Monopoly Game (1/27/1996)

Players: Joshua, Mike, Scott

Over Mike's protests that we should play either bolo or Speed Circuit, we played a "fast rules" game of Monopoly. Mike got the first monopoly on the board -- the utilities -- and made Scott pay for it with a near-maximum rent of $110. Scott got the purple monopoly early on and actually collected a few times on it (though early in the game it didn't threaten to bankrupt anyone). Joshua started collecting railroads and a stray property here and there but didn't truly get into monopoly mode until Mike traded him the last orange property for some railroads. That trade brought both players needed economic strength.

Scott happily collected his $250 and $450 for Club Med. and Baltic, respectively, and eventually traded the third green property to Mike for the last two purples. At the time, it seemed like only Mike had the cash to develop the greens and Scott could afford to develop only the purples, so the deal look good all around. However, Mike later confessed that the greens were too expensive and that the trade nearly cost him the game because Scott quickly put hotels up on all three purples.

Joshua's orange monopoly failed to pay off for him, and he eventually bankrupted to Mike. Scott suggested they quit and play bolo, but Mike insisted on going on. At the time, it appeared that Scott would win, but Mike then employed two desperate but effective strategies. He sold off houses on the green properties for houses on the newly- acquired oranges (mortgaging most everything in the process) and began rotating which railroad was active, depending on where Scott was on the board. It then came down to who would hit the opponent's properties most often, and it appeared that Scott had won when he landed in jail; however, Mike made it past Scott's properties and when Scott left jail, he immediately landed on New York Avenue. The game was over with Mike thanking Joshua for his advice and Scott reminding them both that he hadn't won a game of Monopoly since the 5th grade.

Many words from our winner, Mike

"Monopoly has a lot of luck, but you can change the odds significantly by making the right deals at the right time. I traded Joshua an orange monopoly when he was cash poor and, therefore, not a great threat to me. I gained all four railroads in return and an immediate source of income. Joshua's monopoly helped me persuade Scott to trade with me; he had the Baltic properties and now needed a better monopoly to counter Joshua, and the clock was running. Once again, I gave more (two, unmortgaged purples) than I got (one mortgaged green), but I thought I would be able to build them faster. Unfortunately, I underestimated my expenses in comparison with Scott's and this almost cost me the game when he put up hotels and Joshua and I hit them.

"If you can't develop all your properties at once, you can 'aim' them at other players. I started when three of my four railroads were mortgaged. By mortgaging the last one and using the money plus another $10 to unmortgage another, I was able to open the railroad that players were approaching; and it's a $200 payoff if it hits, so it's a pretty good deal. When I switched the green houses for orange ones, it was an act of sheer desperation. I lost $500 on the move, but it made Scott more likely to hit my property before I hit his. The game hung on this one move, and Scott was unlucky enough to hit (he is only in the game to pay me rent, after all). 'Game over, man.'"

Scott's words to live by:
- If vegetarians eat vegetables, what do humanitarians eat?
- Don't offer to input any "winner's tip" that's longer than the "game summary."

McMulti Game (1/27/1996)

Players: Joshua, Mike, Scott

We thought maybe we'd romanticized McMulti during its year-long hiatus from Saturday nights, but rules clarifications showed us again how fun this game can be. Joshua and Scott went drilling for oil early in the game, with Mike building gas stations to take advantage of the profit margin as the game begins. Joshua hit some wells and Mike sold some gas, but Scott's had Allan's luck and dropped behind. The economy moved quite frequently and not always the way it was likely to move, and the consumer market boomed for most of the game (hitting an astounding high of 77!).

Mike made his profit on the gas stations and decided to sell them off at a profit (or slightly less) and begin drilling and refining. Joshua's three wells pumped him full of profit and his refinery guaranteed that he could sell on whatever market he wanted. The import and export markets for refined oil topped out at $48 million per barrel -- and the incredible consumer market made even that heavy investment worthwhile. All three players were contentedly making money until luck finally changed the game.

Scott's roll moved the economy into "Depression" and he sold on the newly invigorated consumer market and bought an island's worth of equipment. On Mike's next roll, he changed the economy back to "Rapid Growth," driving equipment prices (and the consumer market) through the roof. Both he and Joshua purchased their equipment at much greater prices than Scott, and almost immediately, news forced all three to pay substantial taxes on their equipment. From that point, it was only a matter of time before Scott won, with Joshua and Mike finishing almost $700 million behind.

A word from our winner, Scott
"Are you kidding? Okay, here's my winner's tip: sit on your ass until the dice win the game for you. On a more serious note, I remember that we stopped playing this game because we felt that luck played too much of a role, and I think I'm back to that opinion. The game was decided by the dice and nothing else. We were all pretty close before the fateful round, but the advantage I gained by a roll of the dice was decisive."

Scott's words to live by:
- Take Joshua's "winner's tip" from last week with a grain of salt -- he played the same strategy this time and lost by millions.
- Mike's strategy of making early profit on the consumer market seems sound.

McMulti Game (1/20/1996)

Players: Allan Joshua, Mike, Scott

We hadn't played McMulti in a while, and our faulty memories led to several hosings early in the game. Both Joshua and Mike got to stock their islands with a fair amount of equipment under the favorable "Recovery" economy, but because we rolled to see if the economy changed after each player's turn (which we now know we weren't supposed to do), both Allan and Scott had to pay exhorbinant amounts for much less equipment. All players tried their level best to develop an oil well early, and because of the cheaper (and therefore, more numerous) rigs that they got, Mike and Joshua had success right away. Limited resources combined with his usual poor luck rolling the dice left Allan scrambling to catch up and Scott bought little equipment but got the rolls he needed to begin oil production relatively soon.

Joshua forged an early lead with two working pumps, with Mike close behind (after turning a $65 million profit on the sale of his first well) and Scott not far from Mike. Allan's bad luck continued as the first bit of news closed the foreign market, leaving him with massive reserves of refined oil and nowhere to sell it. In addition to the closed market, the economy was quite stagnant (due to another rules misinterpretation on our part), often staying in one mode for four to eight rounds. These conditions forced players to hoard their oil until something broke the tide, but further news threatened to tax those reservers and there seemed no way out. Scott left (at 1:00) and the others persevered.

The boredom of playing with no economic change spurred Mike, Joshua and Allan instituted a house rule that when the consumer market hit zero the economy automatically switched over to "Depression." This helped Joshua, who had free oil coming out of the ground and being refined all the time (though they failed to tell me how this affected the other players), and made the game more interesting since you could always buy your equipment during "Depression" and sell it when it became more valuable and because the consumer market always moved. Game ended (at about 2:45 am) when the "tax" news came to fruition and Allan couldn't sell enough equipment to pay for it (the one disadvantage of playing so often in "depression"). Joshua won and everyone wanted a more dynamic economy and some sleeeeep.

A word from our winner, Joshua
"LUCK and diversification are the key to this one. Get a pump, a refinery, and a station and you have a money machine that pays in all seasons. Don't just stick to stations, the margin in buying gas and selling to the consumer market just isn't enough to compete when others can produce gas for free. If you do acquire the pieces to a money machine, USE IT. Always sell everything you can to earn a free buck:. Remember: any oil that comes out of a pump is free money -- so take it."

Scott's words to live by:
- Reread the rules when you dust off a game that has set on your shelf for a year.
- This game probably has too much luck to be taken very seriously (see next week's "winner's tip" for details).

Merchant of Venus Game (1/9/1996)

Players: Anne, Christine, Joshua, Paula, Mike, & Scott

A rather enjoyable game of Merchant of Venus. Mike got off to a fast start by servicing a short route (with additional demand) for Bionic Perfume, and Joshua got lucky with an Immortal Grease delivery of relatively short length (from the left-middle to the top-middle). Christine and Scott went exploring, Scott in "the cloud" and Christine toward the lower- right of the board. Anne followed Joshua to the upper-left and then veered off to discover strange new worlds along the top edge of the board.

Two trips through the supernova slowed Anne considerably, but she did build a factory once she'd discovered a great run from the top-right to the top-center; but alas, her two trips past the supernova may have cost her too much time for the money she made. Once Christine had discovered most of the right side of the board, she then left it alone and scooted along the bottom of the board, picking up relics and opening telegates along the way. Scott muddled around in the upper-left quadrant, while both Mike and Joshua delivered profitable runs in the same area (just good enough to beat Scott there).

In the classic speed versus payload debate, Joshua upgraded to a Transport, while Mike and Scott opted for Freighters. Christine stayed with her scout and she and Scott proceeded to service the long-neglected right side of the board (which was teeming with goodies). Mike delivered nearer the center and actually ran out of Freighter runs pretty quickly. Joshua used his Transport -- loaded with red and yellow drives -- to make an Immortal Grease run every turn (and to drop off some Servo-Mechanisms on the way back). In fact, he often got some demand when delivering the Grease.

At this point, Paula joined the game and delivered two runs then left. (It was the Blizzard after all, and she needed a way to kill a few hours -- would you have said no?) Joshua masterfully avoided detection as the leader by pointing out Scott's lucrative payloads and Christine's growing stack of cash. Mike was beaten to many potential deliveries, trying to go too far in a Freighter when faster ships were on the way; I'm not certain where Anne went wrong, but she did say that she lost on purpose to avoid having to write anything for this game summary. Mike's last ditch effort to stop Joshua failed when he could not steal a factory from him, and Joshua barely beat Scott and Christine to victory -- though barely counts only in horseshoes and hand-grenades (and we don't play with either).

A word from our winner, Joshua

"A Transport with a red and yellow drive allows you to make a run EVERY turn with 2 holds open for cargo. This can lead to big bucks when there are a lot of players in slower ships trying for the same runs. A word to the wise: Lasers and Nova Balls seem to appear at around $1700 (in a game to $2000), so make sure your properties are protected by then."

Scott's words to live by:
- Don't let others identify you as the leader (especially when it's not true)
- Roll well or face the consequences
- If Grease is Immortal, why did the demand for it keep coming up?

Bolo Game (12/16/1995)

Players: Joshua, Mike, Scott

We played Bolo with the "tournament rules," which allow for ammunition each time a tank dies at the beginning of the game -- but less and less ammo as you die further into the game; and we provided Joshua with a map of the island because he was just starting out in Bolo. At first, Mike took the upper-left of the island and quickly stretched it across and down toward the center. Scott started in the lower-right and spread to the top, keeping the whole right side to himself. Joshua had the lower left and a bit of the center, but didn't really crank until later.

Once established in their respective territories, Scott and Mike became expansionist. Scott engaged Joshua to the left of the maze (roughly center of the island) and lost his builder, so when Mike drove through the middle of the island and took Scott's first stronghold -- the lower-right -- Scott was busy trying to slow Joshua's attempts to take back what Scott had just won, so Mike won the spot almost unopposed. To counter Mike's win in the south, Scott attacked the top-middle but spent too much time there while Mike fought long and hard to take the right-side center of the island, thus splitting Scott's "empire" in half before his builder ever got back.

Joshua had a some bases but he collected all of his pillboxes near one or two of them, stacking them up "like a trailer park" (Mike). This was hardly an effective empire- building strategy, but is sure kept his two bases safe. Feeling that he was out of the game, Scott engaged in some general trouble-making (destroying boats, half-destroying pillboxes with no intent of taking them) while Joshua and Mike battled each other -- Mike for control of the island and Joshua for more and more pillboxes.

Joshua was fortunate enough (or skilled enough) to kill Mike's builder three times in quick succession, and that was the chance that Scott and Joshua were waiting for. Scott quickly regained his lower-right outpost and then parlayed that into a victory in the center- right. Joshua worked at Mike's upper-left and center positions, and with those weakened, Scott then took the center-top base and we agreed to call it quits. Scott was declared the winner at the end (with Joshua second and Mike third), but those positions could well have been reversed if the game had ended a half-hour earlier.

A word from our winner, Scott
"When I heard Mike's builder had died, I realized that he would be unable to repair pillboxes, so that's what I decided to destroy. I figured that I could at least recapture my original empire, and it wasn't until Joshua got the builder twice more that I expanded my goal to include an actual win in the game. Bolo is most effectively played as an empire- building game, but remember to solidify your own empire before going after others'. The latter strategy can be deadly."

Scott's words to live by:
- Building roads and laying mines are underrated activities, both of which slow your competition and allow you greater mobility in your own territory
- Place two pillboxes near each base for much better protection of all three
- A dead builder is worth his weight in gold -- to the other players

Dune Game #2 (12/9/1995)

Players: Janet (Guild), Joshua (Harkonnen), Mike (Emperor), Nazim (Fremen), Scott (Atreides)

Harkonnen and the Emperor battled for early control of Dune, and much to the latter's dismay, Harkonnen pulled out two straight traitors. The loss of those four leaders critically weakened the Emperor, and for a while, he had to be content with control of only one (non-paying) city. The Fremen attacked Tuek's and gobbled up spice all over the planet, driving the price of treachery cards through the roof.

Guild was expansionist and had Habbanya in addition to Tuek's Sietch, while Atreides simply collected two spice on Arrakeen and kept a detailed log of everyone's cards. When a nexus finally appeared, the weakened Emperor sought an alliance with the Fremen, and to counter that, the Guild and Harkonnen joined forces. Immediately, the Fremen rode the worm to destroy Harkonnen's men in the Imperial Basin (which left them poised to take Carthag); and these two alliances pounded each other for three rounds, with Harkonnen claiming afterward that he had miscalculated on at least two sure chances to win the game for his alliance (missing the opportunity afforded him by a Karama card).

Atreides moved a few men about the planet for two rounds to scoop additional spice while many battles occurred. Harkonnen locked Carthag with "Weather Control;" the Guild defeated the Emperor by one in Sietch Tabr; and the Fremen pummeled the Guild in Habanya (while Harkonnen occupied Tuek's). Then it happened. With masses of troops tanked, Atreides moved eight troops into Sietch Tabr to face only one Guild and slid five into Carthag (from Arrakeen) which defeated a force of three Guild. Game over.

A word from our winner, Scott
"Early in the game, all the spice blows blew (a few sixes and one eight), and it would've cost me too much to get them, so I sat tight. Don't be in a hurry to get to your Kwisatz Haderach unless you can make it worth your while; even though I had only two combats for the game (and both in the last turn), I was still into the game -- people can be intimidated away from fighting when you know every card they own. Definitely track the cards; other players will alternately love you and hate you for it."

Scott's words to live by:
- Bide your time when you cannot help your position
- Don't save your cards for the future when you can use them effectively now
- The Fremen should amass their troops in the Polar Sink rather than the Imperial Basin (to facilitate troop deployment toward Carthag and Arrakeen)

Dune Game #1 (12/9/1995)

Players: Anne (Harkonnen), Janet (Fremen), Joshua (Atreides), Mike (Emperor), Nazim (Bene Gesserit), Scott (Guild)

The Dune storm was positioned correctly for the Emperor to blow the Shield Wall as the first turn came to the Battle Round. The Emperor won close fights with both Atreides and Harkonnen -- with some players surmising that the latter had thrown the fight to destroy Atreides -- and that forced Harkonnen to abandon Carthag temporarily (to Plastic Basin). The Emperor took Arrakeen and Harkonnen inched back toward Carthag (over the course of several turns), with Atreides tanked to the max and the Bene Gesserit massing in the Polar Sink.

The Fremen occupied Sietch Tabr and Habbanya Ridge Sietch, and were moving toward Tuek's Sietch when the Guild defeated them in Habbanya and used Weather Control to slow their progress toward Tuek's (where three Guild troops beat back the two Fremen who survived the trek through the storm into Tuek's). A nexus then produced about 15 minutes of negotiation before Guild/Harkonnen and Bene Gesserit/Emperor alliances emerged -- which seemed to ensure that the battle of Dune would soon be decided.

As the next round began, the B. G. forgot to declare themselves hostile in Carthag, and Tuek's was still owned by the Guild and locked down by weather. The Emperor put 13 troops in Habbanya to face a perceived maximum of 14 Guild, but the Guild went last and placed their nine off-planet reserves in Arrakeen -- where they faced only seven Emperor forces -- and moved their troops out of Habbanya. Guild won the battle by one, so the fact that the Emperor played a traitor was irrelevant. Harkonnen finished the win with 20 uncontested troops in Carthag and a big smile on her face.

A word from our winners, Scott & Anne
"The length of time spent considering the alliances is what struck me about this game. There seemed to be no guaranteed win with any alliance, so I wanted to invest a few minutes to think about it, and even then, the win came hard (with the Emperor almost able to defeat me in Habbanya and the victory in Arrakeen only by one troop). What tipped the scales for me was the fact that both players in the other alliance had to go before Harkonen (my partner) and I (who, as the Guild, could go last)." - Scott

(Anne has declined comment, preferring to keep her secrets to herself)

Scott's words to live by:
- Consider your alliances carefully before jumping in
- Know your character's strengths and weaknesses well (see game summary, Bene Gesserit)
- The winner writes history, so smile while you agree with me