile collapses.

Thread: Re: Animal on Animal for children and adults

Admiral Fisher — 2008-01-08T19:21:42+00:00

Great.

I've got this for my son's upcoming birthday and I'm sure he'll love it.

Is it true that you can combine 2 sets for an even betteer game?

Thread: Animal on Animal for children and adults

Tatsu — 2008-01-08T18:41:12+00:00

Overview
Tier auf Tier (Animal on Animal) is a light dexterity game aimed at children by Haba. The game itself is pure simplicity - on your turn you roll a die which determines your stacking action, and then (in most cases), you choose from your pieces which animal or animals to stack on the pile. One side has your opponents pick a piece and one side allows you to give a piece to another player to place. Succeed and your turn is done, fail and you take animals back to your collection. The first player to rid themselves of their collection of pieces is the winner. The game is language independent and the instructions come in one booklet in multiple languages.
Components
All wood. Nice hardwood pieces that are the perfect weight - neither too light nor too heavy. They are well formed/shaped, smooth, and nicely painted in bright colors with simple "faces". The single game die is a wooden 6-sider with special symbols. Each player has the same set of animals and the base of this pile is a unique piece - the crocodile. This is a well made game that should stand up for some time.
Highs
- Simple to learn and play
- Plays quickly. This makes a good dexterity filler for 2-4 players.
- Attractive pieces will appeal to children
Lows
- Its a dexterity game. If you hate this type of game, or are bad at them, you will not like this.
Conclusion
This one rates a 6.5/10 for me. Its not a bad game, but not one to get played all the time either. For adults, its a good filler. For children, its appealing with its bright animals and simple game play. My youngest isn't very steady and tends to throw the animals on top, but I think a couple years from now, I'll be LUCKY to ever beat either of them. The hardest part of playing with the kids is keeping them from bumping the table the whole time.

Thread: Re: The game that gets it right.

vekoma — 2007-03-02T14:13:19+00:00

LurkingMeeple wrote:
we usually play that each person must play two sets of animals, completing one set before drawing animals from the second set. Sometimes this leaves someone with a pretty difficult sheep placement.

Sounds interesting. This would allow for some real competition and probably makes you think even more about choosing just the right animal that hinders the opponent most.

Thread: Re: The game that gets it right.

LurkingMeeple — 2007-03-02T02:27:32+00:00

We changed this so that only a maximum of 2 animals can be placed adjacent to the croc (one on each side)

My wife and I settled on the same rule, but sometimes we omit the die altogether and just stack one animal per turn without any placements adjacent to the croc.

Also, with just two adult players we usually play that each person must play two sets of animals, completing one set before drawing animals from the second set. Sometimes this leaves someone with a pretty difficult sheep placement.

Thread: Re: The game that gets it right.

sevorges — 2007-03-02T00:29:52+00:00

This does sound a better game to play with kids than Villa Paletti. I do think that the rules for winning Villa Paletti are very clever for this type of game and really force decision making outside of just dexterity...but at the end of the day you just don't want to be the one to make it all tumble down.

Thread: Re: The game that gets it right.

Skadar — 2007-03-01T21:41:48+00:00

We changed this so that only a maximum of 2 animals can be placed adjacent to the croc (one on each side) and on future turns you just have to add an animal to the stack when this options gets roled. This makes for a much tenser game and a much more interesting experience for older kids or adults.

Excellent variation. I will play like this from now on.

My only complaint is that they didn't print the animal graphics on both sides of the animal pieces. Why oh why! I am very tempted to just draw them in with a fine-point Sharpie.

Great little game.

Thread: Re: The game that gets it right.

weishaupt — 2007-03-01T18:53:45+00:00

Great review. Thanks! I'll pick it up.

Thread: The game that gets it right.

vekoma — 2007-03-01T18:16:39+00:00

Tier auf Tier is a game published by HABA, well known for it's excellent childrens games. It is also the only game in the HABA-collection that appealed to me, as an adult... well, at least adult for the most of the time.

Opening the box
The bright yellow box with the friendly animals has a nice friendly feel to it, being a kids game, that's a good thing. The picture on the box also represents the object of the game quite well; the object being: stacking animals.

You get a simple rulebook printed in black & white along with 29 animals. One crocodile and 4 of each of the following: monkey, penguin, sheep, snake, hedgehog, toucan and bearded-dragon. All in happy bright colors. There's also a larger than normal red die. My complaint with this is that it's print is black, making it not always easy to see on the red background of the die.

The playing pieces are really well produced. They're very solid and the shapes are ingeniously created to do some gravity-defying stacking. The stacking-options are, because of these shapes, pretty limitless. Not only are the shapes created very thoughtfully, they also represent their respective animals good enough for children to recognize them (Agreed, the bearded-dragon may be an exception)... Making the experience much more appealing to children then just stacking oddly shaped blocks.

Playing the game
The crocodile is placed on a sturdy surface and each player gets a set of 7 different animals. Players take turns and first roll the die to see what has to be done.

2 chances out of 6 you have to place one animal of your choice on top of the crocodile (or on the pile that has build up on top of it).
1 chance you have to place two animals of your choice.
1 chance you can give away one of your animals to another player, that has to place this animal immediatly.
1 chance the other players get to choose the animal you have to play.
1 chance you get to place an animal adjacent to the crocodile and thereby widening the base.

This last option immediatly brings up my largest complaint with the rules. Sometimes, when this option gets roled lot, it takes away the fun from the game, since you just get to place animals in a long row. This makes things easy for you, but also eases future actions, since it makes future stacking easier due to the wider base.

We changed this so that only a maximum of 2 animals can be placed adjacent to the croc (one on each side) and on future turns you just have to add an animal to the stack when this options gets roled. This makes for a much tenser game and a much more interesting experience for older kids or adults.

Game ending
The winner of the game is the first one to get rid of all his animals. Sounds easy enough, however when you cause the pile of animals to fall you must take 2 animals of your choice that have to be placed again on future turns. The other animals that fell of get to go back in the box.

The game ends fairly quickly, seeing this is a childrens game by nature, it's a good thing that it's over after 10 to 15 minutes.

The game that gets it right
For me this is the best game in the "stacking"-genre for one reason:
It's mechanics feel right and not forced as with other games. The problem with stacking games (Villa Paletti and Jenga come to mind) is that there's usually one loser (who caused the collapse) and a bunch of winners (the other players). Villa Paletti has a rather forced winners-rule with player colors that doens't work and doesn't feel right for me. With this game it does feel right and it does work.

To conclude this review I would like to summerize my thougts in these scores:

Overall kids
Overall adults
Components (minus for the die)
Rules and rulebook

Thread: Re: Fun, fun, fun, but what the heck is that green thing?

BrewB — 2007-02-22T22:21:19+00:00

Yeah, we gave up trying to call it 'Animal Upon Animal" - and use the original 'Tier auf Tier' which seems to roll off the tongue. (pronounced tear, rhymes with 'beer').

Now about this "Elchfest"...hmmm...I'll have to look into this...

Thread: Re: Fun, fun, fun, but what the heck is that green thing?

Skadar — 2007-02-22T15:58:38+00:00

Yep, it's a Frilled Lizard. Here's a link:
http://www.google.com/search?q=frilled+lizard

My family also recently purchased Tier auf Tier, and we love it. The basic game is fun, but it's also quite easy to make up rules for your own games. And the myriad of ways the animals can stack is pretty amazing. I really enjoy small, high quality, fun games like this. I'm currently looking at Elchfest as a possible next purchase.

And FYI, we call the game "Stacking Animals" instead of "Animal Upon Animal", which is awkward to say.

Thread: Re: Fun, fun, fun, but what the heck is that green thing?

utahraptor — 2007-02-22T11:14:46+00:00

It's a frilled Lizard, think dilophasaurus (spitting dinosaur) from jurassic park. Also, have a look on the box cover.

And yes, this game is a LOT of fun!

Thread: Fun, fun, fun, but what the heck is that green thing?

BrewB — 2007-02-22T03:11:49+00:00

Tier auf Tier – Fun, fun, fun, but what the heck is that green thing supposed to be?

A review.

Preamble -

This game is lots of fun; but try as I might, I can’t find anything funny to say about it.

I purchased this game at a local toy store just because it looked like fun. My daughter had recently turned four years old and the weather was getting cold – so it was time to purchase some games to keep us entertained indoors.

Tier auf Tier (awkwardly translated: Animal Upon Animal) is chiefly a game of dexterity with a bit of luck thrown in for good measure.

If you have a four year old child/niece/nephew and you don’t have any dexterity based games then this is a good one to pick up. This is one of the better HABA games we own.

Game Components -

29 wooden animals (for stacking):

1 Alligator (that makes the starting platform/base)
4 Yellow Monkeys
4 White Sheep
4 Black and White Penguins
4 Brown Hedgehogs
4 Orange Toucans (Pelicans maybe?)
4 Green Squiggly Snakes
and
4 Green Unidentifiable Cobra-like Lizard Monsters (???)

Note: the animals are painted their respective colors all around, but details and markings are only on one of the two flat sides. (Why skimp on this, HABA, why?)

1 six sided die (sides described below):

Two (2) sides with one (1) dot
One (1) side with two (2) dots
One (1) side with an Alligator symbol
One (1) side with a “hand” symbol
One (1) side with “?” question mark

There is no board. The game should be played on a hard, flat, stable, unshakeable, level surface.

The large wooden components make set-up and clean-up a snap.

Theme –

Well, let’s see…there are these animals and they are making a huge animal pyramid…oh forget the theme.

Rules/Game Play -

It’s pretty simple once you understand the symbols on the die.

The game is meant to be played by 2-4 players. Each player will select seven different animals and place them in front of them. (Since we often play with two players we play a variant where we alternate selecting whatever animals we wish – up to seven.)

The alligator is set-up in the middle of the table.

Each player rolls the die (in turn) and performs the associated action:

One dot - Place one animal upon ‘the stack’.
Two dots - Place two animals upon ‘the stack’.
Alligator - Place one animal upon the table such that it is touching the alligator or another animal placed upon the table.
Hand - Chose any animal from your pile and ‘hand it’ to another player. They must now place it on ‘the stack’.
Question (?) - The other players tell you which of your animals to place on the stack.

There are other rules to handle what happens when the animals tumble down in a heap, but the general object of the game is to be the first player to get rid of all your animals.

Other things to do with the playing pieces:

After playing the game, we would often try to stack four of one type of animal on top of each other into a single stack. This does not seem to be possible for ALL seven types of animals, but it can be done.

The unidentified green animal pieces –

After a not insignificant amount of research spent on the subject I have come to the conclusion that it is the Frilled Neck Lizard (Chlamydosaurus kingii) of northern Australia.

In General –

We often play at a small, children-sized table. Typically, my daughter sits in a child-sized seat, and I in my over-sized, recliner/rocker chair. Many-many games would end rather abruptly due to a small person fidgeting around in her seat and jolting the table – sending pieces crashing down from the animal stack. She eventually learned to stop fidgeting around and sit (fairly) still when playing this and other dexterity games.

The game plays out fairly quickly and stacking the oddly shaped pieces presents a challenge for young and old players alike.

Conclusion –

Tier auf Tier got a lot of playing time, and was often requested by my four year old daughter until Gulo Gulo entered the picture. Tier auf Tier is more portable than Gulo Gulo and for all its simplicity has provided us with enormous amounts of fun.

I highly recommend this game – especially if you are looking for a reasonably priced game that you can play with small children.

-Stephen Brewbacker
(Real Men Play Board Games with Children)

Thread: Re: Not just for kids

Xanthos — 2007-02-19T21:42:59+00:00

Thank you for reviewing the game. You talked me into buying it (along with hearing it mentioned on podcasts and it was recommended by a store owner). I have found that yes, it does work with young children but it seems to work just as well with older children, teenagers, and adults. I don't have the steadiest hand in the world but I really do enjoy this game when time is short.

At some point I'll write my own review. I have a session report for my first play on the Geek already.

Thread: Re: First game of Animal Upon Animal

Xanthos — 2007-02-04T20:08:36+00:00

Well, I've read the English version of the rules and played it a few more times with adults, elementary students and with teenagers.

It seems to be a hit with almost everyone. Ok, the one person that didn't seem to enjoy it was following someone who is quite competitive and set up situations that made the pyramid near impossible for the next player. Note to self: always sit in front of that guy.

Everyone picks up the game very quickly for it is quite intuitive. I have reminded the older children that this is a game and it isn't much fun if you are cheering for sommeone to mess up. Also, please don't bump the table either intentionally or on accident.

I hope more people try this game and not just as a children's game.

Thread: Re: First game of Animal Upon Animal

Admiral Fisher — 2007-01-03T09:47:31+00:00

It's one that I wanted to order for Christmas but it ws OOS at the time.

Thread: Re: First game of Animal Upon Animal

Karlsen — 2007-01-02T21:52:04+00:00

I think it takes longer to read this session report than to read the rules

Daughter the Younger generally coped quite well with playing with the rules as written at 3 and a half, so I'd give the rules a go at some stage.

Thread: First game of Animal Upon Animal

Xanthos — 2007-01-02T15:49:46+00:00

I played this with my 3 and a half year old nephew without having read the rules. Though I planned on reading the rules there wasn't time. As soon as I put this game on the floor to start looking at it he came over and asked "What's this?" "A game," I replied. "I play game too!" my nephew excitedly exclaimed. And so it began.

We were playing on the carpet so I used the back cover of the box as the base of the game. The way we played was to simply take turns placing the animals and attempt to not make them fall. I did start with the alligator on the bottom to begin the game and then I would generally start with a second animal. At the beginning of the game my newphew would always chose the same animal I just did and attempt to do approximately what I just did. He seemed a little dissapointed that the animals wheren't printed on both sides.

The game was more difficult than I thought it might be at first because the wood pieces seemed almost a little bit slippery. That could be due to the newness of the game or the fact that I wasn't as careful at the begining of play. I quickly learned to slow down and carefully place the pieces. This had a much better effect of course.

I noticed after a while that my nephew was attempting to make our tower similar to the one on the back of the box. I'm not sure why I didn't join him in this quest. Perhaps I'll try on my own or next time I play this game with him.

There were quite a few smiles and laughs as we played the game. This certainly will be coming off the shelf on future visits. Probably the only trouble we had was the intrest of his one year old sister who was very curious in what we were doing. We let her hold the sheep while watching her closely before we replaced it with a more age appropriate toy. One day she will also be playing these games with her big brother.

I've only played this once and haven't read all of the rules yet. As of right now I would rate this a 9 for the intended family audience though I honestly think adults could enjoy the challenge of this game.

Thread: Not just for kids

melissa — 2006-07-12T10:59:29+00:00

Tier auf Tier is a delightful and beautifully produced children's dexterity game from HABA.

Tier auf Tier translates as "Animal upon Animal" - and that is precisely what this game is all about.

The pieces are simple - a die, a wooden crocodile, and 28 other animals (4 each of 7 animals: hedgehog, toucan, snake, penguin, sheep, monkey and frill-necked lizard). At the start of the game, the crocodile is placed in the centre the table, and the animals are divided between the players. Players then roll the dice to determine their action:
- place 1 animal on the stack (on top of the crocodile)
- place 2 animals on the stack (on top of the crocodile)
- place 1 animal beside the stack, to widen its base
- select one animal and pass it to another player, to be placed on the stack
- place an animal of the other players' choice on the stack.

If an animal or animals is/are knocked from the stack, the player who knocked them takes 1 (if only 1 fell) or 2 fallen animals into their supply, and the rest of the animals are returned to the box. This helps to keep play moving even if players are less than dextrous. Otherwise, play continues clockwise around the table.

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The various shapes of animals offer a variety of evil play techniques, be they upside down monkeys, teetering piles of sheep, Clintonesquely intimate penguins or even nearly vertical snakes. Intriguingly, the hedgehogs and toucans can often be the easiest animals to place, with the hedgehog spikes giving a bit of grip and the toucan beaks allowing them to span other animals.

The game ends when one player places the last animal from their stack.

Although this is billed as a children's game, we have found that it is enjoyable for adults and children alike. It's also a game where children have some advantage when playing with adults, due to their smaller hands. We've been astonished many times when Otto has essentially dropped pieces onto the pile and it has wobbled but stayed intact, only to collapse from a slightly shaky adult placement.

Rumours that this has been successful as a drinking game are entirely unfounded, at least so far.

Thread: My first impression

Jatoha — 2005-12-28T20:09:57+00:00

Tier auf Tier: First Impressions
Disclaimer: I’ve only played this game once.

Tier auf Tier is an adorable dexterity game similar to Bandu/Bausack. It’s by HABA, so the components are of the highest quality and are charming all by themselves.

Contents:

Wooden animals and an oversized die

Gameplay:

Players take seven different animals from the box. The first player to place all their animals on the tower wins.

The alligator piece is placed on the table. The alligator is the base that the animals are stacked on.

On your turn, you roll the die.
If you roll a one or a two, you can place one or two animals on the tower.
If you roll a hand, you can “hand” one of your animals to another player.
If you roll a question mark, another player will choose which animal you have to put on the tower.
If you roll an alligator, you can place an animal next to the alligator, which gives you a bigger base for stacking.

If animals fall off the tower on your turn then you must take the animal you were stacking and two other animals into your hand. If more than two animals fall off, the extras go into the box.

Impressions:

This game is a nice early game for youngsters. Most children love dexterity games. This one adds a sprinkling of strategy in the decisions you make about which animal to have another player stack and which one to hand off to another player.

The falling tower rule helps keep the game from dragging on too long because a player only has to take two extra animals in their hand.

This game is amusing fun for both children and adults and can be played in five to ten minutes.