So, the game. It was fun, as always. I decided to thinly seed the board with blocks from the best cards I had in my opening hand. Eventually, I realized that I had a shot at leading the Moderates to victory, so I went for it. Kathy was my main competition, but to stay in the running, she had to sacrifice her sole Moderate personality card to defend a region. This left her with no one to put forth when we tied for Moderate leadership, and so I won the 5 VPs.
Going into the 2nd round, my sole goal was to win the Battle. I drew cards on my first two turns, landing a Club card and a crappy General. I used both of them to place markers in the Battle Box. I had another crappy general that I planned on trotting out if anyone offed the first guy. Problem was, the Radicals were making a run. So I spent one turn eliminating a radical stronghold, and another turn executing a general. Here lay the problem...which general? Jonathan was immediately after me, and then Kathy. Both had one marker in the Battle Box to my two. I axed Bonaparte, Kathy's general. Of course, Jonathan put a marker in the Battle Box, and Mustafa finished off the red pile, ending the round. Jonathan's general was better than mine, so he got 5VPs and I got nothing. Plus, Kathy admitted that she had not even intended to keep putting markers in the Battle Box.
None of this mattered, as it turned out. We headed into the third round with Jonathan at 8, and three of us tied with 5, and Mustafa bringing up the rear with 3.
Then, it happened.
Everyone suddenly had a bunch of white (Royalists). Plus, much of the white from previous rounds had been left lying around, unvictorious (or perhaps seeded there from the beginning of the game?). And for some reason, when people place white, they tend to want to do it in the counter-revolutionary regions, marked with a fleur-de-lis. Mustafa started suggesting places for people to put their blocks and they listened to him. Right after we had spent a good 10 minutes laughing about how he always does this. The camel's back was broken when he told a certain player to place her three white blocks "Two here and one here. You can push for a counter revolution! You'll win!" One round later, Mustafa triggered a counter revolution and won, throwing his deceitful hands into the air in mock surprise. OK, maybe he was actually surprised BUT HIS HANDS ARE NOT HONEST.
Despite the frustrations of the last two rounds, and poor Elaine being too tired to sleep, we had a great time, and it was nice to be able to visit again with Nestor, Ivana, and Maria before they head back to Belgrade. We initially met them last Friday when the same gang played some For Sale and Citadels at our place
Thanks Kathy and Mustafa, as always.
...next time...grrr....
Here's pics of Liberte' and of the group last Friday.
Clockwise from left: Ivana and Maria, Jill, Mustafa, Kathy, Jonathan, and Nestor
Nestor and Jonathan
Elaine inspects the Liberte' setup
I reject your calumny sir; and I do protest in the strongest possible terms.
ReplyDeleteLet's look at it from a perspective that does not involve turning all our sour grapes into a whine, shall we?
First, in inducing Kathy to take her whites into CR districts, I never said "You will win." I said "You may win." In either case, I neither guaranteed that her move would lead her to victory, nor did I make any statements as to whether her following my advice would also benefit me.
I would also point out that, at the time Kathy made her crucial royalist placement, I only held total of 15 whites, a number which turned out to equal to hers at game end. I luckily drew two extra three-strong white cards in the last two turns. This means that things were a lot closer when she made her move and had she drawn those cards instead of me, she would have won.
Second, she did come in second and she soundly trounced everyone else at the table, including you.
Finally, when I threw up my hands, it was not in surprise, mock or otherwise. You have misidentified my victory arm raise, sir. No doubt this is because when your hands go up in victory, it often due to an unexpected result.
In the final analysis, you will admit that the move I induced Kathy to make was not in the least the wrong move for her. One could argue that it was a great move for her, which also happened to have a non inconsequential benefit for me.
Calling me deceitful without a thoughtful analysis only serves to besmirch my character and belies the complexity of the situation. It also happens to serve your meta-game purposes, I believe, of decreasing the efficacy of such further advice from me.
So, who is the deceitful one, eh?
Mustafa:
ReplyDeleteI will stew over your words for the weekend, but rest assured that those other participants in this, if I may say, odious incident know the score well. This is not to say that you won't pull the same Jedi mind trick on the next group, but I will be there then, as now, fighting for justice through my Complaints of Honor.
And no, you wouldn't know anything about that, would you?
*sigh*
It looks like lawyer school is working its infernal magic on yet another mother's son, as your "defense" above reveals.
I will beat you one day, Unlu. On that day, I will also learn to type umlauts on the internet.
Yeah, yeah. We've seen it all before...
ReplyDelete