January 26th, 2005 |
Tonight I was uninspired, so I let Dan pick the first game, and he picked Alhambra, a game that he likes quite a bit. After he finished eating his Sloppy Joe's and picked through half of Annie's Salt, Pork, and Potato food, we got going. Karla was in an impatient mood, as she kept asking when the first two games were going to be over, and then was distracted by Jamie's arrival (as she always is). Scott, despite promising to open a can of "KickAss" (sic) did not show up to fulfill his promise.
| Alhambra |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Karla | 108 | 1 | |
| Mike | 106 | 2 | |
| Annie | 102 | 3 | |
| Dan | 95 | 4 | |
Notes: The game flowed really smoothly and quickly. Everyone knew how to play - the only question was when were the scoring rounds going to happen - and moves were very quick, except in a few crucial, thought-provoking moments.
Early on, I went for wall points and a majority in Gartens. Annie had some nice majorities in a few things and a decent wall. Dan had the Arkaden, but not much of a wall, and was only at 5 points after the first scoring round. I believe Annie was in the lead, thanks in part to her Gemächer, which was only a cost of 5 and was the only one to appear in the first scoring round. Karla also had the Serail and Tower lead. I had only the Gardens and an 8 point wall. I felt like I was in okay shape, though I thought my wall was too hindering.
In the second round I quickly ensured that Gartens would be my realm. I also brought myself into a tie with Karla on Serails. Dan tried to maintain a lead in Arkaden, but Karla kept tying him up. Annie had the Pavillion lead, and everyone was really extending his or her wall nicely, except me. My wall, though the longest of the first round, hindered growth, and I had to buy specific pieces in order to make several exterior walls interior walls. I did, however, in addition to tying Karla in Serails, manage to take the lead in Gemächers. Karla also still held a narrow lead in towers. Dan didn't really lead in anything, but was 2nd in towers, pavillions, and gardens, and shared the lead in Arkaden. After the second scoring round, Karla led by one or two, and Annie was close behind. Dan was about 10 points back, but had an impressive wall.
It looked like it was going to come down to the wire, so I focused mostly on maintaining my lead in Gemächers and gardens (no problem on either count), and trying to expand my wall. I also wanted to get some tower points, if possible. Dan kept moaning when I would buy something, and Karla and Annie bought a lot of things without paying exact price. Usually this is a poor idea, but their purchases tended to give them points this time. Despite my re-focus on my wall (my 2nd round wall score was only 7), I knew I'd have the shortest wall. Dan seemed no threat, and Annie looked like my biggest opponent. She had a big wall and looked to score in a lot of areas - but not in the more valuable buildings.
By the end, I managed to hold my lead in Gemächers and Gartens, and Annie, Karla, and I tied in Serails. Annie had the Pavillions, and Karla had the Towers. Dan, who won 3 of the last 4 buildings (as he had the lead in all but one of the currencies), bought enough Arkaden to get first place, but couldn't find a place to put it. Had he been able to place it, he would have had 99 points, Karla 104, and I would have won. It was that close (again!). After counting all the building points, I had a one-point lead on Karla and an 11 point lead on Annie. Annie had the longest wall - an 18 pointer, which Dan didn't believe - and Dan had a 17 pointer. Karla had 14 points, and mine was only 11. Good enough for a very close 2nd. The game was well-played, and Dan was in last (only 13 points off) maybe because he focused too much his wall. It's also possible he didn't buy enough buildings not at cost. As I recall he may have only purchased a building without exact change once.
Karla managed a tie in two buildings and led in the best building, and had nice walls in the 2nd and 3rd rounds. She was probably averaging about the same as me in building points per round, but she had the early lead and slightly better walls the rest of the way - that (and Dan's inability to place the last Arkaden) gave her the victory.
| Oasis |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Mike | 77 | 1 | |
| Annie | 74 | 2 | |
| Karla | 63 | 3 | |
| Dan | 60 | 4 | |
| Jamie | 34 | 5 | |
Notes: The vote came down to Oasis or Mississippi Queen. Dan and I were for Oasis, the ladies were for Mississippi Queen (or Mississippi Bitch to Karla). Jamie was willing to be swayed with bribes for the vote, and when Dan gave him not only an empty bottle of wine AND the right to kick Annie, Jamie accepted and we played Oasis.
Everyone had played before, though Jamie and Karla claimed that they couldn't remember. I thought that their memory would kick in once I told them about the multipliers. Apparently, when I said, "If you have one multiplier, you get the points by multiplying the number of tiles times the number of multiplier tiles. Therefore 1 x 8 = 8, and 2 x 8 = 16," wasn't clear enough. By the end, when Jamie didn't have a multiplier for his Steppe tiles and he didn't get any points for them, he complained that he didn't know that it would all be for naught. I suppose I could have kept repeating myself all game and warning them that they needed multiplier tiles, but I thought it was obvious by then. There's always something...
Anyway, the game flowed pretty nicely, though about half-way through, Jamie started to make only 1-card offers, which made him pick last or next to last for about 4 or 5 straight rounds. I focused mostly on the Steppes, though I also managed to get two camel multipliers near the end to make my score a smidgeon better. Annie focused on the Oases, and Karla had most of her points tied up in camels, though she also had a nice steppe collection. Jamie had good oasis points, but he didn't get any multipliers for his Steppes - he had a very nice Steppe collection (probably about 11 or 12), and if he would have grabbed a multiplier or two it would have really worked out for him.
For me, since I had a nice foundation in everything (at least two multipiers in everything early on except camels), just about every offer helped me. So I was almost always progressing each turn, while others were sometimes stuck with useless crap, especially Dan. It didn't help Jamie that he didn't know what he was doing. And though Karla claimed she had forgotten about needing a multiplier, she didn't lose many points, perhaps six or eight, tops.
Finally, Karla decided to end the game by taking the last of the oasis tiles, and we counted up our points:
| Results | |||||
| Player | Oasis | Steppes | Rock | Camel | Total |
| Mike | 10 | 45 | 4 | 18 | 77 |
| Annie | 48 | 0 | 20 | 6 | 74 |
| Karla | 0 | 27 | 0 | 36 | 63 |
| Dan | 21 | 7 | 32 | 0 | 60 |
| Jamie | 21 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 34 |
Dan thought that Annie was going to win, and so did I, but I managed to have just enough of everything to scoop up victory. Jamie did poorly. It's hard for me to feel bad for him, though, because he has played this before (and he beat the crap out of us at Bang! later...)
| Bang! |
| Results | ||||
| Player | Role | Character | Place | First Time? |
| Jamie | Sheriff | Jesse Jones | (Won) Lived | |
| Annie | Deputy | Paul Regret | (Won) Lived | |
| Dan | Outlaw | Jourdannais | (Lost) 3rd Killed | |
| Mike | Renegade | Sid Ketchum | (Lost) 2nd Killed | |
| Karla | Outlaw | Vulture Sam | (Lost) 1st Killed | |
Notes: Under the watchful eye of Deputy Paul Regret, Sheriff Jesse Jones whupped the stuffing out of us. I tried to insist that I was a deputy, as I never went right after Sheriff Jones, but it was pretty obvious in the way that I kept trying to hinder or shoot at Paul Regret - who was also not taking shots at the Sheriff - and not going after Jourdannais, who was obviously an Outlaw.
The sheriff opened things, looking around town suspiciously, expecting an ambush, and soon Vulture Sam took a couple potshots at him, "Eat lead, Jones!" The Sheriff dodged and ran for cover. "Maybe there's profit in playing both sides," thought Ketchum, and he held up Jourdannais for his gun, a Revolver Carbine. The laugh was on Ketchum, though, as in retaliation Jourdannais put Ketchum in prison. Paul Regret didn't do much, just looked around.
The spark that began the previous turn between Sheriff Jones and Vulture Sam turned into an inferno. Sheriff Jones used his power to take a card from Sam, then viciously used it to fill him full of lead. Vulture Sam challenged the Sheriff to a duel and, in shock, took a bullet to the gut. The good guys drew first blood.
Sid Ketchum escaped from prison but didn't have the ammo to take anyone out. Jourdannais stole Sid Ketchum's rifle and took a shot at Jesse Jones. Paul Regret and Sheriff Jones took turns firing at Jourdannais, who must have dodged about a dozen bullets, drawing heart after heart every time he was shot at. Then, Sid Ketchum thought, "If'n I wants to get it down to me and that goody-two-shoes Sheriff, I'm gonna hafta help the frenchman." Furiously, the renegade started popping shots at Paul Regret, injuring him from time to time only to get his supplies stolen by Sheriff Jones and to see his hard work erased by beers.
Good cards were discarded at the end of turns, else Sheriff Jones would get to take them. In fact, by the time Sid Ketchum finally managed to get a gun and some BANG! cards, Sheriff Jones kept robbing him and stealing a card using the special power. Jourdannais and Sid Ketchum were low on supplies, and were left defenseless after every turn. Sid Ketchum was soon out-maneuvered and killed by Sheriff Jones' superior equipment. Paul Regret was pretty ineffective, but did serve to throw enough of a monkey wrench into the mix to keep things grim for the outlaws.
Jourdannais lasted as long as he could, dodging and dipping and weaving and hiding, but eventually, Deputy Regret and the invincible Sheriff cornered him and shot him down like a rabid dog. As Paul Regret slid his Schofield back in his holster after administering the final blow, the Sheriff turned to the grateful people of Stony Gulch and said, "Put these three crooks in some pine boxes and bury 'em with a marker out by the cactus. They'll serve as a warning for any other yahoos what may come to this here town of ours." With a wink, he pinched the bottom of the young widow, Mrs. Underwood, and sauntered to the saloon, leaving the Deputy with a wry grin on his face.