April 15, 2004 |
Game Night was highlighted by Annie's birthday, which resulted in ice cream drinks! Yum! Mid-way through our game of High Society Sam showed up to add to the attendees Annie, Dan, Mike, Karla, and Scott.
| High Society |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Scott | 12 | 1 | * |
| Mike | 11 | 2 | |
| Dan | 6.5 | 3 | |
| Karla | 4 | 4 | |
| Annie | OUT | 5 | |
Notes: Dan was bidding right before Scott, and he has this terrible strategy of taking the bad cards instead of paying for them. This meant that once, when I started an "avoid" bid at $15 Mil, he took it when it had gotten to about $20 Mil. This meant that Scott didn't have to pay anything to avoid the penalty card (and he was in the lead). Later, I could never invest enough cash to get the one card that would put me over the top, and Scott never did either (since he had the lead, he was safe).
| TransAmerica |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Annie | 9 | 1 | |
| Dan | 7 | 2 (Tie) | |
| Sam | 7 | 2 (Tie) | |
| Mike | 6 | 4 | |
| Scott | 5 | 5 | |
Notes: Karla stepped out to play DDR, and Annie, as her b-day wish, picked TransAmerica, and proceeded to win it. I couldn't quite get my connections to work, as I always seemed to be helping someone else while helping myself. Annie and Dan both did good jobs, and Sam (he confessed) got lucky.
| Alhambra |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Dan | 87 | 1 | |
| Mike | 84 | 2 | |
| Karla | 59 | 3 | |
| Sam | 58 | 4 | |
| Scott | 49 | 5 | * |
| Annie | 41 | 6 | |
Notes: My suspicions were confirmed when we played this game. It's the group's 3rd or 4th time, and the scores tend to be similar, and it's very clear why. I went for a "Few Buildings in Majority" strategy, coupled with patience. I wouldn't buy buildings unless I could afford them perfectly. Dan did the same, but everyone else had a panic strategy. Annie is the worst offender. She can't handle sitting back and drawing currency cards. She has to purchase. This results in awful scores, as she doesn't go for a certain building, nor does she get the bonus turn. Scott and Karla were slightly more patient, but tended to waste too many turns taking buildings from their reserve. Sam tried to be patient, but never seemed to get the buildings he wanted. He was saying "Shit!" a lot when Scott or I bought things.
So it was really a two-player game. Dan was being challenged in Towers by Karla, and I thought I was going to get solid points in Gemächers, Gartens, and Arkaden. I made one mistake, and was trumped by bad luck. I overspent one turn, getting three buildings, but I could only fit one of them. This resulted in a wasted turn late, and a Garten sitting in my reserve as the game ended. Then the bad luck. Karla happened to have the most Gulden at game end (she only had 8), and there happened to be a Garten there, so she got it. This brought her up to 4, which was just enough to tie me. It took 4 points from me, which (as you can see above) cost me the game.
After counting building points, Dan and I were tied at 77, but he had a slightly longer wall. Annie took last again. Patience and planning are the keys to this game. It was really hard to avoid making overpriced purchases, but I held myself to 1 all game (and it was an important one).