January 31, 2006 |
| Amun-Re |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Mike | 43 | 1 | |
| Scott | 42 | 2 | |
| Dan | 38 | 3 | |
| Kaveh | 36 | 4 | * |
| Annie | 23 | 5 | |
Notes: First up was a game of Amun-Re. I had to explain the rules and concepts to Kaveh and Scott, which took a little while, and I explained some simple starting strategies.
In the Old Kingdom, I consider it a perfect 3 rounds if I have one complete set of pyramids, have the most pyramids on one side, get a temple province, and complete a 3 point bonus card. Here, I did all of that. I didn't have many farmers, and neither did Scott or Annie for the first round, so we completely thwarted Kaveh and Dan, who each had a bunch of farmers. It was a cruddy harvest, so Annie and Scott got their caravan bonuses. I had the 8 gold province and an 8 gold bonus card, so I was among the frontrunners in cash.
In the second round, I managed to get a province with a temple for cheap. Dan bought one, too, and Kaveh built up a nice stack of pyramids in another province. Annie also bought a province and stocked it full of farmers...and then made a terrible offering to Amun-Re. I thought this odd, but didn't say anything, as she did want to keep her caravan moneys. Kaveh and Dan were competing for the most well-built province on the west side of the Nile, and Annie had built up one on the East side. But, with her awful offerings to Amun-Re, I got enough bonus bricks to tie her on the East.
In the final round, Kaveh got the two-temple province for nothing. I had avoided it because I already had a temple province and I wanted to get my third province for cheap and net the 3 point bonus for having all three provinces in the upper Nile. It turned out to be the correct decision. Annie again stocked her new province full of farmers (costing her 10 gold), and made a -3 offering! With Scott actively thwarting the offering and Annie's misplaced -3, she ended up losing a lot of cash on it. Dan freaked out, and he, Kaveh, and Annie, who were all stuffed full of farmers, hardly got anything out of it. I was only slightly upset, as it knocked my temple down to one point instead of 2 or 3. Annie said she wanted her caravan money, worth 4 gold, and Dan explained that with her 8 farmers, she easily could have made that up. Annie said, "Oh." I used my bonus brick from the offering to take sole possession of "most pyramids" on the east side. Dan and Kaveh tied on the other side. Scott was secretly hoarding money, and everyone had one set of pyramids except Annie and Kaveh.
Despite the low temple scoring, I managed to have a nearly perfect Old Kingdom, and was in great shape:
Mike - 16
Dan & Kaveh - 12
Scott - 9
Annie - 8
In the New Kingdom, I spent 10 gold and placed my bid - blocker on the Western province with the most pyramids in it. I then promptly built it up to 5 pyramids (I had a lot of 2 bricks = Pyramid cards) and collected a fair amount of cash each round. Dan was also going for a similar strategy, but he was going to try it on the other side of the Nile. The harvest was pretty good in the first round despite Scott's attempts to lower it, and we all had decent money.
In the second round, I offered a good amount to get my Most Pyramid winning province from the Old Kingdom. I swiftly boosted it to 3 pyramids, but Dan, who had a one round lead on me, had a prohibitively expensive lead on me on that side. I built it up to three and only used it as a threat should he try to mess with my 5 pyramid province on the other side. Scott was playing conservatively, bidding low on provinces and only stocking up pyramids in order to get sets. Annie was getting stuck with the worst provinces - the ones with no pyramids left over from the first round.
In the third round, I made sure to get a province with a pyramid left over and stocked it up. I only managed to get it up to two pyramids, though, as I was keeping on eye on getting some final cash scoring. Scott finished two sets, as did Dan. Kaveh and Dan were mirroring each other, but whereas Dan had the Most pyramids on the East side, Kaveh was completing a 3 point bonus card. Scott had somehow acquired 3 temples in his provinces.
As it came down to the end, I saw that no bonus bricks or farmers or cards would really help me, and I was a little worried about Scott's 3 temples. So I used my -3 card. That made sure the offering was stuck at 3 and not 4.
We tallied the points, and after all scoring was counted except for money, the scores stood at:
Mike - 41
Dan - 38
Kaveh, Scott - 36
Annie - 19
We then counted the money, and Scott was getting the +6 (with 61 gold), which put him ahead of me! I needed to get third (Annie easily had +4 with 56 gold), and fortunately, Dan and Kaveh didn't get enough from the farmers to pass me, as I had 31 to Kaveh's 20. My +2 points saved me!
Scott said afterwards that he was in a tough position. He wanted to keep his +6 for the most money, but wasn't sure how much he could spend on the offering. He bid around 6 or so, and we calculated that if he had bid exactly 5 more, he would have offered enough to give his temples 4 points each, but kept him in a tie for first in money.
Scott's late comeback was keyed by three things: most money (6 points), two bonus cards (6 points), and three temples (9 points). Other than the combination of those three sneaky things, he didn't look like much of a threat. I was surprised it was as close as it was, as I had figured the game was in the bag after I snagged that awesome province in the first round of the New Kingdom.
| Tsuro |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Mike | Still Alive | 1 | |
| Scott | Collided with Dan | 2 (Tie) | |
| Dan | Collided with Scott | 2 (Tie) | |
| Annie | 2nd out | 4 | |
| Kaveh | 1st out | 5 | * |
Notes: Amun-Re had taken quite a while, so we played a game of Tsuro to end the night. Kaveh played, but committed suicide, which is technically against the rules, but we let it slide. I managed to survive the longest and go 2 for 2.