May 26, 2004 |
This may have been our last game night with Jani for a while, as she's bringing her baby to Madison and refuses to share her with us. (Actually, she says Barbara will knock all my games on the floor - which I don't entirely believe.) Scott missed out on the first game as he valiantly went to get cream for White Russians with Karla. I felt bad, but not bad enough to tank Oasis for him.
| Ticket to Ride |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Lee | 136 | 1 | * |
| Mike | 133 | 2 | |
| Dan | 103 | 3 | * |
| Annie | 82 | 4 | * |
| Jani | 72 | 5 | * |
Notes: Ticket to Ride has been called "the game that TransAmerica was meant to be" by Tom Vasel on the boardgamegeek.com, and I think he's totally right. It has the light element of TransAmerica, where one tries to connect to certain cities based on your cards. The trick, though, is that in Ticket to Ride, you can only use track YOU build, and you can acquire connections to more cities if you want. For example, if you can connect from LA to New York, you get 20 points, and if you connect from Chicago to New Orleans, you only get about 7. You also get points each time you make a connection - from 1 point for a 1-car track, to 15 points for a 6-car track. Thus you can choose just to make connections, or go for tickets. If you fail to connect the two cities on your ticket, though, you lose the points listed!
On to our game. Tonight was destined to be a night of almosts for me. Lee and I were completing the most track, and we were really close on the scoring of routes. Jani kept calling Annie mean, asking "Why are you doing this to me?" Annie was asked this question a lot, whenever she made a route or claimed cards. Dan bitched and moaned as usual, but deservedly so, as he was lagging behind in scoring. Annie was, too, but that was because she was saving up for some big routes.
I selected, at the start, two of the longest routes: LA to NYC, and Seattle to NYC. I managed to make both routes, on really a rather direct route. Most everyone else was competing for east coast or central USA in a north-south fashion. I thought I had it made, but then Lee made a huge coast-to-coast run, and I knew I was in for a challenge.
By this time, Jani and Dan were grumbling so much that I knew it was pretty much between Lee and myself. Lee stopped going for tickets and went for some bonus route claims. I followed suit, thinking that because I had the most pieces on the board - and all were connected - that I would get the longest route bonus. This is, of course, incorrect. The points are for the longest continuous route (with no backtracking). Just like Settlers' longest road.
In one of my ticket draws, I took a piece to connect, and since there were so few cards left, I felt that I would be able to pick which of the discards I might want to try for. So I secretly tried connecting the route in advance, before taking the ticket, but I never got anywhere. I needed to connect my huge route to Miami, but I couldn't do it, so I just went for claiming connecting routes for the sheer joy of it.
In the end, I had the most points (by far) in the tickets, but Lee's longest route card (and no unclaimed tickets) cost me the victory. The game was fun, but took a little too long, I felt. Next time will go more quickly, I'm sure (as we all know the rules and places and how the routes work), but it was still a smidgeon lengthy.
| Give Sunny Her Medicine |
| Oasis |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Dan | 64 | 1 | * |
| Mike & Karla | 63 | 2 | * |
| Lee & Jani | 52 | 3 | * |
| Annie | 47 | 4 | * |
| Scott | 44 | 5 | * |
Notes: Next up was Oasis, and as nobody listened to my rules explanation at the beginning, I almost got too frustrated to play it. But everyone insisted, and then they re-listened to the rules and saw that it was really a pretty simple game. It wasn't clear right away what the benefit of making the best offer was - but it became clear incredibly quickly.
In this game, you make offers with cards to everyone else, and the person who makes the best offer (that is, the one chosen first), gets the #1 chip. The second best offer gets the #2 chip, etc. The #1 chip gets a bonus tile or camel, and gets to make his offer first. What's so great about that? Well, in making the first offer, you also get to CHOOSE the first offer (so long as it isn't your own offer). Thus, if you keep making crappy offers, you're going to keep getting stuck with the stuff at the bottom of the barrel (usually).
So what's the point? The point is to get as many points as possible in 4 different areas: the steppes, the rocky plateaus, the oases, and the camel path (or trade). Each area has tiles and a corresponding good. The trick is to connect big groups of tiles and to get as many of the goods corresponding to those tiles as possible. You then multiply the number of tiles for a region by the number of goods you have. So, for instance, if you have 7 steppe tiles and 3 horses (the steppe good), you get 21 points. So, you can go for moderate scores in a bunch of areas or go for a big score in one or two areas.
Of course, with tile laying games, you can block people off. Dan blocked off Karla's and my rock area, and Scott blocked off Karla's and my camel groups. They were excellent moves, and they cost us the victory. Lee and Jani went for the rock strategy, and received a lot of points for them. Scott had a HUGE pack of camels (10), but only two of the corresponding goods for them. Dan had a nice balance, particularly in camels and steppes. Annie had some balance, too, but not quite as nice.
Karla and I had a 36 point score in the Oasis, while Scott was shut out of it. Unfortunately, our camel expansion was stunted (thanks to Scott on one side and Annie and the Lee/Jani combo on the other). We stood at 55 points after our oasis scoring, and Dan had about 48. Unfortunately, we only netted 8 points on camels, and Dan snatched victory from my clutching grasp (as Lee did above!) by one measly point.
I really thought this was a lot of fun. Making offers is tricky, and there's also a card re-supply worry that one has to keep track of. It went quickly, and although I was worried it might take too long, it really went pretty quickly, all things considered.