Game Day 06/14/2007

Game #1

Geschenkt

Chapel suggested this filler as we waited for people to show up. I took a bold strategy and took some high number cards with many chips on them. In this game, I started out with the 33, and , later on, got the 34. So when the 30 shows up, I am willing to keep adding chips to it until the pile builds up quite nicely. Ed surprised me a little bit by taking it with, I think, 10 chips on it. Of course, I was going to take it soon. But it still is -20 points to someone else…

Doug took low cards but was never able to fill in gaps. No one ran out of chips in this game. Although it got close some times. I ended up winning the game with close to half the score of the person in 2nd place.

Game #2

Exxtra

Next up was this classic game. Which I love. I mean come on. It has dice, pushing your luck, and even some strategy to it. Maybe it was because it has been quite some time since this group has played this game. What ever the reason, the group dynamics were quite amusing. I would even say that they were the best I have ever seen. Jon (to my right) took the slow and steady approach. He would roll low the first time and then place the dice on the first spot. I could never roll great either, so I would use his protection factor and place my dice on spot number 2. Well, John would place his dice on 3, Doug would place his dice on 4. And Chapel would have no choice but to place it on 5. Each person was not risking a re-roll either. This left Ed severely hosed. All he could do was try and roll a number which would clear the board and place it on 0. Or roll and X and lose his turn. But he was in last place anyways. This kept happening and happening and there was nothing he could do about it. Finally he was pissed off enough to, instead of placing a rolled 76 on an open spot 5, place it instead on 0 and kick every one off. Somehow, I managed to eek my way into second place. Gravitt was able to be in a winning spot with no one else kicking him off. So I let him ride in for the win with me in second place.

Game #3

Pickomino

Nick for some reason was running late. So we played yet another light and fluffy filler game. The dice, of course, acted strangely. I could rarely roll many fives at one time. While Chapel would. And then sometimes people would crap out only having two numbers locked out. Even though I could not roll well, the dice still loved me enough to give me the win.

Game #4a
Game #4b

Magna Grecia

Finally, we got to play a meaty game. One I think gets far less plays than it should. Perhaps it is the horrible color scheme. What ever the reason, it remains on my list of hidden jewels — rarely played but great games. I was the brown color in this game. For the first tile that was turned up, it was orange (Chapel), red (Ed), yellow (Nick), and brown (me) with 2 roads, 3 cities, and 3 resupply. Mike, as the first player was somewhat hosed. He did what I would have done and built a city (1) which connected up to a oracle. Ed was somewhat in a bad situation as well and decided to build off of Mike’s city and create a two city spot (2) hoping to eventually grab and control oracle B. Nick was new to this game. However, he made an excellent move. One that I desperately wanted to make myself. He built off of Ed’s city and created a three city spot (3). This would give him a commanding control of oracles A, B, C, and D! In fact, the very process of building roads to those oracles both claims the oracles (4 points) and gives his market 1 more point. At the end of the game, he could hope to have a city with ten connections and 4 oracles. Which would give him 26 points! Ed, of course, connected to oracle B with a road on aa. However, Nick did make a mistake and place a road on spot bb which connected to oracle C. This forever cut off his access to oracle B. He should have instead built a two road connection on spot bb to oracle B. Surprisingly, Nick left oracle A alone. Even though it was two spots away. I decide to build off of Nick and create a three city spot (4) as well. I had hoped to control oracles A,J, and H. However, as it later turned out, someone built on the village spot north west of my city and connected to the oracle. This cut off my ability to reach oracle H with my city. It turned out to be sad, but not entirely unexpected.

During the game, I noticed that Mike was planning to take over oracle J. I knew I had to act immediately. If Mike was able to place a road to oracle J, he would have a city with one more connection to it than I would have. This would give him final control over it and 4 points. So I placed a road along path z to connect to a village. This both cut Nick off from being able to connect to my oracle and stopped Mike from taking control of oracle J over. Since you need to have a city with more roads connected to it for its allegiance to switch over.

Tichu

To end out the night, we played a quick game of Tichu to 500 points. To start off, Mike made a rather non-standard Tichu call. John had already called Tichu and was winning tricks. Mike makes a Tichu call but does not play anything. Finally, he starts playing. But was not able to stop John and go out first. His had was revealed to be AAKKQQJJJJ085. I made a Grand Tichu call on two Aces and the Dog and was successful. On the third hand, I made another Tichu call. However, on the fourth and final hand, the other team made a Tichu and one/two for the win.


06/14/2007 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 & MikeCh Nick & JohnG
 
-20
T-   120 T+
GT+ 200    
200
 
T+ 310    
290
 
  310     590 T+