April 28th, 2005 |
Another game night, and Annie and Dan made it for two games, Jim made it for one. We thought our Con Buddy Rick would show up, but he never made it. Someone (Jim?) drew some Manga-type pictures on my record sheet and a picture that looked rather obscene but turned out to be a detail of lungectomy.
| Samurai |
| Results | |||||
| Player | Buddhas | High Hats | Rice | Place | First Time? |
| Karla | 1 | 4 | 4 | 1 | * |
| Mike | 6 | 3 | 2 | 2 | |
| Dan | 5 | 3 | 2 | 3 | |
| Annie | 1 | 3 | 3 | 4 | |
Notes: We had only played this game once, so I dug it out and we tried it a second time. I really like this game for its simple play, its quick playing time, and its cool scoring. No one else seems too enamored of it, though, which is really too bad. I thought it would have broader appeal.
In this game, during setup Dan tried to make one island a "Buddha Island," and Karla tried to make another island "Rice Island." After we finished, Dan and I immediately battled for Buddhas while Annie focused on some rice in the middle of the main island and Karla went for Rice, then High Hats on the bottom two islands. (The board may be a little too big. In general, everyone stayed on their side of the board. Though everyone did move around later...)
Annie nabbed a couple rice early, and in the main city I grabbed 2 of the 3 goodies, tying Annie for the rice. As the game went on, Dan continued to challenge me for Buddhas, and it seemed like Karla had the High Hats. Annie seemed like she had the Rice, but she started to flounder as the game went on and kept missing out on a lot of stuff.
I made a few clever moves (including the switching cities tile and the swap a dead tile) in order to make sure I kept the lead in Buddhas. I was pretty sure I had it - and that I had thereby eliminated Dan. The worry now, though, was that Karla would get a lead in the other two pieces. So after I scooped up a couple last things, we counted our pieces, and Karla held off Annie in both Rice AND High Hats in order to win the game.
| In the Shadow of the Emperor |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Mike | 23 | 1 | * |
| Annie | 21 | 2 | * |
| Karla & Jim | 17 | 3 | * |
| Dan | 16 | 4 | * |
Notes: We had just set this up as Jim arrived, and Karla was nice enough to allow us to play it by agreeing to form a team with Jim (rather than playing Ticket to Ride or some other thing). I warned everyone that it was a rather tricky and convoluted game, and tried to remember all the rules. I don't recall anyone getting upset at certain rules, though I seem to remember Dan being pissed about something. I was somewhat drunk (as my Friday morning hangover would prove), so the details are sketchy.
I decided that Annie should be Emperor, and then we got rolling. I went for the electorate of Koln, eager to keep one of my guys nice and young. Annie took Bohemia, Dan went for the free birth in Rhein, and Karla and Jim took Trier. I then set myself up for some good second round cash by lining up a couple and a knight in Sachsen. I had hoped to get the Diocese of Mainz, but the victory point was too tempting and Annie took it from me in the first "determine electorate" round. I had taken the VP card, and was in good shape to win an electorate. Most people focused on keeping their electorates in power for the first round, though Annie used her tie-breaker to take Mainz and Jim and Karla grabbed Brandenburg. Dan usurped me in Koln, but didn't have a single guy to put there, so it was empty. Annie also netted Bohemia, giving her 2 votes. (I had grabbed the pope card.)
We had our first vote for emperor, and as Dan had only one vote and Jim and Karla had 3 or 4, it was pretty much up to them who the emperor was going to be. They revealed their vote openly, and even though Dan was going to vote for me, I told him to take the free victory point by voting for Annie, too. That was the lesson - Keep Your Vote Covered.
The next round Annie and I had sons and Dan and the Jim/Karla group had daughters. They wed them off, giving Annie and myself more power points. I can't quite remember most of the game from here on out, but a few things happened:
- In round 2, Mike challenged Annie for empperor and won,
- Most people tended to defend their electoorates, and there wasn't much switching around until the last two rounds,
- There were big battles in Bohemia and Triier, and though I was never able to take them, I was able to maneuver myself
into getting VPs every turn by finding the region with the weak link and taking it over (sometimes by using my Imperial tiebreaker),
- I was challenged three times for emperor,, and never lost it,
- When I broke a tie in favor of Jim and Kaarla (rather than Dan), Dan was pissed,
- I maintained my stranglehold on Sachsen aand also managed to move everyone out of there to gain influence in other regions,
- Whereas my guys were spread (usually) preetty well, most other folks were too clumped together or inefficiently used,
- Dan almost never had a son,
- I reaped a LOT of bonuses from having thee Emperor every round,
- Jim and Karla LOVED the doctor, both healling their own guys and killing Annie's and Dan's,
- Thanks to all the daughters that were avaailable (I usually had a son), I managed to make most of my people couples, and
therefore had an advantage in gaining influence in most of my electorates.
Thanks to all these different things and my experience (My one solitaire play showed how difficult it was to get VPs, and so I focused on using my aristocrats efficiently and buying up all the cities I could), I managed to claim the victory. I thought Annie might run away with it, but she was slowed in the second round and I was able to progress nicely. I think it's important to spread the Emperor around a bit, as the bonuses for him are nice (tie-breakers mean he needs one less point to claim an electorate and the end of round bonuses are pretty keen). Also, it's nice to have a lot of money, especially early on.
I liked this game. I think it will get really good with more plays, but it's definitely a bit overwhelming at first.