July 2022 Game Night

The word of the day is "innuendo".

"Innuendo". (--Pete)

We had July game night this last weekend. Joe, Paul, and Pete joined me for the small board--with the harbormaster variant.

We dined on motor city meatball and beef/parmesian cheese pizzas. With chips, salsa, and cheese dip. Lemon tarts, chocolate chip cookies, M & Ms, peanut butter cups, Baby Ruth bars, and cake snacks provided the desserts.

Plus the usual house Labatt Blue Light supplemented by beer refugees brought by Joe from last month's game nightmare. Thanks Joe!

Happy hour started at 3:00 and we rolled to the table to start setting up after Paul got here at game start time. We finally got playing at 4:30. My bad. I usually mosey over to the table to get the board set up before official game start time.

GAME ONE

Game one began with Pete (blue) placing/playing first, followed by myself (white), Paul (red), and Joe (orange) in the coveted DP spot.

This was the starting map:

Brick was a problem. I put my hopes on a ten. Paul blocked my northern sea expansion objective. Joe squeezed me from the other side. But I was pretty open in the east if I could stake out some territory. Paul tried the DP strategy without the DP position, with a wheat port and heavy wheat investment. Pete managed to get decent resources for everything. Joe went for a desperate brick placement with a sheep port consolation prize.

My sense of potential doom after last month was heightened when Paul gleefully cut me off.

So it's going to that kind of a night again, eh?

Mind you, it made total sense for Paul. But that front was shut down fast for me given my need to prioritize staking out territory in the east. Which pushed me to play my early monopoly card after a couple 5s were rolled, meaning some bricks were in play. That got me 3 crucial early game roads that I used to push to the coast and set the northern edge of an enclave. I made it to the coast in the south but built just shy of the port on the sheep hex because I was worried about Pete; pushed inland to add more rock; and grabbed the longest road. But Pete had the potential to take that from me.

Joe did manage to push north to salvage his northern outpost. But he had to cut his potential of two sites because of the threat of either me or Paul. Which may have prompted his early use of the robber when nobody had more than two points! But that skirmishing settled down. In the south, Pete cut off Joe's expansion chances. Joe was stuck with 4 build sites but had the potential of getting the harbormaster with three ports.

Pete's end run around Joe to the coast gave him expansion room. But my coastal and inland pushes blocked Pete that way. He even had the only available build spot by the end of the game. He pushed east on the coast and blocked my hoped-for southern edge of an enclave. And he kept building roads with nothing to stop him from getting to 15 segments if the game went on long enough.

Paul had some good wheat rolls and pushed inland for a bit of diversity and building spots. But his push inland was short-circuited by my build on the desert which blocked his hope for one more build spot. But Paul rolled on city building and grabbed harbormaster, reaching 11 points and the win. Congratulations Paul! He achieved the DP strategy of resource port and that resource without the DP spot. Respect.

The end map:

After Paul's 11 points with the harbormaster, I followed with 10 points and the longest road. Pete had 8 points, with a victory point. And Joe had 5.

GAME TWO

Joe placed first, followed by Pete, myself, and Paul in the coveted DP spot.

This was the "starting" map (I forgot to take the start picture but we remembered soon enough to hide the builds):

The brick near the center was an 11. The wheat in the east was an 8, FYI. Rock was a problem.

Paul expanded out and created a large enclave. But he had all his settlements deployed and was coming up short getting cities this game. At one point he had the longest road. But with spurs out from the main line he eventually lost it to Pete who had all his roads lined up. 

Joe, was quickly hemmed in to three build sites (with three roads!) blocked by Pete and Paul. He built all his cities and began buying development cards. Every time he played one he'd soothingly tell me he wasn't trying to take my largest army card. 

Uh huh.

Anyway, Joe also had a victory point card in there. Which actually slowed his army expansion as we went around the board twice all tied up without Joe placing a knight down! And Joe had harbormaster with 4 harbor points. Pete and Paul had one each. With 9 points, Joe just needed to take the largest army from me. Of note, I traded two cards to Joe for 1 card, passed the poop to Paul, and watched Paul roll a 7 which meant that Joe--with 8 cards now--was hit by the robber. Oops.

I was worried. Pete hemmed me in in the south, requiring fast expansion to cope. And Joe penned me in in the west, with two single-resource build spots maximum available. Which would be some heavy lifting for my 11 brick. And sure enough, Pete cut me off in the south and my total expansion was two road segments and two building spots. But with the best rock site, good wheat, and a wood port to supplement the best wood site, I promoted three cities. And I had cards to spare to buy development cards. Which got me the largest army before too long--and a victory point card. So I had 10 points! All I needed was a city promotion! And all I had to do was hold my largest army (of 4 knights) while I did that!

Pete, too, build a large enclave. Indeed, Joe and I felt like lost soldiers huddled in the no man's land between the red and blue trench systems. 

But I digress.

And with good rock resources compared to the rest of us, Pete built 3 cities and grabbed the longest road. And then Pete built once more and flipped his victory point card, getting to 11. Congratulations Pete!

The end map:

I finished second with 10 points, including largest army and a VP card. Joe had 9 with harbormaster and a VP card. Paul had 5. This was tight. If Pete hadn't won, on my turn only a 7 and robber would have stopped me from getting my long-sought city. And depending on my robber heist, I might still have won. And if I didn't win, Joe had the knight card to take the largest army card from me and win. Yikes.

GAME THREE

Joe placed first, followed by Pete, myself, and Paul in the coveted DP spot.

This was the starting map:

Wood was bad this game. 

Pete was a bit constrained in territory open to him. Paul, Joe, and myself all constricted his options. Joe was almost as constricted. Paul had space around him and so did I--who was the only one with initial placements more than one road from the coast.

Pete turned inland with my quick push for the coast in the north. But with no wood, he managed just two roads and one new settlement on top of his two city promotions. He had a long drive ahead of him inland where open spaces beckoned and one coastal site closer to him than myself.

Joe pushed to the coast, which pushed Paul into Pete's path. But rolls must have been pretty bad for Joe because he was only able to build one road in the game. Hard to overcome that.

Paul built 3 roads, coming in second place in that measure. But one was "wasted" protecting a build spot from Pete. With decent rock and wheat he did promote 3 cities. Which got him harbormaster. And with inland and coastal sites available, was in a good position for a longer game. If he could get roads without domestic wood.

I managed to get to the coast in the south to hold off a Pete expansion that way; and I built a small enclave in the north around the 11 and 12 wood sites. But they did give me three harbor points. And then on one turn I built a road, promoted a city to free up a settlement, and built a settlement--which let me steal the harbormaster from Paul. With 4 points that turn, I got to 11, including my massive 6-segment longest road.

The end map:

Paul was in second with 7 points. Pete had 5 and Joe had 3. It was a 35-minute game. Sometimes Klaus smiles on you. Which is preferable to the Fist of Klaus.

GAME FOUR

Joe placed first, followed by Pete, myself, and Paul in the coveted DP spot. Once again, Paul declined a chance to play the classic DP strategy despite successfully using it in game one without the DP spot.

This was the starting map:

Bricks totally sucked except for the the lucky two who placed first. I took the 11 and liked it. And look at that! Two players clustered around the center hex!

I don't know how he did it without any bricks, but Paul stretched a red wall across Catan to either pin me in or to be my outer line of defense. Well, he did have a road-building card, so that was nice. That got him the longest road. And he had some available build spots at both ends of his line.

Pete had good brick resources but lacked wood. Like Paul, he still managed to stretch out a road  that might challenge Paul. And he reached 3 port points to tie for harbormaster. Two city upgrades put him in a good position.

Joe couldn't exploit his excellent bricks. I assume the 5 wood didn't come up enough. I had a 5 and 4 wood, so perhaps 4 was the producer this turn. Still, despite building only two roads, he still had two build spots open unless Paul wanted to totally screw him by extending his road line around the desert instead of Paul's other three options.

I was happy with my expansion options, but after getting another brick settlement (and wheat), I focused on my eastern end. the wood port came in handy early. And by the time I reached the wheat port I had a lot of wheat. And as I built cities around that 8 wheat, that paid off, too. Luckily I reached harbormaster first. Racing Pete and Paul to the last port open to me at the 12 wood would have been possible. I was eying a quick two-road block. Luckily I had build and promotion options closer to home so that got me to 11, with the harbormaster still in my possession.

The end map:

Paul followed with 7, including longest road. Pete had 6 and Joe had 5.

We wrapped up at about 9:30. So 5 hours of gaming. Which is pretty typical over the years, if a tad brief. We've gone to 2:00 a.m. when we started at 8:00.

Oddly, the desserts were heavily hit this evening while the corn chips were virtually untouched. That was odd.

Anyway, another fun game night. This time without the post-game tenderness when sitting. Although I won't speak for Joe. Excuse the innuendo involved with that observation.

And a meme:

We left that probability horror show behind in South Lyon, it seems.

Next month may be an outdoor game day/night at Casa Paul. With a rain day alternate at Casa Beej.

June 2022 Game Night (Twilight Zone Detour)

We had game night three weeks ago at Casa Joe's. As an interlude before Joe no doubt finishes and forwards to me his Encyclopedia Catania Volume W-Z, let me add my angle on the oddest game we may ever witness.

Imagine my (this is Beej, now) position in game 2 before things ... happened.

I had 10 points, including the harbor master and longest road. Everyone else had 4 points each. Nobody was close to challenging either of my bonus cards. I had a secure building spot with the required road in place within a safe perimeter and needed to build a single settlement. Or even promote a city depending on my card mix.

Looks good. Right? I am unable to assume victory or defeat. But even I figured that in any reasonable path I had the game. But this was no mere series of unfortunate events.

If you too thought that, you'd be confused and perhaps overly confident in the concept of "probability."

This was ... the Klaus Zone.

When the trade blockade began, the human wave of robber assaults began. At first I disregarded it. Stuff happens. But they kept coming. One or two every round. As the robbers kept coming, I started counting. There were 14! I lost all my cards to robbers, at one point.

And then toss in a few knights. 

All told, I lost 29 cards to losses or failure to acquire. 

It was as if the hand of Klaus reached down, made a fist, and had its way with me. 

And not in a good way.

I remember the moment I said out loud, "I think we know where this is going. I'm going to lose both cards." Mind you, I still tried to win. Like I said, I never rule out victory. Yet it felt like Toronto 2019.

Just saying.

I was unable to do more than build a couple roads to delay losing longest road to Pete while Joe built to take the harbor master. I could never accumulate the cards for a single settlement. Or a city upgrade. Or even a lottery ticket!  

I wasn't even tempted to switch dice. This was beyond that. And my foes were obviously unwilling to do so.

And keep in mind that when I'd lost both bonus cards, the 7s stopped flowing in. I was then able to reclaim the longest road with a guarantee it could not be lost. But it was too late to do more. I mean, if the already long string of 7s had stopped while I still had the harbor master card, I probably could have secured that. And then getting the longest road back would have put me to 11.

Good God.

It was truly fascinating to observe. I think Joe, Paul, and Pete were as stunned as I was to watch it unfold. I honestly wouldn't have believed such a run of bad luck could happen. But we have been playing for many, many years now. Such a thing was bound to happen at the spooky end of the distribution curve with an infinity of games played. 

So yeah, that was great. But I won't lie. It would have been more fun to watch it happen to somebody else. 

Anyway. I went home and burned all the Mega Catan pieces just in case that is what offended Klaus. 

Gosh. I sure hope Klaus wasn't actually upset that game night was held outside of Ann Arbor ...

Oh, overall I won one game, Joe won two, and Pete snagged a win.

And a meme:

It was all fun. Joe was a great host, as usual. Although I'm still having trouble sitting on hard surfaces. 

Next month back to Casa Beej!

Game Night Light 30

We had a weekly beer exchange and game night yesterday. We played The Shores of Tripoli.

You can see this older post for more information and the starting map when I played it solitaire.

Let's start with the beer exchange.

It took us a couple hours to play. You could go faster with experience. I especially recommend being fully familiar with all the cards that provide you with all your abilities to act. Holding the right cards at the right moment are crucial. And understanding what your enemy can do is important.

We jumped in with no real awareness of the victory conditions. Based on knowledge of the last blog post on this game, the American player at least knew that taking Derne as early as possible is important in either chain to victory.

One disastrous Tripolitan foray through the blockade line at Tripoli devastated the Tripolitan privateer fleet. That was key to ruling out an early victory by getting piracy gold.

The Americans lost a frigate on blockade duty--sunk and luckily not captured. And the Tripolitans bribed the Swedes to send their frigates home, so America lost the use of two more frigates.

But America took Derne. And after driving two of Tripoli's North African allies neutral, was able to play the card that allowed America to gain an acceptable peace treaty. Had Tripoli captured that frigate instead of sinking it, America would have had to destroy the frigate to get the treaty.

I still don't have a feel for the game balance. It is a card-driven game so a lot depends on the cards you get in the first 5 years. Although knowledge of the cards and victory conditions can shape what you keep in your hand to save for later. Or discard knowing you can get it again late in the game.

Also, keep in mind that you should try to make a play for victory within the calendar year. New cards in your enemy's hands at the start of the year could thwart your plan if you start at the end of a year and try to finish it the next year. Although shaping the battlefield late in the prior year is useful.

And luck is big. Hot American die rolls smashed the Tripolitan raiding fleet in one piracy foray. Although poor American rolling in the Derne ground battle early did not change the result after enough rounds of combat.

Anyway, a fun game. Simple with interesting options each turn. And certainly a a high quality game in looks.