March 18, 2006 |
On Tuesday, I hinted that I'd like to play games on the weekend, and made the invitation official on Thursday. Here are the responses:
Dan: Maybe, my cousin's coming to town.
Jamie: Sure. Howard and I will come by.
Jim: Probably can't. Very busy.
Lee: Said he'd probably come to make snide comments. The probably will come changed to "will" come, according to Dan and a subsequent phone call.
Scott: Sent an obscene picture of a sausage and eggs.
Dan alerted me to a poker game happening at 2:15. Immediately I said, "Uh oh." I figured Dan to arrive 3 hours late (if at all), but Lee to get there a little late. Jamie said he was going to stop by with Howard and a friend, though probably a little later than he thought. Scott refused to return a phone call. Here was what subsequently happened. When Dan arrived, we called Lee to make sure he had a ride. He said he'd be there when the game was over. Other occurrences:
Dan: Came 15 minutes early.
Jamie: Came around 8:30 or 9:00, with Howard and college friend Jamie in tow.
Jim: Didn't make it.
Lee: Played poker until midnight with nary a reply.
Scott: No response.
Faced with the inevitable, "Don't go, you pussy" comments by Mark and company, Lee gave in and played poker all night. He didn't answer his cell phone when I called later to see if he was just coming later than we thought. (Subsequent phone calls were made by an irate Dan and a distraught and weeping Karla.)
Comments on Lee:
Dan: "I can't believe Lee cheesed out. He was totally 'Mark'ed.*"
Karla: "Lee, you bitch."
Jamie: "Where's Lee? I thought Lee was coming!"
Mike: (shrugs and resolves to write scathing session report)
* - "Mark"ing, according to WikiPedia, is taking up vitriolic peer pressure remarks against potential gamers in order to continue playing poker for countless hours.
I try not to ask for much from you guys. Only Jim, Rakesh, and Jamie give straight responses via email, so I call the rest of you. Rather than answer the phone and tell me you can't make it, you choose to avoid the phone call and leave everyone wondering what the hell is going on. Lee is the object of my frustration this time, but except for the aforementioned three you are all guilty. Hang your heads in shame and take this quiz:
If you have committed to playing games but suddenly can't or don't want to, you should:
a) Do nothing and ignore all phone calls,
b) Go anyway and complain,
c) Confirm Mark's name-calling by pussing out,
d) Call Mike and tell him, avoiding any hard feelings of various amounts,
e) Tell Mark that gambling is a sin and he should really get some help.
(answer below)
| La Città |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Karla | 39 | 1 | * |
| Mike | 31 | 2 | * |
| Dan | 28 | 3 | * |
Notes: Dan showed up at around 4:45, and after a bit of dithering I pulled out La Città, a game I heard was excellent with three people.
Well, it was quite good, but Dan and I got our flippin' asses whipped. Karla grabbed a city in a spot that easily acquired double-value quarries, and soon she had a money advantage on Dan and me. Then, Dan and I made some critical mistakes.
First, we started infringing on each other's territory when Karla was the primary threat. Our best cities were in conflict with each other, while Karla was able to make two cities grow exponentially. I had two cities able to challenge Karla, but I was busy fending off Dan, and one of the two cities was totally surrounded by two powerhouse Karla cities, so I was utterly unable to increase population.
Next up, Dan made the mistake of overbuilding a city without having any way of expanding it further. He required a bath or fountain in the one city he had that would challenge Karla, but he used up his final citizen in an effort to steal a citizen from Karla...but it couldn't work because he was limited to a population of eight. He had to wait to lose a citizen, then rebuild the city with a bath.
Also, I had a chance of stealing a citizen from Karla's quarry city (perhaps injuring that city a bit). I knew the voice of the people was going to be black or white, and I chose a white city. The Voice was black. So instead of stealing a citizen from a powerful city I lost out.
Still, as Karla's population rocketed to obscene numbers, Karla had to spend a lot of effort making one city her farming city. Thus, Dan were able to cut into her lead at the end and make the game a trifle closer, but her huge lead kept her ahead, and the fact that she pulled in 7 gold per turn didn't help (as Dan and I only raked in 4 and 3, respectively). In the last turn she didn't lose and citizens, and neither did Dan or I. Her big midgame advantage held out, though Dan and I whittled all three of her cities down a bit.
Both Karla and I managed to get two cities diversified (all three arch colors in it), while Dan only managed one, as he forgot about the bonus. With a population of 33, none lost to starvation, and 2 diversified cities (for 6 points), Karla dusted Dan's (boosted by a 4th city) and my population of 25.
Here's how the board looked at the end, with (hopefully) helpful directions as to what everything was.
As you can see on the left, Dan and I were in direct conflict most of the game, while Karla pinched me out (on the right) and scooped up a ton of money (lower right). It wasn't until the last two years that Dan and I started threatening any of Karla's cities, with my city in the upper right and Dan's in the center.
| Ticket to Ride |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Dan | 131 | 1 | |
| Mike | 109 | 2 | |
| Karla | 92 | 3 | |
Notes: Karla got to pick the next game after we ordered our pizza and wings, and she opted for Ticket to Ride.
It was an excellent, quick game. Dan made a series of 5 and 6 car connections along the bottom, giving him a big lead. Karla and I tried to make up for his big lead (which averaged about 30 points all game) by scooping up tickets. I took 3 at one point and managed to make all the connections, though I was forced to step on Karla's toes at the end, costing her 11 points.
I also wanted to try for the longest track, but I had to abandon that effort to connect the last three tickets. They were worth 27 points, so I netted 17 by not going for the "longest" track bonus. After counting points, Dan had 121 and Karla had around 70, but I only had 55. I added 54 via tickets. Couple that with the longest route and I still would have lost by 2, but Dan had my train track beaten something like 36 to 31.
| Monsters Menace America |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Mike (Toxicor) | Won Monster Challenge | 1 | |
| Karla (Gargantis) | Lost Challenge to Toxicor | 2 | * |
| Dan (Zorb) | Lost Challenge to Toxicor | 3 | |
Notes: Just as we had set the game up and explained the rules, Jamie called and said he'd be over shortly. So we rushed through a pretty quick game of Monsters Menace America.
In the end, my experience and Dan's bad luck won me the day. With Toxicor, I quickly crushed New York (12 hp), Philly (8 hp), took care of 3 mile island (netting me Whip Tentacles), and then ate Toronto (1 hp) before running over to crush Fort Knox, in the meantime being blasted for 5 hps by Karla's defense satellite. I also fended off a concerted Marine Corps attack thanks to my whip tentacles and became commander of the National Guard.
Zorb had a rougher go of it. His mutations weren't all that helpful - he got the Quick Healer one - where you can return from Disappearing without losing a turn - and Iron Stomach, which was good for military bases, but he didn't really go after military bases. He also avoided southern California (which was super-fortified with naval units), and ate San Francisco (for 9 points, I think). After taking the two lackluster mutation cards, he tried to eat Seattle but was deterred by a single tank, which was kind of embarrassing, as he had single-handedly taken down Mecha-Monster the turn before without suffering a point of damage. Zorb only took 2 hps of damage from the defense satellite and when I shot him with a nuke (so that I could re-deploy the unit against Karla) he refused to see the long-term logic in my decision and just got angry with me. He also tried to illegally use the Air Drop card once (trying to drop me in a space with 8 military units - the card says the monster cannot end its turn in a space with pieces in it).
Karla liked the hps Toxicor was getting out east, so she sent Gargantis to get some as well, eschewing any possibility of a mutation. She devoured Carhenge and then Minneapolis, Chicago, and Detroit, then went south to eat Atlanta. I made a massive attack against her using the Navy and National Guard, and she got upset with that - she didn't realize you could attack with your army units.
Karla triggered the end game, then Zorb usurped the role after Toxicor spent a round eating Graceland.
Zorb weighed in at 18 and Toxicor at 26 (after reaching a peak of about 36). Soon Toxicor and his Whip Tentacles had Zorb on the ropes, and an infamy-token-less Zorb went down to Toxicor, who burned two infamy to destroy him rather than face another turn of being beaten.
Toxicor then weighed in at 35 to Gargantis's 32. Each monster had 3 infamy tokens, but Toxicor had 3 advantages. #1 he attacked first, #2 - whip tentacles (allowing an extra die roll on a roll of 6), and #3 - three extra health. Our luck was about equal, and Gargantis got Toxicor down to 14 before using its infamy - whittling Toxicor down to 8. Toxicor got in a good lashing against Gargantis though, using all of his infamy and getting Gargantis down to 5.
This being the last round, Gargantis needed three hits to do in Toxicor, but only managed one. Toxicor responded with two more hits, and Gargantis fell victim to Toxicor's mighty Whip Tentacles.
Dan complained that it was the most unfair game of Monsters Menace America ever. I admit he had some bad luck. To be fair, though, he didn't use his powers very efficiently. With Zorb, you should avoid powerful cities and try to boost your infamy by eating crappy cities after an initial attempt to get health. Staying at 18 or 20 health and going for a lot of Infamy might have won him the game.
| Villa Paletti |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Howard | Master Architect | 1 | |
| Jamie ♂ | Didn't win | 2 | |
| Jamie ♀ | Destroyed Building | 3 | * |
Notes: I'm actually not sure who won, and Jamie ♂ wasn't either, but I'm pretty sure Jamie ♀ knocked over the tower. While we were cleaning up Monsters Menace America they started another game of it and told me to get a 6-player game ready.
"To hell with that!" I said, and Dan, Karla, and I played Can't Stop.
| Can't Stop |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Mike | 3 (4, 8, 10) | 1 | |
| Dan | 1 (9) | 2 | |
| Karla | 0 | 3 | |
Notes: Karla had some rotten luck in this one. She made an awesome run at one point, getting almost all the way through nine, but I told her she should stop, as her supporting numbers were awful (10 and 11). She obeyed, then Dan, the rat, closed 9 the next turn, as his supporting numbers were 6 and 7.
Then I closed off Karla's next best number (8), where she was halfway done. She had to start pretty much over, and didn't get much off the ground. After that, I had smooth sailing to get 4 done, then had to risk a little bit to get 10 closed off. Dan was very close to closing off 7 and was halfway done with 5, and only needed one roll for 12, so I had to win it that round and did.
| Villa Paletti |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Jamie ♂ | Master Architect | 1 | |
| Jamie ♀ | Didn't win | 2 | |
| Howard | Knocked over the tower | 3 | |
Notes: Jamie ♂ had a huge advantage at the second level, and he Jamie ♀ teamed up on Howard to give him a very small window. On the yellow level, Howard was forced to go for a tough piece, and one yank too many brought the house down.
| Traumfabrik |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Jamie ♂ | 72 | 1 | |
| Jamie ♀ | 71 | 2 (Tie) | * |
| Dan | 72 | 2 (Tie) | |
| Mike | 48 | 4 | |
| Howard | 44 | 5 | |
Notes: With six players, I was all set to play some Rette Sich Wer Kann (I still want to play it at least once with the correct rules), but Karla ducked out, so that gave us plentiful options to play, as my list of excellent 5-player games is long and stupendous.
Jamie ♂ clamored for Traumfabrik (Jamie has yet to master German pronunciation, and he charmingly pronounces it as if it were the French "Traumfabrique" - nearly as cute as his pronouncing of 6 Nimmt! as 6 Nimmit, which sounds like something Mork would say: Sechs Nimmit and Nanu nanu, Orson!). I couldn't think of anything better, so we played it. I managed to get through the rules without too much difficulty, though Jamie ♀ seemed to be a bit bemused when her movies were crappy-looking and unfinished...but she hung in there and nearly pulled off the win, pretty much without any advice at all.
For some reason, Dan, Jamie ♂, and I all quickly made a blue movie, but Jamie ♂ made his first and grabbed the 5 points. Mine was the best, though, and I grabbed the second round best movie score (12). No one had finished a movie in the first round.
Howard had a couple good movies but he was stuck in a terrible spot. ALL his movies after the first two required at least two actors, and he was always picking last at the parties (because he had so few actors). Thus he was being left with pure crud and never really stood a chance.
Jamie ♀ indeed made three mediocre movies, but she was pretty clever about it. She snagged three of the four 4-star directors (I managed to get Hitchcock) and on the last turn managed to make a blue movie 2 points better than mine, which clinched best blue movie for her (barring a miracle by Howard or Dan). She sat on her contracts after that and almost managed to gather enough to win.
Dan finished the first yellow and green movie one turn, outbidding Jamie ♀ and Howard for the privilege. He now had to start from scratch on three more movies, and though he managed to get one of them done (a yellow movie worth 12 points by the end, plus a bonus 10).
I was getting caught in the number crunch, as my movies weren't quite good enough. I bought some average tiles just before the 3rd to last party with the hope of picking first and getting a director good enough to pass Jamie's 18 point entertainment film. Instead, I got no directors and no camera (which also would have helped), and instead finished the ultra-crap-erific film The Sea Hawk, starring Boris Karloff and Mike Nerdahl. It was worth 1 point. I had just clinched Worst Movie.
I eventually had to settle for finishing my green movie at 18 points, which of course only netted me the 17 point real. Had I finished that film with the director I wanted, you could add at least 17 points to my score (2 for a 19 vs. 17 point film, plus 10 for best Green, plus 5 for best in the 3rd round) - and take 15 from Jamie.
I also made a last rush to finish another green movie, but the last party (again!) completely hosed me, as it was only actors and directors when I needed Camera work. Had I finished that, I would have had anywhere from 10 to 13 more points as well. So I missed on some reasonable big bids that ended up not working out.
Jamie was well-balanced. He managed first blue movie, best green, best of the third round, and didn't really overpay for anything. He just had nice balance and was usually picking first or second at the parties all game, which was just enough of a mix (including my bad luck, which helped him more than the others) to win the game.
Final awards:
Worst Movie - Mike (1 - and no one had lower than 6)
Best Direction - Jamie ♀ (12 - and no one else had more than 8)
Best Entertainment - Jamie ♂ (18 - beating Mike's 18)
Best Drama - Jamie ♀ (14 - beating Mike's 12 in the last round)
Best Adventure - Dan (12 or 13 - edging out Howard by 1)
This game is still quite excellent. I think I actually have it underrated (7) on Boardgamegeek.
Jamie ♀ liked it, I believe, though Howard was frustrated from his lack of actors all game. In fact, in the last party, there were two actors, and since no one needed one but Howard (he'd finish a mid-rank blue movie), I forced everyone to let him have an Actor. Jamie ♂ said, "Why? You want me to be allowed in bed tonight?"
After Traumfabrik we watched a skit on SNL with a very good Dick Cheney impersonator, then everyone headed out. Dan confirmed by calling Mark that Lee was still home playing poker.
| Answer to the Trivia Question |
The correct answer is "D" unless you are Dan. Then it is "B".