January 15th, 2005 |
Six of us had zipped up to Whitecap to ski and snowboard, and we left Karla behind because she wasn't feeling well. On Saturday we played Colossal Arena, and then Dan, Jamie and I went riding. When we got back (around 2 or so - it was freezing up there), we played an assortment of games.
| Colossal Arena |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Annie | 12 | 1 | |
| Mike | 11 | 2 | |
| Dan | 7 | 3 | |
| Mark | 3 | 4 | * |
| Jamie | 1 | 5 | * |
Notes: In our first game, we had the Ettin, Titan, Gorgon, Wyrm, Troll, Colossus, Amazon, and Cyclops. I was the only one who placed a secret bet, and Dan was the only one to place only one bet in the first round. Annie was the main backer of the Ettin and Colossus, I had the Amazon, Dan had the Cyclops, Jamie had the Titan and Gorgon, and Mark had the Wyrm. No one put anything on the Troll and he kicked the bucket in the first round.
In the second round I jumped on the Titan only to see Jamie let him die as, near the end of the round, Jamie ignored him to lay a completely inconsequential card. Mark, Jamie, and Annie all doubled their bets (totaling 7 now) on the Wyrm, Gorgon, and Ettin, respectively. Dan put a bet on the Amazon, which I needed, because I was really having trouble getting good cards for her.
In the third round I put a live bet on the Ettin and Colossus, and Jamie and Mark continued to put their bets on the Wyrm and Gorgon, hoping to get these guys to live and win a ton of cash. The rest of us worked together and snuffed first the Gorgon - dooming Jamie to failure, and then the Wyrm, in round 4, which doomed Mark. If things would only work out right I could defeat Annie - all of whose bets were still alive, as she had 4 on the Colossus, 5 on the Cyclops, and 7 on the Ettin. I had 7 on the Ettin (my secret bet!), 4 on the Amazon, and 2 on the Colossus. Dan was the wild card, as he had bets on both the Cyclops and the Amazon. I needed the Cyclops to go down in order to win, but Jamie also helped keep the Cyclops alive, as he had placed his last measly bet (1 point) on the Cyclops, just so that he wouldn't get
As one would guess, the Colossus was killed - I think by Jamie or Annie - and Annie won.
| Tigris & Euphrates |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Mike | 18 | 1 | |
| Dan | 16 | 2 | * |
Notes: After snowboarding, I wanted to try Tigris and Euphrates, but everyone wanted to play Ticket to Ride except for me and Dan, who was willing to give it a go. After explaining the rules, we got going. I've played it 2-player twice before, and both times it was somewhat more solitaire-like, as each person took a side and added monuments to their own kingdom and then we found out who the winner was. But Dan placed a leader right on one of my kingdoms, and we had conflicts basically the entire game.
I think I pretty much had a nice lead all game, as I managed to get the first four treasures. We each had good use of monuments, but after a few brutal battles, which I mostly won, I seemed to be in good shape for almost all cubes. By the end, Dan was getting a lot of cubes from monuments, but I was getting more.
I made one particularly nasty move on Dan at one point, turning a big group of his green tiles into a monument and then connecting our two kingdoms, giving my green leader a tremendous advantage over him. Dan was resentful of that move, as he felt I was taking advantage of his inexperience. I don't have any experience myself, and the idea came to me as the game went on. Anyway, I ended up controlling the monument (though the green supporter tiles in his kingdom were now gone.
Dan later won a couple smaller battles against my king (black) and my farmer (blue), but nothing devastating, and nothing to overcome my two big victories earlier and my overwhelming lead in treasure cubes. For about 12 turns or so, I was getting 2 red cubes per turn from monuments. Both of us managed to get every color from monuments by the end. The final tally:
Final breakdowns:
| Player | Lowest Color | Second Lowest | Second Highest | Highest |
| Mike | 18 | 19 | 19 | 39 |
| Dan | 16 | 17 | 21 | 23 |
Dan's two lowest were green (thanks in part to my hosing) and Red (because I took a monument from him early on) while my lowest was black, which I kind of had to scramble to get for a while, but I picked up a late monument to get the points.
| Ticket to Ride |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Annie | 126 | 1 | |
| Jamie | 118 | 2 | |
| Howard | 97 | 3 | |
| Mark | 85 | 4 | * |
Notes: I didn't play, and I only got the final scores, but just after Dan and I had finished Tigris & Euphrates - and it took a while - the other four were finishing up Ticket to Ride. It sounded like it came down to the longest train connection, and though Jamie thought he had it, Annie really did. Mark said, "My route looks the longest, so I should get the points."
| Colossal Arena |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Mark | 12 | 1 | |
| Jamie | 10 | 2 | |
| Dan | 8 | 3 | |
Notes: Colossal Arena had become the favorite of the trip, and after we finished a long set of Texas Hold 'em, which Mark eventually won (I had a skull-splitting headache and kept going all-in until I got knocked out by Jamie), the three drunk amigos got together and played this one. Everyone placed a secret bet in this one, but only Jamie's didn't come through in the end. Jamie still had 3 monsters survive, though, for 4, 3, and 3 points, but he couldn't overcome Mark's secret bet on the Gorgon, who survived. Dan's secret bet on the Wyrm also made it, but only small, cruddy bets (a 2 and a 1) were open.
Dan seems to hang on to bets too long. Unless he was using the Daimon to move bets around, I don't know why he'd wait so long to place bets, especially in a 3 player game, as there are, aside from the secret bet, 8 possible size 4 bets and 7 possible size 3 bets, giving everyone ample time to get their 15 betting chips out there. At any rate, it looks like it cost Dan.