February 2019 Game Night

Gentlemen,


ALERT for those who don't read too far into this: March game night will be hosted by Joe in South Lyon. Details to follow.


I'm getting a late start today. For some odd reason I had heartburn last night which made for a restless night of semi-sleep.


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


Happy hour started at 7:00 and we managed to start gaming a bit before 8:00. We played the harbormaster variant which allows for the 2-point harbormaster card in addition to the longest road and largest army cards, at the price of requiring 11 points for victory.


We dined on Taco Bell hard shell tacos, corn chips with salsa and cheese dip, cookies, chocolate-covered coffee beans, and the special dietary needs of thin mints, HoHos, and peanut M & Ms.


We had the usual Labatt Blue Light and Pete brought a selection of high class sour beer (thanks Pete!).


Game one featured low availability of both rocks and bricks. Joe was cruelly blocked in at initial placement at both his sites but managed to break out and actually build the longest road--until I broke his road with a settlement. As Pete noted, that recalled Joe's introduction to Catan when he discovered that rule in action. Ah rookie memories! Paul eventually got that award but it was not enough as Pete built a tiny empire of 3 cities and one settlement based on only FOUR road segments. But he had the harbormaster and largest army cards. Also, Paul cruelly cut off one of my initial sites pushing me to go heavy into sheep futures that oddly did not lead to victory. This is for the official record to nurse grievances for next month.


Game two had low wheat. But I had a major presence on rock yet could not parley that into more than 2 cities. The 8 was not friendly to me, comrades. I even managed to briefly hold the longest road until losing it back to Joe, which then gave him his 11 points and the win.. Paul was SO close with 10 point including a victory point card down. Pete held his apparently usual harbormaster card and boasted of 5 whole road segments. Again I was stuck at 7, with my longest road award stripped away like the opening scene of Branded. It was a bitter road, for me. And this might have been the game that Pete said my robber campaign against him actually had a noticeable effect on his chance of victory--again, for grievance-nursing purposes.


Game three again went to Pete with the harbormaster title. What's with that? I exploited my double ... placement .. position to try the strategy of a wheat port and a healthy three-wheat space. Sadly, my numbers did not come in the initial stages that would have allowed me to really work it, even though I eventually got a city at the wheat and the numbers started to get rolled. Paul split the continent with his trans-Catanental road with uncontested longest road status. The map was perhaps most notable for the desert in the center of the map. I don't recall any really good grievances, but Paul did have one of his initial sites fully blocked by Pete's early game builds. In case anyone wants to nurse a grievance.


Game four had a pretty balanced resource map. Paul and Pete vied for dominance and by the end the robber was bouncing back and forth between those two giants of Catan. Paul was convinced that he would be doomed in the end game the way he was cruelly denied in game two, but he swept to victory with a 3-point turn to win with the harbormaster card. I has two knights up to try for that card while Pete had the longest road and 10 points. My claim to fame is that I placed two roads that blocked Pete's planned three-road dash to the coast to make a play to get the harbormaster card, which he was beginning to think of as his birthright. Again, for grievance-nursing purposes.


There seemed to be a higher than usual incident rate of self-robbing as people lost card holdings to their own rolls. And the purchase of development cards was relatively low. We only saw one victory point the entire game (Paul got it). We had a couple monopoly cards played. One that got a lot of resource by Pete (which luckily missed me entirely) and one swing and a miss by Joe that STILL managed to give him a key resource for a significant build.


And Pete brought small drink umbrellas that I put in the Baileys glasses when Paul and Joe had their usual drink during game 2. Apparently this will encourage people to get up and get there own stuff rather than rely on your gracious host because now my offers to serve will be greeted with butt-clenching fear of what the Heck I'm up to. So I've got that going for me. Which is nice.


Anyway, much fun as usual. Thank you for eating so many tacos that I have few leftovers to eat. Although I am enjoying them today. We'll do it again next week!


As usual, please feel free to add your additions to this obviously Beej-centric review; and add any grievances that I missed.


Beej