September 20th, 2005 |
Big Game Night tonight, with 8 people. Jim managed to get his partner Joe to come with his sister, Dan and Annie made it, and so did Lee. The night was extra special because I got us to use my card table for the first time. Hooray!
| China |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Karla | 46 | 1 | |
| Mike | 35 | 2 (Tie) | |
| Jim | 35 | 2 (Tie) | * |
| Lee | 33 | 4 | |
Notes: Last time, Karla and Lee swore they'd get me, and this time, Karla vowed to win, and she did. She played really well and was aggressive on the ambassadors. Jim focused on one corner of the board, and Lee and Karla kept tying for first in regions where I was one behind them (which kind of stunk). I also never seemed to get the colors I wanted to draw.
Karla and Jim managed the biggest roads (6 and 5, respectively), while I managed a 4 and Lee didn't get one out there. There's a lot to do, and every turn I was confronted with the problem of either extending my road, trying to claim some ambassador points, or stopping a huge score. I did all of them at various times, but I was never in a position to hose Karla. Near the end I started getting some ambassadors out there, but they only netted me a few points. My non-house scoring strategy burned me. Karla did a great job.
This time, Jim was the one saying he needed to play it again.
| 6 Nimmt! |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Mike | 8 | 1 | |
| Joe | 31 | 2 | * |
| Karla | 42 | 3 | |
| Annie | 48 | 4 | |
| Lee | 53 | 5 | |
| Dan | 61 | 6 | |
| Amanda | 62 | 7 | * |
| Jim | 66 | 8 | |
Notes: With everyone present, we were down to this one or Midnight Party. We went with 6 Nimmt! I played really well the first two rounds, though I got incredibly lucky on one play in the 2nd round, which I'll explain below. The first round went pretty evenly, though Annie got uncustomarily slammed:
Mike: 2
Amanda: 5
Joe: 7
Karla, Jim: 15
Dan: 18
Lee: 23
Annie: 34
In the second round, Jim kept ignoring one row, thinking he'd be safe in another, and sure enough it was always a number perfect to be the 6th one in the row he wasn't looking at. Once he saved Dan from a big pile. Then, right near the end, when all my cards were in the 80s, Amanda did the same thing, saving me from a huge pile. She got me back, though, in the next round. Second round scores (2nd round in parentheses):
Mike: (0) 2
Joe: (14) 21
Dan: (11) 29
Karla: (17) 32
Annie: (2) 36
Amanda: (35) 38
Lee: (18) 41
Jim: (37) 52
In the last round, Dan resorted to total suckiness and had the highest score, but Jim had just enough to trigger the end of the game. I tried sneaking in one card just after the 96 (it was the fourth card in the row), but Amanda had the 97, while I had to settle on the 98. So that blemished my sterling first two rounds, and I ended up with an 8. Lee asked how anyone could not get double digits in a round, and I sniggered heftily.
At one point, as we have a New Orleans refuge here in Amanda, I asked everyone to guess what the English version of 6 Nimmt! is called (it's called Category 5, which Karla thought sounded retarded). Dan said, "The incredibly sucky game that sucks so much and has no strategy and is all luck and Dan sucks at."
| Villa Paletti |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Mike | Master Builder | 1 | |
| Dan | 4 points | 2 | * |
| Karla | 3 points | 3 | |
| Amanda | Knocked Tower Over | 4 | * |
Notes: After we let Moonie and Robin out for a minute to see if they'd like Amanda, who was reminiscing about her old parakeet Petey (who apparently died soon after falling into a bubble and tomato sauce filled sink), we put them away and played Villa Paletti.
Dan and Karla saved all their pieces in the first round, then Dan made a move to get all his pieces off the second platform...leaving the second platform held up by only 2 pieces! This made it very very precarious, and I made sure to get my good pieces up top so as to be named Master Builder when it toppled. Which it did, when Amanda went for a piece.
| Gulo Gulo |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Annie | Found the Baby Gulo | 1 | |
| Joe | Back | 2 (Tie) | * |
| Jim | Back | 2 (Tie) | |
| Lee | Back | 2 (Tie) | |
Notes: This game was played without my presence, so I have no idea how far back everyone was. So they all get a tie for second in the record books. I was asked rules about 3 or 4 times, mostly on how legal was it to take eggs out in certain ways. All's I know is Annie won - I think it was her first time.
| Villa Paletti |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Annie | Master Builder | 1 | * |
| Lee | 3 points | 2 (Tie) | |
| Jim | 3 points | 2 (Tie) | * |
| Joe | Knocked Tower Over | 4 | * |
Notes: I really have no idea of the scores, and this entry will represent all three games. Annie apparently won twice and Jim once. I heard Joe say to Lee before he left, "Sorry I kept knocking the tower over." They played three games while we played a very tough, long, and bitter game of Gulo Gulo.
| Gulo Gulo |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Karla | Found the Baby Gulo | 1 | |
| Dan | 1 Back | 2 (Tie) | |
| Amanda | 1 Back | 2 (Tie) | * |
| Mike | 1 Back | 2 (Tie) | |
Notes: This game was really odd. First, there was a streak of greens, then, the first yellow didn't show up until about 17 tiles in (making comebacks easier). Then, there were about 4 yellows in a row leading up to the final series of tiles.
This made getting yellows near impossible, though I managed to get the 5th one out at one point, giving me a shot at the series with a full bowl. I did pretty well, but then I messed up, taking the wrong blue egg, and the egg alarm went off.
Next up was Amanda, who almost pulled it off, but she flipped over another yellow tile, and it was simply too hard to get the yellow out (as we had all been taking out the yellows). Karla tripped the alarm, then Dan (this was a brutal game!), then I got first shot again.
I finally dug out the purple tile and promptly pushed the egg near the bottom. Then, Karla and Dan kicked and shook the table, making faux scared noises, and the egg - strangely enough - slipped further to the bottom, and I triggered the alarm. They both admitted they screwed up the game, but honestly, I thought I mucked it up enough myself, so I let it slide. Karla then won on her turn.
Dan almost officially protested this game three or four times.
| Colossal Arena |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Mike | 14 | 1 | |
| Lee | 12 | 2 | * |
| Dan | 4 | 3 | |
| Annie | 3 | 4 | |
Notes: It was about 9:20, but as Karla started showing Jim and Joe and Amanda her Taiko drum master game, I thought I'd sneak in another game. I picked out Colossal Arena.
I was saved by the meta-game in this one. First, I didn't explain the rules all that clearly to Lee, so he was a bit unsure of what to do. Dan then killed the Unicorn, which Annie had a big bet on. This made Dan Annie's primary target. I had almost put my secret bet on the Unicorn (I settled for the Gorgon). Dan only had one first round bet out there - on the Ettin. Guess who Annie's target was going to be? I had bets on the Amazon, Gorgon, and Titan. Lee was boosting the Colossus and Daimon while Annie also had the Wyrm.
Sure enough, next round Annie targeted the Ettin (to which Dan said, "Don't do it, Annie. Don't do it!"), which let my Titan survive one more round. Annie joined in on the Daimon and put another bet on the Wyrm. Dan didn't place a 2nd round bet and when the Ettin died, he said, "You're going to regret that, Annie."
Sure enough, she did, but not right away. Dan targeted my Titan (who was driving everyone crazy with his card draw), but I kept the Gorgon and Amazon safe, thanks in part to Dan putting bets on both of them. The momentum of the round was against me, and Dan killed the Titan when I messed up on a chance to save him.
In round 4, Dan killed the Wyrm (which had Annie's secret bet on it, in addition to a 4 and 3 bet), thus completing the revenge he vowed earlier. I kept the Gorgon fat and safe and was happy to see the Amazon make it, too. Lee was doing pretty well, with big bets on the Colossus and Daimon still surviving.
In the last round, with only the Amazon, Gorgon, Colossus, and Daimon left, I thought I was doomed. Everyone had a card except the Colossus, and I thought Lee would put a high card on him and doom the Amazon to a horrible grave. Lee had to be cost effective, though, and committed Colossus suicide. It turns out his secret bet was on the Amazon and he was worth 5 to the Colossus' 4. So he aided me and Dan.
Thanks to the Annie vs. Dan monster kill fest, I hung on for a tight victory, and we wrapped up the Game Night. Very fun.