March 2nd, 2005 |
Scott told us not to wait up and only Dan and Annie came for a second straight week. Maybe everyone was distracted by Mark's party announcement, or maybe they're all watching "Jake and the Fat Man" reruns.
| Maharaja |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Dan | 7 palaces | 1 | |
| Karla | 6 palaces (+16 rupees) | 2 (Tie) | |
| Mike | 6 palaces (+16 rupees) | 2 (Tie) | |
| Annie | 6 palaces (+10 rupees) | 4 | |
Notes: Our second attempt at this game and it really shined. The strategies and tactics really took up a lot of worrying, and it was really quite tough to get everything done that I wanted.
We thought about doing bids for the characters, but we just had Annie pick first, and she picked the Traveling Monk (#4). Karla took the Trader (#2), I took the Mogul (#1), and Dan took the Builder (#5). As I went first, I quickly built a palace in the first city that was visited (and I switched to the Artisan, who builds palaces for 9 instead of 12) and raked in the most cash. To my dismay, however, only Annie bothered to compete in the province. The presence of only one other person kept my possible cash down from 12 to 10.
Dan then built the first palace in the next two cities, giving him a head start. He was short on cash, but Annie, who abuses the Traveling Monk, paid out a lot of cash to Dan over the next several turns. She didn't have to pay for going through his towns (he had a monopoly on the cities in the north end of the board), but the bank did. Annie loves not paying, but she seems to ignore the fact that she's giving away money for nothing.
Annie's largesse to Dan (and, to a slightly lesser extent, Karla) was the theme of the game tonight. I call it "Collateral Damage," which I always have to suffer in Ra. People go about their strategies and I tend to get hosed on accident. For example, in Maharaja tonight, Annie was the Monk and, as I mentioned gave a lot of bonus rupees to Dan and Karla. I did not reap the benefits of Annie's willy-nilly traveling because most of my houses shared spots with Annie's. Thus, she would travel for free through my spaces while paying out to Dan and Karla. That's collateral damage number 1. (Believe me, one or two bonus rupees per turn are a real help.)
So, back to the game. Dan, as I said, took control of the next two cities, and Karla was a bit slack in building her palaces, and was trying to rake in some cash to make a palace explosion. I then, after two lackluster collections, managed to move the city order (to pre-empt Dan's third city) and received a nice bulk of cash (11 or 12). Then Karla and Dan fought over another city (where Annie and I received a minimum amount of cash). Dan now had center palace advantages in three cities, I had two, Annie and Karla none. Dan, with his free travel around the top of the board, was nicely playing houses everywhere.
For the next turn, I re-arranged the cities again and grabbed the Mogul (#1), ensuring that I would go first. Then, from out of nowhere, Annie switched characters from the Monk (first time in two whole games that she had done that) and opted for...my Mogul. As Dan had the Trader (#2) and Karla had the Sadhus (#3), I was stuck going last next turn. This was the first unexpected curve that helped spell my doom.
Annie then skipped the current city, Agra, which was empty, and went to Bikanel, which had not yet been scored and only had one of Dan's houses there. She then built a center palace. Dan went second and was in, as they say, the catbird seat. He was in the perfect position to go to either city, so he went to Agra and took my eagerly anticipated center-palace from me. That was it. I only ended up getting 7 rupees there rather than the 10 or 11 I was hoping for. Dan had a stranglehold on 4 of the cities. My only hope now lied in getting 2nd place in the next scoring of Delhi and to adjust the city order again.
Thus, after we scored Ahmadabad, which was my stronghold, we went after Delhi. I was missing houses from my supply, so I was unable to add any more to the city. Still, I had a solid second place, behind Dan and ahead of Karla. I figured Annie wouldn't want to spend any more money there...I was wrong, she moved a couple houses around, gave money to Karla and Dan on her visit back there (yes, she had the Traveling Monk again), and took away 2nd place from me. That was it. We had only two more turns to go and I was dependent on every last inkling of cash. I now did not have the money to build a palace in turn #9. Unsurprisingly, Dan did, though I was going to get the first place cash for Kajuraha. Annie and Karla forsook Kajuraha, limiting me to only 10 rupees. This was aggravating.
Had Annie and Karla decided to get in on the money for Kajuraha, I would have had 24 rupees for the last turn and could have built two palaces. As it was, Karla didn't want to pay Annie or me for the privilege of visiting Kajuraha and Annie (who could visited it for free) didn't want any money. So, in turn 9, Dan built his sixth palace (and scooped up some more cash), while Dan raked in some extra cash from Annie, who was travling willy-nilly (again) through his towns.
So, in the last turn, which we spent in Jadhpur, one of Dan's center-palace cities, Karla went crazy to get the first place money, taking away from me the Sadhus role (#3) and forcing me from 3 points (and a tie with Annie) to 2 points (and last place). This cost me my tie-breaker to have sole ownership of second place. As it was, I had to settle for a tie with Karla, who just barely beat Dan for 1st place in Jadhpur (with 8 points to Dan's 7).
The game was fun and quick, only an hour and fifteen minutes. Dan played really well. Karla took too long to get her palaces out there. Had she managed to get a center palace earlier she may have won. She picked up the game really well in the second half. Annie just kept giving too much damn money to everyone else, and kept stepping on my toes. It tended to be an accident, I believe, and Dan kept thanking her throughout the game. She did three things that helped Dan and hurt me pretty badly: 1) She kept traveling through Dan's and Karla's towns, giving them extra rupees (rupees that made me drool with envy). 2) She took the Mogul card from me when I really really needed to go before Dan that turn. 3) She bumped me out of a second place score by building extra houses in Delhi.
It was great to see this game flow so well.
| Pirate's Cove |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Cannonball Dan | 48 | 1 | |
| Mike the Marauder | 42 | 2 | |
| Kruel Karla | 39 | 3 | |
| Luckless Annie | 27 | 4 | |
Notes: Cannonball Dan took a slug from his whiskey and sat down to tell us a yarn of the sea, how he spent a year traversin' the isles off the Spanish Main and how he became the most renowned and infamous pirate of the seas 'round Pirate's Cove.
"So January starts off, y'see," he began, whiskey drippin' down his jaw, "and I finds meself with Billy Bones' parrot. That parrot, he's an ally not to be despised, and so's he made me entirely reliant on cannon - I had no need a' shapin' up me crew. So, afore I e'er left port, the lads and I sallied the Sea Hag with cannons. Already I was the scourge o' the seas." He took a slug of whiskey and continued. "Anyways, Kruel Karla and Luckless Annie met at Cannon isle, while that rapscallion Mike the Marauder avoided my hallowed guns for Sail isle, as I went to Hull isle. Annie's men had a bit too much ale that day and soon Kruel Karla had chased her off, smashing her rigging and bucking half her crew off the ship.
"So, in February, I has an itch to visit the tavern, and who should I meet but Mike the Marauder. With two rounds of cannons he was chased off, his foremast a mess of woody splinters and he cursed me parrot. 'twas hardly a feat, it was, to blow that pathetic merchantman o' his out of the water, but I had to be rid of the sea dog.
"March opened with a furious storm, and Kruel Karla had made for Treasure Isle with a hull full o' treasure. I surely wanted some meself, so I went to Hull isle and made me hull as large as I could. Mike the Marauder slunk around, just out o' sight o' me Sea Hag, buildin' up his cannons and recruitin' more fools for his decks. I had to hand it to that bloke," added Cannonball Dan, the candlelight flickering from his gold-crowned front tooth, "he was rough one to shake, and he was rich as the blazes for a while.
"The next two months were peaceful, with the four of us sailing around, scoring booty, treasure, doubloons, whiskey, and wimmen (or men, I suppose) wherever we wanted. Though in May, Mike the Marauder and I eyed each other with grim respect as we met at Treasure Isle. The tradition of no battle probably kept the poor sod from trying something foolish. "That Mike, he was a wiley one. He found extra treasure that turn at Sail island, and I could ha'e gone there and troubled him, but it wa'n't worth me time. Luckless Annie and I nearly had to duel o'er it, in fact!" Cannonball Dan spoke like Annie, in falsetto, "'Why din'tcha go there? Why'd ya let him ha'e it?' she says, and I says, as I says to you, 'It aren't worth me time, ye hag!'" Dan chuckled. "Mayhaps the lassie was just all a-fired up whatfor I'd just put a few cannonballs through her port hull!" Cannonball soaked up the laughter, took another swig o' whiskey, and continued.
"At this point, lads, I was in great shape (He was leading 18 to 14 over Mike, to 12 for Karla and Annie - Ed.), but I needed to get more done. Captain hook looked like a good target, but I din't feel like riskin' me parrot, Billy Bones' parrot it was. Anyways, we all did fairly well in July - lotsa plunderin' can get done to a sharp pirate in July - and then August got right nasty. Mike the Marauder unveiled his new ship, a war galleon called the Lion of Biscay, and lo! I had ne'er seen such a beast made o' wood and linen. Luckless Annie, even though she had Jonathan Swift's parrot and was able to get off the first volley, had no chance against that beast. I was too busy to worry fer Annie, though, as I had me hands full with Kruel Karla, or so I thought. She fled as soon as she saw my green sails.
"Then, lads, I began tae worry. Mike the Marauder went against Captain Hook and blew the scrawny tar out of the seas. E'en now I saw Mike braggin' about it in the taverns o' Pirate's Cove. I buried me treasure at Treasure Island and made ready to spend the rest a' autumn pillagin' like mad. An' then I went after the Cacafuego, the weakest ship I e'er seen. It had the promise of a little to a lot a' fame, and tha's what I needed, with Mike the Marauder nippin' his sea dog yap at me heels. So I sank the thing and when I boasted o' it to the folk of the isles, they only laughed at me! (he only received 1 fame point out of a possible 6 for it - Ed.)
"So I vowed to get Anne Bonny and Mary Reed, the two pirate lasses who laughed at me the most. 'I'll see the two o' yas in December,' I says to them. Anyway, Mike the Marauder, who I thought I could count on - despite our rivalry - to meet me and help out against the two lasses, spent November buryin' his treasure along with Kruel Karla. This had me worried. Was I going to face the mad wimmen lovers alone? I wasn't sure if the Sea Hag were up fer it, but I hadda try.
"Luckless Annie was good for it, though, and we spent a cold December day tradin' shots with the two lasses. Within a few hours she was sunk and my fame was renowned ferever. Mike the Marauder met a wily, lucky gal that same month on Tavern Isle, where he made a desperate gambit for some extra fame, but only met infamy, as Karla found the weak spot on his ship - the hull, I heard, which he hadn't repaired from his battle with Captain Hook, and his last gasp at victory was gone ferever."
We all drank to our dandified ex-pirate, drinking our ale straight, except for Shivering Sal, whose sack is always stuffed with lime.
| Fluxx |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | First Time? | |
| Mike | "Won" | ||
| Dan | Lost | ||
| Annie | Lost | ||
| Karla | Lost | ||
Notes: First time since September of 2003 that we played this game, and I won it. It went about 12 minutes or so and Dan never got one keeper. With about 12 keepers out there, I managed to steal Annie's Dreams Keeper and swap my Sun Keeper for Karla's Sleep Keeper in order to win the Goal of Dreamland. Hurrah!