Lautapeliturnaus 5.12.12010

Our beautiful 'Kankaanpää Boardgame Winter Tournament' went really well. The tournament took place at Patajussi cafeteria.

We had 2 tables playing the same game simuntaneously, four players in each table. Tarmo & Tapani organized the timetables and seating positions beforehand, so we all played 3 times with each player, and we had s different player order every time.

I thought that the idea of this organization was very good, and fair because of it's random element.

Of course, I had to disagree with the "fairness" when I ended up playing Race for the Galaxy (my weakest game) with Tarmo, Markku and Jarmo, the 3 big pros of the group (Tapani is another pro, but I will write about that later in the text)...

All in all, the atmosphere was very pleasant. We were all happy to be around friends playing games, and for all I noticed, everyone had at least one game that was very easy, and at least one game that was quite challenging.

Reports from my Table (and results from the other)

1. The Downfall of Pompeji
Table 1: Jarmo, Tapani, Markku, Santeri. (9, 8, 8, 5)
Table 2: Tarmo & Heikki, Mari, Heidi. (7&7, 6, 4)

The game at our table was very tight: Tarmo & Heikki had both 7 ukkos out of the city, while I had 6 and Heidi 4. My 7th ukko (or as Tarmo would say, my 7th Pililii) was burned in the last round and when we checked the tulivuori, the 3 of us had the same amount of ukkos burned!

I like Pompeii very much. I guess the main reason is the theme, that works very well with the dynamics of the game (not like Notre Dame, of wich I will write later).

I always put my tokens/my family members/my ukkos/my Pililiis somewhere close to the exit, or close to other "people". For some reason, even if they live in a beautiful city like Pompeii, they know it's not a safe place and they might need to run away pretty soon.

I like the idea that "if you are together, you go further in life".

Of course, there is also the fun element of "burning" other players. Long time ago when Heidi was explaing the game to others, she added as a rule "when the Omen card comes, you burn ths red tokens" (meaning Tapani, of course).

This time Heidi was red, and she got the same treatment. Is the red color cursed?

2. Dominion
Table 1: Jarmo, Heidi, Tapani, Tarmo (29, 27, 21, 19)
Table 2: Markku, Santeri, Mari, Heikki (39, 34, 26, 19)

In our table Markku had quite a great win. Markku was wisely quietly playing, and suddenly we noticed he had taken quite a lot on lääni and we had to hurry with our games.

Santeri noticed Markku's smart moves earlier than Heikki and I. Heikki failed with the overwhelming kellari business, while I failed the muutostyö business... With the setup we got, we should have been paying attention to the money business, gotten more kulta e rushed to the lääni.

I though it was interesting that the scores were quite different between the tables, although we had the same set of cards, and there weren't any attack cards .

Jarmo, the winner player from the other table would have been third at our table.

3. Menolippu Eurooppa
Table 1: Jarmo, Heikki, Tarmo, Santeri. (136, 130, 112, 105)
Table 2: Tapani, Heidi, Mari, Markku. (142, 121, 98, 93)

Nothing much to say, Tapani had a better strategy, and Tapani and Heidi have played the game a lot more than Markku and I. So they won, fair and square.

Collecting loads of cards before starting the routes worked better then collecting just enough to build one route, then collecting again and again.

4. Notre Dame
Table 1: Markku, Tarmo, Santeri, Heidi (67, 65, 57, 56)
Table 2: Jarmo, Tapani, Heikki, Mari (90, 65, 56, 54)

In this game I was really surprised with the scoring. I thought I played well, and place better. My biggest mistake was to play "too safe" always saving money and taking care of the hospital.

I guess that this is the problem of taking the game's theme too realistically. I imagine a city full of rats and I think "no, I shouldn't be investing my money on treasures for the church, I should always invest to the welbeing of the citizens.. "

So maybe next time I should just try to ignore the theme and pay more attention to the dynamics of the game :P

5. Race for the Galaxy
Table 1: Jarmo, Tarmo, Markku, Mari (41, 37, 28, 25)
Table 2: Tapani, Santeri, Heikki, Heidi (53, 42, 39, 22)

What can I say about 'reiska'? The boys love this game, they play it all the time. There were times when Tapani and Jarmo played 10 times a day or so... (I am glad these times are over!)

Heidi and I stood no chance against them. We both don't like the game and only played it because it was democratically chosen.

But one thing for sure: in an ideal world, Tapani should have been at my table, and I should have been at his. So that way the 4 pros would be together and we could have had a fair game at the other table.


6. Fairy Tale (sum of 3 rounds)
Table 1: Mari, Tapani, Santeri, Tarmo (135, 116, 111, 100)
Table 2: Markku, Jarmo, Heikki, Heidi (123, 104, 97, 90)

My first (and only) win. It was nice to get a boost of energy after so many games played :)

Noticed the scores? I had crazy points (66) with all 7 homesteaders in the second round. Was very lucky to get one every time in the starting hand, and the other players were forced to give me more, since they were trying combos of their own (and I would hold all their combo cards after I got my precious homesteaders hua hua hua.

7. Puerto Rico
Table 1: Tarmo, Heikki, Tapani, Markku (48, 34, 31, 26)
Table 2: Santeri, Heidi, Jarmo, Mari (58, 54, 52, 48)

I was so exhausted in the last game that my attention span was very low. Of course that is no excuse for getting the last position in the game, but something interesting happened between the two games: the last plater in my table had exactly the same points as the first player in the other table!

How can it be, that at one game people ship so much more goods than at the other table? I guess I am too tired to analyse the reasons for the points to take shape like that.


Group and Venue
One other thing that made the day so nice was the presence of our audience. It was nice to have some people there watching the games and bringing good energy.

We had quite a lot of guests:
Jarmo Putkonen (who washed the dishes for us, kiitos!), Jussi, Riitta, Päivi (thank you so much for letting us use Patajussi!)

Visa (thanks Visa to the great atmosphere created with your guitar playing it was so nice!)
Harri, Viona, Daniel, Marika, Ida, Rossi, Ilari & Jari, our paparazzi.

Special thanks to Jarmo, for making some delicious salad for us, and warming up glögi, etc.
And for Tapani, for organizing the whole thing :)

Final Scores
(4pts to the winner then 3,2,1 in each game)

1. Gold medal to Jarmo 25/28 (5 wins!)
2. Silver Medal to Tapani 21
3. Bronze medal to Markku 18
4. Tarmo 17,5
5. Heikki 16,5
6. Santeri 16
and last, but not least, the two winners of the women's series -yeah, that's my sexist excuse :P
1. Mari 13
2. Heidi 13

Despite the eventual exhaustion, we had a very nice day today!