Wow! What a day!
Firstly was the Carcassonne seminar with Udo. I met Tom (Decar) and his wife, Ross (Rosco) and Geoff (cidervampire) outside the room about 10 minutes before the talk began. I was in a bit of a daze at the time but fortunately they recognised me and we all had a good chat beforehand.
Udo's seminar was great, and I especially enjoyed seeing the new game prototypes afterwards. Even the Star Wars one.
There then followed a meeple-stacking competition which members of Carcassonne Central (or their wives) did especially well at with 3 of us winning our head-to-head races and winning cool prizes for our efforts.
Next we had a short trip around one of the trade halls and met the couple behind Basically Wooden. They were even more awesome than their products and we chatted with them for a while and left them some of our Carcassonne Central business cards to give out to people before heading to the room next door for the Carcassonne tournament.
The first game of the tournament went very well for me. There were two reasonably big cities completed which three of us shared on both occasions but only two of us were in both cities. I drew more than my fair share of cloisters which I made the most of and ensured that one of the other players (my closest rival) didn't get a share in the main farm too. A few small cities and a couple of roads all helped to ensure my victory with a final score of over 100 which felt like pretty good going for a 4-player game.
(Blue for the win = me!)My next game wasn't so good. It was a very scrappy game and even though I had an equal share in the big city, I never seemed to be able to do very much with what I drew. Black played outstandingly well and seemed to have a never-ending supply of meeples as she was able to claim everything! She also had a lot of farmers down, and their value grew rapidly throughout the game. I struggled to get into this one, and ended up coming third which put an end to my hopes of finishing in the top four.
(someone else took Blue so I was on the back foot before this game had even begun by being Red)Then I went with Tom and his wife (whose name I've forgotten, sorry
), and Rosco to get some lunch. We didn't have long, but just enough time to get a chilli dog from one of the food vans. Then, back to the hall for our final games.
My round 3 game ended up going much better for me than I expected. The main feature of interest from the start of the game was a city that seemed to grow as more people tried to glom into it and then contract as they were then cut out! I was quite late to the party but managed to get 2 knights poised on the outskirts of the city, ready to join it. The city was never completed as Geoff (cidervampire) had been a little ambitious in his plans to take all the points for himself and this required him drawing the cccc tile to get his 3rd knight in. Another player drew it and it didn't go where he wanted, but his placement of a cccf tile joined my 2 knights into the city winning us 14 points each in the final scoring. Elsewhere, another player was surprisingly generous when he completed a 12 or 14-point city for me purely so that he could get the extra 3 points for his farmers. I'm not sure I would have won the game if not for this, but he certainly looked like he knew what he was doing at the time and I certainly wasn't going to stop him!
(my Dan meeples beat the Star Wars guys, the monkeys and the ducklings)I'd already convinced myself that I'd need 3 wins to qualify for a seat at the top table so I wasn't even listening as the names were being called out and was amazed and delighted in equal measure when Tom and Ross excitedly called me away from a conversation I was having with one of the other players! I hadn't been expecting this at all...
So, I was now just 2 head-to-head games away from winning the overall competition. I was quietly confident that I could at least win a place in the final but unfortunately things didn't go my way. I don't think I played an especially bad game at all, but it felt like one of those games where I just couldn't do anything right. For one thing, my opponent drew all but one of the cloisters (which he claimed and in most cases completed). And for another, he drew exactly what he needed to escape every time I tried to trap him somewhere!
Since I couldn't use any of my normal tricks to slow him down, and since he continued to complete his own features all the time, I gradually slipped behind and when my last ditch attempt to win the main farm outright failed (he drew the tile I needed to join it) I knew that I had no chance of catching up and lost by something like 25 points
(and forgot to take a photo).
I played my next game out of respect for my opponent, but neither of us were especially fussed about it as we were playing for third/ fourth overall (i.e. we'd both already lost). This game didn't go very well for me either, although I felt that my opponent was a lot stronger than my previous opponent as he had a much better idea of what I was trying to do and blocked me very well. My biggest mistake in this game was ending up with 2 meeples trapped on the same road as I couldn't generate enough points to stay in the game with what I had left. At one point I had a good chance of getting back into the game if I could have drawn one of the two remaining cccr tiles but unfortunately my opponent drew both of them. Meanwhile, he continued to draw exactly what he needed to generate 4 - 8 points every 2 or 3 turns with his one remaining meeple while I sat there twiddling my thumbs. I won both farms outright for a total of 21 points but this wasn't enough to close the gap significantly and he won by around 25 - 30 points I think.
(2 farms and a long road not enough to make up for another bad game by me playing as Blue again)However, regardless of the fact that I really messed up an outstanding opportunity to win the competition (something I doubt whether I'll ever be in the position to be able to do so again) it was still a fantastic day and I went home feeling satisfied with having come fourth. Maybe next year I can do better. Maybe not. We'll see.
Meeting Udo and receiving all the various gifts from him was awesome, and getting to spend time with Tom, Ross and Geoff was fantastic! It felt like we'd known each other for years and I loved being part of our little Carcassonne Central crew; there was a real sense of camaraderie between us as we made our way around the expo and chatted with other fans of Carcassonne, handing out our business cards and Dan meeples to anyone who showed a passing business. Guys, I really can't emphasis enough how much I enjoyed your company and support today, and I can't wait to do it again next year! You rock!
(various wonderful goodies that I brought back from the expo with me, mostly gifts from Udo and Tom; thanks so much guys!)
(knowing how much I love Star Wars, Tom/ Ross/ Geoff [I'm not sure who's predominantly to blame] bought me this memento to help console me after losing both of my head-to-head games)
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June 09, 2016, 02:27:25 AM
