Author Topic: Asparagus makes a meal of it (Read 9660 times)

asparagus · « **on:** April 30, 2016, 12:52:53 PM »

I want to start reporting back on my Carcassonne games as we play such a variety of combinations.

This time we (I and my daughter) played just base game plus towers. It's actually our favourite for duels at the moment. We don't take it personally and we neither of us feel we have mastered it. I have one all of the tower games so far - usually by a large margin. It's the only combination where I currently feel confident about beating her. Actually I only one by two points so may be she's catching up on me even in my stronghold.

This game ended up hinging on a 24-point farm. Black (my daughter) was making three attempts to join on. I calculated that one of these was already doomed. After a bit of tile-counting I blocked another. But she had 2/3 chance of getting the last monastery and in any case could remove one of my farmers with a tower. So I carefully placed a tile to block the monastery and capped the tower.

Immediately after I took the photo my phone started updating and I feel upset at how long that takes. I can't post the photo till it finishes. I feel far more angry at the phone upgrade than at the capture of any of my meeples.

Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=2686.0

SRBO · « **Reply #1 on:** April 30, 2016, 01:33:54 PM »

Hahaha you use tile-counting against your daughter?

How old is she?

asparagus · « **Reply #2 on:** April 30, 2016, 01:36:17 PM »

Quote from: SRBO on April 30, 2016, 01:33:54 PM

Hahaha you use tile-counting against your daughter? How old is she?

seventeen

SRBO · « **Reply #3 on:** April 30, 2016, 02:25:28 PM »

Quote from: asparagus on April 30, 2016, 01:36:17 PM

Quote from: SRBO on April 30, 2016, 01:33:54 PM
Hahaha you use tile-counting against your daughter? How old is she?

seventeen

Oh well, then i don't blame you! hahah

asparagus · « **Reply #4 on:** May 01, 2016, 01:20:51 PM »

Our second update. We played bridges, barns and twelve tiles of Solazy's walls. We don't play those tiles with any special rules - they just separate farms.

The Solazian walls made it very hard to get the barn down so basically the first person to get a barn down did well. It happened this was not me. Before we scored the farm we were on equal points but then the barn scored 40 points.

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asparagus · « **Reply #5 on:** May 06, 2016, 01:30:43 PM »

Just played a game of barns, Solazian walls and "walls that cut corners". This included thief six year old who is banned from the next game for bad behaviour. I came last though. I'm finding barns hard tactically.

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asparagus · « **Reply #6 on:** May 07, 2016, 11:47:47 AM »

A standard game of Towers with the biggest tower I've ever seen. I won 117 to 88. Early on Black used towers to still a largish city and also had a biggish farm. I could see no way in so I just captured lots of her meeples. She was still beating me most of the game but I concentrated efforts on the farm carefully goading her into using her last towers so I could use my last two to take dominance of the farm. I also had to cap one tower. After that it was traditional tactics where I tried to block Black's attempts to rejoin the farm. There was also a side battle on a large city that I managed to equalise on. We knew the last four tiles were RRFF, RRFF, RFRF and RFRC. The RFRC would have enabled Black to join onto the farm and win if I played the fifth from last tile one way but the two RRFF would have done the same if I played the other way. So it was clear which I went for and I got the RFRC tile as the last tile so I won. But to deprive of three extra points on the farm, Black gave me an extra point on a monastery.

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danisthirty · « **Reply #7 on:** May 07, 2016, 01:32:59 PM »

Congratulations on your victories. It sounds like your tile counting is very accurate!

asparagus · « **Reply #8 on:** May 07, 2016, 01:45:10 PM »

Quote from: danisthirty on May 07, 2016, 01:32:59 PM

Congratulations on your victories. It sounds like your tile counting is very accurate!

My opponent's is much better. It's only with towers I seem to be able to beat her.

danisthirty · « **Reply #9 on:** May 08, 2016, 01:01:01 AM »

I seem to remember playing her in Round 3 of the 2014 UK championships. We came joint 2nd, although her last tile was a cloister which she could have placed elsewhere for 1 additional point (she looked quite annoyed when she realised this!)

asparagus · « **Reply #10 on:** May 08, 2016, 01:06:08 AM »

Quote from: danisthirty on May 08, 2016, 01:01:01 AM

I seem to remember playing her in Round 3 of the 2014 UK championships. We came joint 2nd, although her last tile was a cloister which she could have placed elsewhere for 1 additional point (she looked quite annoyed when she realised this!)

I suspect that may have been 2015. She did a lot better in 2014 than 2015, because in 2015 I had no illusions about chances, where as she was stressed hoping to improve on 2014.

I have to admit that would have been quite annoying. An extra point would have made a big difference in one's overall rankings in that case.

Edit: She thinks it was 2014.

danisthirty · « **Reply #11 on:** May 08, 2016, 04:03:32 AM »

I'm pretty sure it was 2014 as I didn't share any finishing positions with anyone in 2015 (1st/ 3rd/ 1st). It was the same game as she and my two other opponents shared a huge city worth around 35 - 40 points if complete. I felt bad for rendering it incompleteable when it required one more tile to complete it but I would have been last by a very long way if it had been completed!

asparagus · « **Reply #12 on:** May 08, 2016, 04:11:07 AM »

Quote from: danisthirty on May 08, 2016, 04:03:32 AM

I felt bad for rendering it incompleteable when it required one more tile to complete it but I would have been last by a very long way if it had been completed!

You should not feel bad about it. She regularly renders my cities incompleteable. Even my six year old would relish the chance to render my cities incompleteable. And neither of them ever feel guilty.

asparagus · « **Reply #13 on:** May 08, 2016, 02:20:14 PM »

Just had my most humiliating game in a while. I only lost 96 to 113 but I played really badly. I was blue. I think I'll just post the images and drop the mike.

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asparagus · « **Reply #14 on:** May 14, 2016, 04:20:16 AM »

This time I forgot to take a photo with the meeples in place. This might be just as well seeing as I came third. I am however beginning to get a sense of what is going on with the labyrinth. It is quite thematic. There is a novel set in Carcassonne called Labyrinth though I have not read it. The meain issue with the labyrinth is that meeples tend to get stuck in it and not come out. I tried putting meeples on roads (to get ahead) but I never drew a labyrinth so it did not work. If you play phantom and labyrinth you might be able to get two on a labyrinth if you draw it.

I suspect the correct tactic is to avoid roads a bit more (just one good road maybe) but keep two or more meeples in hand. Then may be you have a decent chance of forcing your way in. Maybe I'd be more cautious on farms too.

Anyway in this game the six-year old one with my eldest daughter one point ahead of me. She had manically competed on a large city. It ended up uncompleted but she got I think 20 points out of the complex where as the elder daughter got just 1 point. The two daughters shared the first labyrinth for 16 points. But the youngest got the second labyrinth all to herself including a long side road and it also helped complete two of her monasteries. The rest of us shared the farm worth 24 points but it was not enough. Also some tiles fell on the floor but noone noticed.