June 11, 2004 |
After some barbecue-ing and getting our fill of guacamole flavored Doritos, we sat down to play a couple games.
| Bermuda Triangle |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Annie | $260,000 | 1 | |
| Karla | $230,000 | 2 | * |
| Mike | $140,000 | 3 (Tie) | |
| Dan | $140,000 | 3 (Tie) | |
Notes: Annie requested this and it's easy to see why. She clobbered us. She lost a few ships in the late going that slowed her down, but she held on for an easy victory. There were a couple times where the cloud passed right by her and refused to pick up one of her ships. The cloud waited until she was well ahead before taking the ships.
| Aladdin's Dragons |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Mike | 8 | 1 | |
| Dan | 6 | 2 | |
| Karla | 5 | 3 (Tie) | |
| Annie | 4 | 3 (Tie) | |
Notes: I've been dying to play this one for a long time, and I finally got the chance. In this game, you have 8 bidding chips, all of which you must use per round. You use them to 1) get jewels and then to 2) purchase artifacts. You can also use them to bid on getting spells, using 2 artifacts per turn, getting the tiebreaking marker, and getting a sweet exchange rate once per turn (1 treasure for 3). You also must use them to slip past the guard (numbered 1-10) in order to buy the artifacts.
At any rate, Annie really raised the bidding on getting the treasures from the dragons all game. She often put 3 high numbers in a space. Some winning bids for jewels were 14, 17, and 19. This is ridiculous. I never had nearly as many jewels as Annie, but I spent them wisely. I also bought the magic carpet in the first round, so I always had a bonus tile to play. Karla went for the jewels that Annie didn't go crazy on and also used the 1 for 3 exchange a lot. Dan got a lot of spells, but also was caught bidding against Annie all the time.
Annie bought the Key artifact (which means that you don't have to get past the guard if you don't want to) in the first round, which meant that she used her high numbered tokens for getting jewels. This is actually a bit of a hindrance, as you can only use ONE artifact per turn - so she was using her artifact, every turn, on sneaking past the guard. I, on the other hand, often grabbed the "Use two artifacts per turn" ability, and used it quite often, either to grab extra jewels or get past the guard, or to get an extra artifact. In the fourth round (it ended in the fifth), I managed to grab 3 artifacts as everyone fought against each other for jewels. Annie was again hampered by using her key artifact to get past the guard, and I was able to use two artifacts. One allowed me to steal jewels from Annie, and the other got me past the guard. This gave me 7 artifacts (it was pretty even, probably 4 apiece through the first 3 rounds), and probably the win. Dan gave it a last shot in the fifth round, but couldn't buy the 3 artifacts he wanted because I seriously overspent in one artifact chamber. He was forced to spend extra, and this kept him from winning 3 artifacts - he only managed 2. I got the one I needed. Karla received the other one. In perfect symbolism of the rest of the game, Annie had countless jewels, but did not end up with even one artifact that last turn.
This game rewards patience and bluff. If you make your goals too apparent (as did Annie), you are practically begging people to oppose you, as they know what you want and they will throw a chip in an area merely to get you to raise yours. The game also rewards diversity. No one bid on the tiebreaker after I took it from Karla in the 2nd round. Karla and Annie had a ton of jewels, but didn't know how to spend them. Dan used his jewels well, but challenged Annie for jewels too often. Dan and Annie never did bid on the 1 for 3 exchange (which Karla won almost every round). Twice I won some jewels on a tiebreaker - don't underestimate the camel! As I was rarely challenged on using two artifacts per turn (a very excellent power), I was in pretty good shape all game.