The first two rounds of the blitz have you pick games in a random order, and then in the reverse of that order. I ended up pulling the 2 of diamonds with spades picking first then diamonds, A-K. So I would be picking about in the middle of both rounds which is a pretty good place to be. The number of people playing each round fluctuated as people came and went and I think they ran 7 or 8 games each round. With only 8 games to choose from this meant pretty much every game was started.
Round 1 - San Juan
I believe I've played San Juan in the first round of every blitz thus far. It has the rare combination of being a game I really like to play and a game that I've really put a lot of thought into mastering. I ended up with a near perfect set-up in this game. My first building was a coffee roaster (with an opponent choosing to not null-trader in 4th seat, instead he crafted a coffee for me and 3 indigo total for my opponents). Then I put out a gold mine (it didn't proc for a while but eventually came home for a hero and a palace), a library, a quarry, and a carpenter. From there it was just a matter of scoring points. All 3 statues, chapel, city hall, and palace. I buried one of the guild halls, though it didn't much matter. The final scores were something like 47-26-22-16.
Round 2 - Alhambra
I didn't really want to play any of the games up in this round. My choice came down to playing Alhambra or St Petersburg which are both games which I know the rules to, and are decent at, but which I don't really like and I have never really looked into how to be good at. I decided to give Alhambra a shot this time.
I don't really know what I'm doing so basically I just start off buying things I can afford and then try to transition into having barely more than other people. As it turned out the stuff I could afford early was exactly the stuff the guy to my left could previously afford. We ended up tying on almost every colour we had early on, but I was able to overpay for specific buildings in order to just edge him out as the game progressed. Unfortunately for both of us he tried to fight back, and I had to keep staying barely ahead of him. This resulted in his score being abysmally bad, but mine wasn't quite good enough. The final scores ended up being something like 123-114-113-66. I was second by a mere point.
Round 3 - Factory Manager
I'm honestly not sure what I was thinking when I picked this game. The only other game I've really played in the round was Roll Through The Ages which I really should have picked since I at least like to play it. I was thinking it was really random (though I have never lost in person) and wanted a higher skill game. I'm certain I got a higher skill game, but unfortunately it wasn't one I'm skilled at.
The game itself wasn't very interesting at all. It was a three player game where one guy was taught the game on the spot and the other guy knew what he was doing. I'm actually not sure how he was able to get so much more stuff than I got but it wasn't even close. The scores were something like 300-220-120.
Round 4 - Notre Dame
If we're talking about games I like and really know how to win, Notre Dame might actually be on the top of the list. It was the first game I wrote about on here, and that was back before I was looking to post a lot.
The game itself was a three player game, but when I sat down there was only one other player. We waited a bit and she hadn't played before so I figured I'd teach while we waited and hope the third guy knew how to play when he finally showed up. Full rules explanation later, still no third opponent. Marc (the man in charge of the blitz) came over and didn't know where the third guy was. It had been at least 45 minutes from when the round was supposed to start and he asked if Notre Dame could be played with 2 people. It actually has pretty good 2 player rules, so we started with the understanding if the third guy showed up soon we'd restart.
The third guy eventually showed up, but by this point we were a third of the way done the game. (2 player games are really fast, and my opponent was a fast learner and picked the game up right away.) We sat around in a 'should we restart, should we not' holding pattern for a little bit before the decision was made to screw him since he was an hour late. We probably could have ended up delaying the round a lot if we'd restarted at that point so it was the right decision I think. Though from a scoring standpoint really awesome for the people in the 2 player game.
The game itself wasn't actually close since Notre Dame is really a game you need to play a couple times to understand which of the limited resources you can afford to skimp on. My opponent missed a couple bribes and I got a perfect minstrel of two cubes and Balki from cube house to the hospital. The final score was in the 69-40 range.
Round 5 - Agricola
I was 4th pick in this round so I was pretty sure I was out. So I picked a game I wanted to play, Agricola. If I'd been 2nd pick I probably would have attacked 1st place but with all of the top 3 picking different games I didn't really have a hope. I wanted to farm!
Seating doesn't get randomized at GCBGB, and sometimes it works in your favour. My game featured someone learning the game, the guy teaching the game (who was the guy who missed out on Notre Dame the last round), an older woman who had played a few times, and me. I was the 4th one over, and took the empty seat. It turned out the guy teaching the game was the only one who really knew what he was doing, and he was to my left.
I gambled early on, and built my 3rd room on the 4th turn, setting up for a turn 5 family growth. Family growth did come out on turn 5 and I was off to the races. I also built the first fireplace and the guy to my left considering first picking 3 sheep on turn 6 to spite the 6 food from me. His other options were 6 wood, or to build a room so he could family growth on turn 7. He made some snide comments about how he was screwed on family growthing anyway but ended up taking the wood. The new guy failed to build rooms as his next action which allowed lefty to build two rooms on turn 6 anyway to get in the family growth. I got the 6 food from the sheep which powered me for a few turns.
I had the card which let me build clay rooms for 2 clay, 1 wood, 1 reed. I used that to build two more rooms and got to family growth a 2nd time before lefty got his 2nd one. I then also had cards which let me plow 6 fields with 2 actions, and which gave me one of each animal when I built 4 stables. I used those to fill my farm. I failed to renovate to stone (I forgot the new guy could renovate without reed and therefore thought I could hold off on renovating when I couldn't) but it really didn't matter. The final scores were in the neighbourhood of 47-30-25-12.
As it turns out, with the win in round 5 I actually vaulted ahead into a three way tie for first. After going through the tie breakers it turned out that 3 wins and 2 seconds is worse than 4 wins and 1 second so someone else came 1st. Me and the other guy were tied all the way down the tiebreakers so we tied for 2nd-3rd. I actually didn't play a game with any of the guys I tied with, just like the one in Toronto a month ago when I came 3rd but didn't play against any of the people ahead of me. The blitz is certainly a fun format, but it doesn't really offer a good way to determine 'the best' since you don't have to play with each other.
Afterwards I stuck around and taught Innovation. I also learned Hive in the middle of the day, so there was lots of fun board gaming to be had.
And on the plus side, I wasn't the only person at the blitz in costume this year, as the girl in my San Juan game was dressed up as something I didn't recognize, probably from an anime.
No comments:
Post a Comment