March 2021 (Virtual) Game Night

This last Saturday we had a virtual game night. I'd hoped we might have an outdoor game night starting earlier in the day, but the weather was not warm enough for that yet.

We started out with myself, Dave, Joe, Paul, and Pete. And with the new expanded basic game (up to 6 players) on Catan Universe, I did not have to sit out the first game! Nor did the winner have to sit out. Woo. Sadly the Harbormaster variant is not available for expanded play.

Jeff also checked in on Zoom to say hi, but did not stay for either happy hour or to play. I haven't seen Jeff in about a decade I imagine. Thanks for checking in Jeff!

And before game 3 Pat checked in to play. Sadly, the server didn't update to allow Pat to play in game 3. But by the time we finished that, Pat could sign in and accept a friend request to get in game 4.

The expanded game works and the new "interstellar" build phase moves the game along faster. But it is hard to say if it is better or worse than the old system for avoiding the robber. The ability to trade before buying helped me a couple times, but the inability to do that between-turn build more than once per round hurt me once and could have a few other times had the robber struck. Add your thoughts in the comments. 

Game One

Order of placement was myself (red), Pete (purple), Dave (blue), Paul (green), and Joe (pink) with the coveted double placement spot.

This was the opening map after placement:

My first choice was the southern settlement and amazingly my second choice remained open until I could select it. I had some room to expand in the southwest and the desert gave me a shield for a small corner of the northeast. Rocks were good. Bricks a bit weak. A lot of people clustered around the mountain range.

For me the game started slow when I only got rocks. Check out this early game distribution that denied me 4, 6, and 11. I took the picture after a 4 finally came in. The sad result of my lack of number diversity.

Only a year of plenty card allowed me to build a city for something in that drought. But 9 was good to me early.

Eventually I built out a ... ah, structure, ... in the northeast to take the longest road from Paul. He had his end points cut off by Dave and Pete which gave me a brief opportunity to grab the title.

And finally my numbers started to come in. So often a slow start pens you in but I had enough room to survive that.

This was the end game map:

I finished with 10 points, including the longest road. Pete, Dave, and Joe followed with 6. Paul had 4.

Nobody had victory points and only one knight was played in the game.

This was the "probability" distribution:

I guess it's kind of a normal curve. Sort of. If you squint and tilt your head. And ignore the huge number of 7 rolls!

Game Two

Order of placement was Dave (blue), myself (red), Paul (yellow), Pete (brown), and Joe (grey) in the coveted double placement spot.

This was the opening map after placement:

We really were clustered in the north! Paul and Pete especially had room to push south. I had a bit depending on the breaks. Joe had some territorial growth options. But Dave was constricted. Once again I was happy with my resource distribution while getting a bit more number diversity.

Joe did indeed stake out territory in the northeast. Paul pushed south. Pete pushed to the north for rocks, blocking me. But that gave me a chance to break out in the south. Dave managed to break out to the south as well. Pete built two space stations, as he likes to do. And please note Dave's successful breaking of Paul's chance to link his roads! Bravo. It was a shot for taking longest road from Paul.

This was the end game map:

I finished with 10 points "natural." Pete had 9 with a victory point. Paul had 8 with the longest road. Joe had 7 with a victory point. And Dave had 4. Only three knights were played.

This was the "probability" distribution:

Six was unable to outperform 5, 9, 11, or 12! But at least the robber was sparse. And heavy investments on 2 did not pay off.

 

Game Three

Order of placement was Dave (blue), Paul (pink), Pete (grey), Joe (yellow), and myself (red) in the coveted double placement position.

This was the opening map after placement:

The resources seemed reasonable. The vast gap in the southwest is amazing. I lacked only sheep but felt aiming for the 11 would be reasonable. I was worried I might not be able to push past the desert into that vast open space. But my eastern settlement seemed pretty clear for expansion.

Paul really managed to thread two needles to push south. Dave was stuck with a coastal approach but no harbormaster options. Joe expanded quite a bit in the west and reached the sea in the south. Pete was surrounded in the north and his southern enclave was restricted by my expansion and Joe's coastal settlement.

This might have been the game with the only monopoly card played, if memory serves. Dave vacuumed up wheat.

This was the end game map:

I finished with 10 points, including a victory point card. Paul had 9. Joe had 7 with the longest road, and Pete had 7 natural. Dave had 5. Nobody even got close to largest army.

This was the "probability" distribution:

You engineer types keep talking about "probability." I don't think that word means what you think it means.

Game Four

We got Pat into this game so we had the maximum! It took some persuading so Paul would stay to have the maximum. The order of placement was Joe (yellow), myself (red), Pat (brown), Paul (pink), Pete (grey), and Dave (blue) in the coveted double placement spot.

This was the opening map after placement:

Rock was really bad. Crappy, even. I mentioned rock was bad, right? It was so bad that my hopes for rock rested on getting to the 11 in the north. Other than rocks I was happy with my resource distribution. Wood was variable. I was happy to get the position on the 8. Once more I needed to get past a desert although I had the edge in pushing past first. But that would delay my effort to reach 11. Indeed, as 11 came up four times before I could build there I thought my strategy was a failure. What are the odds of me mining rocks after four rolls already?

Pete really blocked Dave's expansion options by building north. Pete built north enough to block what I hoped would be another build site on two nice pasture. Somehow despite the poor rocks, Pete's investment on 11 paid off with 3 cities. Even I got one out my belated 11 settlement.

Also, Pat experienced the joy of going more than a dozen rolls around the board without getting a resource card. What are the odds of that? Welcome to Catan.

No knights were played in the game.

This was the end game map:

Pete finished with 10 points, including the longest road (at 5!). Paul and I followed with 5 each. And Pat, Dave, and Joe had 3 each. Congratulations Pete!

This was the "probability" distribution:

Probability? Exhibit A in the prosecution's case against the existence of "probability" shall be "11." Damn 11 all to Hell! You maniacs! You blew it up!

At least there were few robbers.

Game Five

Paul, Dave, and Joe had to bow out. Pete and I stayed to give Pat from the Central Time Zone at least two games for his first game night. We switched to the original but with only three of us did not play harbormaster. 

The order of placement was myself (red). Pete (purple), and Pat (green) in the coveted double placement position.

This was the opening map after placement:

The resources seemed reasonable. I was happy with number and resource diversity. Pete really locked down the rocks. And bricks. That was a bold move Cotton. Pat lacked rocks but had a shot at a good 8 spot.

Pat did get that 8 and managed to stretch his road to nearly link up, while getting longest road. Pete built just one space station and reached south on the coast.

Again, there were no knights played. This was a low army evening for some reason. And a low victory point card evening.

I wonder if the new "interstellar" phase reduces the need to settle for lottery tickets to reduce card holdings to avoid the robber? Thoughts?

This was the end game map:

I finished with 10 points ("10" rolls were very good to me), including a victory point card. Pete and Pat each had 5, with Pat holding longest road.

This was the "probability" distribution:

Basically it almost didn't matter what number you picked. Twelve? Eight? Whatever. Although anybody who thought 11's performance in game four was predictive of future performance was sadly disappointed. I don't even know what to say about that "probability" stuff.

We finished up at around 12:30 or so.

And a meme from the slide show:

That one is for you, Dave!

Thanks to everyone who showed up. The new expanded game seems to work well. Although the lack of room to display more than one player name across the top is a bit annoying. You can see that on the first map. And the lack of harbormaster which we've adopted as a regular part of the game is disappointing. Although when we are back to the physical board game that won't be a problem.

With any luck April game night will be a hybrid in-person outside Ito Night game while we play on our hand-held devices. I have extra chairs now!

February 2021 (Virtual) Game Night

A few weeks ago we had a virtual game night. It's fun but I'm getting tired of virtual game nights. I'd much rather have the virtual option in the winter if a storm makes in-person gaming ill advised. Oh well. We soldier on.

Dave, Joe, Paul, and Pete joined me. Per usual rules I sat out the first game. Winners sit out the next game. Joe generously offered to sit out a game instead of me one time but I prefer to go by rules so nobody feels like they should offer to bow out. 

We played with the Zoom supplement, of course. We managed to get in five games during the night. 

I've put off writing this recap because the map and screen grab situation was more chaotic than usual. And then it slipped my mind, somehow. Sorry! 

Joe set up a narrow view of his screen (to avoid giving away screen information) as a Zoom participant so anyone not playing can follow along. Thanks Joe!

Game One

The order of set up was Pete (purple), Joe (green), Paul (red), and Dave (blue) in the double placement spot. We played the harbormaster variant.

This is the end game map:

I hate maps with a mountain range. Although everyone managed to stake out some rock. Joe got hemmed in pretty badly. Pete had some building spots but the desert really crimped him as did the need to avoid others in the east to reach a build spot. Paul looked like he was on a roll with his lengthy empire. 

But Dave managed a road-building spree to reach the coast and push south into Pete's sphere. And get the longest road from Paul. I hope somebody in the comments explains the victory points because it looks like Dave has 9 points. But I remember that Dave won. And I noted it without writing down how. I don't remember if Dave had largest army or if he had two victory point cards? Or is the map not really the end game positions but before Dave built two points of cities/settlements? Commenters? 

[Dave clarified in comments that he had the largest army. Thanks Dave!]

Joe had 9 points with the harbormaster, despite his small empire. Paul had 8 points (losing that longest road hurt) as did Pete with a fully urbanized empire.

While I thought Paul had the edge for getting to 11, Dave managed the win. Congratulations Dave!

I'm going by the map only for final results, so if anybody had largest army or victory point cards, speak up in the comments!

Sadly we have no record of the dice rolls. Again, comment on your experience or recollection!

Game Two

As the first game winner, Dave sat out this game as I entered. The order of set up was myself (red), Paul (purple), Joe (brown), and Pete (blue). We played the harbormaster variant.

This is the end game map from my phone:

My initial placements had to give up on getting sheep. 

I know.

My eastern enclave gave me key brick, wood, and rock resources. In the west I added some rock plus plentiful wheat. I quickly made it to the coast in two direction to stake out some build territory. My eastern outpost was pretty much on its own with no way to easily break out without better road-building resources.

I must say that lack of sheep really hurt me. But man was 11 good to me! It enabled my build to the coast and march north. I managed to hang on to the longest road even as Paul threatened to take it with a link up. Joe was again seriously blocked on expansion and was denied longest road options by Paul's road-building. Pete had a lot of territory in the south to build and as he often does got the harbormaster.

But by building to the north I hung on to longest road long enough to win with 11 points officially.* Paul had 8 fully urbanized points. Pete had 8 points, including the harbormaster.* And Joe had 7 points.

There were no knights played in the game and no victory point cards drawn.

These are the dice, also from the phone app:

Sorry, I don't have a way of rotating the picture in Blogger and didn't feel like using a photo editor.

Wow, 3, 9, 11, and 12 were really good while 6 and 8 were subpar.  Two mocked me. My only sheep resource and it gave me not a single "baaa." Sad.

We also had a connection problem in the game. Paul could not play on his laptop. To avoid losing the game in progress I tried opening my phone game, which automatically dropped me out of the desk top game. Paul did that too, and we continued. I did not want to risk moving back to desk top and so was stuck on my phone. 

Which caused a problem for me on the turn I won. My screen angled and I couldn't get the interface to build what I wanted! And I worried I'd accidentally pass my turn trying to navigate. I kept having to initiate trades so back out of pending action. And then abandon trade screen. Finally I flattened the screen and built. 

*Oddly, the order of point counting gave me the win at 11 but ended the game before giving me the harbormaster I earned with the city upgrade at the port. I so rarely get harbormaster, so that was a minor disappointment.

Game Three

I sat out this game per rules and Dave returned to the arena. The order of set up was Paul (red), Pete (brown), Joe (purple), and Dave (blue).  We did not play the harbormaster variant. How could anyone screw that up! (coughpaulcough)

This is the end game map:

Paul and Dave squatted on the only good rock. Wood was pretty good and sheep were plentiful. Note the Paul block thrown on Pete in the south (fightfightfightfight!). Joe was rather blocked up in the west and the desert in the east limited options. Pete had expansion problems that didn't involve sheep. Dave was fairly blocked, too. And depending on what Joe and Paul built might have really been hurt had the game gone on.

But it did not. Paul rolled to victory with 10 points and the longest road. Congratulations Paul! Pete followed with 5. Dave had 4. And Joe had 3. So that happened.

These were the dice:

Wow, no 4 at all! And 8 was no better than 9 and 10, plus worse than 5! And the robber seems pretty active.

Paul checked out of game night at this point with some lame excuse about skiing early the next day.

Game Four

Game four order of placement was Joe (gray), myself red), Dave (blue), then Pete (brown) in the coveted DP spot. Yes, we played the harbormaster variant.

This is the end game map:

Brick and wood were pretty good while rock was a horror show. How 7 cities were built astounds me. In this game I was massively restricted. I had one more secure build space and that was it. I could build to 10 points and would need a card (although longest road could not happen). Even harbormaster was within reach by building spots! If I could take that I could not lose it. But that would have required a longer game.

Joe went all out defending his longest road from Dave. And in the process Joe had all the building spots he could ever need. Dave snagged the harbormaster. Pete built out quite well but he could not ever get harbormaster or longest road. But he did get the largest army card.

This might have been the game when the only monopoly card was played. By Pete, I think. I don't think I was harmed by it, which may be why I can't recall. But I had other resource issues to fume about. Ah, Lady Luck. Emotionally distant, as I seem to like.

But perhaps I share too much.

Anyway, with his unchallenged army Pete reached 11. Dave had 9 with harbormaster. Joe and I each had 7 points. Congratulations Pete!

 These were the dice:

Now one thing this chart doesn't show is that at one point I went twelve rolls without getting any resources. Makes my lack of sheep in game two seem relatively minor. The robber was horrifying. Clearly Pete was using his monopoly on knights to protect us all. Resources on 4, 5, 9, and 10 were really productive. I bet a lot of the 5, 9, and 10 rolls took place in by dice drought. Six and 8 were adequate.

Game Five

We gamely soldiered on for one more game rather than call it an early night. Order of placement was Dave (blue), Pete (gray), Joe (brown), and then me (red ). We played the harbormaster variant, of course.

This is the end game map:

Nothing on the map was too bad on resources. Except that I counted on 9 for my wood but the rolls did not come up. And I reached the 11 woods too late to get much if anything out of it. Three was okay for rock although my late game hit that gave me a city upgrade went unused when the game ended.

This was an odd game. I could see a path to victory with plenty of build spaces and options for longest road and harbormaster. But Dave set out on a drive to the coast that telegraphed a plan to win with longest road and harbormaster. But nobody could stop him. He blocked Pete from any inland moves. I did the same in the south, I admit. And Dave blocked Joe a bit but Joe's reliance on 9 for road building hurt him more.

As Dave pushed to the coast I looked for Joe to get harbormaster first and perhaps permanently block Dave from that. And I was working to loop around the coast while holding off link up to hide that option to take longest road from Dave. Filling it in early would not have given the longest road to me. 

Pete was unable reach harbormaster first, however. And Dave saw my ploy and put the robber on my 9 woods--which then lost me 6 wood (half the rolls for 9 the entire game!) and likely kept me from taking the longest road from Dave. I know I said "Bastard!" out loud after the second roll, but it was totally out of respect Dave! As Pete noted, "The power of Dave's dicking is amazing." That was totally a Catan reference, I'm sure.

Joe fully urbanized and Pete had two cities, as well. 

Anyway, getting harbormaster while holding longest road gave Dave 11 points along with his four cities, enabled by very good rolls on 4, 5, 6, and 8. Congratulations Dave! Joe followed up with 8 points. I had 7. And Pete had 6 with the only victory point card of the night.

These were the dice:

I was happy with my wheat and brick resource production. As I noted, wood let me down. Not even my 2 could make up for lack of 9 production. I got to 11 too late to exploit that luck. Rock was as good as I could expect. And I had all the sheep I wanted. The robber was nowhere to be seen, really. All in all, an odd probability curve.

We wrapped up a little before midnight.

So that was game night. Five games! I find I'm a little tired of expending effort on these. I'm sure this is a lull and I'll get over it. But I think I'm going to establish a shorter template with a map of start positions, the end map, and the dice. Plus order of placement and results text. I'll minimize commentary to prioritize getting the recap out the next day or two. And if I feel up to more extensive commentary, I'll do that if it doesn't delay posting. I'll rely more on comments for details!

We got word that online Catan will have the option for up to 6 players in the next update. And by the time I finished this the update took place! I had hoped to be in-person by then, but the weather doesn't look good. So we shall be online one more month, at least.

And here's a meme from the slide show:

It's new Joe. In your honor!

Thanks for attending! Or just reading! Even if you don't want to play you can treat game night as a virtual happy hour and pop in for a bit.