June 5th-6th, 2005 |
Matt and I were kind of bored Sunday night, so I pulled out Attika, which he enjoys playing (mostly because the first three times we played he beat me). I rarely get to play my two-player friendly games, and Attika is among the best two- players. We sneaked (snuck?) in a friendly game of Carcassonne on Monday afternoon waiting for Karla to come home from work.
| Attika |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Mike | 30 buildings | 1 | |
| Matt | 21 buildings | 2 | |
Notes: Matt was Sparta and I was Athens, so we re-created the Peloponnesian War. Matt started, and appeared to be on his way to a very nice base, as he managed to get the harbor and three ships built almost immediately. I was very patient at first. I put out my fountain on the first turn (as did Matt, actually), and tried to collect cards and get a nice infra-structure of buildings on my sheet. Matt got a little hasty once he scooped up his Sparta piece, and tried to make a quick dash for the second temple.
Unfortunately, by the time he did this, I had collected the Quarry-Fortress pieces, and set them down in quick order. Still, he did force me to put out a quick Street tile, and I had to spend a few turns recovering resources. One thing that puzzled me was that when Matt finished his black draw stack, he put the new tile off to the side instead of around the temple on my end. Had he done that, he would have forced me into a more defensive and reactionary position. Instead, I turned the tables and put the burden of reacting on him.
I flipped over Athens and started it in a new section of the board - starting a second colony. From there, I built building after building in quick succession, hoping to manipulate the tiles (and my amphorae) in order to connect to the other temple in one turn - though my two settlements were still about 3 tiles distant.
Matt panicked at this point and was forced to start a new settlement to avoid my quick victory. From this point on, I had a huge advantage, as I managed to get almost every amphora as I progressed and Matt's building hierarchies were scattered all over the map. I believe he only managed two amphorae the entire game. I scooped up all of them except for the Athens wheel (though I came within two tiles of getting that one, too).
In the end my early patience and aggressive tactics forced Matt into a descending spiral of defense and inefficient play, enough for me to grab victory.
(Note: We tried to play a game of Kingdoms next, but I really started smoking his 4 point castle early in the second round while my 3-pointer was garnering a gazillion points, so he forfeited.)
| Carcassonne |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Matt | 177 | 1 | |
| Mike | 170 | 2 | |
Notes: Matt has Hunters & Gatherers back home, and he really enjoys Carcassonne, so I recommeded it, as we had a half-hour wait for Karla to get home before going to eat.
Matt placed an early farmer, and despite some good play I couldn't catch him. We were both pretty nice to each other in this game, with Matt helping one or two of my cities (in order to finish a cloister) and I placed a few yucky road pieces near his cloisters to help him get a guy back once or twice.
It was back and forth, with me grabbing two smaller farms and Matt having a big one. I managed a couple big cities while Matt had a ton of cloisters (I think he managed to get 6 or 7 of them to my 2). I managed to get some good Inn-infested roads (netting double points). Then I tried to semi-hose Matt by giving one of his cities a late citadel but he managed to finish it (for 15 points). That was bad, but then he made one good play, and got lucky once.
First, there was a big hole near my side. It needed a piece that has a road ending in a cloister - that was the only piece that would fit there. Matt drew it, but rather than put it where he could get 9 instant points, he put it somewhere else. Had he put the piece where I wanted, he would have connected his big farm to one of my smaller farms and I would have won easily. Instead, he risked it, and on his very last tile draw he scooped up the curving road piece he needed to get the 9th point from his cloister as well as gather 3 more road points.
We were about even (I think Matt had a narrow lead) after the tiles were drawn, and I added the farms. I needed to support 7 cities with my larger farm to get the win (I was down 27), but only managed 5 of them.