Billabong Boardgamers - 31st October, 2000
Present: Andrew, Alan, Debbie, Donna, Julian W., Craig, Karen
Debbie Pickett writes:
TAJ MAHAL
This game was started at the request of Andrew, who owns the game but hadn't played it yet because of a lack of willing opponents. I for one am always happy to be completely thrashed at a bluffing game, so Donna joined us and we set to work. Andrew had read the rules, so after what was probably the quickest Taj Mahal rules explanation in history, we were under way.
Donna and I, being a little more experienced at this game, understood both the value of the elephant cards and the importance of maintaining a generous hand size. We withdrew from a number of the early rounds to get up a good hand size. Andrew was left to win several palaces cheaply and build an impressive network of seven regions. Since Donna was more interested in the elephant/octagon strategy, Andrew held on to most of the special white cards for much of the game. Me, I blundered along in true Debbie-at-Taj-Mahal fashion. I had a half-hearted network of six regions but it didn't score very much, partly because the board layout just wasn't really suited to the network strategy this time.
Donna pulled away in the last round with a ridiculous twelve or so points from the final octagon.
Final scores: Donna 75, Andrew 63, Debbie 44
My rating: Still a 6 in my book, though I really cannot seem to do well in this game unless I get a good network going.
UNION PACIFIC
The other table was just not finishing games at the same time as us, so we picked up another game I'd brought along, another that Andrew owned but hadn't yet played. Again, the rules explanation went well - I've had practice explaining this favourite game of mine, so I can cover it pretty quick now. We played with the standard second-edition rules.
Andrew concentrated on the green and red lines, while I tried to get a monopoly in black and violet. Donna did well with brown, until I cut it off (as it can be so easily), and orange. Grey didn't get going at all, yellow suffered at the start as it was the initial choice of both Donna and me, and white didn't get very far with Andrew and me tying for the most shares. Blue was started by me, but Donna got a share in it, forcing me to play my two shares to take it back. I briefly managed to take over green from Andrew, but he wrested it back by the time the last payout came up. Andrew and Donna went crazy for Union Pacific shares, while I kept just the one I had from the start of the game. I find that UP shares aren't that big a deal with only a few players, since the difference in payouts between first and third isn't very much.
The first dividend payout caught us unawares, so apart from our originally declared shares, no one had bothered to declare anything. The second and third dividend payouts came about 40 cards into the deck, very close to each other; the last came just 15 or so cards later. Much of the deck hadn't been used at all. All of us were caught with cards in our hands that we should have declared, which helped me since I was dabbling in most of the companies for a second place in several of them, and two valuable monopolies (one with only one card).
Final scores ($ x 106): Debbie 143, Andrew 123, Donna 106
My rating: I think this game deserves a promotion to 7 or maybe even 8 in my opinion. This is a game that I am always happy to play.
DOLCE VITA
This little filler by the other Reiner (Stockhausen) was just about the right length for us to finish at the same time as the other table's Taj Mahal. We decided to play four rounds, then upped it to five when it was clear that there were still cards to be had on the table. (The recommended six rounds is just too many for three players, as the game degenerates when all players have reached their optimal scores.)
Experience and an eye for cash probably helped me to victory here, but my opponents were no slouches either. The gap in the final scores is something of an illusion; this was a fairly close game.
Final scores ($ x 105): Debbie 51, Donna 43, Andrew 40
My rating: This is a fun little filler which is always fun to explain the rules of. I really get into the character of the rich snob turning her nose up at a puny $100,000 house. I give this one a 6.
Alan Stewart writes:
MÜ
Alan, Karen, Julian, Craig
All over in 3 hands. I was dealt the cards, I became Chief in each hand. I won.
In the second hand Craig and Julain both played a 5 and a 0, so there was no Vice.As Karen didn't play another card onto her bid 7, I rewarded her by choosing her as partner. The only trumps were 6s, with a nice bonus.
In the last hand I was dealt six 7s (including one of each colour), two 9s, and a 9,8 and I chose Karen as my partner as she had bid another 9 (which actually got trumped when I led to it!). This lead to furious bidding, and Craig's nomination of 1s as the minor trump may have been a problem, but my seven card bid was won with 4 triangles to spare.
Julian 19 + 7 =26 +0=26
Karen 4 +60=64 +83=147
Craig 58 +12=70 +11=81
Alan 79 +74=153 +129=282
Craig Macbride writes:
WAS STICHT?
Julian took a commanding lead. He made his goal (or someone else's, as dealer) every round for the first 3 or 4 round. Alan was making a few goals, but the rest of us were languishing. However, Julian's last goal was to win no tricks, and that goal eluded him for quite some time, allowing me to get a few goals.
In the end, Julian and I were both successful in getting our final goal on the same round. Upon counting up the points, our totals were identical. The first time I've ever seen a tie in this game. Alan and Karen were tied on goals, but Karen was ahead on points.
Scores:
Craig - 5 goals (25 points)
Julian - 5 goals (25 points)
Karen - 3 goals (14 points)
Alan - 3 goals (12 points)
TAJ MAHAL
Prompted by the others having played Taj Mahal already, and it being a game Karen hadn't played before, we gave it a go too. At the start, I had a nice selection of cards in one colour. In the past, I've done very poorly due to hardly ever getting the reusable wild cards, so I made a decision to make an early start on building palaces and collecting princes/princesses. While others gave up the round 1 fight, Alan stuck it out with me for very little gain. Julian likewise tried to compete at times when the cards just didn't work out for him. Karen built up some handy networks of palaces and a few octagons. I worked on winning octagons only when they were particularly valuable to me and only trying to build palaces where they could connect to others. Alan was looking way behind, but managed to hold the +2 wild card for a few turns and collected masses of cards at the end to gain 11 points on cards in the final turn.
Scores:
Craig - 48
Karen - 42
Alan - 39
Julian - 31