March 2006 Archives

I went to Old Settler's Park again for another quick round of disc golf. I had the feeling that I was throwing a little bit farther today than in the past. So hopefully I am improving.

Think this hole in the ground has enough flags marking it off?

1870

Mike convinced us all to try the "lite" version of this game. And it really, really sucks. It was completely unbalanced. And, thankfully, we finally stopped playing it. It was so painful, in fact, that I am placing it on my permanent ban list.

Why is it so unbalanced? Take a look at the picture and keep in mind that you can only place two track segments per turn. John (lower left) goes first. Mike (upper left) goes second and cuts John off. He also cuts me (upper middle) off as well. I cannot reach Houston or Galveston before Mike does. So I decide to go for Alexandria. However, as I draw near, I realize that everyone else will be able to use up the remaining city markers before I can use one to connect to Alexandria. I was only able to, in fact, because John skipped connecting to Galveston. It is only in the next stage of the game that you can connect up the tracks with other tiles.

The other flawed aspect of this "game" was that there are only a limited number of train engines. Once all of the 4 engines are bought, all number 2 engines are removed. So when Mike was able to buy a second number 4 engine before I could buy my first, I lost my number 2 engine and only had a number 3 engine left. This effectively takes you out of the running for the game.

Mu

At least we were able to play Mu. Its an okay trick taking game for five people. Although I must admit that the strategy is not as crystal clear for me as it is with Tichu.

Ugh. Failed Tichu calls, lead to failed GrandTichu calls and further sliding down the score track...

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Wow, how one sided can a Tichu game get? Not as bad as 3 GrandTichu/12s in a row by one team, but still bad. Anyways, Tichu can be like that at times. We had a first for me. A zero/zero round.

Today it was beautiful out and Mike and I played disc golf at Old Settler's Park. Mike had bought a Wraith in the Star line of plastic. I was looking into buying that as my next disc, so it was a good opportunity to borrow it from him and try it out myself. And I was lucky as well since Mike did not like the feel of the grip and kept throwing it in places that he was not intending (like the water). So I convinced Mike to give it to me! Woo woo!

Byzantium

Mike bought a new game that I was itching to try out. Martin Wallace's new game Byzantium. In it, all players can controll the three sides that are fighting (the Byzantines, the Arabs, and the Bulgars). You score victory points based on your actions on one of two main sides (the Bulgars score victory points on the Arab track if they take out Byzantine cities or vice versa). If your two scores are "close" (the lesser is at least or more than 1/2 of the greater) then your scores are added together. Otherwise the lesser score is ignored. However, there is an alternate win of only the Arab's score if Constantinople is taken over. This is remaniscant of Liberte.

Unfortunately, after the rules were explained, we realized that we were taking too long to play the game (aka Ashley-rollmaning). So we stopped after one round (out of three). I certinally would like to play this game again. And I think that this game can be played faster. The problem was that it was not obvious what the strategy was after the rules were explained.

Tichu

An interesting situation came up in Tichu today. It had been discussed briefly but today I experienced its full force. My partner, Mike, likes to make random wishes. By that, I mean that he does not wish for the card that he passed. And instead tries to use some intelligence on what card to wish for. But it basically boils down to a guess that this person has the card and needs it versus my partner having the card and needing it. Since this is really a partner game, anything that hurts your team is a bad thing (in my opinion).

So, previously in the game he wished for a five and played a straight. Thankfully Adam could fufill the wish and play over it because I could as well and it would hurt my Tichu call. Now Adam calls Grand Tichu. Mike plays the Mah Jong, wishes for an Ace, immediately bombs it, and then leads two sequential pairs. Adam passes. Unfortunately, I can fufill this wish with my AAKK. And now Adam easilly makes his GT call. Our team has wasted a bomb and AAKK.

In a perfect world, Mike would always have the lead and work down the possibilities of Ace combinations and Adam would have to fill one of them. However, Adam's team-mate would recognize what Mike is trying to do and try to stop it. If I passed on the sequential pairs, then Jon, if possible, would want to take control of the lead and lead a single if he has no Ace since that is the least destructive choice. The question always is, how likely is the Tichu caller able to fufill the wish compared to your partner.

And to leave you with an idea of just how desperate the last hand Grand Tichu's can be. Here is Adam's hand:

Mike's hand:

Jon's hand:

and my hand (for the GT call):

William hosted a low limit poker night in an effort to get more people comfortable with playing poker. He had helpfully created these charts for new people. There was one new person who had some good starting hands (I think like 4 pocket Aces). After watching the first two people with pocket Aces loose the hand, I was worried when I got them. But fortunately they held up to someone who had an Ace and I think a Jack. When the flop had an Ace in it, I bet strong. And by the river, there were no possible flushes or straights that could beat it.

What turned out to be a come from behind win for our team crumbled under the pressure of my Tichu data program. Our team was given 100 too many points early on in the game (we were playing under the assumption that our team was at 115 after my missed Tichu call). Which reminds me that even though you have a strong Tichu hand, an opponent who has a perfect hand will beat you. I played a straight and was left with Dragon, Ace, and Ace. Unfortunately Mike had two straights. One that beat mine and another to go out on.

Ys

Another playing of Ys for me and I still like playing it. Yes, there is an aspect to it where you need to control an area by blind bidding. However, as the turn progresses, you begin to get more information. This somewhat is analagous to a "fog of war" where information slowly resolves itself.

Attila

This is a older game that I like and that we rarely play. So I was glad that it was brought to the table. Unfortunately for me, I had both good and bad luck in this game. The good luck was that I was able to control and initiate the scoring. However, my card draws were really bad and I could not draw the colors that I wanted to control. Sigh.

Flea Circus

To end out the night, we played this light game. I was able to make a lot of melds and it was enough for me to overcome Ed's 6 different 7 cards that he was collecting for the win!

My Tichu call was risky and fortunately for me my partner, Ed, was able to go over Adam's plays twice to help me out. That really turned the tide for us and the next hand was a repeat Tichu/12. Adam's desperation GrandTichu call looked risky from the start. I had two Aces and my partner passes me the Dragon. I was down to three cards (AJJ), the Phoenix and Dragon had been played, and a single was lead. I played my Ace knowing that was good. Unfortunately, Dan bombed me. Adam got back control but was forced to dog Dan. Unfortunately for Adam, Dan had three Kings which were all good.

I made one mistake for my missed Tichu call. I had Dragon+A+A+Q+Q left and led QQ. Dan overtook with AA and worked his way down to leading a full house with one card left. Ed, who had 5 cards left was in an obvious dilemma. If he passes then Dan is out first and I miss my Tichu call. It is obvious that he has a greater full house in his possession. So if he plays it then he sets me. Which he does, for at least, he is able to get the taken tricks of the last place person. I should have played D then AA then QQ. Sigh. On the last hand, we decide not to go for GrandTichu. I have Ace and Phoenix and decide to pass the dog to Ed and call Tichu no matter what. Fortunately, Ed was able to help me go out first! And we got enough points to win the game!!

This game was also weird in that there were a number of hands where one team got 100 points...

Fettnapf

Another Ed & Susan game day was today. And we started off with Fettnapf. Which is a simple memory game where you try and avoid numbers that other players own. You play a card to increase the running total. If the new total is owned by a player (they have that card), then you get a splat card. When you have 4, the game ends. Once the total moves past 30, then a new card is given to the player to the right and new cards will decrease the total. And once the total goes below 10, the total starts to increase. Each new card reduces the safe numbers by one since someone now owns that card. Susan was doing a good acting job during the game by saying "I think this number is safe..."

This game does not give you much choices when it is your turn. You can only play one of three cards that will increase your total. And one obvious strategy is to try and force the player on your left to be the one that moves the total above 30 or below 10 which will give you a new safe number (and dangerous for others). This game basically boils down to how well you can remember which numbers are safe. So even if you are able to keep track of that information, you may not have any choice in the matter and must take a splat card. I would not recommend this game.

Die Macher

Jon's game of Die Macher finally arrived and Mike and I were really looking forward to playing it. Mike considers it a rating of 10 and I think Jon would as well. Fortunately for me, we played this game rather quickly in less than four hours. My initial impression of this game was certinally not a 10. However, it is probably too early to make a more final decision in ranking this game. I will definately play it again.

Three-Dragon Ante

For our next game, Mary brought this poker like game to the table. You are given some cards that have values to them. And the first thing that everyone does is to discard one. Out of the discarded cards, the highest number will determine the ante. After that, players play one card at a time until three cards are down. Usually the highest total will win the pot (one card will change that to the lowest table -- to the surprise of others). The other thing about the cards is they have special powers like take cards or chips from the ante/pot or from other players. If the card that you play is numbered less than or equal to the card that was played previously for this round then the powers activate. And that is that. Not much to this game and one I would not recommend buying.

Tichu

For the last game of the night, Jon and I introduced Tichu to Mary and Tim who had not played much before. Mary was a little confused in who her partner was at first. Thankfully, Jon noticed that Mary had passed him an Ace and gave it to me. But after that, she was good. My first Tichu call was luckly made. Mary had played a King on singles and I had to pass. But singles were led again and I was able to play my Queen which allowed me to be able to go out eventually. My brain was a little fried from playing Die Macher apparently, as my for last Tichu hand I did not notice that I had a long straight. I instead played a Queen-high straight and a pair of Aces (Ace + Phoenix). Ed was a little confused by my actions ;0. But it didn't matter really, the other team could not go over the smaller straight.

We planned on going to the Rivery Park in Georgetown for some disc golf. I decided to park at Wendy's this time and walk down to the park from there. Unfortunately, there is construction going on so I had to be adventurous in making my way down to the course. I practiced for a little while and when no one showed up, I started out. Fortunately Jon showed up and yelled at me and then I started over.

I was a little worried about the state of the course. The throwing area for hole one was a lake. It was even more worrysome when Jon and I rounded the corner and discovered that there was no basket for hole one.

So we wandered over to hole two and once again found no basket and a lake where the basket should have been. After finding no basket for hole three we were surprisingly unfazed.

All of this searching did have good consequences. We did find the start of hole 17. We had never found that before and just used a dirt spot where it look like people threw from.

When we got to hole 4, we found this sign! Ahhh, so they rearranged the course! We have hope now!

And boy have they ever rearranged this course. Half of the holes are new. And they are located in parts of the park that we have not been to before. In fact, it seems that they cut down trees recently for this new course. Unfortunately, all of the signs looked very temporary. The slightest wind or rain will eradicate them.

There were also signs pointing where to go to next. Along with red spray painted arrows on the ground (these will probably last a day or so).

Part of the course is along the side of a hill. And there are a lot of trees that are obsticles. Which I hit. A lot.

Too bad this geologic feature was not part of the course.

So, I took a swim today... literally. Last week, I lost my Wraith when I was playing in a really windy day. So windy in fact, that when John threw a disc 100' in front of him, it would roll back to a spot behind him... twice! Anyways, I went back to see if I could find my disc. The water is really stagnant and murky. It is not deep but in the middle of the channel, you can sink up to a foot in the soft muck. Sadly, I did not find my disc. But I did find six discs:

• Innova Champion Firebird (Rob Feather)
• Disc Craft Elite Z Wildcat
• Innova Champion Viking
• Innova Champion Orc (MP 512)
• Innova Champion Valkyrie (BLF '05)
• Innova KC Pro FireBird (R. Mims CWARE)

and two clams! (Huh?... How did they get there?) I won't talk about the shower afterwards...

The moral of the story is that many champions give their life for the sport. Searching in the internet can be interesting: Rob Feather, BLF

Poison

This was my first playing of Knizia's trick-avoidance game called Poison. The package is extremely over produced. All that you really need is a deck of cards. However there are three large cardboard cauldrens and one big game box. You try and avoid taking cards. However, if you take the most cards in a suit then it doesn't count. Doug seemed to rule in this game. He came late so we gave him an average score and then took no cards for the next two rounds.

Louis XIV

And this is my first playing of Louis XIV. What really soured me for this game was the amount of Analysis Paralysis that was going on. The other group played La Citta before we finished this game! There are four rounds where you try to fulfil victory conditions that you draw randomly. For each round, you play all but one of your action cards that you draw. There are wildcards and cards numbered from one to twelve. You can place up to three tokens and may move orthagonnaly while you drop them. Majority of tokens will win you tokens that you need for the victory cards. So, another problem is that you might draw cards that do not suit where you need to go.

But perhaps the biggest problem with this game is the rules for determining area control and what actions your may receive for this game. John printed out a player aid that contained a table with five columns and five rows!! Thats twenty five possible combinations of things that you do for each of the twelve areas! Ugggh...

Tichu

Still trying to get Doug to become one with this game. He has no choice really since everyone else loves this game. And tonight was his night to stretch his legs so to speak. He kept getting all of the good cards but did not call Tichu. Finally, after deciding for a long while, he called and made it. On my Tichu call, both my partner and Adam had one card left. I called Tichu and played trip fives. Fortunately Dog could not go over it. After that I was good, for I had two Aces, the Dragon, the Phoenix, and a long King-high straight.

Doug did make one mistake though at the end. He did not realize that he had to stop a one-two. He should of split his pair of Kings in order to stop me from going out second.

Sticheln

While we waited for Rehana to come, we played a hand of Sticheln. And during the play I was in a position that reminded one of the reasons why I don't like this game. Jon had already taken negative points. So I am fighting with Adam for first place. A trick comes around and it is my turn to play (I will be the last one playing). Jon is currently winning another negative points trick for him. I have the option to "duck it" and give him more negative points (besides what is currently there). Or I can take it and get three positive points for myself. So, back to what I hate, in this game it is too easy to keep punishing people who are out of contention. You need to balance taking points with your only competition. Unfortunately, I chose the punish Jon approach...

Sigh... Should I believe in bad luck? Can that bad luck be in the form of one person? Perhaps. Why do I ask this? Because Jon shows up to watch our game. So far, we had been winning. However, when he arrives, we begin our downward spiral... Can you guess when he shows up from the following?

Well, today we had five people up for the game. Dan discussed a method where some one sits out each hand and the partners rotate in all of the possible combinations. Each person would be scored individually. It sounded interesting and I would be up for it some time. However we decided to cut cards for who would be in and the low person would be out. Fortunately, luck was with me and I was in!

I made a couple of mistakes in this game. And I feel bad about it. I can be so hard on myself sometimes. On the first hand, I had missed the fact that the Phoenix had been played. I could have gone out for a one/two. And then when I called Tichu, I was down to three cards (King, King, Two). Since the Phoenix had been played I was hoping that there were not a pair of Aces out there. I should have instead played the Two and then either play Kings on a pair or split the Kings on singles.

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Another day, another round of disc golf it seems. I arrived early to practice holding the disc and throwing the disc level. I notice that a lot of the disc's energy can be wasted when there is a wobble in the spin. Or when it is angled up too high.

Sadly, instead of using balanced teams, we picked the teams randomly. And so I didn't bother keeping score today.

Today was special in that this is the first time that Mike played with me in a couple of months. It was also special in that I was having a really off day for some reason. I could not putt well. My team-mates would throw better than me. And 7 was particularly brutal for me since I threw it into the water both times. Sigh... Still fun to be out and about though...

Indonesia

Since we had 8 people tonight, I scheduled a long game of Indonesia. After going through all the effort of ordering this game, I definately want to play it. So I was happy tonight. And we played the game rather quickly (3 hours). I did not research mergers in this game and instead concentrated on slots (5) and hull size. Unfortunately, my shipping company was not as good as Adam's. In the middle of the game, Marty merged all of the Siap Faji (spicy-rice) and won the resultant bid. As was later demonstrated, this gave him the game. I tried to catch up with some oil production but that only gave me second place. I think in the futute having a large expansion technology would be good.

Woo woo! Would you believe that this is the first time that I have won a Tichu game at work? And strangely enough I haven't lost a Tichu game at home. Anyways, on the first hand, Mike random-wished out my two bomb. So on the next hand, I random-wished out Ed's three bomb. And on my hand, Mike wishes for a four (?) and I play another card and call Tichu. Unfortunately, Mike random-wished the four bomb out of Adam's hand. I still made the Tichu. And speaking of bombs, Adam calls Tichu and then bombs the dragon. Mike then over-bombs on the assumption that it would hurt Adam. Adam then overbombs again! Which made Mike throw away his five bomb.