December 2017 Game Night

Gentlemen,

Dave, Paul, Pete, and Tony joined me for game night yesterday (sadly, Joe sent regrets after coming down with dread cold--again). #weakandpuny

Sadly, we had to play on a mere 2D game without reaching Uber Nerd Level because someone still only has enough pieces for a small version of Catan. Sad. #2DCatan

We dined on bacon and pepperoni pizza, with guacamole and plain corn chips with red and green salsa plus cheese dip, and assorted cookies. Plus the usual pop selections.

And Paul had his special dietary needs met with frozen thin mint cookies, of course.

Pete generously brought a selection of better beers than the House Swill, and we had one bottle of triple strength Backwoods Bastard left from last month. Pete forced Dave to drink that one, I think. That would explain the blackout and request for Indonesian hookers, I think.

And Tony's wife who completely misunderstands the entire tenor and culture of game night (perhaps thinking we have the sophistication of a Paris salon--notwithstanding my very classy light over my Philadelphia print) insisted that he bring chips and warm chicken-buffalo cheese dip as a proper guest. She's a keeper, I think.

Someone did ask about leftover sliders from last game night and I did offer to warm up some still in my freezer. Nobody took me up on that although it prompted Pete to wonder what the best way to reheat sliders would be. Oddly, "flamethrower" did not come up. #middleofthenightstomachagony

In completely unrelated news, Paul has a 3D printer. Isn't that neat?!

Dave enjoyed his first view of my Catan meme slide show inspired by Joe.

Pete needs to work on his misdirection efforts to baffle and confuse us when someone notes he takes the lead. #squirrel

And I must say that with my new dining area set up that we have much more room for a full table scenario.

We managed three games on the big board. I won the first, Paul grabbed the second, and Dave stole the last one with a 4-point ploy that involved a monopoly card to get rocks, snatching the longest road, and promoting two settlements to cities. Kudos! And that despite his worries that my playing of a monopoly card for rocks on my portion of the turn (which got me close at 9 points) would wreck his hopes.

Paul complained that my robber placement (in richly deserved retaliation, I assure you) denied him glory in the last game. #Yes!!

Tony experienced the joy of having a fellow Catanian block your sole path to future profitable builds. As did I with a double block on my initial settlements in one game. (Game 2)

There was an ugly episode of Paul "othering" Tony in a blatant attempt to make Tony the target of the evening.

Just realize that nobody even once invoked the Pete Rule or the Joe Rule.

And Paul gave us a fascinating explanation of probability to explain why the first two games where "8" almost never came up was in no way a violation of probability. Then in the third game where there were 3 "8" wheat tiles, Paul declined to be sucked into that losing trend only to find that those of us who retained faith in the power of the Magic Eight Circle were rewarded with a plethora--nay, a cornucopia--of wheat production. Sad for Paul. #NoWheatforPaul

Rather than being "othered" Tony was finally absorbed into the Game Night by Beej Borg Collective ("Game Night by Beej" is a registered trademark of Beejmerica, LLC) when he abandoned his mathematical purity of denying switching dice matters one bit (oddly after Paul's fascinating TED Talk on the issue) in order to plunge into the dice box. With Tony's help, we'll get that chicken!

I think the middle game had an odd lack of bricks.

Dave noted with some disgust that one game where he thought his initial set up was a sure-fire path to Catanian glory ended up hosing him anyway. Paul did not offer a mathematical explanation for that outcome. Sad.

I also had the opportunity to repeat my sad tale of God's direct intervention in Toronto last summer to destroy my love life, in order to bring Dave up to date (I don't remember who brought that up--wasn't me reliving that anti-miracle after dangling a miracle before my eyes). Dave was quite moved at my plight. #seriouslyunfortunatecoincidence #IthinkthatGodhasasicksenseofhumor

We wrapped up at 12:30 with people too tired for boobs (that's Game of Thrones for those of you with spouses who might read your mail) or coffee. Sad. #GettingOld

And I was moved by Dave's plea to bring back Seafarers of Catan. So as a nice change of pace we'll do that in January, assuming Dave can make it and bring it! 68.3% or better chance, I imagine #probabilityisfun!

Thanks for your continued support for Game Night by Beej. We'll do it again in January 2018! Have a great Christmas (or Festivus, or whatever) and a happy new year.

Note by next game night I'll have the most recent season of Game of Thrones.

Oh! In Uber Nerd News (so we don't lose our edge), note that the last two episodes of Star Trek Continues are now out and in the public domain! I hate to admit I haven't seen them yet.

As always, I welcome additions or corrections to this so-called newsletter from those with better memories (because you drive home) than I displayed here.

Beej