August 25, 2004 |
The first game we played was pretty fun, and I met two pretty cool folks - Brett and Sterling. But the second game - Power Grid - was agonizing for reasons I'll explain below.
| Wettstreit der Baumeister |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Brett | 37 | 1 | * |
| Mike | 34 | 2 | * |
| Sterling | 32 | 3 | * |
Notes: This game, whose name means "Contest of the Builders" is kind of cute. Each player builds a city using these big, thick cards. The cards are auctioned off, one per turn, from a face up stack or a face down stack, and the high bidder gets the card, with half the bid going to the auctioneer. Each card is worth points and whoever has the best city at the end of the game wins. Some cards give money, others only points, some protect the town from sabotage, etc.
It was the first time anyone had played it, and though Sterling complained about the luck of income (you roll a die 6, and if you roll a 1 too often you can be screwed), I didn't find it that bad. Basically, Sterling built some protection pieces so that we couldn't sabotage him (to sabotage someone you have to roll a dot on the die 6 and you get a sabotage chip. You play the chip on someone and they either lose a part of their city or they have to pay you not to lose it).
Although he was protected, it wasn't that useful, as we rolled very few sabotage chips, and the protection pieces (towers) give very few points. Brett had very low income most of the game, and we exchanged volleys on saboteurs. At one point, Brett faked a kiss of the die and it rewarded his adoration with a "1". Whenever Sterling rolled a "5" (the highest #), he would "complain", "Dammit, how am I supposed to win with these 5's?"
I had huge amounts of income by the end, as I had 4 city gates in my city, and if I had been counting cards at the end I could have known to use my spare saboteur (which I had been using as a deterrent on Brent) rather than have it sit uselessly in front of me as Brett destroyed a chunk of my city.
Brett had built the two most expensive pieces in the game - churches of 8 and 9 points, and they carried him to victory. Near the end, there was a card for sale in the face up stack that absolutely none of us could use, and no one wanted to buy it or waste a turn selling it, so we had to use the face down stack after that. Sterling didn't like the face down stack because the auctioneer could see it, then bid on it. He would announce what it was after one round of bidding. If you passed before the bid returned to the auctioneer, you couldn't buy it once you knew what it was. Sterling felt that this was "too luck-based." I didn't. I see it as a beautiful chance to bluff. If you don't want it, act like you do. If it's awesome, make it seem cheap.
| Power Grid |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Mike O | 17 | 1 | |
| Justin? | 16 | 2 | |
| Cam | 15 | 3 | |
| Sterling | 14 | 4 (+8 electros) | |
| Mike | 14 | 5 (+2 electros) | |
Notes: I was the old hat at this one, having played it three times. Justin and Mike had played Funkenschlag before (the old version of this game) and Sterling had played Power Grid once and really didn't want to play Ideology with the Ubermeister Bill, who ordered 4 folks to join him at the other table. We actually started playing this, and I had an exceptional first turn, but then Mike O showed up and we started over to include him. I then had a less exceptional first turn.
The early game was un-noteworthy, except that I started in Philly, Mike O started in Georgia, Cam started in Omaha, Sterling was in the south, and Justin? was in Chicago. Cam, for some reason, kept buying 2 uranium per turn despite the fact that he was the only one with uranium plants and there were 2 replaced each turn. He wasted some $$$ doing this. I should also mention that Mike O had some huge power plants in early game, too, while Justin? went for wind plants.
Near the end of step 1, Mike O, Sterling, and I were totally hemmed in. Justin? had the opportunity to change the game to step 2 (allowing us to make 2 connections per city). He decided not to the first time, probably to try to get someone to pass him so he wouldn't be in the lead position. This made sense, and it worked, as he fell back to #3. Then, while Mike O, Sterling, and I just collected money in our closed-in areas, he did it again! I, out of frustration, said, "Come On!" but he ignored me, and Cam was decent enough to expand to 9 cities, freeing the 3 of us who were trapped from another nigh-wasted turn.
I feel that this wasted turn cost Justin? the game, as I'll try to show near the end.
Finally freed from my trap, I expanded too crazily. I went all the way to 10 cities (from 5), and that shot me into 2nd or 3rd place, and now my goods were too expensive, as I was collecting coal. Sterling rose more moderately, and Cam had to halt for a second in order to get more money as he needed some serious power plant upgrades.
I then upgraded to too many cities again - to 13 - and was practically out of money, plus I was in second position. Now my resources were more expensive, and as all I had were 3 coal plants at the end of the game, coal got really pricey despite my opportunities to stockpile the resources during Justin?'s questionable delay strategy. This lack of cash was exacerbated by an auction in which I got very frustrated at Cam, because he kept raising the bid on a coal plant that I needed if I were to have any chance of winning. I paid way too much, but as soon as he raised the bid, I knew I was toast. Sho'nuff, I was doomed to last place.
At one point, if Justin? could have expanded to 15 (marking the end of the game), he could have won the game. No one else had more than 13 cities (and he was already there), and he could have powered 14. Instead, he had to wait one more turn, when the indomitable power plants of Mike O (the 2 best garbage plants and a nice hybrid) destroyed him. Now, if he had expanded the second time (instead of passing a second time) to initiate step 2, he could have fueled more plants (which he had the capacity for - and it was cheap! He had 2 wind plants and 1 oil for 3 cities plant) and gotten more cash. This cash would have been more than anyone else managed (except Cam, it turned out) and he probably could have gotten to space 15 one turn earlier. As it was, he could have made it to space 14, but hesitated a turn there in order to be number 3 on the turn order (when I was foolishly over-expanding). Instead, he had wasted a turn for the sole purpose (as far as I can tell) of keeping Mike O, Sterling, and me stuck in the corners.
The hesitation, though obnoxious, wasn't what did me in. My problem was getting dumb power plants and expanding too far. I frequently expanded to too many cities when it was either uneconomical to do so (like expanding to 13 cities when I had two 6 plants and a 3) or it backed me up in the turn order. I also bought too many plants. I like to buy very few ones, generally taking cheap ones or getting big power ones. I wasn't able to do this to my satisfaction. I was never hurting for money, but I just didn't maximize my capacity, and getting stuck in a bid for my third coal plant near the end was incredibly costly, but I had crippled myself by expanding too quickly once we got to step 2.
Summary: The second game took too damned long. The restart kind of pissed me off, as I felt I had a nice start, and when Justin? didn't expand the second time that really bugged me, as I felt it was foolish and non-conducive to "fun" gaming. He wasn't getting anything out of it, as it only resulted in cheaper resources for the rest of us - and we were really able to stock up while he dilly-dallied - and it didn't help his turn order prospects. Plus, he allowed Cam to get some cheap places out west because he waited too long. The fact that he didn't feel like he should explain his strategy didn't help. Plus it could have added a half-hour to the damn game, which was already taking forever with the tough decisions and the restart.