Paul and Pete joined me for a small game night contingent this month. Man do I have a lot of leftover beer. Darn the luck.
Although
I had no particular theme, Pete noted that that the menu was all
circular in nature. Pinwheel Italian wraps, Pumpkin roll slices, an
apple pie-zza, and round tortilla chips with cheese and salsa dips. Paul
had his usual dietary needs met while Pete eschewed his supply of HoHos
and Ding Dongs. Tony's cookie cache remained in the freezer awaiting
his return to game night.
We had the house brand of Blue Light plus a couple premium beers from the last game night.
We manned up and by largely ignoring the chips did serious damage to the piezza and the pumpkin roll.
Let me just say that the Vegas dice I brought back with me failed miserably.
On
game one, nicely set up on "8" hexes, believing my near monopoly of
bricks would be a path to victory, I found my plans thwarted by lady
luck. I built but two roads the entire game. And Paul was right beside
me in the basement with his "8" brick bridgehead failing him as well.
The end result was that Pete built his way down the center of Catan in a
split lineland, winning the game with four cities and a 5-long (!)
road. At least our misery was brief.
In
game two I used my double ... um ... placement position ... to try the
unicorn of strategies--a wood port and a near monopoly on wood squares
(two "6" positions, a "4", and a "2"). Paul had a presence on one 6
road, but otherwise I had the market. Eventually Pete built his wheat
cul-de-sac with a wheat port and his remote wheat bastion to start his
empire. But by the time I started pulling in wood to really build, Paul
built up his empire to 3 cities, 2 settlements, and a longest road with 5
segments.
What happened to REAL longest road achievements?!!
Also,
my efforts to impose an "Anderson rule" backfired when Pete pointed out
it meant I shouldn't trade with both of them when they were tied for
the lead. Must re-think that with a respectable distance from beer. It
made so much sense at the time ...
Game
three finally went Beej's way. My victory details were the same as
Paul's in game two but with a more respectable longest road at 7
segments. We witnessed a Dave build up around the desert with my
settlement and Paul's city and settlement. This was a definite race as
both Pete and Paul finished with 8 points each. In this game I saw the continued reign of terror by "8" rolls that I finally got into
late in the game after my disastrous all-in failure on the number in
game 1.
By this time Paul broke into the Bailey's and it got all maudlin, and stuff.
Game
four saw 8 rolls rule again. I gained the longest road from Paul with
friendly trading with Pete which denied Paul his looming victory. Paul
was in position to regain the lead but before he could do that, Pete got
the largest army and with a point card added to his empire, gave him
the victory. I was well behind with my only role being the transfer of
the win from Paul to Pete. Sorry/you're welcome. The largest army also
resulted in a low level war between Pete and Paul who responded to
Pete's knight raids with robber strikes.
Rather
than go for the game record that stands at 5 by taking advantage of a
game start at 7:30, we wrapped up before 11:30. At this point I realized
I had not bought a single development card the entire game. And Pete
and I each experience going about 20 minutes without drawing more than 2
cards in different games. Perhaps that's why we had time to work on the
sweets.
We
finished with Game of Thrones, season 4 episode 5, which had plenty of
violence but none of the .. um ...ballet moves ... we've come to expect.
As always, additions or corrections are always welcome.
Thanks
for a fun game night. Nobody needed a weather-based overnight at Casa
Beej. Now excuse me while I have a breakfast of beer and pumpkin rolls.
