June 2017 Game Night

Gentlemen,

We did improve on our sorry performance of May by completing 3 games--and we did wrap up at 12:30 to watch Game of Thrones (3:6) despite some mixed willingness to go one more round.

Joe, Paul, Pete and Peter--the ringer with his own game copy and game group who was supposedly "fresh meat" as Joe claimed (I suspect collusion)--and myself played on the big board. Rocks seemed uniformly problematic during the game. I thought attendance at the June game might be low but it was clearly a success!

I credit the draw of Ito Night, of course, as we went back to basics with "chicken" Taquitos, Tostitos, Doritos, Fritos, various cheese and salsa dips, and Chipotle (rearranged "ito" sounds) cole slaw for those complaining about lack of vegetables on game night, and two new types of cookies that proved popular (okay, I broke the Ito pattern--but cookies!). And of course some frozen thin mints for Paul's special dietary needs.

The beer was house-standard Labatt Blue Light (the official beer of Beej's Game Night) with some Belgian swill that didn't suck like you'd think that Joe brought (thanks Joe!)

And coffee after.

Let me start with the sad news. Catan experienced the worst crime wave that I have ever witnessed. The commitment turn after turn to unleashing the Catan gangs was horrifying. Add in collusion by the constabulary force of knights that joined in with the thievery rather than arresting the miscreants, and you can see why this should be of concern to all of us. Of course, I many be biased since the criminal element hit me like some Catanian version of Rorke's Drift. It wouldn't have been so bad but for the obvious glee by the puppet masters who sent forth the hordes of highwaymen.

And the trade embargo hurt, too.

Nonetheless, good triumphed over evil, and building on my early urbanization, your humble host still managed to reach 10 points, breaking my losing streak at long last. Huzzah! It was a brutal end game. I suspect we shall see crimes against Beejanity charges brought before the ICC (Interstellar Catan Court) soon.

I came close to winning another game when I had 9 points including largest army. But Peter took the army from me and although he was close to winning with both the largest army in hand and the longest road within reach, Paul swept through with his resource rich faction and won that game--his second of the night.

Paul defended his longest road with the oldest trick in the book--he used all his roads making it impossible to surpass his total; and there were no opportunities to break the road. Which seemed fitting since Paul in one game took one for the team to block Peter's longest road effort. In Peter's group, that kind of diversion of resources doesn't make sense. But I guess in our culture, Peter's failure to bridge the gap when he had the opportunity and instead extend one end of the road seemed odd at the time and just screamed "break me!" Interesting how different groups within same rules develop different game societal norms.

Joe did pull off a nice adaptation to being penned into two small enclaves early in one game. Despite his near constant-whining about his plight, he managed to get within striking distance of 10 points. I suspect his complaining was just trying--successfully--to minimize the perceived need for the Joe Rule.

Monopoly card played but once, I think. Not many victory points entered play. And good Lord, just how could an 8 come up so much and a 6 come up hardly at all when they are equivalent odds-wise? That was vexing for more than just me, and contributed to a poor rock market in one game where every other rock resource was on low probability hexes.

Please note that this seemed to be the night for The Golden Dice. I started with them and won. And in the second game I abandoned them when they went dry; and Paul eagerly scooped them up to sweep Catan in games 2 and 3 with them. Pete's Vegas Dice finally lost their mojo. Perhaps next week he'll have Atlantic City dice.

The Joe Rule seemed ignored despite my repeated efforts to invoke it during the Great Catan Crime Wave. Game societal norms, indeed.

Oh, and Peter clarified a rule with a Catan FAQ authority that we thought we had settled: you actually can play your knight before rolling for resources! We did not add it last night, but I think that since we do go by the rules that going forward we should obey the rule interpretation.  To be clear, although the turn sequence says that the first thing you do in the turn sequence is roll the dice for resources, the rule saying you can play a lottery ticket any time in your turn includes playing one card before you roll the dice. So there you go.

It was a pleasure to host game night, as always. Thanks for coming by! July will be tighter with game windows, but we will give it a shot of course.

As always, feel free to offer your perspectives on game night to correct the obvious Beej-centric nature of the game recap. But unless we name a secretary to take notes, I'm what you've got for good or ill!

Beej