OK for those of you who know me know that a select group of friends and I get together on a regular bases, for decades actually, to play a game I created. The games we play are part of a yearly tournament for the Expletive Award. The trophy is very unique and the championship carries some bragging rights within certain circles. Today was a tournament day and it was brutal.
First game was fairly typical, lasting about a buck thirty seven with me scoring double digit points. One person was taken out and my son eventually won the game with more points than usual with his victory by liberation. A victory by liberation is a fairly prestigious win due to the conditions of capturing an opponent’s piece that is made up of your captured pieces. Not easy to do and as such this kind of win is not common, good on Luke for taking the first game with a very respectable score.
The second game was a quick one resulting in a victory with a 9 point time bonus given to Lorne by winning this one in fifty one minutes. This was not a good showing for me as I only scored five points. The only saving grace was that the other players scored poorly as well. Lorne made up some ground on me in this one for sure but not Luke.
Game number three was a good game with everybody playing at their highest level, no one holding clear advantage across many exchanges. Early in the game Lorne incurred a shenanigans penalty for pointing out a move with Jay claiming aggrieved status for two points. Shenanigans are rarely called as all players know that the game is not a team sport but sometimes players get caught up in the moment. As we approached the two hour mark I manufactured an opportunity to win the game with an out of the way victory by liberation against Jay. He missed the threat and the win was guaranteed on my next move, I just had to wait for Lorne and then Luke to move.
I wasn’t paying too much attention to Lorne and Luke’s conflict as they were too far off and no threat to me or my plan. I think Luke had Lorne under threat and trapped in the triangle leaving his only out to take a chance by rolling on the way, and that is what he did. Not only was Luke threatening Lorne but he was also guarding the way against Lorne’s turn. Luke was guarding multiple points along the way and as I said Lorne took his chance on the way and rolled a one, the only number that would place Lorne directly in Luke’s way giving Luke the victory for his last move before my guaranteed win.
Lorne could have rolled anything other than the one and the only way Luke could have won during his last turn was by rolling the die, mine win was guaranteed. Not taking anything away from Luke’s second win of the day but as we often say, the game played me today.
I started the day eighty three points up on Luke for the year and closed the day three points behind him. Good thing we got at least one more tournament date in 2015 even though the outcome will not have an effect on the seeding for the finals.
