October 4th, 2005 |
Another big Game Night tonight, again with 8 people. We peaked at 7, though, as Karla wasn't up for much gaming and read after her bad performance in Boomtown. I tried to get another table of games going, but Dan said "I don't want to play San Marco," the greatest 3 player game ever invented, and we were both reduced to suffering through an hour and a half of Citadels, where Dan's "Oh my God"s outnumbered my "Let's hurry this up"s 23 to 17.
Let me state it here for the record: it's not that I want to break us into two groups, it's that I'm not crazy about my games for 7+ players. I've played them all too much or they're all a bit too chaotic. There are far more and better options for 3 or 4 player games.
| Circus Flohcati |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Karla | 55 | 1 | |
| Lee | 32 | 2 | |
| Mike | 16 | 3 | |
Notes: I had to re-explain the rules to Karla, who didn't want to listen to them, so I had to help her out through her first 4 or 5 turns. After that, she just went for the Grand Display (or whatever it's called), and Lee managed to get a couple of displays out while I did nothing.
It was an odd game. Karla and I kept taking each other's cards, but she managed to end up with them at the end. I also never made a display because I kept drawing doubles. Lee was beset with them, too, early on, and Karla never did. Needing just one more color, she asked for an orange from me (Karla managed to get all three of the Color Asking cards) and I had to give her one. She managed the Grand Display with the deck about 60% gone and cleaned our living clocks.
| Boomtown |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Mike | 85 | 1 | |
| Jim | 81 | 2 | |
| Lee | 53 | 3 | |
| Karla | 51 | 4 | |
| Scott | 41 | 5 | |
Notes: Next up I pulled out Boomtown, as only Scott had arrived and I figured more people (notably Annie, Dan, and Jamie) would eventually show. Boomtown's about a 30 to 45 minute game.
Scott grabbed Mayorship of Dry Gulch right away, and I tried to avoid the popular mine colors (Green and Yellow) and went for Red and Purple. Scott had an early dynamite he didn't want to use really and used it to blow up a near-useless mine of my own. Jim was more aggressive, and used his to blow up Karla's saloon. Lee held on to the Telegraph early on but never used it.
As the game went on a lot of mayorships switched hands, though Jim, despite only having two mines in Cactus Junction, managed to hang onto that the whole game. I had Coyote City early on, but lost it to Jim around midgame. I also lost Cold Mountain to Karla at one point, too. Lee was living high on the hog off of picking second after me, and managed to take the Mayor of San Narciso.
Karla was low on mines and had no mayors early on. Scott was reaping cash from a saloon in Cactus Junction and his Dry Gulch mayorship for a while, especially when he became Governor, until Lee managed to tie him in Dry Gulch mines and used Dynamite to torch one of his Dry Gulch mines. Jim and I were quietly doing really well, each with a lot of mines worth good money and a nice stack of chips.
I was unable to re-take my Coyote City mayor from him, as Jim built up his lead there to his 5 to my 3. He only had two Cactus Junctions, but he grabbed a third on the next to last turn and kept me from gaining on him there. Scott fell into a black pit about 2/3 of the way through. He had few mines and he had really been spending a lot of money in the auctions in a vain effort to avoid losing his gains. Lee did okay but his mines were only mediocre. Karla had good mines, but her numbers were never rolled - something she assured us always happens. She had also been stuck with a couple useless cards during the game (such as the Saloon Girls after her saloon was blown up). Karla also lost Cold Mountain to me when we were both tied at 3 mines apiece and her mine collapsed (so did a really good mine of Scott's).
On the last turn I didn't have to win the auction, so I let Lee take it. I used my Mustang (which had inexplicably fallen to me, choosing last, a couple turns earlier) to snag the Stagecoach Robbery and I added a vital 10 chips to my score. It ended up being just enough.
| Player | Chips | Mine Gold | Mayor Points | Total |
| Mike | 47 | 33 | 5 | 85 |
| Jim | 32 | 39 | 10 | 81 |
| Lee | 28 | 25 | 10 | 63 |
| Karla | 13 | 38 | 0 | 51 |
| Scott | 14 | 27 | 0 | 41 |
It was a pretty rough and tumble game with very high auctions. One got as high as 13.
| Citadels |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Jim | 30 | 1 | |
| Mike | 24 | 2 | |
| Jamie | 22 | 3 (Tie) | |
| Annie | 22 | 3 (Tie) | |
| Dan | 19 | 5 | |
| Scott | 18 | 6 | |
| Lee | 17 | 7 | *? |
Notes: Here I suggested we split up as Karla insisted she was going to step aside. Dan groaned at San Marco and when I pulled out Citadels he didn't gripe. Annie wanted to play Bohnanza but I rejected that flat out. It's an okay game, but I feel almost helpless in 7 player Bohnanza.
Anyway, out came Citadels and we played with 4 of the expansion characters: Witch, Tax Collector, Wizard, and Emperor. Dan got really excited about the Emperor, which forces the selector to move the king to a new place. It ended up not being so great, though.
I went through a description of all the cards and then, when we were about to start playing, I saw Lee reading them himself. He grinned sheepishly when I accused him of not listening and admitted that he was getting tired of listening to rules for new games.
The game was chaotic and took a little too long. It did speed up towards the end, once everyone got used to the cards. I'll just list a quick summary of everyone's actions here:
Lee: Slow start, then had a nice run of building things. He kept getting stuck with the Emperor as it kept getting buried as the face down discard, and Dan (picking last) never chose it until later. He had a nice bit of money, but was an odd target of Jamie's Warlord at one point and lost a size 4 building. He usually took the Tax Collector, and complained when the Emperor kept getting buried for 3 straight rounds.
Scott: Scott was the Witch almost every turn from the 4th round on. He picked my role twice: Merchant and Wizard. I didn't mind the first time as I was only trying to collect money, but I got pissed the second time. In part because each time I was picking 2nd to last and had only those two choices! (I obviously picked wrong both times!) Scott lost a size one building to Jamie's Warlord and aggravated everybody by continuing to take the witch. He was hosed on the last round when he tried to bewitch the Merchant (I think) and he had been buried, costing him probably around 5 or 6 points.
Dan: Dan was the victim of an odd first round bewitching by Lee (he bewitched the Emperor!) and a couple later bewitchings of Scott (who tended to bewitch the Merchant and Dan figured the risk worth the reward). Also, the only time he took the witch, his potential victim was buried. He built a couple nice buildings, though, and he and Annie kept Wizarding each other's cards. He had a heap of money, but only managed 4 pretty good buildings.
Annie: Annie made it to 7 buildings the same turn that Jim did, having lost a Temple early on to a Jamie Warlord attack. Unfortunately, she never got to her 5th colored region (lacking red), and as she rarely had much money, she never built anything very big. I believe she topped out at one size 4 building. She frequently took the architect.
Jamie: Jamie got to 6 buildings, but did manage to get all 5 colors. I did a sort of post factum destruction of his watchtower that upset him once, but I was unrepentant in destroying it. Given an opportunity to strike down one of Jim's buildings at a critical juncture, Jamie passed on him and went after Lee, who was struggling along somewhere in the middle with 4 buildings. Jim had 5 and had one of every color (with his Haunted City covering red for him). Jamie was pretty much Warlord every turn except a couple Architects and Tax Collectors. He had a last turn architect and could have built two things to get to 7 but didn't have enough money.
Mike: I did okay. Jamie's a pretty vicious Warlord, so I went for buildings that were prohibitively expensive for him to destroy. I got some early cash from the Warlord, took bishop, and managed getting tagged with the Wizard a few times. I tried to be pretty random in my selections, but I never took Tax Collector or Architect, usually because they were already taken. I never got to use the Merchant either, being bewitched the one time I used him, and I never acquired enough money or cards to really threaten Jim.
Jim: Jim did a nice job. His city looked nice, but it didn't seem that nice. His buildings were average to weak and, at first glance, it looked like it didn't have all 5 colors. It did, though, as Jim had the Haunted City PLUS another purple region. He got to 7 first usually by selecting the Bishop and keeping Jamie's evil Warlord off his back. He was never the target of the Witch and built a nice, steady supply of cards and cash, usually opportunely selecting the Tax Collector. On his last turn, Lee Wizarded him and left him with a really expensive card, but he got enough bonus gold from his Bishop selection to chance a card draw, and he managed to complete his city just before Annie did (who had selected the Merchant). Jim had the great wall, making his buildings cost 1 extra to destroy, and he constantly reminded Jamie of that. Jamie then destroyed one of Lee's - costing Lee any chance at winning and missing our only real chance to slow Jim down. Jamie said he didn't destroy one of Jim's because "It would have cost one more than usual." I didn't quite get that.
I should say that I refrained from suggestion whom Jamie should go after with his Warlord. I could have insisted on Jim, but when I do that I always become the next target. My strategy sort of worked. I did my best ever at this: 2nd place.
| Midnight Party |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Jamie | -13 | 1 | |
| Lee | -19 | 2 (Tie) | |
| Mike | -19 | 2 (Tie) | |
| Jim | -23 | 4 | |
| Annie | -25 | 5 | |
| Dan | -26 | 6 | |
| Scott | -27 | 7 | |
Notes: We played a silly game of Midnight Party to wrap up the night. I didn't do so hot, mainly because the person I set up at the +3 spot kept rolling ghosts and got abducted early in rounds 1 and 2.
Lee had the lead after rounds 1 and 2, but an odd Round 3, in which Hugo didn't catch anybody until he was 3/4 of the way around the board cost Lee. His guy was the first one caught and hit Lee with -10 points.
Jim was the only one that had a chance of catching Jamie in the end, but he had to get to the last +3 room. He didn't make it, and then Hugo caught Scott's out of breath guest for the last capture.