Odds & Ends

Well I think after a few minor tweaks I’m done playing with the design of ifoundbob.com. I’ve never been one who is content with anything I’ve made, there are a few things that I still like, but for the most part I cringe when I look back over past work. Not only that I wanted to play some more with .css and image placement, there is still something I want to try with using fixed layers to see how the stacking effect would look.

The boys had another soccer game today and I got their pictures. They totally crack me up. Dafyd and Jace both have wonderfully charming smiles, but any time you ask them to smile they freeze up. Jace squints his eyes and makes his best grimacing face, where Dafyd opens his eyes as wide as he can and gives a tight toothed grin. They are something else.

Dafyd’s team won 3-1 and Jace’s team lost 2-1, but we all had a blast, Jace and I had a chance to spend some time just playing while Dafyd sat out a period. I have to do a better job just spending some alone time with Jace. He’s such a good kid, not a lot problems, and gets everything easier. Dafyd on the other hand needs more attention because of his Aspergers, and so he gets more of my time. It’s hard to keep that balance, I don’t know how people with lots of kids do it. I guess if I am aware of it, then I can work harder.

My divorce was finalized this past week. It was kinda odd feeling. I was talking to Kara on the phone on my way home from work and she asked me if I got the mail (which considering I was on my way home I hadn’t) and let me know that the final papers came today. We spent some time talking about it. It’s not like we were surprised, we knew they were coming, but still to see it signed and stamped was … I don’t know that I have the words to describe it. I mean what do you say to a person when they say that their divorce is final? I’m sorry? Congratulations? That’s what it feels like I guess.

Friday night we had game night with Mark’s group. These guys are awesome. They’ve been gaming for pretty much as long as I’ve been alive. It was a pretty good turn out. Paul, Adam, his son Ty, Brian, Jon, Bobby, Michelle, and myself were all in attendance.

Brian, Jon, Bobby, Michelle and I broke out my copy of Power Grid. While Paul, Adam and Ty opened up Hansa.

Now, this was my first time playing Power Grid, but I’ve heard a lot of good things about it. I had only read through the rules once (during dinner before we left for game night), so I was a little nervous. But things seemed pretty straight forward and we launched in.

The object of the game is to be the player who can power the most cities when game end is triggered. Of course to power cities you must a) own cities, and b) have power plants and c) have the resources to make your power plants work.

Each round begins with an auction phase where players bid on power plants. Power plants are selected by the leading player from the market. There are 8 plants in the market at any given time, four in the active market, and four in the futures market. The plants are sorted by number, the lowest four being the active and the four highest being the future. The leading player chooses one of the plants from the active market for auction. The leading player starts the bidding with the minimum bid being determined by the number on the power plant. Each player is allowed to only buy one power plant per round and at most can only have 3 power plants (which means when you get number 4 you have to trash one of your current ones).

Each power plant can power a certain number of cities and requires different types of resources to run it (oil, coal, garbage, uranium, or wind).

Once power plants are purchased, it’s time to purchase the resources required to Resources are purchased in reverse order with the lowest player going first (player order is determined by number of cities connected and the highest number on your power plant) on a sliding scale. Resources are limited and only a certain amount comes on the market each round. As resources linger on the market they drop in price, but for those where the demand is high, the cost is high.

After resources players expand their power grid into other cities. The game is played in 3 steps (stages). During the first step only 1 player can be in any city ($10 build fee), in the second step 2 ($15.000 build fee), and finally 3 in the third step ($20.00). Between each city there is a connection fee that must be paid in addition to the build fee. If a city is already occupied, then you can jump to the next open city buy just paying the connection fees along your route.

Players are then paid on the number of cities they power (though you have to spend the resources to power them).

The game ends when players connect a predetermined number of cities.

So that’s the game in a nutshell. Down to what really happened.

It seems no matter what game it is, Jon and I are always the players who end up at odds in a bidding war. Power Grid was certainly no different. Jon and I took the early lead with the number of cities we were connected to. Jon was able to get the first wind power plant (meaning you don’t need resources to power it). I got the second one at a lower cost, but his powered more cities.

Brian made a mistake of over buying oil and was in a cash crunch the entire game. Bobby & Michelle pretty much held their own through the whole time.

The rules suggest that first time players only play through the first step, so we ended the game when Jon connected 7 cities. Michelle ruined my plans for world domination, and Bobby capped it off. Jon won, and headed out to go play poker.

After Power Grid, we broke out a game of Keythedral. I won’t go into the details of how to play the game since I’ve already posted that.

This was a first time play for Bobby, Michelle and Brian. So I walked them through the rules. It was a great game, very close through the whole thing. I could tell that Michelle was getting tired as the hour was getting late, but despite that and the fact that she went last every round except for 3 and that she was shut out on more than one occasion, she was one tile away from winning the game.

However, in a masterful sweep, Bobby took home the win with a score of just over 60, I finished just shy of 60, Michelle just over 50 and Brian right around 40. Ironically now, in all of our playings, the player who does not build a fence wins.

It was certainly a great time.