new kaki

"kaki" is equivalent to companion / regular opponent / fellow addict.

Sui Jye and Jing Yi came to play on 26 Oct 2008, their 3rd visit. I think they have potential to be regulars. Sui Jye has starting frequenting www.boardgamegeek.com. They have visited Toybox and bought Carcassonne: Discovery and The Settlers of Catan. Hopefully this will be a start to a regular gaming group. Good thing that they live quite nearby.

Carcassonne on 26 Oct 2008. Sui Jye and Jing Yi seemed to like this better that Carcassonne: Discovery which they had bought (because Carcassonne was out-of-stock). That big castle was a memorable moment. This was a 4-player game - Sui Jye, Jing Yi, Michelle and I. All four had people in the castle, but as it developed, Sui Jye and I were the only ones who would be able to score because we had the most people. Unfortunately Michelle had added the cathedral tile, i.e. if the castle was not completed by game end, it would score nothing. But if completed, it would score not double but triple. Sui Jye and I were desperate to close it. There were still two tiles needed, and they were not easy to find, requiring 3 sides to match (the lower left corner of the castle and that tile at the top with a green farmer). We were the last two players to place tiles, and to our surprise the last two tiles of the game were exactly what we needed to complete this castle. I shouted with joy! A 72pts castle!

Sui Jye and Jing Yi pondering over Age of Steam. Sui Jye likes trains and pirates. Too bad I don't have any pirate game.

Still early in the game. Jing Yi (yellow) on the west, Sui Jye (blue) in the centre, and me (green) on the east.

Near game end. Sui Jye and I competed a bit, fighting over goods to deliver. Jing Yi had less competition, and also had a lot of space to build long tracks. She won the game decisively. I could see it coming but couldn't stop it. Too late.

Through the Ages continue to be good value for money. Michelle commented that this is her favourite long game. When I thought about it a bit more, actually she doesn't play any other long games. She wouldn't touch any of the Axis & Allies games. So I guess I can only say this is a long game that she actually enjoys playing.

Through the Ages on 27 Oct 2008. This was near game end. I was white, Michelle red. My military strength was zero, because I sacrificed all my men to win one colony. Thankfully I only did so near game end, and Michelle didn't play any nasty war card on me. With a 14 strength difference, a war would have been devastating. My culture rate was the strongest that I have ever achieved (later on the very last turn it went up to 26). Michelle's culture rate was actually not that bad. I think she had some leader that gave culture, who was now dead, and her culture rate dropped back to 4. In this game Michelle initially led in culture points. I took the lead later, but was never very far ahead, until the last two turns.

My civilisation. I had Game Designer as my leader. This was the 2nd time I had him, and I find him fantastic! Also now I realise that labs, libraries and theatres are very good for generating culture. Many Age II and Age III leaders give culture based on these buildings. So it's a good idea to build them, and then grab a leader who works well with them.

My military never progressed beyond Warriors. I had a lot of good wonders though.

Michelle's civilisation. She likes Einstein. This was not her first time using Einstein as her leader. Her military technology never progressed beyond Warriors either, but she had other ways of increasing her strength.

Michelle tends to like gaining more actions. She had 9 civil actions and 7 military actions!

I was very constrained in actions in the early game. Michelle took both Pyramids and the blue technology giving +1 civil action. She likes getting more actions. With few actions, little food and little stone in the early game, I decided to focus on wonders, because they need not be manned. Many culture-generating wonders were built. Michelle was militarily stronger throughout the game. The gap was not big for most of the game, until near the end of Age III, when I sacrificed all soldiers to win a colony. No aggressions or wars were played at all. This has been the norm since we started playing without the Non Aggression variant. I guess we both prefer to be peaceful.

Michelle had Homer in Age I which allowed two Warriors to generate culture. I was behind in culture initially, but later managed to catch up and overtake her. Our culture points were close for most of the game, despite my higher culture. Probably because of events, especially those rewarding the stronger and/or punishing the weaker. Only on the last 2 turns my culture points jumped significantly ahead. I not only had Game Designer to give me 9pts per turn, I also had two movie theatres to give me 8pts per turn. I won quite decisively on the last two turns. I was also lucky enough with the Age III events. I managed to draw the ones that would have benefited Michelle more, so of course I discarded them. The four events at game end probably gave me more points than Michelle.