Managers forget how it used to be...

Obviously this is not the case for everyone, but a colleague of mine who was a manager for a while before coming back to programming expressed that it is easy to forget what drives developers. Managers have their own sets of concerns that they need to drive for.

Document-itis

I'm currently on a project where it seems every time I turn around a new document has been created for a different way to view the same data. I'm not sure how to stem the tied of this swelling mountain of documents. Part of the issue is that the project is very far behind and management is desperately trying to bring in the hours yet still complete the work requested. So the thought of cleaning up the documentation and perhaps generating other views of the data gets shelved because we don't have enough time...even though we end up looking at data that is incorrect and making decisions off it because we didn't keep documents synchronized.

Managing game mail

This week John and Colin joined me for some gaming fun. We cracked open my copy of Thurn and Taxis for a couple games and finished with our typical closer - Carcassonne.

The first game of Thurn and Taxis I did a very good job of getting my houses down and getting carriages, but I didn't focus on getting points from the different territories. In fact the only one that I did well on was Baiern where I got the first one. I really thought that I was far behind and trying to play catchup, but I decided to close the game by putting my last house on which allowed me to be the only player with the final carriage. I ended up with a solid win. The one caveat was that Colin forgot he wouldn't get another play if I ended it and he could've put more of his houses down and got the final carriage which would've made for a closer game.

In the second game John and I started by putting our houses in several territories and Colin focused on Baiern. Afterward he conceded that he should have closed out sooner so that he could advance his carriage values instead of following in our tracks on the 7 length route. Other than that things were close between us through most of the game. Towards the end we started getting into the habit of using the Administrator to dump the city cards since we started getting more specialized in our desires. Unfortunately near the end of the game I was trying to get Salzburg to complete the orange area and I used the Administrator and wound up with two of them (if only I'd known that the next card was one!) in the city list. But after starting my route I need two turns with the Postal Carrier to get to 5 houses and another turn to play either two more our to use the Cartwright to get the final carriage. Unfortunately, John only needed two turns to end the game, which got him the win over me by 9 points.

In Carcassonne Colin is almost always strong with the farmers. Often times I ignore that and try going after all of the cities. This time I did put some of my meeples in the field only to have them overwhelmed by Colin's farming focus. Fortunately I was involved in the completion of both citadel cities (one with Colin, the other with John). Between those and a number of late game point sharing with John I was able to hold off Colin's 60+ point end-game surge by 9 points for the win.

Building villages, doing some shipping, then more building

John, Z and I gathered around the table and revisited the games from the last couple sessions and we each walked away with a win.

We started with Alhambra. This time around we all spent more time focusing on the walls for our city and after the first score we were within 5 points of each other. We got a little better separation in the next round where I started taking the lead being in first or second (or tied for those) for all but the red buildings. Before the end I was able to claim first in white and green, second in brown and red forced a three way tie for first in blue because I ended the game before Z was able to play his third blue to take first. Additionally, I was able to connect a split I created in my walls which helped offset Z getting 21 for his wall. So I wound up winning by about 10 points.

I'm looking forward to playing with four people, but I find the fact that the money and the buildings are random annoying. Perhaps I'll try focusing more on what money the other players are picking up, but I find my brain has been up to the task the last couple nights. :)

Next we played Manila. The first couple rounds a little roller coaster-ish. We all did well on the first round with Z being the harbor master. I ponied up for it the next time and everyone did poorly. John took over for the third round and we all did well again. After that I didn't bother spending enough to get it and focused on maximizing my returns. Z took a chance by trying to play different then John and I and ended up loosing money where we gained. He then spent too rounds trying to use the pirates to jump ahead, but lost his shirt instead. John stayed as harbor master since I wasn't willing to spend more than 12 pesos to try getting it from him. In the end, while I had more than 40 pesos than John his shares gave him 60 points and I only had 10 in shares. I think my frustration with harbor master is that the two times of been it I've rolled poorly for the ship that I've really wanted to do well and I end up needed to use the pilots and lose money in the process. I need to diversify my shares early on so I'm not so caught up on which boat makes it in.

Carcossonne wound up being a farmer battle between John and Z - I couldn't get in the mix and city sharing between Z and I. I missed Z getting into the farming so when we completed a city with a citadel in it for 45 points and shot ahead of John I had no way to reel Z back in. John and I were one tile away from completing another citadel city that would've given me the win, but Z got the piece that would've closed it.

A game night in Manila with Dragons

So another round of games with John, Z and I. Z showed up a little late, so John and I started a round of Dungeoneer: Dragons of the Forsaken Desert. We played with the #2 cards this time. The game started slow with John's personal quests involving killing a dragon - which he really needed either a level or some bonus cards to do - or rolling a three of a kind on three dice. I had an escort card and I can't remember the other card - bummer.

The map cards that I needed didn't come out for several turns while John got his out early. Unfortunately he had some difficulty rolling a three of a kind, which allowed me to get to where I needed and get my first quest completed. I then made the mistake of trying to get to the end right away by completeting the open quest and teleporting to the destination of my second quest. By this time John had completed his first. He then completed his second and since I was going to win on the next turn sent monsters after me then attacked me killing me before I could complete. Patience would have better served me since I had a movement of 6 and could've run to my destination instead. Oh well...

After Z joined us we played Manila. First off I hosed myself by not fighting hard enough for the harbor master in the first couple turns, then putting too much onto the Pirates - which is really a lucky shot at best. Additionally, I beat on the wrong boat too many times. In the end Z just edged out John, but we all felt that there was a little too much luck involved with just three players and were looking forward to trying again with four or five.

Building game cities

We had a slim group last night with John, Z and myself in attendance. Z had brought one of his games that he bought over the summer that had yet to be played, Alhambra. Z dominated us by winning two games of Alhambra and the final Carcassonne.

Alhambra is an enjoyable game that reminds me of Union Pacific. You can do one of three options on your turn, with one caveat: 1) Buy building tiles (which can be of six different types with varying costs); 2) Pick up money (which is of four different currencies); 3) Rearrange you alhambra. The caveat is that if you spend the exact amount of money required to buy a building you can select one of the three options again. There are two scoring cards that come from the money deck during the game and a final scoring at the end of the game. Each scoring round you count the number of a particular type of building each player has and score appropriately. Additionally, the building tiles have walls on them and you score points for the longest continuous stretch of wall.

During a players turn four buildings are available for purchase one for each type of currency there is. Four money cards are available of which the player may take only one card or all cards showing that total five or less. Since the buildings and money are randomly selected to replenish those available you have to be flexible with what you are willing to buy.