Gathering Report - Day 3

After breakfast in the hotel with Bobby Warren and Buzz Aldrich, I made it down to the game room about 11:00am.... Zack Boatman and Evan Tannheimer joined us and we played Notre Dame. Interesting game with a lot going on. There were a few points which produced the "Ah, so that is how I completely screwed myself over..." and the "Don't let this happen to you..." thoughts as well, but the game was a lot of fun and the board is ingeniously made so that the pieces fit together in 3 different ways to accommodate 3, 4 or 5 players.

Next up was a game of Pillars of the Earth with Brian and Rebecca Leet and Julie Luxenberg. This is new for a lot of players here, and Brian edged me on the final scoring by just enough to win by a point. I was followed by Rebecca, and Julie was just a few points back, her heavy investment in metal not paying off sufficiently when we took all the metal craftsmen, forcing her to go to the market and sell 5 metal for 25, then use it to buy stone and wood for her craftsman. Had she got a metalworker at the end, it would have gone much differently.

Next up was a (Full, not the shorter Advanced) game of Through the Ages with Doug Hoover, Kevin Bender, and Rhonda Bender. We started around 3:30, and finished around midnight, having broken for about 90 minutes to eat in the middle. Great game, and I whisked off to an early start, at the end of the Age of Antiquity scores were Dave:20, Doug:3, Rhonda:2, Kevin:1. After the first age, I was still doing well, scores were Dave:44, Doug:16, Rhonda:5, Kevin:4. Doug then got a lethal combination we dubbed the "Shakespeare Gambit", getting all the bonuses his leader (William Shakespeare) could get him, and began scoring 14 every time. I had a strong military, but could not seem to find any war or aggression cards to knock him back. After the second Age, scores were Doug:83, Dave:61, Rhonda:24, Kevin:20. My inability to use my military continued in the third age, and I could also not find a scoring card to add to the events to save my life, and all of the scoring cards were put in by my opponents, so the final scoring benefited them much more than I (they held back the ones for largest military, most Smiley faces, most spors complexes, etc, to prevent my scoring them). Final scores were Doug: 188, Kevin: 167, Rhonda: 166, Dave: 165. Oh how the mighty fell...

If I find that on the prize table, it is a must take...

Finally, i ended the night with a trio of light games with Rob Smolka, Sharon Madden, and Terry Bailey. We played Taluva (Rob won over me by a single hut, followed by Sharon and then Terry), Yspahan (Sharon won with 81 points, scoring 37 on the final turn alone!, followed by Rob, me, and Terry) and To Court the King (AKA: Um Krone Und Kragen) in which Sharon caught the king with 7-6's, only to be passed by Terry's 8-1's, which was passed by my 8-4's, which was passed again by Sharon's 8-6's, for the win. Rob played, but didn't understand the strategy of rolling what he needed. We pointed him to the strategy guide on BGG...

I hit the sack at 3am...