Joe, Paul, and Pete joined me for game night around the small Catan map.
We dined on pizza, potato chips and dip, and cookies and something called a Madeleine. Plus leftover candy and Twinkies from the Die Hard Christmas party. And the usual special dietary needs (Thin Mints, Nutty Buddies, and Devil Dogs). We had the usual (and I say this with affection) house swill, Labatt Blue Light, plus a few slightly higher quality beers from that DHC party.
We played the harbor master variant, of course. Which means you need 11 points to win.
For the night, Joe was orange, Paul was white, Pete was blue, and I was red.
GAME 1
The order of placement and movement was Paul, Joe, myself, and Pete in the double-placement position.
Notably, nobody started on a coastal space. Rock, wood, and brick were a problem while sheep were plentiful.
The starting map:
Joe had a little maneuver space in the north but his southern outpost wasted its road, forcing him to turn around. But he was only able to build one road south before both Pete and Paul cut him off. In the north, Joe made it to the coast. At that point with only a couple likely build spots available, it became a lottery ticket strategy. We've all been there. But it can work. Joe beat me to largest army and I didn't think challenging that would work.
Pete halted his southern advance with little beyond his new build there worth the effort. In the north he reached the coast and had a semi-enclave with two more build spots in easy reach, including a port. With five settled areas, he just needed time.
Paul connected his initial placements and took longest road. As he so often does despite his constant protests that he doesn't like them. Hurt me again, longest road! And he had room to extend both ends of his road efficiently.
Concerned about my lack of road-building resources but determined not to lack rock, I jumped on the big city producer with my first pick. I at least had a road with my second pick settlement, so beat Pete to the turn south. I also bought a lottery ticket fast and scored a year of plenty (i,e., two bricks!) that let me reach the coast in my other initial settlement, and quickly established an enclave. With three ports and a good city-building capability, I was able to max out my cities and get harbor master, reaching 11. Woo!
The end map:
Paul followed with 9 points, including the longest road; Pete had 8 with a victory point card, and Joe had 6, including largest army and a victory point card.
"Probability"
The ends of the bell curve over-produced. Both 6 and 9 were good. The robber over-produced.
GAME 2
The order of placement and movement was again Paul, Joe, myself, and Pete in the coveted double-placement position.
The resources were fine except for brick. And even sheep basically relied on my 8 sheep initial placement (or so we thought). I again chose to emphasize city building but had a bit better potential for roads.
The starting map:
Joe was a considerate guest! When I was in the kitchen and asked if anybody needed anything, Joe wanted a beer. I asked if he wanted a house swill or a good one. He chose the former, "so we don't throw up the good one." Awww. Joe connected his enclaves and reached the goal of five settled areas. But he was blocked at both ends of his road, and eventually lost longest road to Paul Pete.
Paul built out for the longest road title but was behind Joe and Pete, who built roads and a settlement to block him in the east (I rotated the camera to catch relevant end of game information, so this map has the official compass). That eliminated any chance of harbor master, too. Only resource cards could save him.
I built seven settled areas and had good luck building cities, even when I started to draw robber attention that coincided with a bunch of 6 rolls. But I was only slowed down a bit because my heavily built sheep hex could be used with my sheep port when my rock port-fueled built up rock was being robbed. I will say it was pretty weird that the robber bounced around until it reached my rock hex. Then stayed! It was there long enough for me to build up the sheep hex. And when I finally bought a knight to remove it, Pete rolled a seven and put it back. Thank God for sheep, I say!
Pete was fully hosed on his northern settlement and left it to its fate. In the south he created quite the enclave. He took harbor master. He also had the longest road, lost it, then regained it. So with four points of cards Pete reached 11. Congratulations Pete!
The end map:
I followed with 10, Paul had 7, and Joe had 6--all natural.
"Probability"
Well, 4, 6, and 12 were outstanding, with the last providing needed sheep, breaking my near-monopoly. The 8 was good, too. The robber actually performed as expected.
GAME 3
The order of placement and movement was Pete, Paul, Joe, and myself in the coveted DP position.
The resources were bleak on the rock front.
The starting map:
Pete lacked sheep and sheep could have been a problem considering only Paul and myself had it at the start. And the best sheep was not settled at the start. But he had good road building potential and acceptable city resources. He was able to build inland from the south and seal off a nice enclave that guaranteed five positions to settle, including two ports. In theory, he could have paved a 13-long road. And he had two settlement spots build-ready with one city promoted before the game ended. Which is astounding given his non-producing rock resource.
Joe build in the southeast to get reasonable road-building resources plus two ports. And he stretched in both directions from his northern outpost to reach the sea and get harbor master as well as get ahead of me to more rock resources. With a city, Joe was well placed to get the final points.
Paul linked his enclaves to bisect the island and--SPOILER ALERT--grab the longest road with a pretty good safety margin. How he did that with just an 11 brick is beyond me. But his rock basically didn't produce, so he had no cities and no way to build more settlements in his available build spots.
I started without wood and was able to build to the coast with a road-building card and settle on the coast port with wood. I was only able to build two more roads, however. But that was enough to create a flux capacitor in the south, with another port. At five cities I had my minimum. I had a small chance to build one or two settlements. But with a fist full of cards that did not fall prey to the robber, I was able to promote two cities at my ports to take harbor master from Joe. And then I flipped my victory point card! I catapulted to eleven points. Whew.
The end map:
Paul followed with 7, including the longest road; Joe with 6; and Pete with 4.
"Probability"
The robber was slightly quiet. Both 6 and 8 were good, but 8 rose to the amazing level. And 3 was even more amazing, "probability"-wise.
GAME 4
The order of placement and movement was Joe, myself, Pete, and Paul in the always-coveted DP position.
The resources reasonable, but the wood concentration made it problematic.
The starting map:
Pete blocked my hoped-for flux capacitor in the south. But it was his only hope for brick, with a sad sheep resource added in. He added another brick and a port from there, and blocked Paul's attempt to turn around and reach the sea. And he reached the sea from his other initial settlement, also grabbing a port. But road building limited his ability to expand into the open territory in the north side of the map. Pete had a shot at getting harbor master, but that's a tale for a bit later.
Joe was blocked completely in the direction of his initial placement in the center. He turned around and built into the woods. But Paul took the long route and beat him there. Joe had more success at the coast with a flux capacitor and a push north along the coast. He had five settlements and the possibility of pushing north past the desert after I turned west rather than east. He also had the chance to grab longest road by linking his enclaves. He never did despite having a chance to build two roads and at least get past Paul's ability to block him. But the coast beckoned where actual build sites lay.
And I had a free shot in the north--but lacked wood with no hope of getting it except in trade. No 12 was rolled after I built there. I did build two cities. But roads were scarce. Somehow I managed to build north and then west, opening up another settlement spot; with one more easily reachable on the coast. Getting 5 or 6 build spots was easily within reach. At the end, I almost traded Pete a wheat when he asked for one. But told him I'd need a bit more reason to part with it. Pete did not offer an inducement.
Paul was blocked at his southeastern settlement, turned around, was blocked, and settled for promoting that spot to a city. But he trekked around the large forest, building settlements and getting the longest road with but five segments! Joe and I each had four. Pete had three. Despite enduring robbers, Paul realized he just needed a city promotion to win and he had great rock and wheat. With a bit of luck and a complete lack of speaking to avoid alerting us--which we attributed to drinking too much strategy by that part of the evening, Paul managed to accumulate the rocks and wheat to get the final point to reach 11. Congratulations Paul!
At this point I should admit that our robber offensive to slow down Paul was a clusterfuck of ill-coordinated actions and miscommunication.
While I suggested to Joe he could use his two roads to close the gap between his enclaves and try to get a third in trade, that path lacked build sites. So he went north and built a settlement.
We sent robbers after Paul. I started with a 7 roll, followed by a knight to hit his wood and then his rocks. Others dutifully moved the robber around. The robber was moving around so much it left gaps for Paul to get needed resources. And when I had another shot with a robber, I was still thinking about somebody taking longest road so slapped it on his high-producing wood hex. The subsequent 8 roll was pretty much the game.
Also, Pete had asked me for wheat because he thought he could take harbor master! But when I said I'd need more of an incentive to trade it,like a wood, he--perhaps drinking as much strategy as the rest of us--misinterpreted that as me saying I had no wheat to trade. So he didn't even mention he was close to having the resources to get two more port points!
So that happened. Not the finest hour for le Resistance.
And for those who doubt the power of the always-coveted DP position, three of the four victories were by the DP players.
The end map:
I followed with 7 points, including a victory point and a knight unplayed. Joe had 5 and Pete had 4.
"Probability"
All that can really be said is that 9 was astounding and 8 defeated 6 in their never-ending contest for supremacy.
And we wrapped up after that, chatting about this and that for a while before breaking up and giving my cat the opportunity to search the first floor to declare it clear and then head for the litter box and food bowl. She's way too shy. I should move the litter box upstairs now that she has free access to my kids' room and bathroom.
The winner of the Grim Reaper of Catan award for rolling a 7 more than any other player is--with 12 robbers unleashed on the peace-loving people of Catan:
Joe rolled 7 the fewest times, with just 5.
And a meme!
It was fun to see friends, drink and eat, and shoot the shit (or just talk it), and play Catan. We'll do it again next month.
