A quantum paradox

With festivities at a minimum, perhaps it's no surprise to see so many people with nothing better to do during the Christmas period than play board games online. Martin, Sam, Ian, Katy, Adam T, Andy and me met on Discord and since there were seven of us, with Martin's begrudging acceptance, we played 7 Wonders.

Andy built no resources at all in round one, while Martin and I go big on sciences. Martin expresses surprise at how well he's doing and is gutted when he saw how close he came to a win.

Sam 60, plus cash

Martin 60

Ian 55, plus cash

Andrew 55

Adam 50

Andy 49

Katy 36

With all those tie breakers, I consoled myself with the thought that I was, effectively, joint second. Less happy was Katy, who couldn't understand why she was last. She was told that both her neighbours, Ian and Andy, overtook her military forces with the last card of the game. 

Then we split into two groups. I expressed an interest in Marrakech and people quickly joined me. Ian, Sam and Andy pondered what they should play and, apparently, they also chose Marrakech.

Ian 65

Andy 39

Sam 28

On the four-player game, it was Adam’s first turn and it was a close swingy affair. And Martin pointed out that, as last player, he was able to decide who came last by whose carpets he covered up with his final move. He chose Katy.

Martin 46

Andrew 42

Adam 37

Katy 36

Then we all joined up again, and I mentioned Quantum - which Ian had requested earlier. Sam was keen too so the three of us set off to another Google Hangout while the other four played a new trick taker, Segment Trix.

Quantum started off fine, with us placing cubes and fighting each other as per usual. Before long, Sam and I had one cube left and Ian needed to place two and there were only two spaces left. He went the war route, getting his dominance up to four then researching to six, picking up a tech card (aggression: dominance + 2) and thus his dominance hit 6 and he could put down a cube. A classic move.

Then we noticed an issue. Wherever he put the cube, it would mean that either Sam or I wouldn’t be able to finish the game since you can’t put a cube on a planet where you already have a cube. At first it was Sam who couldn’t place, but we ploughed on and, luckily, a Relocation card became available. Sam researched, picked it up, moved a cube and now I was unable to win. We started to get uncomfortable at this, since the only available strategy to me was to keep researching and using that to change all six tech cards, hoping for a Relocation card. We decided that this wasn’t workable, so we agreed to abandon the game.

Next we thought about which short fun game to finish the evening for Sam, and we went for 7 Wonders. I won, having gone big on war.

Andrew 55

Ian 45

Sam 42

Ian and I returned to the other Google Hangouts to find Andy was missing and Katy was stressed over her connection. Meanwhile, I couldn’t work out what was going on, game-wise. Still not sure who won, if anyone.

So the six of us played For Sale. We remarked on the disparity of ELO ratings, from a bunch of us in the mid-200s to Adam with 21. In the opening rounds, I picked up a 1 to much scorn from Martin and I had to pointedly remind him who had the best ELO rating in this game. Alas, hubris is usually followed by nemesis and I went into the buying round with a poor hand. I did pick up $15k with a 15 card, though. That was nice.

Andy 52

Ian 49

Adam 46

Martin 40

Andrew 38

Katy 35

For the record, Ian now has the highest ELO and Adam’s now stands at 62.

I left at this point, but the rest played Butterfly.

Andy 73

Martin 63

Ian 59

Katy 58

Adam 56

Cheers all. See you next year!