Man, I’m wiped out.
One thing that hasn’t helped is that this hotel bed is VERY firm. We’ve got a sleep number bed at home, and I keep it set at 40. (National average is apparently 35.) This bed feels like ours set to 100. I almost feel like I’m being pushed out when I lay down. So, I have NOT slept well all week. It’s really caught up to me.
Where did I leave off… ah, yes. Friday morning’s Here I Stand semi-final.
Turns out, 24 people advanced as 24 people who’d played in the heats showed up. We were seeded by our results, and I ended up with the 4th seed. (3rd highest score among 1-time winners. there was one two-time winner.) That gave me first choice on one of the four tables. I took the Protestants again, as I was in that mode. This game did NOT start well. I had a poor hand, bad die rolls all over the place, but I _did_ draw Copernicus. (worth 2vps all by himself.) So, despite the mess I made of the first turn, scores going into turn two were Ottomans 16, Hapsburgs 21, English 15, French 16, Pope 16, Luther (me) 20. And I still had two new testament translations to finish and hadn’t even started on a bible yet.
What followed turned into one of the most epic diplomacy sessions I’ve ever seen. I talked to everyone except the Pope, and while the Hapsburg knew he was a target (he had huge success in the new world and had three more cards than anyone else), he kept pointing out that I was as well. In the end, when it came to announcements the Hapsburg player announced alliances with England, France, AND the Pope. This led to a LOT of infighting and discussion over whether anyone should accept any of the offers (and the cards that came with them.) In the end, only the Pope did, which is pretty much how that should have gone.
What killed my game (in addition to having HORRIFIC die rolls) was that the Hapsburgs ended up having two cards in their hand that would force me to randomly discard from my hand. I was hamstrung and knew I had no shot. In the end, the reformation was completely snuffed out of England, never got into France at all (outside Calvin’s home town) and only had about 3/4 of Germany.
What made the game, though was the final play of the game (mine.) I had been given Search for Cibola through another card play. This allows me to cancel an English, French, or Hapsburg exploration or voyage of conquest. At this point, the Hapsburg player was leading with 22 points, one short of victory. Nobody else was within reach of winning in the New World, and he still had two cards in his hand. I was the only other player with a card. I could cancel the conquest he had going, but figured he’d be able to send out an explorer with one of his remaining cards and he’d actually have better odds that way. We figured out the odds, and given the conquerors and explorers he had remaining, he’d need a 7.5 on two dice with the conqueror, and a 6 with the explorer. So, I passed and let him have the conqueror instead. (He’d never get both as I’d have another chance to play had he sent out an explorer as well.) Turns out the two cards he had left were both 1CP cards. It takes 2CP to send out an explorer. If I had canceled his conquest, he couldn’t have won that turn, and we’d have been off to turn 3. As it turned out, he still needed to roll a 7 or higher to win, and rolled exactly that.
It was an epic bluff, and even though I got my butt kicked, it was the most enjoyable game of Here I Stand I’ve ever played. Final scores were (in the same order as before) 14, 23, 15, 18, 21, 16. I still managed to finish third despite my horrific game. All told, not bad at all. I know I’ll remember that game for a long, long time.
After that, I had a couple hours until the Combat Commander tourney started. I played Nathan Trent who was relatively new to the game, but was a pretty experienced ASL player for his age. (I’d peg him as mid-20s.) We ended up playing the same scenario I played on Tuesday - #10 from CC:E. I ended up as the Axis again on a random draw, so it was the same thing as before. But, CC being CC, things never go the same. In this session we both drew open objectives chits that ended up giving him 11 more VP right off the bat. So, I’m down 20 points and we haven’t even started. The building in the center of the board was worth 10, however, so that would be a 20-point swing if I could take it. Wasn’t to be, though. He ALWAYS seemed to have a fire card whenever I moved and his opportunity fire was incredibly effective. I was starting to get close to getting him to lose on surrender at the end, though, but it didn’t quite work out. We finished the scenario on time trigger 7, and I was down somewhere around 28 points.
At this point I found out the tourney was single elimination. Oops. Guess the rest of my evening was free… Next time, I’ll read the tournament description a bit better…
So, I went down for some dinner and ended up in a couple open games. I was taught Nefertiti, and it’s not a bad game. I’d like to play it again, though, as the person who taught the game did a HORRIBLE job. It was really frustrating. It took him 20 minutes to explain something that should have taken five. Anyway. After that, three of us from that game headed over, got another player, and played Stone Age. Good fun as usual. I think I finished second in this one.
At that point, I headed home. I was completely wiped out from poor sleep, and just needed some quiet time. So, what happens? I can’t fall asleep. I don’t think I fell asleep until 2am, and woke up late with a HUGE headache. Fortunately, I didn’t have anything scheduled until noon. I finally drug myself over for the 1960 tournament. I had thought about playing We the People, but that started at 9. No way.
My first game completely fell my way. I was playing as Nixon and had HUGE card combinations and was dominating nearly everywhere. I’ve never seen this game get so one-sided. Just before the debates, my opponent conceded. He was simply hosed, and the timeslot for the Imperial semi-finals was coming up and he had qualified.
That put me into round 2. (This tournament was also single-elimination. I checked first. 
) I drew Jean-Francois Gagne, a Frenchman who was playing only his third game of 1960. We sat down and got going - I got Nixon again. The first half of the game was really going his way. We got into a slugfest in the northeast, and it seemed he had a TON of events that let him place lots of influence without paying CPs for campaigning. I wasn’t getting many, so I was behind the 8-ball. The debates were essentially a draw (he got one extra cube in Ohio as the net result) but I was consistently winning the issues giving me endorsements in the east and midwest. In the final two turns I cleaned out a lot of 1-cube spaces he had in the east, picked up an endorsement in the west, and lost the endorsement in the east. I had forgotten what we did with the campaign cards in the election and didn’t plan my left-over cards properly in the next-to-last turn. I think this was a big mistake.
After we finished up the undecided states, it was time for the final tally. I had LOTS of small states, but he had NY, OH, IL, and FL, most of the south, and most of the midwest. It was going to be close, but I suspected I was going to come up short Final tally? Me, 268. Him 269. Yes, a 1 point difference. Had I been smarter about my turn 7 campaign cards, it may have been the difference. As it was, I’d saved cards for states I had locked up. Big mistake. So, that was my tourney. Come to find out, our game had been randomly drawn for a bye (there were going to be an odd number in the 3rd round) and I would have made it into the final six. So close.
And that’s nearly it for my WBC. Worst case scenario, I have a roll-off to get into the Ingenious semi-finals tomorrow morning. Thankfully, it’s not a deep thought game. I don’t know if I would have made it through the Here I Stand finals tonight had I made it.
After I get home and try to get a good nights rest, I’ll post some pics and update these last two posts with links.
Tags: Boardgames, Wargames, WBC