PBEM Olympics - Samurai Game 4

The last of four games of Samurai on MaBiWeb finished today. In this game, Nathan (green) needed to win and have Chester finish last in order for him to medal at all. Justin (blue) and I needed to ensure Chester (yellow) didn't win while beating each other out to get gold. Nathan and I began with pieces on Edo (3-spot) while Justin went to the southern island and Chester a bit to the northern island. I used a lot of power pieces early in an attempt to try and limit Justin to almost only rice pieces. Nathan was kicking ass, while the rest of us looked to be pushing equally forward. In fact, it was my concern that Chester was going to storm back at the end that was my own undoing. I counted up the pieces and setup the board such that Nathan would have to end the game (he'd win, Chester would be last). Unfortunately, I made a major mistake and Justin beat me out for second place. By no means will I claim that Justin's Gold Medal for the Samurai event was due to my poor play - he played really well the whole set of games. I looked back later and I'm pretty sure now that I couldn't have prevented Justin beating me. I just didn't have the right pieces I needed at the end of the game. Congratulations to Justin for the gold medal.