April 2021 (Virtual) Game Night

We played 6 games yesterday, starting at 6:00, including one where I swear I got up to get a beer after we set up only to find that Paul had won when I returned. Joe, Paul, and Pete joined me for games; and Pat Zoomed in for games 4-6. Pat's wife Katie joined us for game 6.

Female on the floor!

Sadly, it was still a Zoom virtual game night. I can almost taste the tacquitos!

The word of the night was "silo." 

Game 1

We played the harbor master variant. The order of placements was Paul (brown), Pete (green), Joe (yellow), and myself (Beej, as red) in the coveted DP spot.

This was the map at the start of the game:

The lack of rock was truly depressing. I was reduced to hoping to trade for it. But I was happy with my other resources. Paul pretty much locked up the only real source. Sheep was a bit weak but that usually doesn't matter that much.

I was actually feeling pretty good as the game went on. Paul was soon sucking in city upgrades with every roll of 5, but he ran out of build spots! Pete cut off Paul from the eastern coast. But Paul did snag the longest road. I think it changed hands 3 times after I first earned it.

Pete rode his golden waves of grain and wheat port into three city upgrades! 

Joe was constrained when Paul built his long road, enabled by a monopoly card and wood that cut off Joe's effort to get the longest road. But at least Joe had building spots. Sadly his 2 rock resource never hit even once. And his 6 resource under-performed, making his brick port a bit worthless.

At one point, I was close to linking up my roads and taking the longest road for good. Although yes, I was well aware that it could be cut by Joe. If he could free up a settlement to build. I could afford to send a spur out and planned to do that. But I had the resources for a city upgrade and I wanted to cement my harbor master. And have a city! And Pete was a bigger worry even though they he had the same points as Paul. Paul had a number of development cards. But he only had 6 points on the board!

But with nothing to promote and no place to build, Paul began buying development cards like they were lottery tickets. And he pulled 3 victory point cards.

Game over, man! Paul finished first with 11 points, including the longest road. I had 8 with harbor master. Pete had 8 natural. And Joe had 5. Paul and I each deployed one knight. Congratulations Paul!

The end of the game:

The dice:

Effing 5, eh? And 10. Which explains Paul's cities and development card collection. The robber hit at the expected rate.

Game 2

As it turns out, we did not play the harbor master variant. People, people, you have to double check this when I start a game. If you don't see the "two strips of bacon" under your name, as Joe so eloquently observed, we aren't playing the harbor master variant! The order of placement was Joe (pink), myself (red), Paul (purple), and Pete (grey) in the coveted double placement position.

This was the map at the start of the game:

Rocks were again pretty poor. I was pretty happy to snag a 4 rock and have resource diversity with decent prospects. Little did I know ...

I was quickly blocked in the northwest as three of us headed for the coast. I didn't get a port but thank God I had another 2 wheat. Because without that I would have gotten no wheat in the game!

Joe build a solid enclave in the north with full resource availability and a sheep port to sell his massive sheep presence on 8. At one point I think Joe got the longest road.

Paul built around wheat and looked like he could link his enclaves to pursue the longest road.

I ended up being very constrained in the south as Pete expanded and I ran into the desert. All I had left were some bad coastal spots. This would be difficult. And my 4 resource did not pay off.

Pete went on a rampage with his heavy 3 investments. And when he placed his city upgrade on the 6-2 port to seize harbormaster--we noticed that we weren't playing that variant. My bad. Thankfully for Catan karma, Pete went on to take the longest road and sort of win twice. So the bitter taste of his first not-victory was erased. I'm sure. Right, Pete? Pete?

So Pete had 11 points with the longest road, Paul had 5, and Joe and I had 4. Congratulations Pete!

The end of the game:

 The dice:

As you can see, 10 never came up. Three was awesome and 5 was pretty good, too. I missed a lot of those 5 rolls before I built on them.

 

Game 3

We played the harbor master variant. The order of placement was Paul (green), Pete (yellow), Joe (brown), and myself in the coveted DP spot.

This was the map at the start of the game:

Wood was weak. I could not get adequate rocks if I wanted other resources. And I counted on a second placement on the bricks and wood to at least get me to wood. Joe also lacked wood. Paul and Pete had some. And everyone else had good rock resources.

I rolled enough 2s to get me going early in the game, actually. My first lunge for wood was in the west where Paul was a more immediate threat to expansion. In the end I managed to get both wood spots I had my eye on. I even somehow promoted two cities. And amazingly I advanced up the coast, first to get build spots. Later I was desperate for the longest road.

Joe maxed out his cities and had room on the coast to expand.

Paul built a trans-Catanian road to get the longest road.

But Peter maxed out his cities, too, and along with a settlement grabbed the harbor master.

So Pete won with 11. Joe was close behind with 10 points, including a victory point card and two knights played. Paul and I had 8 points, mine natural while Paul held the longest road. Congratulations Pete!

The end of the game:

The dice:

"Probability" made an appearance to prove that a normal curve is indeed possible. I'm sure it is a coincidence that it looks like an extended middle finger to our routine bitching about it.

Game 4

We went to the big board with 5 players, so no harbor master variant as Klaus intended (and what's with Pete's foul mood on Klaus this night, anyway?). The order of placement was Paul (blue), Pete (brown), myself (red), Pat (yellow), and Joe (brown) in the coveted DP position.

This was the map at the start of the game:

I'm honestly not sure what happened to the map. I'd swear I took the picture. Perhaps I just pressed my finger on some random spot on my phone. Did I mention we drink at game night? Maybe it is with the harbor master variant from game 2. But luckily, you can see the starting positions of everybody but Paul from the end map ... . Although I'm pretty sure the two inland cities were his start positions.

Anyway, rock was outstanding. Nothing else was horrible but the two deserts really fouled things up. I was reasonably content with my starting position and saw vast horizons ahead of me in the northeast. Seriously, I was pointed at that expanse from north and south and nobody was close! Wheat and sheep beckoned! This is so much better than starting out hemmed in by other players, desperately hoping to beat them to contested building spots! Woo!

Sadly, with massive numbers of 5 and 9 rolls Paul went on a tear, promoting cities and building the longest road at six while the rest of us were still trying to remember what numbers we had. We showed Paul though, all the rest of us combined had more points than him! And we built as many roads as he did! So there.

Seriously, those were our highlights.

Paul won in 29 minutes even, with 10 points and the longest road. The rest of us all had 3 points, which Joe reached with a victory point card. How lucky to bank one of those early, Joe must have thought! 

This was seriously effed up. I almost uttered Pete's blasphemy.

I mean, congratulations Paul! None of us will be walking funny for a week, I'm sure.

The end of the game: 

So that happened.

The dice:

As noted, Paul rode on the wings of heavy investment on 5 and 9. The game was so brief that four numbers never showed up at all. 

Game 5

The order of placement was myself (red), Pat (blue), Paul (purple), Pete (gray), and Joe (green) in the coveted DP spot. Pat's wife joined in the Zoom call but did not play. Although apparently they've been playing online with and AI third. Clearly our gaming reputations and/or pandemic-induced obvious lack of personal hygiene and grooming deterred her.

But I digress.

This was the map at the start of the game:

The resources seemed adequate and the deserts were conveniently placed together on the coast. I was extremely happy with my initial resources. But other people got in the way of my joy by placing near me and seriously worrying me about expansion opportunities. This was no game 4 on that score.

Pat built out his "flux capacitor" and threatened to link up to get the longest road. Paul blocked my expansion from my eastern outpost to build up his 4 woods. And even hemmed in my southern outpost from going west to the coast. Pete clustered around his isolated brick and expanded in the north to the coast. Joe went north and gave me a bit of a free space; and tried to escape around the deserts to better building sites after Pat outran him to an interior building site.

I was worried about building spots but did manage to curl around the 5 and then promote all my settlements to cities. I was desperate for another building spot and contemplated trying for victory points or largest army. Fortunately, I was able to build up my road to 7 and take longest road from Pete before Pat could link his segments. Woo!

That put me to 10 points. Pat and Pete followed with 6, Paul had 5, and Joe had 3.

The end of the game:

The dice:

No 2 or 12 roll. Three, 5, 8, and 9 sure performed well. I think this is the game where Pat played the monopoly card and took a lot of my wheat. Luckily I got it back, and with a large hand of resources that the robber didn't take, I was able to trade for the roads to build longest road.

 

Game 6

We maxed out on our last game of the night. The order of placement was Joe (blue), myself (red), Katie (yellow), Pat (green), Paul (brown), and Pete (grey) in the coveted double placement position.

This was the map at the start of the game:

Pete and Pat gang-hosed Joe's northern settlement. But he gamely turned around and headed south.

Pat stretched across the north, seemingly trying to create a DMZ to block Pete from escaping the north. Although to be fair, Pete has stretched to the west to block Pat from going north.

Katie linked up her settlements on a lineland, and raced to block my coastal settlement.

Paul circled the wagons around his 8 woods and reached the southern coast. But Joe's coastal enclave blocked him. A narrow corridor by the desert was a chance to link up if three other players didn't build on the desert rock site.

I expanded a bit in the east , circled my 3 brick, and then with that powerhouse of resources, seized the brick port ahead of competition. I only had one more nearly certain settlement site. But after reaching three cities, things seemed possible.

But blasphemous Pete matched Pat's fortifications line and with his port city, allowed Pete to stretch south to hold the longest road. Added to his 8 settlement points, that gave Pete the game.

Pete had 10 points, including longest road. I had 8. Paul had 7. Pat and Katie had 6 each. And Joe had 4. Pat played the only knight of the game. Congratulations Pete!

The end of the game:

The dice:

At least the robber was tame. Nine and 11 were rather good. And 12 over performed.

 

So that was it. Six games! One with 6 players! We wrapped up a little after midnight, eastern time. Thanks to everyone who checked in. It was much fun!

As always, I encourage comments to correct things I remembered incorrectly or blatantly misrepresented. And to give your angle apart from my naturally Beej-centric view of the games. Come on people! These comments should be filled with insightful commentary, whining, bitching, and colorful threats of revenge!

Also, from the meme slide show at Casa Beej:

One more thing we go without on virtual game nights.

Thanks for playing! It was fun. Real world game night in May? Ito Night! Ito Night!!