Monthly Archives: February 2006

Disc Golf 02/12/2006

Birde at hole 2

Another round of disc golf for us. This time, it was cold and windy out with high temperatures in the lower 60s. It was also poorly attended with only Mike A, Adam, Rehana, and myself playing. So the teams ended up with the Ms vs. AR. I was a little worried when Mike “Tomahawk” keeps saying “That was conservative… I am going wild with this throw…” I definately need to teach him how to throw it horizontally.

We had one geeky moment. Adam looked up to see Mike throw his disc and was momentarily blinded by the sun. So I joked that Mike had a +1 disc of blinding. Adam then commented that it was intrinsic to Mike so I had a Mike of +1 blinding…

The above picture was my best shot of the day at hole two. This is a straight throw through trees on either side and over a small hill to the basket.

Another amusing moment was on hole 15. Myself, Adam and Rehana threw into the trees from the high winds. So we joked to Mike that he had better amaze us. So he threw it up into the air and it hit the powerlines once on the way up and again on the way down…

On hole 18 was my best putt. Our first throw was way off to the left and into the trees. Our second throw got us about 15 feet to the hole. But we were down at the bottom of a hill looking up to the hole. And I was able to sink it for a tie for that hole!

Game Day 02/11/2006

Game #1

Antike

Mike and I planned on playing Antike and then Indonesia for Ed’s long game day. So I was looking forward to the trip up north. And this game was different than the other playing was. (Besides the fact that the red tide was not present). There was very little fighting during the game. However, there was a massive military build up. Jon would be the first to build troops. And the rest of us, fearing an invasion from Jon, would build up as well. Towards the end of the game, I built up all of my ships and all but 4 of my armies. I was the first to fight when I needed 1 more city for another card (by attacking Roxana). Jon messed up by missing an opportunity to take out one of Ed’s temples for the win. And instead, Mike built another temple for the win.

Game #2

Kubb

Unfortunately, Mike hosed me by not playing Indonesia. Clark, who we had not seen in a while, brought a Viking throwing sticks game. And he set it up outside and taught us the rules. I braved the cold winds to play with Jon. And we did very well and were in the lead for the whole game. After knocking down the opponent’s sticks, I had one shot to knock down the king for the win. Which I did!

Game #3

Hacienda

Another playing for me, and this is the third time that I have started this game! Which I think is a disadvantage, but anyways… I taught this game to two new people. We used the symmetrical board but I didn’t concentrate on building a large land area. Instead, I tried to connect to as many markets as I could. So I played a lot of animals. This probably speeded up the game. At the end of the first scoring I was behind. But during the final scoring I was in the lead. Until Susan’s water scored for 20+ points which vaulted her into first! Good first game win Susan!

Game #4

Jambo

While we were waiting for the others to finish their games, Susan and I started a game of Jambo. This is a game of buying and selling goods. However there are an awful lot of special event cards (items, animals, or people) for my tastes. I had trouble finding the cards that you actually need to win the game. Namely the buy or sell cards. And of the few that I did find, only a couple were usefull to me. Probably a game that I would not play again…

Game #5

Intrigue

Ed suggested we play this game of backstabing and treachery. And I acquiessed reluctantly. You have a house that has four positions in in that pay 1K, 3K, 6K, and 10K per turn. And you have two each of four types of workers that you send out. And once one category of worker is in a position in a house, only that category can work there. So, you first collect income. And then you make deals with applicants sitting in front of your house. And then send two applicants in front of other people’s houses. The meat of the game is in the deal making part. You can make deals with people but they are not honor bound to follow them on their turns.

On the first turn, I sent two people to Ed’s house since he was going next and there would be no conflict. I made an agreement for a 6K position and I hoped that he would place the other in at least a 3K position. But Ed put him in the 1K spot. However, I was at least able to maintain parity with Ed during the game since I kept his person in my 6K spot as long as he kept mine in his 6K spot. On my next turn, I sent a person to Mike and gave him 5K to put him in a good spot. However he choose to put him in the worst spot (1K). This effectively burned any future deals with Mike for the rest of the game. Which was surprising that he did that so early in the game.

It was clear that Mike was winning the game. However, only Ed and I saw that and tried to make deals to avoid that. The other players were not so concerned with that and allowed Mike to get paying positions. Ed’s workers were decimated towards the end. He had only one worker in a paying position. However, the surprise ending was that Roxana pipped Mike by one 1K for the win! We were definately giving her too much money in our deals with her…

Game Day 02/09/2006

Game #1

Easy Come, Easy Go

While we waited for the fifth person to show, we played this light filler. But then he showed up and joined the game already in session. Which seemed to work ok. We went for two goals instead of three.

Game #2

Mu

Next up was this classic trick taking card game which is perfect for five people. Even if one of those people is Doug, who is not totally in love with this game yet. The bidding was quite high for our group. A number of hands had 8 cards bid. I wasn’t too successful in trying to be the partner to the Chief. Not even my two 7s…

Game #3

Hacienda

Another playing of this game for me. This time we used the asymmetrical side of the board. There were no hugh chains of land this time. And many people were trying to connect to a lot of markets. The usual strategy was to place one land and one or two animals to reach the market. Which doesn’t give you that much money (2 or 3 dollars). I made one mistake in this game by letting Mike connect to a market and not actively blocking him. And he won (beating me by less than 10 points).

Game #4

Tichu

Ahh… a good end to the night. I started off pretty well with 2 Ace bombs. But then Adam and Mike scored too many points. So Jon calls Grand Tichu. I was worried that he would be set since Mike also calls Tichu. However, Mike messed up by playing the Phoenix when Jon only had one card left (instead of the Dragon. He was trying to be cute in getting Jon to take -25 points). After we caught back up (800/800), we won the game!


The scorecard for a game of Tichu

GT or T bet made or lost

This team scored more points than the other or one twoed

GT/T Team #1 GT/T GT/T Team #2 GT/T
MarkH & Jon Mike & Adam
  200   T- -100  
  200     200 T+
  200     400  
T-
175
    425  
  175     625  
  210   T+
790
 
  250    
850
 
  495 GT+ T-
805
 
  695     805  
 
780
    820  
  800   T-
800
 
 
895
    805  
  1015 T+  
885
 

Lunch Time Tichuers 02/09/2006

Our heroic team was down 350 points. The game was almost over. This was the time to call Grand Tichu. And, unfortunately, it was not me. Although I did force Mike to do it. And apparaently, it was a risky call. Adam was strong and would have gone out. But Mike did have the right cards needed to go out!

On the next hand, we are now down 90 points. In all probability, this is the last hand. No Grand Tichu call was made. So I called Tichu before the pass. And if I were to make it, it would then be a battle over points. Another problem is that during the play, a lot of points were given to Adam. So now I need to go out first and force Adam to go out last. Sadly, my goal was not accomplished. Although it was an amusing hand!


The scorecard for a game of Tichu

GT or T bet made or lost

This team scored more points than the other or one twoed

GT/T Team #1 GT/T GT/T Team #2 GT/T
Ed & Adam Mark & Mike
  -65 T-  
65
 
  125 GT+  
175
 
 
210
    190  
  200    
300
 
  325 T+  
375
 
  625 T+   375  
 
790
T+   410  
  795    
605
T+
 
975
T+   625  
  995    
905
GT+
  1045   T- 855  

Lunch Time Tichuers 02/07/2006

This game had a lot of one/twos in it. On the 5th hand, I made a risky GrandTichu calll with only the Ace and the Phoenix in my first eight cards. Ed passed me the Dragon. Adam starts out with the standard Ace wish. Both Adam and Mike destroyed their hands trying to stop me. I later find out that Ed had all of the good cards and he was able to stop Mike and Adam when they went over my plays…


The scorecard for a game of Tichu

GT or T bet made or lost

This team scored more points than the other or one twoed

GT/T Team #1 GT/T GT/T Team #2 GT/T
Ed & MarkH Mike & Adam
  50     50  
  50   T+ 350  
  50     650 T+
 
110
  T+ 790  
  510 GT+   790  
  510   T+ 1090  

Pruning

Prune #1

Well, it just had to be done. My tree was growing into a dense ball. And given enough time, it would grow into a black hole which would devour the earth. Fortunately for me, my neighbor, Warren, likes to prune trees. And he helped me out this weekend. Well, let me rephrase that. He did all of the work and I stood there while meditating over bonsais. Maybe I should take time lapse pictures of this tree…

Prune #2

Disc Golf 02/04/2006

Trouble #1

Another week of disc golf for us. We started out by flipping discs to choose teams. However, after the dust settled and John and Mike were paired, John declares that he wants to play individually instead. So we needed to reorganize. I am not competitive enough to want to play individually yet.

The only major trouble that we got into this week was on hole 8. John had initially thrown bad. So, he takes a penality and throws again. Only this time, the throw went wild and into a house’s yard. Fortunately, he was able to retreive it…

For lunch, we all went to Chipoltes. And it was rather difficult to maintain a chain of cars to the restaurant. Only two of us knew where it was. Fortunately Jon and myself were able to successfully play sheep herder and lead the pack to safety. It seems it was easy to get separated in the drive over there.

Game Day 02/02/2006

Game #1

Saboteur

Tonight we started out with a light filler. I started out as a saboteur and, rather than playing a card that moves towards the gold, instead played a broken light against Mike. And, of course, now Mike starts calling me a saboteur. Unfortunately, I was unsuccessful in stopping those damn good dwarves! This game seems stacked against the saboteurs since there is at most 2 of them active. You need to get some good cards in order to win the round. In fact, none of the saboteurs won their round.

Game #2a
Game #2b

Antike

Mike brought a new game for us to play. Your goal is to get a certain number of acheivements in the game. These are for the number of cities (5, 10, 15…), for the number of temples (3, 6, …), for being the first to discover technologies, for destroying enemies temples, and for the number of occupied sea territories (7 & 14). This game has a circular list of actions where you can move up to three spaces for free and pay if you want to move further. You can mine for resources (either iron, gold, or marble), move armies, build armies, build temples, or make discoveries. Quite simple and yet seems to allow for different strategies. In fact, the FAQ gives you three different strategies to pick. In our game, the people who started the military strategy were in contention for the win.

There were some amusing moments my combination of cards produced the following quote: “My Arabian mother is a MILF.” After barbarian Adam decimated Mike, I taunted Mike with the following statement: “I am coming up your rear, Mike” Jon then laughed and said that should be in the movie Brokeback Mountain.

Game #3

Tichu

When I brought the Tichu deck to the table, Mike bolted! John didn’t want to stay for Mu either. So, Tichu it was! Which was good since I didn’t play a game of it this week…

For the last hand of the game, Adam calls Grand Tichu since we were behind. I pass an ace to him. But strangely, Jon passes the Mah-Jong to me. So I wish for the 2 I passed to MikeA. Fortunately, we made the bet to win the game. Mike had said that he would have gone out first if Jon had passed it to him instead.


The scorecard for a game of Tichu

GT or T bet made or lost

This team scored more points than the other or one twoed

GT/T Team #1 GT/T GT/T Team #2 GT/T
MarkH & Adam MikeA & Jon
 
90
    10  
  90     210  
  15 T-  
285
 
  55    
445
T+
 
225
T+   475  
 
280
  T+ 620  
 
480
T+   620  
  680   T- 520  
  590 T-  
610
 
  725 T+  
675
 
  760   T+
840
 
 
1050
GT+   850