We had game night in March. Dave, Landry, Paul, and Pete joined me for game on the expanded board.
We had pizza and backwoods tots, plus corn chips, salsa and queso, and assorted cookies. I had two beers, the usual House Swill, Labatt Blue Light, and Yuengling.
Dave brought his smoked Old Fashioned kit! Pretty good! And Landry brought home made smoked dip and crackers, plus an IPA. Thank to both! But totally unnecessary, of course.
As usual, we played with the harbor master variant, which requires 11 points to win.
GAME ONE
The order of placement and movement was Dave (blue), myself (red), Landry (white), Paul (green), and Pete (orange) in the double-placement position.
The opening positions:
TONY rankings:
What happened?
- Rock was good. Wood was insufficient. Everything else seemed okay.
- Landry got penned in at his northern settlement; yet managed to reach the coast and push inland from his other site.
- Pete built just two roads. But he had two proto-flux capacitors.
- Paul had the same road problem.
- I reached the coast in the north; and did the same from my central settlement (!), getting the longest road in the process.
- Dave urbanized like mad and took the harbor master; then with the option to build a road and settlement to win, opted to build enough roads to take the longest road from me (!) and reach 12 points! Congratulations Dave! And by Catan written tradition, I am totally barred from holding a grudge the next game night. And you know how I feel about tradition (and opposable thumbs).
The final map:
Myself, Paul, and Pete followed with 5 points each, and Landry had 3.
"Probability":
The game ended too quickly to get a decent "probability" curve to judge. But the robber was largely asleep for this game.
GAME TWO
The order of placement and movement was Pete (orange), Dave (blue), myself (red), Landry (white), and Paul (orange) in the coveted double-placement position.
The opening positions:
TONY rankings:
What happened?
- A giant forest in the north really screwed things up. Brick wasn't too good.
- Paul bet big on wood and a wheat port without wheat. And just 15 TONY! LOL ...
- Landry was able to expand his build spots out. But then Dave pushed a road and settlement into his empire like a muddler softening up two fuzzy peaches.
- Dave really committed to roads, forcing me into a road-building battle. And Dave built three cities. And he had hopes of taking harbor master, too.
- I held longest road and built three cities.
- Pete was city maxed out and on his way to two flux capacitors. It looked like he had harbor master but one city was merely an ocean view high rise.
- ... And then while Dave and I battled loudly for longest road, Pete and Paul quietly pushed for victory points. Paul, with his harbor master, won the game. So ... TONY probability takes a hit.
The final map:
Congratulations Paul, with 11 points! Pete and I (with longest road) each had 9, Dave had 7, and Landry had 2.
"Probability":
That looks more normal. Two was great! Not sure how I built roads with my 9 wood supply.
GAME THREE
The order of placement and movement was Dave (blue), myself (red), Landry (white), Paul (green), and Pete (orange) in the coveted DP position.
The opening positions:
TONY rankings:
What happened?
- Rock was good but the richest veins were concentrated in the north. Everything else seemed adequate.
- Paul expanded despite his interior position. At one point he called his point total a "fake six" like it was a Passover blood invocation for the robber to pass him by.
- Landry reported building his first city this game. I think he was just trying for pity points.
- I still had building spots in the south, plus two cities.
- Pete continued his "I don't need no stinkin' roads" strategy.
- Dave again collected harbor master and the longest road to win the game with 11. Congratulations, Dave!
The final map:
Pete and I followed with 6 each, Landry had 5, and Paul had 4.
"Probability":
Another plateau-ish curve today.
GAME FOUR
The order of placement and movement was Landry (white), Paul (green), Pete (orange), Dave (blue) and myself (red) in the much coveted DP position.
The opening positions:
TONY rankings:
What happened?
- The hard stuff was weak.
- Dave was stuck in the low-road mode.
- Paul somehow made it to the coast, taking the longest road; and seemed to have little interest in settling the northern coast.
- Landry expanded inland and on the coast; and built two cities. Quite possibly his first.
- Pete abandoned his Flux Capacitor strategy, seemingly looking to boldly link up his enclaves for the longest road.
- I was plugging along. And at one point as I pondered what I could do with my cards to get close to winning, had to do the maths three times when I belatedly saw a path to harbor master which nobody had taken yet. I'd kind of forgotten that ...
- ... And then as everybody but Dave was chatting amongst themselves, I built a road and two settlements to get harbor master and reach 11! As Dave said when I placed my pieces, "These guys don't even realize you won."
The final map:
Pete followed with 7, Landry and Paul (longest road) had 6 each, and Dave had 5.
"Probability":
The robber was exceptionally active this game. The 4 and 11 were collectively bad, so I'm not sure how I built two cities!
Miscellaneous
The Grim Reaper of Catan Award for rolling the most 7s and unleashing thievery on the peace-loving people of Catan goes to ...
Also, we have data for who can validly claim victim status, robbery-wise, from holding too many cards when the 7 robber strikes.
"Congratulations" Pete, with six hits in the evening.
The last couple weeks we've also tracked the player who actually robbed himself the most by rolling a 7. We had no winner this week, with Landry and Pete tying at three each. I may need a meme for this.
And a new meme!
We wrapped up a little after 10:00, right on schedule. Sadie ran down shortly after the last of you anti-catnip went home. Nothing personal, I'm sure. I certainly consider your company adequate.
We'll do it again in April, of course.
