November 5th, 2004 |
Sam invited us over to play games - he apparently hadn't scratched the itch the night before - and Dan, Annie, and Karla joined us. Jill was watching a movie or something at a friend's.
| Killer Bunnies |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Annie | Magic Carrot | 1 | |
| Mike | 7 carrots | 2 | |
| Karla | 4 carrots | 3 | |
| Dan | 3 carrots | 4 (Tie) | |
| Sam | 3 carrots | 4 (Tie) | |
Notes: We played with my newly acquired green expansion set, which includes the zodiac. Annie was off to a great start, as was Sam, but Dan and I were bunny-less for quite a few turns.
Annie picked up 4 carrots right away. Sam kept taking two turns, but he took too long, and was trying to cheat besides (by drawing the new card before putting in his second run), so I targeted him as soon as I could. When a slow person takes two turns, this game can drag. Sam was a bit tipsy, so I'm not going to chastise him too much.
Annie soon became the only target for Sam's attacks, and she lost all her bunnies, as did Karla. Then came the "Dawn of Mike". I started gathering tons of cards, bunnies, and awesome special cards, and I became an indomitable force. I traded extra bunnies for carrots, and I had a ton of defense cards, pawns, cabbage and water cards. I had more bunnies than the rest of the players put together, and I survived all and every attack. The few that took out a bunny made me smile and wink. It took a while, but I also managed to get a ton of carrots. By the end I had way more than anyone else.
When I'm in a position of power like that, I tend to make other people's lives better, so I rarely attacked anyone or anything, unless I needed to get rid of cards. (Unlike Dan, who just kills bunnies.) So I usually just make trades or use my massive power to buy mass quantities. I offered a couple trades to Dan and Annie - a bunny for a carrot, maybe throwing in some extra cards - that sort of thing, and they'd say, I want 3 bunnies, or something ridiculous. Hell, I didn't need to make the trade! How are they going to force me to do what they want?
In the end, the joke was on me. Karla was really worked up, because on a turn or two before the end, I had done the "Two for one" trade with her, and given her Arnie for two of her carrots. As I dramatically flipped over the carrots one by one, Arnie kept failing to show up, and Karla became more and more sure that Arnie was the magic carrot. Everyone rooted for her. But it wasn't. Still, Annie managed to get the magic carrot - the sailor, and my huge advantage went for naught. It was still fun.
| Acquire |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Dan | $41,500 | 1 | |
| Mike | $38,300 | 2 | |
| Annie | $37,000 | 3 | |
| Sam | $35,600 | 4 | |
Notes: Next up was Acquire, a fave of Sammyboy. Karla bailed out, as she was tired, and the rest of us sat down. We re-explained everything to Annie, who probably has played this only once, or just watched.
Annie made the first corporation, but then forgot about it. For as soon as I made the Quantum corporation, she started buying stock in it like crazy. So I made myself a solid minority holder - maybe too solid - and slowly became the Phoenix stockholder.
Meanwhile, Sam and Dan made some smaller companies - Hydra and Zeta - and started expanding them like mad. I couldn't get in on them for cheap, and both guys were really spending like crazy to keep ahead of the other. So I avoided them and started a new company, American, and made more careful purchases of it.
For a little while, about mid-game, no one had any money, so we were all waiting for mergers. Finally, Phoenix was absorbed into Zeta, proving a big boon to me. Then Quantum was absorbed by a Dan and Mike propagated Sackson corporation. Later, I re-created Phoenix and made myself majority owner by the time it was absorbed by Hydra late in the game.
At this point, American, Zeta, Sackson, and Hydra were around, and Hydra and Sackson were both big and safe. I was majority in American and minority in Sackson. Dan was majority in Sackson and Zeta, and minority in Hydra. Annie was minority in American, and Sam was majority in Hydra and minority in Zeta. American was soon merged into Hydra, and Zeta was merged into Sackson. I made the Zeta merge, at a point when I probably should have made Dan do it, but I wanted to ensure an increase in my Sackson stock, and Annie was right on my tail. Dan's big amount of holdings in the two companies remaining at game end (Hydra - minority and Sackson - majority) gave him the victory.
I had gone for a quick merge strategy with a late play into Sackson. The competition was crazy fierce for Zeta and Hydra, and I (correctly) avoided them. The problem was that I merged Sackson and Zeta, which gave Dan a ton of money - both in cashing in on Zeta and in being the majority holder in Sackson. I should have, in retrospect, made Zeta a safe company and then tried to get more shares of Sackson. Still, it was a close and excellent game. Usually one or two people get blown out, but this one was close all the way, as everyone made what were pretty good moves throughout.