February 5th, 2005 |
I picked my brother up from the airport and surprised the heck out of my parents in Kenosha. After the initial fun and shock, we settled down to play Attika. Matt's the only opponent who brings out the game's potential (except that he keeps beating me). Most other people get upset at the game's blocking mechanism to prevent a quick winner.
| Attika |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Matt | 2 shrines | 1 | |
| Mike | 1 shrine | 2 | |
Notes: I can't really remember this game too well, but Sparta (Matt) had an early advantage, and I remember that I was always very short on cards. Matt made a very clever play near the end, needing to build two more buildings, but not having any cards, he was able to build one a tower for free next to his fortress and acquire an amphora, then he drew two cards. With his amphora he used his extra turn to build one more thing and made the connection. I was both short on cards and had no bonus resources (that I needed) on the board, so I was completely unable to block him at this point.
| Attika |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Matt | 30 buildings | 1 | |
| Mike | 26 buildings | 2 | |
Notes: The second game was much more interesting. Matt managed a nice set of buildings right away, putting six of them out in pretty much a straight line, making a dash for a 3rd or 4th turn victory. I was slow in getting my buildings out there and was forced to start not one, but two extra colonies from my initial (and poorly placed) first play. The first tile was needed to keep him from winning, and the second one was the only way to place my home city of Athens. That turned out to be an excellent play later.
Slowly, I began connecting my three colonies, and by about mid-game I had the two closer colonies connected, and with a little luck, I could have connected to the other one. But Matt had a potential game winner by going around my block on my nearer shrine, so I had to focus on making a longer barrier over there - costing me some precious resources (I, again, drew a very resource-scanty tile and had to put my quarry over there in some cramped quarters). Matt, on the other hand, rather than try to go for the win because he was short on cards made a conservative blocking move in the gap between my two colonies.
The colony on the far side grew very quickly, as the center - Athens - ended up having every building attached to it and I was actually able to get the Athens amphora by the end of the game. That was the first time I had ever done that, and it was totally sweet to pull it off. Unfortunately, Matt had a headstart in cards and buildings, and though I made a couple nice runs at him, he was able, in the last turn after I had scatteredly put down the harbor and a tower (both costing me a pretty penny, and I still had to put the resource-expensive Silver Mine, mint, and a couple of free ships down), Matt put down his harbor and two ships, then used a spare amphora to build his last ship and get his 30 buildings out there.
I'm not sure what my problem is. I think my late adjustments put me in a draw/build panic, which generally leaves me with too few of cards. I may need to go on the offensive more often early on, but it's much easier to do that when one draws the home city tile early (as Matt did). Matt's early push cost me a lot of resources early, and I also made one poor play. Trying to get an amphora, I placed my fourth street tile down in a spot I was saving for both a quarry and the fountain expansion. When I placed the street there (rather than waiting and drawing a new map piece to quickly expand my two other groups), I blocked both groups off and was stuck paying for the last few buildings down the stretch: a crippling move, since I had yet to get the Silver Mine out there, and my harbor group was also doomed to unconnectability.
I just wish everyone else would play this game as seriously and patiently as Matt does.