Ludocracy Now

On Friday, Jake said he was available for some afternoon gaming and I leaped at the chance, naturally.  He said he wanted to warm up with the ‘catsup’ game and, correct me if I’m wrong, I think I may have lost to him in at least one of our Ketchup games.  It’s good to let people win once and a while so they keep coming back.

I then presented a variety of games and Agricola was Jake’s choice.  We, of course, played the family version and finished 38-33 with me taking the lead.  Excellent first play by Jake, I must say, to break 30, however.  He liked it and wanted to play again but I steered him toward Innovation since I knew he knew how to play.

I got Code of Laws early which I think allowed me to basically splay every pile.  I then got three special achievements pretty easy and then added score upon score to win the game in the sixth age, I think.  Jake did nab a fair amount of achievements but with all the splaying I had going on, it was difficult for him to do much of anything.

He left with a promise to come back later, and as the evening fell, Erik showed up for a low-key night in.  We played some heads up Carcassonne, Biblios (my Biblios winning streak continues), and TZAAR while waiting for Jake to return.

When he did, I strongly suggested Troyes.  I gave a better (I hope.  At least more sober) presentation of the rules and we gave it a go.  Definitely chalk this one up as a learning game as most of the game felt like just trying out mechanics.  I did win, however, with 40some points.

Scyler then returned from dinner with Grandma to play a little bit more Carcassonne before Jake whisked himself away, again.  We played with Inns & Cathedrals and I spent the majority of the game working on one 18 tile city with a Cathedral.  I finally got the tile to close it off…and Brekke sabotaged.  What a dick.  I got lapped by nearly everyone.

11pm was rolling in…  Many hours of gaming already behind me but I figured we might as well play Caylus.  I had to avenge my one point loss to Brekke on my birthday AND he had just ruined my 60 point City in Carcassonne…

I wasn’t feeling too confident after taking a -3 during Wall scoring, but I was the only one with enough gold to build prestige buildings and I built two in the last round for 30 points.  I squeaked out a win and put the long marathon day of gaming to rest.

A post about yesterday’s successful Abstract Gaming day will follow tomorrow—I have apparently broken Jeff’s camera with all my board game pictures so sadly you will all have to deal with the crappy iPod camera again…

A few pictorial updates from the past few days of gaming.  Two from a game of Intrigue that saw Kjersten (I had to Google that) basically steal victory from me.  Always the bridesmaid!  Also a pic from an aborted game of Citadels that saw me try to rep for the Brewers which was also a failure.  Then, a game of Agricola using the Goodies expansion that saw me get 60 points in a solo game (13 points better than a previous attempt).  I did not continue on with the series.  Then, a nice game of Yinsh with Annie who did, in fact, beat me in both this and Zertz.

Oh, hello there!  Welcome to another installment of Ludocracy Now!  This episode is brought to you by playing games in someone else’s house while they are not there!  Hooray for new lows!

I had gotten several board game requests for last night, but knew that only Christina would be available for the first hour.  Splendidly serendipitous, thought I, as I have some new nerdy 2-player games that will be perfect for a fellow graduate of the nerdy St. Olaf Mathematics program!  Zértz has a modular board(!) and is a little bit like checkers.  It’s fitting I bring up the St. Olaf Mathematics program because I remember my freshman year when I was bombing Elementary Real Analysis and played in a Math Games Tournament for extra credit.  One of the games I played was Zértz.  Talk about your full circles.

Christina and I got in two quick games of Zértz, each taking one win.  At no point did I progress beyond playing legally to playing strategically.  I’m sure with more plays I will see some sort of strategy but at the moment, I am content with admiring the mechanics and components.

Then, I continued with my plan to infect my board game group with Agricola, and as the rest of our group was still MIA I brought it for Christina and me.  We played a quick Family game and I finished with 49 points to Christina’s respectable 26.

Finally, Brekke and Nate arrived with new and unwitting Ludocrat Mark in tow.  We had about thirty minutes and five players, and although 7 Wonders was suggested, I steered the group toward Intrigue which can really only be played with five and I thought would actually be easier than 7 Wonders to teach to new players.

This game was vicious.  There were a lot of “dick moves” and it took some getting used to all the lying and conniving you had to do.  One of my doctors was the first to be sent to the Island of Misfit Scholars but the rest of mine found safe haven in mostly Christina’s castle.  An early alliance between Brekke and Nate turned out to work well for one and not the other as Brekke shot out to a big lead raking in 24k ducats one round.  Side note: one of the great joys of this game is to talk about your ducats.  More ducats, more problems.

As more and more scholars were banished to the island and more and more feelings were hurt, I felt good about flying under the radar and racking up 23k in my final few income rounds.  When the scores were revealed, I had 134k to Brekke’s 142k with Nate in third with, if I recall, 112k.  I think getting ganged up on early payed off for me as the other players thought I was out of the game/felt sorry for me.  I definitely tried my hardest to play the other players off of each other.

This game was great—you have to be willing to go back on deals, lie, connive, and back stab.  Very wheelin’ and dealin’, if you will.

As I am taking the LSAT tomorrow, I will be taking it easy today—possibly playing solo games of Le Havre and Poseidon, possibly forcing Annie to play another game of Agricola with me, we shall see.  You all, my faithful readers, will be the first to know!

Ok, I know this blog has been a little lot Agricola heavy but I’m going through a binge phase.  And we’ve just been playing the Family version!  I just have to give a big shout out to my buddy the Stone Oven for letting me turn two grain into a meal fit for a family of four.  Thanks, buddy.

Couple of quick notes before I talk about today’s games: iPod pictures are terrible, iPhone pictures are not as terrible.  Time to get a camera or make sure Annie is at every game.

Also, I’ve shied away from writing reports with pictures in the middle of the text—This is surely lazy but it is much easier with tumblr to put the whole photoset at the beginning and it forces me to edit down to ten.  Please leave commentary, dear reader, if you’d prefer pictures intermingled with the text.  On to a quick wrap up!

Annie braved cat allergies to give Agricola a try since I had been hounding her for a fortnight to play it with me.  We had tried it once long ago in the nascency of my board game obsession when I surely botched the rules explanation and made it sound unfun.  After two “family” games, Annie has changed her opinion and now is nearly as obsessed with the game as I am!  Just wait until we add in the Occupations and Minor Improvements.  Picture 4 is Annie’s 21-point farm after game 1, picture 5 is my 39-point farm.  Picture 7 is my 39-point farm (again) after game 2 and Picture 8 is Annie’s 29-point farm.

Definitely learning games for Annie, but considering Tim and I got 26’s on our second game, I’d say Annie is doing more than fine.  She is a huge resource denier and I was unable to expand beyond 3 rooms because there was never any wood for me to take.  Rude.  Love this game, glad that Annie had a good time.

I then sped down Lyndale to play a few games at Pleasant house.  While Nate showered, I brought out Innovation as a filler to play with Jake.  Jake squealed (literally) his way to victory as he claimed two special achievements in one turn to vault to a 6-5 victory.  This game definitely shines with two, especially with two quick readers.  Great game and I want to bust out the expansion soon.

Nate and Sarah joined me on the squeaky clean side of a game of Letters from Whitechapel and I gave Jake the opportunity to off some pretend whores. (Mostly because Jake is the slowest Detective player I have ever seen.)  Jake fooled us all the first night as he made a kill on his hideout—devilish!  We were running all over the place only to fail to pick up a trail.

Night two saw Jake get a little too cute as he again killed right around his hideout but as he was dancing around the area, we closed in and realized he wasn’t leaving.  We nabbed him after a desperate Alley/Parkour move.  It is very satisfying to catch Jack, but it’s exhausting to spend so much time as the detectives in complete darkness—it’s good practice for me to be ok with the uncertainty.

Until next time.