shadowdaddy. The final score was SD 64, Me 50, Father 37. I tried playing a "corn and sugar" strategy, designed to get lots of points by getting stuff on boats, and I might have won if I'd been able to buy a large building (the one that gives bonus points for number of plantations) and also got more plantations sooner - but for four rounds I could even get 9 doubloons, so even though I earned 35 VP just from deliveries I didn't have the large building I needed. Meanwhile, shadowdaddy did a "produce all 5 products, buy a factory" that got him money hand over fist and nearly a full board of buildings, even though only half of his plantations were full, and his margin of victory would have been even higher if he'd managed to populate his second large building. His win was clear at about half way through the game when he started getting an extra 4 doubloons with every production round - plus his extra victory points per delivery thanks to his harbor, earning him pretty much three extra delivery points every time we shipped for the last third of the game. (I actually have used the factory strategy before and won with it, but I thought I'd try something new!) Papa didn't get the production buildings he needed, so he just wasn't getting enough product on the boats like he should have, but since it was his first game it was not a surprise. We had yummy pizza from Pagliacci, and Papa dug into my Hard Core Apple Cider and provided some yummy french peppercorn cheese, so we were well-fed and well-watered. He wasn't nearly as sulky about not knowing the game as he was when we played Princes of Florence in July, and he said he'd like to play again. When he said goodbye, I just had this vision that I might never see him again, and that we were parting on pretty good terms. Of course, I'd still like to see him do some anger management counseling, but I didn't bring it up over the game ... not that I wouldn't have liked to have let him know why we didn't invite him to the baseball game Sunday, which I felt guilty about but simultaneously relieved knowing that I was with people who I knew weren't going to launch into some kind of verbal attack on me out of the blue.Uh, he also talked about what a good time Shelley had at the wedding, and went off again on the whole Chinese seafood thing. Both of us tried to explain how you complain without being negative, but then I did do some joking about my relief at seeing the food off to the homeless shelter, and he agreed that my brother would not have any problem with how I disposed of it!
I'm working just a half day today, but since I came in early I'll be making it to pilates. Yay!
