Phil Alberg
United States
Cumberland
Rhode Island
You lost the game!
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THE BOARDGAMEGEEK GAME: Mark, Phil, Steve, Gary
I am both a boardgame geek and a Richard Breese fan, so this game was a no-brainer for me to pick up. Besides, my avatar is on the box (directly below "GEEK" on one of the long sides), so how could I resist.
This was the first time any of us had played the game. I was purple (R&D Games), Mark was yellow (Hans im Glueck), Steve was blue (Queen Games), and Gary was green (Treefrog Line). My initial tile draw contained all three #2 tiles (Fowl Play!). Was this fortuitous? I'm not sure. Either I would play them all in the same turn or I would play them singularly (and hope that the other players would miss them). So I held onto them for the first few turns.
The dice rolls for my first two turns yileded low numbers, so I decided to concentrate on the 1's, 2's and 3's. We all did alright selling games, except for Gary, whose games languished on the shelves until they were bought on the highest shelves. I retained the first player marker for the first two turns (much to Gary's chagrin, who was to my right), and then Steve had it for a couple of turns, then me, and finally Steve again. There was a turn when a chose to advertise and chose to re-roll a 1 -- and got another 1. D'oh! A couple of turns later I chose to re-roll two dice (1 & 2), and got another 1 & 2! Dice hate me...
By turn 4 I still hadn't completed any sets, and was starting to get worried, especially since there was a blue #3 (Chicago Express) that I needed in the discard pile. I also noted that none of the blue #1 tiles (Metro) had made an appearance yet, so Steve was apparently playing the same limited access game as me. I was glad that both of my purple #1 tiles (Aladdin's Dragons Cardgame) hit the discard pile on the previous turn -- one due to placement on the top shelf, and one due to me selecting it on the bottom shelf of store 2. But Mark had previously grabbed one on an earlier turn, so he was still in the running for completing a 1 set (and would also be looking for the elusive blue #1 tiles). I started playing my purple #2 tiles about this time, placing one on a bottom shelf and one on a top shelf. But wouldn't you know it, both were snatched up. I probably could have played this better, but am not sure how.
I picked the elusive blue #1 tile on the fifth turn to finish my first set, and was fortunate to pick up a yellow #2 (Carcassonne) and a yellow #4 (Amun-Re) on my last turn to complete three sets. But there was no blue #3 available during the last two turns. Drats. I thought before starting the game that I'd be lucky to complete two sets, so I felt pretty good about completing three sets, and having several 6's and 5's (with no duplicates). And I was leading before the end-game scoring. Yep, I felt pretty good. But wouldn't you know it, both Mark and Gary completed fours sets! And even Steve, who also completed three sets, scored more points for games than me at game-end. Mark took the win in a fairly close game. Final scores were: 143, 139, 136, 129.
Phil Mark Steve Gary
IN GAME 62 60 58 49
GAME SETS 77 83 78 80
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TOTAL 139 143 136 129
This has all the earmarks of becoming another PHIL game.
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Posted Wed Dec 16, 2009 9:12 pm