Adam

Friday

ajr-lj@club.cc.cmu.edu — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 14:14:49 GMT

I'm going to hit Mobot at noon, then bring my box of games to the UC. I'll look for space somewhere around where the O used to be (possibly upstairs).

Carnival

ajr-lj@club.cc.cmu.edu — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 15:20:27 GMT

Rehana and I are in Pittsburgh for Carnival.

A hand I'm not sure I got right

ajr-lj@club.cc.cmu.edu — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 18:55:55 GMT

T xx A AKJT9xxxx

A987xxxx AKJx x -

Unfavorable, matchpoints:
1S (3D) 4C (5D)
5S (P) 6S

(yes, I realize that this was not a very good auction on our part)

The opening lead is the diamond jack to the ace, righty following with the king. How do you play from here?

(If it matters, when you cash the club ace the queen falls on your left; you think lefty is good enough to play the queen from any holding)

Getting closer...

ajr-lj@club.cc.cmu.edu — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 06:40:35 GMT

Missed qualifying for flight B NAPs by a matchpoint and a half this year. To put it mildly, we had a few opportunities to pick those up.

Boston

ajr-lj@club.cc.cmu.edu — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 06:20:55 GMT

Mini Blue Ribbon
52.0 Tables / Based on 104 Tables
MPs Names Score
...
21.82 6 Adam Ruprecht, Seattle WA; Andrew Hoskins, Redmond WA 1584.35

Washington DC

ajr-lj@club.cc.cmu.edu — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 05:46:58 GMT

So who else will still be around on Sunday? Rehana and I will be in town until Monday afternoon, so we'd like to meet up with people Sunday.

Boston

ajr-lj@club.cc.cmu.edu — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 20:51:38 GMT

I'll be in Boston from Friday, November 21st through Monday, December 1st. I should have time for a couple of games at the NABC, so if anyone is interested let me know.

Just one hand for fun

ajr-lj@club.cc.cmu.edu — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 03:10:33 GMT

Matchpoints, I don't remember the vul (and it probably doesn't matter). There's no real point here but to see what people do with a fun hand.

AKQJTxx Jx AJxx -

You're systemically constrained to open 1S (in case it matters later, this is limited only by failure to open 4NT specific ace-asking - we have no strong bid), and partner responds 2D game-forcing. You have most of the toys you might like available - what's your call?

...

At IMPs, I might go straight for exclusion, but at matchpoints, I wasn't yet sure where I wanted to play the hand. I decided to start with a simple 3D, and partner bid 4D - keycard for diamonds. What's your response?

...

Fortune favors the bold - I jumped to 7D. If I'm lucky, we might make this off two cashing tricks, since I've given no hint to which void I have. As it turned out, partner had x Axx QTxxx AKQx for an easy pull to 7NT. The opponents lost their way after a club lead on the run of the spades to let Jeff score his small club, but the diamond king was on in any case.

EEE draft

ajr-lj@club.cc.cmu.edu — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 04:06:21 GMT

Genesis Games decided to try a triple-eventide draft on Sunday. I can see why this prerelease had SSE drafts - EEE may be the worst draft format ever. I drafted one of the slow decks that didn't suck, which meant that my kills against a non-goldfish opponent sometimes didn't happen before turn 6. I was running 15 land, 25 spells, with a curve that topped out at three. My deck was red-blue, so it was centered around slippery bogle, favor of the oversoul, clout of the dominus, and stream hopper. It was amusing watching opponents with removal realize that they couldn't actually target anything I had on the table. No match I won took more than 15 minutes (at some point, about ten minutes into a round, the organizer was wondering why I was wandering around, and seemed somewhat nonplussed when I told him I was done) and the top tables were generally done in 25 or less. Things would be OK if the rounds were quick, but the real problem is that the people trying to draft "fair" decks (instead of decks that involve seven or eight mimics) tended to end up at the bottom tables in lifegain mirror matches that go to time. No round (except possibly the last one - I left after winning the round and getting my prizes) finished before time was called. I'm willing to try most things once, but never again for that format. On the plus side, I did pick up two Fetid Heaths (I now have three of them, and no other eventide duals), a Figure of Destiny, and a Talara's Battalion.

PTQ Berlin

ajr-lj@club.cc.cmu.edu — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 08:39:55 GMT

I played in another Berlin PTQ today. I've opened a pair of Bitterblossoms since the last tournament, and I missed most of the release event chances to get Figures, so I decided to run "best deck" Faeries instead of the Kithkin from last time. This was my list:

4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Scion of Oona
4 Mistbind Clique
3 Sower of Temptation
1 Oona, Queen of the Fae

3 Peppersmoke
4 Thoughtseize
4 Nameless Inversion
4 Bitterblossom
4 Cryptic Command

8 Island
4 Swamp
4 Mutavault
4 Secluded Glen
4 Sunken Ruins
1 Reflecting Pool

SB:
3 Puppeteer Clique
1 Peppersmoke
2 Incremental Blight
4 Shriekmaw
3 Consign to Dream
2 Plumeveil

This isn't an exact copy of any given list. I was expecting the most common decks to be Faeries and Kithkin, and I think Faeries has more "I win" draws than Kithkin, so I wanted my main deck to be solid against Faeries and my sideboard to have the answers to Kithkin. I think the best main-deck cards against faeries that aren't automatically in are Peppersmoke and Thoughtseize. I also wanted main-deck Sowers so I could answer Chameleon Colossus. These decisions meant that I couldn't fit the newly-popular Vendillion Clique or Broken Ambitions. I also decided to try one Oona; many Faerie decks don't seem to be running main-deck Sowers, and Oona is amazing against any deck not running Sowers. I haven't done any testing, so the sideboard was just a collection of things that seemed like they should work - Shriekmaw and Blight against Kithkin (most people just run Shriekmaw, but I really didn't want to lose that matchup), Plumeveil against any aggro, Consign against anything with Colossus or Gaddock, and Puppeteer Clique against five-color control (or any other deck that was likely to leave their pants down against their own Threshers).

Round 1 vs. Kithkin

Kithkin is not a great first-game matchup for me; my main deck is basically set up to deal with the mirror. Game one on the draw, he opened with a Stalwart revealing Cenn, and I responded with Thoughtseize. He showed me the Cenn, double Spectral Procession, another Stalwart, and a Mutavault. I decided to take the Stalwart, in hopes that if he didn't pull a plains he'd miss a drop and I would have some breathing room. He did not pull a plains, but the Stalwart he drew instead wasn't much better. The Cenn dropped me to ten the following turn, and I had to drop a Bitterblossom to have any chance, but instead of gas my deck decided to give me three more Thoughtseizes. I have a pretty good sideboard against Kithkin - all four Thoughtseize, the Peppersmokes, and Oona come out for four Shriekmaws, two Blights, and two Plumeveils. Together with my three maindeck Sowers, this gives me a huge advantage, and I won the next two games easily.

Round 2 vs. Faeries

This was against Joey, one of the local players. I won the roll, but I had to mulligan twice, and there's not enough card advantage in the deck to come back in the mirror after that start. Game two was closer, but he ripped an Inversion for my Scion at a key moment to blow me out.

Round 3 vs. Doran Rock

This is a bad matchup for me - not as bad as the burn deck, but just about. I won the roll, and Dan had to mulligan and then had massive problems with his mana base to give me an easy win. Game two he just flattened me - I have almost nothing in my sideboard other than the Consigns, and he can bring in Gutteral Response and Cloudthresher. I got very lucky, however, when game three was a virtual repeat of game one; without green mana despite a mulligan, he just couldn't operate his deck, and I made matters much worse when I ripped Bitterblossom after he thoughtseized me on turn one. I was able to kill him before he recovered. I felt very lucky to escape this one.

Round 4 vs. Rock?

I'm honestly not sure what this deck was supposed to do other than play efficient black and green creatures. My first turn thoughtseize revealed Wolf-Skull Shaman, Wren's Run Vanquisher, double Fulminator Mage, and land. I took the Shaman, hoping to deny him a two drop, only to see him play Vanquisher revealing Shaman - and do it again next turn! Normally, his double fulminator mage with that start would have been enough to hammer me, but my deck decided to be very, very nice to me and I didn't see a single nonbasic land. I kept the board clear with Inversions until I made it all the way up to Oona off of basics. Once I untapped, the game was over. He didn't have quite as fast a start game two, and I was able to run him over with a Mistbind Clique.

Round 5 vs. Doran Shamans

This is the other deck I would have seriously considered playing if I had the Chameleon Colossuses. Game one saw me reach what I thought was a solid board position with Bitterblossom and a lot of trading, only to be completely blown out by Soul Snuffers. I had forgotten about that card, and it cost me heavily as a one-sided wrath. Game two was epic - I drew into multiple Bitterblossoms, but he had the Wispmares to stop them. When we finally stabilized the board, I was at one, and James was at two - and he was known (from a Consign) to have a Cloudthresher in hand. I was desperately trying to draw into a sideboarded Puppeteer Clique to draw the game myself before he found a way to kill me, but I actually managed to reach a position with Mutavault and Cryptic Command that forced him to kill us both. We only had about 20 minutes left in the round starting game three, and I still needed two wins, so I was playing very quickly indeed. We both kept kind of squirrely hands without the right colors of mana, and the first relevant play was a double Bitterblossom on turn four once I finally drew a Sunken Ruins. James was able to Wispmare one of them, but the other stuck and I proceeded to Consign his Bosk Banneret two turns in a row to stop him from finding enough land to do anything else. This gave me time to kill him with about ten on the clock. I found myself on the draw in game four with a nasty mulligan decision - I had only one land, but it was a Glen, and I had thoughtseize, bitterblossom, and Spellstutter. If I could draw into just one more land, I had a shot. I decided to keep, and did indeed draw a land. Unfortunately, I missed my third drop, which is not good against a turn three Doran. James dropped some Rage Forgers and ran me over with five minutes left on the clock for the rare 2-1-1 win.

Round 6 vs. Kithkin

Finally, back to a deck I can beat. He had a very slow start game one, to the point that I was able to win by resolving Oona; Kithkin is pretty much drawing dead to Oona with Scion on the table if I get to untap. I actually left Oona in for game two (leaving a Plumeveil in the board), and sure enough, turn six I dropped Oona, and turn seven it was effectively over, even though I was at one life.

Round 7 vs. Kithkin

I suspect he was playing the list that won the PTQ last week. The reason? After turn one Stalwart, turn two Cenn (which I inverted), turn three Knight of Meadowgrain (which I Sowered), he dropped... Mirror Entity. I was out of immediate answers, and dead on the board if I didn't block, so he blasted through my army, then me, over the course of three turns. I brought in my usual board and flattened him in the usual way games two and three; I didn't drop below ten either game.

Round 8 vs. Faeries

Another mirror match. This one wasn't exactly decided by skill. I ran out a Spellstutter Sprite on my turn two main phase against his board of two land (just in case he played a Mutavault turn three, which would allow him to Spellstutter), then Stuttered the next three spells he tried to cast. Yes, all four Spellstutter Sprites. He couldn't recover from that kind of card disadvantage and died quickly. Game two saw an equally unfair draw; we both opened by Thoughtseizing each other's Bitterblossoms. We dropped Spellstutters next turn, but mine survived a fight thanks to a freshly drawn Scion. When he tried to bounce my Scion and draw a card with Crpytic, I came up with yet another Scion. He scooped out of frustration at that point.

I was happy with my performance, and I'm not sure I could have won either match that I lost (not that I didn't make mistakes, but I don't know that I made any that mattered in the relevant games). What I really needed was a better sideboard. I was running three Puppeteer Cliques to deal with five-color control, but as far as I could see no one was actually playing it - I saw more Quillspike combo in the room. If those had been Inside Outs, or even Snakeforms (which I had rejected in favor of Consign to Dreams), I would have had a decent chance of winning round 5; Inside Out is amazing against Doran. Unfortunately, the PTQ season is over around here, so I won't get another chance to drag the Fae out. 6-2 is the best I've done in a constructed tournament so far, but I had absolutely wretched tiebreakers (I didn't even realize it was possible to have OMW below 50% with that record) and finished 19th, dead last among the 6-2s.

A couple of hands from last night

ajr-lj@club.cc.cmu.edu — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 17:28:45 GMT

(matchpoints)

First seat at favorable, you pick up QJT9x Kxx Kx AQx. You're playing weak notrumps, so this is a clear 1S opener, and the auction continues:
1S 2D
2NT 3D
3NT 4NT

Per your agreements, you've shown a balanced non-bad 15 to a bad 18. Do you or don't you?

...

Even though the king of diamonds is a huge card on this auction, I decided to pass, but in retrospect I think that was the wrong decision. I was afraid that we were off two cashing tricks, but the most likely two tricks to be off are the spade ace and king, and I have a pretty good shot at escaping a spade lead even if they're both missing unless opening leader has both of them. In practice, partner turned up with A Axx AQJ9xx xxx, so six was cold from my side barring diamonds 5-0 offside.

AJxxxx
x
x
JTxxx

K
Jxx
KQJ
AKQxxx

All are nonvul, west is dealer, and the opponents remain silent. How would you expect the auction to go with your favorite partner?

...

If I could bid*, our auction would have been 2S-2NT-3H(good hand, bad suit)-3NT-4C-5C. I can certainly understand other auctions, but what mystified me is that the field is in 4S. The only auction I heard to reach that spot that makes any sense to me is 3S-4S; I just can't see how you get there otherwise.

*In practice, I bid 4NT over 4C. The opponents managed to let me out for down 1 despite a heart lead, but we clearly belong in 5C.

Book recommendation

ajr-lj@club.cc.cmu.edu — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 00:16:46 GMT

I've decided that it's finally time to do something about my lack of knowledge of databases. Can anyone recommend a really good book on the subject? I checked out both books that the Seattle library system has (An Introduction to Database Systems by C. J. Date and Database Management Systems by Ramakrishnan and Gehrke), but they're both at least eight years old.

2 player Race

ajr-lj@club.cc.cmu.edu — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 04:46:59 GMT

While in Vegas, I played a *lot* of Race for the Galaxy with Jeff. One thing that became very clear was that Consume - double VPs is much stronger in two player than I'm used to. Almost every game came down to one player doing nothing but consuming and producing while the other player tried to drop enough worlds to overcome the VP machine. I think the most flagrant example was one game where I don't think I did anything else from turn 3, even though I only had one consumption power; Jeff didn't have any, and I had great options for either double settle or settle-develop, so I was happy to wait for him to crack. The only games that didn't come down to this basic pattern tended to involve unusual draws; in one game, Jeff managed to play basically every Alien-relevant card, starting with the Rosetta Stone world and the 6 development, for the highest final score we saw. In another, I managed to suddenly switch over to military when I found myself with a decent-sized hand that included New Galactic Order, the Alien Battle Fleet, Expeditionary Force, and Drop Ships with the Rosetta Stone on the table. The Rosetta Stone is truly amazing if you have anything like a decent alien draw...

Vegas NABC

ajr-lj@club.cc.cmu.edu — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 04:37:16 GMT

I'm back from the NABC. We didn't do very well. The event we came for, the flight B GNTs, would qualify 16 teams from the Swiss for the second day. We had an absolutely terrible day and ended up in a tie for the last spot; there was no playoff, and we lost under the tiebreaker rules in force (which I still don't fully understand). We then entered the 0-1500 Life Master Pairs, and finished second to last among those qualified for the last day. Our teammates were actually doing very well up until the last six boards in the same event, but they scored around 20% on them and dropped around 12 places in the standings. I was feeling really miserable on Friday - I certainly made more than my share of errors in the GNTs, and even one VP would have been enough to keep us going - but it was great to see Jenny and Kevin again, and Pat and Cristal were a lot of fun to hang out with, so I ended up happy I had come.

Only one board really stuck out for me well enough to comment on:

Matchpoints, Unfavorable:
KT8 QJ T KQ97643 opposite J97 AK943 8543 5

1C (1D) 1H (P)
2C (2D) 2H (3D)
3H (AP)

What's the worst call in the auction? Possibly-relevant system info: 11+-15- notrumps, 2C weak, weak jump shifts.

[Edited to add form of scoring - sorry, lost it during pre-post editing]

Chicken Tikka Masala

ajr-lj@club.cc.cmu.edu — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 04:18:23 GMT

Chicken tikka masala has been one of my favorite dishes at Indian restaurants ever since I was introduced to it at Taste of India in Pittsburgh, and I've been looking for a good recipe for it for a long time. We finally found a good one in a recent Cook's Illustrated.

2 pounds Chicken Tikka, prepared with or after the sauce
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
2 tsp grated ginger
1 serrano chile
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp garam masala
28 oz crushed tomatoes
2 tsp sugar
½ tsp salt
2/3 cup heavy cream
¼ cup chopped cilantro leaves

(For the chicken tikka, see the linked post.)

Chop the onion finely. Mince or press the garlic and chop the serrano.

Heat the vegetable oil over medium heat until shimmering. Fry the onions until light brown, about eight minutes.

Add the garlic, ginger, serrano, tomato paste, and garam masala, stir, and fry until fragrant, two or three minutes.

Add the tomatoes, sugar, and salt.

Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer for fifteen minutes.

Add the cream and stir.

Once the sauce is hot, cut the chicken tikka into bite-sized pieces and stir it into the sauce.

Serve with chopped cilantro.

(If your chicken tikka masala doesn't seem to have as much chicken as ours, that's not a problem; we used 50% more chicken than recommended, because we had extra.)

Ideally, the chicken tikka should finish right as the sauce finishes. I've found that the best way to do this is to plan dinner as follows:

Gather all the ingredients. This is always my first step for any recipe, since I much prefer to discover that I forgot to buy something at this point, instead of once I have things cooking.
Trim and sprinkle the chicken breasts, and stick them in the fridge.
Chop everything but the cilantro for the sauce, grating the extra ginger needed for the chicken tikka and chopping some extra garlic on the way. This should take less than thirty minutes. Don't forget to set up the oven in here.
Get the oil heated about four minutes before the chicken is done resting, and start frying the onions. Start the rice while the oil is heating; it'll finish early, but that shouldn't be a problem.
While the onions fry, deal with dipping the chicken and getting it in the oven.

From here, everything should just work out.

Chicken Tikka

ajr-lj@club.cc.cmu.edu — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 03:43:36 GMT

Chicken tikka is a tender, flavorful way of preparing whole chicken breasts. It's also a key ingredient of the very popular chicken tikka masala.

2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
½ tsp cumin
½ tsp coriander
¼ tsp cayenne
1 tsp salt
1 C plain yogurt
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp grated ginger

Trim the fat from the chicken breasts.

Mix the cumin, coriander, cayenne, and salt, and sprinkle the spice mix onto both sides of the breasts, rubbing it in slightly.

Let the chicken rest in the refrigerator for half an hour. Meanwhile, whisk the yogurt, vegetable oil, garlic, and ginger in a medium bowl.

Before the chicken finishes resting, adjust the oven rack to the highest slot (if four) or second-highest slot (if five) and heat the broiler. Thoroughly coat the chicken with the yogurt mixture on all sides, and put it in a roasting pan with a rack.

Broil for nine minutes or until the chicken looks done on top with some charred spots.

Turn it over.

broil for another nine minutes. Let sit five minutes before serving.

Shadowmoor release sealed

ajr-lj@club.cc.cmu.edu — Sat, 03 May 2008 17:21:12 GMT

I went to the Friday release event at First Pick last night. We had 24 entrants in the sealed. My pool:

White:
Barrenton Medic
Goldenglow Moth
Mine Excavation
Strip Bare

Blue:
Consign to Dream
Drowner Initiate
Ghastly Discovery
Kinscaer Harpoonist
Whimwader x2

Black:
Ashenmoor Cohort x2
Cinderhaze Wretch
Crowd of Cinders
Disturbing Plot x2
Hollow Barghest
Loch Korrigan
Smolder Initiate

Red:
Bloodmark Mentor
Burn Trail
Power of Fire
Smash to Smithereens x2

Green:
Devoted Druid x2
Farhaven Elf
Gloomwidow
Howl of the Night Pack
Hungry Spriggan
Nurturer Initiatiate x2
Prismatic Omen (foil)
Spawnwrithe
Tower Above
Wildslayer Elves
Witherscale Wurm
Woodfall Primus
Viridescent Wisps x2

Blue/White:
Aethertow
Barrenton Cragtreads x2
Puresight Merrow x2
Steel of the Godhead
Thoughtweft Gambit
Turn to Mist

Blue/Black:
Gravegill Axeshark
Gravegill Duo
Merrow Grimeblotter
Oona's Gatewarden

Red/Black:
Ashenmoor Gouger
Torrent of Souls

Red/Green:
Giantbaiting x2
Gutteral Response
Runes of the Deus
Tattermunge Duo x2

White/Green:
Elvish Hexhunter
Medicine Runner
Old Ghastbark
Reknit
Safehold Duo
Seedcradle Witch
Wheel of Sun and Moon

Artifact/Land:
Lockjaw Snapper
Rattleblaze Scarecrow
Scrapbasket
Scuttlemutt x2
Thornwatch Scarecrow x2
Madblind Mountain

---

My strongest cards are definitely green (I don't think I've ever had five rares in a sealed pool in one color, even if two of them aren't really playable) and white/blue. This would seem to suggest a green/white deck, but for some reason I was obsessed with the idea of beatdown, and I built the following:

Burn Trail
Power of Fire
Devoted Druid x2
Farhaven Elf
Gloomwidow
Howl of the Night Pack
Nurturer Initiatite x2
Spawnwrithe
Tower Above
Wildslayer Elves
Witherscale Wurm
Woodfall Primus
Giantbaiting x2
Runes of the Deus
Reknit
Safehold Duo
Seedcradle Witch
Lockjaw Snapper
Scrapbasket
Scuttlemutt x2
Forest x1
Mountain x3
Plains x2

This deck worked well, and the opponents I beat were just steamrolled. My most absurd opening was turn one Seedcradle Witch, turn three Spawnwrithe, turn four swing with 2WG up into one creature. I also got down the Witherscale on turn four or five several times. It had a major weakness, though - I have almost no way to deal with fliers. I think every game I lost was to some combination of Silkbind Faerie (which is just nuts) and Rune-Cervin Rider. This left me at 3-2, not enough to win anything. In retrospect, I wasn't nearly greedy enough; a much better build would have been:

Burn Trail
Power of Fire
Devoted Druid x2
Farhaven Elf
Gloomwidow
Spawnwrithe
Tower Above
Witherscale Wurm
Woodfall Primus
Aethertow
Barrenton Cragtreads x2
Puresight Merrow x2
Steel of the Godhead
Thoughtweft Gambit
Turn to Mist
Runes of the Deus
Seedcradle Witch
Scuttlemutt x2
Scrapbasket
Forest x7
Plains x7
Mountain x3

This loses some consistency from the previous build, but the sheer power should more than make up for it. I'm running two game-winning auras, with Scrapbasket and two Scuttlemutts to make sure they're as good as they can be. I've got the Burn Trail/Puresight Merrow x2 combination, which should just win the game if it sticks. I've got Thoughtweft Gambit, which can be better than Time Walk in the right board position. And for all this, the only nasty trick I've really given up is Howl of the Night Pack (which, admittedly, won me two or three games last night). This deck also has a much better curve. I guess I just never hit on quite this combination last night, which is a shame; I knew this deck had a 5-0 in it somewhere, I just couldn't find it in time.

It's back!

ajr-lj@club.cc.cmu.edu — Thu, 01 May 2008 05:58:21 GMT

Just in case anyone thought they had escaped the horror once Lorwyn merfolk left the draft environment, I lost two games tonight to milling.

Three takes on common ingredients - part 3

ajr-lj@club.cc.cmu.edu — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 06:34:11 GMT

(for the ingredient list, see part 1)

Method 3: Precooked vegetables

This method has a much shorter stove time, which is achieved by baking the potatoes for an hour at 350F. The potatoes are then peeled and cut into 3/4 inch dice.

The ghee is heated over medium heat, and the green chiles, cumin seeds, and ginger root are fried until the cumin seeds darken.

The potatoes, turmeric, and coriander are added, and the potatoes are cooked until slightly browned.

The salt and cilantro are stirred in before serving.

Three takes on common ingredients - part 2

ajr-lj@club.cc.cmu.edu — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 06:08:04 GMT

(for the ingredient list, see part 1)

Method 2: Sauteed and Braised Vegetables (cooked in broth)

This method simmers the vegetables to tenderness in liquid. The ingredients are the same, but the potato chunks are larger this time - one-inch cubes.

All but half a tablespoon of the ghee is heated over medium-high heat, and the green chiles, cumin seeds, and ginger root are fried until the cumin seeds darken.

The potatoes are stirred in and sauteed until they're just a bit browned.

The ground spices, a tablespoon of cilantro, and 1¼ cups of water are then added to the pan. The water is brought to a boil, then the heat is turned to medium low and the pot is partially covered. The goal is to have the water boil off just when the potatoes are tender; this may require fiddling with the heat.

Once the potatoes are tender, the remaining ghee is added and the heat is returned to medium high to give the potatoes a light crust.

The salt and cilantro are stirred in before serving.

Three takes on common ingredients - part 1

ajr-lj@club.cc.cmu.edu — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 04:56:47 GMT

I like the approach taken at the beginning of the vegetables section; Yamuna describes three different methods of cooking vegetables, and then provides three recipes using the exact same set of ingredients to demonstrate them. I decided to try out the three recipes to make sure I understood her methods.

The basic ingredient list I chose was

1 lb potatoes
3 T ghee
½ T minced green chilies
1 t cumin seeds
½ t minced ginger root
½ t turmeric
½ T coriander
1 t salt
2 T chopped cilantro

(These ingredients aren't actually enough to make a meal for two; you need a staple or another dish. We had them with chapatis, which I'll explain in another post.)

Method 1: Sauteed and Braised Dry Vegetables

This method uses very little liquid; small pieces of vegetables are fried in ghee until partially cooked, then covered and allowed to cook in their own juices. The potatoes are peeled and cut into half-inch dice.

The ghee is heated over medium heat, and the green chiles, cumin seeds, and ginger root are fried until the cumin seeds darken.

The potatoes are stirred in and sauteed until they're just a bit browned.

The heat is reduced to low, and the tumeric, coriander, and a couple of tablespoons of water are added. Everything is covered, and the potatoes are left to cook until tender (about 15 minutes), stirring occasionally.

Once the potatoes are tender, the salt and cilantro are stirred in before serving.

Ghee

ajr-lj@club.cc.cmu.edu — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 04:53:04 GMT

While we were in Pittsburgh, Rehana's mother gave us her copy of The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking. Since Rehana and I are always looking for new recipes, I decided to just start going through the main dish vegetables section. It quickly became clear, however, that before we started we should at least try using ghee; despite the fact that we've been cooking Indian food for years, we've never actually used it before. It turned out to be really easy to make; I just baked a pound of butter at 300F for 75 minutes:

I skimmed off the foam and spooned the liquid through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl.

The first strainer I used wasn't quite good enough.

Rehana's tea strainer did the trick.

Random deck thought

ajr-lj@club.cc.cmu.edu — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 02:42:31 GMT

I'm wondering if a Zur the Enchanter deck might be playable in Shadowmoor type 2. Some white/blue/black enchantments that Zur can fetch:

Greater Auramancy (Note that this won't stop you from popping additional Auras on Zur)
Runed Halo
Steel of the Godhead (this one looks like a lot of fun on Zur...)
Prison Term
Bitterblossom
Declaration of Naught
Oblivion Ring
Daybreak Coronet (if we end up with enough Auras)
Porphyry Nodes
Temporal Isolation
Griffin Guide
Sacred Mesa
Pacifism
Pariah
Story Circle

There's also Idyllic Tutor available to dig up toolbox enchantments without Zur. I'm not sure how to make certain that the deck can run without Zur, but between Prison Term, Porphyry Nodes, Temporal Isolation, Pacifism, and Temporal Isolation, the deck has no shortage of ways to stall. Something like this might work:

Four-ofs:
4x Zur
4x Prison Term
4x Bitterblossom
4x Oblivion Ring
4x Temporal Isolation
4x Porphyry Nodes
4x Rune Snag

Toolbox:
1x Steel of the Godhead
2x Greater Auramancy
1x Runed Halo
1x Story Circle
1x Sacred Mesa

26x land

This is totally untested, and it's obviously designed to work against a creature-heavy environment, but creature-heavy seems like it will be the rule for a while. The lack of non-Zur win conditions may be a problem, of course. The sideboard can be almost anything; Raking Canopy would be cute, but probably not really playable.

Some games from the Gathering

ajr-lj@club.cc.cmu.edu — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 23:45:36 GMT

Stone Age

Stone Age was set up on a couple of tables all through the convention, and it seemed to have at least respectable traffic throughout the week. It's a new Rio Grande game that should come out sometime this month. Each player controls a stone age tribe collecting resources to build huts and food to keep themselves alive. The tribe is represented by meeples, who can be placed on action areas during the placement phase of the turn. Many of the spaces are used to gather resources; in those spaces, each character buys the roll of one die. The total of the roll is then divided by the value of the resource to determine how much is gathered. The other spaces allow players the right to buy cards (which are worth points and allow various actions), build huts for points, decrease their food needed each turn, increase their population, or take a tool. Tools are a nice little mechanism to even out the luck of the dice a bit; each tool can be used once a turn to increase a production roll by one. This won't turn a bad roll into a good one, but it can make a big difference on a 7 roll for a resource worth four. The game end is (usually) determined by hut building; at the beginning of the game, there are four equal stacks of huts. When one stack is emptied, the game ends. This gives the players quite a lot of control over when the game will end; if one stack is built frequently, it will be a short game. Scoring is based on huts (each hut is worth the value of the resources used to build it) plus cards; each card, in addition to providing some bonus when purchased, gives points either as part of a set or for something else (such as tools or tribe members) collected during the game.

I wasn't terribly impressed with Stone Age; it just felt far too long for what it is. Even with the tools to even things out, there's a lot of luck in what you roll. I played twice; I lost the first game because I could not manage to roll above 12 on 6d6 for several turns while trying to gather food. I won the second by a mile, with almost exactly the same strategy (in fact, if anything I made one more costing error in the second), because I had decent rolls on food and excellent rolls on gold. I also didn't see a lot of interesting decisions; it was almost always obvious where to place my people. All else being equal, food reduction seems stronger than the other places to play meeples; this reduces the decision-making process even further and seems to hurt the last player significantly (in a four-player game, the first player will spend three fewer food than the last player every full starting player cycle if every player always chooses this space when available) I could forgive these flaws in a shorter game, but Stone Age seemed to take over an hour both times I players.

[Edit - I just learned that I was taught the consequences for starvation incorrectly; it's much less harsh than we thought. This could make starving your people a viable strategy, which would eliminate the "automatic" food reduction choice.]

Hanging Gardens

Hanging Gardens is a double set collecting game with a mechanism I haven't quite seen duplicated elsewhere. The basic piece in the game is a card with a 3x2 grid, some spaces of which are filled in with a color. Each player starts with an empty 3x2 grid. Every turn, each player will get a new card to add to their grid. The placement rule is simple - every colored space must go over an existing space in the grid, while empty spaces can hang off to expand the grid. The placement goal is to get groups of a color, which can be turned in (and marked with a blocker which prevents card placement over one square of the group) for scoring tiles; the scoring tiles form another set collection game, which look very similar to another game whose name escapes me at the moment. Whoever has the highest score when the deck empties wins. This isn't a very deep game, but it is quick, and the spatial reasoning required is a bit different than anything I've seen before. I doubt I'll pick it up or suggest it, but I wouldn't mind playing it again if someone else wanted to.

Race for the Galaxy

Race for the Galaxy was probably my single most-played game this week. I joined the tournament, but I got knocked out in a close game in the second round when I was on the wrong side of a kingmaking position (not that I fault the third player - he took the role that was right for him). I did have several very frustrating games outside of the tournament; I'm not sure what I can do when my hand screams military, I build the military infrastructure, and Explore +5 for 8+ cards (using other explore powers as well) on each of the last six turns of the game fails to give me any military world or development worth more than two points. That happened at least twice over the course of the week. The production strategy can at least use a larger subset of the deck...

Through the Ages

Through the Ages was probably the most heavily played longer game I saw; there was always at least one game going. I got in three games over the course of the week. I found myself playing two of them in very similar ways - I spent the entire third era hiding behind Ghandi. He's much more powerful than I gave him credit for; you're vulnerable to aggressions, but the doubled action cost makes it very hard for anyone but a dedicated warmonger to play Wars on you. That was enough in one game, where my point income was absolutely overwhelming, but not in the second game. The third game saw Jonobie (who was on her first game) go from no military power to the military power over the course of a few turns, with barely any rock production. I continue to be impressed by the number of paths there are to follow in this game - I think I see new ones every time I play.

Agricola

I think Agricola was the biggest hit of the Gathering; it wouldn't surprise me if Race for the Galaxy and Tichu got more plays, but from my completely unscientific observations when length is taken into account I think Agricola was probably the most played game. I did have one set of cards that I'm not sure I handled correctly - late in the turn order, playing with the interactive deck only (something another player wanted to do), I had, among other things, the Wood, Stone, and Reeds buyers, the Wood Collector, the Baker's Kitchen, the Corn Store, and Alms, the Wood Path, the Clay Path, the Social Climber... I can't remember the rest, but nothing else seemed very powerful or synergistic. I decided to try for a massive buyer-oriented strategy with this approach - spend the time before the first two harvests setting up for a massive Corn Store sowing, playing Alms in round six to ensure sufficient food. Get the Baker's Kitchen on the table in round seven, and use my massive food advantage to abuse the buyers for the rest of the game. I wasn't quite able to execute on this strategy - I was a turn slow - and this just left me way behind. Once I had the buyers on the table with infinite food, everyone else also had severe problems, but I was short actions and I couldn't catch up. If I ever have this hand again (unlikely, unless we decide to play with just the I deck again), I must find a way to increase my population early while heading for the combo - I just couldn't get enough actions, and the other players will ignore the relevant resources rather than giving me the "free" actions I was counting on to catch up. Playing the Stone Buyer early might have helped, but it would have screwed with my Alms pretty severely.

Tigris & Euphrates

I got in one play of T&E on the new set. There's a new board on the other side; we played the original board, so I can't comment on how it plays. It's a bit confusing for someone used to the old version, but I don't think it would be that hard to get used to. I won this one through sheer arrogance; one opponent launched a major external conflict and didn't bother to throw anything in to the blue conflict when up by four tiles. Four blue tiles from my hand later, I had all the blue points I could ever need and his invasion was in ruins. There was never much doubt after this conflict that I would win.

Neuland

I also got in a play of the new version of Neuland. There's (at least) one new building that I unfortunately didn't notice when teaching from memory: the Alchemist's Hut, which takes a paper and a pot of silver, and makes a pot of gold which can be used as any one resource. I think I'll like this change; it makes it harder to block out a resource with the rare buildings without making life any easier, and it makes silver slightly better. Paper+Pot of Silver is more than it takes to construct any other resource, so I'm not particularly worried about balance problems. Componentwise, I didn't see any introduced problems, although the symbols are again a bit confusing for someone used to the original.

Pittsburgh

ajr-lj@club.cc.cmu.edu — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 16:44:50 GMT

If anyone comes across a green windbreaker with an umbrella in the pocket, could you please let me know? I would also appreciate it if you'd hang on to it for me until I'm next in town...