Virginia
1. Tobacco, Peanuts [AR]
2. Surrenders [HC]
3. Virginia Tech [SA]
4. Shenandoah Valley [NB]

Georgia

[AR] Peanuts, peaches.
[HC] Chickamauga
[NB] Okefenokee Swamp
[SA] The Masters

Oregon

Crater Lake [NB]
Mount Hood [SA]
Oregon Trail [HC]
Nike [HC]

MINNESOTA

(AR)- Sugarbeets
(NB)- Itasca Park
(HC)- Fort Snelling
(SA)- Mall America

New Hampshire

[HC] Covered Bridges
[AR] Granite
[NB] White Mountains
[HC] Dartmouth College

No SA.

I can think of a couple here where you would have done better but I'll wait until after the scoring to comment.

South Carolina

[AR] Tobacco, Cotton
[HC] Fort Sumter
[NB] Hilton Head
[SA] Myrtle Beach

yeah, baby!

So, who's left to submit this round?

Masked

Bump for Late Boy. :D

bump

Sorry, I've been out of town. I'll submit my entry tonight.

Oh, that old ploy. I think he's been studying. Or traveling to New Mexico for research.

Actually, I was visiting my last state to, uh, compile evidence to show the judges were wrong on the scoring. ;)

New Mexico

[HC] Los Alamos
[AR] Tourqouise, Uranium
[NB] Carlsbad Caverns
[SA] Pecos, Bandelier

Scores sent. Overall fairly solid (except for one).

Stage 3 Scoreboard:

Florida (Butter of 69) - 18
1. Disney World [SA] - 5
2. St. Augustine [HC] - 4
3. Citrus fruit [AR] - 5
4. Florida Keys [NB] – 4

Coug’s Comment: I felt this state had a shot at 20. Well played.

Georgia (path12) - 17
[AR] Peanuts, peaches - 5
[HC] Chickamauga - 4
[NB] Okefenokee Swamp – 3
[SA] The Masters - 5

Coug’s Comment: Nice entry, but I wouldn’t have limited HC to Chickamauga.

South Carolina (sachmo71 & JeeberD): 16
[AR] Tobacco, Cotton – 3
[HC] Fort Sumter – 5
[NB] Hilton Head - 4
[SA] Myrtle Beach – 4

Coug’s Comment: Solid.

Virginia (wademoore): 15
1. Tobacco, Peanuts [AR] – 3
2. Surrenders [HC] – 5
3. Virginia Tech [SA] – 2
4. Shenandoah Valley [NB] – 5

Coug’s Comment: Surrenders (being Appomattox and Yorktown) was a brilliant choice of words, and Shenandoah is a great one, but VaTech was an uninspired choice.

New Mexico (Masked) - 15
[HC] Los Alamos - 4
[AR] Tourqouise, Uranium - 4
[NB] Carlsbad Caverns - 4
[SA] Pecos, Bandelier – 3

Coug’s Comment: Maybe Area 51 for SA?

West Virginia (Anxiety) - 14
1. Coal (AR) – 5
2. Gorge Bridge (NB) – 3
3. Jerry West (SA) – 3
4. Mine Wars (HC) – 3

Coug’s Comment: A solid entry.

Alabama (gstelmack) - 14
Crimson Tide [SA] – 4
GW Carver [AR] -4
Space Race [HC] – 3
Tuskegee Airmen [HC] – 4
-1 NB

Coug’s Comment: I liked the Tuskegee entry.

MINNESOTA (tarcone) - 14
(AR)- Sugarbeets - 4
(NB)- Itasca Park - 3
(HC)- Fort Snelling - 3
(SA)- Mall America - 4

Coug’s Comment: Maybe go with “10,000 lakes” for NB?

New Hampshire (Radii) - 14
[HC] Covered Bridges – 3
[AR] Granite – 4
[NB] White Mountains – 5
[HC] Dartmouth College - 3
–1 SA

Coug’s Comment: Nice entry.

Oregon (TazFTW) - 13
Crater Lake [NB] - 5
Mount Hood [SA] – 3
Oregon Trail [HC] – 4
Nike [HC] – 2
-1 AR

Coug’s Comment: Logging would have been a [4] or [5] AR in my book.

====================

Overall Scoreboard:
50 - Team 3 (Butter of 69)
49 - Team 4 (path12) & Team 7 (Masked)
45 - Team 8 (tarcone)
43 - Team 5 (gstelmack)
42 - Team 1 (sachmo71 & JeeberD) & Team 9 (Anxiety)
41 - Team 10 (Radii & Oliegirl)
40 - Team 6 (TazFTW)
38 - Team 2 (wade moore)

Stage 4 begins with Vermont up on the bidding block.

Area 51 is in Nevada, isn't it? I think you're getting it mixed up with Roswell, Coug...

Thanks on the surrenders... one of my intentions early on was to use this term...

On VA Tech - I'm curious what would have done better... I wonder if perhaps I would have been better with another HC (Civil War Battle, Jamestown, etc) and taken the one point hit...

I'm pretty dissapointed with the Tobacco/Peanuts score though...

I wonder if "VaTech football" would have done any better? Narrowed the scope down a bit to VaTech's brighest spot...

I thought VA was a 20 point state, absolutely.

I would have gone with teh Natural Bridge as SA, one of the 7 natural wonders of the world.

-Anxiety

I'm surprised Sugarbeets got that high a score. Minnesota is the top producer in the nation, but it still ranks far below other agricultural products for importance in the state. Iron ore or taconite should have been worth a five I think. I would have chose Boundary Waters over Itasca, although 10,000 lakes is a good suggestion as well. As far as historical, Minnesota is not so good for that category, so Fort Snelling is probably as good as anything. Mall of America was a solid choice, maybe even worthy of a 5 although 4 is very understandable.

Yeah, tobacco getting killed in SC. Go figure. :)

Well, I think the Natural Bridge would be NB... But good point, it still would have been 4 (with the penalty) rather than 2...

Ohwell...

Can't say I'm too disappointed with this round... but I was definitely hoping for the first perfect 20.

Whoops, you are correct, sir. :o

i almost went iron ore, guess i should have.
Itasaca park was a 5. this is the head water of the mississippi river, with beautiful bluffs over looking it. yeah 10,000 lakes was the obvious choice. but, really, are all 10,000 lakes a natural beauty? i'll bet there are some pretty nasty lakes in minnesota

I'd love to hear the reasoning on Alabama's space race bits being only a 3. Huntsville was the hub of the rocket industry where they figured all this stuff out. Sure, launches are from Canaveral and Houston has the control center, but how on earth are Huntsville's contributions only a 3 for one of the most important historical and scientific research projects of the 20th century? Or should this have gone in another category (i.e. was the thinking that it's only a 3 for History & Culture)?

And I don't know how the inventor of peanut butter and the savior of agriculture in the south doesn't merit a 5.

I'm going to be real curious to see the thinking on the scoring of this round.

I'm extremely happy with my score on New Hampshire. Its too bad I killed my chances early on with my screwups in Kentucky.

I think I would have chose Cape Canaveral as the HC for Florida, but that's just me.

Here's my WV comments:

Coal - 5 obviously

Gorge Bridge - At the highest arch bridge int ehworld, a bridge that was specifically built to enchance the local beauty, the largest such bridge in NA, (used to be in the world until a couple of years ago) spanning the second oldest river in the world, I was hoping that I'd get more than 3 - maybe four or something.

Jerry West - Getting three here is not suprising. This was a philosophy thing, I think. Can an individual give a state a 4 or 5 in SA alone? If so, Jerry West brings you home, if not, he just gets you a 3. Jerry West has an olympic Gold Medal, took WVU to the national basketball championship game (which was also WV related), was born and raised in rural WV, was one the premier players of his sport, was so iconic that the NBA logo uses his silouhette, and was a dynasty builder as a GM for the Lakers and has broguth the Grizzlies into respectability. He's also a really, really nice person, who still spends alot of time in WV. THe cominbation of national championship game fo ra scholl that doesn;t usually do that well, olypmic gold medal, one of the consense top of his spor,t iconic, and great GM would give a higher score, but if the philosophy is that an individual can't get you above a three, then I understand.

Mine wars - this was an interesting choice by myself. The official first battle in the Revolutionary War was fought in WV near Point Pleasant, but would that have gotten more points? I could have also have said Civil War Battles, but although many are fought here, most were lesser conflicts. I also thought about John Brown's raid in Harpers Ferry, but again, wasn't sure that would score out. I went with the Mine Wars which is very specific to WV. Just go to Google and type in Mine Wars and hit enter and see all of the WV stuff that comes up - virtually every hit in a WV site. Just got 3, but I didn;t know how to go with this category, so I went with something that is uniquely WV - the mine wars.

-Anxiety

In just looking at the scores (they were very close to what I had submitted) and not reading further, let me say that I was very disappointed in wade's entry for Virginia. Coug and I, a couple of weeks, actually batted around several ideas for Virginia and I think we came up with 4-5 combinations that would have gotten 19. It's not a 20 state because you have to put up another HC instead of going with an AR. But to see wade only getting 15 was disappointing, esp. going with VT for SA instead of Williamsburg. Ugh.

As far as the rest, remember the scores submitted primarily reflect national comparisons. Something that is unique to the state (esp. for HC or NB) has to stand up to other similar features or events for other states. If a state has a HC or NB that truly is important or significant nationally, then it would get a 4 or 5. If it's not known too much outside of the state, then it would get a 3 at best. For example, the Gorge Bridge in WV is nice and all but it doesn't stack up very well against the much deeper and spectacular gorges out here in the West. In fact, I think the New River would have gotten a 4 because it is one of the best nationally known whitewater runs, which only WV can proudly claim. See how that works? More later....

Addendum: AR can work very well on a national scale for a state. In order to get a high score, that crop has to be special on a national scale AND the state has to be a leading producer of it. Too many entries, esp. this round, are for crops that the state no longer produce in significant quantities. Georgia peaches and peanuts are known and sold throughout the US, Virginia peanuts are not. Virginia ham is known worldwide, SC cotton is not anymore.

I just actually turned red because I did not even think of Williamsburg as an SA.

Ugh... by my score I'm obviously not very good at this game.

Yeah, I was in a "logging is a declining industry" mode of thinking. I knew that Oregon was still tops in the US in producing lumber but their output has been on the decline.

I was hoping Nike would have scored higher. They are the only Fortune 500 company in Oregon. The swoosh is probably one of the more recognizable logos in the world. Jordan/Tiger/Ronaldinho as spokespeople. I wasn't expecting a 5 but I wasn't expecting a 2 either.

I was torn between Chickamauga and Shermans March. I almost just put down Chickamauga & Atlanta. Would that have worked?

I don't think so because they were two separate things. Atlanta was more spectacular for its fires that were set by the retreating army, not so much for its turning point (it became inevitable that the Union would take over the city). Sherman's March was of very little military importance but much more famous for its psychological and political importance, to the point that it has grown to mythology status.

okay i'm going to be a hater.

how long can this game possibly go on? is there a point to it beyond trying to be the game that goes on the longest? 50 states times 4! stages already! jeezus!

Um...it's not 50x4. More like 50/5 = five rounds and players now are bidding for states to complete their fourth sets. Admittedly it does seem to have taken some time, but there have been lots of dead periods. If it were the only thing us players and judges ever did, we'd have been done sooner.... :p :)

Yeah, this game has gone on for a while.

I'm hoping the state I've been saving for comes up for bid in the next few days, so I can get it in before I go on vacation next week.

That's why I decided against Sherman -- the fact that Chickamauga (IMO) had a much greater overall military importance. Appreciate your thoughts as always on these.

I played in a couple of pbem Diplomacy games that lasted a year. Compared to that we're cruisin'. :cool:

How long can it possibly go on? I'll put my bet on round 5.

To the extent that in many areas of the south, especially Georgia, "Sherman" is the 8th of the "7 words you cannot say..."

At least try to be an informed hater. The game format is in the first post. This is the 4th of 5 stages, but the number of remaining states is small. We'll be out of your way before you know it.

There are, pretty much any of the muck ponds that are called lakes in the southern half of the state :)

Last call for Vermont

Chopped down by a wording issue! Noooooooo! (hangs head).

Vermont gose to path12 for a $5 bid. Thought we might have our first goose egg state, but it rallied late.

And now comes California. Break out your wallets, folks!

Given his available bankroll and Masked's lower bid, Butter_of_69 is able to take California for $31 unchecked.

Connecticut is now on the block.

Wow. And Butter is already in 1st place.

Last call for Connecticut

wade moore grabs Connecticut as his 4th state for an $8 bid.

New York is next on the block.

TazFTW pounces on New York with a quick-draw $30 bid for his final state.

Utah is now on the block.

Yay.

Ugh, I was hoping I got my bid in before him.

Last call for OOOtah.

If Utah goes cheap, I think it can be an absolute steal if someone plays the right choices.

Team Sachmo snags Utah as their final state, with the first (of three!) $11 bids.

Wisconsin is now up for bid.

Sweet!

whoo! ace in the hole, baby! :)

I believe all states can score at least 17.

Butter_of_69 grabs Wisconsin as his final state, for $2.

Oklahoma is next on the block.

FYI, I will be out of town (no internet) from Saturday through Tuesday.

Um, speaking of steals...$2 for Wisconsin? Wow.

Man, I thought I'd be trying to dodge Nebraska and North Dakota.

Oklahoma becomes gstelmack's final state for a paltry $1 bid.

The great state of Washington is now on the block. Not that I'm biased or anything. :D

Weeee! Now I can beat butter's point-to-money ratio ;)

Last call for Washington

Washington goes to Anxiety for a $12 bid.

Wyoming is now on the block.

Whoohoo!

-Anxiety

Last call for Wyoming

Bump? Hello?

Sorry for the delay. I've been very sick the past few days.

With a $6 bid path12 takes Wyoming as his final state.

Indiana is now up for bid.

wade moore jumps on the Hoosier State with his final $11 to fill out his five states.

North Dakota (where?) is now on the block.

I'm interested to see if what I thought would happen will. If it doesn't, I'll be mad about this bid on Indiana.

ugh.

Got that right. As the last team to submit a zero bid on North Dakota, Team Radii gets stuck with them, effectively spending their last $19 for that final state! OUCH

North Carolina is up for bid. Three states to go!

Perfect :)

Wow. I bid within the hour too. Oh well.

As one of the last guys left, I don't mind. Thanks Radii!


-Anxiety

Crap.

Flush with moulah, Masked takes North Carolina for $10 and that completes the Stage 4 bidding. We move on to the judging segment with only two states remaining for Stage 5.

Please post your 4th state values as soon as possible. I will be posting a couple by proxy that were PMd to me in advance.

For Butter of 69:

Wisconsin
1. Dairy [AR]
2. NFL Packers [SA]
3. Door County [NB]
4. BlackHawk War [HC]

For TazFTW:

Maryland
Antietam [HC]
blue crab [AR]
National Anthem [HC]
Camden Yards [SA]

Just wanted to share real quick:

I went for Indiana figuring that radii would snatch up NC...

Ugh!

Yeah, Radii getting stuck with North Dakota was clearly pivotal for the whole final end-game bidding.

Colorado

Rocky Mountains [NB]
Garden of the Gods [NB]
Gold Rush [HC]
Snow Skiing [SA]

-1 on AR (mining seems to be down in Colorado these days...)

Tough one.

Vermont:
(AR) Maple syrup
(HC) Ethan Allen
(SA) Eastern skiing
(NB) Green Mountain

my "ugh" post before the whole North Dakota thing was simply in realizing that Masked had enough money to push me off of North Carolina and into Nebraska or Alaksa if he wanted, that he could basically dictate which two states he got.

Given the length of time of most of the bidding, it didn't even cross my mind that the 3 of us would have all responded on North Dakota within the first hour after it was posted, and that mine would be the last one. Not much I can do about that though.

Oh yeah, forgot about Masked too... Yeah, I basically figured if I didn't grab Indiana (which was an "OK" state to me) I'd get stuck with a baaaaad state...

I'd love to talk about the strategies when this is all over ;).

and i'll hav emy entry up asap.

FYI, I've acted "blindly" with regard to responses and postings when it comes to who is online when. The North Dakota response was all the more surprising to me because it was so rapid-fire.

North Carolina

[SA] College basketball
[NB] Smoky Mountains
[HC] Roanoke colony
[AR] Tobacco

SOUTH DAKOTA

(HC) Deadwood
(NB) BadLands
(SA) Mount Rushmore
(NB) Black Hills

Washington -

Mount Rainier - NB
Apples - AR
Seahawks/Mariners - SA
World's Fairs - HC


-Anxiety

bump

Kansas-

[NB] Santa Fe Trail
[SA] Jayhawk Basketball
[AR] Wheat
[HC] AT&SF RR

Indiana:


1. Notre Dame [SA]
2. David Letterman [HC]
3. Limestone [AR]
4. Lincoln Home [HC]