January 2022 (Virtual) Game Night

In place of the failed effort to have an unofficial in-person Mega Catan game night I shifted the formal game night to virtual to allow a friend far from Michigan to play. Last Saturday was the formal game night, complete with actual data on how badly "probability" screws us.

Katie, Pat, Paul, and Pete joined me for a late-starting game night via Zoom and the online platform.

I used a check list to make sure I didn't neglect any data.

Game 1

The game was, of course, not a harbor master variant. Klaus has not seen fit to grant us that. Yet.

Order of placement was Paul (brown), Pete (pink), me (red), Katie (blue), and Pat (purple) in the coveted double placement spot.

The resources were all fairly decent, really. I liked my initial placement on the wood, wheat, and bricks. And I thought placing at the rock and double wheat game me room between them to expand. Paul had good expansion chances. Pete was pretty good and Pat was in good shape. Katie's placement was pretty constricted and she needed to break out fast. And if she moved down the coast, I'd be hosed.

Pat linked up pretty early to get longest road and had a good enclave, although the desert reduced the resource value.

Paul expanded his rock presence and moved northwest from his southern settlement.

Pete moved out as much as he could in the south and did the flux capacitor in the north, and had a couple more sites in reach.

Katie could have expanded if 6 had come up early, since each 6 was a road build for her. But I managed to get south with bank trades first. And as she continued to move south, I got to the coast and built first. By then Paul and Pete had closed off other options to break out.

After those first two builds I started promoting cities and staked out my perimeter by moving west. It figures that the game we don't have harbor master than I had 3 port points. I managed to build on my last open space on the coast sheep and reached 10 points. Whew.

End Game 

Pat followed with 8 points, including the longest road; Paul and Pete had 7 each, and Katie was stuck at 2 after getting hemmed in too badly to overcome geography and the lack of early game 6 rolls.

"Probability"

The robber was active. Eight was good as was 9. My 4 and 6 were scarce until the end which made it possible to stake out more build spots. My 11 came up late with 6 sheep, so that was nice.

Game 2

We stepped down to the small map and added the harbor master variant.

Order of placement was Paul (blue), me (red), Pat (brown), and Pete (green) in DP.

Wood was a problem. I was pretty happy to get the wood-brick-sheep combination and then rounded out resources with the rock and wheat. But Pete and Paul hemmed me in. I was not happy.

I managed to flux capacitor in the south, but no more. And my path northeast was blocked by Pete's road. All I could do was build at the sheep desert. I'd need all my cities plus largest army or 2 victory points to win.

Pat built out around Paul in the east--aided by an early monopoly card that took three wood from Paul--and blocked my long shot at the coast. He grabbed harbor master but I had a momentary concern when the game didn't seem to recognize it. But when he passed his turn the game recognized him.

Paul mostly built in the northwest and had a sizable enclave. He got the longest road and built out along the coast to protect those two points by denying Pete the option of passing Paul despite Paul having two "wasted" roads in the southeast.

Pete had a barbell empire built around rock in the south and wheat in the north. He managed to take the harbormaster with four harbor points. Seemingly stuck for the moment with no play other than scraping up a city promotion, Pete ended the game by playing the classic "I'll buy a lottery ticket and pray for a victory point" play--and got it to reach 11 points! Such is the stuff of legends, of course. Congratulations Pete!

End Game 

Paul followed with 9 points, including the longest road; Pat had 7; and I had 6.

"Probability"

Well, my system failed me when I accidentally took two pictures of the same screen and neither was the dice distribution table. Sigh. Trust me, the dice failed me and probably everyone else.

Game 3

We continued harbor master, naturally.

I (red) placed first, followed by Paul (brown), and Pete (grey) again in DP.

Wood was bad. Rock was hideous.

I was happy to place first to get the 4 rock. And my last placement at the 8 brick was a bonus. I had good expansion options at last!

I built a lot around the 8 brick and added to my wheat and wood holdings. I even had a road-building card to help get out past Paul's position to reach the coast and get more sheep and wood. I was actually in the position to take harbormaster and maybe add another port site in the west. Or one more settlement and two city promotions for the hard way!

Paul again grabbed longest road and had one build spot locked in for the most part and another in range. 

Pete expanded around the crappy rocks and sheep and built around the bricks. Pete challenged for longest road, but ultimately rested on his harbor master to get to 11. Congratulations Pete!

End Game 

Paul followed with 9, including the longest road. I had 8.

"Probability"

The robber was precisely on track while 6 and 8 over-performed. But a decent probability curve, I must admit.

We finished up around midnight. Clean up is much easier, virtually.

 

As an overall view, my road-building during the entire evening was really low, especially given my constricted position in the first two games. And that's including a road-building card that I played in game 3! I averaged just over 5 roads per game. Yikes.

Also, we had few knights and only one victory point card pulled during the night.

And your Catan meme for the month:

Much fun, although in-person is much preferred! Next month back to Casa Beej for the social event of the month.

And as always, I welcome comments to provide other perspectives on strategies and events.

Game Night Light 22

Monday was the weekly game night and beer exchange. It might be called Game Night Light 21 Part II.

We returned to Star Fleet Battles after incorporating the training wheel version.

The beer was fine, as usual.

We used the online Cadet version. Basically the scenario 5-7 variant, but used the regular game impulse chart given that the concept is well understood. And we kept the shield reinforcing rules because we figured that out in the initial game night.

This time we got into a rhythm pretty quickly. Although we both settled on the basic "scream and leap" strategy of charging straight at each other.

In the vastness of space, this is when we called the battle for the Klingons.

The Federation ship was stripped of weaponry and on the cusp of having its structural integrity shattered, with just one warp engine fully online. 

Just before that, we'd been stacked in the same hex. Which required a scramble to figure out what shield is used when we fire at each other. That required going to the main rules for clarification.

At best, with the Federation ship at a much higher speed than the Klingon at the time, the Klingon would have been put into a stern chase with long-range sniping. It would have taken time, but unless the Federation ship could retreat to a Star Base or another ship, it would have lost.

And there were no transporters to send the Tribbles into the Klingon engine room.

I suspect that the better strategy for the Federation is to try to snipe at long range with the slow-reloading photon torpedoes until the Klingon ship's shields are weakened enough to finish off with a major volley. Otherwise the Klingons seem to have an edge in a close-fought furball.

It was a lot of fun to figure out the basic mechanics, which provides a basis for expanding the systems put into play for the full game.

And one more game on my shelves is no longer a hangar queen!

We wrapped up before 10:00, as scheduled. Maybe Wooden Ships and Iron Men next time?

Game Night Light 21

Monday was the return of game night. Which promptly stumbled on the speed bump of rules that resemble the operating manual of a SpaceX ship than game rules.

This was the game:

The basic set! As I understand it, there are many expansions that I swear provide a negative modifier on certain die rolls if a warp drive technician third class has a hangover, a hang nail, or recently broke up with his girl friend.

I have fond memories of the game Star Fleet Battles from college. A friend had it and he easily taught it to us. But it seems to have gotten ultra-complicated in an effort to satisfy the cadre of players who believe they are simulating space combat.

I bought the game many years ago, thinking it would be a great multi-player game.

We started plugging along with a one-on-one duel, planning to use just basic rules. But we foundered on the complexity of the rules that did not easily show where the simple game stopped and the field manual began.

Jesus, people. We don't need to know how to field strip a Klingon D-7 starship.

How we didn't drink all of the beer is beyond me:

After two hours as we were just beginning to start the first turn, we gave up. For now.

I had downloaded a basic simplified version of the rules some time ago and figured I'd print it out.

I found the simple rules. At 52 pages. Fifty-two! I emailed them to the Klingon and myself and, after finally fixing the sudden lack of email on my Amazon Fire tablet that would not recognize my valid password, finally added a new mail app and opened the PDF of the rules on the tablet. 

So now I will read those and hopefully they will be a better way back into the fun that the game once was.

I swear to God I'm not going to study as if my MOS is United States Space Force Starship Commander.