World Cup - Knock-out Stage!

[jungleboy]

Dan, would you prefer MrNumbers and I wait to play our semifinal match until after your quarter-final match? I only ask because I will be going away next Wednesday (10 Sep) and I would like to finish up my remaining match(es!) before then if possible. I will have my laptop with me while I'm away but it could be a bit difficult to arrange a match.

[danisthirty]

Thanks for letting me know. I think it would be better to try and keep things balanced if possible.

As I see it, once Carcking and I have had our match there will be only four players left and two semi-finals to play. If I’m not able to play Carcking this week (Thursday is likely the latest we can play) then you should definitely play ASAP regardless of what else is going on. As I say though, I think it is preferable to know who all four of the semi-finalists are before either of the semi-finals have taken place as long as this doesn’t complicate things.

[Carcking]

I like the trash talk to psych out Carcking

  

[Andrew the Ambo]

Go Carcking (from a fellow group A player).

[danisthirty]

Well, you know what they say: "the coolest players get knocked-out in the quarter-finals..." 


(final scores are correct but feature breakdown is incomplete due to crashed game having to be reloaded - which worked smoothly but reset score breakdown)



I felt Chuck and I were fairly evenly matched. I perhaps even had the upper-hand in the first half of the game but in the end I couldn't do enough to overcome his 30-point bonus for trade goods, or even compete with him in this area. My best chance here was to complete a shared city that included my builder but Chuck blocked this just in time and then made the city impossible to complete soon afterwards.

One interesting thing about this game was that we didn't really compete for any farms. We both shared two farms (one with four cities, the other with five) with one farmer each and left it at that really. I also had a 12-point farm and a 15-point farm but was only able to claim the latter because I was lucky enough to draw the last fffr tile (cloister with road leading up to it) which was the only way onto it.

On balance I don't think either of us suffered from particularly bad luck and generally got what we needed most of the time. I had several opportunities to swing things back in my favour within the last couple of dozen tiles but on two occasions I drew the tile I needed immediately after Chuck had blocked my opportunity to use it!

Anyway, on this occasion the best player certainly won - well done Chuck! Best of luck to everyone in the semi-finals...

[jungleboy]

Well done Carcking!

Commiserations Dan, but it seems somehow appropriate that you went out at the same stage England usually goes out of the World Cup (though at least you made it out of the group stage this year!). 

[MrNumbers]

but on two occasions I drew the tile I needed immediately after Chuck had blocked my opportunity to use it!

I saw this before somewhere... 

Congratulations to Carcking, and condolence to Dan! Anyway, this copy of Cathars needs to change an owner

[danisthirty]

@jungleboy - I'm just glad I got beaten properly and we didn't have to go to penalties. Please don't ask me how this would work with Carcassonne...

@MrNumbers - Very true. I thought it best to let someone else win it this time otherwise everyone would think the competition was fixed!

[kettlefish]

I'm sorry for you danisthrity...

Congratulations to Carcking also to: MrNumbers, quevy, jungleboy.

[Jéré]

Well, you know what they say: "the coolest players get knocked-out in the quarter-finals..." 

Couldn't agree more

[danisthirty]

Well done to everyone who has made it this far! Semi-finals will be as shown below:



Players with highest score differential (quevy and MrNumbers) should start each game.

Games should include the following expansions: River 2, Inns & Cathedrals, Princess & Dragon, The Phantom (no Traders & Builders as this conflicts with Princess & Dragon)

I'm guessing MrNumbers will host for his match against jungleboy. Carcking/ quevy - if you need a host just let me know.

Best of luck to all of you. I'm looking forward to hearing some exciting match reports afterwards!

[quevy]

So my next opponent is Carcking, congratulations.
Dan, I'm sorry, we do a lot another time.

[Carcking]

Good luck to you quevy in our upcoming match...but not too much 

How many hours ahead of Eastern time are you? What does your schedule look like for this weekend?

[quevy]

Thanks for the encouragement, good luck.
In our previous games we have won once each, this is a play-off
If I'm not mistaken we have 6 hours of diversity.
I can not tell for availability, depends on the work of my wife and my little son.

[jungleboy]

The Game That Wasn't

MrNumbers and I have to replay our semifinal after we discovered near the end of the game that the big meeple can't go through a magic portal (from P&D) in JCZ 2.7. The game was very close the whole way, although MrNumbers had just managed to complete a large city and this gave him a 20-point lead with 19 tiles left. He then tried to use the portal to get his big meeple into a small unoccupied part of a large Cathedral city (worth 50+ points) that I had two meeples in, which would have allowed him to tie the city.

It was a very well played game and both of us benefitted from some good moves and some nice luck. My biggest moment came when I used the princess to evict MrNumbers from the cathedral city and place my phantom in it on the same move (something Dan and I had talked about earlier in the day!). I then added a second meeple and closed it off from possible blocking. I thought, dragon aside, that I had the city won, with only a CCCR tile needed to complete it. It wasn't until later that I realised that MrNumbers could still get into it via the magic portal. Then when he drew the magic portal, all I could do was hope that he hadn't realised that he could still sneak into the city. But when he tried to do it with his big meeple, it didn't work.

MrNumbers' big move came in the other large city (without a cathedral). He had already used the dragon to get my big meeple out of it and he had one meeple in the city and another lurking. I added my double meeple nearby again, and then added a second meeple opposite, needing just a CCCX tile to join both my meeples and finish the city at the same time (as long as the fourth side of the tile was not another city edge). Instead, MrNumbers drew the three-city CCCF tile, which allowed him to finish the city and take all 36 (I think) points for himself and put him in a good position to win the game.

So, we'll take some deep breaths and try again another time.