Your most pathetic showing

Boardgames
#20

galaxytrucks
galaxytrucks1596×870 209 KB

Galaxy Trucker rather lends itself to spectacular failures, but there’s generally not much to show for it - in this picture, I’ve already lost, but the computer players are still going! (They didn’t make it through the next 6 adventures, though) I think Explosives were in play that round…

There was also a game of 6Nimmt! in which I won with 11 or 12 points, which was a spectacular failure for all 5 of my opponents!

And there was one game of Carcassonne on BGA where I randomly got one of those players, who instead of trying to build anything, just counted tiles and made sure that it was completely impossible for me to do finish anything, and they could then play by themselves. Was too pissed to pay attention to the scores on that one.

1 Like
#21

@Sexagesimalian I know that a lot of people into Splotter-like games consider the game finished once one player has lost, and the deterministic nature of the game makes it fairly easy to see who has won anyway. A lot of modern games try and incorporate rubber-banding and hide-the-winner, so people who aren’t used to Splotters play them in the same way, to the bitter end, and that can leave a player just going through the motions.

So, incorporating a way to “back out” would be redundant, and no-one should really have to sit through 120 minutes of misery.

3 Likes
#22

Most of the board games I play are under 2 hours, but I don’t mind long games if I am enjoying what I’m doing in the game (win or lose). In the case of FCM, I could tell I would lose after we picked starting spaces. Though I knew I was losing, I was doing my thing and getting the hang of what I had to do and built up to one successful turn. And then that was taken away from me on the next turn and I knew the rest of the game would suuuu-uuuuuck.

1 Like
#23

Right, so that would have been a good place to end the game. Do that, and FCM (and chess, Go, other Splotters, etc.) becomes a much more pleasant experience.

3 Likes
#24

I think it would be fair to argue that having to play it out even though you know who’s going to win is one of the worse aspects of Monopoly too.

The counterargument I’ve heard is that there may be a certain first or last place but everyone else’s order hasn’t been established yet. Perhaps this is even an argument for player elimination - you guys keep having your competition, we’ll do something else.

3 Likes
#25

I wish I was better at recognizing these moments in games. More often than not I have made my partner suffer through more turns than strictly necessary by arguing that he was still able to win… most recently in a game of Unmatched.

2 Likes
#26

I was mulling over the same whilst doing (useful) busy work today. It’s worse to go through the motions when you know you’re deal last with no hope of climbing up even one place.

1 Like
#27

In some games one can still have some fun building one’s own thing. Depends on how much interaction there is, among other parameters.

2 Likes
#28

You did a good job of this in Leaving Earth.

2 Likes
#29

But I wasn’t winning then… Recognizing Roger‘s inevitability was also kind of trivial at that point :slight_smile:

2 Likes
#30

Rallyman GT: One of my dummy cars (note: said “dummies” are being scripted by my best efforts :grimacing:) just limped over the finish line in Macau with a lap time of 8m29s. That was with 56s knocked off for driving hot.

For reference, the lap record for its real life equivalent (Guia Circuit) in a GT cup was just a hair over 2m17s.

3 Likes
#31

Yes, but what is the record longest time for a lap in real life? That’s how you’ll know if your lap time is truly pathetic.

2 Likes
#32

Without looking much into it, I’d argue you could cruise leisurely around in your uncle’s old Fiat and still make 4 minutes. The track is only about 6km. :flushed:

#33
1 Like
#34

I’m sure there have been so many awful showings, but I can’t ignore my recent game of Codenames Duet where my first guess of the game turned up an assassin.

5 Likes
#35

Recently found a note of my scores from the first box of Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective. Most of my scores lay around 65-85 points, with a few dropping a bit below that - with the notable exception of Case 4, The Lionised Lions. A score of -55 for that leaves it the single worst showing I or any of my friends involved have had in the game.
It may be singularly responsible for the deep seated resentment we now have for Sherlock in all his forms. Even you Cumberbatch, with your smug cheekbones! :unamused:

5 Likes
#36

What expansions/decks are you playing with?

There’s cards there I don’t recognise from BGA

1 Like
#37

They look like base game cards to me. Expansions all ramp up the points.

2 Likes
#38

My preferred card set is Base plus Gathering Storm.

So that, most likely

1 Like
#39

My first game of Scythe was 6-player and I was Polania. I got off my island once and even made it to the Factory early-ish on, but was immediately sent home in a fight and never got off the island again because I was completely boxed in. I had to play the entire rest of the game on 3 hexes, not understanding what else I could do. I also played the “get resources” space incorrectly by trading instead of just taking, and no one noticed and corrected me. (Everyone ignored me as the only new player.) The game was monumentally hard and long and torturous. I blanked my score from memory it was so pathetic.

1 Like