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Sunday, May 27, 2018

Gaming & Guinness XIII: Day Four, Part 2

By tradition, Gaming & Guinness concludes with Circvs Maximvs, the game of Roman chariot racing. Here stands the magnificent trophy, awaiting the next champion.
It's always anyone's race in Circvs Maximvs; while some participants have won the trophy two or three times, I think everyone else has managed to place at least in the top three.
Island Mike made a point of taking some cryptic notes:
2018-          This was bad.  Dead last with team near death at the finish; Team speed of 5 crossing the line.  Drive +2, Team +0, Endurance +2.  Slowest possible team (14), 64 or 65 endurance but rolled poorly on the whip and then jostled twice on rolls where I needed 11 (can’t complain about dice rape, reference see Pitts, Jeff)

2017-          This was good.  Drive +2, Team +0, Endurance +2.  Slow team (got 15 ….on unlucky roll? Or is that the max with a Team +0?)  but MAX endurance (74) and things were going well until we blew the corner roll – 2 over, rolled 17, minus 2 for the driver, flipped chariot.

2016-          Jeff used the heavy chariot very effectively to damage Horses.  Even a medium chariot can easily hurt the horses and reduce the team speed.  Nearly impossible to avoid this if they’re coming after you.  Any way to go to Driver +3?

o   If you want to take someone out in a hurry, go chariot on chariot?  What’s the best way to do it?

-          Might be better to go +0 team speed and +2 endurance.  A slow horse can be whipped but a fast horse without endurance is dying.

o   So Drive +2, Team +0, Endurance +2

-          Most corners can be exited at a cost of +2 test.  No big deal unless you blow a roll like I did and then misinterpret the rules….

o   Side swipes in the corner COST NO MOVEMENT
Jeff is a three-time champion, but the dice were against him tonight, even when he wasn't rolling them! Rounding a turn slightly too quickly, I sideswiped Jeff's chariot by  accident and took him out of the race. (I wound up finishing fifth.)
Poor Jeff. These were not his Games.
A catastrophic collision.
An imminent trampling.
Scott's charioteer was dragged across the finish line.
The winners: Pete, Scott, and Mike. This is Pete's second championship.

And with that, the festivities wound down, at least for me. I stayed for a round of Tee Shirt Party (a Playstation JackBox game), then retired, wiped out by my pneumonia. But it was, as always, worth it; a highlight of the year. 

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