August 2022 Game Night

We played August game night. I was joined by Joe, Paul, and Pete to start with a small board. A man purporting to be Dennis--a friend from grade school who I haven't seen since 1975--and his adult son, Matt, joined to make the next three games using the expansion board. Joe and I ended up purchasing lovely time-share properties on the Gulf Coast. We'll see if "Dennis" and/or "Matt" return.

The word of the day: 

Muddler: (n) a bartender's tool, used like a pestle to mash—or muddle—fruits, herbs and spices in the bottom of a glass to release their flavor./NOTHING FOLLOWS/

Now that we're clear on that, we shall proceed.

We dined on pizza and garlic cheese bread, with Doritos, Tostitos and dips, chocolate chip cookies, and small bite-sized candies purchased long after last Halloween, I swear. We had the usual house swill, Labatt Blue Light, plus leftover Labatt Blue and some IPA stuff. And the usual non-alcoholic beverages. Paul and Pete did not dig into their special dietary needs stocks. And we ran out of Irish cream liqueur. A bottle of Baileys is on my list now.

Like many new players who don't fully grok the concept of "just show up," Dennis and Matt arrived with a 6-pack of Sweet Baby Jesus! porter and two bags of Doritos. They do get us, I must say. But seriously, you just need to show up. I like not driving anywhere for game night and hauling all the game material and related relics.

On to the games!

 

Game One

Pete (blue) won set-up and first move honors, followed by Paul (white), Joe (orange), and myself (red) in the coveted DP spot.

This was the starting map:

Wood was a little unbalanced but not awful. Except that only Paul placed on the one good wood hex. I counted on the adequate 4 wood and thought my only problem would be sheep.

Pete began his push with an early use of the monopoly card that got him 3 rare wheat. I had just gotten 2 when he struck. That hurt. He managed to stretch out to the coast and interior, with his blocked settlement merely promoted. While he threatened to get and keep the longest road and harbor master cards, he couldn't quite do it. Nor did he reach largest army status.

Joe also stretched inland and to the interior, leaving his other settlement on its own for the moment. He amazingly made it to the 5 rock ahead of other players and ended that resource problem. And if he could link up with his lone settlement, he'd have an excellent chance at longest road while blocking Pete.

I lucked out with good 6 frequency, especially in the beginning. Although without 4 wood rolls, I needed to trade a lot of rock for wood. Luckily, my builds let me invest in 11 wood which oddly rolled in quite nicely. I even hoped to take the harbor master card, with three ports to build up and a fourth port space within reach. I was even looking at longest road, too. But alas, none of it was enough.

Paul surrounded the 8 woods, which paid off. And he got the longest road with a relatively short 7 segments. And on the last turn he built two cities to promote two cities and to get the harbor master and even had cards left over despite the major trading needed to build and get to 12 points. Congratulations Paul!

And this was what Paul used to win on his turn (I cut off 2 more wheat at the top):

That's a lot of cards to trade for two city upgrades. Yikes. Paul often had a fist full of cards like a game of Go Fish gone horribly awry. To be fair, Paul did bring his pair of big clanking lead dice to the game.

This was the end map:

Pete followed with 9 points, including a victory point. I had 8, and Joe had 6 with his victory point card.

The return of "probability" statistics! I made a very rough template and Joe was kind enough to record the game stats.

I was favored with 6s, especially at the beginning, plus 11. But 4 disappointed. 12 was a pleasant bonus at the end. Paul was treated well with 6s and 8s, with well-timed 8 rolls near the end to turn his volume to 11 (well, 12). We had few robber visits this game (just 5!). Ten and 5 were pretty amazing, too.

"Dennis" and "Matt" arrived while the first game was in progress, so had time to observe the game before diving in. Although Dennis had some experience with the game and Matt was merely rusty after years away from the game.

 

Game Two

I won the pole position, followed by Matt (green), Pete, Dennis (brown), Paul, and Joe in the coveted DP position.

I forgot or screwed up taking the start picture. Sorry! It looks rather similar to the end map except for fewer structures. No resource was truly horrible on this map, although wheat was close to being a problem.

Joe started out building more up than out. Luckily, after building 3 cities, he still had room to push farther out. He just needed to make it past potential blocks by Matt and myself. He could even link his roads through the middle unless someone chose to build blocking roads there. Oddly, 9 rocks more than 6 fueled his city building.

Paul got stuck. When he rolled the robber, while Joe was figuring out what cards to dump, Paul revealed his monopoly card and announced he wanted all the rocks. I don't remember how many he got, but he didn't get any of the rocks that Joe then dumped on the board piles. I assumed the drugs were kicking in around then, and that Paul would be very sleepy for the rest of the night.

Matt began spreading out his eastern outpost, where he had some room to grow. And neither Dennis, myself, or Joe had cut off western options yet.

Dennis made it to the coast in the west but was isolated in the east. A high point of this game was a victory point. Although if the game had gone on longer he still had good prospects for expansion on the coast both north and south.

Pete expanded nicely in both outposts and had a decent chance of linking up his roads along the coast. If he could get that he'd likely hold it. His push inland gave him the last inland settlement spot.

I built a flux capacitor in the east, which gave me a port, while increasing my brick and wheat. Otherwise I curled around the wheat hex in the west, getting another port. My 2 1nd 12 sheep amazingly were enough. Finally, with a hand of cards untouched by robbers I built a city to get harbor master. And followed with two roads to get longest road. So 5 points! That got me to 11.

This was the end map:

Joe was in second with 7, followed by Pete with 6, Paul with 5, Dennis with 3 and a victory point, and Matt with 3.

The "probability" statistics:

The robber was much more active. While 6 and 8 were weak, 9 was great and 5 was good. I had no complaints for 2 and 12/

Game Three

Matt won first honors, followed by Pete, Dennis, Paul, Joe, and myself in the coveted DP spot.

This was the starting map:

Wood was bad except for that 6 that Matt and Pete jumped on. Brick was a bit of problem. Joe was desperate enough to go coastal for it.

I was counting a lot on my 11 wood. The only one that hex produced was my initial allotment. Ouch. I'm shocked I got an 8 brick. I promoted a city and extended out to build on more sheep. But 4 never produced in addition to 11, and 6 was sub-standard. My 5s and 10 could not save me. But I did get a victory point. I still had some options on the coast for port build spots if I could out-race Pete and Matt.

Joe, too, banked on 11 and 4, while his 8 was poor. Avert your eyes at his one road build and city upgrade. How he did that with zero 4 rolls is beyond me.

Matt was clearly starting to recall his old Catan skills and expanded into the middle and along the coast, promoting two cities in the process. With more room on the coast he had the possibility of grabbing harbor master.

Pete was blocked in the north, so expanded along the coast far enough to block my advance that way. It had to hurt to build a city on a non-port spot. Pete really likes being harbor master. We should get a cap for that instead of a mere card.

You know, if it wasn't for the lice issue, we could have a captain's hat, an officer's cap, and a construction helmet instead of cards. Hmmm.

But I digress.

Dennis connected up his initial settlements to get longest road and promoted two cities. He found the game much more enjoyable with resources from the 9 hexes that allowed him to build things. And his 2 and 3 hexes were pretty good to him, too.

Paul was blessed with 9 spots. He built 4 cities, getting the harbor master; and on his last move bounced the rubble by building his last city--but waiting to reveal his final knight to get the largest army and race to 13 points. Congratulations Paul!

This was the end map:

Dennis was second with 8, and the longest road. Matt and Pete had 6 each. I had 5, with a victory point. Joe had 3.

The "probability" statistics:

No 4 or 11. Few robbers. But 6 hardly seen. And again 9 over-performed.

 

Game Four

Pete won first placement honors, followed by Dennis, Paul, Joe, myself, and Matt in DP spot.

This was the starting map:

Both of the hard resources were poor this game. Notably, Joe chose the resource port/single resource port strategy with rocks. And actually, Paul (sheep), Matt (sheep), and Pete (wheat) followed suit during the game. Dennis and I merely had our pedestrian generic ports.

Pete threatened to win early on, stretching out along the coast to cut off Joe and get the longest road. At one point, with a development card down, he could have had 10 points. After losing the longest road he pushed to get it back but alas was not able to do it.

I had leveraged some trades with the promise of taking the longest road away from Pete. I did that and actually had a nice inland empire plus a small coastal presence. I knew I couldn't hold it. And after suddenly noticing an inland build spot open, I grabbed that even as I lost the longest road to Matt. I counted on Pete not blocking my road building near his empire to have a shot at it again.

Joe just didn't get the early rolls with his rock port with a pair of 4 rocks and 11 rocks. The 11 finally started hitting but 4 never did much. That's the risk of this strategy. He didn't see much choice but to try it with what he had available to choose from. But we all know success requires some good luck to pull it off.

Matt had an isolated settlement that he built to a city and otherwise had a nice enclave in the southeast. He took the longest road from me. I'd hoped to have it longer than to just the player I passed the poop to. he built out roads to guarantee hanging on to longest road. But that used up so many roads that he had just one theoretical build spot available near his isolated city. 

Dennis expanded to the coast from both initial placements and had a good enclave with room to expand to his southwest. I can't remember if he had the harbor master at one point, but he did have four point ports and had another port building spot ready for building on the desert.

Paul, who clearly didn't drink enough tonight, built around the 8 sheep and the 8 wheat, in particular. From those positions he built up 5 port points! If that isn't a record it tied the record for highest points needed to claim the honor. With three cities around the sheep port and his other holdings, Paul reached 11 points and won the game. Congratulations Paul! His big clanking pair of lead dice worked all too well.

Or perhaps all the energy Paul had focused on providing a feast at his place al fresco could be turned to Catan once rain pushed the game night to its alternate site of Casa Beej.

This was the end map:

Matt was second with 9 points, including the longest road. Dennis, Pete, and myself had 7 each. Joe had 3.

The "probability" statistics:

Five and 11 were amazing and 9 never did cool off over the night. The robber was busy. Eight was good while 6 was poor. Three was surprisingly good.

Thanks to all who showed up to play. Still no Mega Catan. And it was great to see Dennis after all these decades. With an adult son, Matt, quite a bit older than Dennis was the last time I saw him! With no happy hour we didn't get a chance to really brief the other on our lives up to this point. But a good evening and night of Catan, beer, and various junk food stuff was had.

And a meme!

I think I have the memes sorted out. When I got a new computer, somehow I ended up with a meme folder in the C drive, one in the cloud, and one on the desktop. I use the desktop one for slide shows during game night. But I knew I'd made more! They weren't displaying! I think I've moved all new ones to the desktop folder now, and labeled it so I only add new ones there.

Please feel free to add your comments on your perspective on the games and perhaps your strategies that only evil "probability" thwarted.

We'll have to play in late September and hopefully Paul will host that. Perhaps we can start an hour earlier if the daylight situation is needed to play with sufficient light and reasonable temperatures.