February 21, 2006 |
| Bohnanza |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Amanda | 12 (+4 cards) | 1 (Tie) | * |
| Jamie | 12 (+4 cards) | 1 (Tie) | |
| Dan | 12 (+4 cards) | 1 (Tie) | |
| Mike | 11 | 4 (Tie) | |
| Rakesh | 11 | 4 (Tie) | * |
| Annie | 10 | 6 | |
Notes: Been a while for this one, as I've been resisting Annie's attempts to play it. I started out well enough, getting a bunch of red beans, but I kind of stagnated in mid-game and was unable to really get rolling.
Amanda was the only one to buy a third bean field, and she indulged in the Howard technique of being silent. We all lured her out of her shell to trade and made some nice deals for her. Near the end, when she was doing well we got a bit more cautious.
The game progressed pretty well, though Rakesh had a rough start early on. Jamie made some nice collections, and he had the last turn. He almost made a final trade with both Rakesh and Annie, but when I pointed out that this was the final turn (not final round), they reneged on their deals and forced Jamie into a tie. Their deals would have given Jamie one more gold but not resulted in any extra for them.
Annie fell into the same boat I did. We made nice early collections, but then had to sit on our cards. On one of my turns I drew four wax beans (!) when I was the only one planting wax beans except Jamie, who could only use two more anyway.
I should mention that several times (notably with Amanda and Jamie) I tried to trade a blue bean for a blue bean or a wax bean for wax bean - in order to get our beans more quickly on the table - but they never had the beans to do so.
Rakesh was faux upset at the end because he finally understood the game when it ended.
| Bang! |
| Results | ||||
| Player | Role | Character | Place | First Time? |
| Jamie | Outlaw | Suzy Lafayette | (Won) Lived | |
| Mike | Outlaw | Black Jack | (Won) Lived | |
| Amanda | Outlaw | Pedro Ramirez | (Won) 1st Killed | * |
| Dan | Renegade | Willy the Kid | (Lost) Still Alive | |
| Rakesh | Sheriff | Calamity Janet | (Lost) 3rd Killed | * |
| Annie | Deputy | Paul Regret | (Lost) 2nd Killed | |
Notes: After Bohnanza, we discussed what to play next. I wanted something simple without being too brainy, and wanted to play Metro. Everyone else wanted to play Bang! (except Jamie), so we went with that instead.
We went back to my vanilla version of Bang!, so we didn't have Scott's copy of Dodge City. I explained the rules and got Rakesh to be the sheriff (sucker!), and away we went.
In the first round no one really revealed themselves, so we all looked at each other oddly. Forced to do something, though, Sheriff Calamity Janet threw Jamie in prison.
Then Pedro Ramirez started blasting at Calamity Janet. She had a ton of Missed! and Bang! cards, though, so she wasn't going down easy. Black Jack tried to hide, and he didn't have the gun good enough to shoot the sheriff, so he climbed on his horse and shot Willy the Kid. Willy seethed and grunted, but couldn't do anything...yet. Jack's Gatling Gun did no damage to anyone, and Willy the Kid and Paul Regret dove behind their barrels.
Suzy Lafayette had a good gun and started firing at Calamity Janet, but the outlaws weren't getting anywhere, and it didn't help that Suzy threw her fellow Outlaw Black Jack in prison. On the next round, Pedro was holding the dynamite when it blew up, leaving him in grim shape. Black Jack wallowed in a local jail, and Willy the Kid and Paul Regret whittled Suzy down to one bullet of life.
On the next round, Pedro was barely alive, suffering with one bullet herself. Black Jack was in best shape with a meager two bullets left. It looked grim for Suzy, as Willy pulled out his gun and aimed it at Suzy Lafayette...then turned and fired at Black Jack, who dodged. The Renegade's inexplicable change of targets changed the game.
That very turn Suzy charged back up to 3 bullets, though Pedro Ramirez was gunned down by the sheriff. With the sheriff brought closer, Black Jack could finally start filling her full of led, and Calamity Janet started to take some hits. Willy was unfortunately low on Bang! cards, and Suzy Lafayette gunned down Paul Regret, who turned out to be the Deputy. It was now 2 outlaws against a sheriff and a renegade.
Black Jack and Suzy Lafayette continued to gun at the Sheriff, who probably started using two many cards each turn. When I'm in that situation, I try to stay defensive unless I can do a ton of damage. After all, his ally was Willy the Kid, who can whittle a man's live down to a hill of beans in just seconds.
Black Jack and Suzy survived another round, and then Suzy used her power (when out of cards, immediately draw another) and drew back to back Duel cards. As Sheriff Janet had no cards at all, she was knocked down to nothing. The outlaws won, chased Willy the Kid the hell out of Tombstone, and poured a bottle of whiskey to their good, dead friend Pedro Ramirez. "Vaya con dio, hombre," muttered Black Jack.
After the game, I mentioned that these two games were part of the first purchase of games I ever made on-line. Dan said we played "old school" tonight. I couldn't remember the other ones I ordered, but now I do (I think). They were:
Bang!
Bohnanza
Carcassonne
Vom Kap bis Kairo
Lost Cities
TransAmerica