New Power Plants!

It was a Sunday night, and everyone was bored. I bought the new Power Grid Power Plant Deck, and enticed people to play for two days, and finally Li Zhen Harry Forest took the bait. We played at Li Zhen's place. First of all, a note about the quality of the new plants...they're ok, I guess, but not as good as the original. The new plants are suffering from a little warping already, and it spins a lot on the table. Also, it seems that the printing was coming off pretty easily...anyway, these are just small complaints...on we go with the games!

Harry and Li Zhen decided to have a drink of alcohol, Li Zhen doesn't seem to be affected, but Harry was louder than usual...heh. Anyway, we played on the US map with NE and South-Central excluded, forming an arch type shape for our game. Initially I accidentally put up the wrong restock chart, gaining protest from Harry for buying oil plant that could end up costing him more than he thought. But we proceeded anyway, since we don't want Harry to win. I tried the garbage approach again. The three of them battle for the east while I tried a new approach by settling alone in the west coast.

Surprisingly I was the one triggering step 2, and things started to go bizarre. The power plant market stalled. All the plants in the market only powered 3 or 4 cities, and we wanted to upgrade to large ones. So for three or four turns, nobody bought any power plants. Meanwhile, I was stuck with capacity 9, and the other three had higher capacities (10 or 11). Not only that, my resources were costing more than the other three, so obviously my cash reserve after this stall was low. Meanwhile, the three of them kept on expanding their cities, but I kept back, only having the necessary 9 cities and not building.

Finally, a barely buyable plant came up, and it powers 5 cities. I was aggressivly pushing to buy this one, and got it, pushing my capacity to 12. Unfortunately, the step 3 card appeared right after, meaning that good plants were being pushed up to the market one at a time. Li Zhen got one next, pushing his capacity to 14. Forest didn't get one. So Harry got to buy one at face value, and it just happens to be one that has capacity 7, pushing his capacity to 17. At this point, we figured it's pretty much over, and we were right, since Harry simply used his massive reserve to build up to 17 cities, and he won.

But...this felt like quite an unsatisfying end, so Forest Li Zhen and I kept on playing as a 3-player game. We wanted to have an opportunity to play the big plants. In the next round, all three of us got a plant (I got the fusion plant for 6, used to cost 50, now only 44), and at that point both Li Zhen and I had capacity 16, while Forest was below that. So now if either Li Zhen or I build to 17 cities, the game would be over and the two of us will compare money for the secondary winner. I knew that I would have less money, so I only built to 16 cities. Li Zhen was afraid that I have more money than him, so he didn't trigger the end game and built to 16 cities as well. Forest was just happy to be still in the game.

Then the final round came. Coal was running short. I only have supplies for one coal plants, and was sure to have no more coal available to me this turn since I'm first in turn order after having bought that fusion plant. Only two plants remain in the deck, and one coal plant that powers 7 came out, which was the only plant in the market that would improve my capacity. I cannot pass, so I picked that one, hoping that there's a slim chance that Li Zhen would get it so that I would have the other big plant available. Well, Li Zhen was smart, so he passed. I replaced this new plant with my original coal plant and increased my capacity by 2. If I had replaced another plant, my capacity would increase by 3, but I would not have enough coal to power it all. So now I have capacity 18.

Li Zhen obviously picked the one that came out next, which was the big 50 plant where 2 uranium powers 8! Forest and Li Zhen went to a bidding war for this one, since whoever wins this one would have the highest capacity. The bidding ended when Forest jumped the price from around 70 to 100! Li Zhen thought that's too much for him (foreshadowing!), so he let Forest have it. Now Forest has capacity 19! Li Zhen picked up a nuclear plant that powers 6 to bring his capacity total to 18, hoping to drive the price of uranium up, but it didn't work so well.

Now Forest built up to 19 cities, so he won the secondary game. Li Zhen and I both built up to 18 cities, and we compared our money, which of course Li Zhen had way more than me, so he ended in third place while I was dead last. Now, a couple of analysis...

(a) If Li Zhen knew that I had very little money in the second last round and ended the game at that round, he would have won the secondary game! But I guess he was insecure, or he wanted to play more!

(b) Forest had only 8 dollars left at the end of the game! So if Li Zhen had pushed the price up by at least 9 dollars, Forest would not be able to afford his 19th city, and he would had to compare money with both Li Zhen and I, for which he would definitely lose. That's why it's very important to keep the money secret, or people would overanalyze this so much!

Ok, I enjoyed this game greatly, even though I ended up last. Well, maybe not for the stalling in step 2, but otherwise it was fun.

First stage scores:
Forest: 11 capacity, 16 cities.
Harry: 17 capacity, 17 cities, 93 dollars left.
Li Zhen: 14 capacity, 14 cities.
Me: 12 capacity, 13 cities.

Second stage scores:
Forest: 19 capacity, 19 cities, 8 dollars left.
Li Zhen: 18 capacity, 18 cities, 122 dollars left.
Me: 18 capacity, 18 cities, 46 dollars left.

Quick ingenious game with Gary

It was Friday night, and Gary and I were in my office waiting for Forest and William. I opted for a quick game of Ingenious, which I haven't played in a while. This is a close game, but somehow I was constantly running out of tiles that have my lowest scoring colour. Seeing this, Gary was blocking me left and right. At the last turn, both of us had 7 7 8 as our lowest three scores, but Gary gets one last turn, and he just happened to have something to score for his 8, so he wins! Doh...good game.

Final scores:
Gary: 7 9 15 10 9 7 (7 7 9)
Me: 12 7 8 13 11 7 (7 7 8)

What? I won at Power Grid?

We still had time, so played a bit of Power Grid Benelux, the supposed faster game among the maps. We picked three sort-of-elongated region this time. Li Zhen picked the south, I picked the north, and Harry was squeezed in the middle, meaning Harry couldn't expand much. Li Zhen was slow in the power plants. I hit step 2, and step 3 came soon afterwards. In the second last round, both Harry and I had capacity 17, but neither of us had enough money to build up to 17 cities. This gave Li Zhen a chance to build up his power plants. I decided to only power 12 cities that turn, hoping to conserve some money with the resources. For the final round, I was last in turn order. Only one 6-plant on the board, the rest 5 or lower, and no more plants were available. Harry passed on the power plants, I decided to put the 6-plant up for auction. If I won that, I would have 18 capacity (and Harry was regretting it now), but if Li Zhen won that, he would have 17 capacity, and we would all go into a tie-breaker. Turns out that Li Zhen wanted that more than I did, so I let him have it. We all built up to 17 cities with 17 capacity, and it was time to reveal the money... Li Zhen had just 2 dollars left... Harry had 73... and I had 94...so even with low power in the second last round, I still won! Yay! That was an interesting game.

What? I won at Settlers?

After the prayer meeting, Harry Li Zhen and I started off with a game of Settlers. I get to pick last, so somehow that's a good thing for me...or so I thought. The game started off pretty evenly, actually, with everyone building nicely up to 4 points or so. But it kind of stalled a bit as brick was scarce. Li Zhen took the longest road, which Harry later took away from him. I got largest army. Lots of 5s were thrown, and each time Harry would get a brick and an ore, and later 2 bricks and 2 ores. After a string of 5s, I used a monopoly to get 7 ores from Harry! But I used them badly, by trading for one development card...which was a soldier. I managed three ports and after a short string of good rolls, I managed to snatch the longest road from Harry and win the game! Wow...I haven't won at Settlers in a long time... And Li Zhen is officially not liking Settlers anymore, just like me...heh.

Final scores: Li Zhen 5, Harry 5, Me 10.

3-player Power Grid Central Europe

Li Zhen joined Harry and I for the Central Europe game. I noted initially that oil is scarce in Central Europe, but apparently they weren't listening...heh. We picked eastern Poland, Slovakia and Austria for yet another elongated play area. This time, the bottleneck is at Wien and Bratislava, and Li Zhen took that one out of the gate. And that had a great impact on the rest of the game. Harry and I were stuck in the north, and later Li Zhen even moved northward as well, so it's infeasible for neither Harry nor I to go down to Austria. That means Li Zhen had control over when step 2 starts...

...but, we had an awful power plant market. All of us have capacity for 5 or 6 already, but for the longest time, the power plants for sale all have capacities 2 or 3. So for many many rounds, all of us were simply gathering up money, while Li Zhen refuses to go into step 2 until he buys a better plant. Meanwhile, both Harry and I needed oil for our plants while Li Zhen only needed coal and very cheap uranium. Oil was running dry, and our costs for oil went higher and higher.

Eventually, Li Zhen sees another uranium plant on the market and bought it. In that round, he finally broke into step 2 with the building, but Harry and I still couldn't build because we have to wait until the next round. At the end of the round, after placing the highest power plant under the deck, the replacement card was the step 3 card! So this is the round where both step 2 and 3 happened! This has never happened before...

Now we can go on a shopping spree for power plants. I first set my eyes on the 3 hybrid -> 7 cities plant, and Harry wanted that too. The bidding went crazy...eventually I bought it for 75 bucks! Yikes. Then Harry set his eyes on a 2 oil -> 6 cities plant, but (wisely) decided against it since oil was running dry. That round, though, I bought all the oil, so while Li Zhen and I both powered around 10 cities, Harry only powered 2, so he must be low on money. Next round, Harry and Li Zhen went on a bidding war over the 3 coals -> 7 cities plant, which Harry won for 80 bucks! Harry was not expecting that, I think... Li Zhen picked up a 3 trash -> 7 cities one, while I picked up the 2 oil -> 6 cities one, which I can afford since I was first to buy resources. But, unfortunately for me, I don't have enough money to build up to 17 cities, which means I need another round to win. But I don't have another round, unfortunately, as Li Zhen has a ton of money (who knew) and builds up to 18 cities to win. Meanwhile, Harry still had one oil plant that he couldn't power, so his score is pretty low. That was a very intense end game, I think. Quite enjoyable, too, if not brain burning...

Final scores:
Harry: 17 capacity, 12 resources, 13 cities, $70 left.
Li Zhen: 18 capacity, 18 resources, 18 cities, $157 left.
Me: 18 capacity, 18 resources, 15 cities, $21 left.

2-player Power Grid Benelux

Harry and I played on the Benelux map using three elongated regions from top to bottom, with a bottleneck at Maastricht. Harry took that city initially, but I managed to cut him off from the north, though. Somehow I was always low on cash, behind on the city building, and that hurt me at the end. I was the first to have capacity 21 while Harry have around 14, but I couldn't build up to 21 in that round. Next round, Harry gets up to capacity 20, but I still couldn't build up to 21 cities. Instead, he built up to 21 cities, winning the game by powering 20 while I only powered 18. Oops. Anyway, it's a very quick game, I think.

Final scores:
Harry: 20 capacity, 21 cities, $4 left.
Me: 21 capacity, 18 cities, $11 left.

First Full Game of Settlers in the Office

So Mat saw the board when he entered unexpectedly...and the three of us played it. It was a wood-barren board, and I went first, so I picked a 3/11/6 wood/wood/wheat corner. After Tony and Mat placed their settlements, I ran out of luck. The only viable choice for me was on a 4/8 ore with 3:1 port. Doh. That pretty much doomed me, I think.

And the game begins. First, we find it funny that Mat called the development cards "devvy cards." Next, Tony was buying development cards like crazy (for a total of about 6 or 7 in the game), so Mat called him a "devvy baron"...heh. In any case, I was pretty much boxed in for expanding territories. And there is one spot that I had my eyes on for a while, only to be taken by Mat after (a) he used a road building card to get there and (b) I traded a wheat with him so that he could build the settlement there. Doh. Tony got the largest army for sure. But then Mat made a peculiar move...one where he offered to give Tony 5 cards for his "eternal goodwill"...heh. Well, obviously Mat was trying to avoid the 7, but what we didn't know is that in the next turn, he built a road to get the longest road card, upgraded a settlement to a city, then revealed his VP card to claim the victory. That was quite an interesting game, I think (though I was really never in the running). Tony had two VP cards, so he ended up with 8 points. I had lots of wheat and ore to give me 3 cities and a total of 6 points. I think we may be doing this in our office again...

Tony's First Settlers Experience

For some reason, I've decided to give Tony the rules for Settlers. He seemed to get it. And off we go... Just Tony and I now, me thinking that this is just a trial run to get him familiar with the rules and stuff. Turns out that my initial placement is so bad (because I wasn't thinking about it) that it impeded my progress greatly. Meanwhile, Tony was doing various things, building settlements, upgrading, buying development cards. Just as I started to catch up, it was time for him to go to a seminar. So we decided to end the game there. Turns out that both of us had a VP development card, so he won with a score of 6 to 5. Doh.