January 2006 Archives

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Another day for disc golf and this time at the Lutherin Church. This time I came an hour early to practice after eating at Marsala Wok. We still had problems with trees. Here Jon retreives John's disc. Unfortunately, Jon would later throw a shot that went really high in a tree. And it was also unrecoverable since there were too many thorny vines to allow Jon to climb the tree.

However the day was not all bad. For the first round, the teams were tied. John and Rehana versus Adam, Jon, and myself. So we went another round with the same trees. This time, at a long putt to hole 7, I was able to sink it. And then on hole 9, John was not able to sink a long putt to tie the game and I was able to sink our putt for the win!. For the third round, I had some nice throws for holes 2 and 3. They landed close enough to putt for a birdie.

Tichu

Jon had to work late tonight (It must have been important since tonight is his favorite night of the week). So, we started a game of Tichu and we would stop when Jon showed up. I notice that I don't call Tichu enough. And Mike commented that if your Tichu made percentage is 100%, then you are not calling enough. So, call Tichu I did. Hopefully, John is getting more comfortable with this game. After all, we did have three one-twos. Now, as a homework assignment, he needs to call Tichu and make it.

The first picture was my first Tichu hand (a Queen is hidden). The second picture is a dilema. Do you call Grand Tichu on that? Well I called Tichu on it after the pass. And the third picture is Mike's over-Tichu call on that same hand.

Ark

The second game was another new one for me. This is an area control game with rather cute animals. The only problem with it is that players do not immediately see correct plays that they can do. It takes a litttle searching and thinking before making a make. Which turns this supposed 45 minute game into a longer game. Still, with experienced player, this game would play better and fit its intended category as a cute filler game.

Hacienda

Ahh, another meaty game for me and another one that I wanted to play. Could you tell that a game order of mine arrived? (Along with Caylus and Mesopotamia). However, you do need to know how to start this game off correctly. Of course, I started incorrectly and lost the game because of it. Still one that I want to play more of.

In this game, I had four bombs and yet, my partner is the only one who called tichu! Sigh! Crap + bomb does not a tichu hand make. The other flawed part of this equation is a last hand substitution of MikeA for Jon. Who called Grand Tichu and made it. Unfortunately, Ed completed the one-two for the win...

P.S. I found another scoring discrepancy which gave my team 100 points...

GemBlo

Another playing of this game and getting to the burned out point... Yes, its somewhat light and quick. Yes, it can handle up to 6 people. But there are many games in that category. Give the others a chance too. This was my first game where I was hosed by multiple people. Like four people even. Sigh... Nothing much you can do in that situation. Everyone kept blocking off avenues of escape for me.

Railroad Tycoon

The next game was in the meaty category for me. Age of Steam is a game that I would probably like if I played it. However, there is an AOS-savant in our group. And playing with that person means that you play for second place at best. And then there's this whole thing about how tough the financial model and how easy it is to become broke. So when I could play RT with an easier group (<duck>Ed being the easiest</duck>), I decided to try it out. And the financial model is much easier. Two of the people in our game were taking out massive loans in my opinion. The board is much bigger also so you don't have to fight with other people so much (but there is less of a choice of rail connections. Much to my dissapointment when I needed to make a connection to Boston but couldn't). The only problem with this game is there are special cards which come out randomly. So if you can fufill it easily, you score points but if not, then someone else does.

Il Principe

Ah, another game that I wanted to play. However, we messed up the rules to this game. This turned the game into one where you don't want to build cities and where you want to get ownership of the special tiles that score for you when others build cities. Which is what I did. And when people built cities, I would score 25%-75% of what they did. I am sure that the correct rules would turn this game into something much different. So this playing doesn't count much.

Geschenkt

Ahh, I like this game. Either you get lucky or you don't. And this time I was very lucky indeed. The second to last card turned out to be the 14 which I desperately needed to fill in the missing gap.

Mesopotamia

Another game that I wanted to play. In this game, I was desperately searching for rocks. You see, you need them to increase your manna. And you need your manna to be at the maximum in order to win the game. Gods demand high-level sacrifices after all. It was only at the end of the game, when I found the needed rocks. But by then, Ed and Susan were one turn away from winning the game.

Another day of disc golf. This time we went to the Rivery in Georgetown since we were making a trip up north for gaming. The teams were Jon and myself versus John and Mike. And our team started off poorly with 2 shots behind! Jon pulled a move of mine and launched his disc 90 degrees off its intended course and straight into a pond. After trying the retreiver and failing because the disc was floating onto of a mat of algae, Jon gave up and walked out to the disc.

Another poster for a competitive match. However, given our performance, I don't think that we are ready yet.

John had a really good throw that skipped into the area next to the goal and then skipped into the river. By this time, the retreiver was too tangled to use, so he used the low tech method of a big stick.

And now its my turn to get into trouble. I was using my putter (Champion Aero) on this course because it flies pretty straight (well, when I can thow it decently). And since it is light, it has a tendency to remain stuck high in a tree rather than falling down. So Jon steps up to the plate and rescues my disc. Which brings us to my first term for Disc Golf. And that is Treejected: tr. v., having a throw bounce off of a tree and stop or go wildly off the intended course.

What was probably the most amusing thing of the day was the fact that Jon and I discovered how to taunt Mike into throwing randomly. Since we often have to make a throw behind trees, there is one throwing style that you can try. And that is called the tomahawk. Which I guess is named after how one would throw a throwing-axe (um, like a tomahawk). So, an overhand throw through trees is not a guaranteed thing. When we figured out that we could chant "Tomahawk... Tomahawk!" and Mike would decide to attempt an over the tree throw, we started doing that all of the time. Which fustrated John to no end. He would say "you know, you just just throw it normally like this..."

Afterwards, we went to Duke's for some bar-b-que before making the trek to South Oklahoma...

Hey! That's my fish!

Ed brought a new game for us to play with the theme of penguins trying to collect the most fish. You have two penguins on an iceberg that is littered with fish. On your turn, you move a penguin in one of the six directions for as long as you want up to another penguin or the last hex. And your goal is to stake out territory for yourself that only you can collect. I was concentrating on staking out an area with one of my penguins while letting the other languish. However, luckily for me, the other players left an area for that one. So I was able to create two small icebergs that only I could collect. But I couldn't collect enough fishes for the win. Jon was able to create a bigger space for himself.

Gemblo

Another playing of this game for me. It seems to be the popular choice for a filler game for up to six people.

Antiquity

Ahh, another playing of Antiquity for me. And I still haven't won yet. But I want to play it more so I can master this game! The game can play quickly if every player is experienced with the rules. The only problem is that there are a lot of bits for this game. You must set up the board, move bits around during play, and then clean up a whole hell of a lot of games at the end.

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After getting home last night, I stopped to pick up mail. And as coincidence would have it, I recieve an advertisement for a Firestone special in the mail. So, I head over there Sunday morning and see if they can set me up. I learn that they don't carry them in stock. I then drive over to NTB and learn the same thing. Defeated, I drive back home.

The next step is to plug my tire. But when I walk back into the garage I notice another flat tire! Gah!!! I was able to plug the first tire. So I install it and then remove the 2nd tire. But when I plugged that one, it would not hold air. Sigh. So now I am forced to use the spare.

I need new tires anyways. I am running low on tread. So I will call a tire place and have them order the tires for me. And have the tires aligned as well. Since I notice an abnormal wear pattern on the second tire.

Well, I wasn't about to let a little thing like a flat tire prevent me from going downtown and photographing the UT tower at night. It was a little interesting driving my truck. I kept the speed at 55 MPH the whole way up and down the interstate roads. And I was passed by everyone! I think that was the first time I had driven so slow...

I was a little worried leaving my flat tire in the bed of the pickup truck at night in the UT area. But I hoped for the best and went off into the night. It was pretty crowded there! I think every Austinite felt the need to take pictures tonight. I went tonight because there was going to be a celebration tomorrow night and I thought that it was going to be a freaking mad house.

Most of the people were by the fountain facing north towards the tower. So I wandered off to see what the west facing view would be like. And there were only a handfull of people around taking pictures. Much more reasonable.

I was able to get some pictures of two sides of the tower. And then I wandered back to the fountain. Where I waited paitently to get set up for a photo. I met a nice guy called Rod and we chatted about Canon equipment and taking pictures. I also found out that he was an IBMer and lived in Round Rock as well! Its a small world sometimes...

I should buy photoshop sometime and work with the RAW files a bit. See if I can tweak them and improve them a bit. Anyways, here are the results. The tripod was not set up perfectly plumb. But live and learn...

Afterwards, I went to a good vegetarian restaurant called Veggie Heaven. I would recommend it to anyone and I am not a vegetarian...

I haven't been to Tim's in a while and since his copy of Indonesia came in, I decided to bring it to him. I play with Tim's new X-Box 360 for a little bit until Mary comes in. He was bringing some games that I really wanted to play (Ark and Jenseits von Theben). But he also had recently bought a new Prius. So I asked to see it. And on the way back in, I noticed that I had a flat on my truck! Fortunately, John was nice enough to stay outside and help me put on the spare (and figure out how to drop the spare from under the truck bed). When we went back in, I found out that Marty hosed us by starting a game of Ark which I really wanted to play. But there was some good luck to go with that bad luck. I was able to find out early and fix my tire before going downtown at dusk to photograph the UT tower.

Category 5

John suggested we play this English version of 6 Nimmt as a filler until more people came in to play. There were only three people playing which made it seem easier for some reason. Not much hosage went on. I was able to escape with one point while John took a lot of them.

Caylus

A couple of people came in so John suggested Caylus and I accepted. Unfortunately, this was a learning game for two of the people. So this game took a long time to complete. And, as well, they were pretty slow players who liked to discuss likely outcomes of possible moves. I tend to not like people who take a long time and agonize over their moves.

Another round of disc golf. Jon and myself started badly on the first hole by going down two points. And from then on we would bounce up and down as we tried to catch up. Which we finally did towards the end of the game. On the last hole we had tied it up to even

I threw another 90 degree-offcourse throw again. Gahhhhhhhhhh! This one sailed over trees out into the great unknown. So we all walked around searching for the lost disc. And fortunately Jon found it!!

We did a little bit of exploring today and noticed a fenced in section that contained a small cave. And apparently, John likes to go spelunking...

Rook

We started out the night with a game that John brought called Rook. He described it as a trick taking game, so we decided to play it. I later learned that he didn't use the correct rules. However, the rules he explained were more interesting. On your turn, if you cannot follow the suit that was led, you must trump if possible. You also must over-trump if possible. Which would be a bad thing if your partner is currently taking the trick. This makes the bidding phase more interesting.

You bid the number of point that you think that your team will win. Whoever wins the bid gets five extra cards that they may swap out with into their hand (from 0 - 5 of them). Then the five cards (new or not) are left aside and whoever gets the last trick will also get these cards (which may have points in them).

Don Pepe

We decided to play this light and quite mean spirited filler game. And it has been a while since we played it which is a shame. Its not that bad of a game as long as everyone is in the mood for singing "It's your birthday!".

Caylus

Another playing of Caylus for me and it still hasn't lost its appeal for me. The only mistake that I made was in the second to the last round of the game. I had built 3 of a possible 4 castles for the majority. And I decided to keep the last one unbuilt in order to try and get the majority again (which is normally a good thing). However, Doug was able to build enough castles first to stop anyone else from building. In the end, we both tied for the win! Now that I think about it, if I would have built one more castle, I would have gotten two more victory points. Sigh.

Geschenkt x 2

I happen to like this light push your luck (or avoidance) game. The only dillema is what cards are missing from the deck and how many rounds can you keep other people chipping to avoid a card that you want.

Tichu

Jon really wanted to play Tichu since he did not play during lunch this week. So his penality was to play with John. On the first hand, Jon wished for an ace that I didn't have but John did (hehehe).

Since Ed and I were not partners, I had hoped to change my luck. And at the beginning, we were dominating in points each hand. But somehow, in the last three hands, they came back and pipped us for the win!

I was really surprised last night to find this on my door step. It is my order of 3 copies of Indonesia from Splotter! The last time that I heard from an employee at Splotter on December 12th was that they were going to ship it out that week but hadn't received my fax yet. I, of course, resent the fax and responded to the email asking for them to please notify me that they shipped it. Of course, I heard nothing from them. And over time I emailed them asking what was going on. With no response. Sigh.

Well, at least they seem to hose everyone equally. They still haven't billed my credit card yet.

Well, I made two mistakes today. The first was not correctly valuing my hand against Adam's first Tichu call. I strongly suspected I could stopped him. And I should have called Tichu as well.

When Mike called Grand Tichu and Ed passed me the Mah Jong, I made the standard wish for an ace. However, Adam immediately bombed and led a single. Which forced me to play an ace. Ace wish rejected in your face!

My second mistake was amusing. It was the last hand and Ed picked up all of his cards. So I blindly called Grand Tichu. I picked up the Dragon, Phoenix, Mah Jong, an Ace, and other cards. So it was a pretty good hand. I passed Mike a 2. I didn't wish for the 2, but instead wished for an ace hoping to improve my hand slightly. Towards the end, when I played a pair of aces, Mike bombed with 2s and then went out. I would have made it except for that bomb!

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Another unseasonably warm and sunny day of dic golf for us. This time, we had a new player, Jeff. We went to the Lutherian Church again. I like this course. It is short, has no water, and not much trees to get in the way. This time, we played 3 rounds. But unfortunately, no one was interested in mixing up the teams.

Afterwards, we went to eat lunch. I went to Masala Wok and John and Jon went to Freebirds. I would certinaly eat at Masala again.

Thanks for the cookies, Mom! They made me happy...

I went to an African restaurant in Pflugerville today. It was quite dead with only one other customer during the time I was eating lunch. And the African food was a minor part of the menu. But it was interesting. It would have been better with more veggies. I am not a fan of a meal that consists of a lot of two foods (like chicken and rice). Variety is a good thing.

What was interesting was this thing that was setup on a table. A game perhaps? Mancala?

I experimented and made some cheese fondue for tonight. It was made with Emmental and Gruyére cheeses.

Ys

We spent some time trying to pick a game. With six people, we usually break up into two three player groups. John suggested playing this game since he hears that it is comming back into print. And why not with the current buzz and focus on their new game, Caylus. So I tought the rules and we played. John was able to pull a come back from behind move and tie me for first during final scoring. Nice play John!

Caylus

Another playing of this hot new game. And one that was thematic as well since both games played tonight were Ystari games.

We were robbed! Ed subconsciously gave the other team 100 points...

Another vacation day for me, another day with no rain, another unseasonably warm day, another round of disc golf. This time we did Cat Hollow with Chuy's afterwards. Since there were only three people playing today, we didn't do any teams. The first hole was even, but then I started messing up and I quickly fell behind the pack. So then I stopped counting shots. Which was a much more enjoyable experience. No stress, no worries, just be outside and have fun. Jon got to climb another fence for me to retrieve my disc. And John had a couple of lucky tree shots where the disc hit a tree but then ricocheted back on target.

At around the 15th hole, we came up apon a group of about eight disc golfers. Since they had so many people, they were slow. This gave us the opportunity to play P.I.G. at the previous hole while we were waiting. I wish we would do this more often as it noticabily improved our putts.

Forum Romanum

Hopefully, this will be a good omen for the year as I played my first game of the year after a wait of only ten hours! (I was not up to staying up late into the morning and also woke up later than usual). So I started off this late start to the morning with an old out-of-print classic called Forum Romanum. The game board is layed out in a seven by seven grid. Each player in a four player game has eight tokens which can only cover 65% of the board when placed. And yet the rows, columns, diagonals, and individual rectangles can only score when the item is full. So, after you are done placing your pieces, you pick up and move the pieces to other areas of the board. This can cause problems for people trying to score an area that they have majority in since it needs to be full before it scores.

Our group really discussed potential moves for everyone and their consequences. And there was deal making as well. So the experience was a little bit diminished for me. Still, it was a cool game with simple rules and a meaty feel.

Railroad Dice 2

Fortunately for me, I was able to play another game on my "must play" list. And this game has potential for me after playing it. It has a slightly different feel than the original. The board is much smaller and the shares of ownership have been removed. You are only concerned with trying to connect to all the stations and transport passengers. The dice are still cool. And there are two different kinds of dice in play (although Anye did have three special brown dice that had one different face than the orange ones).

The micro-trivial awards:

• Worst restaurant experience: Chabucas
• Restaurant that I wanted to eat at but didn't: Golden Palace
• Most friendliest gamer: Kevin Nunn
• Unknown to me game to me that made my must buy list: Forum Romanum
• Cute unknown to me game that I regret not playing: Ark
• Games I wanted to play but didn't: Die Macher, Il Principe, Struggle of Empires
• Game that I looked forward to playing against experienced players but didn't play: Tichu
• Game the had the best niggly bit: Forum Romanum wooden coins
• Tournament I wanted to enter but did not (for the worst restaurant experience): 42
• Con that I didn't know existed until late in the year; was undecided on attending; but, in the end, glad I attended: Lone Star Game Fest
• Thing I'm glad the hotel provided: free Wi-Fi