February 2018 Game Night

Gentlemen,

Snowmageddon, prior commitments, and illness reduced our complement to just me, Paul, and Pete. Which meant that we could use the 3D pieces and go right to NERDCON 1. And no need to even consider invoking overbooking protocols. (And remember, Game Night at Beej's will never beat you and drag you from your seat to accommodate higher paying gamers.)

We dined on pizza with bacon and tomato plus Italian sausage and pepperoni; plus Italian cookies and chocolate-covered potato chips; and two non-chocolate types of potato chips and dips. No vegetables this week. Not counting "potato" chips.

And Paul's usual dietary requirement, of course. Which is not kale.

Beer was the usual Labatt Blue Light (I know, like having sex in a canoe) and a half dozen fancy craft brews left over from January game night.

Poor Pete was left huddling in the cold outside, having arrived in time for "happy hour," while I raced from Cottage Inn which took a long time to make the pizza due to overloaded orders that snowy evening.

Paul was a bit later so happy hour was perhaps 20 minutes.

We also had a few new memes on the slide show that provides ambience. And at one point Paul switched on the classy light over the print of the burning of Philadelphia in Tripoli harbor. One could almost hear classical music in the background and imagine our conversation was elevated.

When the gaming began we got 4 games in before finishing at 1:00 AM. There was no Game of Thrones due to the late hour, although I was willing, but nonetheless we hung around for another half hour. Chatting instead of booooobs? (Really, watch the first Honest Trailers for Game of Thrones if you don't get that reference.) The horror. Man Cards suspended, I think.

Again we had odd shortages of resources but with only three players nobody was overly hemmed in and all the games had everyone in contention for victory.

Pete won the first two, including one with two victory point cards. He also made a spectacular use of the monopoly card to really clean up on wood. Kudos.

I had one victory point card in one of those Pete victories.

I won the last two games, including one where I built the longest road, lost it to Paul, then on my next turn regained the title with a road building card, played a knight to take a card from Paul, and used that card to build a settlement, thus reaching 10. Huzzah! It really looked like I had peaked and was doomed.

In one game Pete was stymied on the cusp of victory for a long time because robber placement seemed to very effectively cut him off from sufficient resources to reach 10.

And in one game (2 or 3, I think), Paul could have won if he had just remembered the wise Catanian strategist who said, "When you start to build the longest road, build the longest road."

Instead of filling the gap to get the longest road, Paul extended one end to keep me from blocking him. Who, me? Which might have been a good play if the game had gotten around to him again. Anyway, Pete and I looked at each other in wonder but to our shame said nothing until the poop was passed. There was no hard liquor to blame. Just the house brand of beer.

And I don't remember anyone getting largest army, although I had two up in one game.

So we wrapped up at 1:30. Nobody needed to stay the night since locals could navigate local roads sufficiently to make it home. Bad timing and bad weather luck on game night, it seems, for most. There will be a bigger gap until March game night, of course.

And I have enough leftover snacks to continue my monthly disregard of all dietary rules well into next week. Sad.

Beej/BJ/Brian

•