February 28, 2006 |
| Cartagena |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Scott | 6 | 1 | |
| Amanda | 5 | 2 | * |
| Rakesh | 4 | 3 (Tie) | * |
| Mike | 4 | 3 (Tie) | |
| Lee | 4 | 3 (Tie) | * |
Notes: With five of us around and the probability of more appearing, we selected Cartagena. It was a pretty standard game, I would say, in that some folks moved up a couple guys quickly (Lee and Scott), some were conservative early (me), and Amanda moved her guys up en masse from the back.
After a while, the knives, skulls and red hats became most profitable, and I couldn't get any. My men were moving forward, but I wasn't able to make any big jumps. Rakesh was almost in on the victory, but it was really down to Scott and Amanda. Lee had three pirates in good shape, but three were all alone at the beginning of the board.
On the last turn, Lee managed to take advantage of all the crowded skull spaces to get his fourth pirate aboard, and Rakesh put himself one turn away from victory. On my turn I managed to get pirates #3 and 4 aboard while leaving Amanda no quick and surefire way to get cards. She had one card, with two guys left. The way I left her, she was going to need to go back pretty far and only get one card (thanks to my attempt to end the game on my last turn). She managed to get a fifth pirate on board (and for a minute, we though a sixth until Scott showed us that she made 4 moves, not 3), but Scott had a chance.
And he took advantage of it. Game over. I was impressed that Lee managed to get four pirates on board after having so many stuck way near the beginning.
| Medici |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Rakesh | 100 | 1 | * |
| Mike | 99 | 2 | |
| Scott | 91 | 3 (Tie) | |
| Lee | 91 | 3 (Tie) | |
| Amanda | 56 | 5 | * |
| Jim | 44 | 6 | |
Notes: Next we played a great game of Medici, which was really the only good, strategic six-player game I had brought. (The other games I brought were Alhambra, Edel Stein & Reich, Gulo Gulo, Puerto Rico, Taj Mahal, and Through the Desert.) I explained the rules pretty quickly and we got going.
The first round was incredibly tight, with a LOT of auctions being swept aside. Rakesh had a nice first round, nabbing a couple spice, a couple cloth, and having a nice total. Amanda had a decent total, but she didn't specify much in her commodities and bid a lot for those high cards. Lee and I competed in furs, and then I spread out a bit and grabbed a bunch of higher numbered cards while he went for dyes. Scott managed the gold shipment and some cloth. Poor Jim had a chance to bid for a load of 13 while he had an empty ship, but didn't want to spend the money - it would only have gotten him in 5th place anyway, so he passed. He ended up with a shipment of one card for 4 points. First round (approximate) scores:
Scott: 49
Mike: 48
Rakesh: 46
Lee: 45
Jim: 30
Amanda: 29
In the second round Jim started going after spices and grains, and got them at decent prices. Still, his crushing first round had him on a low ebb of morale. Scott went after cloth and grain, while Lee went for Dye. Amanda started making a big move on Fur, challenging me for first place - in fact, for a while I thought she'd tie me for it. I forced Scott to pay a lot for the gold load he had, but he had to do it - it was the only way he could guarantee himself some profits. Jim made a nice foundation...if this had been the first round. I had two fur and a grain, and flipped over two more cards. They totaled enough to get me into 3rd place AND were specialized in fur and grain...my two commodities. Scott really groaned (as he could have used the grain card and the fur card broke my first place tie with Amanda), and I smiled and praised the gods for my luck. Second round (again, approximate) scores:
Mike: 65
Rakesh: 58
Lee and Scott: 57
Jim: 33
Amanda: 32
In the third round the shit hit the fan. I needed two furs, so I purchased them for a rather pricey 7. It was pricey because I didn't need the cloth that came with them, and their total net worth was only 7.
Lee and Scott made nice progress in the final round, though Scott inexplicably let Rakesh have a Cloth - 1 card for 1 point. I was shocked, as one more cloth card would have boosted Scott into the bonus points, and Rakesh was his primary rival there. I thought that was the game right there. I was a bit off.
The game really ended when Rakesh, on his turn, flipped over Dye - 5, Dye - 4, and the Gold card. He took it for around 17 or 18 points and sat with a happy look on his face. I again had a pretty good last flip (I was the last one left and so I filled my two slots for free again), and it gave me a couple more grain points, but I was 5th in total shipment whereas Rakesh was 1st.
I should mention that Jim played all out this last round despite being in a very bad last place. He forced people to pay big for things and frequently only flipped one card on his turn in trying to get people to bid on them. It was a good strategy, and one I would have adopted if I had been he.
Amanda forced a first place tie with me (on the top of the pyramid) and so cost me three points. Those three points would have won me the game, as the score stood at 99 to 98, my lead, with the last pyramid to score, and Rakesh was in a tie for second place with Lee or Scott on Spices. That won him the game.
Very close and satisfying, though I know Jim was flustered by an unlucky and harsh first round.
| Gulo Gulo |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Jim | Found the Gulo cub | 1 | |
| Mike | 4 back | 2 (Tie) | |
| Amanda | 4 back | 2 (Tie) | * |
| Lee | 4 back | 2 (Tie) | |
| Scott | 6 back | 5 | |
| Rakesh | 8 back | 6 | |
Notes: Everyone still wanted more, so we played a game of Gulo Gulo. The jar was tipped a few times, and Jim was the one in the right place at the right time. While he was going through the last few tiles in search of the gulo cub, he actually plucked the last red egg out of the cup. We refilled the cup and all the purple eggs were on the bottom. He reached in with the boldness of a true Wolverine and snatched one without fear.
I think he was taking out his Medici frustration on those poor little eggs.
Amanda was upset because she had been in first place for a minute (she had flipped over the card just before the last card) and ended up just watching Jim win. I admit there's an element of timing to this game, and perhaps a bit of chicken in getting someone else to flip over the second to last tile.