Blokus-fest '05!

We played a lot of Blokus today... (Monday, December 19, 2005).




The first game featured Jake, Igor and Chris battling it out for supremacy of the Blok! Jake got knocked out first, Chris soon after, and Igor managed to sneak in a few pieces at the end to win.

Final score:
Igor: -11
Chris: -18
Jake: -24

Here's Igor presenting the winning board, and Jake pondering as to how he got shut out so quickly. Notice the way we block off the outer 3 rows of two sides the board to make it less easy for 3 players.




Igor's wife stopped by and swept him away from us. Selena filled in the gap, though... so played continued with game number TWO!

Here's a photo of the board at the end of that game. Selena was shut out quickly, but really did well for her first game. Especially against Jake and me (Chris), who are two rather brutal and aggressive Blokus players. Jake held on for a while, but Chris managed to find some corners to get all of his pieces in except for his 5-in-a-straight-line piece.

Final Score:
Chris: -5
Jake: -13
Selena: -29





Selena's ride showed up right as we finished game number. Eagle-eye Jake saw Eugene drifting by and quickly convinced him to sit in. Game number 3 begins!!

It looked like Eugene was dominating the board from the beginning - at least that's how Jake and Chris saw it. Perhaps that is why he got trapped so quickly -- he turned into a target. This game turned out to have what is probably the most leftover pieces in any 3-player Blokus game we've played. It was really a sloppily aggressive game...

Final Score:
Chris: -19
Jake: -28
Eugene: -32





Jake, Eugene, and Chris jumped right back into another game. We played a little bit better this time. But not much -- the relentless, aggressive block-and-tackle showed itself again in this game.

The picture to the left is how the board ended...

Final Score:
Jake: -14
Eugene: -21
Chris: -23

...a very different result from the last game. It really shows how this game has such great replay value. Decisions made early in the game, though they certainly will not doom you completely, can really affect the end-game result.





Blokus was intended to be played by 4 folks at once. We make adjustments to play with two or three, but FOUR is the best. So, when Pat drifted by, we weren't going to let him get away before we got in a game of Blokus as it was meant to be played. Game number 5 had Jake, Eugene, Chris, and Pat in a Blokus battle royale!

Much cursing was to follow...

The picture here shows not only the end of the game, but also the leftover pieces, as well as one of the most important auxiliary items of the Strategic Gaming Club: a cup of coffee.

Here's the numbers from the last game of the semester:
Chris: -8
Jake: -9
Eugene: -14
Pat: -31

Pat did come in last, but like Selena above, this was his first time playing the game -- he really held on pretty well. He tried to carve out his own corner (he was Red in the lower right of the pic), but Jake (Yellow) managed to infiltrate his corral. Eugene (Blue) tried a strategy of long, thin, sneaky tendrils -- he was all over the board, but couldn't break into and dominate any area very well. Chris and Jake managed to ooze their way across much of the board, trying to always keep escape routes available. It's a tough balance -- once again an indication of the strategy, grace and beauty of Blokus.