June 2018 Game Night

Gentlemen,

Last night we had our June game night with 4.25 FTE players! Thanks to 1.0 Pete, 1.0 Joe, 0.5 Dave, and 0.75 Paul for joining 1.0 Beej!

Which meant that we went from the 4-person Catan for two games; scaled up to the 5-player game when Dave arrived; and downsized to 4 when Paul had to leave at 12:30 because of unspecified responsibilities Sunday.

We did not try any variants this evening.

We dined on pizza, half sausage and half bacon. Plus plain and flavored chips and two dips. Plus cookies and homemade angel food cupcakes with homemade whipped cream and topped with home-sliced strawberries, made by my lovely, talented, and thoughtful daughter. Thus we experienced a first at Game Night with actual fruit on the menu. And no, Pete, tomatoes don't count  just because they are in the pizza sauce. NOBODY thinks of tomatoes as fruit, although I was horrified when Joe mentioned there actually is a thing called tomato pie. The horror.

We had the usual selection of Labatt Blue Light

I'm going to need help on details because I'm a little vague on this. I think I'm going to start photographing the end of each game to remind me of the play.

The big picture is that I won the first game; Joe won the second game; I won the third game; and Joe won the final game.

I don't recall game one being notable in anything but the vendetta that Paul started the game with that targeted me, your mild-mannered host, for a good part of that game. He chortled at placing an initial settlement specifically to block me. WTF? Is this what we're coming to when we don't erase past "Ow, my nipples!" moments to start with a clean slate? Sad.

Anyway, I don't think there was any particular notable feature of the game other than the glee that was expressed when I was hit by the robber when I had 16 cards in my hand. And the absolute eagerness to see me hit with the robber again before I could build because even after losing half my cards I was still vulnerable to the robber! They claimed it was only for the unique nipple pain of such an event hitherto unseen on Catan. Anyway, the actual win was normal. I think it was a simple matter of building a settlement for the last point. I might have had a victory point down.

Game two was notable to me in that I had the largest army and the largest road, had 3 settlements but no cities, and had four victory point cards down. Sadly I did not have all of those things at the same time. Paul took my longest road and largest army. I eventually took back my largest army; and I think Pete took the longest road from Paul (or am I fuzzy on this?). What was really funny was that people kept speculating that I had four points down, but nobody REALLY believed it.

Obviously, there was much mockery of my inability to win even with a four-point handicap. In my defense, I had trouble accumulating rocks and for a long time couldn't get a fifth knight to take back the largest army--because I kept drawing point cards ... And then Joe won before I could even think about hoping to get the longest road back from whoever had it. I can't remember if my Lineland empire could have handled that.

Game three went to the big board because Dave had arrived. When I answered the door and announced "The hooker is here!" I was horrified to see that Pete and Joe were already starting to undress until they saw that it was actually Dave. Awkward. Although Dave didn't even blink. I think even my special art light is insufficient to class up the evening.

I managed the win leading the largest army. As I flipped up my first knight, people could see the clouds of dust behind them and rushed to gather points as other players knew that not even bashing me with the robber could stop the army in two more rounds. And in fact I did have two more knights down so I claimed the army card.

The game was notable for Dave's early deployment of the robber even though nobody had more than 3 points! That didn't go over well. We suspect he was playing with other Catan game night groups. Maybe Peter's.

Anyway, he CLAIMED that by building a road early in the game between two of his initial settlements that I was somehow "offensive" and "deserved" it. Ah, it was a good cop, in retrospect.

The game was also notable for Dave actually having 3 victory point cards down! So we had two examples of mass victory point holdings failing to lead to victory. The game was actually pretty close but with only two rounds to secure victory and deny it to me, nobody was able to grab the tenth point in time.

Also, a picture of the game would have been interesting because the deserts on one side of the board led to most settlements weighted to one side with the desert side very sparsely settled.

Game four was delayed after Paul left because the actual hooker finally arrived. By several minutes, easily. The game was notable for two things. One, the rarity of rocks. there were few lottery tickets purchased, although I think Dave actually had one at the end of the game. There might have been just one more.  I was honestly in despair but did manage to build two cities and have 7 points before Joe marched to victory.

Joe's victory was notable because he boldly started at a port city (a wheat port) and at a location by a desert that had only two resources (both wheat in this case).

Okay, a third thing--the massive number of times that "5" was rolled. Which Pete felt particularly hard given his futile staking out of "5" in the previous game. With that coming up, Joe's wheat fields were filled with summer, winter, and every other season of wheat shipped out of his wheat port. So yes, we had an example of initially choosing a resource and its port can lead to victory.

Oh, and this was the game that I abandoned the Golden Dice for contributing to the Fivefest. I once called a badly needed "3" with those dice and got it, causing great muttering in the superstitious peasantry around the board, who resorted to warding symbols (that's what an extend middle finger means on Catan, right?) to keep the bad voodoo away.

This evening, I suspect that Joe proved the emasculating effects of Bailey's Irish Cream, which he did not join Paul in consuming this night.

But which game did somebody play the monopoly card to get a lot of stuff? All I remember for sure is that I had a TON of wood and as I was contemplating losing all of it, the resource announced was something else! And I lost only a few of that card.

Also, and I don't remember which game it was, but in one after we placed our settlements Pete noted that by our placements we pretty much ruled out settling the interior, forcing a race to the coasts for buildable spots. It really was very unusual to see so many settlements within three of all the others.

We wrapped up at 2:00, having as a group consumed far more of the non-alcoholic beverages in the refrigerator. How responsible of us all. No coffee of Game of Thrones given the lateness.

Thanks again gentlemen! Next month will likely be an away game at Casa Joe's in South Lyon. Details (and Zima) to follow.

As always, feel free to fill in my memory gaps or correct obvious self-serving errors. Or contribute your secret plans that almost led to victory because I (as yet) cannot read minds.

Beej