For the second week running it’s just Tony, Fee and me. Last week we were able to play Princes of Florence. It’s not at it’s best with three, but seeing as I hadn’t played it for over a year I wasn’t going to say no!
Tony won Princes by a couple of points: he bought mostly Jesters and Recruitments at auction, and bought several extra profession cards. I bought mostly Builders and Prestige cards. In the end Tony’s late game large works gave him a 2 point victory over me. My 19 points of prestige cards (least empty spaces, most buildings, two large buildings) weren’t quite enough.
I wasted a couple of early actions I think, so much so that I only actually completed two works. Early on I should have just concentrated on scoring the works I had, rather than buying stuff to try and make them better. I had forgotten how hard it is to hit the late game work requirements when you don’t have any jesters.
Fee was competing with Tony for the Jesters and Recruitments, but unlike Tony she was playing her works early (indeed after the fourth turn she had no profession cards in hand). This wins her a few early best work bonuses, but generally you don’t get as many points playing that way. At least by competing with Tony she was making their money management tricky, thus boosting my chances.
As neither of them had much interest in competing with me for Builders or Prestige cards my money management was relatively simple. I think both my works were for points (maybe with an odd hundred florins), and I still had a little left at the end.
Princes of Florence is a great game. I must try to play it more this year.
This week both Tony and I have brought Tigris and Euphrates, another classic game that we don’t play anywhere near enough.
Still Tony doesn’t want to jump straight into such a hard game (probably a wise move) so we start with a quick hand of San Juan. Tony and I are pretty strongly violet (he is convinced it is the best plan), whilst Fiona is building many production buildings. She gets a Guild Hall and a Palace, but it’s not enough to beat my City Hall plus Palace.
The main difference being that I had a Quarry whilst she didn’t have a Smithy, and I was able to get down a couple of one cost violets for ‘free’ (I know they’re not literally free unless you have Carpenter as well). The Guild Hall players should really be looking to close the game out with 12 builds, but Fiona’s income wasn’t as good ( a function of being the only player heavily invested in production), so she only finished with 10 builds.
After this game Tony starts explaining how the violet plan is so much better than Guild Halls, and that the game is therefore slightly broken. I try to convince him otherwise, but despite the fact that I have played the game about ten times more than him, he apparently knows more than I do. That’s annoys me.
After San Juan we unpack T&E, and Tony reminds Fee of the rules whilst I take a loo break. He does his usual effective job. I get back just in time to repeat some of his gibberish regarding the scoring of external conflicts into actual English.
The game gets underway with me giving Fee a few basic strategy tips (Green and Black leaders are the most obvious to play early, remember to support your leaders with Temples etc). I have a glut of opening Green tiles so I start my own kingdom in the bottom right of the board. The plan was to make a monument, but it turned out to not be necessary.
I also have my Black leader in this kingdom, and join with the lower central treasure. At this point this kingdom is quite close to an external confict with Fee’s central kingdom, and I still have a glut of Green and Black tiles in hand. So I deliberately keep my kingdom a little weaker than hers, until she attacks, and I have enough for the tie in black to win that conflict. That ends the external conflict and breaks up her kingdom, so that soon my Green leader boots hers off as well.
That basically gives me enough Green and Black points for the game. I pick up some Blue and Red points throughout the game, and as my Green leader never gets displaced I get 5 of the 8 treasures collected for quite a confortable win (my score is 8/9/9/12)
Fee got most her leaders booted off midway throughout the game, but just re-entered her black leader in the empty bottom left corner and spent several turns getting a couple of cubes per turn in the colours she was weakest. And she also picked up a treasure relatively simply in the top right hand corner to end the game (I wanted the game to end, so I was helping).
Tony has a couple of strong colours, but is very weak in black and another colour (green?) and finishes last. He complains that he got dreadful draws (which might be true, he did change a load of tiles a couple of times), but I think he overstates his bad luck. In particular I think he got loads of reds but didn’t make the best use of them. He may have forgotten that you can remove leaders from the board (at one stage he had a four temple leader in red – I think he could have removed it, tried to kick off my green or black leader with an internal conflict then completed a B/G temple).
After T&E there’s time for one more quick game, something a bit longer than filler, but not too long. Whilst some groups can play Puerto Rico in 45 minutes we’re not one of them, so it’s San Juan again.
I want to try and win with a Guild Hall strategy this time, but after building an early Prefecture my counselling attempts aren’t helpful (though I do build Silver), and quickly Tony, and then Fiona have Prefectures as well.
This game is a little odd. Everybody builds a mixture of violet and production and eventually Tony and Fiona find the Guild Halls. But because they aren’t huge Halls the scores aren’t that high, and I’m keeping pace just with a couple of Monuments (I also have Library & Silver). I close with a Triumphal Arch, but lose by one card on the tiebreaker to Tony.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Sunday 04/02/2007: Pub Quiz, Super Bowl XLI
As it was the first Sunday of the month, it was the pub quiz at The Prince of Wales. We had a larger team than usual: Fee, Marleena & Luke, Jim, Colin, and me.
Normally in quizzes the bigger the team the better, and you want people to know about different stuff, so as to have a chance on all the questions. Colin, in his first pub quiz appearance, definitely added some new areas of knowledge to the team (for example Dr Who’s home planet is Gallifrey).
The first round is fairly easy, and we get 17 (each round is 20 questions).
The second round is slightly harder and we get 13, leaving us in fifth place on 30 points (there are nine teams)
After a strong third round (16), we had moved up to fourth on 46 points. First place is on 51 – they’ve been in the lead ever since the first round when they got 19.
Each month there is also a bonus round that is handed out at the beginning. This month it is a sheet of thirty ‘thumbnail’ size pictures of famous people (mostly actors, a few music and sport).
To me this kind of thing is very simple. 28 (!) of them are obvious, there’s just two that I spent most of the evening thinking about.
No 29 is a woman wearing pink with untidy mousey blonde hair. She’s singing. Eventually I realise that it’s Suzi Quattro.
No 21 is a young looking woman wearing a yellow rain mac. I have a couple of unlikely ideas (who seem too obscure, based on the other people), and then I decide it’s a young Jane Fonda. Colin isn’t so sure.
Reading out the answers, I have all the first 20 correct. No big surprise. No 21… is Jane Fonda. Yes! Numbers 22 through 28 are correct, and I’m pretty confident Suzi Quattro is correct. It is! Now I think I’ve got all thirty in the bag, but can’t avoid the nagging feeling that maybe I’ve made a hideous mistake somewhere…. No, I got 30!
This gets me a big cheer from everyone on the team, and many congratulations are sent my way.
The final scores are announced in reverse order. With the 30 points from the bonus round we have 76, and when fourth place is reached with a score of under 70 points it is apparent most teams didn’t do quite as well on the bonus round as we did…
Sure enough, the team that had been leading throughout finish second with 74, and we have won. This is only the second time ever (the first was a couple of years back, before I was on the team).
After the quiz, it’s home to watch the Super Bowl. Historically I’ve always been an AFC fan (I first become a fan of American Football during the NFC’s winning streak in the 80s), and Tony Dungy deserves a Super Bowl, so I’m supporting the Colts.
After the opening kickoff is returned for a Chicago TD, the first quarter is strewn with errors. In the pouring rain that’s not completely surprising.
As well as the many turnovers during the first half the Chicago secondary completely blows the coverage for a 55yd touchdown. Still, by this stage the Bears had already scored a second touchdown, from a decent drive that included a 50+ yard run, and it looks like they might make a game of it.
Sadly it’s not to be. The Indy offence is totally dominating the Chicago defense with a short passing game, and having established the pass, they are also able to run with some success. The only thing that keeps the game close is the Colts inability to convert all of their yardage into points. Several times they get into good positions but have to settle for field goal attempts. Vinatieri misses a 36 yarder (!), another is fumbled by the holder, so they enter half time only 16-14 ahead.
At half time I cook Burgers for Lucy and me, so I’ve no idea if Prince was any good.
During a third quarter in which they again dominate possession they extend the lead to 22-17. By this stage they have completely dominated in terms of both possession time and yardage, but it’s still only a one score game!
The thing is the Bears don’t look like scoring even once. In the fourth quarter Grossman has a long pass intercepted, it’s returned for a Touchdown, and that’s basically game.
Eli Manning gets MVP, which was always a dead cert. I was really impressed by Rhodes and Addai, the two Colt running backs, who both had over 100 total yards. And so that's it for another postseason (I don't have Sky Sports so I only watch Football during January).
Normally in quizzes the bigger the team the better, and you want people to know about different stuff, so as to have a chance on all the questions. Colin, in his first pub quiz appearance, definitely added some new areas of knowledge to the team (for example Dr Who’s home planet is Gallifrey).
The first round is fairly easy, and we get 17 (each round is 20 questions).
The second round is slightly harder and we get 13, leaving us in fifth place on 30 points (there are nine teams)
After a strong third round (16), we had moved up to fourth on 46 points. First place is on 51 – they’ve been in the lead ever since the first round when they got 19.
Each month there is also a bonus round that is handed out at the beginning. This month it is a sheet of thirty ‘thumbnail’ size pictures of famous people (mostly actors, a few music and sport).
To me this kind of thing is very simple. 28 (!) of them are obvious, there’s just two that I spent most of the evening thinking about.
No 29 is a woman wearing pink with untidy mousey blonde hair. She’s singing. Eventually I realise that it’s Suzi Quattro.
No 21 is a young looking woman wearing a yellow rain mac. I have a couple of unlikely ideas (who seem too obscure, based on the other people), and then I decide it’s a young Jane Fonda. Colin isn’t so sure.
Reading out the answers, I have all the first 20 correct. No big surprise. No 21… is Jane Fonda. Yes! Numbers 22 through 28 are correct, and I’m pretty confident Suzi Quattro is correct. It is! Now I think I’ve got all thirty in the bag, but can’t avoid the nagging feeling that maybe I’ve made a hideous mistake somewhere…. No, I got 30!
This gets me a big cheer from everyone on the team, and many congratulations are sent my way.
The final scores are announced in reverse order. With the 30 points from the bonus round we have 76, and when fourth place is reached with a score of under 70 points it is apparent most teams didn’t do quite as well on the bonus round as we did…
Sure enough, the team that had been leading throughout finish second with 74, and we have won. This is only the second time ever (the first was a couple of years back, before I was on the team).
After the quiz, it’s home to watch the Super Bowl. Historically I’ve always been an AFC fan (I first become a fan of American Football during the NFC’s winning streak in the 80s), and Tony Dungy deserves a Super Bowl, so I’m supporting the Colts.
After the opening kickoff is returned for a Chicago TD, the first quarter is strewn with errors. In the pouring rain that’s not completely surprising.
As well as the many turnovers during the first half the Chicago secondary completely blows the coverage for a 55yd touchdown. Still, by this stage the Bears had already scored a second touchdown, from a decent drive that included a 50+ yard run, and it looks like they might make a game of it.
Sadly it’s not to be. The Indy offence is totally dominating the Chicago defense with a short passing game, and having established the pass, they are also able to run with some success. The only thing that keeps the game close is the Colts inability to convert all of their yardage into points. Several times they get into good positions but have to settle for field goal attempts. Vinatieri misses a 36 yarder (!), another is fumbled by the holder, so they enter half time only 16-14 ahead.
At half time I cook Burgers for Lucy and me, so I’ve no idea if Prince was any good.
During a third quarter in which they again dominate possession they extend the lead to 22-17. By this stage they have completely dominated in terms of both possession time and yardage, but it’s still only a one score game!
The thing is the Bears don’t look like scoring even once. In the fourth quarter Grossman has a long pass intercepted, it’s returned for a Touchdown, and that’s basically game.
Eli Manning gets MVP, which was always a dead cert. I was really impressed by Rhodes and Addai, the two Colt running backs, who both had over 100 total yards. And so that's it for another postseason (I don't have Sky Sports so I only watch Football during January).
Monday, February 05, 2007
EVERY SINGLE BOOK I OWN!!!
This is currently a work in progress!
Created - 05/02/2007
Edited 05/03/2007 (added Science / Tech)
Sci-Fi / Fantasy
Isaac Asimov
The Early Years Vol 1 The Early Years Vol 2 The Early Years Vol 3 Buy Jupiter Nightfall The Bicentennial Man The End of Eternity The Currents of Space Earth is Room Enough The Winds of Change The Positronic Man (with Robert Silverberg) Nightfall (with Robert Silverberg) I, Robot Robot Visions The Caves of Steel The Robots of Dawn Foundation Second Foundation Foundation and Empire Foundations's Edge Foundation and Earth Forward the Foundation
Douglas Adams
The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy The Restaurant at the End of the Universe Life, the Universe and Everything So Long, and Thanks for all Fish Mostly Harmless Don't Panic: Douglas Adams & The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy (by Neil Gaiman)
Clive Barker
Weaveworld The Great and Secret Show Imajica
Greg Bear
Blood Music The Infinity Concerto Queens of Angels Slant Moving Mars Eon Eternity Darwin's Children
David Brin
Glory Season Earth Sundiver Startide Rising The Uplift War Brightness Reef Infinity's Shore Heaven's Reach Kil'n People
Arthur C Clarke
Imperial Earth Of Time and Stars Rendevous with Rama Rama II (with Gentry Lee) Garden of Rama (with Gentry Lee) Rama Revealed (with Gentry Lee)
Greg Egan
Quarantine Permutation City Axiomatic Luminous Diaspora Terenesia Schild's Ladder
Jon Courtney Grimwood - Pashazade
Peter F Hamilton
The Reality Dysfuntion The Neutron Alchemist The Naked God Fallen Dragon Pandora's Star Judas Unchained
Frank Herbert - Dune
Robin Hobb
Assassin's Apprentice Royal Assassin Assassin's Quest Ship of Magic The Mad Ship Ship of Destiny Fool's Errand Golden Fool Fool's Fate Shaman's Crossing
Daniel Keyes - Flowers for Algernon
George R R Martin
A Game of Thrones A Clash of Kings
Richard Morgan
Altered Carbon Broken Angels Market Forces Woken Furies
Alastair Reynolds
Revelation Space Chasm City Redemption Ark Absolution Gap Century Rain Galactic North
Kim Stanley Robinson
Icehenge The Wild Shore Red Mars Green Mars Blue Mars The Martians Antartica The Years of Rice and Salt
J R R Tolkien
The Hobbit The Fellowship of the Ring The Two Towers The Return of the King The Silmarillion
Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman
Dragons of Autumn Twilight Dragons of Winter Night Dragons of Spring Dawning Dragons of Summer Flame Time of The Twins War of the Twins Test of the Twins
Tad Williams
The Dragonbone Chair Stone of Farewell To Green Angel Tower: Siege To Green Angel Tower: Storm Otherland: City of Golden Shadows Otherland: River of Blue Fire Otherland: Mountain of Black Glass Otherland: Sea of Silver Light The War of the Flowers Shadowmarch
Jane Austen - Emma
Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen - Sense and Sensibility
Iain Banks - The Crow Road
Pat Barker - Regeneration
Pat Barker - The Eye in the Door
Pat Barker - The Ghost Road
Julian Barnes - Arthur & George
Louis De Bernieres - Captain Corelli's Mandolin
Umboerto Eco - The Name of The Rose
Umboerto Eco - Foucault's Pendulum
EM Forster - A Passage to India
Charles Frazier - Cold Mountain
Mark Haddon - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Jospeh Heller - Catch 22
Joseph Heller - God Knows
Joseph Heller - Closing Time
Nick Hornby - Fever Pitch
Nick Hornby - High Fidelity
Nick Hornby - About A Boy
Jack Kerouac - On The Road
TE Lawrence - Seven Pillars of Wisdom
Ursula Le Guin - Always Coming Home
David Mitchell - Cloud Altlas
William Nicholson - The Wind on Fire
Richard Dawkins - The Blind Watchmaker
Richard Dawkins - Climbing Mount Improbable
Richard Dawkins - The Ancestors Tale
Richard P Feynman - QED: The strange theory of light and matter
Richard P Feynman - The Character of Physical Law
Richard P Feynman - "Surely you're joking, Mr Feynman!"
Richard P Feynman - "What do you care what other people think?"
Richard P Feynman - Don't you have time to think?
James Gleick - Genius: Richard Feynman and modern physics
James Gleick - Chaos
John Gribbin - Science: A History 1543-2001
Brian Greene - The Elegant Universe
Stephen W Hawking - A Brief History of Time
Douglas R Hofstader - Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
Brian Penrose - The Emperor's New Mind
Brian Penrose - The Road to Reality
Steven Pinger - How The Mind Works
Karl Sigmund - Games of Life
Bruce Sterling - The Hacker Crackdown
Clifford Stoll - The Cuckoo's Egg
Created - 05/02/2007
Edited 05/03/2007 (added Science / Tech)
Sci-Fi / Fantasy
Isaac Asimov
Douglas Adams
Clive Barker
Greg Bear
David Brin
Arthur C Clarke
Greg Egan
Jon Courtney Grimwood - Pashazade
Peter F Hamilton
Frank Herbert - Dune
Robin Hobb
Daniel Keyes - Flowers for Algernon
George R R Martin
Richard Morgan
Alastair Reynolds
Kim Stanley Robinson
J R R Tolkien
Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman
Tad Williams
Other Fiction
Jane Austen - Emma
Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen - Sense and Sensibility
Iain Banks - The Crow Road
Pat Barker - Regeneration
Pat Barker - The Eye in the Door
Pat Barker - The Ghost Road
Julian Barnes - Arthur & George
Louis De Bernieres - Captain Corelli's Mandolin
Umboerto Eco - The Name of The Rose
Umboerto Eco - Foucault's Pendulum
EM Forster - A Passage to India
Charles Frazier - Cold Mountain
Mark Haddon - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Jospeh Heller - Catch 22
Joseph Heller - God Knows
Joseph Heller - Closing Time
Nick Hornby - Fever Pitch
Nick Hornby - High Fidelity
Nick Hornby - About A Boy
Jack Kerouac - On The Road
TE Lawrence - Seven Pillars of Wisdom
Ursula Le Guin - Always Coming Home
David Mitchell - Cloud Altlas
William Nicholson - The Wind on Fire
Science / Technology
Richard Dawkins - The Blind Watchmaker
Richard Dawkins - Climbing Mount Improbable
Richard Dawkins - The Ancestors Tale
Richard P Feynman - QED: The strange theory of light and matter
Richard P Feynman - The Character of Physical Law
Richard P Feynman - "Surely you're joking, Mr Feynman!"
Richard P Feynman - "What do you care what other people think?"
Richard P Feynman - Don't you have time to think?
James Gleick - Genius: Richard Feynman and modern physics
James Gleick - Chaos
John Gribbin - Science: A History 1543-2001
Brian Greene - The Elegant Universe
Stephen W Hawking - A Brief History of Time
Douglas R Hofstader - Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
Brian Penrose - The Emperor's New Mind
Brian Penrose - The Road to Reality
Steven Pinger - How The Mind Works
Karl Sigmund - Games of Life
Bruce Sterling - The Hacker Crackdown
Clifford Stoll - The Cuckoo's Egg
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Wednesday 31/01/06: Disposition at Yates
A change from the normal stuff: The last Wednesday of every month is live Metal at Yates. I’d been meaning to suggest to Matt that we go for a while, so this month we went.
Matt & I are obviously completely out of the loop when it comes to the current Metal scene – we don’t recognise any of the tracks the DJ plays (apart from Angel of Death), though Matt does at least thinks who knows who some of them are, which is a start I guess. Clearly having Scuzz as your background of choice at home isn’t enough to keep up to date.
Polonium 210
The least heavy band of the evening. I actually thought they had a pretty good grove going on, and really enjoyed the music. Shame about the awful ‘singing’ though, which dragged everything down. (Obviously a complaint that you could level at many bands in this genre: when you can achieve international success by just screaming and grunting, why would you bother learning to sing?)
After Polonium 210 I think the DJ forgot to start playing music again. So it was actually quite nice to have a conversation for a bit. As accountants are usually ‘quite’ busy in January I hadn’t seen Matt for a while, and I can’t remember the last time we went for a drink together.
Apart from the temporary lull it seems the only other place to hold a conversation is on the stairs to the toilets. I am taken aback when somebody starts a conversation just cause I’m wearing my Audioslave shirt. And on the way back down, I bump into Kerry, who seems surprised to see me. Clearly my everyday disguise of a quiet intellectual type is very convincing (actually of course, I am both quiet and intellectual).
Heterodox
An amazing development – the guy fronting this band can actually sing, and really well. A couple of times he holds long notes and he seems to have a decent range. Not so sure about the music, seemed okay, but for me this was all about the guy singing, he was great.
Sentenced to Rebirth
The headliners, and the only band of the evening I’d heard before (there’s four or five tracks on their myspace site). I’d actually quite enjoyed the tracks online, but live it just didn’t seem to work for me. Being the heaviest band of the evening didn’t do them any favours, it just sounded like a bit of a racket to me I’m afraid.
Luckily Kerry came over while STR where playing to chat to me and Matt, so the music was just (very loud) background. She actually remembers Matt from the Squadron – “the guy with crutches” (She doesn’t remember me, but then why would she?) Apart from that her and Matt have something else to talk about, because she lives in one of his old homes, so they can gossip about the neighbours from hell.
Kerry is even nice enough to buy us Sambucas. Which are pretty hideous, I discovered.
Matt & I are obviously completely out of the loop when it comes to the current Metal scene – we don’t recognise any of the tracks the DJ plays (apart from Angel of Death), though Matt does at least thinks who knows who some of them are, which is a start I guess. Clearly having Scuzz as your background of choice at home isn’t enough to keep up to date.
Polonium 210
The least heavy band of the evening. I actually thought they had a pretty good grove going on, and really enjoyed the music. Shame about the awful ‘singing’ though, which dragged everything down. (Obviously a complaint that you could level at many bands in this genre: when you can achieve international success by just screaming and grunting, why would you bother learning to sing?)
After Polonium 210 I think the DJ forgot to start playing music again. So it was actually quite nice to have a conversation for a bit. As accountants are usually ‘quite’ busy in January I hadn’t seen Matt for a while, and I can’t remember the last time we went for a drink together.
Apart from the temporary lull it seems the only other place to hold a conversation is on the stairs to the toilets. I am taken aback when somebody starts a conversation just cause I’m wearing my Audioslave shirt. And on the way back down, I bump into Kerry, who seems surprised to see me. Clearly my everyday disguise of a quiet intellectual type is very convincing (actually of course, I am both quiet and intellectual).
Heterodox
An amazing development – the guy fronting this band can actually sing, and really well. A couple of times he holds long notes and he seems to have a decent range. Not so sure about the music, seemed okay, but for me this was all about the guy singing, he was great.
Sentenced to Rebirth
The headliners, and the only band of the evening I’d heard before (there’s four or five tracks on their myspace site). I’d actually quite enjoyed the tracks online, but live it just didn’t seem to work for me. Being the heaviest band of the evening didn’t do them any favours, it just sounded like a bit of a racket to me I’m afraid.
Luckily Kerry came over while STR where playing to chat to me and Matt, so the music was just (very loud) background. She actually remembers Matt from the Squadron – “the guy with crutches” (She doesn’t remember me, but then why would she?) Apart from that her and Matt have something else to talk about, because she lives in one of his old homes, so they can gossip about the neighbours from hell.
Kerry is even nice enough to buy us Sambucas. Which are pretty hideous, I discovered.
Monday, January 29, 2007
Sunday 28/01/07: Beowulf, Acquire
Five of us were at Fiona’s this Sunday evening: me and Fee, Tony, Bekki and Colin. It seems like Colin might be joining us more regularly.
Tony had; Acquire, Ticket to Ride, Puerto Rico
I had: Elfenland, Traumfabrik, Puerto Rico, Citadels, David & Goliath, No Thanks!, Zirkus Flohati
We start by playing Beowulf (my idea). This was only our second game (Colin’s first – and he did a good job of picking it up quickly). This game I decide to Risk much less than everyone else, particularly early on, and not to compete in Auctions where I feel I am outmatched.
These strategies pay off. At the first bidding episode, where neither the rewards nor penalties are too extreme I drop without playing a card whilst everyone else bids at least four cards (though some may have been from risks). That might be okay for the person who wins, but seems bad for those who expend four cards and don’t really get much.
I also decide I can’t compete on the first serious major episode, cause I don’t have enough of the right cards. So I drop out, accepting that I’ll take the wound, without playing any cards.
I win the Gold auction for 5pts, and then get a nice bonus at the next major auction. Bekki and I are the last two players left in, but she outlasts me with some lucky risking. When she gets two matching symbols on a risk, meaning I would have to do the same, I decide it’s not worth trying. So Bekki gets first pick… and doesn’t take the 5pts! So I get 5pts for coming second.
I also win the gold auction to remove the Wound I received early on, and the All Iron Shield (and still had enough Gold for first place at Recover Treasures!) With the All Iron Shield I put up a good fight at the Dragon Battle, but again it turns into a showdown between Bekki and I (everyone else had to start risking early). I can’t afford to scratch because I have no wounds and two scratches, so she takes first.
But I am able to retain enough cards to win Death of Beowulf. I finish with 27 points, just ahead of Colin on 25 and Tony on 22. Fee and Bekki were in the teens.
After Beowulf we have enough time for another long game, so we play Acquire which Fee and Tony like, but I am lukewarm about. Anyway, I get an incredibly good start – I’m able to found chains on my first three turns.
Once all the chains have been founded there are four chains on the left hand side of the board, one in the centre, one top right and one centre right. I am strongly invested in the two on the right (I founded them both). These both start to grow, and then Festival takes over the other, giving Fiona and I a big payout. I retain my Imperial shares (so I’ll have the majority when it gets refounded) and reinvest my bonus in the central chain Continental, which gets fairly large, before it is also taken is taken over by Festival.
Given the initial chain layout, it surprising how few mergers there are on the left hand side of the board. The top left chain Luxor is eventually taken over by Festival (I founded Luxor as well, another payout for me), as Festival reaches right across the top of the board, but of the other three, two are still in play at the end of the game – American got fairly large, whilst the one chain ended the game only 3 hotels long!
The Imperial shares I retained throughout the game give me at least a couple more bonuses, and at final scoring I have 12 shares in the 41+ Festival for a score of £47,000. Colin has £37,000, Fee £35,000 and Bekki and Tony somewhere in the 20s.
After that everyone is kinda zoinked, so we don’t end with our usual wind-down filler. Bekki says she doesn’t ever want to play Acquire again – it’s really not her kind of thing, and with the downtime the game can just drag. I don’t really like it that much either.
So two long-ish five player games, two wins. That’s what I call a good evening. Pub quiz next Sunday.
Tony had; Acquire, Ticket to Ride, Puerto Rico
I had: Elfenland, Traumfabrik, Puerto Rico, Citadels, David & Goliath, No Thanks!, Zirkus Flohati
We start by playing Beowulf (my idea). This was only our second game (Colin’s first – and he did a good job of picking it up quickly). This game I decide to Risk much less than everyone else, particularly early on, and not to compete in Auctions where I feel I am outmatched.
These strategies pay off. At the first bidding episode, where neither the rewards nor penalties are too extreme I drop without playing a card whilst everyone else bids at least four cards (though some may have been from risks). That might be okay for the person who wins, but seems bad for those who expend four cards and don’t really get much.
I also decide I can’t compete on the first serious major episode, cause I don’t have enough of the right cards. So I drop out, accepting that I’ll take the wound, without playing any cards.
I win the Gold auction for 5pts, and then get a nice bonus at the next major auction. Bekki and I are the last two players left in, but she outlasts me with some lucky risking. When she gets two matching symbols on a risk, meaning I would have to do the same, I decide it’s not worth trying. So Bekki gets first pick… and doesn’t take the 5pts! So I get 5pts for coming second.
I also win the gold auction to remove the Wound I received early on, and the All Iron Shield (and still had enough Gold for first place at Recover Treasures!) With the All Iron Shield I put up a good fight at the Dragon Battle, but again it turns into a showdown between Bekki and I (everyone else had to start risking early). I can’t afford to scratch because I have no wounds and two scratches, so she takes first.
But I am able to retain enough cards to win Death of Beowulf. I finish with 27 points, just ahead of Colin on 25 and Tony on 22. Fee and Bekki were in the teens.
After Beowulf we have enough time for another long game, so we play Acquire which Fee and Tony like, but I am lukewarm about. Anyway, I get an incredibly good start – I’m able to found chains on my first three turns.
Once all the chains have been founded there are four chains on the left hand side of the board, one in the centre, one top right and one centre right. I am strongly invested in the two on the right (I founded them both). These both start to grow, and then Festival takes over the other, giving Fiona and I a big payout. I retain my Imperial shares (so I’ll have the majority when it gets refounded) and reinvest my bonus in the central chain Continental, which gets fairly large, before it is also taken is taken over by Festival.
Given the initial chain layout, it surprising how few mergers there are on the left hand side of the board. The top left chain Luxor is eventually taken over by Festival (I founded Luxor as well, another payout for me), as Festival reaches right across the top of the board, but of the other three, two are still in play at the end of the game – American got fairly large, whilst the one chain ended the game only 3 hotels long!
The Imperial shares I retained throughout the game give me at least a couple more bonuses, and at final scoring I have 12 shares in the 41+ Festival for a score of £47,000. Colin has £37,000, Fee £35,000 and Bekki and Tony somewhere in the 20s.
After that everyone is kinda zoinked, so we don’t end with our usual wind-down filler. Bekki says she doesn’t ever want to play Acquire again – it’s really not her kind of thing, and with the downtime the game can just drag. I don’t really like it that much either.
So two long-ish five player games, two wins. That’s what I call a good evening. Pub quiz next Sunday.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Sunday 21/01/07: Beowulf, Ticket to Ride, San Juan
I gave Fiona Beowulf for Christmas, and we finally got to play it this weekend. The rules explanation went fairly quickly (once everybody was paying attention), and we were into the game fairly quickly. The game went smoothly for a first game, no major hiccups, though Tony did occasionally slow things down by trying to work everything out.
The quickest way to work out the strategy in any game is just to play, and then play some more. I recently spent 4 1/2 hours playing Caylus with three slow players, only to discover that the strategy I had adopted didn't work, and to come last, just behind somebody who played badly, and a long way off the leaders. To be honest that experience has really put me off wanting to play Caylus again (though I remain hopeful for Caylus Magna Carta).
Our game of Beowulf wasn't that excessively long, about 90 minutes, probably 15-20 too many. I concentrated much more on gold than everybody else, winning several gold auctions, and having most gold at the final event. But I made a mistake in not winning the All Iron Shield, underestimating the competition at the Dragon Battle, and ended up taking the double wound tile. As I was on two wounds already, that took me way out of contention, the final scores being something like Tony 28, Bekki and Fee both low 20s, and I think I scored exactly zero.
Beowulf is one of those games were the scores don't always tell the entire story, usually due to some criticality in the scoring system. In the case of Beowulf one possibility is what occured to me: the two wounds I had coming into the Dragon Battle won't cost me any points, but if I take the double wound tile then I get -20! So I either get a respectable score in the 20s, or a nothing score that puts me last.
I'm pretty certain I had the worse luck in the risking (at one point one of the girls flipped over two matching double symbol cards to give +4 to their bid!), but to be honest that didn't bother me too much. Firstly I feel the luck is acceptable for a light-ish 60 minute game. And secondly I feel that one of the reasons Beowulf gets bad rap for the luck is because it's out in the open. I find that games like Amun-Re and Goa can have huge swings in drawing the right power cards, at the right time, but because the draws are hidden nobody knows when somebody gets lucky.
After Beowulf we play Ticket to Ride. I got Tony the 1910 expansion for Christmas, and it's really invigorated the game. The improved tickets and the 15 point most routes bonus really help remove the complete dominance of the long E-W routes.
Having said that my three opening tickets are LA - New Orleans, Las Vegas - New York and Portland - Houston (I might have mixed these up, but you get the idea). Three East cost to West Coast tickets! So I keep all three and set to work connecting LA-Vegas-Portland, and Houston-New Orleans-New York, and then trying to get across the country.
I had planned to take the southcoast between LA and Houston (thanks to TTR I think of it as a coast despite the existence of Mexico) but these routes get taken, so I have to go through the centre of the country from Vegas. This game actually demonstrated how easy it is to make you routes in four player TTR even when it gets congested. At one point Fee, Tony and I were both trying to navigate through the cities just north of Houston and Dallas, and in the late game Fee, Bekki and I were all going down the East Coast. In both cases thanks to the many alternative and double routes everybody got were they needed to go, despite the congestion.
Still, if I'd not made my cross-country connection I'd have failed all of my tickets for -50 points and my second score of almost zero for the evening!
The quickest way to work out the strategy in any game is just to play, and then play some more. I recently spent 4 1/2 hours playing Caylus with three slow players, only to discover that the strategy I had adopted didn't work, and to come last, just behind somebody who played badly, and a long way off the leaders. To be honest that experience has really put me off wanting to play Caylus again (though I remain hopeful for Caylus Magna Carta).
Our game of Beowulf wasn't that excessively long, about 90 minutes, probably 15-20 too many. I concentrated much more on gold than everybody else, winning several gold auctions, and having most gold at the final event. But I made a mistake in not winning the All Iron Shield, underestimating the competition at the Dragon Battle, and ended up taking the double wound tile. As I was on two wounds already, that took me way out of contention, the final scores being something like Tony 28, Bekki and Fee both low 20s, and I think I scored exactly zero.
Beowulf is one of those games were the scores don't always tell the entire story, usually due to some criticality in the scoring system. In the case of Beowulf one possibility is what occured to me: the two wounds I had coming into the Dragon Battle won't cost me any points, but if I take the double wound tile then I get -20! So I either get a respectable score in the 20s, or a nothing score that puts me last.
I'm pretty certain I had the worse luck in the risking (at one point one of the girls flipped over two matching double symbol cards to give +4 to their bid!), but to be honest that didn't bother me too much. Firstly I feel the luck is acceptable for a light-ish 60 minute game. And secondly I feel that one of the reasons Beowulf gets bad rap for the luck is because it's out in the open. I find that games like Amun-Re and Goa can have huge swings in drawing the right power cards, at the right time, but because the draws are hidden nobody knows when somebody gets lucky.
After Beowulf we play Ticket to Ride. I got Tony the 1910 expansion for Christmas, and it's really invigorated the game. The improved tickets and the 15 point most routes bonus really help remove the complete dominance of the long E-W routes.
Having said that my three opening tickets are LA - New Orleans, Las Vegas - New York and Portland - Houston (I might have mixed these up, but you get the idea). Three East cost to West Coast tickets! So I keep all three and set to work connecting LA-Vegas-Portland, and Houston-New Orleans-New York, and then trying to get across the country.
I had planned to take the southcoast between LA and Houston (thanks to TTR I think of it as a coast despite the existence of Mexico) but these routes get taken, so I have to go through the centre of the country from Vegas. This game actually demonstrated how easy it is to make you routes in four player TTR even when it gets congested. At one point Fee, Tony and I were both trying to navigate through the cities just north of Houston and Dallas, and in the late game Fee, Bekki and I were all going down the East Coast. In both cases thanks to the many alternative and double routes everybody got were they needed to go, despite the congestion.
Still, if I'd not made my cross-country connection I'd have failed all of my tickets for -50 points and my second score of almost zero for the evening!
Instead I complete my three tickets for fifty bonus points and second place. Tony has completed four tickets, which included a couple of long ones to win by some way. Bekki and Fee also had four tickets to also earn the 15 points, but their tickets were of much lower value.
We finshed with a four player game of San Juan. I used to find this very average four player, but it's growing on me. You have to value points over income much more than in three or two player. In particular I'd always be very loathe to ditch a monument, even very early. I build a first turn Prefecture, then Gold Mine and Silver, and that basically all the income you need. After that I build a couple of monuments and a City Hall and still have Triumphal Arch in hand. So the game is basically mine: Tony has raced out with Poor House, but doesn't have many points or a Crane, and Fee and Bekki have merely average positions. I get a late Palace off my Gold Mine to make the scores look really lopsided, but I didn't need it. The 9 point palace just stopped me building a 6 point Victory Column.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Erratic Explosion Domain
Extended deck
When I went to Gencon during autumn 2005 it was in the middle of an extended PTQ season. As I prefer playing MTG to VS I built a couple of decks to play over the 4 days. One was a slightly unusual Madness build (Thought Courier over Aquameba, Rushing River for bounce, and a couple of unusual tech cards), the other was a Domain deck.
Not owning any Fetchlands or Dual lands my Domain deck had a budget feel [aside: this was exagerated when I got a warning for marked sleeves during the PTQ. So anybody watching the top table would have seen that on turn three all I had in play was three different unsleeved basic lands - what a Noob!]
I owned the Deeds and Restraints and all that kind of stuff, but had to scrape around, borrowing several of my win conditions, and decided on both using Living Wish, and running an Erratic Explosion / Draco kill. (The following deck was untested and based on my underpowered collection: both the maindeck numbers and the sideboard cards could be improved)
9 Forests
5 Island
2 Swamps
1 Mountain
1 Plains (18 land)
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
3 Etched Oracle
1 Bringer of the Black Dawn
1 Draco (9 creatures)
4 Collective Restraint
3 Pernicious Deed
1 Holistic Wisdom (8 enchantments)
4 Lay of the Land
3 Rampant Growth
3 Living Wish
1 Erratic Explosion
1 Tribal Flames
1 Cranial Extraction
1 Allied Strategies
1 Wandering Stream (15 sorceries)
3 Evasive Action
3 Wordly Counsel
2 Insidious Dreams
2 Putrefy (8 instants)
SB: 1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Blinkmoth Well
1 Silklash Spider
1 Meloku, The Clouded Mirror
1 Llawan, Cephalid Empress
1 Loxodon Heirarch
1 Meddling Mage
2 Destructive Flow
2 Lobotomy
1 Putrefy
1 Wandering Stream
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Ground Seal
This deck won me an eight man GPT, and got me a top 8 of a PTQ. And it was a lot of fun running one of those rogue decks that you hear players talking about between rounds. My third round PTQ opponent, as we chatted whilst shuffling for game one, mentioned that somebody was chucking was chucking Draco at people. I didn't tell him it was me. :)
When I went to Gencon during autumn 2005 it was in the middle of an extended PTQ season. As I prefer playing MTG to VS I built a couple of decks to play over the 4 days. One was a slightly unusual Madness build (Thought Courier over Aquameba, Rushing River for bounce, and a couple of unusual tech cards), the other was a Domain deck.
Not owning any Fetchlands or Dual lands my Domain deck had a budget feel [aside: this was exagerated when I got a warning for marked sleeves during the PTQ. So anybody watching the top table would have seen that on turn three all I had in play was three different unsleeved basic lands - what a Noob!]
I owned the Deeds and Restraints and all that kind of stuff, but had to scrape around, borrowing several of my win conditions, and decided on both using Living Wish, and running an Erratic Explosion / Draco kill. (The following deck was untested and based on my underpowered collection: both the maindeck numbers and the sideboard cards could be improved)
9 Forests
5 Island
2 Swamps
1 Mountain
1 Plains (18 land)
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
3 Etched Oracle
1 Bringer of the Black Dawn
1 Draco (9 creatures)
4 Collective Restraint
3 Pernicious Deed
1 Holistic Wisdom (8 enchantments)
4 Lay of the Land
3 Rampant Growth
3 Living Wish
1 Erratic Explosion
1 Tribal Flames
1 Cranial Extraction
1 Allied Strategies
1 Wandering Stream (15 sorceries)
3 Evasive Action
3 Wordly Counsel
2 Insidious Dreams
2 Putrefy (8 instants)
SB: 1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Blinkmoth Well
1 Silklash Spider
1 Meloku, The Clouded Mirror
1 Llawan, Cephalid Empress
1 Loxodon Heirarch
1 Meddling Mage
2 Destructive Flow
2 Lobotomy
1 Putrefy
1 Wandering Stream
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Ground Seal
This deck won me an eight man GPT, and got me a top 8 of a PTQ. And it was a lot of fun running one of those rogue decks that you hear players talking about between rounds. My third round PTQ opponent, as we chatted whilst shuffling for game one, mentioned that somebody was chucking was chucking Draco at people. I didn't tell him it was me. :)
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
G/R Anti-Affinity
Mirrodin/Kamigawa standard deck
In the last few years the only local tournaments I've attended have been pre-releases for the release of a new block and county championships. As I'm not exactly keeping up with recent releases building standard decks for the county champs hasn't always been easy.
This deck, mainly comprised of commons and uncommons was able to take me to a Top 8. The plan was to beat Affinity decks, and I defeated three in the swiss rounds. If only I'd kept playing the Affinity decks (there were four in the top 8, and the final was an Affinity mirror match) I could have been County Champ!
4 Hearth Kami
4 Tel-Jilad Chosen
4 Viridian Shaman
4 Orcish Artillery
4 Vulshok Sorceror
1 Glissa Sunseeker
1 Arc-Slogger
1 Molder Slug
1 Kumano
4 Shock
4 Electrostatic Bolt
4 Volcanic Hammer
1 Pulse of the Forge
11 Mountains
7 Forests
2 Shivan Oasis
3 City of Brass
In the last few years the only local tournaments I've attended have been pre-releases for the release of a new block and county championships. As I'm not exactly keeping up with recent releases building standard decks for the county champs hasn't always been easy.
This deck, mainly comprised of commons and uncommons was able to take me to a Top 8. The plan was to beat Affinity decks, and I defeated three in the swiss rounds. If only I'd kept playing the Affinity decks (there were four in the top 8, and the final was an Affinity mirror match) I could have been County Champ!
4 Hearth Kami
4 Tel-Jilad Chosen
4 Viridian Shaman
4 Orcish Artillery
4 Vulshok Sorceror
1 Glissa Sunseeker
1 Arc-Slogger
1 Molder Slug
1 Kumano
4 Shock
4 Electrostatic Bolt
4 Volcanic Hammer
1 Pulse of the Forge
11 Mountains
7 Forests
2 Shivan Oasis
3 City of Brass
Sunday, November 19, 2006
U/G/R Threshold
Invasion/Odyssey standard
This was a deck that I played in a tournament for fun. It's not the worlds best deck, but it does have Millikin in it :)
4 Werebear
4 Millikin
3 Call of the Herd
4 Flametongue Kavu
4 Centaur Chieftain
4 Beast Attack
4 Lay of The Land
4 Chromatic Sphere
4 Fire / Ice
4 Aether Burst
4 Fact or Fiction
10 Forest
2 Islands
2 Mountains
3 City of Brass
This was a deck that I played in a tournament for fun. It's not the worlds best deck, but it does have Millikin in it :)
4 Werebear
4 Millikin
3 Call of the Herd
4 Flametongue Kavu
4 Centaur Chieftain
4 Beast Attack
4 Lay of The Land
4 Chromatic Sphere
4 Fire / Ice
4 Aether Burst
4 Fact or Fiction
10 Forest
2 Islands
2 Mountains
3 City of Brass
U/B Upheval / Zombie Infestation
Invasion/Odyssey standard deck
The release of Odyssey was an odd time for Type 2 (standard). The American States championships would normally showcase all of the top new decks, but that year there was a Standard Masters event at the next Pro Tour, so all of the top pro teams were keeping back their best decks.
One of the decks that did break out from States was the combination of Zombie Infestation and Upheval. This is the version I played to a couple of tournaments. It was stupid good against control decks - by running Counterspell, Memory Lapse and Disrupt, you always won counter wars, and I managed to find room for main deck Mana Shorts!
4 Opt
3 Sleight of Hand
2 Disrupt
4 Counterspell
4 Memory Lapse
4 Fire / Ice
4 Repulse
2 Exclude
2 Mana Short
4 Fact or Fiction
3 Upheval
3 Zombie Infestation
3 Underground River
4 Shivan Reef
2 Shadowblood Ridge
10 Islands
2 Ancient Spring
At the San Diego Masters all the pros showed us we should have been playing Psychatog in our U/B decks, not Zombie Infestation, oops!
It was during the Odyssey block that my Magic playing really slowed down. By the time I decided to play Infestation / Upheval at a Odyssey Block constructed Pro Tour qualifier at Gencon I hadn't played for six months. Despite no playtesting I was in contention for the Top 8 until the penultimate round, when I dropped at 4-2-1, my final loss comming from a game loss rules infraction in game 3 against Bob Maher in a dead drawn position (we'd almost gone to time). I don't know if I'd have been in with a shot of making the top 8 at 4-1-2.
The release of Odyssey was an odd time for Type 2 (standard). The American States championships would normally showcase all of the top new decks, but that year there was a Standard Masters event at the next Pro Tour, so all of the top pro teams were keeping back their best decks.
One of the decks that did break out from States was the combination of Zombie Infestation and Upheval. This is the version I played to a couple of tournaments. It was stupid good against control decks - by running Counterspell, Memory Lapse and Disrupt, you always won counter wars, and I managed to find room for main deck Mana Shorts!
4 Opt
3 Sleight of Hand
2 Disrupt
4 Counterspell
4 Memory Lapse
4 Fire / Ice
4 Repulse
2 Exclude
2 Mana Short
4 Fact or Fiction
3 Upheval
3 Zombie Infestation
3 Underground River
4 Shivan Reef
2 Shadowblood Ridge
10 Islands
2 Ancient Spring
At the San Diego Masters all the pros showed us we should have been playing Psychatog in our U/B decks, not Zombie Infestation, oops!
It was during the Odyssey block that my Magic playing really slowed down. By the time I decided to play Infestation / Upheval at a Odyssey Block constructed Pro Tour qualifier at Gencon I hadn't played for six months. Despite no playtesting I was in contention for the Top 8 until the penultimate round, when I dropped at 4-2-1, my final loss comming from a game loss rules infraction in game 3 against Bob Maher in a dead drawn position (we'd almost gone to time). I don't know if I'd have been in with a shot of making the top 8 at 4-1-2.
U/G Control
Invasion/Odyssey standard
The months just after a block rotation have always been my most succesful periods. I wasn't the best player locally (that was Tony Adams), but I wasn't far off, and I was probably the best deck-builder, so before all the 'best decks' were found and readily available on the web I could win with my own decks.
U/G control was born of a realisation that Beast Attack was incredibly strong in a draw-go control build. This deck has loads of card advantadge (Fact of Fiction, Mystic Snake, Beast Attack), ways to fight against Call of the Herd (Repulse, Syncopate, Disrupt), and a very strong late game from Holistic Wisdom and Bearscape. It won a couple of tournaments.
4 Mystic Snake
4 Opt
3 Disrupt
4 Counterspell
4 Fire / Ice
2 Syncopate
4 Repulse
3 Exclude
4 Fact or Fiction
3 Beast Attack
1 Holistic Wisdom
1 Bearscape
1 Tsabo's Web
4 Yavamaya Coast
10 Islands
4 Forests
2 Mossfire Valley
3 Karplusian Forest
The months just after a block rotation have always been my most succesful periods. I wasn't the best player locally (that was Tony Adams), but I wasn't far off, and I was probably the best deck-builder, so before all the 'best decks' were found and readily available on the web I could win with my own decks.
U/G control was born of a realisation that Beast Attack was incredibly strong in a draw-go control build. This deck has loads of card advantadge (Fact of Fiction, Mystic Snake, Beast Attack), ways to fight against Call of the Herd (Repulse, Syncopate, Disrupt), and a very strong late game from Holistic Wisdom and Bearscape. It won a couple of tournaments.
4 Mystic Snake
4 Opt
3 Disrupt
4 Counterspell
4 Fire / Ice
2 Syncopate
4 Repulse
3 Exclude
4 Fact or Fiction
3 Beast Attack
1 Holistic Wisdom
1 Bearscape
1 Tsabo's Web
4 Yavamaya Coast
10 Islands
4 Forests
2 Mossfire Valley
3 Karplusian Forest
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Mono-B Suicide Black
Masques/Invasion deck
This deck evolved from the Big Black deck, over many months. It took a lot of tinkering to make a mono-black deck that worked in the environment at the time - able to fight againt both Fires and Rebels, but this deck had it. Unfortunately I wasn't able to attend Nationals Qualifiers with this deck (I was Best Man at a wedding that weekend), I would have fancied my chances.
4 Foul Imp
2 Nakaya Shade
4 Plague Spitter
4 Chimeric Idol
4 Phyrexian Scuta
4 Engineered Plague
4 Snuff Out
4 Tangle Wire
3 Despoil
4 Dark Ritual
4 Peat Bog
4 Rishadan Port
1 Dust Bowl
14 Swamps
This deck evolved from the Big Black deck, over many months. It took a lot of tinkering to make a mono-black deck that worked in the environment at the time - able to fight againt both Fires and Rebels, but this deck had it. Unfortunately I wasn't able to attend Nationals Qualifiers with this deck (I was Best Man at a wedding that weekend), I would have fancied my chances.
4 Foul Imp
2 Nakaya Shade
4 Plague Spitter
4 Chimeric Idol
4 Phyrexian Scuta
4 Engineered Plague
4 Snuff Out
4 Tangle Wire
3 Despoil
4 Dark Ritual
4 Peat Bog
4 Rishadan Port
1 Dust Bowl
14 Swamps
Mono-B "Big Black"
Urza's/Masques standard deck
Another more casual deck that went 4-0 (8-0 games) in a small tournament I ran. This was inspired by a Dave Price Masques block deck.
4 Chimeric Idol
4 Complex Automaton
4 Thrashing Wumpus
2 Masticore
2 Cateran Enforcer
4 Rain of Tears
4 Befoul
4 Snuff Out
4 Vendetta
4 Dark Ritual
12 Swamps
4 Peat Bog
4 Crystal Vein
4 Rishadan Port
Another more casual deck that went 4-0 (8-0 games) in a small tournament I ran. This was inspired by a Dave Price Masques block deck.
4 Chimeric Idol
4 Complex Automaton
4 Thrashing Wumpus
2 Masticore
2 Cateran Enforcer
4 Rain of Tears
4 Befoul
4 Snuff Out
4 Vendetta
4 Dark Ritual
12 Swamps
4 Peat Bog
4 Crystal Vein
4 Rishadan Port
Mono-R 20/21/20 RDW
Masques/Invasion standard deck
This isn't such a serious deck - I threw it together inspired by various Dave Price / Dan Paskins red decks. When I needed a deck to play in a small tournament (unsanctioned or three judge, I can't remember) that I was running I decided to play this. My best deck at the time was Counter-Rebels, but there's no way I'm playing that in a tournament I'm running - it's one of the slowest decks ever.
This deck went 4-0, not losing a game. The transformational LD sideboard (4 Stone Rain, 4 Pillage, 4 Tangle Wire) was pretty effective.
4 Kris Mage
4 Raging Goblin
4 Goblin Raider
2 Firebrand Ranger
2 Rage Weaver
4 Orcish Artillery
4 Shock
4 Seal of Fire
4 Volcanic Hammer
4 Scorching Lava
4 Rhystic Lightning
1 Urza's Rage
16 Mountain
3 Rishadan Port
1 Kelden Necropolis
This isn't such a serious deck - I threw it together inspired by various Dave Price / Dan Paskins red decks. When I needed a deck to play in a small tournament (unsanctioned or three judge, I can't remember) that I was running I decided to play this. My best deck at the time was Counter-Rebels, but there's no way I'm playing that in a tournament I'm running - it's one of the slowest decks ever.
This deck went 4-0, not losing a game. The transformational LD sideboard (4 Stone Rain, 4 Pillage, 4 Tangle Wire) was pretty effective.
4 Kris Mage
4 Raging Goblin
4 Goblin Raider
2 Firebrand Ranger
2 Rage Weaver
4 Orcish Artillery
4 Shock
4 Seal of Fire
4 Volcanic Hammer
4 Scorching Lava
4 Rhystic Lightning
1 Urza's Rage
16 Mountain
3 Rishadan Port
1 Kelden Necropolis
Mono-W "Grizzly" Rebels
Urza's/Masques standard deck
I didn't come up for the idea for this deck - it broke out from one of the early european nationals that summer, but it quickly became one of my favourite decks - it's ideal for my preferred aggro/utility style of play.
4 Mother of Runes
4 Ramosian Sergeant
3 Steadfast Guards
2 Fresh Volunteers
4 Longbow Archers
1 Ramosian Lieutenant
1 Defiant Falcon
2 Lin Sivvi
1 Thermal Glider
4 Crusade
2 Seal of Cleansing
4 Parralax Wave
3 Reverent Mantra
2 Arrmageddon
19 Plains
4 Rishadan Port
The high rare count reflects the fact that this was the most serious period of my magic career (I also had a set of Tangle Wires), but Rebels makes a pretty good budget deck. Replace Lin Sivvi with Defiant Vanguard or Nightwind Glider, and replace Crusade and Reverent Mantra with some mix of Ramosian Rally, Cho-Manno's Blessing and Brilliant Halo. Defender en-Vec replaces Parallax Wave (funniest use of Defender en-Vec: preventing damage to your opponents Academy Rector). There's obviously no direct replacement for Armageddon though, and you have to do without Ports, but it's still an okay deck.
I didn't come up for the idea for this deck - it broke out from one of the early european nationals that summer, but it quickly became one of my favourite decks - it's ideal for my preferred aggro/utility style of play.
4 Mother of Runes
4 Ramosian Sergeant
3 Steadfast Guards
2 Fresh Volunteers
4 Longbow Archers
1 Ramosian Lieutenant
1 Defiant Falcon
2 Lin Sivvi
1 Thermal Glider
4 Crusade
2 Seal of Cleansing
4 Parralax Wave
3 Reverent Mantra
2 Arrmageddon
19 Plains
4 Rishadan Port
The high rare count reflects the fact that this was the most serious period of my magic career (I also had a set of Tangle Wires), but Rebels makes a pretty good budget deck. Replace Lin Sivvi with Defiant Vanguard or Nightwind Glider, and replace Crusade and Reverent Mantra with some mix of Ramosian Rally, Cho-Manno's Blessing and Brilliant Halo. Defender en-Vec replaces Parallax Wave (funniest use of Defender en-Vec: preventing damage to your opponents Academy Rector). There's obviously no direct replacement for Armageddon though, and you have to do without Ports, but it's still an okay deck.
Mono-G Aggro Enchantress
Urza/Masques standard deck
The release of Mercadian Masques saw the printing of Ancestral Mask, a creature enchantment that gave the enchanted creature +2/+2 for each other enchantment you controlled. With Yavamaya Enchantress and Rancor, this was the basis of a pretty good budget aggro deck that I played for a while.
I've always called this 'aggro enchantress' to seperate it from traditional enchantress decks, which were based around drawing loads of cards and 'going off'. This deck was always about attacking the opponent until they were dead. During the first couple of tournaments I didn't even play Argothian Enchantress!
But by the time of the Nationals Qualifier in Poole I had traded for them. This is the deck that went 4-1-1 beating Squirrel-Opposition, Ponza, Replenish and Accelerated Blue to qualify me for Nationals.
4 Llanowar Elves
3 Elvish Lyrist
4 Argothian Enchantress
4 River Boa
4 Yavamaya Enchantress
2 Uktabi Orangutan
1 Masticore
4 Wild Growth
4 Rancor
4 Treetop Bracer4
4 Ancestral Mask
1 Wordly Tutor
2 Creeping Mold
15 Forest
3 Treetop Village
The release of Mercadian Masques saw the printing of Ancestral Mask, a creature enchantment that gave the enchanted creature +2/+2 for each other enchantment you controlled. With Yavamaya Enchantress and Rancor, this was the basis of a pretty good budget aggro deck that I played for a while.
I've always called this 'aggro enchantress' to seperate it from traditional enchantress decks, which were based around drawing loads of cards and 'going off'. This deck was always about attacking the opponent until they were dead. During the first couple of tournaments I didn't even play Argothian Enchantress!
But by the time of the Nationals Qualifier in Poole I had traded for them. This is the deck that went 4-1-1 beating Squirrel-Opposition, Ponza, Replenish and Accelerated Blue to qualify me for Nationals.
4 Llanowar Elves
3 Elvish Lyrist
4 Argothian Enchantress
4 River Boa
4 Yavamaya Enchantress
2 Uktabi Orangutan
1 Masticore
4 Wild Growth
4 Rancor
4 Treetop Bracer4
4 Ancestral Mask
1 Wordly Tutor
2 Creeping Mold
15 Forest
3 Treetop Village
G/R Sliver Beatdown
Tempest/Urza standard deck
This was the first deck I designed myself and played in tournaments after I left university. It's an agrro deck with plenty of utility (for example playing Mogg Fanatic and Elvish Lyrist over Jackal Pup) - basically the kind of deck that I've always preferred.
4 Mogg Fanatic
3 Elvish Lyrist
4 Muscle Sliver
4 Spined Sliver
4 River Boa
3 Mogg Flunkies
3 Uktabi Orangutan
4 Shock
3 Giant Growth
3 Rancor
4 Incinerate
2 Sonic Burst
4 Karplusian Forest
8 Mountains
9 Forests
This was the first deck I designed myself and played in tournaments after I left university. It's an agrro deck with plenty of utility (for example playing Mogg Fanatic and Elvish Lyrist over Jackal Pup) - basically the kind of deck that I've always preferred.
4 Mogg Fanatic
3 Elvish Lyrist
4 Muscle Sliver
4 Spined Sliver
4 River Boa
3 Mogg Flunkies
3 Uktabi Orangutan
4 Shock
3 Giant Growth
3 Rancor
4 Incinerate
2 Sonic Burst
4 Karplusian Forest
8 Mountains
9 Forests
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Sunday 20/08/06: San Juan, Domaine, Dalmuti
Everybody seemed mighty relieved at the prospect of actually getting some games in on a Sunday evening. Or maybe shocked :)
Marleena, Fee and me started with a quick game of San Juan before Tony arrived. Marleena picked up the rules pretty quickly – it’s the strategies that take time to master. I got a decent Guild Hall bonus, and was able to win fairly comfortably.
When Tony arrives we start a four player game, so Marlena can play again. This game is a bit silly. Marleena built a Gold Mine towards the end of the previous game, but it didn’t work on the remaining three Prospectors. In this game I build one on the second turn, and it works on the first three Prospectors!! This gives me a huge advantage, and I go on to draw into a Smithy & Guild Hall combo as well. Fiona has a decent violet position as well at the game end, with a set of monuments, but it looks to me like I’ve won, particularly as I closed the game out quite quickly (including a zero cost Indigo build as governor when nobody else could build). The scores were close, 34 to 31.
Tony has one of those games where he doesn’t do anything particularly wrong, but he just couldn’t find anything that would give him sufficient points – Marlena and I had the Guild Halls, Fee had one of the City Halls and I held the other in hand for most of the second half of the game. He didn’t do well on monuments either. Combine this with the fact he began in the fourth seat, and he got to see why I don’t rate four-player as highly as two or three player.
After San Juan we play Domaine. Domaine is a game we played a few times earlier in the year, and we haven’t played it since. It seems like if I don’t bring it Fee asks why I didn’t bring “that knights and castles game” and when I do bring it we don’t play.
We are seated as follows: Tony, Marleena, Fiona, me. We follow the rule in the rulebook which says oldest player begins (though this is stupid as it means Tony always begins – need to remember to do something different next time), and Tony, Marleena and Fee are all able to place their castles by mines in three of the corners of the board. The fourth corner doesn’t have a mine, so I go for a mine adjacent to Marleena’s, with the idea being that I can enclose my castle using some of the walls she plays.
The second round of Castle placing sees Tony and Fee try to claim more mines, whilst Marleena makes the first move to claiming the City with a very central castle, whilst I place mine just off to one side of the city (in what would turn out to a very good position – not sure if this was luck or good judgement).
After the final round of castle placing, I begin the game [we had a discussion afterwards about whether the opening order is properly balanced – it seems to favour the player in Tony’s seat who gets to place castles first and play second].
As always the game begins with everybody making small Domaines containing mines, and expanding to gain adjacent mines. Tony rapidly gets an advantage in income, Fee is also doing well, whilst Marleena and I both spend some time playing Knights in adjacent Domaines.
This side of the board rapidly becomes very crowded. Marleena has the Domaine in one corner, with mine adjacent. Tony is in the opposite corner and Fee is between him and me. Marleena and I have both been playing Knights – she wants to expand into my Domaine, whilst I want to defend my early mine. I am able to claim a second mine (mainly because I get to it before Fee does), before losing my first to Marleena. Meanwhile Tony is expanding into Fee’s Domaine. After I get hit by a traitor card it’s obvious to me that my Domaine isn’t sustainable in the long term, and I start working on plan B.
The alternative plan is this: I have a Castle on side of the board nearest me, and it is the only Castle on that side. All of the Castle on the nearby edges have already formed Domaines. Therefore there is a possibility of making this into a very large Domaine.
This is a plan I have been working towards ever since forming my first Domaine on the congested side of the board. This began expanding towards the centre of the board, both claiming useful squares and placing boundary stones that will help to enclose my other Castle. I even put a couple of boundary stones in the middle of the board early on, in what appeared at the time to everybody else to be a random move. When my expanding Domaine meets up with these Walls, and a few turns later I complete a large Domaine worth about 10-15 points it doesn’t seem so random any more.
As nobody else has completed a Domaine so near the centre of the board, I am then able to expand into the Capital City. This sees me near the winning margin for a couple of turns, but it’s clear this isn’t sustainable – everybody has more knights than me.
Tony has spent the entire game with the best income, and also has some strong Domaines. Marleena has had good income, and managed to achieve a monopoly. I had very weak income most of the game, until I scored that large Domaine, which also gave me good points. Fee has had a bad position most of the game, she never had great income, got squashed between Marleena’s and Tony’s strong Domaines, and spent most of the game unable to really do anything. This can happen in four player games, where each player only has three Castles.
I lose some of my large gains to Fee, but an alliance card prevents Marlena from taking the City off me. I make a mistake on the final turn, selling an Alliance card for money, when I could have protected a couple of Forests from Tony. The money was irrelevant, as Tony and Marleena both have way more than me, although it made no difference to the final outcome.
Tony’get the bonus points for being the richest at game and wins the game, Marleena bonus for also being the richest isn’t enough for her to catch me, so she finishes third. Fee finishes in last place.
Domaine definitely works better with three than four (this is the opposite to T&E in my opinion). I haven’t yet tried it with two.
We concluded with a few hands of The Great Dalmuti. We play with the 11s & 12s removed as there was only four of us. There’s only time for three hands before I have to leave, mainly because we have two Great Revolutions, which delay matters somewhat. Dalmuti is a fun filler, but it seems like I have an unfair advantage, cause I’m card counting, and I don’t think the others are (or not as much as I am – surely everybody remembers basic things like if the Dalmuti has been played). In each of the three hands I retain or improve my position, which is as much as you can ask for in a game of Dalmuti (I was Dalmuti when the second greater revolution occurred).
After this weekend, it's re-enactment events for the next two. Argghhh! I'll be glad when it's winter and we can game every weekend.
Marleena, Fee and me started with a quick game of San Juan before Tony arrived. Marleena picked up the rules pretty quickly – it’s the strategies that take time to master. I got a decent Guild Hall bonus, and was able to win fairly comfortably.
When Tony arrives we start a four player game, so Marlena can play again. This game is a bit silly. Marleena built a Gold Mine towards the end of the previous game, but it didn’t work on the remaining three Prospectors. In this game I build one on the second turn, and it works on the first three Prospectors!! This gives me a huge advantage, and I go on to draw into a Smithy & Guild Hall combo as well. Fiona has a decent violet position as well at the game end, with a set of monuments, but it looks to me like I’ve won, particularly as I closed the game out quite quickly (including a zero cost Indigo build as governor when nobody else could build). The scores were close, 34 to 31.
Tony has one of those games where he doesn’t do anything particularly wrong, but he just couldn’t find anything that would give him sufficient points – Marlena and I had the Guild Halls, Fee had one of the City Halls and I held the other in hand for most of the second half of the game. He didn’t do well on monuments either. Combine this with the fact he began in the fourth seat, and he got to see why I don’t rate four-player as highly as two or three player.
After San Juan we play Domaine. Domaine is a game we played a few times earlier in the year, and we haven’t played it since. It seems like if I don’t bring it Fee asks why I didn’t bring “that knights and castles game” and when I do bring it we don’t play.
We are seated as follows: Tony, Marleena, Fiona, me. We follow the rule in the rulebook which says oldest player begins (though this is stupid as it means Tony always begins – need to remember to do something different next time), and Tony, Marleena and Fee are all able to place their castles by mines in three of the corners of the board. The fourth corner doesn’t have a mine, so I go for a mine adjacent to Marleena’s, with the idea being that I can enclose my castle using some of the walls she plays.
The second round of Castle placing sees Tony and Fee try to claim more mines, whilst Marleena makes the first move to claiming the City with a very central castle, whilst I place mine just off to one side of the city (in what would turn out to a very good position – not sure if this was luck or good judgement).
After the final round of castle placing, I begin the game [we had a discussion afterwards about whether the opening order is properly balanced – it seems to favour the player in Tony’s seat who gets to place castles first and play second].
As always the game begins with everybody making small Domaines containing mines, and expanding to gain adjacent mines. Tony rapidly gets an advantage in income, Fee is also doing well, whilst Marleena and I both spend some time playing Knights in adjacent Domaines.
This side of the board rapidly becomes very crowded. Marleena has the Domaine in one corner, with mine adjacent. Tony is in the opposite corner and Fee is between him and me. Marleena and I have both been playing Knights – she wants to expand into my Domaine, whilst I want to defend my early mine. I am able to claim a second mine (mainly because I get to it before Fee does), before losing my first to Marleena. Meanwhile Tony is expanding into Fee’s Domaine. After I get hit by a traitor card it’s obvious to me that my Domaine isn’t sustainable in the long term, and I start working on plan B.
The alternative plan is this: I have a Castle on side of the board nearest me, and it is the only Castle on that side. All of the Castle on the nearby edges have already formed Domaines. Therefore there is a possibility of making this into a very large Domaine.
This is a plan I have been working towards ever since forming my first Domaine on the congested side of the board. This began expanding towards the centre of the board, both claiming useful squares and placing boundary stones that will help to enclose my other Castle. I even put a couple of boundary stones in the middle of the board early on, in what appeared at the time to everybody else to be a random move. When my expanding Domaine meets up with these Walls, and a few turns later I complete a large Domaine worth about 10-15 points it doesn’t seem so random any more.
As nobody else has completed a Domaine so near the centre of the board, I am then able to expand into the Capital City. This sees me near the winning margin for a couple of turns, but it’s clear this isn’t sustainable – everybody has more knights than me.
Tony has spent the entire game with the best income, and also has some strong Domaines. Marleena has had good income, and managed to achieve a monopoly. I had very weak income most of the game, until I scored that large Domaine, which also gave me good points. Fee has had a bad position most of the game, she never had great income, got squashed between Marleena’s and Tony’s strong Domaines, and spent most of the game unable to really do anything. This can happen in four player games, where each player only has three Castles.
I lose some of my large gains to Fee, but an alliance card prevents Marlena from taking the City off me. I make a mistake on the final turn, selling an Alliance card for money, when I could have protected a couple of Forests from Tony. The money was irrelevant, as Tony and Marleena both have way more than me, although it made no difference to the final outcome.
Tony’get the bonus points for being the richest at game and wins the game, Marleena bonus for also being the richest isn’t enough for her to catch me, so she finishes third. Fee finishes in last place.
Domaine definitely works better with three than four (this is the opposite to T&E in my opinion). I haven’t yet tried it with two.
We concluded with a few hands of The Great Dalmuti. We play with the 11s & 12s removed as there was only four of us. There’s only time for three hands before I have to leave, mainly because we have two Great Revolutions, which delay matters somewhat. Dalmuti is a fun filler, but it seems like I have an unfair advantage, cause I’m card counting, and I don’t think the others are (or not as much as I am – surely everybody remembers basic things like if the Dalmuti has been played). In each of the three hands I retain or improve my position, which is as much as you can ask for in a game of Dalmuti (I was Dalmuti when the second greater revolution occurred).
After this weekend, it's re-enactment events for the next two. Argghhh! I'll be glad when it's winter and we can game every weekend.
Sunday, August 20, 2006
What's been going on?
The quick answer is - not a lot :(
No board games on the last three Sundays due to re-enactment events and a wedding. Hopefully as we move into autumn these interuptions will become less common.
I haven't been able to make the last two weeks of Blood Bowl either, due to commitments on Thursday. The week before that the games started late and I ended up abandoning my game at 11:35pm after turn 7 of the second half. We had to rush the second half just to get that far, and after a TD had been scored I just didn't have the time to play a pointless turn 8 and do the post game stuff. I only went to make (I thought) make up the numbers - as it turned out there was an odd number of players - so to be honest I'd rather not have bothered. The league should be moving back to the normal venue next week, were games can start much earlier again.
It's been such a drought recently that I actually got persuaded to play some Vs a couple of weeks ago. It was okay, but nothing special. Now that Tony has got a set of Enemy of my Enemy (the strongest search card in the game) in many ways the game seems to have moved away from what made it so interesting to me in the first place.
Back when the game started the emphasis seemed to be on combat between the characters - deciding formations and attacks, and how to best utilise your plot twists to get KOs and breakthrough. It many ways it had managed to transfer the gameplay of limited MtG (which is normally much more interesting than constructed MtG) into a constructed format whilst improving it. There were problems with some games being blowout to a player not drawing enough, or the right characters but I could live with that.
In the last few sets the amount of deck searching that is available seems to have reached a ridiculous level, so that now games seem to involve searching your deck for the answer you need to trump the other guys deck. Possibly UDE realise this - one of the preview cards for Heralds of Galactus seems to be a playable extract effect (search your opponents deck and remove a card).
I've played some two-player Puerto Rico on a couple of evenings. Had a couple of games against Matt, the first of which I won easily, then in the second I tried some slightly different tactics, that caused me to fall behind early and I wasn't able to make up the deficit. I enjoyed those games and managed to persuade Fiona to play a couple of games a few days later. I won the first easily as well, and then in the second managed to make a complete hash of the opening turns and fall miles behind again! This time I was able to comeback and win, although Fee missed a move on the closing turn that would have left my large building unmanned. That would have been enough for her to win, but she was tired and didn't spot it.
No board games on the last three Sundays due to re-enactment events and a wedding. Hopefully as we move into autumn these interuptions will become less common.
I haven't been able to make the last two weeks of Blood Bowl either, due to commitments on Thursday. The week before that the games started late and I ended up abandoning my game at 11:35pm after turn 7 of the second half. We had to rush the second half just to get that far, and after a TD had been scored I just didn't have the time to play a pointless turn 8 and do the post game stuff. I only went to make (I thought) make up the numbers - as it turned out there was an odd number of players - so to be honest I'd rather not have bothered. The league should be moving back to the normal venue next week, were games can start much earlier again.
It's been such a drought recently that I actually got persuaded to play some Vs a couple of weeks ago. It was okay, but nothing special. Now that Tony has got a set of Enemy of my Enemy (the strongest search card in the game) in many ways the game seems to have moved away from what made it so interesting to me in the first place.
Back when the game started the emphasis seemed to be on combat between the characters - deciding formations and attacks, and how to best utilise your plot twists to get KOs and breakthrough. It many ways it had managed to transfer the gameplay of limited MtG (which is normally much more interesting than constructed MtG) into a constructed format whilst improving it. There were problems with some games being blowout to a player not drawing enough, or the right characters but I could live with that.
In the last few sets the amount of deck searching that is available seems to have reached a ridiculous level, so that now games seem to involve searching your deck for the answer you need to trump the other guys deck. Possibly UDE realise this - one of the preview cards for Heralds of Galactus seems to be a playable extract effect (search your opponents deck and remove a card).
I've played some two-player Puerto Rico on a couple of evenings. Had a couple of games against Matt, the first of which I won easily, then in the second I tried some slightly different tactics, that caused me to fall behind early and I wasn't able to make up the deficit. I enjoyed those games and managed to persuade Fiona to play a couple of games a few days later. I won the first easily as well, and then in the second managed to make a complete hash of the opening turns and fall miles behind again! This time I was able to comeback and win, although Fee missed a move on the closing turn that would have left my large building unmanned. That would have been enough for her to win, but she was tired and didn't spot it.
Monday, July 24, 2006
Sunday 23/07/06: Alhambra, Hare & Tortoise, San Juan
It seems like ages since I last played some games.
Part of the reason is that it has been ages. The last Sunday evening was two weeks ago, and we had six players that night, and spent most of it playing Apples to Apples. Since then I haven’t managed to fit anything in apart from a couple of games of two player Puerto Rico and a round of Lost Cities.
This week Scott joined the regulars (Fee, me, Tony and Bekki). His favourite game is Alhambra (and the girls seem to love it was well) so we started with that.
I had one of those games were everything went perfectly. I’m pretty certain I’m the best Alhambra player in the group anyway, and I won with a score of 104, almost 30 points ahead of second place. At every scoring round I had a majority in Towers (it really helped that only one Tower appeared before the first scoring round and I was able to grab it), a majority or share-thereof in Gardens, and the longest Wall.
This game was the first time that I actually spent any actions redeveloping my Alhambra. I actually bought a Tower that I couldn’t place to protect my majority, and later when I bought another Tower with no wall, I noticed that instead of simply placing it, I could swap it with my only Manor (I bought it to connect all of my walls), and the turn after place the other Tower, both guaranteeing a Tower majority and extending my wall further.
After Alhambra we played Hare & Tortoise. Only Fee and Tony had played this before, and the rules translation Tony had didn’t seem to be the greatest. Having looked at some slightly better rules translations online we were definitely playing some rules wrong. In particular we were playing that you could move backwards to the next empty Tortoise space. At one point I moved back 16 spaces!!! [The reason for this was that it would let me move onto a lettuce space next turn - the lettuce in front of me was occupied.]
After my huge move backwards, I had a large amounts of carrots, and was planning to finish in a few large bounds, but it wasn’t clear whether Tony, who had been plodding along in first place would beat me there or not. I the end Tony reached there on the same turn as I did, but he was sitting before me and took first place.
We were a long way ahead of the other three. Although Fee says she really enjoys Hare & Tortoise, I think the game is strategic and calculational enough for Tony & I to have a large advantage. And once the field gets spread out a little, there’s less ‘multiplayer chaos’ than I would have expected. [This may be because we were allowing the large jumps backwards]
Scott, who had made some good moves early on, before losing lots of carrots on an ill advised jugging of the hare, finished third, and Fee managed to finish fourth eventually. Both her and Bekki had problems with arriving near the finish with far too many carrots.
Scott left after H&T, but we didn’t have time for either of the meatier games I had brought (Domaine or Tigris & Euphrates) so we played a hand of San Juan. I had nothing for the first couple of builds, so saved up for Silver, then built a Black Market. I also get a Smithy, so I figure I’m planning for some kind of Production plan, which is fortunate when I find a Guild Hall mid-game.
Coming to the final builds, it is clear the game is between me and Tony. Tony has been going for the violet plan, and has been using both Quarry and Poor House to accelerate his builds (he’s a couple ahead of me, and I’m a couple ahead of Fee and Bekki), and he has a City Hall. I suspect I might need to slip in a cheap catch-up production build to overtake him, but you don’t get much control in four-player. As it turns out Tony, as governor is able to close the game by building a Palace for 25+6=31 points, whilst my Palace leaves my score as 24+6=30. Very close!
It seems likely that after this weekend the next boardgame session may be some time off to various commitments.
Part of the reason is that it has been ages. The last Sunday evening was two weeks ago, and we had six players that night, and spent most of it playing Apples to Apples. Since then I haven’t managed to fit anything in apart from a couple of games of two player Puerto Rico and a round of Lost Cities.
This week Scott joined the regulars (Fee, me, Tony and Bekki). His favourite game is Alhambra (and the girls seem to love it was well) so we started with that.
I had one of those games were everything went perfectly. I’m pretty certain I’m the best Alhambra player in the group anyway, and I won with a score of 104, almost 30 points ahead of second place. At every scoring round I had a majority in Towers (it really helped that only one Tower appeared before the first scoring round and I was able to grab it), a majority or share-thereof in Gardens, and the longest Wall.
This game was the first time that I actually spent any actions redeveloping my Alhambra. I actually bought a Tower that I couldn’t place to protect my majority, and later when I bought another Tower with no wall, I noticed that instead of simply placing it, I could swap it with my only Manor (I bought it to connect all of my walls), and the turn after place the other Tower, both guaranteeing a Tower majority and extending my wall further.
After Alhambra we played Hare & Tortoise. Only Fee and Tony had played this before, and the rules translation Tony had didn’t seem to be the greatest. Having looked at some slightly better rules translations online we were definitely playing some rules wrong. In particular we were playing that you could move backwards to the next empty Tortoise space. At one point I moved back 16 spaces!!! [The reason for this was that it would let me move onto a lettuce space next turn - the lettuce in front of me was occupied.]
After my huge move backwards, I had a large amounts of carrots, and was planning to finish in a few large bounds, but it wasn’t clear whether Tony, who had been plodding along in first place would beat me there or not. I the end Tony reached there on the same turn as I did, but he was sitting before me and took first place.
We were a long way ahead of the other three. Although Fee says she really enjoys Hare & Tortoise, I think the game is strategic and calculational enough for Tony & I to have a large advantage. And once the field gets spread out a little, there’s less ‘multiplayer chaos’ than I would have expected. [This may be because we were allowing the large jumps backwards]
Scott, who had made some good moves early on, before losing lots of carrots on an ill advised jugging of the hare, finished third, and Fee managed to finish fourth eventually. Both her and Bekki had problems with arriving near the finish with far too many carrots.
Scott left after H&T, but we didn’t have time for either of the meatier games I had brought (Domaine or Tigris & Euphrates) so we played a hand of San Juan. I had nothing for the first couple of builds, so saved up for Silver, then built a Black Market. I also get a Smithy, so I figure I’m planning for some kind of Production plan, which is fortunate when I find a Guild Hall mid-game.
Coming to the final builds, it is clear the game is between me and Tony. Tony has been going for the violet plan, and has been using both Quarry and Poor House to accelerate his builds (he’s a couple ahead of me, and I’m a couple ahead of Fee and Bekki), and he has a City Hall. I suspect I might need to slip in a cheap catch-up production build to overtake him, but you don’t get much control in four-player. As it turns out Tony, as governor is able to close the game by building a Palace for 25+6=31 points, whilst my Palace leaves my score as 24+6=30. Very close!
It seems likely that after this weekend the next boardgame session may be some time off to various commitments.
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