Carcassonne Central

Carc Central Community => Online Games and Competitions => Leagues (including expansion leagues) => Topic started by: MrNumbers on June 15, 2017, 10:48:58 AM

Title: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: MrNumbers on June 15, 2017, 10:48:58 AM
Fliers:

If you are new to the competitions, please, carefully read the following tournament notes/guidance/rules before continuing.
If you already participated in some Carcassonne Central competitions before, the following rules are pretty much the same as always, except final stage (points 9-10). Let's try this format this time and see how it goes.

1. Players have already been divided into three different groups (Fliers, Goldminers, Wizards). Each player will play one game of Carcassonne against every other player in their group individually via a series of 2-player/ head-to-head games. The winner of each game will be awarded two league points whereas the loser gets nothing. If the game is tied, both players receive one league point each.

2. Players in each group will be ranked according to the number of league points they have scored. PD (Points Differential) will be used as an initial tie-breaker if there is no clear winner based on league points alone, and total combined score (from all games) will be used as a second tie-breaker if necessary. Your PD is calculated by taking the total number of points scored by you and subtracting the total number of points scored against you (combined across all games).

3. Games will be played online through the latest stable version of JCloisterZone (currently 3.4.3). Please ensure you have downloaded this and are familiar with its controls and features before the competition begins. It is also recommended that you have played at least one practice game against a live opponent in order to identify and resolve any technical problems before your first game.

4. JCloisterZone includes a number of artificial aids such as farm hints, projected scores and even tile-counting assistance. We all are busy people, and time is valuable for all of us. Many players spend decent amount of time anyway to count points for farms and uncompleted features, so with the purpose of speeding up our games, I allow to use "projected scores" feature. Other aids are still prohibited. I can't stop you from using them anyway, and won't know if you do, but I do urge you to play as fair as possible. I know it's a competition and we all want to win, but let's keep it fair, fun and friendly as far as possible...

5. Each game will include the basic tiles plus four expansions: Flier, Goldmines, Mage & Witch and Crop Circles. This is 102 tiles including the start tile, so 101 tile will be shuffled and randomly drawn for you and your opponent in turn. The starting player should be chosen at random through JCZ by selecting the "Randomize seating order" checkbox on the pre-game screen.

6. If any unexpected behaviour occurs during your game (for example if you think you have discovered a bug within JCloisterZone which may have altered the course of the game for you), please consult with your opponent and the CAR/ anyone else who happens to be in the chat room at the time to determine whether it appears to be a genuine bug. If it is, please save your game and post details of the bug along with anything else relating to how it came about on the forums. If however, you and your opponent are both happy to continue with your game despite the bug then feel free to do so, but don’t forget to mention the bug afterwards no matter how minor it may have seemed!

7. Please post a screenshot of your game, including final scores and score breakdown, back to your group thread as soon as your game is complete. It's always interesting to hear what happened during the game too, so please feel free to post any thoughts/ comments at the same time if you wish. If you're not sure how to capture/ post screenshots, please ask on the forums and either myself or someone else will explain how to do this (we're a friendly bunch!)

8. It is the players responsibility to liaise with their fellow group-members in order to find a mutually convenient time to play their game. This is expected to be done predominantly through Private Messages but feel free to use your group thread (here) too if this is easier. Please do keep any appointments you make, or at least give your opponent as much notice as possible if something occurs which prevents you from playing at the agreed time (more on the "Unwritten Rules" is available here (http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=2700)).

9. Each of the 3 initial groups contains 6 players so the first stage of the competition will end when every player (all 18 of us) has played 5 games. At this point, the pool will split again into 3 groups of 6 depending on finishing position in the initial groups. So, the 2 top-ranked players from groups will form group F1, those who came 3rd and 4th in each group will form group F2, and 5th and 6th - group F3.

10. Play in groups F1 to F3 will constitute the second stage of the competition which will run in the same way as the first. League points, PD and total score will be reset at this point (but remembered for overall stats) so that no single player in any group has any kind of advantage. Finishing positions in groups at the second stage will determine overall rank: 1st=F1-1, 2nd=F1-2, 3rd=F1-3, 4th=F1-4, 5th=F1-5, ..., 15th=F3-3, 16th=F3-4, 17th=F3-5, 18th=F3-6.

Finally, you may find the following links helpful:
Carcassonne Central IRC Chat (http://sydby.com/carcassonne/irc/index.html) and JCloisterZone (http://jcloisterzone.com/en/).

Good luck everyone! ;) :(y)
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: thodekey on June 16, 2017, 05:58:55 AM
Phieeew,

Seems like there will some heavy competition amongst the Fliers!

I'm available next Tuesday evening from 20:00 CET.

Cheers!
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: Chooselife on June 18, 2017, 03:41:47 PM
Hi Guys,

I'll be, mostly, able to play during work hours all week. Will try to pop up on the evenings.
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: danisthirty on June 21, 2017, 09:03:50 AM
Good luck everyone. :) Really looking forward to the competition (especially since this looks to be such a tough group!)...

I'm based in the UK and the majority of my free time will be weekday evenings between 8pm and midnightish.

I will visit the chat room most evenings to see if anyone is available, but otherwise will send out some PMs.

 :blue-meeple: :(y)
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: danisthirty on June 28, 2017, 07:36:46 AM
No games played yet? If it helps to spur others on, Chooselife and I plan to play our match on Thursday evening after our basegame league match. It's going to be a long Carcassonne night for me! (and I can't wait) 8)
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: ARabidMeerkat on June 28, 2017, 02:26:17 PM
How do I get into a competition? I've been on the forum for so long but never entered one!
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: MrNumbers on June 28, 2017, 10:29:49 PM
How do I get into a competition? I've been on the forum for so long but never entered one!
Before every competition there is a sign-up topic (for example, this (http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=3368.0)). Participant should simply reply to such topic to enter a competition. Usually, sign-up topic is opened for 2 weeks, which is quite enough for potential participants to register.
So, just follow for new topics and reply to them opportunely :)
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: danisthirty on June 29, 2017, 03:14:43 PM
How do I get into a competition? I've been on the forum for so long but never entered one!

I'll drop you a PM the next time one starts! ;)
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: danisthirty on June 29, 2017, 03:20:22 PM
I got the ball rolling this evening with a game against Chooselife. I've been lucky enough to have had a couple of practice games using these expansions against the likes of khalid and jma03 so I knew what to expect, whereas this was Chooselife's first time with this combination of tiles. This did give me a bit of an advantage but it was still a great game with a lot of fierce battles and what seemed like a fair share of luck (good and bad) for both of us...

Dan :blue-meeple: 197
Chooselife :yellow-meeple: 141

(http://www.dan.tehill.net/mixedminis_Chooselife.jpg)

The final margin was a lot bigger than I was expecting; 28 point swing in my favour from a mere 4 gold bars (10 vs. 6)!
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: Leven on July 03, 2017, 02:50:20 PM
Thodekey and I have just played our first game in this league.
The outcome of the game was largely affected by an unintended meeple placement by Thodekey. After drawing a crop circle tile I chose the option that each player may deploy another knight, but my opponent thought the opposite, so instead of removing one of his meeples from a relatively small incompletable city where he already had two knights, he deployed a third one, too, and he was suddenly out of meeple in the middle of the game. It was a very unfortunate moment for Thodekey, needless to say, how big advantage that lost meeple was for me, So be careful everyone with the crop circles in JCZ!

:blue-meeple: Thodekey vs :violet-meeple: Leven 113:155
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: thodekey on July 03, 2017, 03:13:58 PM
I learned it the hard way there. From then on, it was clear i wouldn't win this one...the only thing on my mind was damage control. Nevertheless, well played Leven! Seems like you're becoming my unbeatable opponent in those leagues.

PS: if another Flier is available tomorrow evening, let me know because after this week, i'll be on a no internet holiday for 2 weeks.  ;)
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: Leven on July 05, 2017, 04:07:42 PM
:red-meeple: MrNumbers vs :violet-meeple: Leven 120:156

A very lucky game for me. Right at the beginning I got the proper tiles to trap two of MrNumbers' meeples: a knight in the 3 pt city in the middle plus the thief on the neighboring road (my thief got there at the end of the game by a flying machine). Besides, one of the "shield" crop circles (the CCCC one) has been removed from the game because it could not be placed anywhere, which meant that MrNumbers had one less opportunity to escape his knight, and he also lost the advantage of being the starting player. Moreover, I drew all the "club" and "shield" crop circles during the game, so the two meeples remained trapped for the rest of the game. Then poor MrNumbers lost a third meeple (the knight in the 3 pt city in the west) when I drew the last CFFF tile. If he had drawn that tile then he would have gained 3 gold pieces as well. At another lucky moment I could fly into MrNumbers' longish city in the NE which included the mage, too. I needed to roll "1" with the dice, and I succeeded. In the final phase of the game MrNumbers used his remaining meeples to win the most valuable farm but I could compensate that with other farms.

Thanks for the game, MrNumbers, I wish you more luck in your forthcoming games.
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: Leven on July 06, 2017, 05:52:18 PM
:yellow-meeple: Chooselife vs :violet-meeple: Leven 153:154 (!)

My goodness, what a game. :o
Both of us had our ups and downs during the game, and it could have easily ended the other way. I was really lucky to win this one by 1 point.

The start wasn't bad for me: my very first tile was a tile from M&W and the Mage gave me some good extra points having completed my first city. Then I tried the same strategy that worked in my previous games, that is I made intensive trapping attempts, particularly by that "Madagascar-shaped" city in the West. There was a moment when I felt that I will succeed therefore I didn't even placed the witch into the city when I had the opportunity to do that. But every game is different, this time Chooselife cleverly escaped from the trapping and he could soon complete the city, gaining two gold pieces as well. What didn't work for me, worked for Chooselife: I couldn't avoid the trapping of two of my meeples in that 12 pt city in the North (Chooselife also had a knight there which were later removed by a crop circle). As Chooselife started farming early, he had a comfortable lead approaching the middle of the game.

Then the turning point: again, the crop circle problem. Chooselife made the same mistake that previously thodekey did: he thought that he had to remove a farmer while I chose the other option. So he unintentionally deployed another farmer.
Please, every player in this league, be careful! If you don't see this image in the area of available actions then you can't remove a follower:

(https://i.imgur.com/c6xELI3.jpg)

Then there were some good battles for gold pieces. Chooselife had a long road leading through a field of gold (the one where finally the Mage landed), I had to make sure he couldn't finish it. Having the Mage there the road was still quite valuable (more than 20 pts), so I was lucky enough to have drawn a tile with a "club" crop circle, and so I could force my opponent to remove his thief from that road. Meanwhile, Chooselife started building another city (the one in the East). At first I only tried to prevent him from completing it by placing a CCCR tile next to it, but soon things were becoming dangerous so I decided to make an attempt of joining in the city. Chooselife avoided this by the CCCC splitter tile with the shield crop circle which also allowed him to escape his knight from the northern city. After this, he only needed the last remaining CCCF tile to complete this big city. He drew it right after my previously mentioned club crop circle tile, so he could quickly recover from the loss of his valuable thief.

In the end I desperately needed to join a meeple to Chooselife's valuable farm in the SE. I placed two farmers nearby, but didn't got the proper tile... right up until my last tile.

Thanks for this great game, Chooselife, you would have really deserved to win it, especially considering you had one less meeple for the second half of the game.
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: ARabidMeerkat on July 07, 2017, 04:10:02 AM
Go careful Leven... with all of these victories, you might make yourself a target! Great gaming and maybe we could play in the future over JCZ, even though I've never used it!
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: MrNumbers on July 07, 2017, 04:23:44 AM
Current standings.
4 games played, 11 left.
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: MrNumbers on July 12, 2017, 12:30:44 PM
Hey Fliers,

Just wanted to let you know, that I'll be on vacation with no access to JCZ from 16.07 till 24.07 (including).
Anyway, go Fliers! 8)
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: Chooselife on July 12, 2017, 03:45:44 PM
Hi Mr. Numbers would you be able to schedule our match on Friday?
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: MrNumbers on July 13, 2017, 12:12:50 AM
Hi Mr. Numbers would you be able to schedule our match on Friday?
Don't know for sure, I will be hosting my friends from UK on Friday. Let's see, maybe on the morning I will be free (as I am on vacation already).
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: danisthirty on July 20, 2017, 03:49:55 AM
Hello all.

I'm hoping to reinvigorate our group a little bit with this message.

I've been off for a few weeks (well, a week and a half anyway) as we've been in the process of moving house. We're all moved now and, although my Man Cave isn't quite sorted yet, I have at least found the laptop that I use for JCloisterZone AND a charger for it! This means I'm "back in the zone" and am able to start playing again once I've remembered the rules for this set of expansions!

Please drop me a PM if you have a spare evening and I'll get back to you ASAP.

Let's do this!
Dan :)
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: Chooselife on July 20, 2017, 05:15:41 AM
Hi All,

I already tried to schedule the match with MrNumbers but unfortunately we didn't manage to match the availabilities.
I would prefer to have the missing 3 games played before the 13th of August since I'll be on holidays after that till the end of the month with very limited access to a notebook and on a GMT -1 zone.

Rosco, TheDokey and off course MrNumbers, please drop me a PM when available.
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: thodekey on July 24, 2017, 02:41:24 PM
Hi there,

I'm available this week on every weekday during the day and on wednesday also in the evening so let me know when we can play our flier-match.

Greetings too you all.
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: thodekey on July 25, 2017, 06:20:27 AM
Today was the day Chooselife and I played our MINI-league-match.  After my rather disastrous first game against Leven, I had something to make up to.  I was sure it was going to be a though game...it turned out to be as expected! 

As things got started, Chooselife was taking the point lead while I had a slight advantage in the gold bars.  At a certain moment I was leading 6-2 in gold while Chooselife had a 18 points lead.  While a large farm was developed, I placed my first farmer and started enlarging that farm while I trapped one of Chooselife's meeples in a small city in the W.  As I had the luck to draw both of the crop circles tiles involving farming, that one meeple got stuck there till the end.

Meanwhile, Chooselife kept his point advantage and added 4 gold bars extra to his stack with a 4-tile roundabout in the SW while I made sure with some extra farmers and some extra cities to keep the lead in a now already large central farm.

Some 10 tiles before the end, and now some 25 points behind  Chooselife, but leading with 6 to 5 farmers in the main farm, I stood before a dilemma:
- join my last meeple to the main farm to make sure that Chooselife and I didn't tie in the farm in the end
OR
- use that meeple a little longer to score some extra points and keep the points gap as small as possible, but risking to tie the farm in the end.

I choose the first option and succeeded in joining all my meeples to the same farm.  Meanwhile, Chooselife used his last meeple to score extra points and enlarged the points difference in the end to 35 points.
Lucky for me, I placed the Witch in the big but unfinished city in the SW.  Chooselife placed his last meeple there with his last tile and there came the final scoring:

Chooselife 158 - 161 Thodekey.

That was very close!  The lead in the 42-points farm made the difference in the end although things were decided in the details and it could have easily turned out the other way: for example, if I hadn't placed that Witch there, Chooselife could have gained an extra 3 points in the end and that would have been a tie 161-161!

Thank you Chooselife for the high-level game and good luck with the rest of your league matches!
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: MrNumbers on July 25, 2017, 06:26:03 AM
Today was the day MrNumbers and I played our MINI-league-match.
[...]
Thank you MrNumbers for the high-level game and good luck with the rest of your league matches!
LOL! :) Only from screenshot I could understand against who have you played ;D
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: Chooselife on July 25, 2017, 06:45:48 AM
Today was the day MrNumbers and I played our MINI-league-match.

Not sure how I feel about this  :-X hahahahahah
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: danisthirty on July 25, 2017, 07:11:13 AM
I made plans to play Leven last night but then couldn't turn up at the time. Many apologies Leven, and thank you for being so patient with me so far!

I'm hoping that I will be able to play this evening, depending on whether I manage to put some new coat hooks up in the cupboard under the stairs. All being well, I will aim to be in chat room (probably both) at around 9pm UK time.

Please don't wait up if I'm not there! My life is chaos at the moment...
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: thodekey on July 25, 2017, 08:48:51 AM
Today was the day MrNumbers and I played our MINI-league-match.
[...]
Thank you MrNumbers for the high-level game and good luck with the rest of your league matches!
LOL! :) Only from screenshot I could understand against who have you played ;D

Apparently not totally woken up, was I? :-)
Sorry MrNumbers...or should I say...Chooselife?   :P
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: danisthirty on July 25, 2017, 08:53:43 PM
Results of my game with Thodekey attached:

It's 4:45am here at the moment and I'm not sure why I'm awake, but I'll wait until the morning properly before going into detail...



I got off to a pretty poor start in this game as thodekey (as blue!) went first and got the 4-point city from the start tile, followed closely by a 6-point city plus 2 bits of gold. I happened to draw a few cloisters though, and made the questionable decision to place 3 of them adjacent to each other and claim all 3. Thodekey did the sensible thing here and went to trap all 3 with a single hole, but I was fortunate enough as to be able to draw what I needed to complete the cloisters and get my monks back before he’d completed his trap! If I hadn’t been so lucky here and thodekey had been successful in his trapping I’m sure the outcome would have been very different…

We had a couple of interesting battles which made good use of the expansion tiles in the early stages of the game. Thodekey threatened to share a city I’d started so I flew an extra knight into it with the hope of closing it soon after, but we ended up sharing the city (with the Mage) after he got a second knight of his own into the city in the conventional way. We also fought over a road for a few points and some gold. Thodekey drew one of the CC2 tiles with a club and forced me to remove my thief, but then had to remove his own thief too and I was able to complete the newly vacated road on my next turn. ;)

As the game progressed I managed to trap one of thodekey’s meeples on a short road with 2 gold bars. I invested my “spare” meeple in a farm which I then concentrated on growing over the course of the game. With his trapped meeple, thodekey didn’t want to get drawn into a farm battle and so let me keep the farm to myself, but only after I’d used another one of the CC2 pitchfork tiles to drop an extra farmer onto the same farm for good measure. :P

I managed to build up a lead of 20 – 25 points which I then held on to for most of the game despite some toing and froing with the odd short road or small city. At this point though, I knew that any extra gold could make all the difference so focussed on this as much as anything else as the game began to reach its conclusion. Thodekey had started building a road with two gold bars and had also put the Mage on it which made it too good for me to resist joining. However, he fought back and soon had a second meeple on the road which I managed to match with the aid of a helpful flier tile. The road remained at 2 – 2 for a while, before thodekey made a bold move to take it outright and I shut him down forcing an frrr tile where he had hoped to join his 3rd thief onto it. As a result, the road never got completed; both of us took 10 points for it and the gold stayed on the table.

Both of us were struggling for meeples as we came down to the last dozen or so tiles. We each had 2 meeples and 6 gold bars but there weren’t any opportunities for either of us to get any more gold without the other getting the same so this lost any importance as a determining factor and instead, we both started going for farms. Thodekey made a slightly awkward attempt to glom on to an unclaimed farm with one of his meeples so I claimed it from a far easier spot on my next turn. Thodekey’s final meeple was used to glom on to the same farm, but this also failed as I drew the remaining ffrr tile that he had needed to join it on. My final meeple went down as a knight in a 12-point city near to thodekey’s trapped thief. Neither of us had claimed it as it wasn’t completeable and had been developed purely to trap thodekey’s thief, but there were no opportunities to score more than this with my final tile so I took these easy points. 8)

Overall I’d say that in terms of luck we were quite well balanced although I was probably the more fortunate player just for my luck with the cloisters earlier on. This was balanced out (almost) by the number of crrr tiles that thodekey drew as soon as I created a dependency on myself drawing one to get a meeple back (and some gold). I didn’t draw so many Mage & Witch tiles, but one that I did draw gave me the option of generating a few points for myself with the Mage or attempting to reduce the value of a city that thodekey was dangerously close to finishing with the Witch. I played it safe and gave him the Witch, only for him to complete the city with another Mage & Witch tile almost immediately afterwards, which of course allowed him to throw the Witch back at me before completion. Doh! ::)

All four of the minis seemed to play quite an important role in the game and provided an extra dimension that felt like it had been well utilised rather than merely supplying a few extra tiles as is often the case. It was a fun game and I must congratulate my opponent on a hard-fought match regardless of the final scores. Good luck with the rest of the competition thodekey! :) :(y)
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: Rosco on July 26, 2017, 05:11:14 AM
anyone up for it today or tonight?
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: thodekey on July 26, 2017, 05:49:44 AM
How about right now?
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: MrNumbers on July 26, 2017, 12:40:14 PM
7 games played, 8 left.
(screenshots from my game with thodekey will be published soon).

This is definitely not my league, I feel completely powerless playing games with this combination of expansions :( IMO, there is much luck involved in it, mastership isn't enough :-\
But let's see on the results of outstanding games though.
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: thodekey on July 26, 2017, 01:43:44 PM
I said it -by mistake- before but now it is for real: today was the day I played against MrNumbers.  After 2 defeats (against Leven and Dan) and 1 Pyrrhic victory (3 points difference) against Chooselife, I had to bring up all I've got in this match to still play a role in this group of notorious players!  Not an easy task against the ELO-points-leader...

Still fresh in my mind: the big loss against Dan...and the worst part in this was I didn't had the feeling I made (big) mistakes there...especially in comparison with my disastrous game against Leven...yet, the points difference was even bigger.

Anyhow,
I had the honor of opening the debates with a 2-tile-city while MrNumbers started of with a "golden city" with a bridge over it.  I started a road but soon MrNumbers blocked me with a CFFF-tile in front of the road.  From then on, I had to hope to draw the only CC2-tile that could get me out of there.
Meanwhile, we both had our share of the gold although I must say I was lucky to make a 4-tile circulair road earning me instantly 4 gold extra.

MrNumbers drew the CC2 city-splitting tile and forced me out of the city in the N which also contained gold.  Luckily, I drew thereafter a tile to close the 8-points-city left of it and managed to join a little later that same large city in the N.  Meanwhile, I laid the first claim on the central farm with one meeple...still hoping to release that one meeple with the CC2-tile to get the odds even...and I did eventually!

City and road-building went on by both sides without any other meeples being blocked while there began a major battle over the central farmland. By that time, I had a small lead in points and a lead of 7-2 in gold.

At this point, MrNumbers drew some gold tiles and started 2 separate roads with them in the NE to earn that extra gold while I concentrated on securing my claim on the main farm and trying to block MrNumbers golden roads.  I managed to block 1 meeple there while MrNumbers closed the second road which gave him 2 extra gold.  By completing a 5-tile city in the S, MrNumbers claimed another 2 gold along with 12 points and in the same turn forcing me again out of the large uncompleted city in the N.

On the bright side, that gave me again 2 meeples in stack for the last 10 tiles.  For my 2 remaining tiles, I used 1 meeple in the S to join 2 extra cities with the main farm while I used the last one to claim an uncompleted city in the centre, worth 7 points while MrNumbers used his last meeple to take a 6-points-farm in the S.

In the end, the 39 points for the main farm and that one extra gold, made all of the difference to me.  By the way: 9 points extra for just 1 extra gold is a lot.

It's only fair to say, I had luck a bit on my side:
- I got that one CC2 in the middle of the game to free one of my meeples stuck in the center.
- i had the luck of drawing 2 gold tiles fast after each other to make a circular road and claiming 4 gold with it while MrNumbers drew his gold tiles to make up with it rather late in the game.

So, in fact, I had the same feeling afterwords as I had in my match against Dan but then from the other side: MrNumbers played really well, made no big mistakes and used his tiles for the best and yet, the points difference is rather big and therefore not a realistic (or fair?) image of the tight game we played.

So, mixed feelings again after this one: maybe 4 mini's just adds too much luck into the game?

Anway, to MrNumbers: apart from the above, I think we had a nice game after all and I wish you the best with your remaining games!  Hopefully, luck turns out the other way or even better...luck won't be the deciding factor.

Cheers!


Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: Jéré on July 26, 2017, 11:33:14 PM
Definitely agree: the luck factor is VERY high!  :o

Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: danisthirty on August 09, 2017, 03:48:04 PM
Leven and I played our match this evening. It was a long one and it's a bit late for a full write-up now, but the result was :blue-meeple: (157) vs. :violet-meeple: (157)!
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: Leven on August 10, 2017, 06:40:03 AM
Here's the screenshot of this incredible game.
Dan collected 12(!) gold pieces which might be a new league-record. I became completely resigned to losing this game by a significant PD (imagine that ca. 15-20 tiles to the end Dan already had a huge gold-collection, he had majority (2:0) on the big farm with more than 10 completed cities, and he drew the RRRR goldmine tile in the 7th row which allowed him to score easy 10 points for a road and to claim two more gold pieces). I felt that I needed a miracle to win. Well, the miracle almost happened.
At first I was able to equalize the majority on the farm by joining two farmers at once by the RRFF tile in the 12th row. We both knew that one of the fork-shaped crop circles was still to come. Dan decided to deploy his last follower as a farmer to a worthless farm just to have a spare farmer on the board in case I would draw the CC-tile and force him to remove one of his farmers. But it may have been a mistake as I still had 2 followers in my supply so when I actually drew that tile I rather chose the other option, and deployed another farmer (Dan didn't have this opportunity as he was already out of followers). This farm almost compensated Dan's gold advantage, and I still had one meeple in my supply to collect some additional points during my last turns which was just enough to save the game to a draw.
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: danisthirty on August 10, 2017, 07:17:34 AM
Leven started our game and drew a ccrr with pennant. He claimed the city and completed it with his next tile for 8 points. I didn't get quite such a smooth start but was hoping to draw level with a 4-point circular road +Mage for 8 points of my own. Leven used a Crop Circle tile to force me to abandon my road though, and when he completed it for me on his next turn the scoretrack was looking pretty ugly at 18 - 0 against me.

As the battle continued, Leven took a couple of risks which I was able to make the most of. I trapped one of his monks for 8 points (a favour he later returned) but he prevented me from completely trapping a nearby knight with adjacent monk by creating a cccr gap. Four cccr tiles had already been played by this point and I didn't realise there were any left, but he did eventually draw the tile he needed to complete his city and I completed his cloiser with a rrrf towards the end of the game where I also had a thief trapped nearby (especially since there was a gold bar in it for me too).

The balance of luck was definitely skewed in my favour when it came to the gold and we finished the game 12 bars to 3 in this respect giving me a tidy 45 point bonus! My personal highlight was drawing a lucky Goldmines tile that allowed me to complete a feature immediately and take 5 gold bars in the process!

Despite having two farmers on the same farm before Leven had placed any of his own, he stole the main farm from me with 4 farmers against my 3. The Crop Circles tiles were significant here as his drawing of the second pitchfork tile allowed him to add an extra farmer where he already had one to take overall control. Normally I would have been able to add a second farmer of my own to retain an equal share, but for some reason I was convinced that he would force me to remove a farmer if he drew this tile, and so had already placed another farmer of my own elsewhere which I could subsequently remove without losing my share of the main farm. I'm not 100% sure why I didn't at least put my "reserve" farmer next to a completed city as these 3 points could have made all the difference (to my Elo as well as my position in the league)...

Above all else, it was a very tense but enjoyable game against a wonderful, intelligent, handsome yet modest opponent for Leven. But I enjoyed it too. ;)

Thanks for the game Leven, and good luck with your final match of this stage of the league!
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: Leven on August 10, 2017, 08:21:34 AM
Thanks for the game Leven, and good luck with your final match of this stage of the league!
Thank you, Dan. I also wish you the best with the rest of the competition. You still have good chances to win the group.
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: danisthirty on August 10, 2017, 08:25:01 AM
Thanks for the game Leven, and good luck with your final match of this stage of the league!
Thank you, Dan. I also wish you the best with the rest of the competition. You still have good chances to win the group.

No chance that relies on beating MrNumbers is a good chance as far as I'm concerned! But I'll certainly try... :D
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: danisthirty on August 11, 2017, 03:57:32 AM
@MrNumbers/ Rosco: will you be available to play our matches at some point in the first half of next week?
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: MrNumbers on August 11, 2017, 04:06:32 AM
@MrNumbers/ Rosco: will you be available to play our matches at some point in the first half of next week?
Yes, on evenings. Good days are Monday and Wednesday, when I will be on work trip, so during my lonely evenings in hotel I can play some matches :D
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: danisthirty on August 11, 2017, 04:08:51 AM
@MrNumbers/ Rosco: will you be available to play our matches at some point in the first half of next week?
Yes, on evenings. Good days are Monday and Wednesday, when I will be on work trip, so during my lonely evenings in hotel I can play some matches :D

OK. Let's provisionally say Wednesday at 8:30pm UK time if this is OK?
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: MrNumbers on August 11, 2017, 04:11:14 AM
@MrNumbers/ Rosco: will you be available to play our matches at some point in the first half of next week?
Yes, on evenings. Good days are Monday and Wednesday, when I will be on work trip, so during my lonely evenings in hotel I can play some matches :D

OK. Let's provisionally say Wednesday at 8:30pm UK time if this is OK?
OK, let's schedule on Wednesday then.
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: Leven on August 11, 2017, 05:23:07 AM
Thanks for the game Leven, and good luck with your final match of this stage of the league!
Thank you, Dan. I also wish you the best with the rest of the competition. You still have good chances to win the group.

No chance that relies on beating MrNumbers is a good chance as far as I'm concerned! But I'll certainly try... :D
Rosco's chances are also very good in my opinion. He hasn't lost a game so far in this league. ;)
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: Rosco on August 11, 2017, 12:53:27 PM
Ha ha ba ba ba

Sent from my SM-A320FL using Tapatalk

Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: Rosco on August 11, 2017, 12:54:21 PM
Pretty much any time over the next week apart from Wednesday and Friday daytime.  There may be some things that pop up but should be good

Sent from my SM-A320FL using Tapatalk

Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: danisthirty on August 11, 2017, 02:59:52 PM
Ha ha ba ba ba

That is the best impression of a laughing sheep I have ever seen on CarcC. +1 merit :(y)
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: Rosco on August 12, 2017, 01:37:52 AM
My wife and I were just proper belly laughing at your comment Dan.  Love it.

Sent from my SM-A320FL using Tapatalk

Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: danisthirty on August 14, 2017, 02:31:58 PM
Rosco and I played our match this evening.

Very close game with lots to fight for. I won gold with 10 bars to 6 and so took the win 175 vs. 141.

Just MrNumbers left to play now :)
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: thodekey on August 15, 2017, 04:39:36 AM
My last game in the Fliers-League was against Rosco.  Due to the draw between Dan and Leven, ending third was the best I could get out of this league which was honestly very high-level if you ask me.   The game against Rosco was not different in this way.

Everything quiet in the beginning till 2 things opened the battlefield:
- I managed to block 2 meeples of Rosco: one I a cloister in the west and one in a city left of it.  The one in the cloister would stay there till the end, the one in the city could be released if Rosco drew one of the Crop circle tiles with a shield or the unique CFRF.
- In the east my attempt to take over a then still small city of Rosco developed in a huge city that was further developing to the west.  With joining one meeple and flying one in, I took the lead in it with 2-1.

When I drew the second Crop Circle with a shield and then sharing the large city with Rosco, both with 2 meeples in it, I had to make a difficult decision.  Add a third meeple, both take one away or none of those options.  On that moment Rosco had just one meeple left so I thought he was going to keep that one in stock.  Turned out he was taking the gamble so now he was leading in the big city.  But in that way, he was out of meeples for a while.

Meanwhile, I focused on the gold and trying to block the city of Rosco.  Rosco avoided this by placing the gold-tile with a bridge over the city.  I was more then happy to place a meeple on this one and happy to join later the big city again, now both of us with 3 meeples.

In the north I made a small but "golden city" which gave me 4 gold extra.  I also had prepared 2 roads, one in the north and one in the south to make out of it a "golden road".  With the one in the south I succeeded, the other one stayed that way till the end.

Then the large shared city was completed and Rosco freed his blocked city-meeple with the unique CFRF-tile.  Then a last battle over the farms started.  Rosco had a farmer in the south, I had one in the north.  He managed to join one in the north, I didn't.

By then, Rosco was still leading in points before the final score.  Turned out the gold made once again the difference with a small lead in my advantage of 218-202.

Lots of things could have turned out the other way if luck was more on Rosco's side: he could have won the big city with the right tile and he was unlucky he released his blocked meeple only rather in the end which gave him the disadvantage of having no meeples left.

Anyway, I really enjoyed this one, even if I would have lost.  It displayed -for once- all of the extras of the Mini's: fliers to take over cities, crop circles to do the same, mage and witch to diss each other and gold to make a points difference.

Leaves me to wish Rosco the best in his remaining games and watching him decide who wins this League: Dan or Leven...who brings over the popcorn?  :P
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: thodekey on August 15, 2017, 04:41:21 AM
PS: isn't that large city in the east not resembling to 2 dragons with their backs against each other or did I watch to much Game Of Thrones?  ;)
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: MrNumbers on August 16, 2017, 02:16:26 PM
11 games played, 4 left.
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: danisthirty on August 16, 2017, 02:20:17 PM
Good game MrNumbers. That was one of the tightest games I've ever played, but my luck came through with the last 4 or 5 turns. MrNumbers took a risk and put all his eggs in one basket, but unfortunately (for him) the risk didn't pay off; the basket got dropped and I emerged victorious...

:blue-meeple: 172 - 146 :red-meeple:
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: danisthirty on August 17, 2017, 03:45:09 AM
As I mentioned before, rarely have I played a game that was so close from start to finish. For much of the game our scores were equal, but even when they weren’t there was rarely more than 4 or 5 points between us.

However, despite the close scores I spent much of the game with a small mountain to climb to overcome the large (and growing) farm that MrNumbers laid claim to from very early on. In fact, he was so keen to keep it that he used a CC2 pitchfork tile to add an extra farmer before I’d even attempted to steal onto it. I decided to leave him to it after that, but he added a third farmer to guarantee his majority (costing himself 6 points in the process) and ended up netting a cool 30 points for his efforts. However, 3 early farmers did mean that he struggled to compete elsewhere and despite managing his meeples very well under the circumstances he couldn’t afford to take any risks with what he had left. In light of this, it didn’t help (him) that I managed to trap one of his other meeples in a cloister for most of the game (which he eventually completed with the final flier [an ffff]), and another in a dead city.

I didn’t really have any big plans to make up for this huge farm but claimed a small farm of my own that showed some potential for growth. MrNumbers recognised the danger here and claimed the other side of the farm but this left him desperately low on meeples so he was unable to respond when I managed to add a second farmer here and then grew the farm to serve a total of 7 cities.

The fliers weren’t used especially aggressively by either of us, and the Mage & Witch didn’t have a huge impact on the outcome of the game either, although the Witch seemed to see much more action than the Mage. I had little control over the Crop Circles tiles as MrNumbers drew the first 5! With one of the shield tiles, MrNumbers gave me an opportunity to add an extra knight rather than forcing me to remove one so I added one to a city that he had been attempting to glom onto. I was surprised to see that he didn’t reinforce his position in the same way, and was lucky to draw a ccff tile on my next turn and closed the city with 2 – 1 majority for 12 points. The final CC2 tile (the other pitchfork tile) went to me and was a very important tile to have drawn. If MrNumbers had drawn it he could have removed one his farmers on his big farm and still retained a 2 – 0 majority, but forced me to remove one of my farmers on my smaller farm leaving it tied. Plus he would have got a meeple back. So this was an important draw for me and I used it to allow either of us to add a farmer (which neither of us did).

As always, Gold made a big difference to the outcome of the game. Nothing unusual there, but what was unusual was that we didn’t see a single Goldminers tile in the first 30 or so tiles! This meant that we’d both had time to realise how significant it was going to be by the time it did start appearing, and as it happened, I was by far the more fortunate player in this respect with most of these tiles coming to me. We both grabbed a few easy bars as they became available, but what really made the difference was a road I started building with the express intention of adding gold to it should the right tiles come my way. I closed this road for 5 (or 4?) gold bars and closed another in the north east for an extra bar with a handy M & W tile in the closing stages of the game. Ultimately, this gave me an 18 point advantage for winning 7 bars against MrNumbers’ 3. This combined with my farm meant that the mountain I was trying to climb was now more of a hill, but MrNumbers still had a basket to put his remaining egg into…

With about a dozen or so tiles left to go, MrNumbers required me to draw a crrx tile to win my farm outright. So naturally I drew one almost straight away and claimed the city on it, which I closed soon afterwards for 8 very valuable points. Another lucky draw allowed me to complete a short road for a few points, +1 gold bar and another meeple back which gave me 2 in hand with about half a dozen tiles to go. Meanwhile, MrNumbers had claimed a long road in the hope that he could complete it with the final Goldminers tile, making it a very long road in the process and giving him +2 gold bars. But as luck would have it, I drew this tile and used it to claim a 9-point farm. I used my final tile to claim a separate 6-point farm which meant I actually scored more from smaller farms than MrNumbers did from his big farm.

So overall it was an exciting game for me and I was glad of the win. I did feel like I had a lucky flourish at the very end of the game, but overall I’d say things felt equal in terms of general luck. I’m relieved to have finally played the last of my games at this stage of the competition and I’m eagerly anticipating the result from Rosco and Leven! Good luck with your remaining games MrNumbers... :) :(y)
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: thodekey on August 17, 2017, 05:35:15 AM
That's an impressive total points difference you've got there, Dan-the-gold-collector.  A pity I contributed the most to that...see "highest scoring difference".
In fact, i've been contributing to all of the special statistics (smallest score-highest score difference-highest losing score-lowest winner score) except for the "smallest scoring difference" which was for Dan and Leven...pfff...show-offs!  :P
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: danisthirty on August 17, 2017, 05:38:56 AM
It isn't insurmountable though! Leven still has a chance to finish ahead of me...
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: thodekey on August 17, 2017, 05:47:16 AM
That would mean a record-breaking points-difference of at least 96 points.  Now, that's what i would call impressive!  Go Leven, go for it! (sorry Rosco, you know i don't mean it)  ;)
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: danisthirty on August 17, 2017, 05:52:23 AM
That would mean a record-breaking points-difference of at least 96 points.  Now, that's what i would call impressive!  (dont) Go Leven, (dont) go for it! (sorry Rosco, you know i don't mean it)  ;)

Good luck to both players. But especially to Rosco. >:D
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: thodekey on August 17, 2017, 05:58:46 AM
That would mean a record-breaking points-difference of at least 96 points.  Now, that's what i would call impressive!  (dont) Go Leven, (dont) go for it! (sorry Rosco, you know i don't mean it)  ;)

Good luck to both players. But especially to Rosco. >:D

Go Kanye DAN or should i say DANYE West?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vwNcNOTVzY
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: Leven on August 17, 2017, 06:36:27 AM
That would mean a record-breaking points-difference of at least 96 points.  Now, that's what i would call impressive!  Go Leven, go for it! (sorry Rosco, you know i don't mean it)  ;)
Thanks, thodekey. Considering that my scores are always between 154 and 157 in this league, it's quite unlikely that I can achieve a victory like that. But I've learned from previous games (particularly the last one) that in Carcassonne you should never give up.
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: danisthirty on August 17, 2017, 06:43:52 AM
That would mean a record-breaking points-difference of at least 96 points.  Now, that's what i would call impressive!  Go Leven, go for it! (sorry Rosco, you know i don't mean it)  ;)
Thanks, thodekey. Considering that my scores are always between 154 and 157 in this league, it's quite unlikely that I can achieve a victory like that. But I've learned from previous games (particularly the last one) that in Carcassonne you should never give up.

+1 to this!
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: thodekey on August 17, 2017, 07:09:58 AM
@ Leven: i've seen that Rosco still needs The Cathars...that might help.   >:D

Woops, did i just suggested to bribing?  Well, i guess i played too much Sheriff of Nottingham games. -1 merit for me?   ;)
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: Leven on August 22, 2017, 02:40:33 PM
:red-meeple: Rosco vs :violet-meeple: Leven 176:190

Despite reaching a new personal gold-collecting record there was no real chance to win this game by the required huge PD. Rosco took some risk by claiming almost every cloister he drew (he scored a remarkable 45 points through cloisters), but eventually he survived my trapping attempts (for this he needed both the last CRRF and the last CFRR tile). Then having his followers back he could also equalize the majority on the main farm. (And in the end he made the same mistake that thodekey and Chooselife did previously: at the last CC-tile he thought that he had to remove one of his knights and unintentionally deployed another knight to his city. Fortunately this happened near the end, it probably didn't affect the outcome of the game.)

Thanks for the game Rosco. And congrats to danisthirty for winning the group. Good luck in the final. :(y)
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: danisthirty on August 24, 2017, 08:37:51 AM
Thanks Leven. This has been a very tight group with two players finishing without any lost games for either of them!

Congratulations on your finishing position too, even if it isn't the one you deserved, and good luck with the rest if the tournament!
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: MrNumbers on August 27, 2017, 03:31:47 AM
12 games played, 3 left.
Congratulations to Dan for winning the group! First 3 places are already defined, we need to know only last 3.
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: Chooselife on September 04, 2017, 02:39:00 AM
I am finally back from holidays.  O0
I should be able to play during working hours this week and maybe the following, evening will be tight.
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: MrNumbers on September 06, 2017, 02:28:31 PM
My first win in 4 games. And I won only with LAST tile, taking control over huge farm. I can echo myself - there is so much luck involved in these mini-expansions!
MrNumbers vs. Rosco
203:167
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: Jéré on September 06, 2017, 11:25:54 PM
My first win in 4 games. And I won only with LAST tile, taking control over huge farm. I can echo myself - there is so much luck involved in these mini-expansions!
MrNumbers vs. Rosco
203:167

Looks like Rosco could have prevented your farmer from joining the main field with his last tile!!

Quoting a former World Champion: "No tile is useless!"  ...so none should be wasted...
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: MrNumbers on September 07, 2017, 12:23:33 AM
My first win in 4 games. And I won only with LAST tile, taking control over huge farm. I can echo myself - there is so much luck involved in these mini-expansions!
MrNumbers vs. Rosco
203:167

Looks like Rosco could have prevented your farmer from joining the main field with his last tile!!

Quoting a former World Champion: "No tile is useless!"  ...so none should be wasted...
Since Rosco started the game, he could prevent me from joining with his one-before-last tile, and it was crrr (with Mage), so this tile also qualifies as a farmer joining prevention tile, and I told that to Rosco after the game. My small mistake was I didn't put a follower on other farmer joining tile (crfr tile on the west) to gain 3 points. But anyway, if Rosco even would prevent me from joining, I would have won by 1 or 2 points: Rosco wouldn't receive 1 point to his city, and I would receive, for example, 4 points instead of 3.
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: MrNumbers on September 07, 2017, 03:09:07 AM
MrNumbers vs. Chooselife
149:94

Group stage is over for me, 4th place :(

Only one game left to play in Fliers group!
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: Rosco on September 07, 2017, 07:16:20 AM
Don't worry we all know the outcome.  Rosco for last place.  I think I am going to leave Carcassonne leagues for a while after this.  I have had a monumentas losing streak and don't seem to be able to turn it around.  I am getting fairly frustrated with it all.  I will finish the leagues i am in so as not to let anyone down. 

Sent from my SM-A320FL using Tapatalk

Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: thodekey on September 07, 2017, 08:55:41 AM
Don't worry we all know the outcome.  Rosco for last place.  I think I am going to leave Carcassonne leagues for a while after this.  I have had a monumentas losing streak and don't seem to be able to turn it around.  I am getting fairly frustrated with it all.  I will finish the leagues i am in so as not to let anyone down. 

Sent from my SM-A320FL using Tapatalk

Sorry to hear that, Rosco.  I remember we had a flip-coin game that could have easily turned out the other way.  Most important is you still have fun playing it. 
And for your last game of the Fliers League: i wouldn't be too sure to loose...every game has to be played.  Anyway, good luck to the both of you and...ENJOY!
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: danisthirty on September 08, 2017, 02:32:33 PM
Don't worry we all know the outcome.  Rosco for last place.  I think I am going to leave Carcassonne leagues for a while after this.  I have had a monumentas losing streak and don't seem to be able to turn it around.  I am getting fairly frustrated with it all.  I will finish the leagues i am in so as not to let anyone down. 

Really sorry to hear read this dude. It can be rough when it feels like the tiles are constantly against you and you can't seem to shake it off. We've all been there though, with unlucky streaks, and the universe does eventually play fair and right itself. Things got so bad for me once that I almost lost a game to jungleboy :o but eventually the tide turned and I'm world champion again, even if only in my mind.

Fingers crossed that your mojo returns soon without you having to miss any competitions...
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: Rosco on September 08, 2017, 03:22:28 PM
emoji code10] emoji code10]

Sent from my SM-A320FL using Tapatalk

Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: Chooselife on September 19, 2017, 05:15:59 AM
I believe this one closes the group. Although I made an early error by giving rosco a lot of gold I ended up using flyers to my advantage and finally won a game.
(https://i.imgur.com/9pbv541l.jpg)
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: MrNumbers on September 19, 2017, 11:16:01 AM
Congratulations to all Fliers on finishing the group, the one and the only :D
Title: Re: Carcassonne Minis League: Fliers
Post by: danisthirty on September 19, 2017, 02:22:59 PM
Congratulations to all Fliers on finishing the group, the one and the only :D

Woohoo! I always knew we were the best group! Congrats fellow Fliers! :)