August 2019 Game Night

August was game night in Dexter, hosted by Dave. Myself, Joe, Paul, and Pete joined Dave last night. We gamed al fresco with an expansive spread of food and drinks.

There were taquitos and Doritos, plus chicken wings, potato skins, pigs in blankets, blue corn chips, potato chips, and salsa and queso. And a cookie selection of course.

Beers--including Labatt Blue Light in addition to beers for those with more refined tastes--plus pop and sparkling waters were provided, too. Oddly I found myself alone in the tent as the rest of the party when indoors to explore Dave's liquor and wine selections.

And in a first we had game night bug spray.

We also met parts of Dave's family. Um, let me rephrase that lest you think it was some bizarre dismemberment crime scene. We met some of Dave's lovely family.

Not that there wasn't a grisly crime. But we'll discuss Joe later.

Happy hour started at 7:00 and we began before official game start time of 8:00. We used the Harbormaster variant.We managed three games with the middle game being really long and tightly contested as several of us were at 10 points. We had a degree of difficulty with a slatted table that deterred use of the tiny dice. But the game tower worked just fine. We managed three games over about 6 hours. I'm not saying it was the slatted table. But it wasn't the dice tower.

Game one had a wood shortage. And Paul--with his iron dice in play the entire night--placed his second settlement in a way to make one of my settlements completely useless. I did manage to carve a coastal enclave and briefly had the longest road. But Paul took it from me. Sadly my rock production just never kicked in and I finished with 7 points.  Dave reached 10 points with the harbormaster card and began his victory/you suck dance. But harbormaster variant. So he needed 11 points. Which we pointed out. But then he got the 11th point. Paul had 8 points. Pete had 7. And Joe had 4. Dave and Paul both cruelly blocked him in on that game. Which was oddly forgotten by game 3.

Game two was weak in wood and rock, it seemed. Although I used my double placement position to get perfect resource diversity. Everybody managed to expand and this was the longest game, at a bit over two hours. In a rare moment, all three bonus cards were owned (army, road, and harbors). It was this game that I played the monopoly card and harvested 13 wood from Pete and Paul. Who really didn't like that. Since I traded them for 3 rocks to finally build my first city, Pete noted repeatedly that I could have gotten more rocks by grabbing those. But I honestly hadn't noticed that draw and was just looking at resource stack heights. But it did not propel me to victory. I had the largest army and 10 points. But Paul went before me and he had 10 points including a face down victory point and the longest road. He would have won on his turn. But Dave went before Paul, and Dave managed to get to 11 with the harbormaster card again! That was a tough battle. Pete had 9 points with 4 cities and a settlement. Joe had 6 but was perhaps preoccupied with his food plate.

Game three got real. I tried to use my double placement to attempt to build a sheep monopoly with a sheep port. No comments, please. I was actually doing all right with using sheep to expand my empire. But I had only started my city promotion after staking out a bit of turf in the face of crowding around me before the game ended. Pete built a superhighway to get the longest road and just barely enough ports to get the harbormaster and 12 points. He had only two cities. And after he was stalled at 10 points for a couple rounds it was getting that "he's so screwed" vibe. But he finally placed that settlement and got 3 points. I had 7 points. Dave had 8 points with 4 cities. Paul had 8 points with a victory point card. And Joe had 4 points with two cities, and he'd gone on a lottery ticket buying spree to buy knights and lay waste to his tormentors. Sadly the game ended before the glorious ride of Joe's Host across Catan. And somebody else played a monopoly card that didn't seem to generate the indignation that my modest effort the previous game provoked.

This was blue Joe's first "Ow, my nipples" moment in game 3. That was red Pete's work early in the game.

And then there was green Dave's "Happy International Women's Day!" moment against Joe.

Dave moved his road to the coast and built to block Joe's last hope for expansion.

Joe basically pulled a Catan train. Ouch. So that happened.

But hey, unlucky in Catan, lucky in booty call. That's a saying, right?

Let me just say that my haul of 13 wood from Pete and Paul with my monopoly card got lost in the vendetta that Joe vowed against Pete and Dave.

I received complaints that I don't use photos so people can "check my work." As if that's needed. I assume after the picture below that nobody will complain again. One can only guess what Pete was thinking. But as Joe said, I 'm not on Facebook so what's the harm?

So that happened, too. As a friend in college said way back then, you can only be young once--but you can be immature forever.

Although it is not really accurate since Joe was not pitching this night. Sometimes the dice are with you. And sometimes they aren't no matter how many times you change dice. Even when you bring your own death dice in a man-box, as Joe did. Seriously. I kid you not.

We wrapped up at close to 1:30. But there was no Game of Thrones after. Dave offered caffeine or sleeping over options.

Also, the Dice Tower by Beej worked flawlessly yet again. Because we just aren't nerdy enough rolling dice by hand.

Game Night: Dexter was a great success and many thanks to Dave for hosting!

Next month back at Casa Beej, I assume. Where I can safely drink more and just walk upstairs after kicking you guys out! Although Joe is eager to host and Dave would like another shot when winter is coming.

Maybe by then Pete will have worked out the bugs in his dice tower prototype.

Thanks again to Dave for his stellar hosting job. It should really be a rule that if you host you write the newsletter. Right? And if you have corrections,  additions, or formal denials you'd like to add to this, please do so.

Beej