March 2022 Game Night

Game night was Saturday. It extended from afternoon to early night. So we all had time to make it to our Tinder hookups after. Or significant others, of course.

Attending game night were myself, Joe, Paul (0.67 FTE), Pete (0.67 FTE), and two new players, Brandon and Alyson, who had never played the game before.

We dined on pizza, boneless wings, chips and dips, cookies, cupcakes, and a bowl of unloved remnant sweets from prior game nights. Joe finished off the sole remnant of the Twinkies from Die Hard Christmas. The other surviving chocolates went into the trash at the end of the night. So sad. Survival of the delicious is brutal.

Alyson and Brandon brought a twelve-pack of an IPA. Thank you, but no need! Perhaps they don't like swill? Rest assured the remains of it will be here if they return in April. Joe brought some high-class hooch to celebrate new players and new job.

I added a new dice tower that is more portable for passing around the table and also for "away games." This is not a Holy relic of Game Night. But it will allow me to keep our greatest relic in Casa Beej, where it can retain its Klausian purity. Still, behold the new dice tower in all its Glory!

We played the harbormaster on the expansion map.

GAME ONE

The order of placement was Brandon (white), myself (red), Joe (orange), Paul (green), and Alyson (blue) in the coveted double placement spot.

START(ish) MAP

I remembered to take the picture before the first turn was over. Rocks were pretty bad. Wood was weak. I used my first pick to get adequate bricks and wood. Amazingly, I was able to get decent rock. I was pretty happy that I had lots of room on the west side of the map, which I hoped game me a buffer to expand my southeast enclave before that got squeezed.

Oddly, Paul retained some animosity toward me from actions in an alternative timeline. We hadn't noticed that Alyson had placed one of her initial settlements adjacent to another settlement. So we unwound our placements to allow her to redo it. That undid my initial second placement  that got me the rock, wheat, wood spot west of his settlement that, with Alyson's placement, blocked him in. It wasn't that good but it had open space toward the center. Paul did not like that. In the rewind Paul protected that direction before I could block him. So I did not in fact block him in. Oh well.

I staked out a bit in the southwest to block Joe; and Brandon did not go down the coast. But Joe and Paul both pushed quickly into my buffer zone, which forced me to switch emphasis.

Brandon was limited by lack of bricks, but managed to get to the coast in the east. He still had some room to expand. Paul basically abandoned his eastern outpost. But we could all see him gazing at the possible link up to seek the longest road. Paul pushed southwest and had build spaces fanning out ahead of him. Alyson pushed her enclaves together to form a big one--but didn't quite link them to safeguard her early longest road claim. She had good resource diversity and a lot of sheep. Plus room to build.

But then Joe happened. Joe expanded mostly in the south, and with an amazing run of 11s which gave him a city upgrade each roll of that, surged ahead. And with God seemingly handing him a bonus brick with his last roll of 11, built roads to get the longest road on top of his harbormaster card. Giving him 12 points! Congratulations Joe!

END MAP

Alyson, myself, and Paul tied for second with 5 points each, and Brandon had 3. Joe's blitz to victory was virtually unopposed, really. Even switching to the tiny dice and the number dice didn't stop Joe. When science fails us, what more could we do? Slaughtering livestock was the only real hope. [Makes note for next game night shopping list.]

GAME TWO

Alyson placed first, followed by Brandon, myself, Joe, Paul,  and Pete (brown) in the coveted DP spot. 

Pete arrived in time for game two. We had started to worry about Pete when he hadn't showed up after official game start time. I texted him and eventually the beeping woke him up and he came by. Apparently an old problem with my yahoo email knocked Pete off the game night list. So he did not get the initial announcement of game and he didn't get the reminders. Oops. Pete is back on the list.

START MAP

Brick was even worse this game. I managed to get some with my first pick and hoped to get a bit more. My second placement was ideal for the resources I lacked. It just turned out to be rather isolated.

Brandon linked up his separate enclaves and competed for longest road. I even provided him a warning about how to break a longest road. Brandon soon built a settlement on the road to protect it. (Sorry, Joe.) He had a couple more potential build spots but faced competition.

Joe had his expansion options limited, but he did get harbormaster early. Only I had potential build spots to in theory challenge him. A drive south to some poor build spots straddling a desert was a potential path to victory.

Paul too pushed to get the longest road. His advance blocked Pete, Brandon and threatened Joe. 

Pete linked his two enclaves but ultimately was blocked inland by Paul and Brandon, and on the coast by myself. His build spots dwindled to zero. His sheep port and sheep resources worked nicely. By the end of the game, Pete had gained the longest road. He also had an apparent path for largest army.

Alyson expanded both of her enclaves, blocking my hoped advance along the southern coast. She had one more potential build spot in the north that provided a hope for harbormaster.

I managed to get a port in the south. But after that I pushed in the north to establish an enclave around the 2 brick. I hoped for harbormaster but pushed for largest army. I had a head start on Pete in placing but I had only two knights. My third card was a victory point. Pete followed in placing and I feared he would take that honor first. But he did not have the knights, either. It took two draws but I finally got the third knight. It was quite relaxing to know that while someone might win that no robber could prevent me from turning over a third knight on my next move to get 10 points--and then flip the victory card for 11. Whew.

END MAP

Pete finished second with 8 points, including longest road and a victory point. Joe had 7, with harbormaster; Paul had 6; and Alyson and Brandon had 5, each.

GAME THREE

Paul left to carry out parental duties. The order of placement was Alyson, followed by Brandon, myself, Joe, and Pete (brown) in the coveted DP spot.

START MAP

No resources were really horrible, although geography meant some would lose out.

I jumped on the open brick and wood spot, with the poor rock. And counted myself lucky to get the good wheat and rock space with the poor sheep resource. Brandon continued his effort to be sheep whisperer.

Joe suffered in his initial expansion effort with a shocking lack of 6 rolls. He still had reasonable hope of coastal settlements if he could beat Pete in the north. But that required roads. Still, Joe again grabbed harbormaster! And he decided to be ... difficult ... with his city architecture. Well, he'd been drinking, too. But by then the problem might have been that he stopped drinking.

Pete's shortage of brick was severe. By the end of the game he'd built just three roads. But he did promote all his settlements to cities, which put him within reach of a victory.

Alyson had a shortage of wood that plentiful sheep could not overcome. And getting to a port that could help was a challenge. Still, in the west she still had room to expand if she could get some roads built.

Brandon built out quickly and grabbed the longest road. And he had the ability to link his enclaves to really cement that. With a fistful of cards, that link up looked likely unless Joe could quickly build two roads and a settlement. But the shining vision of impending victory was lost, as so many of us have experienced.

My southeastern city was blocked from the start. Thanks Alyson and Brandon. I had some hope of turning around and going to the coast, but with poor road building initially I went west. I managed to promote some cities and staked out a nice enclave in the southwest. On my last move I was able to build a settlement and enough roads to grab the longest road, and reach 11 points.

END MAP

Joe and Pete tied for second with 8 points each (Joe with harbormaster). Brandon had 6 after losing longest road, and Alyson had 4.

We wrapped up gaming at about 9:00 but sat around talking and making sure drivers could drive safely.

Oh, and thank you, Joe, for bringing up "Toronto" for Brandon and Alyson their first game night.

In unrelated news, somebody left their man-purse with an empty bottle of high-class hooch in it. It will be here for retrieval.

And a meme!

Thanks for attending! It was much fun. We'll do it again next month!

Please feel free to comment with your own perspectives on your strategies, resource production, and game play.

Game Night Light 25

Monday was the weekly game night.

First, the beer exchange!

The game was Viktory II, which some may remember from pre-Catan days. It has a Catan-like map with resources that provide for infantry, cavalry, cannons, and frigates as the basic weapons. The first three can attack and defend; the latter two can bombard from an adjacent hex.

Towns, cities, forests, and mountains provide defensive fire bonuses. Firing is simultaneous. You hit on a roll of 1-3. Rolling a 1 allows the firing side to choose the enemy unit that dies. The defender chooses if hit on a 2-3.

Cities in forests allow frigates. Mountains allow cannons. Green pastures allow cavalry. Plains allow additional infantry. All terrain allows infantry. Other than water, naturally.

Infantry and cannon move two, cavalry three, and frigates five. Frigates can carry three ground units.

Roads exist between controlled towns or cities. And friendly units negate movement restrictions through bad terrain. Settlements must be two from a friendly city and no more than 3 from a friendly settlement.

It can handle 8 players.

Back in the day we never played a two-player game on the smallest map. It is good to learn mechanics but the interplay of multiple factions is really needed. In a two player game, gaining the edge can be decisive. In a multiple player game, losses can be reversed through diplomacy or opportunism that expands the war.

Or it can finish you off if others join in your destruction, of course.

Yellow on the north edge faced off against Blue from the south. You don't see territory until you move next to it.

This was the end of the game, prior to blue reinforcement phase.

The initial territory after reach staked out all build sites had that Yellow city on brown in the southwest a Blue town; while the Blue cities in the forests at the top and two hexes below it were Yellow.

Yellow took advantage of its initial non-infantry units to bombard the southwest Blue city and capture it. It looked like Blue was hosed.

Blue had infantry in the Yellow forest city close to the center and hit it with every unit in range. That attack worked. Taking the city removed a Yellow infantry and frigate from the force pool and added the same to Blue. Blue could now mass a superior fleet in the southwest to bombard the yellow city to help protect the southern Blue city.

Blue forces massed in the captured center city pushed infantry into the mountains overlooking the capital to put both Yellow cities in danger. Then struck the northern city. Both sides inflicted heavy losses but Blue forces prevailed. At that point, with Blue getting total naval superiority and numerical superiority, Yellow conceded.

It took about two hours to play the game. But as noted, a two-player game doesn't have the interplay of multiple players that made the game fun.

But it does offer opportunities for "Your bastard" reactions.