December 2018 Game Night

Gentlemen, we had game night last night, and it deserves a holiday song!

On the twelfth day of Game Night

my game host gave to me:
Twelve-packs of beer
Eleven Victory Points
Ten Road Segments
Nine Memes a playing
Eight Robbers robbing
Seven pizza slices

Six Sheep a Laying

Five Taquitos!

Four Chips and Dips
Three Thin Mints
Two Cheetos Types

and a Slider in a Square Box

You're welcome!

No complaints or next time it's interpretive dance.

Joe, Paul, Pete, and Tony joined me for game night.

We had our usual Labatt Blue Light with bonus Bud Lite. Pete and Joe brought ABC Violin Monster stout and Bell's special double cream stout, respectively. Thanks! There was also Bailey's and Jameson. There was also the usual supply of non-alcoholic beverages with and without caffeine. and with and without sugar.

We dined on sliders, taquitos, potato chips and dip, corn chips and salsa or cheese dip, mustard pretzels, plus cookies (including cookies that Tony's wife sent to us! Thanks Barb!) that also included sugar-free cookies. Joe brought even more peanut M & Ms for his dietary needs and Pete had his Ho Hos while Paul of course had frozen Thin Mints.

Yes, life is that good.

We used the harbormaster variant so the point total needed was turned up to 11. With 3 ways to get 2 points the game is really more tense because nobody can be ruled out as a threat, weakening the Pete Rule logic (go after the point leader) I think (as Pete demonstrated last(?) week with his one turn 5-point surge).

I won the first game on the strength of 10 settlement and city points plus a victory point card. It was close with Paul holding the longest road despite a cruel plot to supply me with sufficient resources to cut off his road, undone only by the playing order in the Interstellar building phase which allowed Paul to build through first and block my feeble effort. Well played, Paul. Joe was the harbormaster while Tony walled off a corner of the map and was curling around the coast in a vain pursuit of the longest road.

Pete took honors in the second game even after another cruel plot that gave Joe the resources to seize the harbormaster card from Pete who was on the cusp of victory. With my longest road (at just 6 segments long) that gave me 10 points I thought I might race past Pete, but he gained the largest army and produced a victory point card to reach 11. Plotting was just not working this night, clearly. Tony was on my heels for the longest road, too, in a game that saw very little road building, really. If I didn't have two cities on my sole 12 brick source which hit TWICE, I couldn't have gotten what I did. I think this was the game that Tony scored big with his monopoly card to vacuum up the rocks. Paul just wasn't rolling resources, it seems, which crippled his empire.

Paul won the third and last game with the longest road putting him to 11. Pete blocked my longest road challenge AT BOTH ENDS. He might have taken that game 2 plot (which in my defense failed! No harm, no foul, amiright?) more personally than I thought ...  Although to be fair he had a shot at taking the longest road from Paul if the game had gone on. And for the first time ever, I think, I had the harbormaster card along with my wheat port and healthy wheat industry. With four cities and no building spots, without the longest road my only hope was to buy lottery tickets for a victory point and hope nobody took my harbormaster, which Tony and Joe could have taken with upgrades and new builds which I lacked the opportunity to do. Or perhaps get the largest army which nobody had. Tony had yet another monopoly card. So he had a monopoly on monopolies.

We wrapped up gaming at 12:30 and voted to watch Game of Thrones season 4 episode 6. Coffee was provided. So we wrapped up after 1:30 and nobody had to spend the night here (as you are always welcome to do if driving is a bad idea).

Thanks to all who attended! It was much fun. Although I'm still cleaning up. Including my horrific beer spill that's only saving grace was that it went away from the game board. But it was a Bud Lite so very nearly just a water shampooing.

Also, we shut down the idea of having a common game night t-shirt as altogether too nerdy. I think that idea came up when I noted I almost wore my Die Hard Christmas shirt that would have made for a horrible social faux pas given that Pete wore HIS Die Hard shirt.

Oh, and when we finally make it through GoT rest assured that I now have the full run of Xena for our post-game viewing.

Anyway, we'll do it again in 2019.

Beej/Brian