November 10th, 2004 |
With the moving of Game Night back to Wednesdays, Annie re-appeared and Jamie arrived with special guest....Oliver! They made it by around 8 or so. Karla got incredibly distracted for round 7 of PoF, but we managed to get it done.
| Princes of Florence |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Mike | 63 | 1 | |
| Karla | 54 | 2 | |
| Dan | 45 | 3 | |
| Annie | 38 | 4 | |
Notes: Something just clicked for me in this game. I had a very poor assortment of cards at the beginning, and I realized that building a lot of buildings just wouldn't work out. In the first round, I grabbed a jester, Karla a builder, Dan took a forest, and Annie took a park. I made the first work of the game - when I get the jester in the first round I like to make one - and when I saw that Dan and Annie were BOTH building workshops (as I had), I foresaw a future for me in recruitment cards.
I made the only work of round one, and took the money, so I felt like I'd be set for most of the game. I scooped up another jester in the second round - Dan thought I was trying to jack the price, but I really wanted it - and Annie took a builder, Dan a park, and Karla a forest. I bought the travel freedom this time - both my cards had travel on it - and bought the opera. I was now ready to dominate, though Dan, Annie, and Karla all tied for best work, and I was soon behind in points.
I was in great shape from my early jesters, so I was able to expand and get a bunch of cards over the next few turns - two bonus cards, a prestige card, all 3 freedoms, and some cheap landscapes. I also picked up a recruitment card and managed to snag Dan's bellmaker and build him to get some quick points in round 4.
In all, I built 5 works, and 4 of them were the best of the round. In round 5, for instance, my extra profession cards resulted in the best work by one - 19 to 18. In round 6, with the help of a timely bonus card, I managed to get the best work by one again - 21 to 20. In round 7, I had the best work on a tie, again on a bonus card that I had saved for the very last round, 24 to 24. These very close margins gave me the victory by the end.
Annie didn't use all her money wisely, and Dan actually forfeited an action in about round 5 - an inexcusable mistake. In his defense, when he had taken a bonus card earlier, he had only taken the top one instead of searching through the top five. The only threat to me was that Karla and Annie kept taking more prestige points from their works than I thought they would, though by the end, they were running out of cash and couldn't do it so often.
At game end, only Karla and I had prestige cards - Karla had two for about 11 points, and I had one for 8 points. Given my 12 point lead at the time, it was more than enough. Dan and Annie were short on investments and long on immediate results. Dan took early profession cards, which to me aren't as valuable as recruitment cards, especially at midgame or later, and neither Dan nor Annie grabbed any prestige cards. I was frequently building works where the building didn't match, simply because buildings were too expensive and I didn't have matching cards for it. By round 4, I still had only one building (though I ended up with 3).
This is a fantastic game. It has that beautiful balance of immediate gain vs. future prosperity that I really appreciate. All games like that (Puerto Rico, Power Grid, Taj Mahal, Torres) tend to be among my favorites.
| I'm the Boss! |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Mike | $49 Million | 1 | |
| Karla | $43 Million | 2 | |
| Dan | $32 Million | 3 | |
| Jamie | $24 Million | 4 (Tie) | |
| Annie | $24 Million | 4 (Tie) | * |
| Oliver | $22 Million | 6 | * |
Notes: With Jamie and Oliver now in tow, I nominated I'm the Boss!, which we haven't played in a while. Oliver and Annie were a bit flustered at first, as they didn't quite get how the money was distributed and how you got in on a deal. After a deal was made, Dan explained to Annie (more patiently and clearly than I did, I must admit) how to make deals and how to get in on them, and I also explained that all those recruitment cards were good ones to have.
Finally, we managed to get going, and Karla and I pretty much dominated. I had several "I'm the Boss!" cards, so I usually took my turns gathering up cards. Jamie and Annie tended to find themselves lured into making deals on their turns, and Jamie really kept running out of cards. Oliver was behind the eight-ball early, too, because Annie took his Goldman from him. She managed to make some good deals with Sacks and Goldman, and she was able to stop Jamie from stealing Goldman (but I took him later!).
I frequently tried to take small amounts of money. Non-threatening things, generally less than a share, unless I was supplying two characters - which I frequently was by the end. I would charge about a share and a half for two, which was generally lower than most other people's rates. It was a buyer's market, so the people with characters were always lowering their bids. If they charged too much, their character often found himself flying out of town.
I also took over a couple deals, nabbing about $9 million one time when I was going to be edged out of it. It was a 3 share deal for $5 mil apiece, and I let Jamie have $6 million of it. (He was way behind and I knew my generosity would keep the target off my back.)
After the 12th deal, the game ended, and everyone thought Karla had won - she kept taking deals away from Jamie and was aggressive in getting in on deals. Plus she wouldn't cut anyone in if he or she demanded too much cash. But, lo and behold, I had $49 million, which shocked everyone. Oliver called me sneaky.
| 6 Nimmt! |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Dan | 6 | 1 | |
| Mike | 15 | 2 | |
| Oliver | 24 | 3 | * |
| Annie | 39 | 4 | |
| Karla | 41 | 5 | |
| Jamie | 79 | 6 | |
Notes: It had been too long, despite what Dan says, since we'd played this excellent game. We took about two seconds telling Oliver how to play it, but he leaped in and did quite well. Jamie did very poorly.
Dan and I were awesome in the first round, as I had only 2 points, Dan 4. Annie had only 9, Oliver and Karla 14 each, and Jamie had an unbelievably poor 47. That almost broke Lee's record of 53. Not only would Jamie keep taking the 6th card, but he would get the row with the 55 or two multiples of 5 or something.
In the second round, I quickly squelched my narrow lead, making one terrible error on my 7th play or so. I was looking at the wrong row with the wrong card and got it all mixed up in my head. Had I made the right move (the bad move cost me about 6 points), I might have pulled it off, but as it was, I was doomed.
Jamie wasn't much better in the second round, but he had some closer company. Dan only managed 2 points, Oliver 10, I had 13, and Karla had 27. Annie (30) and Jamie (32) were the only ones to top 30. Thus, after only two rounds, the game was over, and Dan was double happy, both for winning the game and only having to play two rounds.