Through the Ages photo finish

I guess I'm not repentant about posting too many photos of Through the Ages...

This was a game I played with Michelle on 28 Dec 2009. The normal game rounds ended with me (white) at 121pts and Michelle (red) at 109pts. Now it was time for the last 4 event cards to be revealed.

Impact of Population gave Michelle 26pts! It gave me 14pts. We were now both at 135pts. Obviously this card was seeded by her.

Impact of Competition gave Michelle 4pts and me 0pts. She was now leading. This card was seeded by her.

Impact of Architecture was seeded by me. It gave Michelle 14pts and me 13pts. I had underestimated how quickly she could build more urban buildings.

Impact of Wonders was seeded by Michelle I think. We both scored 14pts from this. Michelle won (after a long drought of 17 games) by 5pts!

Michelle had played some nasty events during this game, all hurting me, or hurting me more than her. I guess I can only blame myself for not keeping up in military strength. She used to say that she dislikes playing bad events, so now I kept teasing her about her having no qualms doing these to me anymore.

My civilisation. My urban buildings were very minimalistic - only two types, the original two types that everyone starts the game with (temples and labs). I had not played any military unit cards. I did take a Cannon card from the card row but still had it in my hand by game end.

I had the Michael combo - Michelangelo + Hanging Gardens + St Peter's Basilica, and that gave me lots of points and a huge lead in mid game. But it also meant I had to forgo improvements in other areas in order to make the most out of it. I had Julius Caesar but didn't use him much. Michelangelo came early and I fired Caesar barely after he had warmed the seat for Michelangelo.

Michelle's civilisation. She had much better urban buildings and armies.

Michelle's Fertile Territory and Inhabited Territory helped her a lot. Her leaders were all the bookish type, starting with her favourite Aristotle. She had four blue techs compare to my one.