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Classic EndGames
Apr. 7th, 2005 01:16 amWent to EndGame tonight, as I usually do on Wednesdays. I was a little late in getting there, between being engrossed in something when I should have been getting going, then taking a call from my dad to let me know he'd received the family K-1 and would be sending it on (and sure enough, here it is on my fax, and the downside is that it shows a lot of capital increase, which will impact taxes, and the upside is that it shows capital increase), then having BART randomly running its trains late, which it does pretty rarely.
But I got in to EndGame at about 7pm, and bought a copy of the newly released In the Shadow of the Emperor with the last of my Birthday money, then set down for games.
Eric V. had bought a copy of For Sale based on his play with my copy last week. I quickly joined that game, with Eric V., Krishna, Peter, and Niao. As I've mentioned before it's a clever little auction game, with an open auction, followed by a closed auction, and it takes 15 minutes in all. This was a 5-player game, and I believe I've now played it with every player number from 3-6 (and have confirmed that it works best with 4 or 5, with a bit less excitement with 3, and with a bit more chaos with 6).
I still don't have a great handle on the game. I know that in the first, open round, when you only pay half your bid unless you're the big winner, it's usually best to come in second unless there's a huge price difference between the top two cards; I know that in the second, closed round, you want to save the sucky properties that you bought for those rounds when there's a low variance between the revealed checks. I still can't consistently win though (or, perhaps, even win at all; I'm not sure). I came in second again this time.
I think there's a fairly high random factor in this game, but I actually have come to like it more than the somewhat similar and much more analytical High Society just because I feel like the weight suits the time so much better; if I'm going to play a 15-minute game, I shouldn't think too much.
For Sale is now my fourth nickel of the year, following on the heels of Rumis (5), Ticket to Ride Europe (6), and Geschenkt (8).
By this time Mike A. had shown up. He rarely comes to the Wednesday game nights and I'd brought a game just for him--Puerto Rico, which he'd never played.
I sucked at this game of Puerto Rico like I've never sucked before. Admittedly, I play Puerto Rico pretty casually, and generally scoff at "experts" who take it waaaaay too seriously, but I still manage a pretty good score on average. This time I didn't. I had 29 compared to Dave G's 39, Peter's 41, and Mike A's 42.
I'm not even sure why I sucked so bad. I did have problems with money at the start. I think I was a little confused on priorities, such as buying a Small Market when I'd already picked up a Coffee plantation. (Dave G., who did much better than me, just saved his money and so got a Coffee Roaster a few rounds earlier.) Later in the game I just wasn't producing enough goods. I was up at three (corn+indigo+coffee) while others were producing 4-6. Even good cashflow at the end didn't help out, especially because Mike ended the game with 12 buildings while most of us still had 8-9. Clearly it was to his benefit, because he won.
Puerto Rico remains a highly strategic and thoughtful game. I'm not always in the mood for a game this serious, but when I am, this is near the top of the list.
Last game of the night was Amun-Re. We lost Peter, but picked up George & Suzy.
I'd already decided that my gaming mojo was off by this point, so I decided to just screw around, and I did this by trying out Aaron's Parasite Strategy. Herein, you don't build pyramids in the first round, instead stock up on power cards and hoard money, and then leverage that financial ability into getting the better provinces in the second era of play.
First, as I expected, I'm really not emotionally ready for this strategy. My biggest problem in many games is that I get out in front too early and then get beat down. Purposefully starting out behind, that was just a bit much.
Beyond that, I was sabotaged by a few different factors. First, the power cards just didn't suit me in the first round. At least once I drew helpful scoring cards just seconds after I'd made the move that made them impossible to use. In the end I only scored one card in the first kingdom, thus starting the game with 3 points, compared to leader George's 15 (and everyone else up near him). Ouch.
Sure enough, I did have better resources in the second kingdom. I managed to make some good purchases, easily got a set of 2+ pyramids and also built up a province to most pyramids on my side of the nile, all at the same time while maintaining the provinces necessary to score those two bonus cards I was holding. But, Dave G. had also been holding back a little in the first round and so I had real competition, and couldn't take advantage of my extra resources well enough.
In the end I came in 2nd, which means that I impressively gained about 10 points on all but one of the players, but Dave G. was way ahead in first.
It was amusing to try Aaron's Parasite strategy, but I'm as unconvinced of it now as I was when he tried it (even if he did win). There's just too much luck implicit in depending on the power cards, there's too much dependency on none of the other players holding on to money, and there's for me too much stress in being purposefully behind.
If I tried something like this again I'd consider just going for all the low cost provinces, and see how that worked out, and if it gave me enough extra money to play with.
But I got in to EndGame at about 7pm, and bought a copy of the newly released In the Shadow of the Emperor with the last of my Birthday money, then set down for games.
Eric V. had bought a copy of For Sale based on his play with my copy last week. I quickly joined that game, with Eric V., Krishna, Peter, and Niao. As I've mentioned before it's a clever little auction game, with an open auction, followed by a closed auction, and it takes 15 minutes in all. This was a 5-player game, and I believe I've now played it with every player number from 3-6 (and have confirmed that it works best with 4 or 5, with a bit less excitement with 3, and with a bit more chaos with 6).
I still don't have a great handle on the game. I know that in the first, open round, when you only pay half your bid unless you're the big winner, it's usually best to come in second unless there's a huge price difference between the top two cards; I know that in the second, closed round, you want to save the sucky properties that you bought for those rounds when there's a low variance between the revealed checks. I still can't consistently win though (or, perhaps, even win at all; I'm not sure). I came in second again this time.
I think there's a fairly high random factor in this game, but I actually have come to like it more than the somewhat similar and much more analytical High Society just because I feel like the weight suits the time so much better; if I'm going to play a 15-minute game, I shouldn't think too much.
For Sale is now my fourth nickel of the year, following on the heels of Rumis (5), Ticket to Ride Europe (6), and Geschenkt (8).
By this time Mike A. had shown up. He rarely comes to the Wednesday game nights and I'd brought a game just for him--Puerto Rico, which he'd never played.
I sucked at this game of Puerto Rico like I've never sucked before. Admittedly, I play Puerto Rico pretty casually, and generally scoff at "experts" who take it waaaaay too seriously, but I still manage a pretty good score on average. This time I didn't. I had 29 compared to Dave G's 39, Peter's 41, and Mike A's 42.
I'm not even sure why I sucked so bad. I did have problems with money at the start. I think I was a little confused on priorities, such as buying a Small Market when I'd already picked up a Coffee plantation. (Dave G., who did much better than me, just saved his money and so got a Coffee Roaster a few rounds earlier.) Later in the game I just wasn't producing enough goods. I was up at three (corn+indigo+coffee) while others were producing 4-6. Even good cashflow at the end didn't help out, especially because Mike ended the game with 12 buildings while most of us still had 8-9. Clearly it was to his benefit, because he won.
Puerto Rico remains a highly strategic and thoughtful game. I'm not always in the mood for a game this serious, but when I am, this is near the top of the list.
Last game of the night was Amun-Re. We lost Peter, but picked up George & Suzy.
I'd already decided that my gaming mojo was off by this point, so I decided to just screw around, and I did this by trying out Aaron's Parasite Strategy. Herein, you don't build pyramids in the first round, instead stock up on power cards and hoard money, and then leverage that financial ability into getting the better provinces in the second era of play.
First, as I expected, I'm really not emotionally ready for this strategy. My biggest problem in many games is that I get out in front too early and then get beat down. Purposefully starting out behind, that was just a bit much.
Beyond that, I was sabotaged by a few different factors. First, the power cards just didn't suit me in the first round. At least once I drew helpful scoring cards just seconds after I'd made the move that made them impossible to use. In the end I only scored one card in the first kingdom, thus starting the game with 3 points, compared to leader George's 15 (and everyone else up near him). Ouch.
Sure enough, I did have better resources in the second kingdom. I managed to make some good purchases, easily got a set of 2+ pyramids and also built up a province to most pyramids on my side of the nile, all at the same time while maintaining the provinces necessary to score those two bonus cards I was holding. But, Dave G. had also been holding back a little in the first round and so I had real competition, and couldn't take advantage of my extra resources well enough.
In the end I came in 2nd, which means that I impressively gained about 10 points on all but one of the players, but Dave G. was way ahead in first.
It was amusing to try Aaron's Parasite strategy, but I'm as unconvinced of it now as I was when he tried it (even if he did win). There's just too much luck implicit in depending on the power cards, there's too much dependency on none of the other players holding on to money, and there's for me too much stress in being purposefully behind.
If I tried something like this again I'd consider just going for all the low cost provinces, and see how that worked out, and if it gave me enough extra money to play with.