Joe,
Paul, and Peter made it for game night. This time with a full happy
hour starting at 7:00. We dined on cottage inn pizza, two types of
chips, 3 dips, and cookies (that I found unsatisfactory--the leftovers
went in the garbage), with coffee and the by-now required game of
thrones episode (season 3 ep. 1) after. So we wrapped up about 2:30.
All the more premium beers are now gone.
We
managed but 4 games from 8:00 to about 1:30. There was no game that
just had one person go off to the races and get the win fast.
I
won one game, Joe won one, and Paul won night's honors with two.
Clearly his weekly beat downs of his children in home games of Catan is
paying off.
I'm
not sure why Pete didn't get one given that he seemed to have the
strongest grasp of basic math as the night went on. But the games were
all pretty competitive.
Notables:
In
one game I used my double placement position to try the oft-mentioned
strategy of relying on a sheep port and a sheep-centric spot. I will say
it darned near worked. I had four cities and 8 points in that
game--including making a city upgrade with 10 sheep.
But
Paul had 8 points too, in that game, and when he played 4 bricks and 4
wood to connect his separate road segments, that gave him the game. Well
played. Everybody assumed we'd have a little more notice for such a
connection. Oh, and ask Pete about that road-building card that he had
languishing in his hand that might have been handy if played before that
...
Paul had two road building cards in one game. The game above? Don't recall.
Another
game had the odd situation of Joe with a near monopoly on rocks and I
had a very strong wheat position. I forget who won that game.
Few point cards were drawn. Maybe just two? I know I never saw one. But I don't think any contributed to any of the victories.
Nobody ever got largest army, I think, although there were several tries for it.
In
one game there was an incredible crime wave of consecutive 7s and
knights played that all seemed to settle on my cities. Oh the
near-universal hilarity that created! Thanks guys!
Although
to be fair there may have been some lingering burning desire for
revenge from a prior (?) game when I unleashed the "I'll trade you guys X
for Y and Z--and then played a monopoly card to collect all the X"
ploy. People seemed not to be as pleased with that as I was. Go figure.
Joe
tried the same thing but when he got up to offering 3 X for one of my
cards without the usual "you're killing me, I have mouths to feed you
know" reluctant march to such an uneven deal, I got suspicious and
rejected the trade. He then played the monopoly card.
Yes, I confess I had longest road in my single win. So sue me.
The bank got wealthy with lots of bank trades over the games.
Oh, and I freshly windexed the plexiglass board covers which fairly sparkled. You are welcome.
Please
feel free to remind me of incidents that went by me. This morning there
were a lot of empties in the sink and I know a fair number were mine.
Over 7-1/2 hours not so bad, I suppose. But it looked impressive.
Thanks for a good Catan night! We'll do it again in February.
