February 18th, 2005 |
Dan wanted to play games, and so did I, so we sort of set up a game night for Friday. Karla and I wanted to hold it somewhere else, though, and Jill volunteered their place. Scott said he canceled dinner plans to make it. Now that's the kind of devotion I like to see, folks!
We managed to play two of my games, and despite Sam's attempt to ignore the rules both times, I managed to get through the explanations with a minimum of repetition.
| Samurai |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Jill | 6 High hats + 5 others | 1 | * |
| Mike | 5 Rice + 5 others | 2 | * |
| Sam | 6 Buddhas + 3 others | 3 | * |
| Annie & Dan | DQed | 4 | * |
Notes: Samurai is a clever game where players try to place influence markers around towns and villages and attempt to control the 3 possible regions of influence in order to win. To win, a player must have sole possession of first place in one of the three areas of influence (high hats, buddhas, or rice, corresponding to military, religious, or economic power). Having first place gives a player a chance at victory. Whoever doesn't qualify is out for the next part. After the qualifiers are established, they take away the figures from their first place group and count all the rest of their markers. The person who qualifies and has the most markers is the winner. So the point is to get first place in something, then pick up other areas of influence.
I explained the rules and we got under way. Jill and Sam immediately started to surround Edo, perhaps in the hope of getting lots of stuff early. I put myself in position in the north island to get a lot of stuff, but it wasn't going to bear fruit for quite a while. Dan and Annie grabbed a couple early rice and Jill managed to nab a couple High Hats. Sam was surrounding Buddhas all over the board.
With Jill effectively getting High Hats and Sam overly threatening the Buddhas, I went for Rice and managed to take a few of them away from Dan and Annie before they could claim them. I figured that 5 Rice would get me qualified, so I stuck to Rice early on and managed to get 5 about midway through the game. It was clear that Jill was going for High Hats and Sam still had an army of Buddhas lined up for the picking. Dan and Annie seemed to go for everything, though they did mostly go for Rice (which I kept defending) and High Hats (which Jill kept defending).
I felt like I was behind all game until late, as everyone was throwing 4's out there. I did manage to score several pieces near the end, thanks in part to a well-placed 2 boat and a replay of my strength 3 samurai. Sam seemed to over-focus on the Buddhas. I didn't think Dan and Annie would qualify, but they may have tied someone, I thought. On the last turn of the game, I helped Jill to put out all three of her ships in a way that would get her the last two figures on the board. This aid of mine cost me the game.
When we revealed the pieces we had collected, my heart skipped a beat as I looked at Dan and Annie's Rice collection. Only 4, thank goodness. They also had only 3 High hats (to Jill's 6). Sam revealed a battle line of Buddhas, but only 3 other markers. It was between Jill and I, who had 6 High Hats and 5 other markers. The last move cost me the game.
Everyone agreed that it was a cool game, and I agree. Plus, it's pretty quick, and there is always more that you want to do on your turn.
| Verräter |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Sam | 21 | 1 (Tie) | * |
| Mike | 21 | 1 (Tie) | * |
| Dan | 19 | 3 | * |
| Scott | 18 | 4 | * |
Notes: Next up was Verräter, a game of side-switching that is sort of like Citadels, only less chaotic and more strategic. Plus, instead of building a city the players are fighting a war between two groups, the Roses and Eagles.
The game started with Dan and I as the Eagles and Scott and Sam as the Roses. The cards had been set up kind of oddly, with
the Eagles' having high power areas out and the Roses having low powered ones. I switched pretty early on in order to
join sides with the Roses, and we quickly overwhelmed the Eagles in a strength 15 zone, netting us several victory points.
In the end, I told Dan he was better off playing his cards, so he did so, and managed to make the battle a tie. This kept
Sam from getting 1 or 2 extra points and allowed Dan to catch up by 8 points at the end (as he had also played the Strategie).
I had played the final Conflict, and thought it was kind of dumb - I thought I could get an easy few points, but everyone
teamed up against me and it almost cost me the victory. (I should note that I also hoped the traitor card would be available
and that someone would join me against the Eagles in the last round. But the Traitor card was the one no one could select.)
We counted bonus points, and Sam's 2 point lead shrunk to nothing, as I had 2 supply cards and 1 Estate, getting me 2 last
points. Scott was dismayed to find out that Dan, languishing in last place all game, had found a way to pass him. (Dan did
go from 11 to 19 in the last turn.)
All in all, it was a pretty fun game, with tough decisions and good bluffing opportunities, also with some deductive bits.
It's a nice blend, and it doesn't take too long.
Notes: Jill managed to go 2 for 2 tonight, as the three ladies played three rounds of Coloretto while the boys and
I played Verräter. Dan, I recall, at one point looked over to where the two TV trays were pushed together to see
Annie's collection of almost every color. The next morning, Karla told me that she had a huge lead after the first round
and thought that she would coast to victory, but that Jill caught up. Karla also added that Jill always looks like she
doesn't know what she's doing, and then she wins. This is called having a "good poker face." I noticed that Jill had one
when she masterfully destroyed all the townspeople in a game of Werewolf last year.
Anyway, Jill used her poker face to effect some pity and secretly come from behind and defeat Karla by 16 points.
Dan had titled their game "Colo-raunchy" because he hates it.
Notes: Caught among the choices of Puerto Rico (Sam & Scott), Santiago (Mike & Dan), and Amun-Re (Annie), we
eventually opted for Puerto Rico. It was the first time we had played it 5-player in quite a while.
I shook out goods barrels to determine who was the first player, and Annie was stuck with it. This meant that, with the
order being Annie-Dan-Scott-Mike-Sam, Sam and I were the only ones starting with corn. Annie then, for her first action,
took the Builder. The usual best first move is the Settler > Quarry. But Annie did get a quick discount on stuff. When
the settler was selected I managed to get some more corn, and within a couple turns I had three corn plantations and was
shipping them with abundance. As always, I also had the small market.
Sam and I had the early shipping points (thanks to the corn), but Sam soon had to abandon the corn strategy as he was losing
out on the corn plantations. Then I did something rather risky; I purchased a Tobacco Storage shed with the intention of
grabbing a tobacco plantation on the next settler phase. Eventually, Sam took the settler and took a quarry. This gave three
people a shot at taking the two tobacco plants on the board and hosing me - possibly destroying me, as I was in DIRE need of
cash at this point, a problem Dan, Annie, and Scott weren't having. Fortunately, no one took a tobacco plantation, and I
not only had one, I had a monopoly.
I only took Mayor when it gave me an extra colonist - something either Sam or Dan taught me about that role. As the game went
on, though, the "Must Beat Mike" pressure finally got to Sam, and he made a move expressly meant to hose me...and it hosed
himself. The first one (a captain's phase selection that kept me from getting any VPs) wasn't too bad, though it gave Annie
more points than Sam, but the second move - a craftsman pickup that kept me from getting more than one tobacco in goods - was
downright poor, as it set Annie up to use all the boat spaces he needed, and there was a shortage of goods, so he only managed
to get one doubloon from his factory. In short, it barely hurt me, hurt him a lot, and set up Annie for a big score.
The corn ship was filled by Annie, and I (fortunately with my Small Warehouse) had 1 tobacco and 7 corn in storage. Dan also
had a Large Warehouse, so he didn't lose any goods. Scott lost a couple, as did Sam and Annie. To sum up at this point,
Dan had a lot of money and was shipping and selling coffee. Annie had early Indigo, then managed to get in on the corn.
Sam was very diversified, and seemed to be going for my usual factory strategy. Dan and Scott bought harbors, which Dan
used to pretty good effect, but Scott used rarely. I was producing only Corn and Tobacco.
So, with one ship empty and no one else with any goods at all to ship (Dan only had Coffee, and the ships were the empty one,
Sugar, and Indigo), I took Captain and rung up a bonus 7 points. There was soon another craftsman, and after another, more
normal shipping phase, I was forced later to load a ship with tobacco. This ensured a place for me to ship over the next
three Captain phases, and also prevented everyone from using one entire boat. This fact frustrated Sam to such an effect that
he bought the Wharf (though he was rarely producing more than 1 of any good).
I now felt like I was in excellent shape. My tobacco monopoly coupled with some excellent shipping rounds kept me in good
stead. I had weak buildings, but I spent the remainder of the game scooping up buildings here and there. I never had the
cash that Sam, Dan and Scott had, but I made due. It also hurt that I didn't get a quarry, though Scott managed to get
all four of them, and he purchased a bonus building for all of 6 doubloons late in the game. Dan managed to get the
Fortress, and just before he did so I scooped up the Customs House, which was a critical play for me. Scott picked up the
Residence (bonus for having the island filled), and that, along with his Hacienda (+1 plantation per settler phase), helped
him grab some good points. He also managed to get the Guildhall. Sam, with his purple building strategy, managed to get
the Town Hall.
Down the stretch I managed a few more victory points, though Sam by the end (and playing much better after his self-flagellation
early on) was keeping me in check while still going for his building strategy. Scott played to his strengths near the end,
and in addition to getting cheap buildings with his 4 quarries, started getting some good shipping done. Dan was kind of
hindered by the end (as was I) by Annie's conversion to a shipping strategy, as she was shipping a lot of Indigo (Dan's bulk
crop) and Corn (my bulk crop). In fact, I was beginning to worry that Annie might be catching up.
Still, the Customs House and a couple other buildings which I bought down the stretch (including Sugar and Indigo mills, just
to get in one or two points of shipping per round) netted me the victory. Here's how the tally concluded:
I was surprised that Dan didn't buy more buildings and that Scott didn't get more shipping points. But as I recall, Scott
also used his colonists not to production effect, but for building effects. Plus, he had no warehouse, and many of the goods
he was producing were getting dumped overboard. So, despite having the harbor, he didn't get that many shipping VPs. Dan,
who had a ton of money early on, didn't buy enough buildings and did lose cash thanks to Scott late in the game, who began
producing coffee and hogging the Trading House. (Scott also had the office, and was unaffected when Dan sold coffee.) Sam's
early boo-boos were turned around nicely by the end of the game.
When we finished, Sam wanted to know how I won. My buildings were less than impressive, and all I produced almost all
game was just corn and tobacco. I had much less "stuff" on my board, and yet I won by 4. I think I got a bit lucky. First,
my 7 point shipping phase was something I kind of lucked into - everyone else had just enjoyed a nice shipping phase while
I was stuck holding a lot of corn. Also, every building purchase I made helped me out tremendously. I bought the Small Market,
the Small Warehouse, Tobacco Storage, and the Customs House (in addition to some late game Mills strictly for VPs), and all
of them helped me to an incredible extent. Also, in five-player, it's crucial if a player hogs a boat for two or three turns,
as I did with the tobacco. I was forced into that move by Scott, but it turned out not only to give me a couple more VPs,
but kept everyone else from shipping on one boat over those same turns.
Dan said he had a lot of fun, and felt like 5 player Puerto Rico is better than 3. (This is in part due to his getting
stuck between the Hammer of Sam and the Anvil of Mike in the last game.) Scott was
proud of taking a close 3rd, and I told Sam that he played much better after he screwed up the second time.
Coloretto
Results Player Score Place First Time? Jill 132 1 * Karla 116 2 Annie 91 3 Puerto Rico
Results Player Score Place First Time? Mike 57 1 Dan 53 2 Scott 50 3 Sam 48 4 Annie 39 5
Player VP Chips Building VPs Bonus VPs Total Mike 34 15 8 57 Dan 28 19 6 53 Scott 17 21 12 50 Sam 17 23 8 48 Annie 24 15 0 39