April 21st, 2005 |
Dan, Annie, and Scott made it over tonight, and we had a huge ruckus in the very first game, as will be described below. After that, it was fairly pedestrian.
| Ivanhoe |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Karla | 4 tournaments | 1 | |
| Scott | 3 tournaments | 2 (Tie) | |
| Mike | 3 tournaments | 2 (Tie) | |
| Annie | 2 tournaments | 4 | |
| Dan | 1 tournament | 5 | |
Notes: Scott picked the first game and chose this one, a game he typically plays very well, and one which he almost pulled off on some very nice cardplay, but the unpredictable Annie stopped him.
From the notes:
The summer tournament sessions started normally enough, as Sir Daniel hosted a battle axe tournament and won it, despite some moderate competition from Annie du Prairie du Soleil and Karla du Parc du Chêne. The masters of the tournament got a rule wrong, and let Annie du Prairie du Soleil start the next tournament as she was to Sir Dan's left. (According to tourney tradition, the winner starts the next one. The tournament masters discovered the tournaments had proceeded about 2/3 of the way through the summer campaign, and Sir Dan announced that he was competing under protest.)
Sir Mike then won Annie du Prairie du Soleil's battle of morning stars, as he came with heart afire to show off to his lady love, Karla du Parc du Chêne. She was mildly impressed.
Sir Scott hosted and won a battle axe tournament with nary a bump in the road, though Annie du Prairie du Soleil took a half-hearted hack at him. "Prithee, Sir Scott," announced a fatigued Annie du Prairie du Soleil, "we hath only justeth now completed a battle axe competition. Methinks thou didst sandbaggeth the first one!" Sir Scott finished Annie du Prairie du Soleil with a smile and accepted the Blue Chip of Victory in Battle Axe Tournaments.
Karla du Parc du Chêne then initiated another battle axe tournament, and Sir Mike gave a meager effort, at least making her use more than one big swing to win the Blue Chip. Still, she took it with nary a depletion of strength.
When Sir Mike finally had a chance to host, he supplied a hogshead of ale and then started a brou-ha-ha. He rained blow after blow upon his opponents, finally pummeling Annie du Prairie du Soleil into submission after defeating Sir Scott and Karla du Parc du Chêne. Sir Dan grumbled, as his new weapons, horse, and gauntlet had not yet arrived from Moorish Spain.
Still, Sir Dan hosted an incredibly cheap and boring battle axe tournament, "Again!" sighed the anguished Sir Mike, who (again) put up a pathetic fight against an inspired Annie du Prairie du Soleil, who was eager to win her first tournament. She then hosted a bitterly fought swordfight, which was won after a gruesome battle by Karla du Parc du Chêne, who, with much cunning and quickness, outdueled the rest of us. Sir Dan drank free mead in the corner and watched us exhaust ourselves.
Halfway through the summer tournament session, Karla du Parc du Chêne and Sir Mike had 2 victories, while Sir Scott, Annie du Prairie du Soleil, and Sir Dan each had 1.
Sir Scott took advantage of everyone's fatigue to host and win a Swordfighting tournament. It was here that cries arouse that the masters of the tournament were getting the rules wrong. "Surely," said a voice in the crowd, "should the winner start the next tournament, we wouldn't have so many goddamn sandbaggings!" The voice was soon heard.
Sir Scott, flush from his sandbagged swordfighting victory, hosted the first jousting tournament of the summer, and he won it in the face of a valiant effort from Annie du Prairie du Soleil and some half-hearted attempts from Karla du Parc du Chêne and Sir Mike. Sir Dan, again, sat aside, this time drinking plum wine.
A battle axe tournament was then started by Sir Scott, who had already won a battle axe tournament. Only Sir Mike had not won a battle axe tournament, so Karla du Parc du Chêne and Sir Dan quickly pulled out. Sir Mike fought as well as he could for the Blue Chip, but was quickly outmatched. Then, mid-tournament, Sir Scott announced, "Annie du Prairie du Soleil, these axes tire me. Let us battle with MORNING STARS!" Annie du Prairie du Soleil said, "Okay," and she doth knocked Sir Scott's teeth out, so close and yet so far from winning the summer tournament session.
Things then went rather blandly, as both Karla du Parc du Chêne and Sir Mike inched closer to winning the summer tournament session, tying Scott for the lead with three each as Karla du Parc du Chêne won a pugilistic tournament while Sir Mike won a battle axe tournament - forcing Karla du Parc du Chêne to switch from a joursting tournament - which no one was eager to compete with him in, once the lances were broken.
In the sweltering late August heat, the summer session came to a head. Sir Mike hosted a grand jousting tournament under the festival of flowers, and many were the ladies-in-waiting. Sir Dan shook off his accustomed drunkenness and sallied forth, eager to win his second tournament. Annie du Prairie du Soleil took part, and Sir Scott was quickly unhorsed. Then, as Sir Mike, Sir Dan, and Karla du Parc du Chêne vied in the lance, Annie du Prairie du Soleil viciously betrayed her lover Sir Dan, nicking the tendon of his horse, and Sir Dan did complain. "Whyso didst thou not assaileth Sir Mike or e'en Karla du Parc du Chêne, by whom we shalt soon be defeatedeth? Hath thou not any sense?!?" (Translation: "That is so stupid? What are you doing! You've got to play the game right! Fine! I'm GLAD Mike moved Game Night to Thursdays [Annie has school most Thursdays]! Then I can actually have FUN!" - ed.)
Annie du Prairie du Soleil then retreated willfully, and left the game to a hampered Sir Dan and a rabid Sir Mike and sneaky Karla du Parc du Chêne. Sir Mike quickly took advantage, forcing Karla du Parc du Chêne to abandon much of her weaponry and armor, and stunning Sir Dan, who then was forced to withdraw, seething and concussed. Sir Mike then claimed victory, but Karla du Parc du Chêne, though inconvenienced by Sir Mike's clever lance-work and annoyed by his braggadocio and ballyhooing, made some exquisitely clever moves and out-jousted him, sneaking her lance just passed his dragon-decorated shield and into his chest, sending him from his horse to roll around in the August dust.
| Puerto Rico |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Mike | 62 | 1 | |
| Dan | 50 | 2 | |
| Karla | 46 | 3 | |
| Annie | 41 | 4 | |
| Scott | 35 | 5 | |
Notes: After the disgrace of Ivanhoe, Dan picked Puerto Rico. A good choice, as in our established seating order, Dan was in position to be the hoser to Annie rather than vice-versa. The order was, after the first player was established, Annie-Scott-Karla-Mike-Dan. Dan, for the first time in probably half a dozen games, got to start with corn, which made him very happy.
And so we started out. Annie passed on first play settler to take the prospector. Scott then the settler and selected... indigo (Karla took sugar, I took tobacco, Dan took coffee, and Annie took sugar). Karla then took...Mayor. Mike thus took builder, and with the 4 doubloon start and the one doubloon builder discount, was able to get the tobacco storage. Dan took Craftsman, netting him an extra corn early on.
Karla took Mayor probably 3 of her first 5 picks, as she would get a plantation or a building and want to populate it. This meant she had about 4 guys "getting high" on the beach (I made her move them to San Juan) rather than working. Annie went with an old favorite, the hospice, and Scott proceeded to produce his indigo and to build a hacienda, taking the extra plantation each turn. I quickly produced some tobacco and hogged a ship for a couple turns in shipping it.
Despite some early cash flow, I then fell into a rut, as Dan manipulated the trader very nicely to keep me from getting much money. I did manage to get my small market populated and then bought an office, which was a key thing to do. Dan also took a small market, and soon was producing a boatload of sugar and a little corn. Annie was going with sugar and indigo, and Karla was in the process of making a lot of sugar.
By midgame, I was reaping in the cash. My office was HUGE, and as I had a monopoly on tobacco (why oh why do people let me get tobacco monopolies?) the trading house often had two tobacco barrels in it before being emptied. I was also able to keep my buildings and plantations occupied. I spent my settler phases grabbing a quarry and was up to 4 corn fields. Scott had a lot of plantations, but wasn't really using them, as he was only receiving one colonist per mayor phase - he was last in the pecking order, as usually Karla or I chose mayor. Annie was kind of in limbo, not really going for one strategy, though she focused on shipping, which, with her vast collection of goods (she was making sugar, corn, and indigo), was only an okay strategy. If she had picked up the harbor instead of the university at one point (Annie loved the extra colonists!) she might have made a run. But she was in a weird shipping vs. building turn by turn thing.
Dan was obviously my biggest rival, as he had a strategy and adapted to things well. He was producing four goods (all but tobacco), made money by selling his coffee, and managed some early shipping points in hogging a boat with sugar early on, though Karla eventually passed him in the sugar shipping. In fact, all Karla did was ship sugar. She had hardly any buildings, but made a KILLING on shipping sugar in about 4 straight Captain's phases.
Meanwhile Scott languished, not really doing anything except producing a couple indigo and then shipping them. He eventually acquired a harbor to make it slightly more worthwhile. He also felt betrayed as he had both the construction hut and the hacienda, and he had hoped that it would allow the drawing of a face up tile AND a quarry. No dice. It's always a face down draw, then whatever one wants. He did have his island filled though, and would have been in nice shape if he could have managed to acquire the Residence.
Dan had the factory from about midgame, and was getting 3 doubloons per craftsman phase, which was arising more frequently by the end. I was in a unique position for me. I had tons of two goods (tobacco and corn) and the harbor and factory - two of my faves - weren't valid options. I didn't want to spend the time and effort to collect indigo, sugar, or coffee (the first two were being hogged by everyone else anyway), so I went with a new strategy - the wharf. It was a difficult buy for me, as with just one more doubloon I could have bought a bonus building, but I went with wharf and didn't regret it. Without a warehouse, It was absolutely essential for me to be able to ship my huge amounts of corn.
It all worked out. I used my wharf every turn, and then picked up a harbor in the second to last round just for the heck of it. I also managed to get the Fortress (1 VP per 3 colonists) as I had really benefited from mayor phases. Karla managed to get the City Hall (1 point per purple building), but it didn't do much for her, as she pretty much had only sugar and indigo mills. Annie built the Customs House (1 point per 4 VPs collected) - almost always a good buy - but Dan made the best buy in getting the Guild Hall (1 point for small production building, 2 points for a large). As he had almost every production building (except a small indigo mill, which were all gone when he wanted it), he netted nice VP totals.
At last, a Captain's Phase took care of the VP chips, and I, despite being kind of nice in a couple earlier Captain's phases - leaving a ship unloaded when I could have plugged it up with tobacco, I hosed everyone on the last round, putting tobacco on an empty ship and stuffing my wharf full of corn. I still would have had the same number of points, but Dan probably would have managed a few more points.
| Player | VP Chips | Building VPs | Bonus VPs | Total |
| Mike | 34 | 23 | 5 | 62 |
| Dan | 21 | 20 | 9 | 50 |
| Karla | 35 | 9 | 2 | 46 |
| Annie | 21 | 15 | 5 | 41 |
| Scott | 24 | 11 | 0 | 35 |
I pretty much cruised to victory. Dan said, after the game, that I hosed him about 5 times with my role selection. Usually he was hoping for trader or mayor and I'd take it right before he needed it. I felt that no one hindered me at all. I was in a pretty flexible spot though, as I always had money, except for a few turns in mid-game, so I could almost always build. It was hard or impossible to hose me in trader (office, market) or captain (wharf), and no one wanted to make the investment to produce tobacco. There were only two setbacks, one minor. 1) the aforementioned 2 or 3 round absence of cash early on, and 2) Annie took the Customs House when I wanted it. I "settled" on the fortress.
| For Sale |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Mike | $71,000 | 1 | |
| Karla | $54,000 | 2 | |
| Scott | $52,000 | 3 | |
| Annie | $45,000 | 4 | |
| Dan | $34,000 | 5 | |
Notes: We had 15 minutes to go, so we played For Sale. I don't remember much about it, though I ended up with excellent properties, including 4 rated 20+ and getting the 30. I also bid masterfully on everything. Karla played well, too, and Dan stunk it up, picking up both VOID checks. Karla and Scott frequently underbid on me by 1.
I don't think Dan likes this game. Blind, simultaneous action games (typically filled with chaos) always mess with him. He also dislikes 6 Nimmt! and Citadels, two games which partake of chaos to some extent. Though he likes By Hook or Crook okay, which has more strategy.