Decathlon - Seven Wonders (Event #2)

After a disappointing turnout for our first event, we had twelve people show up for Seven Wonders on Tuesday night. Here's where things stood at the end of the night.

Winners

1st Place - Megan Prettyman
2nd Place - Michael Williams
3rd place - Wells Thompson

Overall Decathlon Standings

Amanda Ayers -

Kyle Dineen -
Emily Field -
Ben Fish -
Jonathan Fish -
Samantha Fish -
Daniel Halford -

Danielle Harris - 3

Dave Harris - 2
Hubert Lee -
Megan Prettyman - 3
Kader Riddick -
Caralee Shepard -
Kaitlyn Steward -
Matt Stewart -
Erin Salter -
Wells Thompson - 1

Michael Williams - 3

The Games

We got the following results from our games:

Game #1

Danielle (Parthenon) - 59
Megan (Hanging Gardens) - 56
Daniel (Pyramids) - 54
Dave (Colossus) - 51
Amanda (Great Lighthouse) - 45
Caralee (Statue of Zeus) - 44

Game #2

Wells (GLH) - 58
Samantha (SoZ) - 56
Michael (Colossus) - 54
Fish (Parth) - 38
Erin (Mids) - 30
Kader (HG) - 20

Game #3

Megan (HG) - 59
Michael (Mids) - 58
Wells (Parth) - 55
Daniel (SoZ) - 53
Danielle (Colossus) - 47
Samantha (GLH) - 38

Game one was notable for the trading pairings that developed. Dave and Dani did a lot of trading back and forth while across the table Caralee and Amanda did the same. This friendliness didn't save three of these four from elimination though. Meanwhile, Daniel broke all precedent for a Giza player and didn't build a single level of his Wonder. Suboptimal play or not, it worked and he got third with a respectable 54 points to advance to the next game.

Game #2 was notable for the sheer amount of gold Michael was able to farm off his neighbors with Wineries. After a rough start, Erin made a comeback to finish with a respectable 30 points. Meanwhile, Fish and Kader were unable to finish their wonders, both having had difficulty finding the resources they needed to line everything up.

Game #3 produced the most bimodal line up of military wins and losses I have seen to date. Three alternating players heavily invested in military, getting 18, 17, and 17 points respectively. Meanwhile, the other three alternating players invested none or close to none and ended up with -6, -5 and -5. However, this deficit didn't stop one of these "minnows" from winning, alongside two of the "sharks." Notable was Wells's possibly record-breaking 37 technology points, beating even Babylon.

Over the course of the two qualifying games every Wonder managed to place once (We left out Halicarnasus because we generally think it to be the weakest and its a recurring source of rule misunderstandings). However, the championship game featured the same three winners as game #1, which tickled me. I do think these were generally the stronger wonders though (notable that all have a basic resource and not a luxury resource).

We had nominations for five of the six awards tonight! Here are some of the highlights:

Daniel - Brittany Award
"This motherfucker somehow placed third without building the Pyramids as Giza?!?! Who does that?!?! A motherfuckin' madman

Wells - Jeremiah Award
"For having a very attackable civilization"

Megan - Hero Bomber Award
"She pulled all the tech cards she needed to roll to a victory by one points"

Caralee - Farmville Award
"She racked up a winning first game purely by building blue, green and purple"

Evolution on Thursday!