October 2020 (Virtual) Game Night

My apologies for the lateness of this recap. I got off track in September. Also, see the bottom for an exciting announcement!

The October game night was virtual. I was the technical host. I'm not going to lie to you: by the end of the night I was quite bombed.

After returning from Las Vegas I went into self-quarantine for two weeks just in case. And during that time I ordered material to establish a proper bar. And for game night I switched from beer to mixed drinks. I forgot how quickly mixed drinks go down compared to beer. My hangover lasted for three days. I kid you not. Three days. Pete warned me that it sounded like brain damage territory. No worries.

And after waiting to see Joe's September recap before doing this one, my already hazy memory is even more dim. But at least we have the data to help recap!

So here we go!

Paul made it a bit late but decided not to play and simply drink and Zoom interact.  

We played the harbormaster variant. (Yes, yes, Dave, I'll address that later.)

Game One

I was red, Dave was blue, Pete was green and Joe was grey.

My hope was to use wood-heavy resources and build to the wood port. Sadly, Joe build through my potential blocking position, although I did cut him off with a settlement that at least denied him the 5-10 wood port. Although I really wanted the wood port given my huge tracts of forests. Curse you Joe!

Despite the poor 6 rolls, Dave's heavy commitment to the rocks there gave him massive city potential. Joe benefited from his 8 rocks to also heavily urbanize. And Pete had a bit of luck on that with 6 and 8.

My hopes were for city upgrades and a play for the longest road. But I could not manage that.

Game one end positions:

Joe won with 11 points, including the harbormaster card. Pete had 10, with  the longest road and a victory point card. Dave had 7. And I had 6, with a victory point card.

Game one dice: 

My 4 and 6 were poor performers reflected by having no cities. But 9 and 10 came up a bit and I believe I had to trade those a lot for needed cards. The robber was a bit more active than one would hope, but not by much.

Game Two

I was red, Dave was blue, Pete was brown and Joe was green.

I was fairly happy with my opening position, although I had to work my way around the desert but I didn't get the production on wood and brick that I hoped for. I was just getting into position for decent builds and a shot at longest road when the game ended.

Joe was really trapped and fully invested on 6.

Pete didn't expand much. He had no brick or wood at all and it showed. But he managed city promotions rather well.

Dave too couldn't build too many roads but snagged to harbormaster before Pete could get it. And Dave had a victory point card, reaching 11. I hazily recall Dave spending a lot of time on his term trying to get a couple points, which made me worry he had a victory point card down. He did. Nicely done!

Game two end positions:

Sorry about the game notation obscuring the map. Luckily it only really blocked the desert plus my settlement at the desert-11-6 vertice. My pace of drinking tunnel visioned me and I didn't even notice when I snapped the picture. I should have made sure my cursor was off map.

Dave won with 11 points, including a victory point and the harbormaster card. Pete had 10 points, with what I assume must have been the largest army given his heavy sheep, wheat, and rock resources (but my screen shot of the rankings is too blurred to see his army total or victory point cards). I had 7, with a victory point card. Joe had 7, with the longest road in his traffic circle.

Game two dice:

That's an odd distribution. I needed 11. On the other hand 10 was very very good to me. Four and 5 were really good even as 6 and 8 under-performed. And where did the robber go to?

 

Game Three

Game three had me red, Dave blue, Pete yellow, and Joe gray.

I was really happy with my starting positions despite the desert. Can I not get away from it? I managed to stake out a decent enclave for builds with more than adequate numbers and resource diversity. And my wheat situation with a wheat port had potential. 

Pete was building nicely in a small space centered around an 8 and a good enclave of wood and brick up north. 

Joe was blocked completely. I blocked him in the south to establish the eastern side of my enclave. And then as Dave began the long march north, Dave cut him off in that direction. So Joe could not expand on this two initial building spots. Joe's hope for victory was two cities plus the largest army and longest road--and three victory point cards.

At this point the social worker came in and asked Joe to point to the map where the bad men touched him.

While we marveled at how badly Joe had been hosed, Dave began his march to harbormaster. He already had the largest army. With a highly confused tone, Dave asked why he hadn't won with his harbormaster, largest army, victory point, and basic points? 

Oops. I thought we were playing harbormaster. I had failed to turn that feature on in that game. Catanius Interruptus was evident. But at least the rest of us knew he had a victory point card.

And Joe only needed two victory point cards for his narrow victory path!

I mentioned I'd been drinking more than usual, right? Anyway, Dave manned the ef up and went on to pass Pete by and get the ten points for victory with the largest army, the victory point, three cities and a settlement.

Game three end positions:

Again, my apologies for the screen-obscuring label. My BAC really was climbing.

Dave had 10 points, including that victory point card. Pete had 9, with a victory point card. I had 7 points with a victory point card. And Joe had 4, with the longest road.

So the game told Joe to BOHICA by letting him know that 3 of the 4 victory point cards were unavailable to him. Happy International Women's Day, I guess.

Game three dice:

That was a skewed "probability" curve. Nine was very, very good to Dave. I assume the other 9 was under the map label that inexplicably appeared on the map. Anybody remember what that was? Ten was pretty good, too, which everyone had access to.

Game Four

Dave was blue. Pete was gray. I was red. And Joe was purple.

Rocks were weak, as you can see. 

My lineland empire at least gave me barely sufficient building spots but I was pretty cut off.  I could promote another city and then I'd need largest army or two victory point cards. I did not get that.

Joe had a really good enclave and was one road from taking longest road and had the edge because Dave could not build longer than 14 while Joe could max out.

Pete had a good northern coastal enclave with an isolated settlement on good resources. And he had room for one more settlement plus a city promotion. His drive to the east on the coast cost me my hope for a port.

Game four end positions:

Dave rolled into first place with 11 points, including the longest road. Pete had 10 with the harbormaster. I had 8 straight points. And Joe had 7 straight. 

There were no victory point cards pulled this game.

Game four dice:

Four, 6, 10, and 12 were really good. Despite the poor rock resources, strong 10 rolls provided ample opportunities for city upgrades.

Congratulations to Dave for a stellar night! Joe robbed Dave of a sweep with his first game win. Congrats on that Joe!

Despite my climbing BAC my point totals never declined during the evening. I consider that a moral victory given I actually poured a beer out rather than continue drinking during game four. I though shifting to beer would save me but it was too late.

But for all of blue Dave's Catanius Interruptus in game three, Pete in all four games finished every game in second place, one point shy of victory. Ouch. Sorry Pete. I assume you cranked out a solo game of Catan on a real board after the Zoom was off, just to complete a win.

Thanks for joining in! Hopefully Paul enjoyed just watching. Please feel free to fill in or correct my hazy memory of the game or add your perspective in the comments. I truly welcome them!

I'll get on the November recap soon. And December virtual announcement will no doubt be out soon, too.

Announcement!

The pandemic lockdown is really discouraging. I have vowed after this is over to get out at every opportunity. I will initiate some and you should consider the Beej Line open for any outings.

One thing I am going to do is revive a weekly game night apart from the official Catan game night. 

Tony will remember the origin of this from high school. How the adults in that gaming group played weekly impressed me once I entered the world of work.

The idea will be a game night that does not include Catan--ever. I love it and it, or a variant, will remain THE game for official game night. But it is not the only game in my vast collection. 

The weekly game will be based on hard RSVPs so I know how many players I'll need to prepare a game for. It could be wargames. And it will push me to start playing my many games solitaire even if nobody can make it.

This will be a BYOB type even with everyone asked to bring a 4-pack or 6-pack of beer that we will treat like a cookie exchange. Even I'll have some premium beer rather than the House Swill Blue Light. I'll supply chips and sweets. But if people want real food you can either bring it or we can order it once here.

I am not sure of the day since many people have inconveniently not retired yet. I am tentatively thinking of Sunday afternoon, maybe 1:00 to 5:00, or so. That way in good weather it could be on my patio. But I'm open to a 6:00 to 10:00 on a weekday if that works better for people. Or maybe I'll move it around to see how it works for people, although I'd rather have a set day people can plan on.

Anyway, that is many months in the future. But that's my plan.

/END ANNOUNCEMENT/

Thanks for everyone who made it in October to play or just treat it as a Zoom happy hour. That's always an option for those who just want to dip a toe in the game night and see if we are too scary to join or not. Really, we are gentlemen and not fairy tale monsters. It was great fun. 

But I'll not lie to you, I'm eager to get back to in-person gaming.