December 2019 Game Night

Gentlemen, December game night was last night. Joe, Paul, Pete, and Tony joined me for game night last night, with a festive dice tower.

And let's start the meme slideshow review with one of the new memes.

This was Ito Night. So we dined on taquitos, Doritos, Cheetos, and Tostitos. With cheese and salsa for toppings, plus cookies and two types of M & Ms. Tony's wife sent along delicious meatballs and Paul brought some specialty brew to go along with the house swill Labatt Blue Light and a few specialty brew bottles from last month's game. And the usual non-alcoholic pops and sparkling water.

For tonight's games I was green, Tony was white, Joe was red, Pete was blue, and Paul was orange.

This is the game one ending:

The board had the resources oddly clustered. The exception was bricks but the deserts screwed those up. Tony was a major sheep pimp. When I planted on the glorious 11 pair on the coast that oddly came up a few times. My 8s were quiet early but by the end of the game were coming up big time. Sadly, Pete pounced on me with a monopoly card to take 6-7 from me.

Every 2-point bonus card was earned. Tony had the longest road, I had harbormaster, and Pete had the largest army. Pete and I were racing to 11 but he built on his streak from last month and got his 11 while I was stuck at 10, seeking a city upgrade. Tony had 5; Joe had 7 and, with Pete and Paul showing zero interest in blocking Joe's potentially huge road potential, was aiming to catapult into the lead; and Paul had 8.

Paul bitterly complained when he noticed I had built a settlement on the coast at the 4 rock that he had considered "his" build spot. Indeed. He had plenty of land "east" of my modest port--which I could no longer access because of his build, I'll add!


Game two ended like this:

Sadly, my initial placements with roads pointing inland were both blocked by Joe, Pete, and Tony. I was forced to turn around and head for the coast. I did manage to get the longest road but Tony was well positioned to pass me by. Pete again had the largest army. Paul got harbormaster. But this time Paul reached the finish line first. Pete had but 10. I had 9. Joe had 9 with a victory point card. Tony had 7.
 
This is what Tony's hand looked like with his massive monopoly play during the game: 

As we reset the game, Pete said "I don't like this feeling." His win streak was over. "Defeat Pete" finally worked. Our long Catan Petopian nightmare was over.
 
Game three ended like this:

Tony had the coveted double placement and risked the wheat and wheat port strategy. Paul placed a settlement in the sparsely resourced east side of the board which provided him with little initial opposition until I had to build that way. As you can see, there was a lot of competition in the east around that 5 rock hex.

With the help of the monopoly card I put together a four-city empire and got the longest road with the minimum of five road segments. Pete had the harbormaster and 8 points. Joe and Tony had 6. Paul had 4.

Joe and Paul broke into the Baileys at this point. I'm not sure when Pete finished off his Ho Hos supply. And Paul never did get his frozen thin mints. Sad.

Game four, in all its game-night-ending glory:

I liked the start of this game because  rolling a "4" gave me a road segment. Which is really nice. Especially once I got cities. I lacked sheep but Tony was able to pimp out the sheep as needed with his odd focus on sheep. Paul was rolling and he felt he was in a good position to win the game.

But then I played a monopoly card. And took a ton of wheat. I have to say I resisted trading wheat to Tony before playing the monopoly card because that really does look bad for some reason. I was able to build a port on the wheat port in the north and, once I had the wheat port, traded eight wheat for two roads and took the longest road from Tony, giving me 11 points. Paul had 9 points. Tony had 7, with the harbormaster (and really Tony, you thought you could keep the harbormaster and longest road? Ugly, ugly greed). Pete had 6 and Joe had 5.

One interesting feature of the games as a whole was the prominent use of the monopoly card despite not that many cards being purchased. I think there were 4 and maybe 5 mass collections. And there was just one victory point card drawn. Also, investing in "8" resources paid off for everyone who had them during the evening. So probability redeemed itself. And I never did change dice during the evening.

We wrapped up at 1:15 after watching season 5 episode 5 of Game of Thrones. The kennel master's daughter was not unpleasant to look at. Even without hula hoops.

And let me repeat my holiday season song from December 2018:

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

Much fun, as always. Thanks for coming! Next month will be hosted by Joe in South Lyon.

Feel free to add you recollections in the comments to add your perspectives to my necessarily Beej-centric tale.