My comments on the games (part II)
4)
califax - shark_bait 20-17
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20111129-120056-5ec27a0a.htmlI pretty much have trouble playing Garden/Ironworks mirrors. When to start buying Gardens? Can you afford to take some Silver and how much? Anyway there always seems to be quite a bit of luck involved because at some point you have to use Ironworks for Gardens and than you can draw either money for another $4 or an Ironworks dead.
The game offered nethertheless some decisions. At 3$ Scheme, Silver, Lighthouse are competing. We pretty much mirrored these. Scheme seems to be high priority early. Silver/Lighthouse than seem to be a close call (there is still Bureaucrat around).
The interesting question is whether to take Bureaucrat or not. Shark_bait took it - I don't like it so much here, because you can't use Ironworks on point cards with Bureaucrat in hand. On the other side it might give you the coin advantage for a decisive Duchy ...
Shark_bait started taking Gardens as soon as turn 4. The gardens were split evenly - I won the estate race 8-6. At turn 11 however shark_bait used his Ironworks on Silver to buy a Duchy. With the drawback that he couldn't use his Bureaucrat this turn. The game was very near the 3pile ending. If you can't afford a Duchy yourself you will inevitably lose by 1 point - unless there is a difference in garden points ...
You know the end already. Shark_bait finished the game at turn 12 (I would have done it otherwise) with 29 cards. It might not be totally illogial given my starting player advantage and the 7-3 Ironworks split. But still very unlucky for Shark_bait who would have ended the match with a crushing 4-0 if he only had one more card.
5) shark_bait -
califax 37-38
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20111129-122451-d44add22.htmlAn interesting board
(Edit: I don't consider it interesting anymore - just Jack + BM is the way to go). Jack and Stables are screaming for some sort of BM, but there are alternative point cards and Pirate Ship too.
We both started Haven/Jack (I doubled Jack) and decided to give the ships a try later, because the Nobles/Fairgrounds have potential to prolong the game, plus Jack gives some target and the ship helps to get 10 different cards. I'm still not sure on this as you might want the actions for Nobles. My ships were a bit unlucky, but shark_bait on the other hand missklicked at turn 7 with 9$ and an Estate in hand. He bought Fairgrounds thinking it was Farmland.
There was some Penultimate Province Rule dancing later. When shark_bait broke the rule the game ended on my turn by just 1 point. Lucky again.
6) shark_bait -
califax 6-30
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20111129-123551-34230ee5.htmlMasquerade, Quarry, Grand Market.
Shark_bait spent 5$ at turn 3 (and again at turn 5) for an Upgrade - I for the second Quarry. I really believe the latter is better here. Maybe his plan was to upgrade Upgrades into Grand Markets, but it didn't work out.
You still have to be lucky to draw the Quarries together, but I managed this at turn 6 and then you have a nice snowball effect.
7) shark_bait -
califax 37-45
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20111129-124828-30f6008b.htmlA mirror match around Young Witch, Smugglers (Bane) and Vault.
I wasn't happy with 5-2 here (Militia as a potential Vault counter + YW priority), but YW/Haven wasn't so bad. It doesn't help to put aside Smugglers to bane Young Witch, but it does help to play one each turn. Plus shark_bait was unlucky and drew his Witch only at turn 5.
I correctly guessed his Smugglers at turn 3 (with good chances - it still could have been the other way round: Witch at turn 4 and Smugglers at turn 5 for shark_bait) and havened the Witch aside to give the only Curse of the game at turn 4.
Smugglers as bane are funny - they smuggle each other around quite a bit. Soon nobody even tried to play Young Witch.
I noticed an interesting moment at turn 9 when shark_bait took a Gold for $7. Maybe he feared the Bank would underperform, but I still think it will make 3$. With so many Smugglers around I would have taken it instead. As it was I could smuggle the Gold.
Anyway I probably had simply more favorable draws this game.
A match with some mistakes, but some nice dramaturgy too (at least if you win ;-)) Despite being outclassed by shark_bait at the beginning I enjoyed the whole match. Btw: 5 out of 7 games saw second seat winning.
As we're getting closer to the finals, I'm wondering if the players in the finals might be willing to do a write-up of their matches (or maybe the most interesting 2 matches) at the level of depth that the blog had with the annotated games feature. I, for one, would love to hear how the players thought about some of the key turn-by-turn decisions, and this seems an easy way to generate some more front-page content for the blog. Would the players left in the tournament be interested in doing that?
I think the most instructive game is shark_bait's win in game 3. Maybe I didn't understand enough to comment on this more.
In general we had very interesting setups. Games 2, 3,
5 provide very good raw material for the Kingdom Design Challenge. I appreciate more comments on the games.
