May 2020 (Virtual) Game Night

We had game night Saturday night with virtual appearances on Zoom provided by Paul, using the online Catan game. It's hard to say I "hosted" it. But I did at least recruit for it! So virtual host. But myself (Beej), Dave, Joe, Paul, and Pete played four games.

I had Labatt plus White Castle, potato chips and dip, and some chocolate.

Joe had hot dogs and beer as the basic. Dave had wine at one point and Pete tossed back gin and tonic, while Paul also had beer. Please add in your snack choices in the comments!

We joined up at 7:00 and started playing at 7:30. I sat out the first game and after that the winner sat out the next game. We managed four games.

This is the Zoom view:

I honestly thought we'd have a lot of people with a virtual game night and have a couple games going at once. But it was not to be.

Let me start out by saying that I clearly rely on the dice tower, the option of changing dice when "probability" turns against me, and the uncanny ability to psychically will players to choose the card I want them to take when the robber strikes me.

Also, timing the monopoly card is hard without the physical ability to see resource stack heights. Now I have to count cards, too?

Pete hosted the first game, which was an exciting game to watch:

Dave was blue, Paul was purple, Pete was red, and Joe was grey.

Pete's replay follows:

Game night started with mistakes being made. For instance, Dave was caught on camera drinking wine. Wine is appropriate for many occasions but game night with the boys is not one of those occasions. Do better Dave! I made the next mistake when I hosted the first game of the evening only to be informed that it was therefore my duty to provide the write-up for that game. Lesson learned. [Beej: somebody didn't closely read the April game night recap ... ]

I contemplated many formats including a tribute to Dickens (It was the best of Catan, it was the worst of Catan) or a tribute to Conrad (a journey to the heart of Catan ending with me saying "The horror, the horror" when the final victory point was revealed). In the end, I decided to keep it concise and leave the florid narrative to Beej for the remaining games. [Beej: Yeah, it has been a while since I made literary or pop culture themes, hasn't it? I think that covered my lack of event memory pre-board photo days.]

The initial board was not terrible. Every resource except wheat had at least one hex on a 6, 8 or 9. As a result, this was a hotly contested game. Thanks to Paul's heavy investment in wood and brick, he had the longest road while I managed spring into contention in the late game due to developing the largest army.

Ultimately, Dave won by building a settlement or completing a city expansion (I forget which) [Beej: My memory from watching was that Dave built the port settlement as his finish line move.]  and gleefully revealing his sole victory point card, but Paul and I were close behind with 9, and Joe had 8. 

As usual in these games, there were some statistical oddities, the most remarkable being that 3 was not rolled a single time. Meanwhile, 4 was somewhat over-represented and 7 was rather under-represented. Pictures of the final board and statistics are attached for your enjoyment. [Beej: and good grief, look at 11! That's just wrong.]

Well said Pete! It took a while to get his recap, and I was starting to fear I'd get 20 pages complete with court case references about Dave v. Robber, why repeated offers to trade sheep fall under trafficking or stalking statutes, or some such thing.

I followed along with a FaceTime link that Paul provided. He apparently rested it on his stomach (please let that be the reason) so I could tell when the adrenaline flowed when the view rocked more than usual. I avoided motion sickness, nonetheless. The ranking table is awesome! I hadn't noticed that! And it shows who had victory point cards!

I hosted the next three games.

This is the end of game 2.

I was red, Joe was brown/maize, Paul was purple, and Pete was blue. I FaceTimed with Dave so he could watch the game, but apparently the angle was bad. Dave did not complain (perhaps not wishing to risk further reputation hits due to his wine faux pas) but it could have been better. At least I'll say it was a stable view!

I thought my placement on a 10,8,3 woods, wheat, rock placement plus my 9 brick and 6 sheep put me in a good position. But 10 and 3 hardly came up. luckily 8 and 9 came up quite a bit allowing me to trade for roads and a bit of rock! The only time 3 came up was when the robber was on my hex the last turn when Paul got his tenth point. I had taken the longest road from him and peaked at 9 points, oh so close to getting my tenth point.

But Paul took it back. His blocking move on the coast to keep me from maximizing my road length by traveling along the coast instead of my inland path was probably a decisive decision. And on my last turn I accidentally traded with the bank for a brick rather than wood, so I could not place another road and tie Paul. Not that it would have mattered given Paul's massive resource hand on his last play, but this is another difference with in-person, where possession of the poop allows you to recover and pull back from errors like that.

Pete's woods and wood port game him the resources to go all-city.  Joe probably assumed his two 3 rocks put him in a good position compared to others but again, 3 was almost non-existent. And Joe discovered that Dave had a "Dave Rule" which says Joe must lose. Which means Joe can suffer at the intersection of the Joe Rule (go after Joe with the robber), the Pete rule (go after the leader) and the Dave Rule. Ouch.

So Paul won with 10, Pete had 8, I had 7, and Joe had 4.

This is the end of game 3.

Paul sat out this game and watched with a  FaceTime link I provided with a better view of the board than Dave endured stoically.

I was red, Joe was gray, Pete was brown/maize, and Dave was blue.

I was stuck for a long time with little expansion. My one main success was reaching the coast to correct my initial placement lack of wheat. By the time I was able to start expanding I was compelled to build on a coastal desert port. Sigh. Pete went with the sheep flock and sheep port strategy. Joe had one good wheat resource and a wheat port. Dave had adequate rock and a rock port.

Dave did break Pete's road but not enough to take it away from him, although it was close! My expansion was at least in part a hope to block Pete in case Dave could take it away and extend the game.

The game ended with Pete at 10, Joe with 8 (including a victory point), Dave at 5, and myself at 5.

This is the end of game 4.

I was red, Paul was gray, Joe was green, and Dave was blue. Pete watched via FaceTime. I just noticed that sounds vaguely creepy.

I was initially constrained and blocked by Joe at the coast--I was one resource from being able to build to the coast and build a settlement before Joe blocked me with a road. And my road building card I used to reach the wheat, rock, sheep intersection as I tried to break out to the southwest was blocked by Dave and then Paul. So that was a complete waste of a card. I at least returned the favor to Joe by building to the coast to the brick port. With Dave expanding with the longest road my only hope was a string of 5,6,9 rolls that would stall Dave and Paul and allow me to build cities because I at least finally had enough territory staked out to build around the desert. Which Joe could not say, blocked by me and Dave into a small perimeter.

Dave finished with 10 points, including the longest road. Paul had 8 points. I had 7 points, including a victory point card. And Joe had 6.

One interesting game feature is that we could check the dice statistics while we played to use data to prove how each of us was getting screwed by fate. The only thing that keeps it from being a feature is that once a game is won, the stats disappear on the browser version. If anybody with the app wants to add data analysis, feel free! Here are some of the views late game (game 2):

And game 4 at some point:

We wrapped up at about 12:30. While it was nice not to worry about people driving home (or driving home myself), I still prefer real world game nights. This was fun and way better than no game nights.

I'm going to assume a late-June game night to hold out the hope that we can resume our usual programming. And have post-game Game of Thrones! Remember, too, that we have MEGA-Catan available!

But if not, we'll have another virtual game night!

Oh, and here's another game night meme, with a hat tip to Pete:

Please feel free to comment with your perspective on any of the games, especially if you had a victory point hidden or a largest army I did not mention. That's a problem with the clean view that appears after someone wins.

Although I think the standard for future post illustrations is end map; dice roll distribution; and ranking table which shows points, sources of points, and player colors!

Thanks to Paul and Dave for sending extra pictures!

And share what your game night menu was! Hosts can always use ideas for what is wanted.

Again, much fun and it was great to play with you guys!

UPDATE: I'm optimistic on June! Even MEGA-Catan can't violate that limit.