Mike's Gaming Page of Shame

This page is my confessional. If it helps you out, great, but its meant merely to serve as the first of my twelve steps in the, uh, program I'm in. I'll list them in alphabetical order, and beg for forgiveness from the pantheon of gaming gods at the end.

  1. Alhambra: (#1) This is a careless mistake. When taking money cards, I said a player could take more than one so long as they total 4 or less. They can total 5 or less. Also, (#2) we played that a player puts all buildings in his palace immediately. One is supposed to wait until the end of one's turn to place the pieces.
  2. Amun-Re: (#1) In Amun-Re, I was allowing people to play more than one card of the same kind in the same round. (#2) Also, I forgot to tell everyone that they can sell power cards back to the bank for 1 gold each at any time.
  3. Around the World in 80 Days: When someone draws a gray card (Storm or Delay) from the Event Card deck, everyone must discard the cards in their hands! Thus, hoarding them is not so flawless a strategy. We never had cards that were out suffer the discarding fate. (Though I did learn this game from Todd at MBG, and he missed this rule - thanks to Lee for hunting it out.)
  4. Blokus: For Blokus, I did the final scoring incorrectly. I counted minus one point per entire piece, not minus one point per square on each piece.
  5. Boomtown: In Boomtown, I (#1) forgot the "only mines in the first auction" rule, and (#2) treated mayors the same as Saloons in terms of giving up gold to someone when the die is rolled, not when a mine is claimed.
  6. Cartagena: In Cartagena, I never played that everyone gets 1 to 3 plays per turn instead of how I played it, with only 1 play per turn.
  7. China: I missed the second bonus of the fort, which is not only to double the points of any road scoring, but to double a player's points in the region as well.
  8. Circus Flohcati: First, (#1) I missed the 10 point bonus for completing the grand display. Second, (#2) we played that if a card was duplicated when flipped, the whole row was tossed away. In actuality, only the last card flipped gets tossed.
  9. Coloretto: I missed the rule that each player starts out with a card.
  10. Colossal Arena: This should only make honorable mention, because I blame it on my fellow players. First, they didn't understand that a player can only make a secret bet in the first round. Then, they thought this meant only in their first turn. I had explained this, they just didn't listen.
  11. Domaine: This mistake is rather inexplicable. When playing the "expand" card, we were only expanding one square rather than 1 OR 2 squares. Playing this card correctly results in much more expansion and many more things to worry about.
  12. Edel, Stein & Reich: In this wonderful gem game, I first (#1) was only flipping over one gem/money card, and everyone was bidding for the goods on that one card. The real rule has everyone getting their own card and bidding for the goodies on that one. (#2) I also missed the rule saying that when a player wins the event card, he can take the top one or blindly take the second card instead.
  13. El Grande: Once we played that the player who placed the highest auction card last turn started the next one, instead of the lowest card.
  14. For Sale: I'm blaming this one on Todd of the Madison Board Gamers. He had us paying half our MONEY rounded DOWN. The rules state to pay half your CHIPS, rounded UP. Thus, if you are bidding $6000, two in $2000 and two in $1000 increments, you can just give up two chips, losing $2000 instead of $3000.
  15. Formula Dé Sometimes you learn games from somebody else, and when you get the game, you trust his rules interpretation...and it turns out to be wrong (for more examples, see Trias and For Sale). Dan had two rules wrong. The first (1) was that engine damage occurs on a 1-4, not just a 1, and it occurs (2) when rolling a 30 in 6th gear or a 20 in 5th gear (Dan said only 6th). Lastly, (3) the rules plainly state that when a player quadruple downshifts, he loses one gas, one brake, and one engine. We've always played that it was one gas, one brake, and one tire.
  16. Gang of Four: In Gang of Four, we forgot to switch direction after each hand.
  17. Hoity Toity (By Hook or Crook): Boy, did we have trouble with this one. (#1) First, when we played the thief, we played that the thief was captured and didn't get to steal anything. The thief player, is , of course, allowed to take something from each display before sending his guy off to prison. (#2) Then, we ignored the scoring for the Detective. Thanks to Scott on this one, who was quite skeptical that the only benefit of the Detective was to catch thieves. A player also gets points for the detective. One moves forward one space for each place that one is in. (e.g. If someone is in 2nd place and he catches a thief with the detective, he moves forward two spaces.)
  18. Illuminati: We played once forgetting that a player can make two attacks per round instead of just one.
  19. I'm the Boss! I had us playing that we could only offer entire shares to potential participants. In the rules, it states that one can offer any amount of cash.
  20. Ivanhoe: In Ivanhoe, I forgot two rules: (#1) A player cannot immediately start one purple tournament after another has been completed, and (#2) I played that we passed the "tournament starter" around clockwise. The rules state that the winner starts the next tournament.
  21. Liar's Dice: I missed the rule that says that a player can only lose his last die when an exact match is called when he is the player making the erroneous call.
  22. Lord of the Rings: I missed several of the rules on how to use the ring to escape a level.
  23. Maharaja: When a character in the city order track was being lowered, and he was lowered so that there was a space between him and the next fellow, I was moving him up. He's supposed to stay there, with the space extant.
  24. Medici: When only one boat was left, we would let the player flip one at a time and bid on the goods. The rules state that the last player fills the empty spaces for free with the next few cards.
  25. Monsters Menace America: The first time I played this, I played that when the armed forces attacked, they got to roll first. The monster always attacks (and removes casualties) first.
  26. Princes of Florence: When playing this, I played that a recruitment card stole the desired profession card and was returned to the auction pile. The recruitment card is supposed to replace the spot in front of the player where the profession card was taken (thus keeping one point for making works).
  27. Puerto Rico: In Puerto Rico, I was letting whoever chose the Craftsman select his bonus good when he took his other goods. According to the rules, a player only gets his bonus good after all the other players have produced their goods.
  28. Ra: Two big issues. (#1) First, we played that it was not a once-around auction, but an "in until one cannot raise" auction. (#2) Next, we used to play that every time an auction was over, and no one bid on the goods, that the goods were cleared. They are supposed to stay out there (when a Ra tile is drawn anyway) unless the board is full. Only in that instance can it be wiped clean.
  29. Reef Encounter: One little issue that probably has a good sized impact. On the boards, there are "dark" spaces. Corals cannot grow into these spaces, though I was letting people do it. It limits the amount of protection and growth on some of the coral spaces, keeping the game a bit more balanced.
  30. Rette Sich Wer Kann: Two more. First (#1), I played that, in voting someone to drown in a boat, the person in the boat closest to the stick broke the tie. That's false. It's the person with the stick in every case. Second (#2), I didn't understand the swimming rules, due completely to a bogus translation. The translation I had said the following: "...each player must remove one of their pawns from any boat and set it behind that boat." Then, later, the rules say, "Restrictions: If you are not able to remove a man from a boat because all your men are in boats that other players have already abandoned, then you are not required to remove a pawn." These two lines make no sense, and I always suspected that there was a problem here. That's because the first rule should state, "...each player must remove one of their pawns from a different boat in turn order and set it behind that boat." That makes the restriction more sensible. This one isn't my fault at least. (*whew*)
  31. San Marco: I forgot the "free banishment" rule for the person with the fewest points (provided they are under 10).
  32. Santa Fe Rails: I didn't think one was paid for making a connection with a "4 in 1" card. We caught this one in mid-game, though, to my detriment, so I think this one should count as some sort of pennance.
  33. Shadows over Camelot: (1) First, a knight MUST perform a heroic action, even if this means leaving a quest. He cannot just sit there doing nothing. (2) Second, when the traitor is correctly accused, you add a white sword. I thought you flipped a black sword to white (which is what you do when you guess incorrectly).
  34. Taj Mahal: In Taj Mahal, I forgot the rule that, if a player drops out without bidding any cards, he gets a bonus card off the top of the deck.
  35. Torres: I didn't realize that a player could only place new knights on the board only on a space next to a knight already present. I was playing they could come out anywhere on the ground floor.
  36. Traumfabrik: Two bad ones: (#1) we played that ALL chips are face down to start each round, only flipped over as each frame is reached, and (#2) it never registered to add one's final total number of contracts to the final score (which would change things quite a bit, I think).
  37. Trias: I'll blame Willow for this one, but I played that a player can move his group of swimmers to get to safety. As far as I can tell, one can only lift them from the water if a piece of land is adjacent to their spot.
Gaming gods, I beg thee, be merciful...

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