June 9, 2004 |
Despite installing the air conditioner and turning the fan on as high as it would go, we were as hot as heck in our place. Still, Dan and Annie braved the heat to play Amun-Re (another desert game - are we subconsciously saying something about our overheated place?) and By Hook or Crook. Lee and Jani stopped by with their Bambina, Barbara, but they had to go before we had finished Amun-Re. Barbara was cute as hell and kept distracting Karla.
| Amun-Re |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Annie | 47 | 1 | |
| Dan | 42 | 2 | |
| Mike | 41 | 3 | |
| Karla | 34 | 4 | |
Notes: Dan looked wiped out, so I let him pick the first game. He has a real thing for this one, so he picked it out. I went for a pretty cautious strategy, but it didn't quite work. Everyone went for single sets of pyramids in the first round, and I wanted to get the biggest set of pyramids on one side, but ran out of cash, and I didn't want to overspend in the sacrifices. Annie ended up with one of the biggest sets, and Dan had the other after the first round. Dan and I each had 2 temples, and he had a narrow lead over us all, leading 19 to Annie's 18 to my 16. Karla was in last with 6.
I was making money hand over fist in the second round, and I had some nice cards, but I made a big mistake. Instead of going for the best provinces, I was taking the provinces that matched my one bonus card. That cost me. Instead of reaping the benefits of provinces with a lot of pyramids already, I took lesser ones, all for a measly 3 points. So while Annie (who was not only building pyramids like nuts, but was consistently giving the most money for sacrifices to Amun-Re) was getting a good number of bricks and adding them to more starting pyramids, I was frantically paying for all my pyramids from a weaker starting point. I managed to have the most pyramids on one side though, by the end, and Dan did on the other.
Anyway, my foolish bidding (for 3 points!) really cost me. I had more pyramids than Karla, but many fewer than Dan or Annie. Dan had 3 whole sets, while I had 2, but Annie had 4 complete sets(!). This gave her a whopping 24 points, and she added 3 more with a bonus card. Dan netted a pretty good 23 points (thanks to some temple points), and my foolish bidding not only cost me pyramids, but also cost me a chance at temple scoring. I thought I would have enough money to overtake Dan for second (I had about 38 gold), but Karla had hoarded a ton of it (she was unbelievably distracted by this point and just wanted to end the game), and took the 6 point bonus, leaving me 1 shy of Dan, who was incredibly poor the entire new kingdom, with very few farmers. Sacrifices were 2 every turn except for 2 turns, when it was 3.
There were a few points of strategy that some folks didn't get so I'll write them here in the off chance someone will want to read them:
| By Hook or Crook |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Annie | 1st | 1 | |
| Jamie | 2nd | 2 | |
| Mike | 3rd | 3 | |
| Dan | 4th | 2 | |
| Karla | 5th | 3 | |
Notes: We moved to the living room (near the A/C) to play this one. It's easy to learn and play, and it plays pretty quickly. The rules were re-learned by everyone pretty quickly, and soon we were thieving and exhibiting our displays all over.
The game started with Annie going crazy with some early exhibitions. Dan, Jamie, and Karla kept thwarting each other in the auction house. Annie had the strategy of doing what she wanted to and risking the consequences. I accumulated an excellent group of goods, and if there were too many people around an area, I was careful in how I risked my exhibit. I played the detective a few times, and caught a couple folks, but I was a bit skimpy in giving exhibits late in the game.
Dan's strategy was piss-poor, as far as I could tell. He seemed determined simply to do what nobody expected him to do. He and Karla were way in last place, but Karla made a nice run near the end, but was simply too far back. Jamie was off to a slow start (he needed more cards for an exhibit, but he had to endure the early auction house shenanigans before he could get enough to make some exhibits.
Anyway, Annie raced out to a big lead, and seemed like she was going to run away with it, but then she and Jamie were massively robbed by Karla, Dan, and me. We each took a card from them, breaking Annie's string of cards in two. One thing I should mention is that Karla and Annie, when they robbed, tended to take cards they needed, rather than cards that would disrupt a string in an exhibit. Dan, Jamie, and I were much more ruthless.
Near the end, Annie was just one spot from entering the banquet hall, so for two turns I entered the castle and gave an exhibit to keep her from getting points (although she was in the lead, her exhibit was pretty small). Still, I knew I needed one more card to have the best exhibit, so I stopped playing defense for one turn in order to get the card I needed in the auction house. Unfortunately, Dan (the Unstrategist) and Karla (who needed a card to make a monster exhibit connection) both chose it as well, which left only Jamie to oppose Annie. She had a slightly better exhibit, and had a 2 or 3 space lead over him. Dan and Karla tied for best exhibit, with Dan having the older piece, and thus Dan earned 4th place rather than 5th.
This was the 2nd time the group played this one, and it was much more fun this time. Last time, as I recall, Dan foolishly captured everyone's thieves and let Jamie escape to a runaway victory. To be fair, though, I think we mis-played the detective, so that he captured the thieves before they could rob anyone. When we play the correct way, the thief made for a much better play, even if you lost him.