May 7, 2004 |
Dan and Annie came over to hang out, as he wanted to save drunken debauchery for Saturday, having already exhausted Thursday doing the same.
| San Marco |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Annie | 63 | 1 | * |
| Dan | 53 | 2 | * |
| Mike | 47 | 3 | |
Notes: Man, this is a really good game. Though I lost, it was rewarding to see both Dan and Annie manipulate the cards for certain situations. There is really a lot of thought that goes into each distribution, and though there is a lot of tactical decision making, one really needs to go into this game with some strategy, too.
Still, Dan and I finished last due to good reasons. Dan was stuck with scoring cards the first two hands, and was unable to use them - or so I thought. When I checked the situation - need to move the doge to get any points, but you don't have points to spend to move it - I discovered, on Boardgamegeek.com, that you can go into the negatives in order to move it. Oops. Instead, Dan just didn't use it. The rules, of course, state that you HAVE to use it. Oh, well. Two wrongs don't make a right, but they were better than one wrong. Anyway, this situation probably cost Dan several points, but also probably cost someone else points (probably Annie, since I had the early lead).
Now, why did Mike finish last? Because I had two fewer rounds than Annie and Dan. They hosed me out of final turns twice, in the first two rounds, and I watched in chagrin as they made nice strides each time. Aw, nuts. By the end, I was victimized a lot, and didn't really have too many aristocrats out there. Annie had just enough to maintain her big lead, and Dan not only passed me for second place, but also temporarily passed Annie - before we scored her majority in Castello (with me in the minority - far from being a threat). Excellent game, and excellently played. We try to honestly help each other on the card distributions, and I figure we ought to for a little while, yet.
| Settlers of the Stone Age |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Dan | 10 | 1 | |
| Mike | 9 | 2 | |
| Annie | 5 | 3 | |
Notes: I'd been dying to play this for quite a while, and I was pleased that Annie and Dan agreed to play it. We used the standard start up, and it was pretty even for a while, though Annie was confused a bit about the importance of moving the scouts around.
We all went for movement, followed by some forays into clothing and construction. Soon Dan had expanded first, as he really wanted the camp near the 6 meat. I made the second camp, and Annie was a little behind us. I was very careful in my settlements, and I made sure to park my explorers on future settlements that I wanted. As the game progressed, Dan became the Exploration leader, and was the first to America, whereas I was the first one down to Australia. I had a nice mixture of resources, and I was (fortunately) drawing deserts whenever I got an exploration tile and was able to keep my African areas productive for quite some time.
Dan soon got the Construction VP, and I the Food VP. We each also had 1 adaptation VP. At one point, I was at 9 points and Dan was at 8, and I went for the win by moving the sabre-tooth twice, trying to get a meat from Dan. We were tied in exploration tiles, and if I drew the meat (he had about 7 cards), I could move my explorer to get the final tile. Alas, I missed it twice. Then, the dice were cruel to me for two rounds, and I never could get either enough to trade in for a meat, and then I couldn't create one final campsite (when Dan expanded his exploration lead). I knew time was running out, and sho' 'nuff, Dan nabbed two points in the final round - one by getting the Adaptation America point and creating a final campsite. Of course, the dice were not only ignoring me, they weren't rolling destructive 7's for Dan, either. Grr! Still, it was a lot of fun. There is a LOT of importance in getting the heck out of Africa early. Since trading is so minor in this version of Settlers, it's very important to have your own, self-reliant supplies.