February 9th, 2005 |
After a week off from game night, Dan, Annie, and Scott showed up to celebrate game night. I also managed to get Scott to drink the 16 ounce Old Style that was languishing in the fridge.
| TransAmerica |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Scott | 7 | 1 | |
| Mike | 4 | 2 | |
| Annie | 3 | 3 (Tie) | |
| Dan | 3 | 3 (Tie) | |
| Karla | 1 | 5 | |
Notes: First up was TransAmerica, which Karla really wanted to play. It was the first time we'd played this since I acquired Ticket to Ride last spring, and Dan complained by saying, "But it's just the same as Ticket to Ride." Annie and Karla said that it wasn't, then Dan said that he'd play anything.
In the first round, I worked out East and got smooshed, as I had not even gotten my connection as far west as Salt Lake City before Scott ended the round. Nobody else was further away than I, who took a 7 point hit. Everyone else, in fact, took at least 2. Dan benefited the most from Scott's track placement and therefore took the smallest hit.
In the second round, I took a page from Scott's book and as I had Los Angeles, I started way down south and made a railway that really only helped me. Then I took advantage of the connections out east to end the round. This really hurt Dan, who took a big hit, and he leaped ahead of me on the track by two rails.
The third round was the same thing, only it was to Dan's advantage. No one was hit too hard, though Karla ended up only one spot away from the stopping point. One more point and she'd be out. The fourth round took forever, and Scott made this long railway along the Canadian-USA border. I thought it was a good strategy, as Scott had the only connection to the Pacific coast, and made his connections east absolutely useless to anyone else, though Karla, who needed to connect to Sacramento, made a dash down the pacific coastline - which helped everyone, really. Thus, Scott, being the only connector out west, was able to use everyone else's big connection just before the end of the round to win the round. I thought he would kill us, but his cities weren't THAT great, and no one was hit for more than two points. I lost one more point, and everyone else (except Scott) leaped ahead of me.
The winner of each round always seemed to be the one who started closest to the West coast. Typically, if a person had a connection to San Diego or Seattle - the north or south extremes of the west coast - and he or she started his run near that coastal city, he could rely on making better use of others' tracks than they could of his. I should also note that Annie said, once we were finished, "This game is like Ticket to Ride."
Scott got back to me on this and said this: "just read the summary...my favorite part of the game (transamerica) was when Annie placed a track on the existing railway to connect it to a city that it was already connected to....ie, a loop"
I remember this happening, but forgot. Thanks for contributing, Scott. If you guys ever remember something that I don't mention, feel free to remind me, and I'll put it in.
| Taj Mahal |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Mike | 42 | 1 (Tie) | |
| Karla | 42 | 1 (Tie) | |
| Scott | 35 | 3 | |
| Annie | 33 | 4 | |
| Dan | 25 | 5 | |
Notes: Dan was really eager to play Taj Mahal, which he insists is his favorite of the Alea big-box series (including Princes of Florence, Puerto Rico, Ra, and Traders of Genoa - some stiff competition) except for Puerto Rico. Then he says that he doesn't even really need to win, it's just a fun game to play. He also said it was the closest he'd get to playing poker tonight (he shirked a chance to play poker at Mark's for Game Night).
I quickly went over the rules for Scott's benefit, and about halfway through our practice round (which I made sure everyone knew was really and truly a practice - see an earlier session report for the relevance) Scott said, "Okay, I get it," and forced us to start the game.
In the first round, Dan copped out right away. Not a bad idea, though if I'm first in line I always like to put down a two-color card and try to get a bonus chip (in this case, a +2 chip). Still, it netted him an extra card, and the elephant isn't really a worthwhile fight in the first round. We all pretty much let Scott have it. Annie (first to bid after Dan) placed the first palace and claimed the +2, Karla and I each claimed a spot, and Scott also managed to make a string across the region, promising connection scores later in the game.
The game then progressed nicely, with Scott building on his original connection, eventually making a couple of 4-point connections later in the game, and Annie taking an early lead, built primarily on getting the +2 chips. The elephants were pretty well scattered about - no one person dominated them. I managed one early thanks to fear of my huge hand size and having the general's elephant card early on. Dan was making very few palace placements, and was really pretty short on cards all game. Karla and I had tons and tons of cards. Karla and I both usually managed to get something each turn for cheap. Karla really went for the bonus cards in bulk, as from mid-game on she always seemed to have 2 or 3 of them. The others (princess +2, general's elephant) exchanged hands a lot.
About halfway through the game, it was still anyone's guess as to who would win, as we all had scores in the high teens. Dan had a couple elephant tiles but no bonus cards, Annie had about the same, but a couple oval chips, Scott had a nice string of palaces all over the board, and I had a couple elephant tiles, but they were pretty much all matched up. I was also focusing, as I said above, on getting the bonus chip in a region if possible. Once, when Scott cut out before me, I thought he'd take the tea crate bonus chip I was coveting, but he went for a connection spot instead. Karla was doing the same thing I was, though she wasn't getting the bonus chips. Where I collected Tea, she collected gems.
It was at about this point (when I stated, "It's still anyone's game") that Annie and Dan challenged each other for an elephant tile and stopped making it anyone's game. Dan ended up winning, Annie got nothing, and they were both dreadfully weakened. Dan kept collecting double elephant cards (for a future push) and Scott challenged Dan for another elephant tile (#8 or so, which Scott won) and both of them were pretty much depleted after that.
It was at this point that my worry went from Scott and all his connections to Karla and her pile of cards. She managed to get 3 or 4 items in two regions late. I went for one more elephant tile (with a tea and a rice, the other commodity I was beginning to collect), and also was able on my starting bid round to get one more tea commodity tile. I netted 5 points on tea and 3 in rice to give myself a 2 point lead over Scott and a 5 or 6 point lead over Karla. Dan and Annie were hopelessly behind. In fact, in this round, I had to fight off 2 challengers for elephants. Karla kept laying down cards, intending not to challenge for elephants, but for people (and managed 3 of them). Dan bowed out after two rounds, scared of the pile of cards that Karla and I had. Scott challenged me to the very end, but just barely ran out of cards (I was worried, as I had used my smaller run of cards to get the elephant tile). So Scott ended up losing about 5 cards and getting nothing - that probably did him in for the game. I got my much needed tile - by a nose - and felt like I was in good shape. Karla, though, made a couple of connections and took a bonus chip, and she was in great shape for the last round. Dan thought we had a lot more elephants (I had about 15 cards in my hand) than 7 and said that he would have kept playing if he'd know that that was all we had. Heh heh heh.
In the last round I focused on getting a couple points and relying on the card points at the end of the game to save me. I had no chance of getting a bonus card (I had no oval chips), and Karla had three of them. Annie got the +4 for Agra, and left the bidding. Scott managed a couple connections, for 2 points each, and I bowed out for a 2 point connection. Dan foresook (foresaked?) everything for the elephant tile, and got it, boosting his final score a few points. Karla managed to make another nice connection.
With the game over, it looked to be among me, Scott, and Karla for victory, as Karla, after the last round scoring, had a couple points on me. After counting Scott's cards, he had one point lead on me. Karla's lead expanded to 8, and I had just enough cards (7 purples and 1 white card) to tie her for the win. There may be a tiebreaker (number of cards?), and there seems to be one in the online version of this that I've played, but I don't see one in the rules, so I'll call it a tie.
Dan couldn't believe the number of cards that Karla and I had. "I never remember anyone having so many cards!" The trick was that I tried to get out after one round all the time. If I managed something, I took it and left. Every once in a while I'd challenge someone, but only for something I really wanted. Karla did the same thing. Everyone also pretty much shared the princess +2 card, and the green guy mogul card stayed with Scott and Karla. The Monk bonus was claimed early by Annie but rarely used.
After the game (and Dan's ignominous defeat) he insisted that this game was the best I had (aside from Puerto Rico).
| Bang! |
| Results | ||||
| Player | Role | Character | Place | First Time? |
| Karla | Renegade | Willy the Kid | (Won) Killed Everybody | |
| Dan | Sheriff | Pedro Ramírez | (Lost) 4th Killed | |
| Annie | Deputy | Bart Cassidy | (Lost) 3rd Killed | |
| Scott | Outlaw | Jourdannais | (Lost) 2nd Killed | |
| Mike | Outlaw | Rose Doolan | (Lost) 1st Killed | |
Notes: Sheriff Ramírez strutted around town, happily watching the actions of Bart Cassidy. Then, trouble started when Jourdannais, the wily frenchman, took a couple shots at him from his Appaloosa. An attempt on his life was then made by the sassy Rose Doolan. "This town ain't big enough for the two of us!"
Rose was quick to eat her words, though, as Willy the Kid took aim and blasted her to smithereens. Then Sheriff Ramírez threw her, wounded and whimpering, into prison, where Bart Cassidy (the renegade, she thought) took target practice on her in her cell. Jourdannais tried to distract the sheriff and her deputy (whoever it was), but before Rose Doolan had a whiff of free air the sheriff had put her to death with his own personal firing squad: a Schofield .44.
Jourdannais lacked the range to go after the Sheriff, so he settled for some shots at the apparent renegade Bart Cassidy. Soon frenchy was caught in a crossfire, as whatever hope he waited for from a renegade wasn't forthcoming. Soon the frog, revealed to be the outlaw, lay dead in a pool of lead-induced blood.
Now the task was up to Sheriff Ramírez to find the renegade. He tried to flush him out with some dynamite, but the fuse was long. Too long. He watched the two duelers, Willy the Kid and Bart Cassidy, exchange shot after shot. In a confused attempt, Pedro shot Bart, who ended up being...the Deputy! Willy the Kid laughed with glee at the mistaken identity and started firing salvo after salvo at the Sheriff, who was quickly whittled down to one point. The Sheriff didn't go down easy though, and as he exchanged shot after shot with Willy, who evaded death not once, but twice! behind his barrel, they tossed the lit dynamite back and forth between them.
Bloodied but unbowed, the gunslingers fired shot after shot. Lead whistled through the dry Nevada heat. The deputy's body lay sullied and forgotten in the dusty road. Willy, wiping aside the sweat from his face, noticed the dynamite at the last moment and tossed it to Sheriff Ramírez. It was close enough to kill, and he was just about to reach it when...
BOOM!
Willy waited for one last shot, as Sheriff Ramírez, guts in his hands, drank a beer. But that only made the death a little more swallowable. In a dream, he imagined firing one more shot and killing Willy, but it was a fantasy. Eyes dull with death, he looked up and saw the scornful look of Willy the Kid. What would happen to the poor citizens of Dry Gulch under the devilish watch of that wicked gunslinger? With the last throes of death, he was somewhat grateful to think that he'd never know.
(We played that when the dynamite blew up on Dan, who had only 1 bullet left, that a single beer could keep him alive. Unfortunately, this was incorrect, and Karla should have won. Dan would have needed 3 beers to stay alive as the dynamite took away 3 bullets, not one. For the clarification on this rule, go to this page on boardgamegeek.com. On a final note, Congrats to Karla! who completed the incredibly difficult task of winning the game as the renegade. I complained as I died in the second round that it was foolish of the renegade to kill the outlaws so early in a 5 player game, but I was obviously wrong. She played the renegade perfectly, and even Dan thought that she was the deputy.)