Samurai on MaBiWeb

I fired up a game of Samurai on MaBiWeb (as it seems I do at the start of each year). Eventually joining me were Chester Ogborn, Mike Garrett, and Mike Gingold - all skilled opponents. I ended up being first and with my initial hand went for Kyoto (the double area just West of Edo, the triple). I played fairly aggressively and started winning a good amount and variety of pieces. As the game wound down, I had the lead in hats and other pieces. Chester held the lead with Rice and the Buddhas being fairly evenly distributed (in fact we all finished with three of them). Unfortunately, the game came down to the very end of the board and neither Chester nor I could end the game on our own. The end game came down to Mike Garrett, who could win one of two pieces - a hat or a buddha. If he takes the hat piece, he and I tie for majority (ie nobody has a hat majority) and Chester wins as the only player with a majority. If he takes the buddha, Chester and I tie with one majority each and I win by virtue of more other pieces taken (6-4). So, Mike was put into the unfortunate position of kingmaker. He took the buddha and gave me the official victory. Despite that, I think this was more of a tie. Had we played face to face, Mike's choice would have felt less kingmaker-like (or I think we could have agreed to call it a tie).