Gaming Results

July 28, 2004

Despite the absence of star regular Scott, and the non-presence of "maybe" promiser Sam, not to mention Jamie's traitorous Band Night, Game Night endured this week, thanks to the continued good faith of Dan, co-conspirator Annie, and omnipresent Karla.

Alhambra

Results
Player	Score	Place	First Time?
Mike	157	1
Dan	133	2
Karla	88	3

Notes: Karla started her palace off in a slloooooooooooooooow fashion, while Dan and I had some nice, diversified portfolios. I grabbed an early lead in towers, and although Karla also quickly gathered two of them, she lost track of them as the game went on and never really reaped in too many points.

I had a nice-sized wall, but I bought too many bad pieces, so I had to spend a turn just before the 2nd scoring round (I had a feeling it was coming up) to adjust my palace. I had a nice sized lead after the second round - I just had to keep from mucking it up too badly. Dan had solid second place finishes or better in Gemächers and Arkaden, and he had the Garten lead all game. He also had an 11-point wall, whereas Karla had a 13 pointer. Mine was 10.

Unfortunately, Karla quickly became distracted when Annie showed up and bought countless buildings indiscriminately, hoping to end the game so she could eat a snack and chat about Annie's haircut. In fact, Karla ended up with about 5 buildings in her reserve pile at the end that she couldn't fit into her palace. Dan probably could have made a stronger run if Karla had taken her time and played with more care.

Alhambra plays pretty quickly with 3, but it just went on a little too long for Karla, who gets distracted if (a) a game lasts over 45 minutes, or (b) someone shows up mid-game.

Survive!

Results
Player	Score	Place	First Time?
Dan	18	1
Mike	11	2
Annie	10	3
Karla	7	4

Notes: Next up was a game of Survive! as Dan and I went with what the chicks wanted to play. I think Dan wanted to play something meatier, but we only had about 45 minutes before game night would end (we started late thanks to a long conversation we had with Dan pre-Alhambra).

Everyone kind of had his/her own little story in this game.

• Mike - Put all eggs in one basket. When, due partly to bad luck and partly to a play by Karla that I myself probably would not have made, I lost my 4, 5, and 6 players, I got mad and sent a sea serpent after Karla instead of eating up one of Dan's pieces. Karla received her "come-uppance" when Dan rolled a sea serpent on his turn, and vengeance was mine! I managed to save most of the rest of my pieces, but victory was impossible from very early on.
• Karla - Made a target by Mike after she killed my three best pieces, Karla kept losing boats to whales and just couldn't get her swimmers ashore before they were scarfed down by sharks. (Mike's vendetta, by the way, only lasted until Dan made a sea serpent eat her boat w/2 people.)
• Annie - Annie's people were pretty scattered, and every time she made a move to get an empty lifeboat back to the island, it was lost by a whirlpool. Played a mostly defensive game, though she usually rolled the sharks that devoured Karla's people.
• Dan - Played a solid game, pretty defensive-oriented. Was quiet so that I didn't have the sea serpent eat his pieces early on, and usually cleared a lane for his lifeboats well in advance. He also hitched a free ride on one of Annie's boats. This was a strategy I copied later in the game to get one of my pieces saved. It has its pluses and minuses. You can get a guy ashore by using mostly another player's movement points, but you have a higher risk of being eaten by monsters if you are left next to a sea serpent and the other color's people are gone.
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