Author Topic: A Welcome Tournament for New Members (Read 93672 times)

Decar · « **Reply #285 on:** October 26, 2015, 02:33:22 PM »

Great stuff guys, thanks for making this happen

Any luck in the other rounds?

Rich_The_Fish · « **Reply #286 on:** October 28, 2015, 03:15:08 AM »

Just wanted to say well done to Halfling and Merlin_89 for the good battle we had last night in the final. Congrats on the win Halfling, you played a very strong game.

Thanks also to Decar and everyone else who has helped out with the tournament, it was a really enjoyable experience. I particularly like that it has introduced me to quite a few members here at CC (thanks for playing guys) and also to several expansions which I'd never used before. If it wasn't for a tweet I saw about this tournament I probably wouldn't have signed up to the forum, or got as hooked on Carc!

Cheers,
Rich_The_Fish

Decar · « **Reply #287 on:** October 28, 2015, 03:23:45 AM »

The Final Game of the Welcome Tournament was played last night between: Merlin_89, Rich_The_Fish & Halfling.

I'm afraid to say I missed the start of the game. But due to Halfling's laptop crashing I was able to join and watch the last 72 tiles being played.

Needless to say, it was very tense!

The beginning of the game seemed to be predominately Tower tiles. Merlin was just ahead at this point and Rich had already managed to play all of his meeple, except his phantom.

By around 50 remaining tiles, Rich had managed to close the gap, complete some features, get some meeple stolen and rescued others with Towers and cunning Corn Circle Play.

With 20 tiles left Catastrophe Hit!

We hit a JCloisterZone bug where Merlin had played a Corn Circle 2 tile, but was unable to select to 'remove' or 'add' extra meeple. While it was popped up it became Halfling's go!

There was a short (well extremely long) interlude and I painstakingly undid Merlin's turn so, the game could continue as intended. We also seemed to have another issue where 30xHalflings and 30xRich_the_Fishes join the hosted game!

After about 40 minutes we were able to resume.

It's worth remembering that sometimes the hardest part of the game is juggling your followers and your extra wooden pieces. Do you play a tower? Do you place your phantom there? When do you play your pig? What about my Builder?

I think it's fair to say every player made a few mistakes in their last few turns at the table.

Almost out of nowhere: Halfling put his followers to hard work farming, though some would say it was all carefully planned.

At the end of the game; it was going to be close but it came down to how the last tile was used by Merlin_89.

I'll be posting some pictures very shortly with scores - and hopefully the players will include descriptions from their perspective.

The Final rankings are:

1) Halfling
2) Merlin_89
3) Rich_The_Fish

Special prizes will be sent to these players in the coming days.

General Note:
Well done everyone! I hope you've learned some new Carcassonne mechanics, played some intense games and possibly made a few mistakes you'll never make again!

All in all I hope you enjoyed the process and met a few new people.

Other Groups - I have yet to hear if you have managed to play your final match. If you can: please schedule your matches before 9th November - If you're not interested in completing the tournament then please let me know. As soon as all the games are sorted I can post the prizes!

franks · « **Reply #288 on:** October 28, 2015, 07:20:50 AM »

I have sent a note to Curt194 and Joansinmiedo, hoping we can get our last game in this weekend!

Congrats to all in the completed team!

Merlin_89 · « **Reply #289 on:** October 28, 2015, 08:05:31 AM »

I owe saying congrats to Rich_The_Fish and Halfling, it was very, very competitive match. I feel disappointed by the outcome, but it was my only second ever game playing Tower with (well) humans. So thanks for the ocassion to get more expierence...

Thanks to Decar for organizing tournament and helping us throughout the games. It was fun.

danisthirty · « **Reply #290 on:** October 28, 2015, 09:34:28 AM »

Well played everyone. I agree with Decar that it certainly was a great game to watch!

Quote from: Merlin_89 on October 28, 2015, 08:05:31 AM

I feel disappointed by the outcome, but it was my only second ever game playing Tower with (well) humans. So thanks for the ocassion to get more expierence...

Hopefully this will stand you in good stead for your match with Laguse whenever you're able to play it...

Halfling · « **Reply #291 on:** October 28, 2015, 04:22:15 PM »

This was easily the longest game of Carcassonne that I have ever played. Thanks in part to my poor old laptop and the magic performed by Decar to allow us to continue after the corn circle glitch occurred.

I started off well by getting into double figures first and I was confident from the outset as I have all these expansions and have used them regularly at 'geek club' where I play against two fellow devotees at work once a week. The Tower can be brutal and there were some early captures and re populations thanks to the phantoms. I won and lost 6 to 8 point cities thanks to this ploy.

Around the time of the laptop crash I started picking up tiles that I couldn't use to great advantage and I dropped back to 3rd place for a while. Confidence dropped and a change of luck was needed. I had also lost a meeple to each opponent as well as my phantom. So resources were getting scarce. Merlin finished one of my cities to capture 4 wheat tokens in a move I supported and would've done myself. I then started capturing opposing meeples and was using my wooden towers quicker than my opponents.

Keeping meeples away from the towers is an art and needs practice. I think we all did pretty well but you can do little to avoid a tower being placed next to an existing meeple. I captured one of Riches farmers and his other went via a corn circle.

With few tower tiles remaining I started placing farmers and I think I ended with 4 across 3 fields which is unusual in a tower game in my experience.

I don't know if I'd have lost if the last tile had been used to remove one of my farmers in the large field? The points for the field would've been shared albeit that I had a pig in residence.

I honestly thought that Merlin had won when the last tile was placed but my part finished city and monasteries gave me the victory as I must have doubled my points through these and the farms.

My thanks to Decar and Dan for allowing the final to be completed and I hope to enjoy more games in the future.

Curt194 · « **Reply #292 on:** October 30, 2015, 01:35:14 AM »

I should be free on Sunday to play the final round in our group. Have messages franks and hopefully we can work something out with joansinmiedo!

Congrats to halfling and everyone who's participated. Has been a great tournament and a good way to get into playing online. Of course thanks go to Decar as well for organising all of this!

Hopefully we will get our game in this weekend.

Decar · « **Reply #293 on:** October 30, 2015, 01:52:59 AM »

Here's a picture of the last Round:

When Catastrophy hit:

At the end of the game:

I particularly like Halfling's message from iRC

toastytoast · « **Reply #294 on:** October 30, 2015, 05:32:08 AM »

I've sent a message to my group, though I'll post here for a bit of visibility.

I'm available just about any upcoming evening,whether it be weekend or weekday, though unfortunately the time I can only absolutely guarantee is 10pm GMT onwards - long working days and an almost 2-year old son make any time before quite hard to juggle!

franks · « **Reply #295 on:** November 01, 2015, 07:29:07 AM »

The has been no return response from Joansinmiedo at this point.

Hopefully Curt and I will hear from them in time to get our game in.

Decar · « **Reply #296 on:** November 01, 2015, 09:16:17 AM »

If anyone hasn't heard from anyone in their group by Wednesday - please proceed without them: I think we can assume they do not wish to take part in their final match.

Safari · « **Reply #297 on:** November 02, 2015, 03:41:58 PM »

Congrats to Halfling for winning the tournament. Very well done!

Toastytoast, Ailurus and I could arange our game for Wednesday evening 23:00 CET. Jay!

Safari · « **Reply #298 on:** November 04, 2015, 04:15:16 PM »

And here is the result of the game:

128 - Safari
116 - Ailurus
99 - Toastytoast

We had quite a big fight for the big field with the many monasteries in it. But due to the Crop Cycles and some Towers in the end no one could claim it. Though, Ailurus had the chance to do so quite in the end, but instead placed the tile somewhere else. Would be very interesting to know about the strategy behind this move.

However, here is the screenshot:

Decar · « **Reply #299 on:** November 06, 2015, 10:23:17 AM »

Thanks for getting this game completed guys!

Final Reminder everyone:

Salmon: Curt, Franks please continue without Joansinmiedo if you have not heard from him this weekend.

Group Blue: Piklach, LOMDR, Lukey-Dukey.

I know timezones are really tricky, so do the best you can