March 5, 2006 |
| Power Grid |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Karla | 17 Cities (Powered 17 + 18 electros) | 1 | |
| Mike | 17 Cities (17 + 3 electros) | 2 | |
| Dan | 16 Cities (15) | 3 | |
| Lee | 15 Cities (16) | 4 | |
Notes: Karla lobbied for and got to the table Power Grid. She wanted to play with the Italy map, but since we had just tried it we all agreed to play on the France map instead. The France map has a big nice section in Paris (3 connections with no extra charge), and uranium is much cheaper.
Dan had the worst plant early on and went...to the south, next to the only other zero-connection cities. Karla could only power one city, but she bought all three Paris connections. I had the best plant, which powered two, so I tried to get an early lead in cash and grabbed up two cities just north of Paris, looking forward to taking care of the three Paris connections in Phase 2.
We all progressed slowly through Phase 1. Karla had the most cities, and kept expanding, grabbing all coal plants. Lee managed the first really good power plant, an oil (2) plant that powered 5. Unfortunately, he was in kind of a weird position of powering only 2 or 3 cities with that plant, so he felt guilty about wasting the oil. Dan grabbed three plants a coal that powered 1 city, the uranium that powered 2, and a wind that powered 2. It looked good for a turn or two. My plants were a coal that powered 2, an oil that powered 2, and then I grabbed a uranium that powered 4. I was going last quite frequently, so I was grabbing my pick of the litter.
I was hemmed in to 6 cities, as expansion beyond that was prohibitively expensive. Lee grabbed a cheap garbage plant to supplement his big Oil and little coal, and snagged 7 cities in the same turn Dan did, and Karla grabbed 8. Dan grabbed a hybrid plant (#29), which burns a single coal or oil for 3 cities. Really, it's 4, and I said so when he bought it, but everyone proceeded to forget this for the next 3 rounds, so Dan was gypped out of about 27 euros. I gave him 20 one turn to make up for it. He should have remembered anyway, but I felt kind of bad.
I started to make a move, but I had to buy a garbage plant to replace my coal plant when Karla shifted from first to 4th in the turn order one round, meaning that she was going to buy up all the coal and squeeze me out. As Garbage was inexpensive (Lee had removed his 1 garbage to buy a 5 oil plant and a 5 hybrid plant), I bought a 2 garbage, then upgraded that to 4. Dan wanted to upgrade his power (he was stuck at 7 - really 8, but we forgot the 3 was a 4) and passed on purchasing a power plant for 2 turns, as none of them upgraded him much. In the meantime he was expanding too much, actually going first each turn though he was producing the least money.
Lee had spent too much on power plants, and he wasn't manipulating the turn order very well. Karla seemed to be #3 or #4 right when she needed to. She scoooped up a 6 garbage, a 5 wind, and then paid a hefty chunk on a 7 hybrid plant. On the second to last turn she also got Lee - who could have challenged in one more turn - to pay 85 for the fusion plant. It upgraded his productivity from 15 to 16, so it was hardly worth it at this point in the game.
That turn I managed to get the plant I needed - a 6 oil - for 44 electros. Karla and Dan had their eyes on something else, so I got it for pretty cheap. I knew I could spend about 44 or 45 electros, as I expected Lee to buy all the oil in a hose move, so the oil ended up costing me 10 instead of 8. Dan bought the 5 uranium, which managed to get his production up to 15.
On the final city purchasing, Dan went first and bought up the cheapest terrain he could in an effort to make Karla's expanion too expensive. Lee wanted to do the same, but as he had bought spare oil drums in the supply round he performed the good ol' "Self-hose" and left himself 1 electro short of getting to 16 cities. Dan expanded to 16 just to grab third place. I had 3 electros left over from getting 17. I could have saved 2 or 3 more, but I wanted to try to get into Karla's way.
Karla tried to go north, but finally Dan persuaded her to go south, which was way cheaper. She would have won either way, but she was teased more with 18 cities in the south. She ended up with 17 cities, but about 15 more electros than I did.
It was a fun game. The France map makes uranium more competitive, resulting really in two people making good use of it rather than one person. I should mention that Karla got really pissed at me when I made to buy up a lot of extra coal, but I backed out. I backed out because she was adamant in her vitriol, and I didn't want to make her that pissed. I ended up dumping the plant the next round (in part because I was tired of competing for coal). My wussiness niceness may have cost me the game, as I bought a 2 garbage plant of only moderate usefulness before upgrading later to a 4 garbage that was much more useful.
In the end, Lee mismanaged his money a couple times and didn't time his power plant purchases quite right. Dan was stuck powering 8 cities when he had 10 or 12 or more, but didn't make the mistake of buying a power plant that only upgraded him a little. He was hosed, but he did the best he could. I did all right, but I feel that Karla's early money lead hurt me. The big blow was that I was stuck at 6 when everyone else boomed, and though I closed to within 1 city of Karla before final purchases (I was at 14 to her 15...and I caught up on the last turn), I was shorter on money NOT because I had worse plants, but because I had been behind for a city or two in phases 2 and 3 and I bought one slightly expensive plant of mediocre usefulness.
| Boomtown |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Karla | 111 | 1 | |
| Dan | 98 | 2 | |
| Mike | 89 | 3 | |
| Lee | 60 | 4 | |
Notes: Dan, Lee, and I wanted to play a wargame, but in the snow Karla didn't want to drive without her glasses. So, after being grumpy with her for not wearing her glasses, I forced her to play Boomtown to make up for it. Of course, she had to win.
Karla refused to bid on much during the game, and as she was to my left, I was losing out on a source of money. Dan and Lee won most auctions, and since I picked second when Dan won, I would raise until he won.
Here's a quick rundown:
Karla grabbed a governor, put it on Cold Mountain, then watched it start raking in cash. She was always getting big money thanks to Lee or Dan's big bids (4 or 3 or 2 per turn). No one was willing to stop her Cold Mountain Governor, though we eventually whittled it down from a 10 point punishment to a 6 pointer.
Dan made good on an early Saloon in Coyote City, and held onto the Cactus Junction and San Narciso mayorships all game though I came close to taking them from him a couple times. On both auctions I forced him to make a high bid, which didn't help me so much as the money went to Lee and Karla and my second pick usually wasn't that helpful. A late Appropriations on Karla and then a Telegraph adjusted to maximize his profits on the last turn made it look like he was going to win.
Lee didn't have much of a plan, and as we had an early war for Coyote City that he lost, blowing each others mines up, we were hurt early. Lee made things worse for me by getting a saloon with Saloon Girls in my Cold Mountain city that was rolled most frequently (a 6, though I still made a gold on it each turn).
Mike started strong, faded and got into a dynamite war with Lee, then let Dan win some expensive bids late that let him keep the mayorships. Those auctions still tended to be more important for Dan than for me, as frequently I'd avoid a Cold Mountain mine or grab an excellent mine, leaving the crappy ones for Lee.
One turn puzzled me. Lee won the second to last auction, which consisted of a Dry Gulch mine, a Cactus Junction mine, a stagecoach robbery, and a hold up. Lee grabbed the Dry Gulch mine, which he had a huge lead in already. Had he not taken it, he would have gained 4 or 5 gold for his mayor, PLUS any hold up or Stagecoach money. Dan then grabbed the other mine, fearing that I would pass him in Cactus Junction. Again, he would have grabbed 4 gold PLUS any holdup or Stagecoach money if he hadn't grabbed it. I took the Stagecoach (for 10 gold) knowing that Karla wouldn't hold me up - her closest *cough* rival was Dan. She only mugged him for 3 gold, but still, let's mathematicize it:
Real Life Dan: Gains Mine (3 gold) - Hold up (3 gold) - Karla's Benefit (3 gold) = - 3 gold.
Smart Dan*: Karla claims mine (4 gold) + Stagecoach (10 gold) - Karla's gain at end (3 gold) = +11 gold.
Gambling Dan: Karla claims mine (4 gold) + Hold Up (6 gold) + Karla's lost money (6 gold) - Karla's gain at end (3 gold)= +13 gold
Smart Dan comes out 14 gold ahead, actually tying Karla. Gambling Dan, had he made the rather moderate guess of 6 (giving him a 26 out of 36 chance of grabbing 6 gold), would have won by 3 or so.
Maybe Dan was thrown off by Lee's own bad move. Lee could have caught up to anyone by the same numbers (only Karla wouldn't have targeted him for the 3 gold) that Dan had above, and still would have been stuck with last place.
* - I realize that seems paradoxical but we're strictly talking theory here.