June 13, 2006 |
With game night back at our place on a cool night, we were all set. Jamie, Lee, and Brian P. showed up on time, and Dan showed up just as we started El Grande.
| For Sale |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Brian | $53,000 | 1 | * |
| Jamie | $53,000 | 2 | |
| Lee | $51,000 | 3 | * |
| Karla | $50,000 | 4 | |
| Mike | $43,000 | 5 | |
Notes: First off, I thought we'd play some For Sale, since it's easy, and I anticipated Dan showing up. The auctions were interesting, a lot of low vs. high bids, though the last one was very kind. We played with the correct rules of paying half your CHIPS rounded UP rather than half your CASH offer rounded DOWN.
The bidding on the checks got off to a poor start for me, as I used my 30 to get a $15,000 check - not a bad bid, really, but no one else played a number higher than about 14 or 15. In fact, the irony was that Brian wanted a bit of guidance, so I told him that our group likes to bid low on these first auctions, so he bid just enough to get the second highest check, which was $12,000. I think after that the numbers dropped off precipitously.
After that I did better, but had to take the $2,000 check when all the rest were in double digits because I was running low and didn't want to get a later void check. The great irony in that, though, was that both Jamie and Brian ended up with VOID checks...and tied for the lead. Brian ended up winning as $4,000 of his money was still in his chips, but Jamie had no chips left.
Just before our final accounting, Lee said, "I think I've got this." He lost by $2,000 (it was a very close game), then said, "I'm going to stop making victory predictions."
| El Grande |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Brian | 73 | 1 | * |
| Lee | 72 | 2 | |
| Karla | 67 | 3 | |
| Jamie | 59 | 4 | * |
| Mike | 54 | 5 | |
Notes: It was now 7:15, and Lee and I wanted to play El Grande, but I thought Dan was coming by. So Lee called him, Dan's phone was turned off, and I pulled out El Grande. Of course, in the first round, Dan showed up, and I felt bad enough to erase 1/3 of the game, which compromised the game a bit (especially for me).
Also, when Dan entered, he asked what he had already played. When I told him we'd played For Sale, he said, "So you didn't really play a game yet." I kind of seethed at that comment and defensively said, "It's a game." His point was that we hadn't played a serious game (and he doesn't like For Sale anyway). Still, I try to keep it positive 'round here (unless I'm describing my own play at Pirate's Cove).
Brian and I took early leads in scoring our regions, but everybody attacked me after that, in particular because my home region was the high scoring New Castile. Though I eventually chased Brian out, Karla hassled me the whole game.
Lee had a nice majority in Galicia, but he didn't get to score his region until the first scoring round, and was really far behind for the first three rounds. Jamie and I were soon bringing up the rear, and I had almost nobody on the board. Lee went for a lot of Castillo scoring, and made a sweet comeback after no points for the first three rounds.
I didn't write down the score after the first scoring round, but the order was essentially: Brian, Karla (3 or so points back), Lee (10 points back), Mike and Jamie (about 12 or 13 back).
In the last three rounds Lee and I went for the Castillo, while Karla kept scoring regions that were detrimental to me and good for Brian. I was having trouble catching up because my regions were usually Brian's regions, and I didn't want to give him points, but my other regions were Karla's regions. ARGH!
Karla, in fact, didn't really focus on the leader Brian, but kept messing with me. Lee was optimizing all his regions, and Jamie was just getting mediocre scores.
Finally, it was the last round, and I had stocked up my court and was ready to make a nice move in a couple regions. Instead, Jamie had the one 13 left that could outbid me, took it, and completely hosed me, Karla, and Lee. Brian, seeing that he was going to go last anyway, played his 1 power card, ensuring that he would have 6 caballeros anyway. This play was key. It may have boosted Jamie into 4th place, but it did absolutely nothing to get the leader.
I was forced to use the "move guys around" card from the 1 stack (I now had no caballeros in my court and wasn't going to be adding any mroe), so I manipulated things to give me first place in my home region by 2 (I knew Karla had 2 in the Castillo and figured she wouldn't use them in New Castile. Since all she'd do is hurt me for 2 points, I thought she'd rival Brian or Lee somewhere). All in all, I was doomed, but I thought I'd make it look respectable.
Out comes the Castillo to be scored (Lee had gained 10 on Brian just from two Castillo scorings in the last 2 rounds, then 5 more after one more on the scoring round). Lo and behold, while I scooped some extra points in Aragon, Karla added two to New Castile, giving her NO extra points while costing me 7. (Start further cursing).
We did the final calculations and Brian fended off Lee by one point thanks to having the most guys on the board with his "1" card. I think after the first 2/3 people were finally starting to understand the strategy and stuff (though I spoke with Jamie on Friday night and he said, "I like that game but I don't quite get the strategy"). Had I not been unstrategically victimized by Karla I would have fared about 10-12 points better. Lee played a very good game despite not scoring at all in the first 3 rounds.
On a further note, I played the game the next night with the Madison Board Gamers, and discovered that one of my "region disks" was missing. I thought Lee had found one and put it back, but there must have been two left out(!). Fortunately, we only played with four so we managed okay....
| Liar's Dice |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Dan | 3 Dice Left | 1 | |
| Mike | 4th Out | 2 | |
| Brian | 3rd Out | 3 | * |
| Jamie | 2nd Out | 4 | |
| Lee | 1st Out | 5 | |
Notes: Dan had been really patient waiting for us to finish, in part, I think to the fact he had to eat some food that was more expensive than he wanted to pay.
Still, we only had about a half hour to play, and so I went with Liar's Dice. Karla opted out of playing. (In fact, if one looks through the Liar's Dice reports, I doubt any woman has played this in our group in quite some time, perhaps two years?!?).
Jamie was the first one to take a big hit, losing 3 or 4 when Brian called him. Then it was even for a while, though I was the last to lose a die, and still had five when Lee went out. Jamie survived as long as he could with one die, and I thought I had the advantage as Brian had 2 dice left, and Dan had 3.
I knocked out Brian, losing 1 die, and then Dan got super lucky and I didn't change my tactics. Every time he started a bid, it was on a number that I had some of, and every time I had a bid, it was the exact number he had more of. As I kept playing into his hands. I only bluffed once, he went with it, and it turned out he had enough 1's to cover the bid anyway. It was nuts, and I went out in about 3 turns.
This was also Brian's first Game Night loss, after victories in Around the World in 80 Days, For Sale, and El Grande. He insists it's "beginner's luck," but he's sneaky about his strategy, and he takes my advice better than I do.