Warmachine League at Critical Hit
I got into Warmachine years ago when Privateer were showcasing the first, unboxed, boxed sets at GenCon. We (Eric O. and I) really liked the game when we tried it out with the quick start rules. Unfortunately, for a few years, there just weren't people nearby who were interested in the game (that I knew of), and I didn't have the energy to try to start a community. A few months ago, when Critical Hit opened, the game really exploded around here, as leaders of the 40k community, like Steve G. and Bill have gotten into it and promoted it. Bill started a league, and needed some players, and I couldn't turn him down. My first game was scheduled against Chris, and we decided to play tonight.
Not having spent much time with the game, I was pretty sure I wouldn't be very successful, as Chris plays fairly regularly. Also, I had decided to play just with the Cygnar boxed set, as that was what I had painted. Chris chose a Cryx force with a couple of pistol wraiths, Denegra, four little 'jacks, and this crazy guy who looks like he's floating and throwing a skull with some ethereal streamers behind it.
I won the die for terrain placement and table edge, and tried to keep the terrain balanced and minimal, as I figured I had slightly better guns than him (I think I was wrong), and I wanted the game to be over pretty quick, one way or the other. Chris won the roll for going first, and took that option. He just ran all his forces towards me.
I decided just to move my guys around a little bit, and take a shot with the one gun that could reach, and a spell, but didn't boost them and missed.
Chris took a shot with a wraith and missed. The skull guy cast a spell weakening the armor on my ironclad. One of his little guys channeled a spell that knocked down my lancer and stryker, and damaged them both.
I took the opportunity to whack the pistol wraith, and charged the skull guy with the ironclad, knocking him out of the back of the park. I cracked a disruptor shot on one of the little jacks. I made a couple huge mistakes here. First, I should have shot at a different 'jack with Stryker, before standing the lancer in front of him. Second, I forgot to move the lancer after standing him, which could have locked up two of the remaining 'jacks in melee combat, leaving me pretty free to mop up the other two and gain a significant advantage. Finally, I should have used my feet this round to make sure I'd get to the next turn, which would have been pretty decisive.
Chris ran his other wraith forward, into a good position for me to blast it next turn. While I was gleefully planning on what I would do, he hit me with the aoe spell again, rolling good damage, and then his last relevant 'jack waddled forward and finished me off with some high damage spit. A little anticlamactic, and very fast. I almost wanted to play again, but I wasn't really in the right headspace.
I enjoyed the game, and I certainly look forward to playing it again. I just hope it's against someone as personable as Chris. I'm a little sad that I just don't think I'll be able to paint enough stuff to have 500 points finished any time soon, even though I own the figs.
After the game, I sat around a little and watched some Magic. The weekly draft was going on, with twelve players. It looked like a pretty good time. I sort of miss the game.
GG, GL
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Game Day at Chris & Edie's April 23rd
I messed up the time on this one, and arrived quite late, about 1:00 pm. Consequently, I missed out on Caylus, which, of course, sucks. On the positive side, I got some cleaning done and had a nice lunch.
When I got there, a big game of Bang! was going on. Eric had also arrived late, so we decided to play a quick two player while we waited for people to get gunned down. He pulled Battle Line off the shelf, and we sat down in the kitchen to take a look at it. Neither of us had played it before, so Kurt ducked the flying lead, ran in, and gave us a quick rundown of the rules.
BATTLE LINE
It took some time for me to settle on a strategy. This game felt a lot like Lost Cities to me, looking at these different colored/numbered cards, trying to make the best decision for the future with limited information. However, the addition of a direct confrontation aspect lent it an added edge and another dimension (I realize that could be read to mean the same thing, but I mean it the other way...). I drew first blood on the left flank, and took the second pawn on the right flank. So much for three in a row. I got the left flank with 1-2-3 of different colors, as Eric had started a hand with two twos there, and all the other twos were played. On the right, he started three of a kind with fives, and I countered with nines. I settled in to trying to leave myself multiple outs on hands whenever possible, and playing a waiting game, trying to wait for him to commit more cards to an area before I made a choice. I got a third pawn, Eric took a couple, and then I took a fourth and fifth for the win. Not very exciting on paper, but it was a pretty fun, tense game. A little more interaction than Lost Cities. I think it's interesting that each of us only drew one tactics card, and Eric never played his. Perhaps the game is supposed to get to a late game in which the tactics cards become very important, and we just skipped it. I'll have to read up on this game a bit.
EVO
The gunfight in the living room finally ended (to see who won you'll have to check Chris's geeklist), and we got some new games going. We (Chris, Mark, Gare, Erin, and myself) settled on Evo, while a group went to play card games in the other room. They ended up playing Blokus, too, and I think they got several games done in the time it took us to play Evo. I'd never played before, the only new player out of five, so Chris had to take the time to explain the game to me. Pretty simple, it seemed, except for the weird track for the meteor/changing climate, which really isn't that complex, just odd looking. I was a little worried, I generally have a tough time with my first play of any game with an auction element, as it seems I need some time to get a general sense of appropriate bidding in the system, and by the time I get it (if I ever do), it's often too late. First round I ended up passing on the bidding, sensing that people thought the bidding was getting high. I think I was just sensing a general vibe of gaming anxiety that a couple of the players give off normally, though. Right away, at the end of the first turn if you start with two or the second turn if you start with one dinosaur (I just know I had three), I got reduced to one dino by Gare's climate card. This put me in the whole quite heavily, as I was behind on mutations and victory points at that point. I bid heavily to get something on turn two, the mutant gene I think. The following turn, I bid hard on an egg to try to get my population going. I started getting some triceratops on the table, but I was way behind on vp's, and was going to need several turns to catch up. I got a few points ahead of Mark, but then the game ended on the first possible turn, leaving me in fourth. I don't know how much I could have caught up given a couple more turns. Maybe I had an outside chance at third, but first or second were way ahead of me. Chris ended up winning, with Erin in second and Gare in third. All the upgrades seemed good, but I think Chris's early egg paid off the most. I liked this game, it has several random elements, but a high fun factor, and it still leaves you with a lot of good decisions to make. I probably won't seek it out, but I'd definitely play again.
ST. PETERSBURG
We re-combined and split up again, and I ended up teaching St. Petersburg in the front room. I had three new players with me; Suke, James, and Chiara, the latter two being first-time Game Day attendees. Chiara and James lent some flavor to the discussion of the game, as the two of them had actually visited St. Pete, and were familiar with some of the buildings and history. We went over the rules and some basic strategy. As happens with many games, I think each person missed a little bit. I think it's pretty common for new players to underestimate the endgame Aristocrat scoring, and I told them as much. In the early game, there was a lot of spending on buildings. The Mistress of Ceremonies and Judge both came up, and I got to buy the Mistress, people passed the judge around, and he went to my hand, not to be played for three more turns. The next turn, there was only one worker, bought by Chiara who was in first position. I thought this would give her a big advantage over the course of the game, but she consistently spent money on buildings and didn't have enough to get more workers on the next turn. I built up a worker advantage, and soon had a huge money lead. I kept manipulating the aristocrat market looking for endgame scoring. Chiara's buildings started making her a big lead. We ended up ending pretty quickly on workers, and in the last turn I bought ten victory with pubs, and an aristocrat, and ended up passing Chiara by a long way in the endgame scoring with my 9 aristocrats. I thik everyone had fun, and would probably do a lot better on the second play. In the end, after me, it was Chiara, Suke, and James.
TICKET TO RIDE
Chiara and James had to leave, and a couple of new players showed up, so Suke and I went in to join Eric, Elaine, and Karen for Ticket to Ride. I ended up keeping LA-Miami and Miami-Boston. I spent a long time gathering train cars, and got to building. We had some congestion in Texas, but I got the routes I needed. Suke made me detour on the East Coast, around Charleston. Eric had a lead, but I was right behind him, and I probably had longest route. We both had two tickets. I figured my tickets were better, but I got a little worried, for some reason, about the six tickets that Elaine was holding, so I took more tickets. Looking at the tickets, there were two I could complete. In fact, I had just enough trains to finish them both (13), and everyone else had more trains than me. Everyone, that is, except Eric, who had 12. I should have actually counted the trains and the number of cards in his hand before I made my decision, but I didn't, so oh well. I considered for a moment and thought, no guts, no glory, and kept both of the tickets. On the subsequent three turns, Eric claimed five route, five route (triggering the endgame), and two route. This left me one turn short of completing either ticket (I had spent the first turn taking a locomotive, the last card I needed to complete both tickets), so I claimed a six route on my last turn. In the final scoring, I had longest route, plus 32 and minus 26 tickets. Eric only had like plus 12 tickets, and he ended up winning by two points. There were so many scenarios under which I could have won with a different decision, it was comical. Another message on paying attention to the whole board... The other three were quite a way behind, and finished in this order: Elaine, Suke/Karen (tie).
ZENDO
It was getting a little late, and most people had left. We sat down for a couple rounds of Zendo to round out the night. I had played a couple turns of this before, but not a "serious" game. It was Eric, Chris, Elaine, Karen, and myself. The many dimensions of possible solutions for each rule in this game can lead to some comical conversation, as people become frustrated trying to guess and build their own koans. This was fun, and really an eye-opener, as I was surprised every few turns by something I hadn't considered. A couple times, I think each of us did it in some way, people built koans or asked questions that they could already have known the answer to. Chris, Eric, and Karen each won a round, and we called it a night.
The night ended up, as the last Game Day did, with Chris, Eric, and myself sitting around chatting about gaming for a while. We had a talk about Magic, and playing draft formats, so I think I might get some packs and try to teach some people to draft over there one of these days. The big problem with this, I guess, is that it takes a while to play out a tournament, but I suppose we could play a multiplater variant or something. Maybe 3v3 team draft.
I drove home quite satisfied. Although I didn't play as many new games this time as last (2 as opposed to 7), and I played fewer games, I think I enjoyed the games more today, as I didn't have time to really get tired out. Hopefully, I'll be able to make it to the next one.
GG, GL
I messed up the time on this one, and arrived quite late, about 1:00 pm. Consequently, I missed out on Caylus, which, of course, sucks. On the positive side, I got some cleaning done and had a nice lunch.
When I got there, a big game of Bang! was going on. Eric had also arrived late, so we decided to play a quick two player while we waited for people to get gunned down. He pulled Battle Line off the shelf, and we sat down in the kitchen to take a look at it. Neither of us had played it before, so Kurt ducked the flying lead, ran in, and gave us a quick rundown of the rules.
BATTLE LINE
It took some time for me to settle on a strategy. This game felt a lot like Lost Cities to me, looking at these different colored/numbered cards, trying to make the best decision for the future with limited information. However, the addition of a direct confrontation aspect lent it an added edge and another dimension (I realize that could be read to mean the same thing, but I mean it the other way...). I drew first blood on the left flank, and took the second pawn on the right flank. So much for three in a row. I got the left flank with 1-2-3 of different colors, as Eric had started a hand with two twos there, and all the other twos were played. On the right, he started three of a kind with fives, and I countered with nines. I settled in to trying to leave myself multiple outs on hands whenever possible, and playing a waiting game, trying to wait for him to commit more cards to an area before I made a choice. I got a third pawn, Eric took a couple, and then I took a fourth and fifth for the win. Not very exciting on paper, but it was a pretty fun, tense game. A little more interaction than Lost Cities. I think it's interesting that each of us only drew one tactics card, and Eric never played his. Perhaps the game is supposed to get to a late game in which the tactics cards become very important, and we just skipped it. I'll have to read up on this game a bit.
EVO
The gunfight in the living room finally ended (to see who won you'll have to check Chris's geeklist), and we got some new games going. We (Chris, Mark, Gare, Erin, and myself) settled on Evo, while a group went to play card games in the other room. They ended up playing Blokus, too, and I think they got several games done in the time it took us to play Evo. I'd never played before, the only new player out of five, so Chris had to take the time to explain the game to me. Pretty simple, it seemed, except for the weird track for the meteor/changing climate, which really isn't that complex, just odd looking. I was a little worried, I generally have a tough time with my first play of any game with an auction element, as it seems I need some time to get a general sense of appropriate bidding in the system, and by the time I get it (if I ever do), it's often too late. First round I ended up passing on the bidding, sensing that people thought the bidding was getting high. I think I was just sensing a general vibe of gaming anxiety that a couple of the players give off normally, though. Right away, at the end of the first turn if you start with two or the second turn if you start with one dinosaur (I just know I had three), I got reduced to one dino by Gare's climate card. This put me in the whole quite heavily, as I was behind on mutations and victory points at that point. I bid heavily to get something on turn two, the mutant gene I think. The following turn, I bid hard on an egg to try to get my population going. I started getting some triceratops on the table, but I was way behind on vp's, and was going to need several turns to catch up. I got a few points ahead of Mark, but then the game ended on the first possible turn, leaving me in fourth. I don't know how much I could have caught up given a couple more turns. Maybe I had an outside chance at third, but first or second were way ahead of me. Chris ended up winning, with Erin in second and Gare in third. All the upgrades seemed good, but I think Chris's early egg paid off the most. I liked this game, it has several random elements, but a high fun factor, and it still leaves you with a lot of good decisions to make. I probably won't seek it out, but I'd definitely play again.
ST. PETERSBURG
We re-combined and split up again, and I ended up teaching St. Petersburg in the front room. I had three new players with me; Suke, James, and Chiara, the latter two being first-time Game Day attendees. Chiara and James lent some flavor to the discussion of the game, as the two of them had actually visited St. Pete, and were familiar with some of the buildings and history. We went over the rules and some basic strategy. As happens with many games, I think each person missed a little bit. I think it's pretty common for new players to underestimate the endgame Aristocrat scoring, and I told them as much. In the early game, there was a lot of spending on buildings. The Mistress of Ceremonies and Judge both came up, and I got to buy the Mistress, people passed the judge around, and he went to my hand, not to be played for three more turns. The next turn, there was only one worker, bought by Chiara who was in first position. I thought this would give her a big advantage over the course of the game, but she consistently spent money on buildings and didn't have enough to get more workers on the next turn. I built up a worker advantage, and soon had a huge money lead. I kept manipulating the aristocrat market looking for endgame scoring. Chiara's buildings started making her a big lead. We ended up ending pretty quickly on workers, and in the last turn I bought ten victory with pubs, and an aristocrat, and ended up passing Chiara by a long way in the endgame scoring with my 9 aristocrats. I thik everyone had fun, and would probably do a lot better on the second play. In the end, after me, it was Chiara, Suke, and James.
TICKET TO RIDE
Chiara and James had to leave, and a couple of new players showed up, so Suke and I went in to join Eric, Elaine, and Karen for Ticket to Ride. I ended up keeping LA-Miami and Miami-Boston. I spent a long time gathering train cars, and got to building. We had some congestion in Texas, but I got the routes I needed. Suke made me detour on the East Coast, around Charleston. Eric had a lead, but I was right behind him, and I probably had longest route. We both had two tickets. I figured my tickets were better, but I got a little worried, for some reason, about the six tickets that Elaine was holding, so I took more tickets. Looking at the tickets, there were two I could complete. In fact, I had just enough trains to finish them both (13), and everyone else had more trains than me. Everyone, that is, except Eric, who had 12. I should have actually counted the trains and the number of cards in his hand before I made my decision, but I didn't, so oh well. I considered for a moment and thought, no guts, no glory, and kept both of the tickets. On the subsequent three turns, Eric claimed five route, five route (triggering the endgame), and two route. This left me one turn short of completing either ticket (I had spent the first turn taking a locomotive, the last card I needed to complete both tickets), so I claimed a six route on my last turn. In the final scoring, I had longest route, plus 32 and minus 26 tickets. Eric only had like plus 12 tickets, and he ended up winning by two points. There were so many scenarios under which I could have won with a different decision, it was comical. Another message on paying attention to the whole board... The other three were quite a way behind, and finished in this order: Elaine, Suke/Karen (tie).
ZENDO
It was getting a little late, and most people had left. We sat down for a couple rounds of Zendo to round out the night. I had played a couple turns of this before, but not a "serious" game. It was Eric, Chris, Elaine, Karen, and myself. The many dimensions of possible solutions for each rule in this game can lead to some comical conversation, as people become frustrated trying to guess and build their own koans. This was fun, and really an eye-opener, as I was surprised every few turns by something I hadn't considered. A couple times, I think each of us did it in some way, people built koans or asked questions that they could already have known the answer to. Chris, Eric, and Karen each won a round, and we called it a night.
The night ended up, as the last Game Day did, with Chris, Eric, and myself sitting around chatting about gaming for a while. We had a talk about Magic, and playing draft formats, so I think I might get some packs and try to teach some people to draft over there one of these days. The big problem with this, I guess, is that it takes a while to play out a tournament, but I suppose we could play a multiplater variant or something. Maybe 3v3 team draft.
I drove home quite satisfied. Although I didn't play as many new games this time as last (2 as opposed to 7), and I played fewer games, I think I enjoyed the games more today, as I didn't have time to really get tired out. Hopefully, I'll be able to make it to the next one.
GG, GL
Monday, April 24, 2006
M:tG - Dissension Prerelease, Des Moines, April 22nd
I still really enjoy playing Magic, at least the limited formats, and I particularly like prereleases, with their combination of newness, casualness, and a sprinkling of the competitiveness that really is one of Magic's unique contributions to the gaming community. That said, I make it to very few of them, as life just keeps getting in the way the last few years. I had a semi-free day this Saturday, though, so I decided to motor West to the capitol and turn some cards sideways.
It all really started, I suppose, with meeting Az for dinner on Friday night while he was on his way out to judge at the event. I was late getting out of the double-overtime, penalty-shootout ending soccer game I was coaching, and I sped across Western Johnson County to meet the spiky Chicagoan at Critical Hit. Lacking appropriate imagination, and, of course, time (Az had to be at the midnight prerelease event), we just ran over to Perkins. I had a fat, fat meal, and Az ate a salad, as some sort of preparation for the impending inherent unhealthiness of a weekend of gaming. We had a nice talk about gaming, old friends, music, and the like. He filled me in on some of the new mechanics, and really convinced me I should go.
I got up a little late on Saturday and waddled out the door. I picked up a giant coffee and some new cheap sunglasses, and hit the road. After an uneventful hour and a half or so of driving, I somehow managed to mess it all up at the penultimate turn, missing my exit off of 235. I took the next exit and drove around downtown for 15 minutes until I suddenly found myself right in front of the place. One nice thing about downtown DM is that it's totally dead on weekends and there's free street parking all over the place. Of course, the flipside of this is that there aren't a lot of convenient food options around, which sux.
It was around new, but, as I said, there was no immediate chance for fuel, so I just went to check out the tourney site. I chatted with Dr. Dan and Dave W. who were running things at the time, and I think I managed to convince Kyle M. that he had mumps. I signed up for the next sealed deck flight, and sat down to chat with Scott Lewis and Brian Lord, the other two Iowa Citians (not conting ponytail Eric, I just don't know about that guy) in attendance. Scott and I reminisced, of course, about the classic Iguana's-run Mirage prerelease in the big tent at city park, which we both top 8'd, before we even knew each other. I got second in that event, btw, to a young guy from Madison who td'ed a land to torch me out.
Finally, our flight was called. I registered a pile of cards that looked to me like a bit of a sealed deck nightmare, with good rares and removal in red/white/black, but the majority of good creatures in blue/green. After all the deck registering and passing around, I, of course, ended up getting the stuff back.
I went blue/green with one white card, a plains, and two signets. My white card was Plumes of Peace, a uw1 enchantment that you can forecast for uw to tap a dude during your upkeep. It seemed usefull, but, then again, when I read it first I was in a bit of a hurry and missed the end, the part about only using it during your upkeep. It was still good. I was short on removal, but had a solid creature base. I expected that I had an outside chance at prizes, but would probably be joining a draft early.
Round 1: I played a Grinnell student, big guy with long blonde hair. Not sure of his name. He was playing the same colors as me, but with more white.
I won the roll and chose to play first. I mulled a six land hand, he mulled too. I succumbed to a moment of madness and kept a one land hand. I ended up having to discard a couple times, but he didn't put any pressure on me, so I had time to, eventually, get stuff down. He didn't play anything until turn five, I think, and even then it wasn't a dude. He made an enchantment that sat on a land and made it so that you could tap the land and two other mana to make a 2/2 flyer. Instead of getting an army built up, he decided to use this guy to chump block one of my bigger flyers each turn. The game drew on, because both of us were new to the cards and neither of us was drawing any breakthrough stuff. He got a card drawing engine down, and I considered conceding, but I had a couple flyers, so I put him to five and passed the turn. I figured I could kill him in two turns, if I played right, or maybe deck him with my Enigma Eidolon, if it came down to it. However, he came up with a hard lock, with a guy that bounced a dude to the top of my deck, plus an enchantment that would bounce his guy each turn. I alpha'd into him, hoping to draw into an answer that would let me squeak through the last couple points, I didn't, died, and then was informed by the judge that time had already been called, the round was over, there'd be no second game. It was irritating as, if I'd known, of course I wouldn't have attacked and it would have been a draw. As it was, I resolved to pay more attention.
Round 2: I played an older guy named Kurt who also had the same colors as me, but with more white.
Game one he got a slow start, discarded a couple times, and I rolled him.
Game two he got a slow start, discarded, managed to get some stuff down, drew about seven extra cards, but couldn't keep up with my flying fat, and eventually went down.
Round 3: I played a guy whose name I don't remember, but who apparently is one of Ponytail Eric's friends. Eric further endeared himself to me by starting the match off saying to his friend "don't trust him, he's an Iowa City player." This sort of thing falls, for me, into the realm of things people meant to be clever and funny but actually are kind of irritating, making it the second such comment from the same source that day.
Game one - This guy seemed to have pretty much the same cards as me, except, of course, that I was playing the awesome Drift of Phantasms. Well, actually, it's not awesome, but it does let you transmute for Moldervine cloack which, actually, is. I cloaked up a team member and finished him off.
Game two - This went sort of like game one. I got a faster start and got him down on life. This game had the best turn of the day. My team got big enough to kill him, and I alpha'd. He responded by playing a spell that let his flyer block any number of characters, and then played Gaze of the Gorgon, killing all my guys and regenerating his. He stabilized the board and played the enchantment that lets him tap a dude to tap one of mine (Glare of Subdual?). He had one more dude than me, including a couple of non-tapping flying weenies, so he had the board stabilized and was doing me a couple damage a turn. I drew and played a 3/3 that can be untapped for a blue mana. Turns went round again, he attacked me and I declined to block, figuring some trick. On his turn, he tapped my whole team, subsequently turning his whole squad sideways. I tapped a blue, thinking he must have some response. When he realized my guy could untap he groaned and extended the hand.
Round four: I got paired with Scott this round, and figured I was out, as he is a very good player and had a bit more exciting of a deck than me. He was black/red/white with a healthy dose of removal.
Game one: I think he made a little mistake early, and I rolled over him with a combination of flyers and creature superiority vs. his poor mana draw.
Game two: He smashed me with a flying pumpable dragon dude and a bunch of removal.
Game three: He had a cool fat legend guy, and an irritating protection from monocolored guy, and then the fat flying guy. I was able to sneak damage through with Plumes of Peace, and got him down to where he had to chump block, and eventually I just got to run him over. Kind of anticlimactically bad in the draw department for him, I believe.
At this point, they decided to shorten the tournament to five rounds because so many people had dropped. That meant I got a prize if I tied or won.
Round 5: I played a guy named Jason. I don't know where he was from. He was black/red/white also.
Game one: He won the toss and started with some little gold dudes. I got bigger dudes and beat him down.
Game two: Like game one, but with a little more action on his part, bringing people back from the graveyard and such.
So, I finished 4-1, good for 18 packs of the new set. Hopefully, I'll convert them into 6 draft sets and have some more fun.
Overall, I had a fun time. It was nice to see Dave and Dan. I'm a little disappointed Barratt didn't make it down before I left. I hope I see him again before we move. I liked the forecast mechanic a lot, as it gives spells an interesting multifunctionality. I also liked graft a lot. I had three of them, including the flying and regenerating guys, and they were great. I didn't play any hellbent cards, and it only came up in one game, but I think it will have an impact on constructed. I'd have a hard time picking an mvp. Coiling Oracle was very good every time. Elvish Skysweeper did a surprising amount of work. Simic Ragworm won me a game. Trygon predator killed a couple important artifacts. Really, I probably did the most damage over the course of the day with Assault Zeppelid, which is also very nicely named.
By the time we got done, there were no more drafts being done. I chatted with Brian W. while I waited for my prize, and then got an early start home. Really, I was pretty happy to be on my way, so that I knew I'd be fairly sharp for Chris and Edie's game day on Sunday.
So, you've got that to look forward to, dear reader!
GG, GL
I still really enjoy playing Magic, at least the limited formats, and I particularly like prereleases, with their combination of newness, casualness, and a sprinkling of the competitiveness that really is one of Magic's unique contributions to the gaming community. That said, I make it to very few of them, as life just keeps getting in the way the last few years. I had a semi-free day this Saturday, though, so I decided to motor West to the capitol and turn some cards sideways.
It all really started, I suppose, with meeting Az for dinner on Friday night while he was on his way out to judge at the event. I was late getting out of the double-overtime, penalty-shootout ending soccer game I was coaching, and I sped across Western Johnson County to meet the spiky Chicagoan at Critical Hit. Lacking appropriate imagination, and, of course, time (Az had to be at the midnight prerelease event), we just ran over to Perkins. I had a fat, fat meal, and Az ate a salad, as some sort of preparation for the impending inherent unhealthiness of a weekend of gaming. We had a nice talk about gaming, old friends, music, and the like. He filled me in on some of the new mechanics, and really convinced me I should go.
I got up a little late on Saturday and waddled out the door. I picked up a giant coffee and some new cheap sunglasses, and hit the road. After an uneventful hour and a half or so of driving, I somehow managed to mess it all up at the penultimate turn, missing my exit off of 235. I took the next exit and drove around downtown for 15 minutes until I suddenly found myself right in front of the place. One nice thing about downtown DM is that it's totally dead on weekends and there's free street parking all over the place. Of course, the flipside of this is that there aren't a lot of convenient food options around, which sux.
It was around new, but, as I said, there was no immediate chance for fuel, so I just went to check out the tourney site. I chatted with Dr. Dan and Dave W. who were running things at the time, and I think I managed to convince Kyle M. that he had mumps. I signed up for the next sealed deck flight, and sat down to chat with Scott Lewis and Brian Lord, the other two Iowa Citians (not conting ponytail Eric, I just don't know about that guy) in attendance. Scott and I reminisced, of course, about the classic Iguana's-run Mirage prerelease in the big tent at city park, which we both top 8'd, before we even knew each other. I got second in that event, btw, to a young guy from Madison who td'ed a land to torch me out.
Finally, our flight was called. I registered a pile of cards that looked to me like a bit of a sealed deck nightmare, with good rares and removal in red/white/black, but the majority of good creatures in blue/green. After all the deck registering and passing around, I, of course, ended up getting the stuff back.
I went blue/green with one white card, a plains, and two signets. My white card was Plumes of Peace, a uw1 enchantment that you can forecast for uw to tap a dude during your upkeep. It seemed usefull, but, then again, when I read it first I was in a bit of a hurry and missed the end, the part about only using it during your upkeep. It was still good. I was short on removal, but had a solid creature base. I expected that I had an outside chance at prizes, but would probably be joining a draft early.
Round 1: I played a Grinnell student, big guy with long blonde hair. Not sure of his name. He was playing the same colors as me, but with more white.
I won the roll and chose to play first. I mulled a six land hand, he mulled too. I succumbed to a moment of madness and kept a one land hand. I ended up having to discard a couple times, but he didn't put any pressure on me, so I had time to, eventually, get stuff down. He didn't play anything until turn five, I think, and even then it wasn't a dude. He made an enchantment that sat on a land and made it so that you could tap the land and two other mana to make a 2/2 flyer. Instead of getting an army built up, he decided to use this guy to chump block one of my bigger flyers each turn. The game drew on, because both of us were new to the cards and neither of us was drawing any breakthrough stuff. He got a card drawing engine down, and I considered conceding, but I had a couple flyers, so I put him to five and passed the turn. I figured I could kill him in two turns, if I played right, or maybe deck him with my Enigma Eidolon, if it came down to it. However, he came up with a hard lock, with a guy that bounced a dude to the top of my deck, plus an enchantment that would bounce his guy each turn. I alpha'd into him, hoping to draw into an answer that would let me squeak through the last couple points, I didn't, died, and then was informed by the judge that time had already been called, the round was over, there'd be no second game. It was irritating as, if I'd known, of course I wouldn't have attacked and it would have been a draw. As it was, I resolved to pay more attention.
Round 2: I played an older guy named Kurt who also had the same colors as me, but with more white.
Game one he got a slow start, discarded a couple times, and I rolled him.
Game two he got a slow start, discarded, managed to get some stuff down, drew about seven extra cards, but couldn't keep up with my flying fat, and eventually went down.
Round 3: I played a guy whose name I don't remember, but who apparently is one of Ponytail Eric's friends. Eric further endeared himself to me by starting the match off saying to his friend "don't trust him, he's an Iowa City player." This sort of thing falls, for me, into the realm of things people meant to be clever and funny but actually are kind of irritating, making it the second such comment from the same source that day.
Game one - This guy seemed to have pretty much the same cards as me, except, of course, that I was playing the awesome Drift of Phantasms. Well, actually, it's not awesome, but it does let you transmute for Moldervine cloack which, actually, is. I cloaked up a team member and finished him off.
Game two - This went sort of like game one. I got a faster start and got him down on life. This game had the best turn of the day. My team got big enough to kill him, and I alpha'd. He responded by playing a spell that let his flyer block any number of characters, and then played Gaze of the Gorgon, killing all my guys and regenerating his. He stabilized the board and played the enchantment that lets him tap a dude to tap one of mine (Glare of Subdual?). He had one more dude than me, including a couple of non-tapping flying weenies, so he had the board stabilized and was doing me a couple damage a turn. I drew and played a 3/3 that can be untapped for a blue mana. Turns went round again, he attacked me and I declined to block, figuring some trick. On his turn, he tapped my whole team, subsequently turning his whole squad sideways. I tapped a blue, thinking he must have some response. When he realized my guy could untap he groaned and extended the hand.
Round four: I got paired with Scott this round, and figured I was out, as he is a very good player and had a bit more exciting of a deck than me. He was black/red/white with a healthy dose of removal.
Game one: I think he made a little mistake early, and I rolled over him with a combination of flyers and creature superiority vs. his poor mana draw.
Game two: He smashed me with a flying pumpable dragon dude and a bunch of removal.
Game three: He had a cool fat legend guy, and an irritating protection from monocolored guy, and then the fat flying guy. I was able to sneak damage through with Plumes of Peace, and got him down to where he had to chump block, and eventually I just got to run him over. Kind of anticlimactically bad in the draw department for him, I believe.
At this point, they decided to shorten the tournament to five rounds because so many people had dropped. That meant I got a prize if I tied or won.
Round 5: I played a guy named Jason. I don't know where he was from. He was black/red/white also.
Game one: He won the toss and started with some little gold dudes. I got bigger dudes and beat him down.
Game two: Like game one, but with a little more action on his part, bringing people back from the graveyard and such.
So, I finished 4-1, good for 18 packs of the new set. Hopefully, I'll convert them into 6 draft sets and have some more fun.
Overall, I had a fun time. It was nice to see Dave and Dan. I'm a little disappointed Barratt didn't make it down before I left. I hope I see him again before we move. I liked the forecast mechanic a lot, as it gives spells an interesting multifunctionality. I also liked graft a lot. I had three of them, including the flying and regenerating guys, and they were great. I didn't play any hellbent cards, and it only came up in one game, but I think it will have an impact on constructed. I'd have a hard time picking an mvp. Coiling Oracle was very good every time. Elvish Skysweeper did a surprising amount of work. Simic Ragworm won me a game. Trygon predator killed a couple important artifacts. Really, I probably did the most damage over the course of the day with Assault Zeppelid, which is also very nicely named.
By the time we got done, there were no more drafts being done. I chatted with Brian W. while I waited for my prize, and then got an early start home. Really, I was pretty happy to be on my way, so that I knew I'd be fairly sharp for Chris and Edie's game day on Sunday.
So, you've got that to look forward to, dear reader!
GG, GL
MtG - Dissension Prerelease, Des Moines, April 22nd
I haven't been able to make it to a prerelease for some time, due to scheduling conflicts. I had a free day on Saturday so, even though I have a lot of other, more important things I could be doing, I decided to make the drive out to the capitol to play some cards. I've always liked prereleases, with the high casualness quotient and the new cards to see. I'm a little disappointed not to have been able to play more in this block, as it looks like a fun set. I wish I could say that this was the start of me spending more time playing MtG, but I don't see the time opening up any time soon...
I missed my exit - I think the sign might have been down due to construction, or, maybe, I just spaced it. After the two hour solo drive, I wasn't at my most focussed. After meandering around the general area for fifteen minutes, I finally found the sight. I walked in around noon, leaving behind a bright, sunny spring day for a stuffy convention center room full of gamers. Aah, life! Dr. Dan and Dave Williamson were there running operations. Barratt was still in St. Louis. Kyle Mechler was judging. Other than them, I saw very few people I knew, and spent most of the time leading up to the tournament chatting with Scott Lewis and Brian Lord from Iowa City.
We sat down to register decks, and, again, I didn't know anyone sitting around me. The deck I registered was really light on removal, and had it's good cards spread across all five colors. It didn't look very good to me. Of course, after the deck passing was over, I ended up getting it back.
My good rares were in red/black/white, but the creatures were blue/green. I ended up with a mostly blue/green deck splashing white (1 plains, 2 signets) for a single card, a u/w/1 enchantment that won't let a creature untap, that can forecast to tap a creature during your upkeep. I misread it, thinking I could play it at instant speed, but it was still a good card, and it never came out. Overall, the deck was probably three cards short of being actually good (1 more good creature and a couple removal spells).
I didn't take any notes, so we'll see what I can remember...
First round - I played a guy from Grinnell, a big, twenty-something fella with long blond hair. I think, maybe, his name was John. He was playing the same colors as me, but with a little more white.
I won the roll, and chose to play. I mulled a six land hand, into a one land hand, and, in a moment of post-two hour drive madness, I kept it. We both had slow starts, I had to discard once, I think, but he wasn't able to put any pressure on me, not playing anything until turn five, when he put down an enchant land card that lets him spend two mana and tap to make a 2/2 flyer. We both started to get creatures on the table, and things were looking pretty even. I got a 3/3 flyer, and started to attack. Instead of letting it through and building up his flying army, he chump blocked it repeatedly. I was squeaking damage through, though, and whittled away at his life total. He got out a card drawing combo (an aura and an untappable creature), and started to get card advantage. With the way he was playing, I thought I would have him in two turns, and had a backup option to try to deck him with my eidolon. I actually considered conceding earlier, to get to game two, but I figured I had two outs, and didn't want to risk another bad draw. However, the next turn he drew into a hard lock, with a guy that puts a creature on the top of your deck when he comes into play, and an enchantment that returns the creature and itself at beginning of upkeep. I thought I had an out to topdeck into, so I alpha'd, killing all my guys, leaving him at 5. I didn't make the topdeck, and he finished me next turn. When I asked how much time was left, the judge said, "oh, time was called a couple minutes ago, didn't you know?" Well, if I would have been paying attention, it would have been a draw, but... This put me in mind to pay a little more attention to what I was doing.
Round 2: This guys name was Kurt. He seemed a little serious, and didn't really talk during the match. He also had the same colors as me. These weren't much, as games go. Kurt didn't draw enough mana, discarded in both games, and I ran him over. First game was no contest. Second game, he got out a 4/5 guy that lets you draw a card every time you play a creature. He probably drew 7 extra cards, but he couldn't find an answer for my flyers.
Round 3: I can't remember the name of this opponent. I'm not sure where he was from, but he was friends with ponytail Eric who plays at Critical Hit in Coralville. Eric annoyed me a little when he opened the match with the following comment to my opponent: "He's an Iowa City player, don't trust him." For me, this fell into the realm of things people say that are supposed to be funny, but are only actually humorous in some alternate, bizarro reality. It was the second such comment he had made to me that day, out of two conversational attempts. Again, he was playing the same colors as me, and had many of the same cards.
I didn't get much out of these games. The first game was just creatures versus creatures, and mine were better. Oh, I tutored for Moldervine Cloak, which was a bonus. The second game, I got a lot of early beats in, putting him down to three, then he dropped Glare of Subdual. We had an even number of creatures, and he had two weenie flyers that could attack without tapping. He had the board stabilized, but I had drawn into a 3/3 that I could untap for a blue. On my turn, he tapped down my whole team, tapping his squad in the process. That left me only having to tap a blue to end the game, summoning a groan of personal dissatisfaction from the opponent, and chastisement from Eric. What are friends for?
Round 4: At 2-1, I was hoping for another mediocre pairing, but I ended up getting placed against Scott Lewis this round. Scott had red/black/white, and his deck, I think, was a lot more exciting than mine (lots of removal, big pumpable flying dragon guy, etc..). I figured this round would send me home.
Game one, Scott made a mistake early, I got some fat on the board, he neutralized some of it, I got some more, I won. Game two, he popped down a fat flying pumpable guy, killed all my stuff and tore me in half. Game three, he dropped a protection from monocolored guy, a fat legend, and the flying pumpable dragon guy, and things didn't look so hot.. I had gotten some damage through, though, and the forecast tap gold spell came in handy here. I drew into a gold creature, moldervine cloak, and a flyer or two and finished him off.
Round 5: I was paired with a younger guy named Jason. Don't know where he was from. We didn't chat much. He didn't ask for a prize split, so I figured his deck was pretty good. He was red black. Red black really seemed it could be scary with the format, as there is a removal seal in each color, and we opened three packs... I was worried, but, it turned out, needlessly, as I rolled him in two, despite his removal and return dudes from the graveyard spells.
So, I finished 4-1, and won 18 packs. Hopefully I'll be able to do some drafting with them. There were no more drafts being done that night, so I chatted with Brian Woerth and Azrael a little, and then got an "early" start home, around 8:30. It was kind of nice to do so, as I knew I wanted to be sharp for Chris & Edie's game day on Sunday.
My overall impressions of the set were positive. It rounds out the color combination guilds for the block, and should make limited play more fun. From what I saw, u/g had great creatures, and b/r had great removal and some interesting creatures. I didn't see much of u/w. Forecast is an interesting mechanic, like limited buyback, but also making the spells multi-functional. Hellbent only came into play once all day, but might have an interesting impact on constructed. Other than that, I was excited to get one of the cards my friend Fred Hooper illustrated. It's his first set doing Magic, and it's nice to see his name on the cards.
GG, GL
I haven't been able to make it to a prerelease for some time, due to scheduling conflicts. I had a free day on Saturday so, even though I have a lot of other, more important things I could be doing, I decided to make the drive out to the capitol to play some cards. I've always liked prereleases, with the high casualness quotient and the new cards to see. I'm a little disappointed not to have been able to play more in this block, as it looks like a fun set. I wish I could say that this was the start of me spending more time playing MtG, but I don't see the time opening up any time soon...
I missed my exit - I think the sign might have been down due to construction, or, maybe, I just spaced it. After the two hour solo drive, I wasn't at my most focussed. After meandering around the general area for fifteen minutes, I finally found the sight. I walked in around noon, leaving behind a bright, sunny spring day for a stuffy convention center room full of gamers. Aah, life! Dr. Dan and Dave Williamson were there running operations. Barratt was still in St. Louis. Kyle Mechler was judging. Other than them, I saw very few people I knew, and spent most of the time leading up to the tournament chatting with Scott Lewis and Brian Lord from Iowa City.
We sat down to register decks, and, again, I didn't know anyone sitting around me. The deck I registered was really light on removal, and had it's good cards spread across all five colors. It didn't look very good to me. Of course, after the deck passing was over, I ended up getting it back.
My good rares were in red/black/white, but the creatures were blue/green. I ended up with a mostly blue/green deck splashing white (1 plains, 2 signets) for a single card, a u/w/1 enchantment that won't let a creature untap, that can forecast to tap a creature during your upkeep. I misread it, thinking I could play it at instant speed, but it was still a good card, and it never came out. Overall, the deck was probably three cards short of being actually good (1 more good creature and a couple removal spells).
I didn't take any notes, so we'll see what I can remember...
First round - I played a guy from Grinnell, a big, twenty-something fella with long blond hair. I think, maybe, his name was John. He was playing the same colors as me, but with a little more white.
I won the roll, and chose to play. I mulled a six land hand, into a one land hand, and, in a moment of post-two hour drive madness, I kept it. We both had slow starts, I had to discard once, I think, but he wasn't able to put any pressure on me, not playing anything until turn five, when he put down an enchant land card that lets him spend two mana and tap to make a 2/2 flyer. We both started to get creatures on the table, and things were looking pretty even. I got a 3/3 flyer, and started to attack. Instead of letting it through and building up his flying army, he chump blocked it repeatedly. I was squeaking damage through, though, and whittled away at his life total. He got out a card drawing combo (an aura and an untappable creature), and started to get card advantage. With the way he was playing, I thought I would have him in two turns, and had a backup option to try to deck him with my eidolon. I actually considered conceding earlier, to get to game two, but I figured I had two outs, and didn't want to risk another bad draw. However, the next turn he drew into a hard lock, with a guy that puts a creature on the top of your deck when he comes into play, and an enchantment that returns the creature and itself at beginning of upkeep. I thought I had an out to topdeck into, so I alpha'd, killing all my guys, leaving him at 5. I didn't make the topdeck, and he finished me next turn. When I asked how much time was left, the judge said, "oh, time was called a couple minutes ago, didn't you know?" Well, if I would have been paying attention, it would have been a draw, but... This put me in mind to pay a little more attention to what I was doing.
Round 2: This guys name was Kurt. He seemed a little serious, and didn't really talk during the match. He also had the same colors as me. These weren't much, as games go. Kurt didn't draw enough mana, discarded in both games, and I ran him over. First game was no contest. Second game, he got out a 4/5 guy that lets you draw a card every time you play a creature. He probably drew 7 extra cards, but he couldn't find an answer for my flyers.
Round 3: I can't remember the name of this opponent. I'm not sure where he was from, but he was friends with ponytail Eric who plays at Critical Hit in Coralville. Eric annoyed me a little when he opened the match with the following comment to my opponent: "He's an Iowa City player, don't trust him." For me, this fell into the realm of things people say that are supposed to be funny, but are only actually humorous in some alternate, bizarro reality. It was the second such comment he had made to me that day, out of two conversational attempts. Again, he was playing the same colors as me, and had many of the same cards.
I didn't get much out of these games. The first game was just creatures versus creatures, and mine were better. Oh, I tutored for Moldervine Cloak, which was a bonus. The second game, I got a lot of early beats in, putting him down to three, then he dropped Glare of Subdual. We had an even number of creatures, and he had two weenie flyers that could attack without tapping. He had the board stabilized, but I had drawn into a 3/3 that I could untap for a blue. On my turn, he tapped down my whole team, tapping his squad in the process. That left me only having to tap a blue to end the game, summoning a groan of personal dissatisfaction from the opponent, and chastisement from Eric. What are friends for?
Round 4: At 2-1, I was hoping for another mediocre pairing, but I ended up getting placed against Scott Lewis this round. Scott had red/black/white, and his deck, I think, was a lot more exciting than mine (lots of removal, big pumpable flying dragon guy, etc..). I figured this round would send me home.
Game one, Scott made a mistake early, I got some fat on the board, he neutralized some of it, I got some more, I won. Game two, he popped down a fat flying pumpable guy, killed all my stuff and tore me in half. Game three, he dropped a protection from monocolored guy, a fat legend, and the flying pumpable dragon guy, and things didn't look so hot.. I had gotten some damage through, though, and the forecast tap gold spell came in handy here. I drew into a gold creature, moldervine cloak, and a flyer or two and finished him off.
Round 5: I was paired with a younger guy named Jason. Don't know where he was from. We didn't chat much. He didn't ask for a prize split, so I figured his deck was pretty good. He was red black. Red black really seemed it could be scary with the format, as there is a removal seal in each color, and we opened three packs... I was worried, but, it turned out, needlessly, as I rolled him in two, despite his removal and return dudes from the graveyard spells.
So, I finished 4-1, and won 18 packs. Hopefully I'll be able to do some drafting with them. There were no more drafts being done that night, so I chatted with Brian Woerth and Azrael a little, and then got an "early" start home, around 8:30. It was kind of nice to do so, as I knew I wanted to be sharp for Chris & Edie's game day on Sunday.
My overall impressions of the set were positive. It rounds out the color combination guilds for the block, and should make limited play more fun. From what I saw, u/g had great creatures, and b/r had great removal and some interesting creatures. I didn't see much of u/w. Forecast is an interesting mechanic, like limited buyback, but also making the spells multi-functional. Hellbent only came into play once all day, but might have an interesting impact on constructed. Other than that, I was excited to get one of the cards my friend Fred Hooper illustrated. It's his first set doing Magic, and it's nice to see his name on the cards.
GG, GL
Sunday, April 16, 2006
Saturday in the Quad Cities
Saturday morning came with the promise of a cruise West on I80 to Kristin's wedding shower, held by my sisters. While they were playing assorted games and piling awesome gifts around her, several of the male members of the family and myself enjoyed the fruits of the steak grilling talents of my father. Post-parties, Kristin and I made arrangements to head down to Dave B's, in Moline, for an evening of fun.
I had brought along Arkham Horror, as well as a variety of other games. By the time we could get going, it was a little late for AH, and Dave and Kris were anxious to play Puerto Rico, which I had shown them how to play last visit. We went over the rules with Grahm and got the plantations going.
I was in seat two, behind Kris. He settled for quarry and I took coffee (no corn in the mix, either). On my turn I built for Indigo plant. Dave mayored, and Grahm dug for gold. Things went pretty smoothly from there. Dave had some early success with sugar, and ramped up into a factory. In the mid game, Grahm had a hard time working out what to build. I picked up coffee roaster, warf, and harbor. I also grabbed 3 corn plantations. I sold some coffee, then got a good captain phase and started a coffee boat, which I took advantage of for 3 phases, being the only one in coffee.
I built, I think, about half as much as I normally do. I did end up with the vp chips big building, which paid off well. It is the first time I've ever been really successful with a serious focus on shipping. It's also the first time I've managed to get both the harbor and warf. I definitely benifited from good luck regarding the available plantations, as well as the timing of the captain's phases. I won with 54 points, and Dave finished in second, with a respectable 44 points. A couple different decisions for him, and it would have been at least 4 or 5 points closer. Kris took the middle slot, and Grahm finished with 35, a decent play his first time out. Everyone liked the game, and I'm sure we'll get to it again. This session of PR was really a breath of fresh air for me, as everyone was friendly, relaxed, and chatting the whole time. Certainly one of the better plays of this game for me.
We sat around a little and chatted about game strategy, and whether or not to play another game. We had a little time, and Dave and Grahm were game, so we opened up Through the Desert. TtD is a lot shorter and easy to play/explain. Unfortunately, perhaps due to the late hour, and/or the mead, Dave misunderstood the largest caravan rule, thinking there was just one 10 point award for the single largest, not one for each color. Had he understood this correctly, the game probably would have gone another 2 turns and ended up a little different. As it was, we certainly had fun, and finished in 45 minutes, including setup and explanation.
The opening camel placement went smoothly, and I thought everyone made good choices. We all started off gathering the watering hole vp chips, and transitioned into building areas. I ended up working hard to get three small areas, while Dave got one big one, and Grahm got a couple at medium size. I think I probably ended up fighting slightly the wrong battles, as I lost out on a few vp chips to build small areas. Part of this, though, was at the expense of one of the plays Dave made due to his misunderstanding of the rules, which only came up later. There was a lot of quick play, with it being far too late to overanalyze. In the end, Grahm had the biggest for two caravans, as did I, and Dave had one. Dave ended the game thinking he was the only one who would get a bonus. Once the scoring started, none of us wanted to go back, though. Grahm ended up in first with 85, and I got second with 84. Dave was a little behind that, in the mid 70s.
This was another enjoyable play of this game. Dave said he preferred several of the other games I'd brought over, noting that he particularly enjoyed Ingenious a little better and felt it filled about the same niche. Grahm pointed out that TtD is a great, somewhat light game, that served perfectly as a closer for an evening game session.
With that, it was around 1 AM, so we hopped in the car and headed off to bed.
GG, GL
Saturday morning came with the promise of a cruise West on I80 to Kristin's wedding shower, held by my sisters. While they were playing assorted games and piling awesome gifts around her, several of the male members of the family and myself enjoyed the fruits of the steak grilling talents of my father. Post-parties, Kristin and I made arrangements to head down to Dave B's, in Moline, for an evening of fun.
I had brought along Arkham Horror, as well as a variety of other games. By the time we could get going, it was a little late for AH, and Dave and Kris were anxious to play Puerto Rico, which I had shown them how to play last visit. We went over the rules with Grahm and got the plantations going.
I was in seat two, behind Kris. He settled for quarry and I took coffee (no corn in the mix, either). On my turn I built for Indigo plant. Dave mayored, and Grahm dug for gold. Things went pretty smoothly from there. Dave had some early success with sugar, and ramped up into a factory. In the mid game, Grahm had a hard time working out what to build. I picked up coffee roaster, warf, and harbor. I also grabbed 3 corn plantations. I sold some coffee, then got a good captain phase and started a coffee boat, which I took advantage of for 3 phases, being the only one in coffee.
I built, I think, about half as much as I normally do. I did end up with the vp chips big building, which paid off well. It is the first time I've ever been really successful with a serious focus on shipping. It's also the first time I've managed to get both the harbor and warf. I definitely benifited from good luck regarding the available plantations, as well as the timing of the captain's phases. I won with 54 points, and Dave finished in second, with a respectable 44 points. A couple different decisions for him, and it would have been at least 4 or 5 points closer. Kris took the middle slot, and Grahm finished with 35, a decent play his first time out. Everyone liked the game, and I'm sure we'll get to it again. This session of PR was really a breath of fresh air for me, as everyone was friendly, relaxed, and chatting the whole time. Certainly one of the better plays of this game for me.
We sat around a little and chatted about game strategy, and whether or not to play another game. We had a little time, and Dave and Grahm were game, so we opened up Through the Desert. TtD is a lot shorter and easy to play/explain. Unfortunately, perhaps due to the late hour, and/or the mead, Dave misunderstood the largest caravan rule, thinking there was just one 10 point award for the single largest, not one for each color. Had he understood this correctly, the game probably would have gone another 2 turns and ended up a little different. As it was, we certainly had fun, and finished in 45 minutes, including setup and explanation.
The opening camel placement went smoothly, and I thought everyone made good choices. We all started off gathering the watering hole vp chips, and transitioned into building areas. I ended up working hard to get three small areas, while Dave got one big one, and Grahm got a couple at medium size. I think I probably ended up fighting slightly the wrong battles, as I lost out on a few vp chips to build small areas. Part of this, though, was at the expense of one of the plays Dave made due to his misunderstanding of the rules, which only came up later. There was a lot of quick play, with it being far too late to overanalyze. In the end, Grahm had the biggest for two caravans, as did I, and Dave had one. Dave ended the game thinking he was the only one who would get a bonus. Once the scoring started, none of us wanted to go back, though. Grahm ended up in first with 85, and I got second with 84. Dave was a little behind that, in the mid 70s.
This was another enjoyable play of this game. Dave said he preferred several of the other games I'd brought over, noting that he particularly enjoyed Ingenious a little better and felt it filled about the same niche. Grahm pointed out that TtD is a great, somewhat light game, that served perfectly as a closer for an evening game session.
With that, it was around 1 AM, so we hopped in the car and headed off to bed.
GG, GL
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Monday night Tikal at Critical Hit
With the advent of nice weather, my weeknights are getting tied up with soccer. I've decided to try to squeeze a game in on Mondays, when I can, although it seems it might be hard to get players.
This Monday, I brought Tikal down to the shop, hoping to find Tim and Jerod, and maybe another player. Tim wasn't available, but Jerod agreed to try out a two player game.
I've only played Tikal once, with four players, and the optional tile auction rule. I think this game suffers a little from downtime between turns, with players having so many points to use/decisions to make. The auction rule, although adding strategic thinking, certainly enhances the feeling of downtime and lengthens the game considerably. I decided to play the basic rules, getting a feel for the game as, apparently, the designers initially intended it.
This game was certainly affected by tile draw. I drew most of the treasure tiles, and was able to get a massive treasure advantage over the course of the game which would have made it hard for Jerod to win under otherwise optimal circumstances. As it was, with both of us inexperienced (he had never played at all before), things were decidedly sub-optimal for him, and I finished quite a ways ahead.
I learned a bit from this initial play. The foremost thing that I learned is that, in 2-player games at least, the number of available workers becomes huge in the late game. Jerod and I had big control fights over big temples in the beginning of the game. I ended up spending my leader and five workers to get the 10 temple (before the first scoring phase!). I also got the 9, for just one worker. This probably would have totally wrecked me in the late game, but for the 7 and 8 that he guarded, Jerod spent his leader and only 2 less workers than me, total, also fairly early in the game. As the game stretched out, so did my lead. As the tiles came out, though, I could see how, if he had more workers remaining, scoring opportunities would really have blossomed for him. As it was, he got a bit of a lead on the number of controlled temples, but my massive treasure lead was more than enough to keep me ahead.
GG, GL
With the advent of nice weather, my weeknights are getting tied up with soccer. I've decided to try to squeeze a game in on Mondays, when I can, although it seems it might be hard to get players.
This Monday, I brought Tikal down to the shop, hoping to find Tim and Jerod, and maybe another player. Tim wasn't available, but Jerod agreed to try out a two player game.
I've only played Tikal once, with four players, and the optional tile auction rule. I think this game suffers a little from downtime between turns, with players having so many points to use/decisions to make. The auction rule, although adding strategic thinking, certainly enhances the feeling of downtime and lengthens the game considerably. I decided to play the basic rules, getting a feel for the game as, apparently, the designers initially intended it.
This game was certainly affected by tile draw. I drew most of the treasure tiles, and was able to get a massive treasure advantage over the course of the game which would have made it hard for Jerod to win under otherwise optimal circumstances. As it was, with both of us inexperienced (he had never played at all before), things were decidedly sub-optimal for him, and I finished quite a ways ahead.
I learned a bit from this initial play. The foremost thing that I learned is that, in 2-player games at least, the number of available workers becomes huge in the late game. Jerod and I had big control fights over big temples in the beginning of the game. I ended up spending my leader and five workers to get the 10 temple (before the first scoring phase!). I also got the 9, for just one worker. This probably would have totally wrecked me in the late game, but for the 7 and 8 that he guarded, Jerod spent his leader and only 2 less workers than me, total, also fairly early in the game. As the game stretched out, so did my lead. As the tiles came out, though, I could see how, if he had more workers remaining, scoring opportunities would really have blossomed for him. As it was, he got a bit of a lead on the number of controlled temples, but my massive treasure lead was more than enough to keep me ahead.
GG, GL
Last Sunday at Critical Hit
No AGOT today, as there were tournaments the night before to honor Lucas Reed's departure for Minnesota and his job at FFG. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend these events due to a scheduling conflict with a wedding held in Des Moines. Good luck Luke!
Well, I didn't think there would be any gaming today, but Dan decided to put together a five player Puerto Rico game. I made it over to the store just in time, and then we discussed various ways of trying to mystically make Dan show up, like starting another game. In the end, we called him, and he showed up a little bit later.
It was Dan, Drew, Jerod, Tim, and myself. We rolled off for starting position, and randomized seating. I found myself seated to the left of Jerod, the second-least experienced player in the group (to Drew). I suppose this had an effect on the game, but I frankly didn't notice it.
I was determined to play a little differently than I have in recent games of Puerto Rico (although we haven't played in a while), as I felt I had been a bit repetitive in my choices. This may also have been due to me having a bit of a frustrating day, with my soccer league game being cancelled, and not that many players showing up for (optional) practice for the hs team that I coach. Whatever the reason, I was feeling a little burnt, and I think my play reflected that.
So, this ended up feeling a lot like my initial plays of this game. I tried to develop a plan, make decisions, and play accordingly, but ended up feeling like a spectator. It seemed I was watching the game go by, as though pulled downstream, with not much I could do to alter it. I felt Tim had a very good start in the five seat, getting a decent amount of corn and then moving straight into tobacco for which he had multiple plantations fairly quickly. He also had some early shipping rounds for the corn for which he was the only one who really made points, giving him a nice early lead. Jerod waffled on indigo/sugar and went into coffee. I tried to go with sugar, and then tobacco, and even got into coffee. Drew went heavy sugar, and then indigo, if I recall correctly. Dan got a lot of corn, and also got into tobacco.
I was having trouble making anything work, getting frozen out of the trading house (I kept the wrong good after captain phase at least twice, coffee when I should have kept sugar as coffee was the lone good in the TH), and also out of shipping, as people in front of me started boats I couldn't contribute to and filled boats I could. I did manage a few shipping vp's. I tried to diversify, and went into a factory, but got it a little (probably a round) too late. I didn't make enough money for a big building until they were all gone (Jerod ended up buying two), and went with a harbor, which was at least a turn too late.
I spent the last several turns of this game just sort of taking roles and playing it out, as it was clear to me fairly early that I didn't have a chance. This is one of the things I don't really like about Puerto Rico - you can be functionally out of a game at a certain point, but you can't just concede and get it over with, as your involvement is necessary for the other players to continue. This leads to players at times having sessions in which they are fairly miserable for several turns as they watch it all finish up.
So, I was a little on autopilot as I coasted through the final turns, watching people pick up big buildings, watching Dan ship corn hoping to catch up with Tim, watching Tim and Dan reap the benefits of other people crafting, etc.. When Dan finally forced the end by taking the mayor role (I'm not sure how he calculated that it was the right time to end the game, perhaps he'll comment), I didn't even bother to calculate my vps (I had a little over 30), and I went to get food. So, I'm not sure how it all shook out. I do know that Tim won, by what Jerod called "a lot." I'm sure Dan got 2nd. Jerod only had 7 shipping vps, but I would guess he got 3rd as he had two big buildings. Drew and I were somewhere behind that, I suppose. I should have been last, I expect.
This game certainly reinforced the lesson I took from my first ever game of PR, that the diversification strategy doesn't really work (at least for my play style). This strategy might have worked a bit better if the trading had gone a bit differently, but, in general, it limits your shipping vps and requires you to spend more money on extra processing buildings. This session also contributed to me accepting that quarries are not that necessary, as two players built three and didn't make the best use of them, and the player who won didn't have a single quarry. It seems to me that the quarry you can pick up from your first chance at the settler role as one of the first players should be adequate, and that using a construction hut to get extras in the late position can cripple your money development early, as you lose building money and plantations that would otherwise make you money down the road. I'm not saying that the CH is worthless - there are probably justifications for taking it if you are one of the late players, to try to have a quarry earlier, to make it more worthwhile, but that probably just balances on the money you spend on the CH. By the time you build it, and man it, a couple building phases will probably have gone by, somewhat reducing the value of the extra quarries you get, especially the third, if you happen to take a third.
We talked about getting another game of PR going, as Jerod really wanted to play, but I wasn't really up for it, Drew left, and then Dan left as well. Jerod and Tim occupied themselves with some AGOT league play, and I took off shortly after their game.
I feel a little burnt out on PR, and I was interested reading Chris Farrell's comments about the game on his geeklist of overrated games. PR certainly deserves to be one of the highest rated games, but it does have it's problems. It's packed full of strategic decision making, it's pretty easy to learn, and it plays fairly quickly. However, it can be hard for people to actually have fun, I think, with all that thinking. Also, the game is prone to something that Chris calls the "post game recriminations phase," which is when players obsessed with "proper play" deride others for their "incorrect" choices which "corrupt" the game. As Chris mentions, this recrimination tends to creep forward into the game as players get more plays in. If you have a player that decides to obsess over this idea, having fun playing this game can get even harder.
As much as I can say that I'm burnt out, I would actually like to play this game with a different group. It would be interesting to compare the experiences.
GG, GL
No AGOT today, as there were tournaments the night before to honor Lucas Reed's departure for Minnesota and his job at FFG. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend these events due to a scheduling conflict with a wedding held in Des Moines. Good luck Luke!
Well, I didn't think there would be any gaming today, but Dan decided to put together a five player Puerto Rico game. I made it over to the store just in time, and then we discussed various ways of trying to mystically make Dan show up, like starting another game. In the end, we called him, and he showed up a little bit later.
It was Dan, Drew, Jerod, Tim, and myself. We rolled off for starting position, and randomized seating. I found myself seated to the left of Jerod, the second-least experienced player in the group (to Drew). I suppose this had an effect on the game, but I frankly didn't notice it.
I was determined to play a little differently than I have in recent games of Puerto Rico (although we haven't played in a while), as I felt I had been a bit repetitive in my choices. This may also have been due to me having a bit of a frustrating day, with my soccer league game being cancelled, and not that many players showing up for (optional) practice for the hs team that I coach. Whatever the reason, I was feeling a little burnt, and I think my play reflected that.
So, this ended up feeling a lot like my initial plays of this game. I tried to develop a plan, make decisions, and play accordingly, but ended up feeling like a spectator. It seemed I was watching the game go by, as though pulled downstream, with not much I could do to alter it. I felt Tim had a very good start in the five seat, getting a decent amount of corn and then moving straight into tobacco for which he had multiple plantations fairly quickly. He also had some early shipping rounds for the corn for which he was the only one who really made points, giving him a nice early lead. Jerod waffled on indigo/sugar and went into coffee. I tried to go with sugar, and then tobacco, and even got into coffee. Drew went heavy sugar, and then indigo, if I recall correctly. Dan got a lot of corn, and also got into tobacco.
I was having trouble making anything work, getting frozen out of the trading house (I kept the wrong good after captain phase at least twice, coffee when I should have kept sugar as coffee was the lone good in the TH), and also out of shipping, as people in front of me started boats I couldn't contribute to and filled boats I could. I did manage a few shipping vp's. I tried to diversify, and went into a factory, but got it a little (probably a round) too late. I didn't make enough money for a big building until they were all gone (Jerod ended up buying two), and went with a harbor, which was at least a turn too late.
I spent the last several turns of this game just sort of taking roles and playing it out, as it was clear to me fairly early that I didn't have a chance. This is one of the things I don't really like about Puerto Rico - you can be functionally out of a game at a certain point, but you can't just concede and get it over with, as your involvement is necessary for the other players to continue. This leads to players at times having sessions in which they are fairly miserable for several turns as they watch it all finish up.
So, I was a little on autopilot as I coasted through the final turns, watching people pick up big buildings, watching Dan ship corn hoping to catch up with Tim, watching Tim and Dan reap the benefits of other people crafting, etc.. When Dan finally forced the end by taking the mayor role (I'm not sure how he calculated that it was the right time to end the game, perhaps he'll comment), I didn't even bother to calculate my vps (I had a little over 30), and I went to get food. So, I'm not sure how it all shook out. I do know that Tim won, by what Jerod called "a lot." I'm sure Dan got 2nd. Jerod only had 7 shipping vps, but I would guess he got 3rd as he had two big buildings. Drew and I were somewhere behind that, I suppose. I should have been last, I expect.
This game certainly reinforced the lesson I took from my first ever game of PR, that the diversification strategy doesn't really work (at least for my play style). This strategy might have worked a bit better if the trading had gone a bit differently, but, in general, it limits your shipping vps and requires you to spend more money on extra processing buildings. This session also contributed to me accepting that quarries are not that necessary, as two players built three and didn't make the best use of them, and the player who won didn't have a single quarry. It seems to me that the quarry you can pick up from your first chance at the settler role as one of the first players should be adequate, and that using a construction hut to get extras in the late position can cripple your money development early, as you lose building money and plantations that would otherwise make you money down the road. I'm not saying that the CH is worthless - there are probably justifications for taking it if you are one of the late players, to try to have a quarry earlier, to make it more worthwhile, but that probably just balances on the money you spend on the CH. By the time you build it, and man it, a couple building phases will probably have gone by, somewhat reducing the value of the extra quarries you get, especially the third, if you happen to take a third.
We talked about getting another game of PR going, as Jerod really wanted to play, but I wasn't really up for it, Drew left, and then Dan left as well. Jerod and Tim occupied themselves with some AGOT league play, and I took off shortly after their game.
I feel a little burnt out on PR, and I was interested reading Chris Farrell's comments about the game on his geeklist of overrated games. PR certainly deserves to be one of the highest rated games, but it does have it's problems. It's packed full of strategic decision making, it's pretty easy to learn, and it plays fairly quickly. However, it can be hard for people to actually have fun, I think, with all that thinking. Also, the game is prone to something that Chris calls the "post game recriminations phase," which is when players obsessed with "proper play" deride others for their "incorrect" choices which "corrupt" the game. As Chris mentions, this recrimination tends to creep forward into the game as players get more plays in. If you have a player that decides to obsess over this idea, having fun playing this game can get even harder.
As much as I can say that I'm burnt out, I would actually like to play this game with a different group. It would be interesting to compare the experiences.
GG, GL
Monday, April 10, 2006
Last Thursday at Critical Hit
I had planned on playing soccer last Thursday night, but it was wet out, so, I decided to play games instead (there goes Mother Nature, twisting my arm again...). I ended up getting in touch with Tim and going over to Critical Hit. I started setting up the game, and, lo and behold, in walked Dan and Drew, with Eric following not far behind.
I've been sitting on my copy of Lunatix Loop for a couple of weeks, since it came in the mail. I've really wanted to get a session going, as I haven't played the game since it's early incarnations when I was in college in DeKalb. It seemed like it needed certain ingredients, though; a fairly decent period of time to play in, a group of willing gamers (at least 4), and the right mood. Thankfully, Thursday ended up providing all those things (incidentally, it's taken me a while to post this because I wrote a session report for boardgamegeek first, but that still hasn't been published).
We sat down to play, and I ended up with the green car. We used the rules that came with the box, although the designer, Matt Leacock, had provided me with updated rules. I just wanted to get a play in with the old stuff, so I could see how things changed. We used no optional rules. In the first turn, ramming was a popular choice, and people in front of me ping-ponged off each other a little bit, with Dan intuitively hitting the brakes to get behind everyone. I accelerated out of the back into the lead. This made me a nice target for subsequent ramming...
Turn two, the ramming continued, with me bearing the proverbial brunt. The pack was fairly tight as we squealed into the final turn of the first lap, but I had to pit as I'd taken a lot of damage and couldn't risk another lap. By the time I came out, I was well behind and Tim was pulling into the lead.
People continued to ram each other, and began to explore the joy of dropping various items (glue, oil, tacks) onto the track. This made maneuvering a little sticky. Everyone pitted on lap two except me, and so I caught up with Tim a little, putting me second going into lap three.
Dan got out of the pit, but Eric got stuck there when he turned the turbo on, only to find the tank contained only fumes (click!). Drew was stuck behind him, but used the second exit to come out going the wrong way, hoping to head-on ram Tim or whoever as we came around the last curve. Tim had taken a little damage, and I was going pretty fast (100 mph). I pushed it out of the first curve, through some oil, into the second curve, and pulled the lunacy hazard that makes my next turn's action random. Only one of the five pulls was bad for me, so I decided to keep it, even though I had plenty of damage to go, and two luck chips. Basically, I just thought to myself, it might be the wrong thing to do, but it's certainly more fun if I keep it! Of course, on my turn I drew the card I didn't want (u-turn) and I ended up doing an Immelman on the track, drawing several hazard cards, and ended up facing the wrong way going zero mph. This effectively took me out of the race.
So, I accelerated, hoping to come up behind Drew and add to the pessimistic head-on ramfest. Dan gave valiant chase behind Tim, perhaps hoping to benefit from our possible ramming. Tim coolly rounded the last corner, and utilized his jump jets with style, hopping over obstacles and opponents to cross the finish line. We decided to call it there rather than play out the places.
In the end, it was a really fun game. We had a serious laugh when I was forced into my u-turn. People had a good time wrecking others and navigating the track. If anything, we felt the game wasn't dangerous enough, and would like to see fewer non-negative results in the hazard deck. I look forward to the next session of this.
After Loop, we didn't have a whole lot of time, but a few of us wanted to play another game. I had Through the Desert, but the voting went against me, and we ended up hunting and gathering, Carcassonne style.
It was Dan, Tim, Drew, and myself for this game, as Eric had to leave. The game started a little rough, as nobody seemed able to draw tiles that really went together very well. A general feeling I've had with H&G in the past is that due to the tile distribution the game often seems cramped, as though things are always pressuring each other, and it seems very hard to draw tiles you "need." Dan got out to a bit of a lead, and it seemed he would be hard to catch. He pulled some big fish bonus tiles, but never got to build a hut on them. We all built shacks on river systems in the bottom right of the board, only to have them all tie in and basically nullify the points. Dan and I put down some decent sized hunters. I had several (like 9) turns to tie my ultimate control standing stone bonus tile into his big hunting ground, but it was not to be. Instead, on the last turn, he drew a tile to tie into my other hunting area. He ended up with a ton of ponts. I think I finished in third behind Tim.
That was it for the night, and we all took off, just as I should now. Boy am I tired.
GG, GL
I had planned on playing soccer last Thursday night, but it was wet out, so, I decided to play games instead (there goes Mother Nature, twisting my arm again...). I ended up getting in touch with Tim and going over to Critical Hit. I started setting up the game, and, lo and behold, in walked Dan and Drew, with Eric following not far behind.
I've been sitting on my copy of Lunatix Loop for a couple of weeks, since it came in the mail. I've really wanted to get a session going, as I haven't played the game since it's early incarnations when I was in college in DeKalb. It seemed like it needed certain ingredients, though; a fairly decent period of time to play in, a group of willing gamers (at least 4), and the right mood. Thankfully, Thursday ended up providing all those things (incidentally, it's taken me a while to post this because I wrote a session report for boardgamegeek first, but that still hasn't been published).
We sat down to play, and I ended up with the green car. We used the rules that came with the box, although the designer, Matt Leacock, had provided me with updated rules. I just wanted to get a play in with the old stuff, so I could see how things changed. We used no optional rules. In the first turn, ramming was a popular choice, and people in front of me ping-ponged off each other a little bit, with Dan intuitively hitting the brakes to get behind everyone. I accelerated out of the back into the lead. This made me a nice target for subsequent ramming...
Turn two, the ramming continued, with me bearing the proverbial brunt. The pack was fairly tight as we squealed into the final turn of the first lap, but I had to pit as I'd taken a lot of damage and couldn't risk another lap. By the time I came out, I was well behind and Tim was pulling into the lead.
People continued to ram each other, and began to explore the joy of dropping various items (glue, oil, tacks) onto the track. This made maneuvering a little sticky. Everyone pitted on lap two except me, and so I caught up with Tim a little, putting me second going into lap three.
Dan got out of the pit, but Eric got stuck there when he turned the turbo on, only to find the tank contained only fumes (click!). Drew was stuck behind him, but used the second exit to come out going the wrong way, hoping to head-on ram Tim or whoever as we came around the last curve. Tim had taken a little damage, and I was going pretty fast (100 mph). I pushed it out of the first curve, through some oil, into the second curve, and pulled the lunacy hazard that makes my next turn's action random. Only one of the five pulls was bad for me, so I decided to keep it, even though I had plenty of damage to go, and two luck chips. Basically, I just thought to myself, it might be the wrong thing to do, but it's certainly more fun if I keep it! Of course, on my turn I drew the card I didn't want (u-turn) and I ended up doing an Immelman on the track, drawing several hazard cards, and ended up facing the wrong way going zero mph. This effectively took me out of the race.
So, I accelerated, hoping to come up behind Drew and add to the pessimistic head-on ramfest. Dan gave valiant chase behind Tim, perhaps hoping to benefit from our possible ramming. Tim coolly rounded the last corner, and utilized his jump jets with style, hopping over obstacles and opponents to cross the finish line. We decided to call it there rather than play out the places.
In the end, it was a really fun game. We had a serious laugh when I was forced into my u-turn. People had a good time wrecking others and navigating the track. If anything, we felt the game wasn't dangerous enough, and would like to see fewer non-negative results in the hazard deck. I look forward to the next session of this.
After Loop, we didn't have a whole lot of time, but a few of us wanted to play another game. I had Through the Desert, but the voting went against me, and we ended up hunting and gathering, Carcassonne style.
It was Dan, Tim, Drew, and myself for this game, as Eric had to leave. The game started a little rough, as nobody seemed able to draw tiles that really went together very well. A general feeling I've had with H&G in the past is that due to the tile distribution the game often seems cramped, as though things are always pressuring each other, and it seems very hard to draw tiles you "need." Dan got out to a bit of a lead, and it seemed he would be hard to catch. He pulled some big fish bonus tiles, but never got to build a hut on them. We all built shacks on river systems in the bottom right of the board, only to have them all tie in and basically nullify the points. Dan and I put down some decent sized hunters. I had several (like 9) turns to tie my ultimate control standing stone bonus tile into his big hunting ground, but it was not to be. Instead, on the last turn, he drew a tile to tie into my other hunting area. He ended up with a ton of ponts. I think I finished in third behind Tim.
That was it for the night, and we all took off, just as I should now. Boy am I tired.
GG, GL
Monday, April 03, 2006
Sunday AGOT etc.
Sunday should have been a day for me to get some important things done. Kristin and I just sat down and made a big list of things to do to get ready for the wedding and the move. The big thing I have on my agenda right now is getting my teaching license transferred to North Carolina and looking for a job. Instead of getting anything done, though, we went to Hu Hot for lunch, and then I headed over to Critical Hit, laptop in tow, with the intention of getting some work done there before AGOT.
I managed to browse the Praxis test website and check out test dates. I have to admit, I'm a little underinformed about this test and exactly what I have to do, and I have a lot of reading to do. I'm also a little worried - I've always done well on standardized tests, but I haven't taken one in years!
AGOT regionals are coming up, and Jerod and I sat down to schedule the store's events leading up to, and just past, regionals. I entered the tournaments, along with the results for some tournaments Jerod had run. Before I knew it, the afternoon was gone and it was almost time to draft.
I squeazed in a game of Lost Cities with Dan. He had just gotten done with a game of Ticket to Ride with Tom, Nick, Tim, and Gigi, which Gigi won. It looked like everyone had a really good time, which is normal for TtR, and I should have asked Gigi about her strategy. My game with Dan went to form with all my games so far, until the last round. I won the first two rounds, although they were close. Then, Dan started too many expeditions in the third round, and, even though I didn't score that many points, he had two negative expeditions and couldn't keep up. Lost Cities seems to be sort of two-player, but sort of solitaire. I think to be happy playing, one has to really just judge one's own situational decision making. You can make very good decisions in a bad, or neutral situation, and still end up getting wrecked by the draw. LC can certainly frustrate people, if they let it.
Six o'clock rolled around and we had 6 to draft. Myself, Jeremiah, Tim, Steve, John, and Tom sat down at the table with our packs. My first pack was terribly disappointing, with nothing really exciting in it. I ended up with a playable two-cost Martell character, which ended up being out-of-house for me, and I didn't even put it in the deck. I took a couple neutral characters after that, and then went into Targ when a Dothraki Sea was passed my way 5th or sixth. Overall, the first pack was not good, and I ended up with nothing exciting. The second pack was a little better, but still didn't give me much other than a festering wound, which ended up being my only removal. Pack three I dipped into Lannister for an eternal guy and a kneeler, and some late-pick events. Fourth pack gave me serious Lannister cards, including a 11th pick kneeler, and solidified my deck. This was an odd draft in that I couldn't pin down a house, mainly due to the packs. I started out with Martell, and really didn't know I was going to Lannister until the last pack. In the end, I had a decent set of creature, my curve was ok, and I had decent, if unexciting non-setup cards rounding everything out.
Round 1: Steve. Steve had Martell and Stark, I think. He had an early student, which I festered, and a lancer, which was a pain while he was drawing cards. He had a good turn with his claim two Stark plot, getting through two intrigue challenges. I stabilized the board with some timely kneeling effects, and started coming through with fat military to thin out his team, and, eventually, he couldn't keep up and I got the game.
Round 2: Tom. Tom was piloting Stark as well, although he had a lot of Greyjoy. He probably should have played a second house card, but thought he was playing enough gold production to use only one. He got a slow start, putting out one big guy a turn. However, I was able to get by with stealth and kneeling, and he could never build up a substantial force. Eventually, I overwhelmed him for the win.
Round 3: Tim. Tim had Martell Targ. Tim is an excellent gamer, mostly playing MtG and boardgames. Recently, we talked him into an AGOT draft, and he's developed his skills quickly. Like any competitive gamer, he's been driven to improve his play, and it shows. Tim had a bit of a slow start, like Tom, with a big fattie and few locations. This trend held up into the midgame, with Tim's ability to play out of hand limited every turn. I wasn't able to keep pressure on, though, as I wasn't drawing a good spread of icons, or very large men, and the game stayed pretty even. With limited resources and tough board position, each of us had a lot of hard decisions to make and the game moved slowly. We were still in a pretty stable board state, each with about 10 power, when time was called. Neither of us could win, so we called it a draw.
I ended up winning on strength of schedule, thanks to Steve's win over Jeremiah in the last round, and I took home the Red Viper, which was really the only strong rare in our pool.
It should be an exciting month or two for the game, and I'm looking forward to it.
GG, GL
Sunday should have been a day for me to get some important things done. Kristin and I just sat down and made a big list of things to do to get ready for the wedding and the move. The big thing I have on my agenda right now is getting my teaching license transferred to North Carolina and looking for a job. Instead of getting anything done, though, we went to Hu Hot for lunch, and then I headed over to Critical Hit, laptop in tow, with the intention of getting some work done there before AGOT.
I managed to browse the Praxis test website and check out test dates. I have to admit, I'm a little underinformed about this test and exactly what I have to do, and I have a lot of reading to do. I'm also a little worried - I've always done well on standardized tests, but I haven't taken one in years!
AGOT regionals are coming up, and Jerod and I sat down to schedule the store's events leading up to, and just past, regionals. I entered the tournaments, along with the results for some tournaments Jerod had run. Before I knew it, the afternoon was gone and it was almost time to draft.
I squeazed in a game of Lost Cities with Dan. He had just gotten done with a game of Ticket to Ride with Tom, Nick, Tim, and Gigi, which Gigi won. It looked like everyone had a really good time, which is normal for TtR, and I should have asked Gigi about her strategy. My game with Dan went to form with all my games so far, until the last round. I won the first two rounds, although they were close. Then, Dan started too many expeditions in the third round, and, even though I didn't score that many points, he had two negative expeditions and couldn't keep up. Lost Cities seems to be sort of two-player, but sort of solitaire. I think to be happy playing, one has to really just judge one's own situational decision making. You can make very good decisions in a bad, or neutral situation, and still end up getting wrecked by the draw. LC can certainly frustrate people, if they let it.
Six o'clock rolled around and we had 6 to draft. Myself, Jeremiah, Tim, Steve, John, and Tom sat down at the table with our packs. My first pack was terribly disappointing, with nothing really exciting in it. I ended up with a playable two-cost Martell character, which ended up being out-of-house for me, and I didn't even put it in the deck. I took a couple neutral characters after that, and then went into Targ when a Dothraki Sea was passed my way 5th or sixth. Overall, the first pack was not good, and I ended up with nothing exciting. The second pack was a little better, but still didn't give me much other than a festering wound, which ended up being my only removal. Pack three I dipped into Lannister for an eternal guy and a kneeler, and some late-pick events. Fourth pack gave me serious Lannister cards, including a 11th pick kneeler, and solidified my deck. This was an odd draft in that I couldn't pin down a house, mainly due to the packs. I started out with Martell, and really didn't know I was going to Lannister until the last pack. In the end, I had a decent set of creature, my curve was ok, and I had decent, if unexciting non-setup cards rounding everything out.
Round 1: Steve. Steve had Martell and Stark, I think. He had an early student, which I festered, and a lancer, which was a pain while he was drawing cards. He had a good turn with his claim two Stark plot, getting through two intrigue challenges. I stabilized the board with some timely kneeling effects, and started coming through with fat military to thin out his team, and, eventually, he couldn't keep up and I got the game.
Round 2: Tom. Tom was piloting Stark as well, although he had a lot of Greyjoy. He probably should have played a second house card, but thought he was playing enough gold production to use only one. He got a slow start, putting out one big guy a turn. However, I was able to get by with stealth and kneeling, and he could never build up a substantial force. Eventually, I overwhelmed him for the win.
Round 3: Tim. Tim had Martell Targ. Tim is an excellent gamer, mostly playing MtG and boardgames. Recently, we talked him into an AGOT draft, and he's developed his skills quickly. Like any competitive gamer, he's been driven to improve his play, and it shows. Tim had a bit of a slow start, like Tom, with a big fattie and few locations. This trend held up into the midgame, with Tim's ability to play out of hand limited every turn. I wasn't able to keep pressure on, though, as I wasn't drawing a good spread of icons, or very large men, and the game stayed pretty even. With limited resources and tough board position, each of us had a lot of hard decisions to make and the game moved slowly. We were still in a pretty stable board state, each with about 10 power, when time was called. Neither of us could win, so we called it a draw.
I ended up winning on strength of schedule, thanks to Steve's win over Jeremiah in the last round, and I took home the Red Viper, which was really the only strong rare in our pool.
It should be an exciting month or two for the game, and I'm looking forward to it.
GG, GL
Sunday, April 02, 2006
Big game Saturday
After acquiring a bunch of games last week, this week was a bit of a gaming week off, as I worked through a cold. I have a bunch of big, long games that I've been wanting to play, and I've made the decision to try to set aside two weekend days a month to get some of them played in the next few weeks. I'm shooting for Shogun, Warrior Knights, and Lunatix Loop, in the upcoming time period.
I had Saturday completely open, so I called out to Dan and Tim to see what was up. We decided that we would meet at Dan's at 5 or so for History of the World. In the early afternoon, Tim and I got together at the store. Tim, Jerod, and I decided to unshrink my new copy of Through the Desert.
TtD is a fun, fast game, and it's odd how it bogs down as the store owner takes extended absences to work with customers... all the same, it played great, and we had a relaxed afternoon of chatting with each other and other customers. In the initial setup, we had a couple of like-colored camels get placed a little too close to each other. Tim and I also let Jerod have a easy access to a pretty large area in the middle. Tim went for the first edge area, with Jerod moving over to contain him. As that happened, I went for my own edge area on the other side. My purple camel got blocked off, and I started focussing on an alternative plan accross the board, using my pink camel to secure another edge area. Meanwhile, Jerod had managed to cordone off an uncontestable area in the middle, and set about circling it up. He underestimated the number of camels available, though, and ended up making his area 3-4 spaces smaller than it could have been. Tim got into a frustrating situation in which his caravans had mostly been cut off while he was building his edge area. He expanded a couple a little bit, and then managed to extend his pink caravan a long way because I miscalculated and didn't think I needed to cut him off. Everyone pretty much ran out of expansion possibility, and we limped into the endgame a little. Jerod had 2 longest caravans, and Tim and I each had 1.5. In the end, I edged it over Jerod by only a few points, making him rue not having gone for the bigger area.
After TtD, Tim and I broke out Lost Cities. This was each of our first time really playing the game. It's simple and fast, and really engages the two player tension. There's plenty of hidden information, and it's hard to know if things you discard will help your opponent. I won the first couple round by twenty some points each time, but then in the third round Tim managed a really big expedition and caught up, edging my by 4 points, I think. This was entertaining and fun, and playing three rounds really helps with evening out the game.
After cleaning up our archaeological surveys, we headed back to meet up with Dan and the others (Drew, Eric, and Ziggy) for History of the World. I haven't played since High School, and Ziggy had never played, so there was some rules explaining to do. After the others getting food, cleaining up the table, and explaining rules, we finally got started around 6:30. I ended up going 3rd in the first round, and took control of the Shang. This was not much of a turn, but I got the idea of the game down. I like the shifting board control, and the possibilities for bringing the leader down. The randomness of the empire draw doesn't really help this too much, though, as someone can just luck into something great despite the odds. That makes the game exciting, though, and this was one of the more exciting games I've played lately. *Something I've been thinking about a little is how the more analytical, less random games just don't seem to have the "fun" capacity of some of the more random, unpredictable games. Just another thing to think about when deciding what comes off the shelf* Turn two I got lucky with the Persians, and had a pretty good turn, although my combat card, Jihad, didn't pay off too well. The real luck came as I wheeled into the Macedonians, and had a big, early turn to follow up the strong Persian turn. This put me into first, passing Tim who had been first in the second turn. I ended up with the Goths in the fourth epoch, and they did just fine, with a little help from my minor Anglo-Saxon kingdom. I edged past a lot of hate, and kept first place by a narrow margin. In the fifth age, I was handed the Chola, and it looked like I was destined to go down. However, I didn't lose a fight, and I ended up retaining first place by one point, helped immensely by that little Malian kingdom. By this point, it was looking like the three dominance chips, or whatever they're called, would be a big factor for me in the endgame. In the 6th epoch, I was passed another loser, the Incas/Aztecs. With the help of siegecraft the two little armies made good on some points, and I managed to stay in 2nd, only one point off the pace. The final round saw the Netherlands getting dished my way, and the small number of builds was going to be a problem. I used reallocation to get a bunch of coins, and threw down the leader I had been saving. I didn't lose a fight this turn either, and ended up spending all my coins on forts. I ended up with a pretty good turn, just three behind Ziggy, who had had an absolutely amazing worst-to-first turn, with Ottoman Turks and the Japanese minor kingdom. His one dominance token wasn't enough, as my three caught up and passed him for the win. A fun game with an exciting finish, it is marred, of course, by it's playing time. You really have to set aside 6-7 hours for this game. We ended up finishing around 1 am, and I stumbled off home to set the clock ahead and get some sleep.
This morning Kristin obliged me with a game of Lost Cities. Oddly, it went very similarly to my game with Tim yesterday. I won the first two rounds, the first by around twenty, the second by around 40, but then had a miserable turn the last round, while Kristin built a huge expedition and surged past me for the victory. The hilight of this game was in the third round, when I started the Egyptian expedition with investment/2/3/4/5 in my hand, and then Kristin drew into investment/investment/6/7/8/9/10 for a huge expedition that made me lost points to boot...
Tonight: A Game of Thrones CCG draft that promises to be well attended, as it is one of Lucas's last drafts in town before he moves up to Minnesota to start his new job at FFG.
GG, GL
After acquiring a bunch of games last week, this week was a bit of a gaming week off, as I worked through a cold. I have a bunch of big, long games that I've been wanting to play, and I've made the decision to try to set aside two weekend days a month to get some of them played in the next few weeks. I'm shooting for Shogun, Warrior Knights, and Lunatix Loop, in the upcoming time period.
I had Saturday completely open, so I called out to Dan and Tim to see what was up. We decided that we would meet at Dan's at 5 or so for History of the World. In the early afternoon, Tim and I got together at the store. Tim, Jerod, and I decided to unshrink my new copy of Through the Desert.
TtD is a fun, fast game, and it's odd how it bogs down as the store owner takes extended absences to work with customers... all the same, it played great, and we had a relaxed afternoon of chatting with each other and other customers. In the initial setup, we had a couple of like-colored camels get placed a little too close to each other. Tim and I also let Jerod have a easy access to a pretty large area in the middle. Tim went for the first edge area, with Jerod moving over to contain him. As that happened, I went for my own edge area on the other side. My purple camel got blocked off, and I started focussing on an alternative plan accross the board, using my pink camel to secure another edge area. Meanwhile, Jerod had managed to cordone off an uncontestable area in the middle, and set about circling it up. He underestimated the number of camels available, though, and ended up making his area 3-4 spaces smaller than it could have been. Tim got into a frustrating situation in which his caravans had mostly been cut off while he was building his edge area. He expanded a couple a little bit, and then managed to extend his pink caravan a long way because I miscalculated and didn't think I needed to cut him off. Everyone pretty much ran out of expansion possibility, and we limped into the endgame a little. Jerod had 2 longest caravans, and Tim and I each had 1.5. In the end, I edged it over Jerod by only a few points, making him rue not having gone for the bigger area.
After TtD, Tim and I broke out Lost Cities. This was each of our first time really playing the game. It's simple and fast, and really engages the two player tension. There's plenty of hidden information, and it's hard to know if things you discard will help your opponent. I won the first couple round by twenty some points each time, but then in the third round Tim managed a really big expedition and caught up, edging my by 4 points, I think. This was entertaining and fun, and playing three rounds really helps with evening out the game.
After cleaning up our archaeological surveys, we headed back to meet up with Dan and the others (Drew, Eric, and Ziggy) for History of the World. I haven't played since High School, and Ziggy had never played, so there was some rules explaining to do. After the others getting food, cleaining up the table, and explaining rules, we finally got started around 6:30. I ended up going 3rd in the first round, and took control of the Shang. This was not much of a turn, but I got the idea of the game down. I like the shifting board control, and the possibilities for bringing the leader down. The randomness of the empire draw doesn't really help this too much, though, as someone can just luck into something great despite the odds. That makes the game exciting, though, and this was one of the more exciting games I've played lately. *Something I've been thinking about a little is how the more analytical, less random games just don't seem to have the "fun" capacity of some of the more random, unpredictable games. Just another thing to think about when deciding what comes off the shelf* Turn two I got lucky with the Persians, and had a pretty good turn, although my combat card, Jihad, didn't pay off too well. The real luck came as I wheeled into the Macedonians, and had a big, early turn to follow up the strong Persian turn. This put me into first, passing Tim who had been first in the second turn. I ended up with the Goths in the fourth epoch, and they did just fine, with a little help from my minor Anglo-Saxon kingdom. I edged past a lot of hate, and kept first place by a narrow margin. In the fifth age, I was handed the Chola, and it looked like I was destined to go down. However, I didn't lose a fight, and I ended up retaining first place by one point, helped immensely by that little Malian kingdom. By this point, it was looking like the three dominance chips, or whatever they're called, would be a big factor for me in the endgame. In the 6th epoch, I was passed another loser, the Incas/Aztecs. With the help of siegecraft the two little armies made good on some points, and I managed to stay in 2nd, only one point off the pace. The final round saw the Netherlands getting dished my way, and the small number of builds was going to be a problem. I used reallocation to get a bunch of coins, and threw down the leader I had been saving. I didn't lose a fight this turn either, and ended up spending all my coins on forts. I ended up with a pretty good turn, just three behind Ziggy, who had had an absolutely amazing worst-to-first turn, with Ottoman Turks and the Japanese minor kingdom. His one dominance token wasn't enough, as my three caught up and passed him for the win. A fun game with an exciting finish, it is marred, of course, by it's playing time. You really have to set aside 6-7 hours for this game. We ended up finishing around 1 am, and I stumbled off home to set the clock ahead and get some sleep.
This morning Kristin obliged me with a game of Lost Cities. Oddly, it went very similarly to my game with Tim yesterday. I won the first two rounds, the first by around twenty, the second by around 40, but then had a miserable turn the last round, while Kristin built a huge expedition and surged past me for the victory. The hilight of this game was in the third round, when I started the Egyptian expedition with investment/2/3/4/5 in my hand, and then Kristin drew into investment/investment/6/7/8/9/10 for a huge expedition that made me lost points to boot...
Tonight: A Game of Thrones CCG draft that promises to be well attended, as it is one of Lucas's last drafts in town before he moves up to Minnesota to start his new job at FFG.
GG, GL
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