August 31, 2004 |
It was game night once again, and Dan, Annie, and Scott were good enough to come over and try out a new one.
| St. Petersburg |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Mike & Karla | 95 | 1 | * |
| Annie | 76 | 2 | * |
| Scott | 62 | 3 | * |
| Dan | 50 | 4 | * |
Notes: Dan, Annie, and I actually tried to play this while Scott and Karla were off smoking, but when they showed up we did do a restart. I didn't think the game would take too long, but there were a lot of tough decisions to make, and it ended up taking longer than I thought. It was a good thing we didn't keep Karla and Scott waiting. Karla and I made a team so we could have 4 players.
I took the Mistress of Ceremonies out of the early deck because I heard the card could ruin the game, and I told everyone the "essential" strategies: get two worker cards in the first round and get an aristocrat. Annie, who got to pick the first aristocrat, took the judge, and thanks to him she had a nice early VP lead, which got close to 20 at one point.
As the game wore on, Dan was pitifully short of money, and Karla and I had a good amount of it, as we managed to get the Tax Man and I lobbied for us to get the bank. This made all three of our rounds profitable. We also managed to get all 6 fur trappers by the end of the game, which really helped us make money hand over fist. I felt, so long as we could get enough Aristocrats, that we'd make up Annie's big lead in no time.
Making up the lead was difficult, though. Scott had the Observatory, and he also made good use of some worker upgrades. Annie started making a lot of buildings in midgame, and we never did catch up to her building production. She had the carpenter, who made buildings cheaper.
Scott upgraded too many aristocrats, I felt, and never gathered enough minor ones to get a nice sample of various 'crats. Karla and I did a nice job upgrading our buildings (to the Peterhof and Bank, plus we eventually acquired the Academy), and we had two more aristocrats than anyone else, plus we had two more hiding in our hand!
In the end, Annie's lack of aristocrats did her in. Karla and I had 8, Dan and Scott 6, and Annie only 5. Without the final aristocrat bonus, Karla and I were 2 points behind Annie, but our 3 extra 'crats gave us the victory.
| Medici |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Dan | 112 | 1 | |
| Karla | 92 | 2 | |
| Mike | 91 | 3 | |
| Annie | 72 | 4 | |
| Scott | 43 | 5 | |
Notes: I love this game, and when Dan dallied too much when I gave him the chance to choose the next game, I selected this for him. He said he wanted something that "flowed", and Medici is very quick and easy, and has little chance of running over an hour (it was already 8:30).
I re-read the rules, took out 6 cards just in time, and off we went. I had a nice collection of dyes and furs in the first round, and Annie foolishly (and accidentally) bid 1 on a truly horrible set of three items. They ensured she finished last on the first shipment and kept her from really threatening 2nd or 3rd place until the end. Scott had a good first round, and Karla did, too, though I thought she paid a bit much for a couple things. Dan was the story of the first round, though, as he got two majorities by paying a grand total of 3 points. I managed to have the best shipment and was in a close second.
In the second round, Dan was the first one out, as he focused entirely on Spices ("ghost ladies"). Scott had a mixture of things, though he went mainly for cloth and grain. Karla was starting to make her run, and I had an okay 2nd round, keeping my majority in Dye but settling for 2nd in fur. This wouldn't have been so bad, but I only managed to tie for 4th in the biggest shipment, which left me in a meager third. Annie had managed to get up to 4th.
Karla got the gold in the third round, and though I managed to keep my lead in dyes, everyone took the high Dye #'s, so I had a very meager total shipment, as I settled for a 1 in Dyes to get me some more bonus points. Dan went over the edge in spices, getting all 20 bonus points, and he managed to get 4th in shipment. I only got 3rd in shipment, and I got hosed on the last draw. I was the last one left, and hardly any furs had come out. I filled my ship (3 spaces) and managed only one fur. I checked the rest of the deck after I took the card and saw 2 more furs (out of three) in there. This slight bad luck cost me second place. Dan also managed to barely collect grain and still get some 2nd place points on it most of the game, whereas I was too far behind in most commodities to get anywhere else except for Dyes and Furs.
I still like this game a lot though Dan grumbled about it again for some reason. "That's the second game I don't like that I won this week," he muttered.
It took about 40 minutes.