Tension mounts as we begin the first scoring round.
June 16, 2004 |
It was a night of bitterness, as Mike threw around insults in the first game and then Dan inexplicably grumbled about the second game. Sam also said he was going to bike over but never showed up. Not that I blame him, as it was raining like mad halfway through El Grande. I was totally bombed by the end of Ra - I was super thirsty and I drank about 5 beers in 45 minutes. I stopped drinking at 9:30 and still felt pretty drunk 3 hours later when I crashed (Hello, my name is Mike. "Hi, Mike!").
| Ra |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Dan | 41 | 1 | |
| Scott | 35 | 2 | |
| Mike | 32 | 3 | |
| Annie | 20 | 4 | |
| Karla | 19 | 5 | |
Notes: According to my notes, at one point I said, "You guys are all retarded!" The notes don't lie, but I find it hard to believe I said it that way. What I may have meant was, "That was a poor move." I must confess that I bitched and moaned a lot in this game, mostly at the end. Dan had successfully painted me as the leader at that point (though he was), and moves were done to thwart me rather than Dan, which resulted in the "retarded" comment. I must confess, though, that even a retarded person would have realized that Dan was ahead. Fortunately, everyone took my, uh, criticism very well, and to their credit they either laughed at me, or made me angrier.
Dan did his typical move: grab a pharaoh lead and hold it for the rest of the game. This is worth 15 points. His other secret is to avoid getting minuses. This he also pulled off. He also managed to get 3 different civs in one round, which took away from my having 4 that same round. Scott was doing sneaky well (like last time). He had collected a lot of monuments once again, and had a few river tiles to help him out some. He took a couple penalties, though, twice for having the fewest pharaohs, and once for no civs.
Karla and Annie didn't do so hot. Karla held on to her high tiles too long (she tends to do this a lot), and Annie spent them too quickly (she tends to do this a lot). In the last round, I was furious with Annie for hosing me. I had 9 river tiles, but no flood. I invoked Ra, as the flood was the only tile out there - everyone had high tiles except me, and Annie had only one tile left (I believe it was a 6). She had no need for a flood (already had one), but she outbid me anyway. "I just wanted to hose Mike." Then Dan hosed me when I invoked Ra in the same sort of situation a couple turns later - that bugged me, too, but Dan wanted to keep his lead. That's cool. I just called him a jerk. (Note: you're a jerk if you make a good move.)
I finally managed to get the very last flood tile, and I flaunted it in front of Dan and Annie. This is called being what most people metaphorically call an "asshole". It did me no good anyhow, though it made my score look superfluously better.
My big problem (aside from everyone targeting me instead of Dan) was that I had 1, 3, and 4 for my bid chips in the final round. There hadn't been too many Ra tiles drawn throughout the game, so pickings were pretty slim. Anything halfway decent was being picked up by mid-range chips, the 6-10 ones. I had a couple goals in the final round - get a flood, a civ, and some higher bid chips. I managed two out of three, but I was in no position to influence events. The good rows had to go to someone else, and so my three selections were a row with 2 green civs (and a low bid chip), a row with a lot of rivers, but also an earthquake which cost me 2 monuments (and gave me a low bid chip), and the flood piece (and a low bid chip). I lost 5 points for having the lowest bid chips (Karla had the highest), and Dan, with his pharaoh lead and no minuses, took the day.
Dan loses when he can't get the pharaoh lead. I recall that was how Annie beat him once and how Scott beat him a couple weeks ago. If the pharaoh lead could be dispersed among three people instead of handed to Dan, we could beat the sonofabitch. As it was, Dan threw gasoline on my smouldering disposition by stating, "This game is my bitch."
I totally deserved that. (I should also note that Dan played this game under protest.)
| El Grande |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Mike | 108 | 1 | |
| Lee | 99 | 2 | |
| Scott | 97 | 3 | * |
| Dan | 78 | 4 | |
Notes: Lee showed up 1/3 of the way through Ra, and waited patiently. When Karla and Annie bailed out to watch The Simple Life 2, we forewent playing I'm the Boss! to play El Grande. I can't remember if Annie didn't want to play because she doesn't like I'm the Boss! or because she loves Paris Hilton (like Karla does). Probably the latter.
On to more bitterness, though of a different form. I really love this game, and though I thought it would be difficult to teach, it always proves to be pretty simple. Everyone plays a bidding card each round, which lets you move caballeros to your court (whence they can go to the regions of Spain). Then you pick one of 5 action cards, which allow you to place 1-5 caballeros from your court into regions of Spain, and they give an additional power. The object is to control the most regions. You get more points if you have the most caballeros in a region, a few less if you're in second, and 1 or 2 if you're in third. There are also bonuses for controlling your home region or the region where the king is. Generally, that's the entire game. You kind of have to balance how many guys you have in your court with how many you put on the board.
We had only played this once before (Lee, Dan, and a friend from Milwaukee, Brian), and I had blown everyone away, winning by about 50 points. This game was much much closer and more satisfying. Everyone consolidated their home regions for the first scoring round, and though there were a few special scorings, everyone picked up a few points here and there, and it was very close.
In the second round, I managed about a 7 or 8 point lead. It was pretty close aside from me, as Lee was behind me, Scott was a couple behind him, and Dan was a few behind Scott. I managed the lead by being just a bit more diversified than the other guys. I was scoring in almost every province. Dan was collecting a monster share from New Castile, where he had moved the 8-4-0 scoring marker, but he was concentrated in only 2 or 3 regions. Lee had a ridiculous advantage in Basque, and Scott had a huge lead in Galicia (though I was 2nd with only one caballero).
So I felt good going into the third round when Lee turned the tables on me. He grabbed a special scoring marker that let him score all the 5 regions. This was a perfect card, as he netted 15 points (he happened to be leading in all the 5 regions!), while the rest of us got no more than 5 or 6. Lee took the lead by about 5. I had to play hardball after that, though I had only one caballero left (and he was in the provinces). The rest of my caballeros were in Spain. Dan, at this point, started grumbling. Lee was taking his time making some choices (and he inexplicably put another caballero in Basque, where his lead now grew to 6 or 7). Then Dan started to claim that this was the 3rd time we played, and then said that he couldn't stand this game. Such a statement was odd, as the one time we played before, everyone said it was a cool game. Baffling. I think he just wanted it over with because he was, at this time, in no position to win the game.
When I set myself up to go first the last two rounds, Lee said to Dan (who could have stopped me), "You're going to let him win the next two rounds?" Dan then started pouting like an 8 year old and said, "That's it, I'm just going to hose Lee!" He did, kind of, but not enough to really have an effect on the outcome. The scoring was really close, as Scott made excellent use of the Castillo, almost resulting in passing Lee. I managed to secure my home region in the last turn (something I had to fight for, since Lee and Dan were moving Scott's pieces in there and my pieces out of there the last couple turns). That clinched it.
I enjoyed it immensely, and I think Lee and Scott did, too. Scott, as he usually does, said, about 1/3 of the way through the game, "Ah, now I get it." Scott's a real trooper. He gives every new game his best shot and humors us even if he doesn't quite get it. He also doesn't say, "I can't stand this game" or "You guys are all retarded." Dan and I should take more pages from Scott's book.
Addendum: Let the record also show we were playing incorrectly. We played that whoever won the auction got to bid first the next round. Of course, it's the opposite (low gets first bid). Also, we'll play low to high, not clockwise bidding.
I bring this up because I asked Dan why he didn't enjoy the game, and he disliked the order of bidding - he thought it carried too much influence. He would like simultaneous bidding, which is impossible, because that would allow for doubles. Also, part of the strategy is in using your bids cleverly. If you know Lee wants to go before everyone else, and his 10, 11, and 12 cards are gone, you can play the 9, saving your higher cards. I think playing the "low-high" way is best.
Tension mounts as we begin the first scoring round.