December 18th, 2004 |
Dan and Annie stopped by and were good enough sports to play a bunch of games as I had gotten tired of freaking out over my Greek lit prelim. Karla did her best to ignore us as she watched Some Like It Hot.
| Edel, Stein & Reich |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Dan | $107 Million | 1 | |
| Annie | $103 Million | 2 | |
| Mike | $100 Million | 3 | |
Notes: This has become Annie's game of choice when there are three players, and I have to agree that it's only great with three. I played better than I usually do, but I still ended up in last place.
The difference this time was that I was determined to get a lot of gems. I looked to the future quite frequently rather than worry too much about immediate needs, and went for big scores whenever possible.
In the first round, Dan had the majority in 3 gems, and I had the majority in Topaz. Annie and I tied for contracts with 10. Had Annie not collected so much money during the first round, she probably would have been hopelessly behind. As it was, Dan had a nice lead as he focused strictly on gems (and got the +4 per sole majority card). Had I not tied Dan in blues he would have really crushed us. There were few deals: Dan $39 Million, Mike $36 Million, Annie $24 Million.
The second round saw Dan and Annie make strides while I kind of slumped. I was forced to make deals a few times as Dan and I kept butting heads, but his offers were never beneficial, so I either took the card (usually gems) for far too high a cost or got a few crappy gems for my trouble. Annie took advantage of our fighting to have a better round, though she was still kind of short on gems. Dan $72 Million, Mike $58 Million, Annie $54 Million.
In the last round, I knew I needed a big splash to catch up to Dan. I wanted to stop his big lead in Yellows, and so when a 3 Yellow card came up I tried to get it. Dan did, too, and so did Annie. That, I felt was the game (even though there were still 5 turns left). Keeping the status quo is always beneficial to the leader, and had I managed to get the $7 million on the card instead, I would have probably won. As it was, I tried my best and did okay. Annie had about 18 red gems and the +1 per red gem card. I had 9 blue gems and the +1 per blue gem card. Dan's lack of gems (except yellow) made him the low scorer for the round, but the useless 3rd turn really hampered everyone's chances, and Dan held on for the victory. Annie and I amassed about $24 million over the game with the contracts while Dan did not pick up even one.
| Domaine |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Mike | 25 | 1 | |
| Annie | 22 | 2 | |
| Dan | 16 | 3 | |
Notes: We had all played this once or twice before, but this was only the second with three players. Dan and I have played 2 player a few times.
Dan and I managed to get early mines, and Annie did just a turn or two later. I tried to expand and get a bunch of knights, but when Dan played a double knight into a nice domaine next to mine, I chickened out and forced him into an alliance with me.
Our domaines didn't really conflict too much, so expansion was always a valid option. I managed to expand one domaine to get a third mine, which Dan eventually matched. My other domaine, in an alliance with Dan, had no where beneficial to expand to (as it was stuck in a corner), so I just left it alone. Annie created four domaines, and eventually captured the castle in the middle. Dan was in the process of creating a very nice 3rd domaine, but he ran out of cards.
In the three player game, the border cards are really vital, but Dan kept discarding them for Annie to pick up on her turn. I kept watching these really nice cards going to Annie, and Annie usually sat on them for a while before using them. Then, at the end, Dan was upset because he didn't have enough border cards!
Near the end, we discovered that Annie was receiving three gold per turn when she should have been receiving only two. We shrugged our shoulders and just played it right from then on. As I mentioned, Annie had 4 domaines, but none really netted more than 6 or 7 points, and most gave her no more than 3 or 4. Mine were pretty nice, and Dan had two excellent ones, and would have had a third, awesome one, but couldn't manage to get it together. Near the end, I acquired a village for 3 points, taking them from Annie in order to get closer. The score went from Annie 25, Mike 17, Dan 13, to Annie 22, Mike 20, Dan 13.
I knew I would finish higher than Annie in money (I was getting 4 per turn while Annie was only getting 2, plus I was going to sell two 5 gold cards). Still, Annie put a knight in the territory from which I had just taken her village, and I was sure she'd re-take the village. Lucky for me, she didn't have an expansion card, and I kept my village. With the most money, I received a 5 point bonus, and my domaines ruled! Dan was doomed when the deck ran out and he needed one more barrier building card, or else he might have won. I think the domaine he was working on was worth about 7 or 8.
| Coloretto |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Dan | 130 | 1 | |
| Mike | 121 | 2 | |
| Annie | 100 | 3 | |
Notes: I have recently decided to play this game in a new way: get the other folks out first and then greed it up. If Dan is next, and he's collecting yellow, I'll set him up to get a string of yellows, and when he takes it, he's gone, and I can try to get the stuff I want. It's risky, but it's more fun than hosing and getting hosed.
Annie, who loves this game, kept getting screwed, as I would set Dan up, Dan would take the good cards, and Annie would get so pissed with Dan that, once in a while she would forget what I was collecting and give me a great group of cards. It didn't help that Dan (who got into my "help another player and greed it" strategy) would set her up, and then Annie wouldn't take a great set of cards, hoping to hose Dan.
After the first round, the score was Dan 47, Mike 40, Annie 36. Greed, which had worked beautifully until the last round, really let me down on my last couple draws and cost me 4 points or so. Annie had at least one of each card.
In the second round, Annie and I battled to a stalemate. I only had three colors, and two were good, but the third was only worth 3 points, so I only managed 38 points. Dan benefited the most again from my strategy: Dan 89, Mike 78, Annie 73.
In the last round, I finally had the best score, and Annie really got slammed, as she had five different colors, and multiples of all of them. This gave her a lot of negatives. I tried to get Dan to take +2's while I gathered heaps of good cards, including a couple really nice wild cards, but Dan didn't get minus points, and easily held onto his lead.
| Wyatt Earp |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Mike | $30,000 | 1 | |
| Dan | $18,000 | 2 | |
| Annie | $13,000 | 3 | |
Notes: The first game was so quick, only 2 rounds, that we had to play another. In the first round, scores were low, but I had the lead as I managed to put one of Dan's outlaws in a hideout.
In the second round, I exploded, getting in on all the big guns, usually for the most money (there was a ton of money on Sundance, Dalton, and Belle Star), and when Dan tried to stop me by throwing a hideout on Bob Dalton (who was worth about $12,000 from all the stagecoach and bank robberies he pulled - plus I had a HUGE lead in his capture), I managed to Wyatt Earp the Hideout and end the round. I won in a landslide.
| Wyatt Earp |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Annie | $32,000 | 1 | |
| Dan | $31,000 | 2 | |
| Mike | $24,000 | 3 | |
Notes: Then we played the second game, because the first game only took about 20 minutes. After I did so well in the first game, I was the constant victim of Hideout play. I was hit with hideouts 5 times in the second game, and 4 of them worked. I only managed to get rid of two of them, but was stifled for $0 on the other two. The first one wasn't so crucial, because although I would have netted a few grand for Wes Hardin, the remaining points on the board were too few to result in his capture. The second one, though...ugh.
I didn't quite get rolling in the first round, as I was stuck with a lot of sheriff cards, and only managed second or third place in a couple outlaws, since Dan stuck me with a hideout on Wes Hardin, who would have given me a nice score. Dan had 1st or 2nd in almost every outlaw, and had he been able to get the Wes Hardin money, he would have done a repeat of my performance in the first game. As it was, Dan led $16,000 to Annie's $12,000, while I languished in last with $4000.
My goal in the second round was just to get back into it with a quick round. It worked. Although I was still in last, I managed to get the Wes Hardin money Dan robbed me of in the first round, and managed to fend off a Hideout - squandering 2 Wyatt Earp cards to do so in consecutive rounds. Dan never amassed too many cards, and was 5 or 6 out of first in a couple, allowing Annie and me to catch up. Dan $21,000, Annie $18,000, Mike $15,000.
In the last round, Sundance, who had not yet been captured, was my only road to victory, and I parlayed him into about $10 or $11,000. I was in good shape, but then Dan threw a hideout on him. There was one card left in the draw deck...bullet hole. I was doomed. The second time through the deck, almost all the wanted cards are gone, so my chances of removing the hideout, even if I managed a Wyatt Earp card, were slim. I grimaced in agony, and Dan and Annie laughed at me. At one point, I tried to tell Annie not to hose me, as I was doomed, but she tried to throw another hideout on me. (Sometimes Annie lets the meta-game get the best of her.) Fortunately, her missed draw saved me further embarrassment. I managed two Wyatt Earp cards, but both draws missed. This was agonizing because Annie managed to hit two draws in a row with Bank Robberies. The last one she played won her the game, as it not only threw some more cash on Billy the Kid, but it gave her a one-point advantage over Dan for Billy.
It was my turn, and Annie had discarded a Wyatt Earp card. I picked it up, drew (and failed, again), and, as either Dan or Annie were going to end the game soon anyway, I discarded my last card and called it a night.
My luck tonight was pretty rotten. I had 6 hideouts played on me, and 5 of them hit. I only managed to get rid of 3 of them, despite using multiple Wyatt Earps on them. Also, I missed several draws on things like Bank Robberies and Stagecoach robberies, and the two hideouts I played, one on Dan and one on Annie, both missed. I've calculated that 55% of draws should work, so I was WAY under the curve, especially in game 2, when just about nothing worked. It was frustrating. I wasn't upset with Dan's play of hideouts - they were the correct plays - just my bad luck. The only time it didn't make sense was when Annie played another hideout on me when I was in last place - it would have made more sense to go after Dan. That one was the one that failed, though.