My first WBC Final ever is in 45 minutes
Aug. 4th, 2011 11:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
barking_iguanaA few weeks ago at Dexcon, I learned the best (to my taste) games I'd learned in several years. I suspect Lancaster will prove to be the better over time, but I've only played it once and I can't be sure yet. The other is Automobile, which is by the same designer as Railroad Tycoon (the boardgame, not the computer game) which I've been playing and enjoying quite a lot over the last year.
In the two games of Automobile I played at Dexcon, I did poorly, but I could tell it was the kind of game I could be good at. I entered the tournament here, where competition is generally tougher in every game than at Dexcon. In the first game, despite feeling that I was doing poorly, finished a close second with a very high score that as it turns out would have gotten me a berth in the semifinal as the second alternate (because there were not sixteen berths in the semis and only fourteen different people won games in the open rounds). In the second open heat (still only my fourth game of this) I finished a poor third. Up to that point and including that game, all my games had been 5-player games.
In the third open heat, I was in a 4-player game. Since the strategy I tried in the first heat worked better than the one I used in the second, I decided to try it again. I won. I used the same strategy in the 4-player semi, and I won again. I still don't think I really know what I'm doing, and I'm also making far too many rookie mistakes that I recognize after I make them, but at least I think I'm starting to get a feel for most aspects of the game and I've got a plan that at least sometimes works, even against experienced players.
In the two games of Automobile I played at Dexcon, I did poorly, but I could tell it was the kind of game I could be good at. I entered the tournament here, where competition is generally tougher in every game than at Dexcon. In the first game, despite feeling that I was doing poorly, finished a close second with a very high score that as it turns out would have gotten me a berth in the semifinal as the second alternate (because there were not sixteen berths in the semis and only fourteen different people won games in the open rounds). In the second open heat (still only my fourth game of this) I finished a poor third. Up to that point and including that game, all my games had been 5-player games.
In the third open heat, I was in a 4-player game. Since the strategy I tried in the first heat worked better than the one I used in the second, I decided to try it again. I won. I used the same strategy in the 4-player semi, and I won again. I still don't think I really know what I'm doing, and I'm also making far too many rookie mistakes that I recognize after I make them, but at least I think I'm starting to get a feel for most aspects of the game and I've got a plan that at least sometimes works, even against experienced players.
