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!