Gaming Results

Dan seemed like he was doing nothing, so I gave him a call, and he was able to rope Kaveh into some games. Lee was also up for it, despite frequent calls from his "hot date."

November 19, 2005

Attika
Results
PlayerScorePlaceFirst Time?
Lee30 buildings1*
Mike28 buildings2

Notes: As there looked to be just two of us for about half an hour or so, I pulled out Attika, one of my favorite 2 player games. Lee picked up the rules pretty quickly, and with some frequent reminders, it went pretty well.

Lee had the Corinth city piece and I was forced to start with a Quarry. Lee also had some nice early draws, getting 3 buildings that were reliant on Corinth. He quickly expanded and my Quarry was doing nothing but taking up a tiny amount of space in the middle. I collected some cards and got ready to make a block.

I started a second colony to block Lee from the northernmost temple, then drew Thebes and managed to put a few cities around it. We traded blows with Lee slowly expanding and me blocking him whenever I could. By midgame I had more buildings out there, but my Fountain-Village combo had been broken up. I had almost made both connections, but Lee casually blocked me from the southern temple.

Eventually, Lee's tiles, which allowed for better expansion, whittled down my lead (I had a 25 to 23 lead in buildings) and he easily passed me. I did manage to make the Quarry and Road groups, but I had to break up my Harbor and even my Vineyards and Mint! I was in bad shape. Lee took his time and made it to 30 easily.

He probably could have won earlier if he had made some different moves, but he still credited me with giving him the victory. I only gave him very basic bits of advice early on. I let him work out the details as the game wore on.


Lee is caught between the bird and thumb's up after beating Mike in Attika.

Tower of Babel
Results
PlayerScorePlaceFirst Time?
Lee771
Dan672*
Mike603
Kaveh574*

Notes: Dan and Kaveh showed up and I wanted to try Tower of Babel again. I still don't know about this game.

I went for a small offer strategy, hoping to get a couple pieces out there or grab some VPs for being rejected. I also wanted to collected one big set. Well, I didn't really accomplish any of those things.

Lee and Kaveh both started out by collecting every chip type. Dan just went for shipping. My offers were accepted at first but by the end they were being consistently rejected because I had the points lead - but I had no buildings on the board and I had only one measly pair of camel chips. I never did get a second crane chip. No one wanted to cooperate and instead of collecting a set or two, Lee and Kaveh kept going after every chip but shipping. Kaveh particularly hosed me when I was going for a camel chip but he used his trader card to take it for his first one! Unfortunately, I needed his damned card in order to make the monument (Despite my having 4 camel cards) and I made the mistake of the game by accepting the offer rather than passing (something I'm not sure you can do anyhow Just checked - denying all offers is completely legal. After all, you give up points to your opponents and lose out on the extra card from passing).

After that, I had very few opportunities for chips, Dan went for ships, and Lee and Kaveh had a lot of pieces out there. Dan finished the game, netting the last big score in the process, and I totally sucked. My 5 point bonus card erased only a bit of the shame.

Lee had three pairs of chips for 15 points, but had scored in many regions. Dan hadn't made that many offers all game, ascribing it to his poor cards. Kaveh had a lot of pieces out there, and if he had completed the monuments and maintained his lead, he probably would have kept pace with Lee.

Everyone said they thought the game was cool, but I wonder...It seems that everyone gets too many cards and the distribution can be kind of luck-driven. The chaos of the bidding needs to be pretty tactical, and in our game it seemed more chaotic and dictated solely by the cards in our hands.

After this game Lee had a long conversation with his date (whom he was to meet at the Cardinal) and Kaveh wrote, "Leethll leaves game early to try to hit it really big!! He's hoping to get groped!"

Quo Vadis?
Results
PlayerScorePlaceFirst Time?
Dan231
Mike202
Lee163*
Kaveh154*

Notes: We were on the lookout for shorter games, and this one got pulled out by me or Lee. I explained the rules quickly, and we started cooking.

The game was Dan on one side, trying to monopolize some areas and getting all the laurel wreaths. Lee stopped him on one route, and I eventually did on the other route, though I couldn't believe that Lee and Kaveh hadn't put any pieces over there to help slow him down. Anyway, we made Dan get stuck in a road block on the right side and we ignored him for a while.

On the other side, we worked as a team, distributing laurel wreaths among Lee, Mike, and Kaveh rather generously. Make a deal with Kaveh? Fine, just make sure you vote for me next turn. It was all very friendly and helpful, though Lee took advantage of some caucuses to grab some big laurel wreaths without help. As soon as he did that, my sole deal-brother became Kaveh, and we helped each other out.

Then the final phase started. Kaveh had two senators in the final space, Dan had one. Lee would move the Caesar to the space he needed to slip in - in a caucus that I held a 2 to 1 majority in. Eventually, we made a long and convoluted deal in which I would vote him in if he would move a guy up next turn...yada yada yada. It put me a bit at risk, but Lee seemed like he would come through for me. He did, but our deal-making process allowed Dan to snag some extra laurel wreaths, including a V and a IV. I made my way into the Senate House, and we counted our chips. Dan had me beat by three, the non-teamwork jerk. :)

Villa Paletti
Results
PlayerScorePlaceFirst Time?
MikeMaster Architect1
DanNot Master Architect2 (Tie)
KavehNot Master Architect2 (Tie)
LeeTower Tumbler4

Notes: Looking for something even quicker, I pulled out Villa Paletti and Lee quickly toppled it when we were only on the second level. He toppled it when he pulled out a piece and got angry with himself. Easy there, big guy.

After that we split up, Kaveh and Lee to go to the Cardinal, Dan to get a ride there and walk grumpily back to his car by the Ton-Ton.