Mike finishes lap #1 in the lead.
Mark came for the first time in...ever...after insisting that he wanted to be on the Game Night email list. It was a pleasure, Mark. Hope to see you again soon, ol' boy.
November 22, 2005 |
| Blokus |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Mike | -5 | 1 | |
| Dan | -13 | 2 | |
| Lee | -14 | 3 | |
| Jim | -19 | 4 | |
Notes: With Mark's and Annie's arrival imminent, I pulled out the pretty quick Blokus. Karla wasn't playing tonight, and Jim made a sad noise about it. Karla has gotten a bit burned out on Game Night and I have now instituted a bi-weekly Guest Host policy. Starting next Tuesday, we're going to have switch off every week on our host location.
Anyway, the game was interesting. Everyone ignored Lee at first, who was crawling like a pack of rats all over the place. Jim was in particularly nasty battles with Lee, and Dan and I were having some harsh conflicts on the other side of the board. Jim ate beans and sausage for the first few turns. Lee couldn't believe how big his cornbread was.
Jim was seriously setback by the battles and had to use his smaller pieces early. I had two sneaky moves that enabled me to infest Lee's safety zone, where Dan soon joined me, though he only had the Lee area to invade, whereas I had a sneaky area that was only held by Jim.
In the end, I managed to get enough into Lee's area and then invade Jim's spot. Jim's defenses against me were limited by there being a lot of red pieces over there and also having used up his smaller pieces already. Before invading over there, I was probably tied with Dan and Lee, but after I was done I had rid myself of all pieces except my straight 5 piece. Mark arrived when we were about 5 minutes from being done, as did Annie.
| I'm the Boss! |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Mike | $44 Million | 1 | |
| Mark | $34 Million | 2 | |
| Dan | $25 Million | 3 (Tie) | |
| Jim | $25 Million | 3 (Tie) | |
| Lee | $25 Million | 3 (Tie) | |
| Annie | $11 Million | 6 | |
Notes: I proposed Acquire, which Jim seemed interested in, but Mark wanted to play something he had played before and felt he'd be competitive in. Dan insisted that we had "just played Acquire" (our last play was November 1st), so I went with I'm the Boss!, which Mark was interested in anyway.
Our last game of this was really crazy, and this one went pretty nicely, all things considered. Being the boss was particularly lucrative, as we all kept undercutting everyone's offers. The first few rounds were pretty fair, but when Mark got $15 million to Lee's $3 million and Dan's $2 million for being a boss, I knew that I had to use my boss card pretty carefully.
I made a few fairly lucrative deals, and everyone was being pretty fair in their bargaining. Mark felt bad for leaving Lee out of a deal and made up for it on a later deal. Annie was left out a lot, usually because she didn't feel like playing enough cards. She also started a minor feud with Dan that didn't help either of them (Go figure) and put the kibosh on a deal that would have given one of them (not to mention Jim) some decent cash.
The crux of the game came when a huge deal was being brokered and the offers were getting ridiculously low. The boss changed hands several times, but I eventually ended up with it. Just as I was closing the deal, Mark asked if he could have stopped my I'm the Boss! play. He could have, of course, but it seemed kind of late, and no one really said anything to support Mark. I feel kind of weird being the ultimate judge in a situation so teeming with bias, though.
Near the end, the offers kind of corrected themselves, as people were more interested in making deals than collecting cards, so anyone out there was pretty necessary. One deal netted Dan more money than Mark got, for instance, despite Mark being the boss of the deal. By the end Annie had given up. She's simply not loud enough for this game, I think.
In the end, my cash total shocked everyone. I had three big deals while Mark had one huge deal and several smaller ones. Lee was overjoyed to see that he, Dan, and Jim had all amassed exactly $25 million.
| Colossal Arena |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Jamie | 15 | 1 | |
| Annie | 8 | 2 | |
| Mark | 0 | 3 | |
Notes: Jamie showed up, and I am absolutely tired of all my seven player games, so I was strongly for splitting up. Dan said we should play Bang!, but if we "just played" Acquire on November 1st, I don't see how you can justify playing a game we had actually played a mere week ago. I laid down the huge presidential veto on Bang! and ordered us to split up.
Mark and Annie were really for Colossal arena, as was Jamie, so with Dan volunteering to play Formula Dé, I helped them set up and explained the rules. Mark and Jamie hadn't played since January, and Annie hadn't played in a while, either. Still, the rules went pretty well, and they seemed to remember it pretty good.
I heard a few curses from over there during our Formula Dé race, and they only asked me for help on an issue once or twice. Jamie said that Mark was doing weird stuff all game, like putting down a low card on his monsters with the intent of using a better one later, only never getting the chance. It seems like a risky defensive strategy, but with a few lucky bounces he probably would have done fine.
In the end, the Jamie backed Unicorn led him to victory, followed by the Daimon and the Gorgon. Mark was shut out.
| Formula Dé |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Mike | First Place | 1 | |
| Lee | Second Place | 2 | * |
| Jim | Third Place | 3 | * |
| Dan | DNF | 4 | |
Notes: While Mark, Jamie, and Annie fought in the arena, Lee and Jim felt like taking a first-time dash around the race track at Magny-Cours, which has the huge straightaway that Dan and I love so much.
I took off like bottled up lightning, skipping from third in starting position to first in a heartbeat, then dusting everyone by the second turn. Lee, Dan, and Jim were in massive appreciation of my dice rolling.
Jim was pretty slow getting going, but he kept up for most of the first lap with Dan. Lee nearly caught me at the end of the first lap, but I held him off.
Mike finishes lap #1 in the lead.
In the second lap, Jim fell way behind, as his poor rolls and risk-averse driving kept him about a turn or two behind Lee, Dan, and me as we traded the lead. In the second turn, I passed Lee, and slowed down massively before the first 2-stop turn to prepare myself for a big push out of the turn. Lee caught up and passed me, but he could only come out of the turn in 4th, whereas I hit it in 5th. The die was cruel, though, and I had to slow down again, allowing Lee to pass me and Dan to catch up.
At this point, Lee hit the first turn after the 2 stop turn in 5th gear. I had slowed down to 4th to hit it perfectly (my rolling in the previous two-stop turn had been immaculate, I must add). Lee rolled a 20, though, and overshot the turn by 4 spaces, forcing him to burn 3 tires and a brake. Dan was quickly catching up, having left the low-rolling Jim in the dust.
Lee was forced to slow into 4th, and I hit the next turn in 5th, then smoked into the next turn (overshooting it a bit, in fact). I had to double-downshift (I was out of brakes and now had just one tire left) the next turn, and Dan caught up to me with some excellent rolling. Lee had been forced to overslow coming out of a turn, and was now a turn behind us. Jim was starting to catch up to Lee, who was having to take it easy on his battered car.
I made a nice roll in 3rd gear to position myself in the 2nd to last turn, and Dan hit it in 4th, assuring a roll in 5th gear for the next turn - a risky proposition. He rolled it in 5th, hoping for a miracle roll of 19 or 20 to get to the next turn, but only managed a 15. I managed a fine roll of 12 in 4th, and was all set. Dan then hit the final, 2-stop turn in 4th gear, leaving him with little room for error. He was about halfway through it. I had downshifted to 3rd gear, and rolled the perfect roll - a 6 - to get just to the entryway of the last turn. I was going to be able to upshift to 4th AND I had just enough tires to ensure that I'd survive.
Dan's choices were to downshift and survive, but come out of the turn in 4th (whereas I'd come out in 5th) or stay in 4th with a 33% chance of surviving and a much better chance of winning. He stayed in 4th and as the die roll I chanted "Twelve! Twelve! Twelve!" It was 12. Dan smashed into the wall and I cruised to victory.
Mike zips across to victory, flashed a V sign by his pit boss Jim.
Jim had a chance to catch Lee on the final turn as he came out of the turn in 5th to Lee's 4th. Lee rolled a twelve, though, meaning Jim needed a 15 or higher to pass him. He rolled a 12, and Lee held on for 2nd. Very fun.
| Gulo Gulo |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Annie | First Place | 1 | |
| Jamie | Second Place | 2 | |
| Mark | Third Place | 3 | * |
Notes: Mark, Jamie, and Annie played a game of Gulo Gulo while we finished up our race, and Annie won the game. Apparently the cup was pretty bare when she started her run into the Final Five tiles, and she lucked out when the purple egg tile was on top, making her victory assured.
| Liar's Dice |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Mike | 1 Die Left | 1 | |
| Lee | Last Out | 2 | |
| Mark | 3rd out | 3 | |
| Jamie | 2nd out | 4 | |
| Dan | 1st out | 5 | |
Notes: I hesitated to play Liar's Dice, as Annie won't play it, but she said it was fine if we wanted to play. (She must have still been giddy from her Gulo Gulo victory.) Jim didn't want to play either, though he did watch. He's used to a different version of Liar's Dice where people pass around a set of dice trying to roll better (or bluff better) than their predecessor.
It was a good, quick game. Everyone was slowly whittled down. Lee and I were at 3, Mark, Dan, and Jamie were at 1 before Dan went out. He went out when Jamie had a bid that was exactly correct. He thought that you couldn't go out AT ALL when you had one die left and the bid called was exact. Unfortunately, if YOU mess up, you lose a die, even if you only have one left. So while Mark got to keep his one die, Dan lost his. He seemed grumpy about it, but no one commiserated with him.
Still, his bid cost Lee and I one die each. I was whittled down further by calling Lee exactly, leaving Mark and Jamie alive, but I was down one more. Then it was my bid, and I bid two sixes. I only had one, so I crossed my fingers, hoping that someone had a six or a one, because I knew Jamie would call me. He did, and Lee was missing a six on his two dice. Mark lifted his cup and saved my ass with a brilliant six showing there. Not only did his die save me and doom Jamie, it also lowered Lee down to 1 die.
Then the head games started. I opened the bidding with one 6. Mark raised the bid to one 1. Lee called it, Mark got pissed, and it was down to Lee and me. Lee made the first bid of one 5. I had a 4, and I had a feeling Lee was bluffing, so I called him. I was right...he had a 4. Everyone wondered why he bluffed, but it was, it turned out, probably the right move. Had he bid one 4, I would have leaped at the chance and bid two 4's anyway. He was setting me up for the one 6 bid, which he would have called and won. For some reason, I didn't do that, though, and I ran off with the victory.
Jim was kind of surprised that I won all four games I played tonight.