Author Topic: Weekly Online Game (Read 242536 times)

danisthirty · « **Reply #255 on:** February 19, 2015, 11:09:38 AM »

I should be available...

Hounk · « **Reply #256 on:** February 19, 2015, 11:19:52 AM »

OK, I had other plans for tonight, which I would not have delayed, if the option would have only be a "might be", if a third person shows up. But since it seems certain now, that this is happening, I'll be in, too.

danisthirty · « **Reply #257 on:** February 19, 2015, 12:28:27 PM »

I will be there. Just waiting for the laptop to start up...

Hounk · « **Reply #258 on:** February 19, 2015, 12:32:06 PM »

Great, we are already waiting in chat for you.

Hounk · « **Reply #259 on:** February 19, 2015, 02:36:06 PM »

So it did happen. Dan and jungleboy wanted to go to bed right after the game, so I at least post the screenshots for now.

danisthirty · « **Reply #260 on:** February 19, 2015, 03:32:26 PM »

Quote from: Hounk on February 19, 2015, 02:36:06 PM

Dan and jungleboy wanted to go to bed right after the game...

Hey, we're friends and everything but we're not *that* close!

Anyway, the game included Inns & Cathedrals, The Tower, King & Robber Baron, The Fliers and Mage & Witch so there was a lot going on. Right from the start of the game, JB and Hounk were competing for what quickly turned into a very valuable city. I kidnapped JB's large follower from the city purely because I could, but didn't really make any serious attempt to get into it myself. A short time later, an opportunity arose for me to block the city such that a cfcr tile would be required to complete it. This rendered it worthless as it also contained one of the cathedrals, so JB and Hounk kidnapped their own knights out of the city after this and it was abandoned.

Elsewhere JB had claimed a small farm which he was able to build many more cities on. Hounk soon got a farmer of his own on the farm too, and the battle really began. I made a couple of promising attempts to get onto the farm (one of which was successful) but all of them ended in my meeples being kidnapped either by existing towers that I simply hadn't spotted or new towers placed directly adjacent to my farmers.

Although I struggled to keep any meeples on our virtual table for long, I don't think I ever completely ran out and was able to claim small cities and short roads as I went. This was enough to keep my score ticking over nicely. JB seemed to run out of meeples quite quickly and this hindered him from really building up many points although his farm served as a nice little retirement fund for him until Hounk also got onto it.

Towards the end of the game, JB managed to win outright control of the farm back from Hounk but Hounk somehow removed one of JBs farmers with his last tower block so it ended in a draw between them for 48 points each. Although I didn't have a share in this, I had the King tile as well as the Robber Baron tile which ended up being even more valuable between them. I hadn't calculated how much they'd be worth, so the win came as a big surprise and with one tile to go I really didn't know who was going to come out on top.

Thanks to JB and Hounk for a great game. I haven't been part of the weekly game for a little while so this was a nice welcome back!

jungleboy · « **Reply #261 on:** February 19, 2015, 11:07:51 PM »

This was a fun game with an interesting combination of expansions. I think my main problem was that I wasn't in 'tower-mode' at the beginning of the game, so I was trying to build larger features (e.g. the cathedral city with Hounk) rather than completing smaller ones to keep my score ticking over. We were probably halfway through the tiles, or even slightly more, when I only had 11 points! I thought I had immunised my main farmer from the towers with 4+ non-tile towers in all directions but Hounk built up one tower towards the end of the game (and I didn't really realise he was doing this) and captured him, but it turns out that he could have taken the other farmer with the same tile anyway. I also tried to take the King tile away from Dan but he recognised this and decided to close my 6-tile city himself to retain the king tile. This turned out to be a good move as the King tile was worth plenty more than the city. Looking at the score breakdown, I get smashed on roads by both Dan and Hounk, so that was an area where perhaps I could have built up some more points in the first half of the game.

danisthirty · « **Reply #262 on:** February 19, 2015, 11:45:43 PM »

Quote from: jungleboy on February 19, 2015, 11:07:51 PM

I thought I had immunised my main farmer from the towers with 4+ non-tile towers in all directions but Hounk built up one tower towards the end of the game (and I didn't really realise he was doing this) and captured him, but it turns out that he could have taken the other farmer with the same tile anyway.

I didn't spot this either; Hounk was very skillful with the towers.

Since JB and Hounk shared the main farm but Hounk had a higher score than JB I saw him as more of a threat and so was happy for JB to have the main farm to himself (since I couldn't get onto it). I started building a tower that could have removed Hounk's farmer but didn't have enough tower pieces to complete this by myself once Hounk had spotted this and capped it with one of his meeples. This meeple would have been easily captured by an adjacent tower but this required an extra tower piece to get him. It wouldn't have been fair of me to have suggested anything directly, but I was surprised that JB was so keen to keep kidnapping my meeples as a little more collaboration would have ensured that he won the main farm outright...

As much as I enjoyed the game, I don't think the towers work very well in online games as they're too difficult to spot compared to when this is played up at a table and you can easily see where all the towers are and how tall they are. This was something I really struggled with, and I made some daft moves in places which were nothing short of willfully giving my meeples away to potential kidnappers!

jungleboy · « **Reply #263 on:** February 20, 2015, 12:19:46 AM »

Quote from: danisthirty on February 19, 2015, 11:45:43 PM

It wouldn't have been fair of me to have suggested anything directly, but I was surprised that JB was so keen to keep kidnapping my meeples as a little more collaboration would have ensured that he won the main farm outright...

Of course I wanted to get Hounk out of the farm, but you were well ahead on points so I knew that if you had a share of the farm, it would have been impossible for me to win the game, whereas it might have been possible for me to overtake Hounk even with a share of the farm (although this turned out not to be true in the end). There was one point where I had two tower pieces left and then I drew a tower tile that I could have used to remove one of your lurking farmers or to start building a tower to try to remove Hounk's farmer. But since this required two tower pieces and Hounk's turn was directly after mine, he could have capped the tower piece to save his farmer. So that's why I went for your farmer instead of his on that turn.

MrNumbers · « **Reply #264 on:** February 20, 2015, 01:46:03 AM »

Nice battle

Congratulations, Dan!

Really? Not a single point from cloisters?

Is it tower thing or strategy?

Hounk · « **Reply #265 on:** February 20, 2015, 03:09:43 AM »

Well, I did capture a monk early in the game, when it was worth 8 points. I think, cloisters are tough in Tower, unless you don't draw them late in the game, when the pieces are depleted, and then they are quite likely more valuable for a farm.

My big main mistake in the game was, that I underestimated the 8 tile circle road, when I was able to complete it. It was shared by Dan and JB, I put the witch on it a few turns before, so it was worth only 4 points, but I let the chance pass, although I considered closing it for the sole purpose, that none of them could remove the witch again before scoring, but not for the robber baron token. I must say, I am good at suggesting K&RB before the game starts, but once it is running, I tend to "forget" about that, get focused on other expansions and underestimate it's value.

About the tower: I agree, this is kind of sneaky, you would not have the chance, to build up a tower without anybody noticing on the table. But although not true to the board game, it was kind of fun, and I myself managed to be observant with my farmer, so like Dan noticed, when he build a tower, which I was aware of being dangerous up from 2 to 3, I instantly capped it. Also, if JB would have had an other piece by then, I would have capped it at 2, because then there might have been the chance, that both would team up, building up the tower 2 levels in one round. I also had a healthy supply of captured meeples from Dan and JB, so the adjacent towers to my capped tower weren't that big a thread, because I would have always get my captured meeple back and place it again, which would have always decreased the supply of tower pieces by one.

There were lots of options for me in the farm battle with towers, and they would have all worked out. I noticed quite early, that the tower in the first unfinished cathedral city was quite high from JBs and my attempts to retrieve our meeples (and also from the monk, I captured), so it was "just" three more pieces to put ontop, to get there, which was exactly the amount in my supply. So I started slowly to build up. Slowly, to make it less obvious, but also for other reasons: first of course, I only leveled it up, whenever there was nothing interesting else to do with the tile, second, I wanted to capture the farmer rather late in the game as a surprise, and third I wanted to save the pieces for some time, in case there turns out an even more important use for them, and this actually at some time seamed to come true when JB tried to sneak his big guy into the farm on a fffr cloister as well. When I draw the tower tile with the city and corner road (next to Dans last tile marked with a 2, with his 6 point farmer) I was torn apart between putting it next to the big guy to capture him (which would have left me without chance to get the other farmer) or blocking the option to join by using it the way, I finally did. This seamed high stakes for me, because, although I scanned the board, I could not find the second fffr tile, which was already placed nearby JBs and my cathedral city, but I figured out that first, there is a 2:1 chance, that JB does not draw this tile and second, that, if he does not draw it really late in the game, there might come another tower tile for me, to capture it anyway. I was nevertheless relived, when Dan pointed out to me, that the second cloister had been allready played anyway. Anyway snacking the big guy would have worked out the same, because in the end JB got his second farmer on the field anyway, and by consuming the big guy, I would have had the option, to get this one instead. Winning the farm on my own was not possible by then anyway. So why was I putting my last tile Nr. "3" where I put it anyway one might be curious about? It only gave Dan another small road for his RB. First I still had the hope, that Dan might use his last tower piece to capture JBs other farmer. It was understandable, that he did not, because I had more points then JB at that time, so he was more interested, to get 6 points from a final farmer on his own. Second it was a fun thing to do! First putting it there, so that everybody expects me to take that farmer, and then surprising them by not doing so.

What I was a little disappointed about, considering the combination of expansions, was "The Fliers". I suggested them because of whaleyland likes to point out, that they are good for getting into abandoned features. That might be true with P&D and Plague, but the randomness of the attack might turn out, that you get yourself right in front of a tower, so they are more limited here. Dan got himself onto a valuable road with inn of myself, there had been a failed attempt to get into my bigger city, before somebody dropped a cathedral on it, but other than that, the tiles were more used to connect fields. On our next game with Tower I would suggest to have K&RB and M&W again, but replace Fliers and I&C maybe with T&B. I think especially the Trader might work good with Tower and K&RB, because then, there might be chances of building a little bigger features. Nevertheless it was sue a really fun game. I enjoyed it a lot!

jungleboy · « **Reply #266 on:** February 20, 2015, 03:36:15 AM »

Wow Hounk, you were playing this game on a different level from me! I need to talk less trash with Dan and pay more attention.

Hounk · « **Reply #267 on:** February 20, 2015, 04:03:20 AM »

Well, you are still on a different level than me. So I have to pay a lot of attention, if I want to have a chance against guys like you! (Never the less I nearly always do some avoidable mistakes.)

danisthirty · « **Reply #268 on:** February 20, 2015, 04:59:53 AM »

Merit for that write-up Hounk!

It seems I too was playing much more casually by comparison although this was mostly because I suspected that any of my usual tactics would have been thwarted by the towers...

I'm ashamed to admit that I'd forgotten all about the King & Robber Baron until I happened to glance over at the scores and saw that I was winning both of them! As such, I had been in two minds as to whether or not I should close the road I shared with JB and the witch, and only did so because I needed the meeple back! I was far more deliberate with the King tile though, and closed JB's city when I had the chance to rather than leave it to anyone else to do the same. This is also why I was so determined that Hounk shouldn't close his last-minute city and take it away from me either!

Agreed about the fliers, they had little effect in this game although the tiles themselves were generally quite well used.

And with regard to the monks, I certainly tried to complete a few cloisters but they kept becoming vacant whenever I looked away!

jungleboy · « **Reply #269 on:** February 20, 2015, 12:24:42 PM »

For anyone who is interested, we are hoping to play a 4-player base-game only game starting in 20 minutes (20:45 BST / 21:45 CET) and we need one more player. It's a championship practice match. More details here.