December 2021 Game Night

We had game night last Saturday.

Joe, Paul, and Pete joined me. We had hoped for Mega Catan yet played on the small board.

We dined on Chinese food and egg rolls, plus corn chips and dips. Joe brought Buffalo flat pretzels and dip. Cookies, chocolate-covered donut bites, and peanut M& Ms provided desserts.

Labatt Blue of the regular and light varieties were available, plus assorted pops.

Sadie was curious but reserved this game night, no longer hiding in the stairwell.

[Not an actual game night image]

I forgot to take pictures of the start map of the first two games and so just dropped that feature for this recap. Did I mention we drank? Early and often?

I was red, Paul was white, Joe was orange, and Pete was blue.

Of special note, this was the first all-tower game night. Paul and I used the original dice tower; while Joe and Pete used Pete's arguably heretical dice tower.

We played the harbor master variant, of course.

Game One

Wood was horrible this game while rock was unbalanced.

This is the end map:

I started on two different rock settlements but with without wheat. I moved to get wood first, expanded to better sheep and increasing payoff for wood, and fully staking out the rock quarries. It is not a shock that I had 80% of the cities this game. I built on a 3:1 port which helped. And with my very constrained territory having so many rocks was a big help.

Joe built the trans-Catanian road to get longest road. How he did that with his 12 forest escapes me. Everyone else had two port points, but nobody reached 3. Paul spread out on the coast, with a shot at longest road. And Pete built out a bit, like my expansion, but with one more build spot possible. He also promoted one city.

Eventually with 9 points and one more city to promote I had to focus on buying development cards. I bought two in one turn, getting a victory card and a year of plenty. The next turn around that got me a city upgrade and 11 points!

Joe followed with 7 points, including the longest road. Then Paul with 6, including a victory point. And Pete with 6.

 

Game Two

Wheat and wood were highly variable.

This is the end map:

I started with no wheat and expanded to the coast a a shepherd's hooked staff empire. I was at the point of deciding whether to reach out for a weak desert-view settlement or keep going south to extend my longest road without hope of building on it. I was at least one road closer to the build site than everyone else.

Joe built out both of his settlement starting points. He had no hope for harbor master and little hope for longest road.

Paul staked out a nice enclave on the west coast with plenty of build sites. And his other enclave gave him a 2:1 brick port for his own ample brick resources.

Pete was pretty penned in. Yet with both the wheat and rock ports, he managed to waste them completely by fully urbanizing! But that worked out well as he reached 11, with a victory point card and harbor master.

I followed with 9, including longest road, then Joe and Paul tied at 8 each. Congratulations Pete!

Game Three

This map was fairly reasonable with resource distribution. The vast grazing land is interesting.

This is the end map:

This time Paul made the trans-Catanian road. And with a strong rock presence, he had three cities.

Joe was blocked in the south but he had room in the north. Of note, Joe had both the harbor master and longest road cards at the same time until he lost them. That left a mark.

Pete had no bricks and it crippled any effort to expand.

I was at 8, and made it to 12 by building to get the harbormaster plus my hidden victory point card. 

Paul, who lost Lord knows how many cards when the robber parked on his 8 brick and did not move--I may have placed it there in retaliation, I'm sure--ended the game with a fist full of cards. Had I not gone over the top, barring a 7 he's have gotten the game.

Paul followed with 10 points, including the longest road. Pete had 6 with a victory point card. And Joe had 4.

Game Four

The desert in the center resulted in initial placements by all of us on the six hexes around the desert close to but not on the coast. It was kind of interesting. Except for my one pick on the coast to get the wheat port, as I figured "what the heck."

Joe, Paul, and Pete all had road building efforts that could have given any of them longest road. Pete had the edge in a unified road net first. But Joe and Paul could have grabbed it with a bit of effort.

Joe had a secure enclave in the north for building spots.

Pete was a lineland but he had lots of room around the desert for building.

Paul hemmed in my southern enclave and also could have moved toward the desert.

Somehow I expanded around the good wheat and planted another rock resource. With a rock and wheat port, I finally got what made that nice with wheat and rock resources. There was nice flexibility for city promotion! And it made it easier to get wood.

At some point I turned to Pete and said, "now I need 6, 3, and 2 to kick in. And they did--even a single 2. And just as important, the robber that had plagued us constantly early in the game finally decided to sit it out.

Pete had 10 with the longest road and a victory point. Paul had 7. And Joe had 4.

And that was it.

Despite heavy drinking and a fair amount of eating junk, I managed to wake up Sunday with only a slight sleep deficit and no food- or beer-related agony or even discomfort. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, I was.

And a meme:

Thanks to those attending game night! You guys aren't really emotionally crippled.

As always, feel free to add thoughts in the comments. Especially who moved first each game and what your initial placement was. I know I rolled 3 1s and a 2 during the evening for game order, so never moved first. I think I had double placement once and third placement twice. Other than that, it's a blur.