It was the best of Dice, it was the worst of Dice (Pirate's Cove, Formula De)

Under strict dictatorial orders by Shemp, fueled by delicious Swazi Fire Sauce, we fearless Wagsters played games of "Daring, Bravery and Brinksmanship"...

Pirate's Cove and Formula De.

If those aren't your idea of "Daring, Bravery and Brinksmanship", well you're probably not alone, but who can really figure Shemp out anyway?

It took longer than usual to gather our forces this week, so we started Pirate's Cove (minus Kozure) at around 8pm. Brian was brought up to speed on the rules, and we set sail. Over the course of the game, I spent most turns licking my wounds in Pirate's Cove. Brian was in the lead early on, since no one ever seemed to attack him (clearly, this is the secret to success). We eventually found him, and knocked him back a bit. I dumped a bunch of treasure to take the lead, but Luch then snuck into the lead. The games was unusually close near the end, however. Unlike many games, the last round did not involve a large battle with the black pirate. Surprisingly, we all wound up on the same island (#1) instead! Luch was by far the biggest and best equipped ship at sea, so it was very unlikely we'd survive (particularly due to the first battle card he played which prevented any other cards from being played during combat). Brian went down first, then I took out Shemp for the easy victory point, and Luch ended the game by blasting me out of the water.

Luch supplemented his lead with a number of fame cards for the win! Brian came 2nd, I was 3rd and Shemp last, but as I said earlier it was a very close game right to the end. It was nice to play this one again... it had been too long.

Kozure showed up at 9:30pm, well after we had all gave up on him showing. This guy is a dedicated games player!

We played the Formula De Monaco course, with Luch in the pole position (and last), me in 2nd (and 9th), Kozure in 3rd (and 8th), Shemp in 4th (and 7th) and Brian in the middle.

The race went pretty smoothly to start. My 2nd car unfortunately had a "Bad Start", effectively putting me behind a turn, but I was convinced I could make up the time. The lead was exchanged on numerous occasions between myself and Luch, but the start order was pretty much maintained throughout the race. Exceptions, of course, occurred: Shemp's lead car was inexplicably falling behind until it eventually became the last car. My rear car tried a reckless maneuver to get himself back in the game (leaving the "3" corner in 4th gear so that I could take the long stretch in 5th... it cost me EVERY POINT my car had, but it worked. Unfortunately, the rolls didn't go my way after that and I didn't keep the ground I gained for long). Luch had earned the distinction of losing the first car, but others soon followed. My poor rear car spun out approaching the 2nd last corner and then crashed on an unlikely roll 2 turns later. Kozure received some engine damage early on, but it never caught up with him.

Luch and I turned the final corner in a virtual tie for first place. The win hinged on who rolled what, and luck smiled on team Red (that's me). YOU COULD CUT THE TENSION WITH A KNIFE.

We had settled on a scoring method which gave various points according to position.

1st=10
2nd=6
3rd=4
4th=3
5th=2
6th=1

In retrospect, our point distribution didn't make any sense because there was no way for the 1st place player to lose (no matter how the others placed). At least if 3rd place was worth 5, a player could win by getting 2nd AND 3rd. Otherwise, what's the value of the point system or of racing 2 cars? I wouldn't care, except it seems that the players in the first 2 spots at the beginning have a pretty distinct advantage, and racing the second cars doesn't seem to be of any value if combined points don't win the game.

Maybe next time we should do:

1st=10
2nd=9
3rd=8
4th=7
5th=6
6th=5
7th=4
8th=3
9th=2
10th=1

(cars which don't finish get no points)

This gives every player an equal chance of winning based on starting positions. It increases the importance of finishing every car as well as possible (and makes it especially damaging to crash a car). I don't recall all the finishing positions last night, but I'd be curious to see how the standings would have been affected (I think that due to the number of crashed cars the standings wouldn't have changed, but it's possible Kozure or Brian would have jumped up a bit).

Another fun evening!