November 15, 2005 |
We had 6 people tonight to eat carrot cake and ice cream in an early celebration of Karla's birthday. Scott brought a new filler type of game that was pretty slick.
| Tsuro |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Scott | Still Alive | 1 | |
| Mike | 2nd out | 2 | * |
| Karla | 1st out | 3 | * |
Notes: Scott brought over Tsoru, a game he had played quite a while with his family recently. It's a new release, and is called "The Game of the Path." It's a nice blend of short term strategy, immediate tactics, a dash of chaos, and some luck. Best of all, it's fun and takes only about 15 minutes to play even with a large group.
I give it a big thumbs up, and everyone else really liked it, too.
| Tsuro |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Mike | Still Alive | 1 | |
| Lee | 3rd out | 2 | * |
| Karla | Collided with Scott | 3 (Tie) | |
| Scott | Collided with Karla | 3 (Tie) | |
Notes: We played it again when Lee showed up and Karla was going to go out anyway, so she took Scott down with her. That was sweet and we were able to use our favorite sound, DUGE!
| Tsuro |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Karla | Still Alive | 1 | |
| Dan | 5th out | 2 | * |
| Mike | 4th out | 3 | |
| Scott | Collided with Annie | 4 (Tie) | |
| Annie | Collided with Scott | 4 (Tie) | * |
| Lee | 1st out | 6 | |
Notes: And, once more, this time letting Karla win. Dan decided to start on the same square as Annie and as she left it up to him to direct both of their futures on the next tile, Dan could have killed her before her second turn, and we laughed about it as Annie had a pained look on her face and tossed around some moderate rebukes like "jerk". Dan ultimately didn't do it and came in second, but I later forced Annie into a collision with Scott when I was given the chance to direct 4 of us with the same tile.
| TransAmerica |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Scott | 12 | 1 | |
| Mike | 9 | 2 | |
| Dan | 4 | 3 | |
| Lee | 3 | 4 (Tie) | |
| Karla | 3 | 4 (Tie) | |
| Annie | OUT | 6 | |
Notes: Karla then made her birthday pick, and after an interminable search, we finally found where TransAmerica was hiding. It had been a long long time.
The first round was nuts, as Scott finished WAY before everyone, having the card for LA, to which I connected, when I needed San Francisco. The only connections to the west coast were in San Diego or way up in Seattle. Annie never did connect to the main hub of track, though, and lost 11 points! First round tallies:
Scott: 13
Lee: 11
Mike: 10
Dan: 7
Karla: 7
Annie: 2
The second round was more normal, though Scott won again. No one was hit with more than 2 points.
Scott: 13
Lee: 9
Mike: 9
Dan: 6
Karla: 5
Annie: 1
The final round was also pretty quiet, though Lee took a big dive from second place as he was really far away from his west coast city. I managed to make it to Sacramento, but as Scott needed Frisco, he only lost one point and kept the lead for the victory.
| Bang! |
| Results | ||||
| Player | Role | Character | Place | First Time? |
| Lee | Sheriff | Apache Kid | (Won) Lived | |
| Dan | Deputy | Pat Brennan | (Won) 3rd Killed | |
| Karla | Renegade | Suzy Lafayette | (Lost) 5th Killed | |
| Mike | Outlaw | Kit Carlson | (Lost) 4th Killed | |
| Scott | Outlaw | Calamity Janet | (Lost) 2nd Killed | |
| Annie | Outlaw | Sid Ketchum | (Lost) 1st Killed | |
Notes: I appreciated the fact that the citizens of Buffalo City had elected a Native American Sheriff. Good ol' progressive Wild West.
The game was pretty good. Annie revealed herself immediately as an outlaw by shooting at Scott, and Karla revealed herself as Renegade or Deputy by shooting at Annie. Dan started harassing me in the second turn and whittled my excellent supply of defensive goodies to nothing. Scott and I were on the same side as outlaws, and I lit some dynamite.
The dynamite was the tale of the game. It passed around the table about 4 or 5 times. For one thing, as Kit Carlson, I had the opportunity to set up the next person for dynamite. As Scott was an ally, I kept setting him up to live. I rarely had any offensive weapons and never did acquire a gun, so I was never able to shoot at the Sheriff, and Dan kept whittling away my card supply. Scott was doing good damage to Lee, though, so I was hoping he'd stay around long enough to kill him.
Then Annie threw Dan in prison, and he complained about it. Karla then blew the snot out of Annie, whittling her down to 1 bullet. Annie instantly regretted not using the prison on her. Dan missed a turn, I had a useless turn, where I set Scott up to live with the next shot but stupidly fired at Dan, who dove behind the barrel as I had left a heart card on top of the deck. Stupid!
Annie was then shot to ribbons by Lee, and after Karla had weakened Scott, Dan finished him off, garnering the extra cards. The dynamite was back to me, and all I needed was a spade between 2 and 9 to kill off the sheriff. I didn't get it, and (stupidly) complained about it. I should have kept a straight face. Instead I said, "Damn, if only I could have had a spade I wanted!" Dan heard this, and instead of diving behind his barrel when I shot at him, he decided to use the iron plate under his shirt. Thus, Lee was safe from dynamite for a turn.
I was starting to get whittled down, as Karla refused to reveal who she was. Lee threw Dan in prison, and Dan was upset, but the dynamite blew him up anyway, giving me a small bit of revenge. He insisted that he had been attacking Mike and Scott all game, but so had Karla. Karla had not once hurt Dan or Lee and played a perfect Deputy to that point.
I was now doomed, as I had no cards and I kept getting shot. Lee was going to focus on Karla first, but I told him he should take me out (I had one bullet and no cards) so that he could get the 3 card bonus before Karla did. He did, and the outlaws were done.
Then Karla and Lee traded shots and drank beers for about 15 minutes until Lee discarded the Volcanic. Scott, Dan, and I said, "NO! You've gotta play that, it gives you unlimited Bang!s!" He picked it up with a shrug, played it, and then, after surviving Karla's turn, he drew 2 Bang! cards (in addition to two that he already had) and in quick succession whittled Karla down to 0. Law and Justice and Native American Know-how triumphed!
I should add that Lee left right after this game. I think he may have been a bit miffed that we directed him too much towards the end. Lee really likes playing the game himself and dislikes being given too much advice, which we most assuredly gave him.
When the game became a long duel between Lee and Karla, I startled grumbling, and Scott said that he like that it took a while - it meant that you had to play better to stay alive. I dunno. I kind of prefer games that encourage you to play better while you still get to play. Also, Bang! has a bit of luck involved with it.
| Tsuro |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Dan | Still Alive | 1 | |
| Mike | 4th out | 2 | |
| Annie | Collided with Karla | 3 (Tie) | |
| Karla | Collided with Annie | 3 (Tie) | |
| Scott | 1st out | 5 | |
Notes: Everyone looked to me to choose the last game of the evening, as we had only half an hour to go. I put it to a vote: For Sale vs. Tsoru. I wanted to play For Sale just to avoid Tsoru burnout, which will happen. Alas, only Annie shared my foresight, and everyone else voted for burnout. Not that I'm burned out, I'm just fearing for it...
The last game was cool, though, and Dan killed Scott off first, saying, "Sorry, guy, I have to do it." Then I managed to make Annie and Karla collide. Dan and I were stuck together in a corner, and Dan managed to get himself into another corner with more options, leaving me in the smaller corner, but still alive. I survived until the end of my second turn, hoping Dan would run out of good cards, but he was set for at least 3 turns. Good, close game.
We finished at 9:15 - a trifle early instead of late for once.