Author Topic: Round 4: danisthirty vs MrNumbers  (Read 6380 times)

Offline danisthirty

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Round 4: danisthirty vs MrNumbers
« on: June 13, 2014, 11:51:18 PM »
I struggled to start the game as JCloisterZone wouldn't let me rotate the tile I'd been given at first. Even after I'd managed to place it the game got off to a bit of a slow start with both of us carefully considering our options with every move. I was the first to score with a 4-point city but "MrNum" quickly overtook me with a 5-point road.

It was always going to be a very hard-fought game so we were both looking to gain the advantage by trapping each other's meeples at every opportunity. This made some tile placements more obvious than others and a lot of the early stages of the game came down to the luck of the draw as much as anything else. This said, I got the impression that MrNumbers was thinking further ahead than I was and as such he had the foresight to place an early farmer which turned out to be a key placement.

My next feature to score was a 4-point road but MrNumbers followed this up with two 4-point cities to take the lead back again and then build it up to 5 points. There then followed a 6-point city to me and then a 4-point city to MrNumbers; both of us were working hard to keep our scores ticking over although MrNumbers always seemed to have the advantage until I took another 4-point road to settle the scores on 18 - 17 to me with 34 tiles left to place.

A few tiles later I scored yet another 4-point road to increase my lead to 5 points. I couldn't really tell who was winning at this point as two of my meeples had been successfully trapped whereas I'd only managed to trap one of MrNumbers'. Elsewhere I had two cloisters next to each other and a small but completeable city against two very strategically placed farmers of MrNumbers' and two potentially valuable cities.

As the game continued I completed an 8-point city, placing a farmer outside it in the process, and then shifted my attention towards my cloisters as it was clear to me that I would struggle to keep myself in the game with just a single meeple in my supply. MrNumbers meanwhile was continuing to spot good places to farm whilst working towards completing a medium-sized city in the south-east corner of the map. I attempted to either "glom into" his city or make it incompleteable but failed on both counts and felt very demoralised when he completed it with his next tile for 12 points. A lucky draw perhaps, but I was still ahead (albeit by only 1 point) until a 6-point city extended my very narrow lead back out to 7 points bringing the scores to 36 - 29 with 16 tiles left in the bag.

I'd realised by this point that if I wanted to stand a chance of winning the game I needed to get a farmer onto the main farm. I had spotted a couple of good opportunities to do this but was also trying to block MrNumbers from merging this farm with his other farm to establish an overall majority. After resisting the temptation to use my final meeple elsewhere I dropped him on an adjacent farm but my attempts to join the two farms were made considerably more difficult when MrNumbers placed a tile which caused my chances of success here to hang on my drawing one specific tile (cfrr). I knew there was at least one of these left (there were actually two) but it was starting to seem increasingly unlikely that the game was going to end well for me.

A 4-point road for MrNumbers in the final stages of the game meant there were just 3 points between us as I did my very best to claw a meeple back from one of my cloisters whilst simultaneously attempting to prevent MrNumbers from completing his ever-growing city. I eventually succeeded in completing my cloister with 4 tiles left to be placed which stretched my lead out to 12 points (45 - 33) and won me back a meeple. I used this to win 2 points for a short road with my penultimate tile, and with the final tile of the game took a 4-point city at the same time as joining a farmer onto MrNumbers' main farm to tie it for 12-points each!

I finished the game with 2 incomplete cities worth 4 points each, 2 farmers worth 3 points each, a cloister worth 8 points and a farmer on the tied farm worth 12 points. On top of the 51 points I scored during the game, this took my total score up to 85. MrNumbers had 2 farmers sharing 12-points between them, a third farmer worth 6 points, a fourth farmer worth 12 points (tied with me) and 3 incomplete cities worth 16 points between them. This brought his final score up to 79 points meaning I won by 6 points!





I felt like I'd won the game with a lucky last tile, but even if it hadn't been the one I needed to join my farmer onto MrNumbers farm (and complete a 4-point city in the process) there was also an unclaimed farm serving two cities which, if I'd claimed this instead, would have meant the final scores were lower (78 - 76) but still weighted in my favour.

The second game was very different but MrNumbers is going to write that one up. Without wishing to undermine the excellent (and ultimately far superior) game that MrNumbers played, I think I possibly deserved to do better as I somehow managed to lose the main farm (worth 27 points) despite having placed 3 farmers on it very early on. Not only did MrNumbers take this farm with one farmer more than me but he successfully blocked every one of my increasingly desperate attempts to tie it, leaving me with no meeples with 14 tiles to go! He also tied a 44-point city of mine with 2 knights each as I seemed powerless to stop him! I can't complain though as he did what he had to do, and I'm sure I would have done the same!

Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=830.0
« Last Edit: October 26, 2017, 05:52:17 AM by danisthirty »

Offline MrNumbers

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Re: Round 4: danisthirty vs MrNumbers
« Reply #1 on: June 14, 2014, 04:19:12 AM »
Something to add to the first game:
The start was really glitchy for me too - my nickname was mysteriously truncated, however I entered a full name before start.
Also wanted to add about those two cloisters - throughout the game I was in mind to block them, but all the tiles I drew were needed somewhere else more than there. So Dan had the opportunity to finish one of them and to gain some more points with that free follower. Next time I will try to do my best to block them all (what I successfully did in the second game >:D).

Ok, now to game two. Most of it Dan already described. Right from the start there were two things to be aware: huge city (44 points) and growing farm. I think we both understood that "the winner takes it all". That is why Dan quickly grabbed the farm with two followers and connected the second to the big city. Meanwhile I started to connect farmers and was a little bit afraid to be blocked (the follower with number "21" on it). Then I was lucky twice: 1. I was able to connect the second follower to the big city in two straight moves; 2. Dan was out of followers at the moment when he draw a tile that can complete that city. Dan did so and we shared 44 points. After that the great farm war begun! As you can see, I blocked Dan in every opportunity! When he relied on a curve, I made it to intersection; when he relied to a cloister with a road, just before he has got one, I placed a city tile. As a result, ~16 tiles to the end Dan had 6 useless followers with 0 points on a map, and 1 shared follower on a 5-point road. All he could do is try to not allow me to score some points by finishing features without being scored. I have one follower "in my hand" and continued to gain points. I had the opportunity to free those two followers on the road, but didn't want to release a follower for my opponent. With the last placed tile I took the 6-point farm.
Final score: 119-75. But if we go "if"-way: if you subtract 44-point city from my final score, we get a 75-75 tie! Who knows, how it could be if I wouldn't manage to sneak into that city...
"I never lose. Either I win or I learn." (Nelson Mandela)

Offline kettlefish

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Re: Round 4: danisthirty vs MrNumbers
« Reply #2 on: June 14, 2014, 04:42:37 AM »
Great fight...  ;D

MrNumbers,
how do you feel now - without the magic of the invincible...

Offline MrNumbers

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Re: Round 4: danisthirty vs MrNumbers
« Reply #3 on: June 14, 2014, 05:27:03 AM »
Strangely OK :) I knew that to be unbeaten is hard and someday this will happen. I am pleased that I lost to number 2 in the League at the moment, but still I am on the top of the table of ranking ;)

Offline quevy

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Re: Round 4: danisthirty vs MrNumbers
« Reply #4 on: June 14, 2014, 08:45:38 AM »
These results help me not to lose hope. I'll have to engage with Carcking :)
Great report as always.
A knight is sworn to valour.
His heart knows only virtue.
His blade defends the helpless.
His might upholds the weak.
His word speaks only truth.
His wrath undoes the wicked.

 :white-meeple: My works.

Offline danisthirty

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Re: Round 4: danisthirty vs MrNumbers
« Reply #5 on: June 15, 2014, 03:02:05 PM »
Thanks.

I look forward to hearing about your match quevy! Apart from this there's not been a lot of round 4 action so far...


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