July 4, 2004 |
I had been eager to play games for over a week, since no one showed up at Game Night this week. This was due to Dan buying a boat, Scott being in Jamaica, and Jamie going to Concert on the Square. Finally, Dan, Annie, and I were able to play some games, watch the fireworks (though my legs were torn to pieces by the mosquitos and I had to flee up to Dan's apartment and watch from there), and play more games.
| Ticket to Ride |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Dan | 113 | 1 | |
| Annie | 98 | 2 | |
| Mike | 74 | 3 | |
Notes: In the 3-player game, the double-routes aren't used, so I was a little too scared to use the New York to Los Angeles card I had. Instead, I made 3 smaller connections, then tried to 1) make the longest route, and 2) make 5 or 6 train connections for extra points. I ended up getting one last ticket, which was a big mistake, since Dan ended the game in one or two turns.
Annie took the early lead, and had some nice east coast runs, and was definitely in the lead for longest route. Dan started out REALLY slowly, but collected a ton of cards. I never had more than about 8 cards, and I used them frequently. I played okay, I just didn't go for enough big routes and I avoided tickets, especially when Annie made a wall that made getting to the east coast essentially impossible.
Dan's huge card stockpile served him beautifully, as he made 6 car connection after 6 car connection, and he had made one nice long route. Annie had longest route, but her tickets were as crappy as mine (nothing longer than 11 or 12, I think), and couldn't really keep up. I was the only one left with a penalty (-8), as I couldn't make the Seattle to LA connection.
The game went very quickly, and had a very nice pace to it. Our 5-player game took a while, but I think it will go much more quickly next time.
| Bermuda Triangle |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Mike | $170,000 | 1 (Tie) | |
| Dan | $170,000 | 1 (Tie) | |
| Annie | $100,000 | 3 | |
Notes: Next up was Annie's favorite game, and as two of my ships were the first two sucked up by the cloud, Dan laughed, "This game hates you," or something like that. As the game progressed, ships were getting sucked up pretty frequently. By the end, Dan had 1 ship, and all mine were gone. Annie only lost one ship, but she lost the game because one of her ships couldn't progress because the cloud was always in the way (I spun a lot of West, East, North, South), and Dan and I kept landing on her as she tried to get some goods.
| Torres |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Annie | 298 | 1 | * |
| Mike | 275 | 2 | * |
| Dan | 256 | 3 | * |
Notes: In this game, each player tries to build and control the most powerful castles. Ones does this by 1) building the castle, 2) moving your knights around, and 3) using action cards to gain special powers. Scoring works by multiplying the number of spaces the castle takes up by the level of your highest knight in the castle. For example, if you have a castle that takes up 8 spaces, and your knight is on level three, you get 24 points. There are several castles, so you try to get into the action of the best castles throughout the game.
I must admit that we played incorrectly. When placing a new knight, I thought the rule was to place him anywhere, so long as it was on level 0 (i.e. not on a tower). The rules state that a player places a new knight BESIDE a knight already on the board, so long as the new knight is at the same level or lower of the original knight. This makes a big difference, and explains why our scores were so high. I think this would make the game much tighter, to be honest, and make the card play much more interesting.
Anyway, playing with my faulty rule interpretation, Annie and I took early leads, as we each controlled or got a share in on the biggest castles. Dan started slow, but had a lot of cards (as did Annie). Annie and I expanded our leads in the 2nd scoring round, and Dan began to make a move, creating a very large castle with a nice height in the center. Annie still had the best balance, though, as she had high towers in all three of the biggest castles, while I had high towers in only 2, and Dan had high towers in only one.
In the final round, Dan placed the king beautifully, so that only he could benefit from the 10 point bonus (he and I had shared in the 2nd round). Then he really made a move in another big castle, and I tried to improve my lot in the third castle and in a smaller castle, but I was handicapped by the small amount of positioning available. Dan also used some cardplay very well (though one card - the move any knight as if you were placing a new knight on the board - was misplayed, due to my misinterpretation of the rules). He ended up making a big run, closing the gap with me from over 40 points to under 20. Still, Annie's excellent towers in the three big castles let her run away with the victory.
| Survive! |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Mike | 25 | 1 | |
| Annie | 15 | 2 | |
| Dan | 14 | 3 | |
Notes: Annie was pooping out, but was determined to play one more game. As I had brought Torres, Ticket to Ride, San Marco, Power Grid, and Pirate's Cove, the best bet was some lighter fare. We opted for Survive!, the greatest Parker Brothers game ever made. Dan's got a copy that I gave him, which is complete except that it's missing one purple piece.
I made very sure to remember where my high-point guys were, and I was very cautious. I always kept them at least two spaces away from sea serpents. Usually, people will go for the easy kill on sea serpents rather than make an investment. So, my plan worked well. I managed to get my 4 highest point guys to shore very early on, and as Dan and Annie were losing boats to whales and sea serpents, I was sure I had victory in hand.
Dan ended up losing 6 of his 10 people. He must have lost almost all of them to sea serpents. Annie lost 4, I think, including some higher pointed ones, like a 5 or a 6. I only lost two, a 1 and a 2, both to whirlpools. I was almost eaten by a shark, but managed to kill it. Dan and Annie targeted each other for the most part, as they frequently left their swimmers or boats in a position to be killed. My cautious approach was too much work for them, and they didn't use teamwork to try to smoosh me.