September 24th, 2004 |
Jamie made a call for a game night on Friday as I had canceled it on Tuesday, and just about everyone showed up, including Lethal and Sam and Jill. We tried to play a game of Talisman, but after about 4 or 5 turns I left the game, as Sam and Jill showed up after the rest of us (Dan, Jamie, Karla, Annie, Scott, and I) had started. 6 players are as many as I can take with this, and 8 (9 with Lethal) would have been ridiculous. So I bowed out, and then everyone quit, and then Jamie was mad at me for stopping the game. I didn't - I said that the rest of them could continue if they wished. Then Jamie wanted to play Family Feud (which can take about 11 players), but I didn't want to, and despite my insisting that we form two groups, no one listened to me. So I sneaked Sam and Dan over to another table when Lee pulled out Can't Stop. Good ol' Lee. His obsession with Can't Stop finally got Game Night moving.
I should mention that Jamie wrote three quotes down at various times of the night. There was one about paradise that is gone, and one was something Karla said to me while I was grumbling in front of the TV. She thought I was miffed that the games hadn't started, but really, I couldn't believe Terry Francona left Pedro in against the Yankees in the 8th inning, re-creating Game 7 of last year's ALDS. Anyway, the two quotes are:
1) "Honey, are mumbling about us over there or about the game?"
2) "'Cause when you float to the second to last cloud is when you the name of the song is REEL MOVIE!"
| Quo Vadis? |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Sam | 32 | 1 | |
| Mike | 28 | 2 | |
| Dan | 17 | 3 | |
Notes: The last time we played this game (which Dan says is cool, so long as he doesn't play with Annie, who tends to hose Dan when she can't think of anything better to do), Dan never got a senator into the main committee, so he pretty much devoted himself to doing so in this game. He seemed to start out well, but got a bit panicky near the end, and sacrificed some laurels in order to get a fellow into the committee, as it had already had 3 senators in it.
Sam made some very good plays, usually giving himself a majority in a committee and getting a high laurel chip for it, usually a "IV" or even a couple "V"'s. I made one big mistake of filling the initial size 5 committee with 4 of my guys. Eventually I was able to get a chip out of it, but it kind of hamstrung my options for moving on. The 5-man committee is much more exciting in a 4 or 5 player game, and it was kind of lame in this one. I made a lot of deals with Sam, and some others with Dan, and although I felt I played well, Sam's excellent tactical plays to get the big chips for almost nothing was too much to overcome.
One move stands out in its brilliance. Sam made a deal to admit Dan onward not for any laurel wreaths, but for the promise that Dan would move one of his senators forward a space in the next turn. Dan did so, which gave Sam the opportunity to snag a V laurel chip for practically nothing.
| Can't Stop |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Lee | 3 (5, 7, 11) | 1 | |
| Annie | 2 (6, 10) | 2 (Tie) | |
| Jill | 2 (2, 9) | 2 (Tie) | |
| Jamie | 1 (12) | 4 | |
Notes: Lethal loves this game, and he got Annie, Jill, and Jamie to play it with him. It took quite a while, as our game of Quo Vadis? was over before they were finished (and we started Wyatt Earp, too). It was a pretty hard fought looking contest, with Annie closing out the 6's before Lethal could get them, so he was forced to get 11's. The one turn I watched, Lee rolled but all the numbers that appeared were closed off.
| Wyatt Earp |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Mike | $28,000 | 1 | |
| Sam | $27,000 | 2 | |
| Dan | $26,000 | 3 | |
Notes: The first round saw a huge bounty on Billy the Kid that Sam and Dan shared. In fact, if Dan hadn't had the majority in Billy, he would have been out of money, as he didn't have enough points to help capture the rest of the guys. I had a nice assortment of most of the other outlaws, including the entire bounty of Belle Star. Sam had a little better assortment of outlaws, too, and after one turn I led with $11,000, Sam had $9000, and Dan had $7000. We all tied on Sundance, and since there wasn't enough $$$ to split up, the $5000 stayed until the next round.
In the second turn, while Dan and I tried to get Sundance, Sam put a huge bounty on Butch Cassidy. Once again I caught Belle Star, and we all fared pretty well, though Dan managed to do better than I at Sundance. After 2 turns, it was incredibly tight, as Sam and I each had $20,000, and Dan had $19,000.
The last turn was pretty quick, and Dan and I competed for a big bounty on Billy the Kid. Sam had a couple smaller bounties locked up all for himself, and on his last turn he played 6 points worth of Belle Star and discarded to end the round (and the game). However, he forgot that there needs to be a minimum of 8 points on the table to collect the bounty, so the $3000 reward for Belle went unclaimed. My 1 point majority in Billy the Kid was just enough to rope in the victory, as I won the closest game of this I'd ever played.
| Mille Bornes |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Lethal/Annie | 1000 | 1 | |
| Jill/Jamie | 900+ | 2 | |
Notes: The four folks only played one round of this, and Lee and Annie finished the race and had 3 of the 4 safeties. I also discovered that, in order to end a round, you need to land on 1000 miles exactly. I thought you could go over. That makes for more opportunities for foresight and strategy, but also more luck. What if you need a 50 and they're all gone? Do you wait for two 25's?
| Power Grid |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Mike | 18 (18 powered) | 1 | |
| Scott | 17 (17) + 17 electros | 2 | |
| Annie | 17 (17) + 2 electros | 3 | |
| Dan | 15 (14) | 4 | |
Notes: I tried to get Sam and Lee to play this with us, but Lee was worried it would take too long, so he bailed, and Sam wasn't up for a longer game. Jamie was going to play, but then he saw Karla playing DDR and Groove, and so he gave up his seat to watch (and eventually play) the video games. Scott came just in time to join in. His first game of this was pretty bad, and he did much better this time.
We played on the US map and we powered all regions except for the east coast. I started in LA, Scott started in Kansas City, Annie was in Chicago, and Dan was in Minneapolis. I thought I'd be in good shape since I was alone out west and that the three Midwest starters would impede each other. I was kind of right.
Annie expanded the most at first, followed closely by me. I had a nice mix of oil and coal plants at first, Dan had garbage and a hybrid, and Annie had coal, too. Scott had oil. Dan got caught in a pinch in the north and made a silly early expansion to build a third city when he could only power two. This lack of money really hurt him, and it also hurt that he went last on the second turn of the game, because Annie and Scott surrounded his area and hemmed him in. Thus, he could only expand at a very expensive rate AND he was short on cash.
My expansion went nicely, but the high expansion costs to cross the Rockies slowed me down. It also didn't help that Scott made headway into New Mexico before I could get there, and he managed some cheap energy pipelines up to Denver. Annie, still in the lead, snagged all the cheap expansions in the east, then triggered Step 2, which allows two connections per city.
The switch to Step 2 didn't help me so much as the others, but I did manage a pretty good expansion. My connection fees were still pricey (as I still hadn't made it over the Rockies, neither to the Midwest nor to Seattle), so I was still 2 or 3 cities behind Annie. Still, I was able to manage the power plant game pretty well, as I had a 6, 5, and 4 plant (one a hybrid, one garbage, and one uranium). Annie went for all coal late in the game, which could have really hurt her, but as she was the only one buying coal it wasn't too bad. Scott had some low output wind plants, and Dan could only power about 9 cities, and was still on 7 cities when the rest of us were at 11 or 12.
I was also careful to be 2nd or 3rd in the order cycle, as I wanted to get my resources for cheap (as Dan was also buying oil and garbage). I didn't want to pass Annie, and Scott had only wind plants, so I didn't have to worry about him raising the cost. On the last turn, I was at 12, Scott was at 13, and Annie was at 14. Dan was on 9. Dan got up to 15 cities, though he could only power 14. Scott, who had managed to buy the 50 fission plant for the minimum ("I can't do it, dude!" yelled Dan, in frustration), now was able to power 17. Annie also needed one more plant, as she could only power 14, so I made her pay extra for a 7 coal plant. Still, this one only brought her up to 17, too. With my 18 power capacity, I just needed to ensure that I expanded to 18 cities.
Fortunately, I was 2nd in the city building turn and I managed to snag 7 cities, mostly in the midwest. Had I not gone before Scott I think he would have been able to slow me down enough to make my connection costs too high. Dan had already built houses in the cities I was aiming for, so he didn't impede me at all. In fact, I made most of my connections through his early game connections. Annie and Scott each managed 17, and Scott had just a bit more money than Annie and claimed second place.
It was a good game with good teamwork. I took care of the power plant market and watched the scoreboard, Dan refilled the resource chart, and Scott made a good banker. Dan said that the game dragged, but he always says that when he's getting his hat handed to him. Annie and Scott both played well, they just got caught in the "not enough power" pinch at the end. I thought that I would catch Annie before I did, and I thought she might pull it off with her aggressive approach, especially when I was kind of hampered in Step 2 by some of Scott's expansion.