April 18, 2006 |
I had planned on having Game Night at my place this week, but Karla vetoed it and I didn't really have time to clean the messy house anyway. I must say that when I stopped having it at our place every week it became a slippery slope just to have it back at our place once a month now. Karla has gotten spoiled to going to bed nice and early...
Tonight Rakesh was first to respond (by a minute before Jamie), and he and Amanda hosted Lee, Dan, Erin, Jamie, and me.
Poor Jim was up in Squaw Valley skiing for business.
| Midnight Party |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Jamie | -11 | 1 | |
| Erin | -13 | 2 | |
| Lee | -17 | 3 | |
| Mike | -28 | 4 | |
| Amanda | -32 | 5 | * |
| Rakesh | -35 | 6 | * |
Notes: Dan showed up in time to play with the rest of us, but he opted out, choosing to complain about his bike's broken rims and drink some vino.
Boy, did I take it on the chin in the first two rounds. I rolled nothing but Hugos for the first two rounds, which severely crushed my chances of winning. In fact, Hugo did a number on everybody right away. Jamie played conservatively, placing his guys near the end. Rakesh and Amanda played too aggressively, putting both of their party-goers in the first long hallway. They at least didn't roll all Hugos, though Amanda had the first guy caught (but also managed one of the +3's to salvage a -7). Erin split her people up, as did Lee. Hugo was on a tear, though, and managed to get everyone for at least 6 points.
Lee: -6
Amanda: -7
Erin: -8
Rakesh: -9
Jamie: -11
Mike: -14
I thought things were bad the first round...I had no idea. My guys were the 2nd and 3rd ones caught in the second round, and Dan laughed at me: "That's worse than all but 3 or 4 of the times I've played this!" Har har.
Jamie played ULTRA-conservatively, foregoing any +3 rooms in favor of avoiding Hugo altogether. It worked like a charm. Erin split her people up, and got the +3 and the -6. Rakesh did the split, too, but lost one guy to the -10 spot. Lee was conservative, but got caught with the -5. Amanda took -7. 2nd round scores:
Jamie, Erin, and Lee: -11
Amanda: -14
Rakesh: -19
Mike: -31
With three folks tied for 1st, I thought there'd be more strategy. There wasn't, except Jamie consciously went for his conservative strategy. Erin split hers up, as did Lee. I went for my two customary spaces while Amanda and Rakesh went all out to win.
Needless to say, Amanda and Rakesh got hammered, as Hugo had it in for them. I managed both a +3 and a free space, and Erin managed to sneak into the other +3 space. Jamie then grabbed two safe rooms, and when Lee was caught for the -6, Hugo still had halfway around the board to go to catch Erin. If she could get in safe, she'd win. If Hugo made a mad dash around the board, she'd lose.
It was actually pretty crazy. Lee rolled a ghost. Jamie rolled a ghost. Amanda rolled a ghost. I rolled a ghost. Then Rakesh rolled a 1 or 2. Hugo was one roll away from getting Erin. She rolled too low to hide and Hugo got her on the next die rolling trip around the table (I think Amanda finished her off). Jamie won!
| Saboteur |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Dan | 7 | 1 | |
| Jamie | 5 | 2 | |
| Lee | 4 | 3 (Tie) | |
| Rakesh | 4 | 3 (Tie) | * |
| Erin | 4 | 3 (Tie) | * |
| Amanda | 3 | 6 | * |
| Mike | 0 | 7 | |
Notes: Next, frustration set in, and I got upset with everyone. First, there was a lot of talking during the rules, where I explained in vivid detail the directions the cards must be laid, how collapse cards work, and how to break and repair equipment. Jamie, Erin, Lee, and Rakesh were very loud and jokey, though, and didn't listen to me.
So I spent the bulk of the first two frustrating rounds explaining how the cards worked, which bugged me because I had excellent cards (I was a loyal dwarf) but Amanda wouldn't play the mine collapse card needed because she didn't understand how it worked. I got a bit huffy about that (mainly because Dan and Lee, who were supposed to be helping me and Amanda, weren't doing jack squat, and I was dependent on getting a certain card out of the way), and she finally played it. We still couldn't complete it, though, and the loyalists lost to the saboteurs Erin, Rakesh, and Jamie, thanks to some rookie mistakes and some bad luck. First round scores:
Erin, Rakesh, Jamie: 3
Mike, Lee, Amanda, Dan: 0
In the second round I was loyal again, and the three saboteurs outclassed us loyalists again. I had pitiful cards this time and could do nothing, and there was some controversy when Amanda kept blowing up the mine right in the middle. I said that we had to fix the hole before continuing, which we couldn't do, so we had to work around it, which, as you might guess, didn't work out well.
Finally, it became obvious that the loyalists all had shit cards again, so I said, "All right, let's end it and go to the next round." For some reason, Jamie, Rakesh, and Erin balked at this and so we spent 10 more minutes proving we couldn't win it. Dan said, "I'm glad we played those final cards." Second round scores:
Erin, Rakesh, Jamie, Dan, Lee, Amanda: 3
Mike: 0
I could already feel what was going to happen in the 3rd round. I was going to be one of only two saboteurs and we're going to lose. Sure enough, I was. Amanda and I didn't even exhaust the deck before the loyalists cheered enough to chafe, and I grumpily said, "That's it, I'm never teaching you guys the rules again." As Dan played the final card, he had first pick and managed to get 4 nuggets, which bested everyone by at least 2.
At this point I apologized for being so grumpy, and Jamie said it was okay, he knew I had multiple personalities. I said, "That's right, one of them is Howard." I then did a Howard impersonation, which Jamie found creepy.
Then for some reason I was accused of stalking Jamie, so I pretended I was keeping a diary of my stalking and said, "Dear diary, Jamie's wearing his squirrel fur underwear again today..." That was good for a laugh.
| RoboRally |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Mike (Hammerbot) | 2 flags | 1 | |
| Lee (Trundlebot) | 1 flag | 2 (Tie) | |
| Amanda (Twitch) | 1 flag | 2 (Tie) | |
| Rakesh (Squashbot) | 1 flag | 2 (Tie) | |
| Dan (Zoombot) | 1 flag | 2 (Tie) | |
| Jamie (Spinbot) | No flags | 6 | |
Notes: Erin announced her departure, so we settled on a six-player, 2 flag game of RoboRally, as the groaners were out en masse against Medici. So I said, "Well, RoboRally or nothing." Put that way, they had no choice.
Lee and I started off unhampered, and Amanda was, too, but she wasn't moving very well at first. There were a few zaps early on, the Rakesh miscalculated and went cruising around the double-movement conveyor belts with Jamie and Dan. He totally messed up Dan's plans and Dan ended up flying off the board, grumpy and upset.
Rakesh then actually managed to perfectly cross the first flag that turn, and it looked like he'd be off to an easy victory. I spent the turn getting a very useful option card - the "recomplier", which lets you re-draw your program cards. Lee then saved the day by getting in Rakesh's way, forcing his Squashbot to spend a turn banging into the Eastern wall. While he did so, Lee, then I crossed the first flag. I then used the conveyor belt to cruise around to the other side, while Lee, Amanda, and Rakesh tried to go through the middle.
Dan was having trouble getting back into the race, and Jamie, who was down to 4 slots, was turning around and following me on the conveyor belt, zapping me every once in a while. Amanda was following my path, but was a turn behind me.
I then asked everyone if they wanted to shut down, but no one did. Rakesh was trying to win with 4 damaged slots, and Lee was trying with 2 damaged ones. Jamie was really beat up, and he powered down along with me. Amanda was in okay shape, and got to the conveyor belt.
After my profitable shutdown, the cards worked out so that I would cross in one turn. My only competition was Lee, as both Rakesh and Amanda powered down, Rakesh in the middle of the board, Amanda soaring around the side on the conveyor belt. Jamie and Dan were in about the same spot, as Jamie made it all the way around the board again, and Dan had made a detour to get his bot healed in the corner.
On the final turn, Lee said, "Crap, I could have won on turn 4!" It was good he said, "could have," because I won it that turn, rather easily, on turn 5. Dan managed to cross the flag at the very end, and Jamie never made it.
Afterwards, while I was cleaning up and we were drinking wine, Dan was waiting for a ride from Lee and told the sad lament of his bike rims. Apparently, he was riding to our place for game night two weeks ago, and a girl in a mini-van passed him then turned right directly in front of him. His bike damaged the van and bent the mirror, and when Lee asked if she was hot, Dan said, "She was pretty cute, yeah. In fact, I was thinking I shouldn't have left the scene so quickly." Then he said that the girl was only like 22 and seemed upset to have hit a biker rather than damaged his car. When Jamie found out she was only 22, he said, "She thought she hit an old man on a bike!"
We all totally cracked up at that while Dan just said, "Yup. Yup. Totally." When Lee asked him how long he's known he was old, he said, "Three years."