May 6, 2004 |
Game night started really late tonight, as the first game wasn't played until about 7:45. This was because Scott, Karla, and I chatted for a long while at first, and Dan came late after softball practice. Jani and Lee showed up at around 9, and they were having trouble parking at home because of an Aerosmith concert.
| Pirate's Cove |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Dan | 42 | 1 | |
| Mike | 35 | 2 | |
| Scott | 33 | 3 | |
| Karla | 29 | 4 | |
Notes: In this game, Dan and Scott roared out to big leads, and Karla and I really struggled. Then Dan kept doing silly things, which eventually made me angry, and I roared in dismay and bitched. One of my prouder moments I assure you. First, Dan tried to kill my Long John Silver's Parrot by sending the Royal Navy at me - but I luckily escaped. Then, he picked the island with the pirates (the two ladies - I forget their names) two times in three turns, and his ship was blown to smithereens, on an incredible roll by Scott (two 5's and a 6!). Then, Scott took a big lead and Dan insisted on trying to steal half my treasure score, despite the fact that I was in last place. I was able to cancel it out, but Dan had a very poor reason for not saving it to get Scott (The "I wanted to do something this turn" argument).
Finally, after being foolish and antagonizing me all game, when Scott and I got into a big duel, Dan had the audacity to tell Scott to shoot at my parrot. I felt this was unfair, as he had been unstrategically attacking me (in last place, let me remind all you lovely readers), and because Scott was still way in first place. Scott's first attack failed to kill my parrot, though, and I ended up winning the conflict. But, had Scott won that fight, there was a helluva lot of stuff he would have gotten on the island, and I think he would have won the game. Had he killed my parrot in the first round, I would have high-tailed it out of there, and Dan's eventual road to victory would have been nearly impossible. Scott admitted as much after the game.
I still think I was right in yelling at Dan, but I actually made myself promise to myself before the game that I wouldn't get mad. But I did. Boo on me.
So how did Dan win? He got pretty lucky. First, he was able to pick up a bunch of points by going to areas that didn't have any other pirates. This requires some luck, but he also avoided the pair of lady pirates (for once!). He also had a good strategy. After the pirate ladies blew his ship to smithereens, he left it in a near crippled state and gathered almost 30 doubloons and never improved it. In the last round, he went to the Treasure island. We fought the two pirate ladies, and though they had two chances hit Dan, they never did, and one hit would have done him in. Of course, he played the smoke screen card, so he was only hittable on a "6". My ship was tough, and I had enough firepower to survive the fight, so I had no worries.
Had one "6" been rolled by the lady pirates on 6 rolls of the dice (a 66.7% chance of occurring), Dan would have been toast, and he would have lost 17 points of treasure at the end of the game. As it was, he buried 5 treasure chests and 27 doubloons, plus he wouldn't have shared the 6 points for defeating the pirates with me.
Whoof! Quite a game. Not sure I can handle too many like that one. It had everything: climactic battle, huge comeback, frustration, Mike yelling, Dan complaining, Karla getting distracted, and Scott maintaining a calm facade during a critical battle despite his loss.
| High Society |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Jani | 16 | 1 | * |
| Karla | 9 | 2 | |
| Lee | 4.5 | 3 | |
| Scott | 2 | 4 | |
| Dan | OUT | 4 | |
Notes: That's right, I sat out. I wanted some R & R after blowing up (and coming in second - grrr!) in the first game. Jani picked up the game right away, built a big early lead, and managed not to have the least money in her hand by the end. Dan overspent in an attempt to catch her (he ended up with 14 points), and Scott was stuck in a position of paying too much NOT to have the bad cards (Lee ended up with 2 of them, meaning Scott had put in the highest bid for both before they were accepted).
Lee, then, had the most money, but had to fight through the cards. Jani, since Lee took both bad cards, and she was sitting to his left, ended up paying the least to avoid them, and she was rather careful with her cash, ultimately only buying the hoops team and a recognition card. Lee had the highly prized trophy wife and the penthouse, but had to fight through the IRS card and the thief. Scott had a recognition card and the TV, while Dan had the Masarati and the island, while Karla had the castle.
Funny sequence after Jani bought the basketball team:
Mike: Okay, Jani, you bought the Ecuadorian basketball team.
Jani (who's from Ecuador): Oh, no! That means they're going to lose!
| Rette Sich Wer Kann |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Mike | 24 | 1 | |
| Lee | 20 | 2 (Tie) | |
| Scott | 20 | 2 (Tie) | |
| Jani | 20 | 2 (Tie) | * |
| Karla | 19 | 5 | |
| Dan | 18 | 6 | |
Notes: I played a great game of Rette Sich Wer Kann. Despite Dan's attempts to get the Death Boat to safety, it eventually sunk without having moved. Two boats were quickly moved to an island, which resulted in a nice spread of safe folks for everyone. Then the real fight started. Only two more boats made it, and I used two captains in a row, one to spring a leak on a ship to keep my guys safe, and another time to move a ship in order to save my last two guys' lives. It was enough to get the victory.
There were some funny moments, like when only Lee and Jani had people in a ship and we made the lovers decide who was going overboard. They chickened out, though, and made Dan decide. There were a few drownings from swimming disasters, too. Every time I announced that it was the swim phase, Jani would cry, "Oh no!" She hated the swim phase.
This game requires a nice blend of being obnoxious, being quiet, and not being too deadly. When I put a leak in a boat due to my captain that didn't require anyone to be thrown overboard (when I easily could have), I think I took some of the worry out of everyone's mind. This enabled me to use my last captain chip to save my two purple guys.