| Ralph's Game Log for June 2003 | Minutes |
| 5th |
| Alhambra | MVGA:
Eric wanted to give Alhambra a try; Dan arrived to make it a five-player game.
Dan got out to the lead in the first round by growing a very long wall. In the long term it hurt him since it did limit the kind of tiles he could place.
I was able to dominate Gardens and Serail through out the game. Anton got the Gemaker but that was about it. Everyone else shared the rest of the buildings.
Eric was able to squeak out one more wall than I had.
Eric (91), Me (90), Dan (82), Rich (75), Anton (63)
| 75 |
| Ra | MVGA:
We needed to play a quick game while we waited for Walter to finish his baseball game. Anton pulled out Ra.
First round had lots of Ra tiles come out, so I took a chance and went out with one culture, a pharaoh and several monuments.
It paid off since I got pharaoh lead with that single tile.
In the second round, I found myself getting two triple monument sets going for a strong monument finish.
During the third round, I was able to make add to one of the triples.
Dan had a strong final draw and got the Sun tile bonus points, from Anton, for the victory.
Dan (43), Me (40), Rich (33), Eric(28), Anton (24)
| 45 |
| Settlers of Catan: Cities and Knights | MVGA:
We broke in MVGA English version of C&K.
It was a nasty looking board with scarce ore, brick and wood while grain and sheep were the plentiful resources.
I choose to go balanced on the resources but weak on the numbers.
Sadly this was one of those games in which the six and eight rolled quite often.
Anton totally dominated the game with some early rolls that were great for him. He got longest road and had all three of the technologies at level 2 or 3.
Dan made a late rush for the victory but Anton won when he got a victory point for being Defender of Catan.
Anton (13), Dan (11), Me (5),
| 75 |
| 6th |
| Alhambra | Al's:
For lunch Al suggested a "Your bring it, I'll grill it" lunch at his place.
What the hell, it was a nice day to take a two-hour lunch.
We played Alhambra after eating the ribeye sandwiches that Dimitri and I picked up.
Al and Maria were new to the game while Dimitri had played once.
Again I noticed that concentrating on a long wall early gets ya into trouble.
Maria, who had a nice long wall and the lead after the first scoring round, failed placed several tiles in the end game because of the lack of open spaces.
She had four tiles in the reserve pile at the end of the game.
Al who had one point in walls during the first round built an 18 pointer by the end of the game.
Maria liked it, she wants a copy of it.
| 75 |
| 7th |
| Zirkus Flohcati | Chris's:
Played a quickie while we waited for more players to arrive.
I got lucky, getting several trios and the gala for a big score.
Me (85), Todd (54), Chris (51)
| 420 | |
| Drahtseilakt (Tightrope) | Chris's:
Pulled out my homemade version of this game.
Chris was hesitant about playing, since he had a perfect game last time and didn't want to ruin his perfect game status.
Chris used the "I have to put the girls to sleep" excuse to handed over the reigns to Rob.
It wasn't a perfect game but Chris/Rob won. This game is better with five players.
Chris/Rob (17), Me (24), Todd (27)
|
| Medici | Chris's:
I was hoping to use my recently learned tidbits about playing this game to do better than last. Well it kind of helped.
Rob went for the "I'll take what ever for free" strategy.
It didn't appear to work in the first round but in the second round he had amassed a twenty something point lead.
Wow, I had the early lead in this game!!! That's my positive spin for this game.
I succeeded in having the heaviest load in the 2nd and 3rd rounds but I must have spent too much money getting them.
Luckily, Chris did a worse job on bidding than I did.
Rob (104), Todd (88), Esa (81), Me (79), Chris (56)
|
| Klunker | Chris's:
Broke in my latest purchase, a game by Uwe Rosenberg.
During the first game, Todd and Rob learned about the consequences of having too many suits in the safe.
The guys enjoyed the game and since it was a quick one they opted for another hand.
This time with lessons learned the game came down to a four-way tie.
Chris won since he had the least number of cards in his shop window and safe.
Game 1: Me (8), Chris (6), Esa (6), Todd (4), Rob (1)
Game 2: Chris (6-5), Rob (6-7), Me (6-7), Todd (6), Esa (5)
|
| Modern Art | Chris's:
God, why do I play this game!
I just can't seem to get my head around this one, Medici too as a matter of fact.
Rob and Esa on the other hand were naturals.
Rob just kept buying stuff, so I figured he definitely come in last.
Boy was I wrong, Arrggh very frustrating game to understand.
What's the positive spin for the game? Hmmm, uhmmm, I broke 300 points. Yeah!
Esa (452), Rob (437), Chris (408), Todd (310), Me (303)
|
| Alhambra | Chris's:
I might not be too good in auctions but tile placement is my natural talent.
The first scoring round appeared a little earlier than expected so I was in the basement after the first round.
I caught up during the second by control Green and White buildings.
Chris made a push for taking over some of my positions and a long stretch of wall.
Todd fell into the "getting the early long wall" trap; he had several tiles in the reserve pile at the end of the game.
Me (113), Chris (107), Rob (76), Todd (73)
|
| Zirkus Flohcati | Chris's:
The night's closer. I could seem to get good numbers so I concentrated on getting trios.
Rob had great numbers but he was the target of the "steal a card" events.
Chris ended the game by playing his gala. I was one good card away from winning!
Chris (49), Me (44), Todd (34), Rob (33)
|
| 10th |
| Settlers of Catan: Cities and Knights | Online:
This turned out to be one super long game.
I knew it was going to be long when we were all tie at five points 45 minutes into the game. Brick was in short supply so road building was limited.
Big battles for defender status, several players shared in ties while James and I scored 2 outright wins.
Lloyd was the victim of traitor several times losing a level two and a level three knights.
Lloyd was able to build the yellow and blue metros and James had the green one.
I won when I got the trader, upgraded a city, and built the long road with a five-length road, told ya brick was short.
Me (13), Lloyd (11), James (10), Helen (7), John (6)
| 150 |
| 11th |
| Ra | Al's at Ralph':
Al and Maria's munchkins got sick so the regular game night was canned but I was able to entice some of the regulars to come to my place.
We started with a game that Steve was interested in playing.
I went over the rules for everyone and tried to stress the two big pitfalls, no cultures and last in pharaoh, which are negative points.
I don't think Rich and Dimitri were paying attention.
Steve and I bailed out early in the first round, leaving Dimitri and Rich to battle for of all things a set containing a culture killer and two monument killer.
In the second round I lost my pharaoh lead to Steve who kept it for the rest of the game. I eventually became the low pharaoh losing four points total, the difference in the game.
Rich had a good set of monuments, eventually getting two triples but lost too many point for being culture poor and low sun total.
Steve (37), Me (33), Rich (17), Dimitri (14)
| 60 |
| Euphrat & Tigris | Al's at Ralph':
Ordered pizza and opened the bottle of wine that Dimitri had brought along.
Dimitri and Steve having been play this game on Boardgamegeek with me for the past two weeks, but this was Dimitri's first play using the board game instead of the computer.
I went over the rules for Rich, a first timer.
This game looked like it was going to end pretty quickly, as everyone rushed for the treasures.
Once it became apparent that Steve could and would finish the game, I made sure to make the final kingdom merge a difficult one by using disasters.
This is when the game slowed down and became a serious brain burner.
I ended the game with the final merge.
Me (9/9/10/13), Steve (8/9/10/14), Dimitri (7/7/9/10), Rich (4/4/5/5)
| 120 |
| Klunker | Al's at Ralph':
This was a new game for Rich, Steve and Dimitri. Rich picked up the concepts pretty quickly and was a very efficient set collector.
Steve and Dimitri did the normal first timer mistake of trying to collect several sets at once.
I have no excuse, except maybe the wine.
Rich (16), Steve (14), Dim (12), Me (12)
| 45 |
| Alhambra | Al's at Ralph':
Yet another game to teach to Rich and Steve.
Dimitri got the early lead by having majority in three of the low end building types (red, blue, brown).
During the second round Dimitri retained the three majorities for a very large lead.
We were able to whittle down on Dimtri's dominance in brown (I tied) and blue (Rich tied).
Rich and I tied in green and I was able to take Purple away from Steve.
I, luckily, was able to acquire two buildings at the end of the game that allowed me to get a very long wall but Dimitri was able to get his to be just a bit longer than mine.
Dimitri (111), Me (108), Rich (92), Steve (91)
| 75 |
| 15th |
| Alhambra | Ilise's:
I went to John and Ilise's house for dinner and a few games. First game up was Alhambra.
First time for both of them so I went over the rules.
Ilise had the luck of the draw in this game, she always seemed to get the right set of building on the board so she could by two or three at a time.
John wasn't as lucky. I was able to tie and steal a couple building sets from Ilise.
The early lead she had acquired plus the long wall she built at the end helped her win.
Ilise (152), Me (145), John (102)
| 75 |
| Settlers of Catan: Cities and Knights | Ilise's:
My starting location had six and eights but the other numbers were bad so I concentrated on get to level 3 in green so I could use the whiner power (i.e. resource of your choice when you don't get anything).
It seems to work pretty well; I eventually got to metro on green too. John and I competed for longest road and it was John's at the end of the game.
Ilise won this game on the back of her knights having 4 or 5 points as defender plus a progress card VP.
Ilise (13), John (10), Me (9)
| 90 |
| Puerto Rico | Ilise's:
Starting order Me, John, Ilise
I am always amazed at how fast a three-player game of Puerto Rico appears to go.
I had the factory running on the forth turn, the fastest I've ever done it.
John took the other factory, not that he was set up for it he just wanted to keep it away from Ilise. Ilise changed her strategy at that point, going to Shipper with Harbor and Wharf.
My big mistake in the game was skipping on buying a big building when I had the money and choosing a large sugar mill. On the next building phase Ilise bought the building that I wanted, the Guild Hall.
I had to settle for the Fortress. John ended the game cause he didn't want a bigger score differential.
Ilise (45), Me (40), John (29)
| 45 |
| Zirkus Flohcati | Ilise's:
Closer for the night. First play for John and Ilise.
Ilise sure is lucky! She got the gala in both games and plenty of high cards.
Game 1: Ilise (55), Me (41), John (40)
Game 2: Ilise (63), Me (52), John (41)
| 30 |
| 18th |
| Carcassonne | Lunch Time:
Rainy day. Everybody had lunch, so we played Carcassonne with everything.
We all shared in a Completed Cathedral city that scored 33 points, small by Builder and Trader standards.
About third of the way thru the game Dimitri asked about the new pieces.
It turned out he had never played with the B&T expansion, Doh!
I went over the rules quickly for Dimitri.
Craig always seemed to get the monasteries; I believe he got all of them except for one.
Dimitri was lagging but was able to score on all three commodities to give a respectable score.
Craig (193), Me (183), Dimitri (182)
| 60 |
| 19th |
| Paris Paris | MVGA:
It was looking like Eric and I were going to be the only ones at MVGA this week.
We were going to try the two-player version of the game but then more gamers started to arrive
Once again I had a great initial set up but other players evicted me from crucial spots.
Eric ran away with it. I got 5-bonus points at the end for being picked on.
Eric (56), Dan (42), Me (40), Rich (31)
| 30 |
| El Grande | MVGA:
Eric pushed for El Grande and since he had the english version I agreed.
It so much easier when you can understand the words on the cards.
I didn't realize the power of placing at least some caballeros in the Castillo till the third round.
You might not win points but the secret placement at the begin of the scoring round can give you a winning advantage in a region.
Dan got screwed in the middle round when he thought he could win first pick by playing a 12 card.
Eric played his 13 card and forced all player's caballeros to the provinces, leaving Dan with no caballeros.
Walter got a nice early lead and was able to hold on to it for the win.
Walter (103), Rich (100), Me (92), Eric (83), Dan (77)
| 90 |
| Traumfabrik | MVGA:
Unplayed since February, it was time to blow the dust off this one.
I got to an early star lead but that fade by the end of the game due lack of production.
It wasn't until the end of the 2nd round that I finished a movie but the movies that I did finish were strong contenders for awards.
Lucked out on the last party phase of the game. I needed a music tile to finish my Frankenstein, and an agent tile (wild) and three music tiles came up.
I finished four movies, in which Frankenstein earned Worst Movie award and I also made the best Drama. No one got best Direction since Rich and I tied.
Eric picked up the award for the best Comedy and Rich got best Action.
Walter completed the most movies (5) but they were mostly low end.
Me (81), Rich (65), Eric (58), Dan (57), Walter (48)
| 45 |
| Alhambra | MVGA:
Walter left since he was still jet lagged from his trip to Germany.
Eric was interested in play Alhambra again, this time we played with the correct end games condition, which is "when you can't draw a tile to replenish an open building spot".
Rich and I got off to an early lead and never looked back.
In the first round Eric had a nice collection of tiles but always lost to players who had more of the same type.
Dan could never seem to get the right card combo to buy a building for exact change and therefore did have too many extra turns.
Rich and I seemed to be able to do that at will.
Near the end of the game Rich just started buy the building he need to maintain his dominance.
It didn't seem a good thing at the time but at the end it is what won him the game.
Rich and I had walls in the high teens while Eric and Dan were in the single digits.
Rich (118), Me (108), Eric (81), Dan (70)
| 60 |
| 20th |
| Purchase:Starfarers of Catan 5-6 Player Expansion ($22) |
| Carcassonne | B20:
Jim was unwrapping his new game Carc:Hunter and Gathers when I arrived at B20.
We played the orginal Carc with the two expansions since it would provide a better game for 5 players.
We also decided to play with the old rules.
I went for the friendly helper strategy, jumping into cities and roads to "help" complete them.
Campbell got screwed when he was unable to complete a cathedral city that contained three of his pieces, including his builder. Not a happy boy.
Adam also had a cathedral city, so I jumped in and helped finish that for 33 points.
I had a couple of farmers that really weren't going to do much but Jim, in his eagerness to get 9 points on his last play, merged my farmers giving me 9 pig fed cities for a total of 45 points!!!
Jim got 2 sets of commodities and Eric had the other but it didn't matter cause my little piggy rocked!!!
Me (182), Jim (156), Eric (133), Adam (125), Campbell (81)
| 60 |
| Atlantic Star | B20:
Rich always brings Atlantic Star to B20 but it rarely gets played. Its day had come.
There were a lot of people milling around but no one else wanted to go crusin'.
This was Mike's first play so Rich went over the rules while I browsed the other games (Alhambra, Puerto Rico, Sternenhimmel).
My first cruise (green) was awful so I decided to produce it a little early so I could place it on the 1-star row.
On my next cruise production I made the mistake of holding two viable cruises with no matching cards on the board and little cash left.
I choose to produce a really bad yellow cruise, which was promptly drained for cash, its final value was 2. ughhhh!
I was able to produce a blue cruise for third place and finished up with a red cruise again in third place.
Mike like most noobie claimed he didn't get it but always managed to get the prefect cards. He got first in three of the cruises.
Mike (51), Rich (41), Me (37), Scott (36), Eric (34)
| 60 |
| Coloretto | B20:
While waiting for other games to wind down, we played one round of this quick card game.
Scott went over the rules; I believe he was the only one who had played before.
In each turn you have a choice of two actions.
Draw a card from the deck and place it on one of the face up stacks that has less than three cards or take one of the faces up stacks.
The phase ends when all players have selected a stack. Repeat until the deck is nearly depleted (a special card signifies the end).
The three largest piles score positive points, the rest score negative points using the following scoring system (1 card=1, 2 cards=3, 3 cards=6, 4 cards=10, 5 cards=15, 6 cards=21)
I liked the game, it was pretty quick to play.
Eric (25), Mike (24), Me (22), Rich (20), Scott (19)
| 15 |
| Alhambra | B20:
If Eric is in the crowd we're going to play Alhambra.
Almost the same crew as last night except for Dan but Mike filled in nicely.
Although Mike, unlike Dan, had really good draws and bought lots of buildings, he ran into wall problems midway thru the game and wasn't able to recover.
Rich built a really long wall early and used that advantage to build and keep his large lead.
Looks like Rich has this game down!
Rich (125), Me (102), Eric (85), Mike (80)
| 75 |
| Traumfabrik | B20:
Wow, two plays with in a 24-hour period, life really is good.
This was pretty much like last night game, early lead in star but faltered midway due to lack of movie production.
Finished my first movie in the third round (ugh).
I produced the strongest Comedy but ran low on money near the end game so I couldn't win the bids I needed for the win.
Terry was able to produce the worst movie on the final bid.
David completed a movie that tied with me in Best Direction, i.e. no one got the points.
Terry completed a 16-point movie on the last party giving him the victory. Terry also had best picture in Drama and Action.
The game in all was one of the closest I've been in, very well played by all.
Terry (73), Me (60), Adam (59), Scott (55), Dave (55)
| 50 |
| Amun-Re | B20:
We decided to play another Knizia game, since everyone else was in the middle of their games.
I wasn't too thrilled with it on my first play but decided I can't judge a game with one play unless it's really awful, like Time Control.
This time it was easier to get into the flow of the game.
My initial cards determined my strategies for the game.
I had the bonus card for farmers so I concentrated in getting regions with farmers.
I also got lucky in that I got four harvest cards through out the game, which really helped fill my coffers.
I ended the game with 64 gold, getting me the bonus for most gold.
The rest of the players gold totals were around the mid thirties.
There's a lot of stuff happening in this game, so many ways to win. Looking forward to my next play. Buy more pyramids!!!
Adam (38), Scott (37), Dave (37), Me (34), Terry (32)
| 100 |
| 21st |
| El Grande | Annette's:
I went to Annette and Matt's for some games and dinner.
I got there just as they were starting to play Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers but they wanted to play Brian's El Grande game instead.
Luckily, the rules were still fresh in my head so I quickly went over them.
This is definitely better with five; you still got a choice if you're last in the four-player game so being last isn't such a bad deal.
Matt and Annette picked this up pretty quickly. Annette went for a mass concentration on a few regions.
Seeing the distribution on the board, I played a "finger in every pie" strategy, getting a point or two here and there without committing too many cubes.
I got away with it here but it probably won't work against seasoned players.
Me (119), Matt (116), Annette (109), Brian (87)
| 90 |
| Klunker | Annette's:
Well, we were still waiting for Ilise and John to show.
I figured I teach them a quickie.
We were in the second round when Ilise and John arrived.
The game went on the backburner for the arrival chitchat.
We decided to finish the game while Ilise and John got settled in.
Me (17), Annette (15), Brian (11), Matt (10)
| 45 |
| Citadels | Annette's:
Annette had been wanting to play this game with more than three for a quite some time.
I figured this was a good-sized group for the game.
Went over the rules for Ilise, John and Brian.
I choose to make the end condition 7 buildings just in case people didn't like it.
John was the only one who seems to have issues with the game but Ilise took care of that in her special way.
I was looking good for victory when John as the assassin, made a random stab and got me.
The next turn Brian stole from me and delayed my victory once again.
This gave enough time for Matt and Ilise to pull out some big buildings.
Matt finished first. Ilise also got to seven building and got the color bonus.
I too finished with seven buildings.
It was time to eat.
Matt (28), Ilise (27), Annette (23), Me (23), John (19), Brian (19)
| 60 |
| Settlers of Catan | Annette's:
A happy belly and full on wine we broke up into two games, Puerto Rico and SOC.
Brian had never played SOC so I went over the rules for him.
We let Brian go last so he could have the best picks, which we helped select.
Sadly we could do nothing about the rolls that seemed to prefer my numbers.
I quickly exploded into the lead by building five settlements, getting the sheep and wheat ports.
Using the ports I quickly upgraded to cities and grabbed the longest road. Game over.
Not a good introduction to SOC for Brian, I'm a bad teacher.
Me (10), Annette (6), Brian (3)
| 50 |
| Settlers of Catan | Annette's:
The Puerto Rico players were finished and they wanted to play a game of SOC, luckily (not for Brian) John had brought the 5-6 player expansion.
I told people to be nice to the noobie. They didn't listen to me.
Brian had been blocked out from any growth potential by turn six.
He was relegated to upgrading his two settlements to cities and buying dev cards for the rest of the game on the hope of getting largest army and four VPs.
Meanwhile, Matt got the longest road going and raced Annette for one of the last good spots on the board.
Ilise figured if it was good enough for Matt and Annette then she should have it.
That move really put the crimp in Annette and Matt's expansion.
Meanwhile, John was sneaking into position to take longest road by developing two chains with hopes to eventually merge them.
A few sevens here and there hurt Ilise enough to delay her victory, which she had been claiming since midway thru the game.
It was glorious to watch John merge his roads and build a settlement for the win.
John (10), Ilise (9), Matt (8), Me (7), Annette (7), Brian (4)
| 90 |
| Alhambra | Annette's:
Annette wanted to play Alhambra again, this time with the correct rules.
I went over the rules for Matt since he hadn't played before.
I built an early monster wall around my city for the first round (9 points), normally a bad move but I was able to get the right set of tiles to open my Alhambra up.
I won by extending my wall and dominating the high-end tiles.
Me (154), Matt (115), Annette (113)
| 60 |
| Klunker | Annette's:
One more game for the night and Annette wanted to play Klunker again.
Got screwed early when I decided to collect necklaces and the other players hoarded them.
That hurt my income.
Annette was very efficient in her set collecting, selling everything for at least three.
Annette (29), Me (21), Matt (17)
| 30 |
| 24th |
| Carcassonne | Lunch Time:
I convinced Anupa to join us for a lunchtime game. I didn't want to overload her (first game) so we played with only the river expansion.
We helped Anupa with her initial meeple placement but she got the hang of it quickly.
Dimitri was building a huge city by himself.
He had doubled up on meeples so he was making it hard to break in.
So I placing a tile next to the city so that only one tile could complete it. Yeah I'm evil.
It turned out to be a devastating blow since it locked in three of his meeples to that one tile and made one farmer useless.
I had a nice lead and started to place my farmers to break into Anupa farmer dominate field but didn't get the right tiles for a merge.
She got 9 cities all to herself.
Anupa (83), Me (77), Craig (68), Dimitri (38)
| 30 |
| Purchase:Princes of Florence ($27) closet cleaning sale, in shrinkwrap! |
| Carcassonne | Brettspielwelt:
I was 45 minutes late for my regular Tuesday night online gaming but I found Lloyd and James doing nothing.
It was a little late for a SOC: Cities and Knights game so we decided to play Carcassonne online.
Everything was fine until a message from the server appeared, "four minutes till shutdown".
We had 24 tiles left so we went into speed carc mode. We got down to five tiles when the server disconnected.
James and I had equal farmers in one meadow with four cities and Lloyd had a two city meadow.
I figured nothing much would change after final scoring so I'm treating this as a completed game.
James (67), Me (57), Lloyd (35)
| 45 |
| 25th |
| Purchase:Land Unter ($7.50),
Edel, Stein & Reich ($20), and
Coloretto ($8.50)
|
| Wyatt Earp | Lunch Time:
Today we taught Anupa the game Wyatt Earp.
It was a fast game cause Dimitri got a great first hand and scored lots of points.
Anupa did a good job of giving Dimitri some competition.
I got totally hosed in the last round getting only one point.
Ughh!
Dimitri (26), Anupa (24), Craig (20), Me (12)
| 30 |
| Carcassonne | Al's at Ralph's:
No gaming at Al since he is working on his basement so it can be ready for Saturday's gamefest.
Dimitri and Steve had the night scheduled and didn't want to waste it so I decided to host again.
I convinced Anupa to join us for dinner and games.
We broke in Dimitri's Carcassonne, the original with the river expansion.
This was Anupa's second try so we didn't handhold as much and I made her do the scoring too.
I drew most of the monestaries but I ran out of meeples to take advantage of them.
When the game finished Steve got the largest farmer score, edging me out for the win.
Anupa really enjoyed the game and plans to get a copy. The Game Pimp strikes again!
Steve (69), Me (64), Anupa (49), Dimitri (39)
| 60 |
| Coloretto | Al's at Ralph's:
I also got several new card games.
Steve was interested in playing Coloretto because of the buzz he's been reading on the net.
He liked it instantly! It had a good mixture of screw your neighbor, press your luck, and it was a simple!
We played three hands. Steve wants a copy, another score for the Game Pimp!
Dimitri (86), Steve (85), Anupa (83), Me (75)
| 45 |
| Settlers of Catan | Al's at Ralph's:
Another game for Anupa's expanding game palate.
This turned out to be a long drawn out game due to weak ore numbers (6, 12,3) and the rolls didn't help either.
Hindsight I should have set up the game using the balanced map in the rules.
Dimitri got the longest road and I had the largest army.
The rolls came up friendly for Dimitri and he was able to upgrade his towns to cities first.
Dimitri (10), Me (7), Anupa (5), Steve (5)
| 90 |
| Land Unter! | Al's at Ralph's:
We broke in another of my just acquired games, a "6 nimmt!" like game called "Land Unter!".
Each player gets a hand of 12 weather cards from a deck that has unique numbers from 1 to 60.
Each player gets life preservers equal to the total on his weather cards.
The deck of flood cards, 24 cards with values ranging from 1 to 12, is shuffled and two are placed face up.
Players will simultaneously select a weather card to bid for two flood cards each round.
The player who bid the highest weather card gets the lowest flood card, the next highest weather card get the other flood card.
After the bid, the player with the highest flood card loses a life preserver.
A player gets knocked out, if he cannot flip over a life preserver.
A turn is comprised of 12 bidding rounds or when only two players are left.
At the end of the turn players will score leftover life preservers and the player with the lowest flood card gets an additional point.
Players that got knocked out get a negative one.
Here's the interesting twist, players now pass their weather cards and life preservers to the left and a new turn begins.
During the game someone made a "glub glub" sound to signify losing a life preserver and I got the giggles.
I don't know why (the wine maybe?) but I had the giggles for the rest of the game.
Steve (14), Dim (9), Me (9), Anupa (3)
| 45 |
| 26th |
| Coloretto | Lunch Time:
Anupa wanted to play Carcassonne but she had a meeting that went a little too long and Craig had meeting just after lunch, so we could only play a quickie.
Taught the game to Craig in which he spanked us by collecting everything he could.
He was lucky and collected two sets of 6 and a set of 5 to offset the negative points.
He wasn't as lucky in the second game.
Game 1: Craig (57), Me (38), Dimitri (36)
Game 2: Dimitri (35), Anupa (34), Me (30), Craig (25)
| 30 |
| Ballon Cup | MVGA:
Eric and I were the early birds again but this time Eric was prepared with a two player game.
Object of the game is to be the first to win three trophies.
This is done by winning color cubes from 4 tiles which represents mountains and pastures.
The color and number of the colored cubes on the tiles also determine the type and number of color cards thay maybe played on that tile.
Each turn a player must play a card.
If you can't play a card, you show your cards to your opponent, discard four of them and redraw.
If a tile has the required cards on both sides then it is scored where high total wins in mountains and low total wins in pastures.
The player who wins the tile gets the cubes on it and the tile is flipped over and reseeded.
If a player has enough cubes to buy a trophy he does so.
Colored cubes from a trophy that has already been won may be traded at 3 for 1 rate.
I didn't really know what to do initially so I just placed cards here and there.
I got lucky or Eric was being nice but won lots of tiles and my collection of cubes was large.
I bought the yellow trophy. Eric bought the blue trophy by trading in his excess yellow.
Eric start to concentrate on win red cubes while my mixture forced me on a different route.
I had grey and green cubes but none were on the board so I concentrated on getting more yellow and blues so I could do the trade in for the color I really needed.
It worked.
Me (3), Eric (1)
| 30 |
| Medici | MVGA
Anton pushed for Medici and I was game. Lose lose lose, that's the only way to learn.
Last time I played this, I picked some good tidbits from Rob. One of them was, be cheap!
I succeeded in the first round getting my five items for only 2 points. Sadly it guaranteed that I would be last in weight.
After the first round I had a score of fifty points, this was fantasic!!
I've had games were I didn't even score this high!!!
Second round, still had the clamps on the spending.
I got lucky and was able to extend my dominance for my two goods and had some weight.
By the end of this round, I was in the high seventy along with everyone else, I was being competive!!!
I knew my spending clamp wouldn't last. I give up some good points to get the bonus points for one of my goods, retained a lead in the other of my goods and had a decent weight of 20.
Just my luck, the gold commodity was drawn after I filled my boat.
Anton won it, giving him 16 in weight with two empty spaces.
Who would have thought I get lucky enough for Anton to get a one and a zero on the final draw.
Me (122), Eric (120), Anton (106), Dan (91)
| 45 |
| Wyatt Earp | MVGA:
Decided to play a quick game because Walter was supposed to arrive shortly.
We played three rounds. After the second round, Dan had the lead and Anton trailed big time.
Anton made up ground at the expense of Dan while Eric snuck in for the win.
Eric (25), Me (24), Dan (22), Anton (21)
| 30 |
| Princes of Florence | MVGA:
Mike arrived just as we were wrapping up Wyatt Earp.
We decided to give up on Walter figuring he was punting this week. Everybody was up for a game of Princes.
Starting order Mike, Dan, Eric, Me, Anton
For the first bidding round I decided to go for the Prestige card.
I choose what seemed to be the easiest task, build four buildings, four works and two landscapes for 6 bonus points.
My mistake was not going after the builder in the second round.
Buying a building at full price caused me lots of pain in the later turns.
By the fifth turn Eric was beginning to out produce us and eventually cruised to an easy victory.
At the end of the last round I was out of money and was forced to lose three points to buy a building. arghh!
I got my Prestige card bonus.
Eric (73), Anton (58), Dan (51), Me (48), Mike (47)
| 90 |
| Alhambra | MVGA:
Walter showed up and we split up into two groups of three.
Walter, Dan and Anton played Europa Tour while Eric, Mike and I play Alhambra.
Eric continued winning streak. He cranked out a 22 point wall in the second round.
He actually enclosed his Alhambra with walls and proceded to buy buildings and place them in his reserve.
I tired to take his leads in building types but it wasn't enough to catch up.
Eric (144), Mike (129), Me (129)
| 60 |
| 27th |
| Call My Bluff | B20:
We were getting ready for a game of Zirkus Flohcati when Brian showed up. We milled around for a bit until Scott forced a game of Bluff on us.
Matt got blown out first, losing all his dice on a bad bid.
The rest were whittled down on exact bid calls in which I was usually the bidder.
Me, Scott, Dave, Constantine, Brian, Matt
| |
| Ra | B20:
We had a new attendee tonight, Dawn. Matt and a few of the guys started a game of Mare Nostrum.
We settled on playing Ra. Dawn hadn't played before so I went over the rules.
Dawn got off to a strong lead having the benefit of the group mind.
Jim went heavy on Pharaoh; I went heavy on monuments and the rest were a mishmash of collections.
I got lucky and got one of each monument and several triples. I was the clear leader going into the final scoring round.
Dawn scored the high sun while I lost points for having the low suns.
Jim surprised us all since he pretty much just collected Pharaohs and little of anything, but it was enough for the win.
Jim (41), Dawn (40), Me (40), Brian (27), Dave (23)
| |
| Crokinole | B20:
Gregg had arrived during the first epoch of Ra. With no else available for a game, he spent most of the time practicing on the Brian's Crokinole board.
Not many 6-player games in anybody's collection tonight so other four played Wyatt Earp while I challenged Gregg to a game of Crokinole.
I got of to a strong start, scoring the first 30 points. It dragged out after that as I lost every round by 5 or 10 points.
Gregg whacked me in the last round for 30 points.
Gregg (125), Me (30)
| |
| Tonga Bonga | B20:
I jumped onto a game of Tonga Bonga. This game is a sailboat race around the islands of the South Pacific. It was Dawn's first play.
Dawn got out to good start, which usually is asking for bad numbers from the other players. She thought we were picking on her, which we were but it was all part of the game. On the next turn I was the victim.
Dawn was able to recover by placing big money on her bidding spots.
With only two turns to go, Scott gave up on the race. He low balled his bids and grabbed the other player's high bids.
Dawn and Terry finished the race but it was the miser who won the game.
Scott (141), Brian (128), Me (126), Dawn (110)
| |
| Carcassonne | B20:
Six again, this time we decided to stick together and play Carcassonne with the expansions.
I got some very bad draws in this game, most of them were roads.
When I did get a city I would try my helper strategy but most of those cities never completed.
Near the end I was left with only one option, take the farms!!
I managed to steal a meadow with my uber meeple and scored 7 pig fed cities.
Constantine (84), Dawn (83), Me (77), Dave F (74), Dave L (58), Jim (50)
| |
| Zirkus Flohcati | B20:
The closer for the night, a game that Scott was pushing earlier.
Most players were new to the game.
We play two games with Brian jumping into the second game.
Game 1: Terry (53), Scott (31), Gregg (29), Me (29)
Game 2: Brian (59), Me (47), Gregg (41), Scott (37), Terry (35)
| |
| 28th |
| Call My Bluff | Al's Gamefest:
I'm usually the early bird to Al's place but not this time!
There were plenty of people when I arrived. I got the gamefest going with a large bluff game.
Eric, Barbara, JP, Chris Sn, Roberto, Tufo, Rich, Al and I were in the game
In large groups we play with a variant that helps reduce the big knock out. Al's friends had played with a variant in which the loser only loses one die, so we made sure everybody was on the same page.
It came down to Al and I with one die apiece. Got him with the 1 star bid and he chose wrong.
Me
| |
| Starfarers of Catan | Al's Gamefest:
Eric and Chris Sn were interested in playing and we got Dave to join us.
I went over the rules for all.
Everyone got their initial colony settled except for me since my spot had the pirates, which really hurt my development.
Once I was able to defeat the pirates I got a two for that planet so it really wasn't much of an improvement.
I picked up a trading post early so I stopped getting my free resource from earth after placing my first colony. That really hurt.
Eric got the worm hole card early and was able to settle the distant planets with ease.
The lack of competition allowed Eric to build a star base and more ships.
He got two of the friendship chips and used one of the alien cards to win the game by buying a fame chip.
Eric (15), Me (13), Dave (8), Chris Sn (8)
| |
| Traumfabrik | Al's Gamefest:
We had settled into playing Traum when Dimitri and Christine arrived.
Christine and Barbara were gonna bail out but I suggested they team up.
Team thinking as usual provided plenty of laughs.
Christine was really disappointed that Jimmy Stewart was only a one star and she also try to do movies with the appropriate movie stars.
I had the win but JP and I got into a bidding war for two tiles at the end of the last round, which he won.
At the end there was a three-way tie for best direction so no one score those points.
I completed the worst movie, Tofu got best Comedy and Dimi/Christine got best Drama and Action.
Tofu (68), Dim/Christine (67), Me (65), Dave (49), Barbara/JP (42)
| |
| Coloretto | Al's Gamefest:
Steve and his daughter arrived. Steve wanted to teach his daughter Coloretto.
I got Barbara and Christine join in the fun.
We played two rounds.
Steve (57), Me (49), Barbara (47), Christine (41), Ellen (36)
| |
| Hick Hack | Al's Gamefest:
I picked another kid friendly game to play. I got lucky in the first game snagging three chickens with a fox twice!!
JP was not happy with his performance so he pushed for another play again.
He did much better in the second game. Ellen really liked the game.
Game 1: Me (48), Christine (29), Barbara (22), Steve (18), Ellen (23), JP (7)
Game 2: JP (38), Me (37), Christine (33), Barbara (29), Ellen (21)
| |
| Transamerica | Al's Gamefest:
Another light game.
People were rounding up for a game of werewolf so we terminated the game after three rounds.
Ellen (9), Jp (9), Christine (9), Me (7), Barbara (4)
| |
| Edel, Stein & Riech | Al's Gamefest:
I needed a little more meat more in my next game so I got few to break in my ES&R game.
I've only played this game once so I went over the rules for others and myself.
Had a weird first round mainly cause people were still trying to figure out the game and five of the six event cards were contracts.
We made the mistake of reshuffled the used events back into the event deck.
In the end it was pretty close game.
Dave (60), Chris Sn (56), Eric (55), Me (52), Al (46)
| |
| Land Unter! | Al's Gamefest:
Started a game of Land Unter but had to stop when dinner arrived. After dinner we restarted.
Roberto had trouble with one. We keep telling him that it was just like 6 nimmt!. It didn't help.
Roberto's initial hand was brutal, everybody except for me drowned when playing it. I crushed them!
Me (15), Chris Sn (5), Roberto (4), Eric (2)
| |
| Euphrat & Tigris | Al's Gamefest:
Steve and Al were hungering for a face-to-face game of E&T. We have been play E&T via the web on the boardgamegeek site.
Al liked it better since he thinks the random number generator is against him on the BGG.
It was a slow starting game and for unknown reasons Dimitri forced the game to end.
Al and I tied at every level so he was very happy about his first win.
Al and I (3/4/4/5), Steve (3/3/3/5), Dimitri (2/3/3/6)
| |
| 6 Nimmt! | Al's Gamefest:
This was the final game of the night.
This was Chris Sn first game of 6 nimmt! so I went over the rules for him.
He didn't manage to break Chris's record one hand total of 43 but came pretty close.
Game ended after the three rounds.
Roberto (21), Me (28), Dave (30), Maria (30), Dimitri (43), Steve (45), Ellen (49), Al (64), Chris Sn (93)
| |
| Werewolf | Al's Gamefest:
In between lunch, dinner and game breaks several games of werewolf were played.
The werewolves won the first two but once the villagers got the gist of the game they became very efficient in werewolf hunting.
Game 1:Werewolves
Game 2:Werewolves
Game 3:Villagers
Game 4:Villagers
| |
| 30th |
| Clans | Ralph's:
After my layoff party, Annette and Matt hung around to play a quick game of Clans.
This was a new game to all; so I read the rules out loud, which were easy.
Each turn a player moves all huts in a region to an adjacent region containing a least one hut.
When a set of huts is isolated then it forms a village and score VP for the colors in the village.
A player only knows their color at the beginning of the game and must try to deduce the other player's colors.
I tried to minimize the number of huts I used in each village so at the end it would give me more control but it didn't work for me.
Annette and Matt created the majority of the villages.
Matt (52), Annette (45), Me (40)
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