Gaming Results

June 23, 2004

Tornado sirens went nuts as 5 twisters touched down in the area. Did we flinch? No. Did we panic? No. Karla bailed out after a second game of Bang! though, and I saw the coolest Doppler radar shot in my life.

Pounce!

Results
Player	Score	Place	First Time?
Dan	3	1	*
Scott	1	2 (Tie)	*
Mike	1	2 (Tie)	*
Karla	1	2 (Tie)	*
Ebbin	0	5 (Tie)	*
Annie	0	5 (Tie)	*

Notes: This is a remarkably silly game. Everyone has a mouse except for one person, who's the cat. The cat has an upside-down bowl and tries to catch the mice, who are in a circle in the center. The cat picks two numbers from one to six, and if either of the two numbers show up when he rolls the dice, he has to try to catch as many mice as possible. If he doesn't roll either number, he can fake like he's going to catch them, and if they flinch, they're out. The last mouse remaining gets to be the cat, and the person who's the cat a pre-determined number of times (3 or 4 or 72) wins.

Ebbin was a terrible flincher, and Annie was a flincher and slow on saving her mouse. Scott was pretty good, but Dan, despite having forfeited a turn by catching mice when the numbers he picked weren't rolled, managed to catch all of us in one turn (giving him an extra cat turn) and then faking us all out the very next roll.

The game was kind of loud as we slammed the cat onto the wooden table, so we had to put out a towel. Also, sometimes you couldn't see the dice and you had to guess when you pulled back your mouse.

Bang!

Results
Player	Role	Character	Place	First Time?
Mike	Outlaw	Willy the Kid	(Won) Lived
Dan	Outlaw	Vulture Sam	(Won) Lived
Scott	Outlaw	Suzy Lafayette	(Won) 1st Killed
Karla	Renegade	Kit Carlson	(Lost) 2nd Killed
Annie	Deputy	Bart Cassidy	(Lost) Watched Sheriff Die
Ebbin	Sheriff	Rose Doolan	(Lost) 3rd Killed

Notes: We actually played this one twice. The first game was over before Annie and Scott had a turn, as Ebbin seriously misplayed the Sheriff and got shot to ribbons as the first three players after him tore him to pieces.

Ebbin was the sheriff again the second game and was flustered enough to accidentally bend the sheriff card. He had to be punished for this needless violence, so we outlaws were determined to gun him down again.

Sheriff Rose Doolan was determined not to be gunned down so quickly, and was much more cautious, hoarding equipment in her backwater town. Vulture Sam quickly revealed himself to be an Outlaw, killing off Sheriff Doolan's horse. He stored a barrel, an extra horse and some heavy weaponry in his hideout and waited for help.

Soon Suzy Lafayette, the wicked scoundress, took aim at Rose Doolan, the evil sheriff who had stolen her man (or so she believed). Willy the Kid and Bart Cassidy, hushed and wearing their poker faces, sat by and watched as Kit Carlson - the deputy? or the renegade? - blasted a serious wound to Suzy in a duel, then finished her off with a shot to the heart. Suzy's last gasp was, "I shouldn'ta been a gunfigh..."

Willy the Kid leerily looked at Bart Cassidy, whose Vulcan gun and horse kept him at bay, so the final outlaw bided his time. Finally, he wiped out Kit Carlson, who had been unable to escape the blast of dynamite, which Sheriff Doolan had hoped would take out an Outlaw. Instead, Kit Carlson, the renegade, was filled full of lead by Willy the Kid, whose chance to act had finally come.

Bart Cassidy acted on the newfound knowledge and justified Willy's fear of the Vulcan machine gun by pumping shot after shot after him. Willy was able to dodge one shot, but took a flesh wound with the second one. Sheriff Doolan then made two big mistakes. Instead of going after Willy or Vulture Sam, Rose took aim for her deputy. Her shot went wide, though, and then she outdueled Vulture Sam, finally targeting someone worthwhile, but emptying her gun of bullets.

The outlaws went for it all. Vulture Sam and Willy the Kid ignored Deputy Cassidy and got Sheriff Doolan caught in a crossfire. First Sam, then Willy pumped her full of lead. Deputy Cassidy tried to take down Willy, but the Kid was too tough to fall. Sheriff Doolan was on the ropes, looking for a horse, a barrel to hide behind, a beer to drink - anything! But her luck failed her, and as Willy grinned wickedly behind him, Vulture Sam emptied his Schofield into her gut, spitting on her bloodied body. Deputy Cassidy watched with horror and fled town.

Can't Stop

Results
Player	Score	Place	First Time?
Mike	3	1
Dan	1	2
Annie	0	3

Notes: While Scott, Karla, and Ebbin went on a smoking break, we started up a game of Can't Stop. I had some decent rolls, established a good foundation, and won easily, though Annie had advanced nicely in at least 4 different numbers. Dan was able to close the 4's, but then the dice kept scattering him across the board, as he would get 3, 9, 10 or 2, 10, 12 combos. He was far behind and had to push his luck to stay in it. Of course, it never worked.

Evo

Results
Player	Score	Place	First Time?
Dan	59	1
Mike	58	2
Annie	54	3
Ebbin	53	4	*
Scott	43	5	*

Notes: Dan, for once, played an excellent game of Evo, destroying my perfect record...barely. Ebbin and Scott were behind the 8-ball early, spending a bit too much for some of the genes. We tend to be conservative bidders, and it hurt Scott and Ebbin a bit that they bid 3 and 2 in the first round. Though Ebbin did get an egg, which helps a lot, especially in the early going.

I was undone by a card played by Annie early on. I knew it could happen, and I should have taken care to avoid it, but it was a killer. The climate marker was on the green region, and we each had 3 dinos. I could have put my two guys on green and one on the hills, but I was looking ahead to the next climate change. But Annie played the "It's Freezing" card, and it cost me one of my early dinos. It was a good play, costing everyone a dino, and I was miffed at myself for not avoiding it.

Dan did his typical strategy, which was to take cards for cheap if the legs or immediately useful fur or parasol were unavailable. There were a lot of cards taken, and the bidding was much more interesting with 5 people. It makes for more conflict in the bidding. We still play the # of genes = # of players way, instead of # of genes = # of players - 1. We still play with newbies, so the firrst way is better.

Anyway, I slowly recovered, and had a nice group of stuff - some fur, some parasols, a discount gene, a leg, and an egg. I was surviving pretty well...then the cards started flying out. Scott took advantage of his cards to try to cut into his huge deficit. He distributed his carnage - Tough Babies, Metamorphosis, Extra-horned attack - on everyone. When I instructed him to target Dan (who was in the lead by about 3 or 4 points) near the end, Dan got mad at me. What the heck? Hadn't Scott just targeted me on the last turn? Why not spread the destruction? When Scott did what I advised I cackled evilly.

It was almost enough. I needed the game to continue so that I could catch up, and eventually, Dan's lack of parasols started to catch up to him. He didn't have any horns, and I foresaw his "Sun Stroke" card - avoiding losing any dinos - and as the meteor came closer, I rolled a couple times to avoid the game end (it didn't end on the 1-2 phase, and I rolled a 5 on the 1-4 game end space). On the last turn, I finally took the lead by one over Dan, as my wonderful little dinos were multiplying very well, and Dan's, partly due to his low initiative, were running out of space, and he was down to 6 dinos while I had 8 surviving ones by the end (as did Scott, who was finally making his mutations pay off). But the meteor hit, and Dan had the +2 mutation point card (which I suspected he had), and my grip on invincibility finally fell. Had I not lost that early dino, I think I would have won. It set me back a little bit early on, and it took about 2 rounds to recover.

Scott paid too much for his mutations, and didn't take things like fur or parasols until late in the game. Ebbin did well very early, but then made some silly mistakes in moving his dinos around. I tried to help him move around, but I didn't want to play his game for him. There's a fine line between moving for the now, moving for the anticipated future, and moving for your births. Ebbin had some trouble with all three, as did Scott. Annie was a victim of circumstance, and of getting stuck with useless genes towards the end. She was scared to bid too much for them, and she didn't have the discount gene that Ebbin and I did.

Dan played a nice game, using his cards to maximum potential. I tried to kill some dinos early on with a Deluge, but I only took out one of Annie's. This tended to be Annie's fate. She lost several battles to Scott, and one to me, and was often the biggest victim of cards like Tough Babies or Sunstroke. It was a very fun game, and once you get used to the cards, you can anticipate them. I've got some ideas on the genes, and I think I'll share these ideas here:

• Eggs - these are worth a lot early on, but not so useful late, when space is cramped. Tends to be especially useless late if you are one of the last to move.
• Legs - always a good choice. Worth more in later rounds, but almost always useful. Can be compromised, of course, if you move after everyone else, though. Also, if you have 8 dinos, even if you have 4 legs you need to plan ahead quite a bit.
• Fur & Parasols - great long-term investments, can also be a good short-term one. Late in the game, one or the other of these can make the difference between winning and losing. If the climate meter is going towards the mountains, for instance, the parasol is incredibly useful to have late. If it is heading towards the beach region, the fur is essential late in the game. One must have at least 2 total of each to win the game.
• Discount Genes - very useful early in the game. Two of them almost seems excessive, though.
• Tails - extremely useful, especially late in the game as space becomes confined. Not an essential piece to have early on. There are only 6 of these, so getting one late (especially in a 5 player game) is incredibly important.
• Card Genes - good investment gene, but not as good early on as a fur, parasol, discount, or egg. Very good late game pickup.
• Horns - tends to be under-utilized in our games, as we're not one for conflict. Dan, who loves conflict, almost never takes horns. Still, if you are caught without horns late in the game, you can be suddenly devastated by encroaching dinos. The fact that you have to roll to win with these makes them less valuable. I am thinking of making a house rule (suggested on the 'geek) that if you have more horns you automatically win any battles. This would make them MUCH more useful.

Scott moves his pink dinos into position as Ebbin's well-horned dino poses for the picture.