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.