Clash of Chaos and Confetti #48 – Yahtzee

The Premise and Standings

Each week we’ll face off in a best of three series playing a different board game from our collection.  The winner claims the moniker of C&C Clash Champ for the week.  The loser will be wishing they could reroll their stats. The lesser player also gets to choose the game for the next week.

We will maintain a record of wins and losses throughout the year to see who finishes 2022 as the ultimate board game champ in our household.

Our current C&C Champion is Chaos after winning last week’s Biblios battle.

Pre-Clash Current Standings:

• Weekly Winner: 23 Chaos – 24 Confetti
• Individual game wins: 69 Chaos – 62 Confetti – 1 Draw

After losing last week, Confetti has chosen Yahtzee.

The Game – Yahtzee

Yahtzee is a dice-rolling and scoring game.  Players will work to strategically maximize their points each round in order to seize victory after thirteen rounds.

On their turn, a player will roll a set of five dice.  They may reroll any combination of those dice again, and then one more time, for a total of up to three rolls.  Once the player is done rolling, they will get one of their available scoring columns to apply their final roll towards.  Each column can only be used once, so players will need to carefully decide when it’ll be best to put them to use.  

The thirteen columns are all unique.  There are six columns that score only one numerical value from dice, i.e. only ones or fives.  Other columns will check for things such as straights and matching dice.  Of course, there is also a yahtzee, which is a roll of five of a kind.  The first yahtzee is worth fifty points, but each bonus yahtzee is worth an additional one hundred points, at the cost of a different column taking a zero.  

If a player is unable to or unwilling to use a column, they will simply have to add a zero to a column.

Turn order will rotate until every player has had their thirteen turns and filled in every column.  Then, players will begin final scoring.  First, the top half of the score sheet will be tallied.  If a player scores sixty-three or higher points, they will get a point thirty-five points.  The bottom set of seven columns is scored next along with any bonus yahtzees.  Finally, the top and bottom sections are totaled for a final score.  The player with the highest score is declared the winner.

Yahtzee is a mix of luck and wise decision making.  Who will be rolling out of this week a winner?

Chaos’ Pre-Clash Thoughts:

After a rough Summer, I’ve been on more of a roll these past few weeks.  Hopefully that roll extends to Yahtzee.  I feel as if I can end the year as a big winner, but it’s so easy to have everything slip through my fingers.  The pressure is on and I’ll be doing my best not to choke.

Confetti’s Pre-Clash Thoughts:

Not feeling great about these clashes. Yahtzee is a game of chance, so could go either way.

Game 1 –

Chaos started this game and immediately got his large straight.  This felt like a good sign.  Then, Confetti’s first roll resulted in a yahtzee, and that seemed like an even better sign for her.  

Back and forth the dice rolling action happened.  Both competitors found place where the dice were agreeable and where they could have been a little nicer.  Confetti desperately wanted her large straight.  Time and again, she would attempt it only to miss it by one die.  She would then have to opt for using her roll for a different category, which wasn’t always ideal.

Chaos had no trouble with is straights, but his rolls for the numbers on the top half of the scoring sheet weren’t delivering at the level he needed.  In the  end, he would wind up three points short of the bonus threshold.

Chaos and Confetti both worried their rolls weren’t what they needed them to be, but at least they took some comfort knowing the other was having issues too.  In the end, the game ended up being pretty close, but Chaos was able to pull out the win by seven points. 

Game 1 Winner: Chaos

Game 1 Score: 194 Chaos – 187 Confetti

Game 2 –

Confetti made the initial rolls for this game, but her opening remained the same.  Immediately she rolled five threes and opened with a yahtzee.  Chaos, however, rolled low and had to settle for four on his aces.

Unwilling to lose steam too quickly, Confetti rolled a second yahtzee which guaranteed her a bonus one hundred points.  She marked out her large straight because she had lost faith in her ability to roll one.  

Chaos felt he’d need a yahtzee too, but unable to simply make that happen, he hoped to earn the top section bonus to help close the gap.  Sadly, he once again fell short.   This time only getting fifty-four.  For the longest time, he simply couldn’t roll fours.

Confetti’s luck slowed down a bit, but that didn’t need too much since she already had such an enormous lead.  She did end up rolling the large straight a few times, but she converted one into her small straight and then simply rerolled others.

From the start, the results of this game seemed set and everyone’s hunch proved right.  Confetti dominated Chaos with an over one hundred points lead in the final scores.

Game 2 Winner: Confetti

Game 2 Score: 206 Chaos – 328 Confetti

Game 3 –

Chaos started the final game, but more importantly, Confetti didn’t start this game with a yahtzee.  In fact, this would be the first game with no official yahtzees.

Chaos once again focused on getting his top half bonus.  The dice weren’t cooperating, but he grabbed points where he could.  Thankfully, many of his failed attempts still resulted in decent points on the lower half of the score sheet.  He did frustrate himself a bit though when a completely bad roll required him to simply zero out a column.  Chaos got rid of his yahtzee because he never came close to getting one.  Then, of course, he rolled five fives the next round.  Agony!

Confetti targeted getting her lower half columns filled and opted to use her weaker rolls to complete the top half of her score pad.  Slowly, she filled in every column other than her yahtzee.  She even found success with her straights.  

As the final points were tallied, it Chaos’ attempts for the bonus finally paid off.  He scored sixty-three points exactly, which earned him the bonus of thirty-five points.  With their bottom sections being so close, it was really the the upper half that won this game for Chaos.  It also brought him a championship win for the week!

Game 3 Winner: Chaos

Game 3 Score: 271 Chaos – 216 Confetti

Your Winner and STILL C&C Clash Champion: Chaos!!!

Chaos’ Post-Clash Thoughts:

I guess the dice favored me this week.  I was a little worried about all of Confetti’s yahtzees, but thankfully the dice refused to cooperate on her straight other needs.  I can’t believe I went from such a huge weekly deficit to actually tying our series up.  With only three weeks left in the year, the clash series could go either way.  Let’s hope my luck doesn’t run out anytime soon.

Confetti’s Post-Clash Thoughts:

Blah.

New Standings:

Post-Clash Standings:

• Weekly Winner: 24 Chaos – 24 Confetti
• Individual game wins: 71 Chaos – 63 Confetti – 1 Draw

Next Week: Unstable Unicorns