Gaming Results

June 18, 2004

Karla talked up a night of drinking and games, and Scott was kind enough to host it. It was a last minute thing, and a lot of folks couldn't make it for various reasons.

Coloretto

Results
Player	Score	Place	First Time?
Scott	86	1
Annie	85	2
Mike	80	3
Karla	79	4
Dan	73	5

Notes: We played some Coloretto first, and Scott played a good game. We started off very nice to each other, with everyone trying to give doubles to everyone. Annie would always break the string for some reason, hoping to get one of the double rows and hose someone. I called her on it late in the game and grabbed a row she was obviously hoping for in order to give her some minus points.

Dan always does poorly at this game, so I tried to help him out. He was way behind, so if I drew a card that did me no good I tried to make it help Dan out. Dan, towards the end, stopped being so greedy but still finished in last.

Scott and Annie do well at this game and tonight was no different. Scott just edged past Annie to get the victory.

Pirate's Cove

Results
Player	Score	Place	First Time?
Loaded Dice Annie	40	1
Luckless Mike	30	2
Dan the Fameless	26	3
Captain Conquered (Scott)	25	4

Notes: After some bad games of poker (bad because I was terrible - thankfully we just used chips, not real money), we opted for Pirate's Cove. Karla didn't feel like playing because she was tired.

I got a little bit angry in this game (as I always do) but it was mostly at my luck. When Scott and Dan wouldn't oppose Annie by the end of the game, I was angry with them, too, but really, I couldn't blame them. Well, not Scott anyway.

This was a typical Pirate's Cove game - one frontrunner, one person kind of close, and a couple folks lagging behind. Here were the big moments:

• Scott kept losing battles early on. He lost about 3 or 4 in a row, and actually grumbled the tiniest bit after the game had ended. Although he had a lot of cards, he had very few treasure chests and very little money.
• Dan got too greedy and I nailed him. He had the parrot that can carry unlimited treasure chests, and he hoarded them one round too many. I met him on island three, where he was looking to add 6 more chests to his swelling horde of them, and I managed to kill his parrot, saving the rest of us from his destruction of us. He had protected it a round or two earlier by fleeing a battle and being subject to a mutiny. So he was at -4 points already.
• Annie was doing a nice job (after the first couple turns) of scooping up the islands with the most fame points. It was an easy strategy to notice so I tried to slow her down. It was a close battle, but I was losing, so I tried to fire the "Damage all sections of a ship" card when I had Annie down to two cannons (I had only one hull point left). I rolled 4, 4, 3, 2 (I have recently learned that this is a 19% chance). Annie rolled and missed. I had to forfeit my next attack thanks to the faithless card, and then Annie, as if to tear out my heart, hit me. I was gone, with my big plans laid aside. This was a big big point in the game. No one opposed Annie for the rest of the game. I would have tried again, but my sails and hull points were all too low. My sail had mastercraft, but my hull was pathetically weak, and I never did get it upgraded.
• There was a final showdown - my last chance, as it were. I was within about 7 or 8, and with all my bonus fame point cards I felt I might win it - if I survived the battle with Blackbeard. Well, Blackbeard fired at Dan first and did some damage. I only had 3 hull points, so he just needed 3 hits to do me in. Karla (who didn't play) rolled for him and blew me the hell out of the water (a 32% chance of happening). I limped grumpily to Pirate's Cove, distraught in my hideous luck. Annie and Dan finished the bugger off, netting not only pirate fame points, but treasure and gold ones, too. I would have lost by about 2 or 3 instead of 10. Still, Luckless Mike lamented the false fates! Arrrrgh!