November 2022 Game Night

Joe, Paul, and Pete joined me for another game night.

We dined on sliders, potato chips and dips, chocolate chip cookies and caramels, plus the usual house swill, Labatt Blue Light. Pete kindly donated a premium six pack, as did Joe who also brought some upscale bourbon. And the usual Bailey's was opened up.

We played with the harbor master variant. We also played with 5 extra wood resource cards that I clearly forgot to remove from the basic box after last month playing with the expanded game. Oops. I don't think we ever even got close to wondering about running out of wood. So no harm, no foul, I think.

But what was foul was that in a recent Windows 11 update, the SOBs took out the slide show function of my computer. I used it last month. This month it is gone. So no more meme slide shows during the game until I can figure out how to replace that. Thanks so much!!!!  I suppose I could just put it up and let guests forward it manually like friggin' cavemen would have to do it.

We didn't get the pre-game Michigan Air National Guard Chinook flyover because of the poor weather. But this is from the practice runs Friday:

During the games, I was blue, Pete was red, Paul was orange, and Joe was white.

GAME ONE

The order of placement and play was Pete, Paul, Joe, and myself in the coveted DP spot.

Rock and sheep were adequate, I suppose. Although Joe did note that "if you have enough wood, you can attract sheep." Words to live by, indeed. I chose to abandon sheep to get brick and wheat to go along with my good wood and rock holdings. I didn't have any high-value "red" resources, however. Everybody else had good resource diversity, with Joe enjoying a road every 5 roll.

Pete made it to the coast in both of his enclaves. And he headed north from his western enclave but was hemmed in in the east. His dismal 6 resource production hexes were major disappointments.

Paul cut off my inland settlement to curl around a good wheat hex while gaining rock. In the east he curled around the other 4 rock, giving himself good city promotion prospect should the game last.

I was blocked in the south by Joe, wasting two roads. And my inland settlement was forced to go further north to build after Joe blocked another build site. But at least I threaded the needle and made it to the coveted desert-2 coastal site. Woo!! At least I promoted a city, unexpectedly getting what I needed without trying even though my impulse was to spread out for more settlement sites.

Joe stretched out from coast to coast in a near-Lineland, with the benefit of his high-performing 5s. But with 2 cities, 3 settlements, and both the longest road and harbor master, reaching 11! Congratulations Joe!

The end map. 

Paul and I tied for second with 5 points each (I had a victory point card), and Pete had 4.

"Probability"

Six really under-performed. Five was unusually good. I can't complain about my luck, really. I seemed to hit my numbers regularly. But I lacked the right combination of resources early and needed to spend more trading at bank rates to extend my roads, which slowed me down a lot.

 

GAME TWO

The order of placement and play was me, Pete, Paul, and Joe in the DP spot.

Oops. Upside down.

The massive mountain in the middle was interesting. Nobody was tempted to plant in the middle of it. Perhaps because the rock port was fully beach front property. Paul had the possibility of building into that combination. I was worried about placing my settlements so close together, but I wanted decent resources and diversity. I got that except for rock. But I had a shot at reaching it. And fortunately nobody penned me in with their initial placements. Having last placement at least meant I avoided that.

Paul built toward the rock port. But when I reached the rocks ahead of him, he reversed course and blocked me on the coast. He had good built options off of both initial settlements. Although the desert reduced the value a bit. But lack of roads kept him from building out. Good rock production gave him two cities, however.

Joe linked up his settlements and managed to move down the coast through the sparse pastures. This cut off Pete's expansion options and gave Joe the longest road. Despite poor rock resources, somehow Joe promoted 3 cities. Alchemy, I tell you. Building cities at least diverted Joe from pushing down the coast into Paul's potential build spots or expanding inland. Although that was risky without building the need roads and settlement in one shot.

Pete had a severe wheat shortage. The wheat port he eventually got was kind of a painful reminder of that. Despite an automatic road and ample 9s, Pete built few roads, but still managed to earn harbor master. The sheep port really paid off with lots of 5s and [checks notes] 12s! And his 6 sheep that under-performed his other sheep resources. Signs of Klaus, indeed.

My major success after getting the rocks that my initial placement was curling around the 3 brick for sufficient build spots. And I managed to take the longest road from Joe. And with a fist full of cards, I built inland with two roads and a settlement to reach 11. Whew.

The end map.

Pete came in second with 9 points and the harbor master. Joe had 7 and Paul had 6.

"Probability"

Probability was just odd. My bricks and wheat over-performed--multiplies by heavy builds--and my wood resource was sufficient. The standout was of course the 12 sheep that outperformed 6 and tied for 4th place with 8 for the most rolls.

 

GAME THREE

It was sometime during game 3 that the bourbon kicked in.

The order of placement and play was myself, Pete, Paul, and Joe in the coveted DP spot.

Rock was poor. But I was worried the concentrated wood would be gone by my last placement. So I grabbed rock, wood, and the 3 rock with hope another 3 build spot would be open. And maybe a 2. I was desperate enough for wheat to make my final placement on the desert and probably doom myself to being penned in. The north seemed pretty open, at least, even at the end of placement.

Overall, my resources did well on hitting. But poor 4 rolls kept me from expanding in the north as both ends were blocked on the coasts. Oddly, my penned in site gave me two more build spots and a port. And in the north I at least staked out a sixth build spot to give me theoretically 10 points and the need for just one VP or bonus card. I never did manage to build any cities. But did have hope with 2 VP cards in my hand.

Joe threaded the needle between me and Paul to claim the 2 rock. And he expanded toward the 11 wheat.  Joe, too, had 7 available spots and built a city. The massive 11 performance really helped otherwise poor resource numbers.

Pete rode his high-producing 5 and 8 to massive urbanization. He expanded in the northwest, blocking Paul and myself. Apparently I'm to blame for keeping Pete from going over the top with his massive wheat production and wheat port. Plus Pete locked in the harbor master card. In my own defense it was hard to calibrate which of the two to target.

Paul threaded the needle between Joe's starting positions to cross Catan from coast to coast, getting the longest road with almost no chance of anyone taking it from him--and that would be momentary unless it gave someone 11 points. And the high-producing 10 points and his brick port probably enabled Paul to promote 2 cities to seal the deal. 

I should note that Paul was inebriated and apparently didn't notice his victory path. I was equally inebriated and made the classic error of pointing out the path to victory. Sigh. I thought it was obvious. Even to me. It was not obvious to Paul. Oops. I usually don't do that. Anywho ....  Congratulations Paul!

The end map.

Pete came in second with 10 points, including the harbor master card. I had 7, including two victory points. And Joe had 6 points natural.

"Probability"

 

Six and 8 were at least good this game. But 5? And 10? And 11?? Four was lousy. Which hurt me. But since I had 6,8, and 10, I can't complain.

 

GAME FOUR

The order of placement and play was Joe, myself, Pete, and Paul in the coveted DP spot.

Rock was poor. Brick was good or bad. Wood was good. I grabbed the wood, wheat, rock, space. And on the way back had to go for the coastal bricks. I at least had a road for every 8 roll.

Joe got stuck in the east and inland as Paul expanded, but did manage to push down the coast to "steal" a spot from Pete. He also had a fourth build spot secured. But that was it. Only four cities, largest army, and a victory point remained as the most likely path to victory.

I too was blocked inland from my brick holdings. And I was stopped along the coast by Paul, too. But I had another good brick spot plus a 3:1 port. And I pushed inland to get some wheat that had above average productivity. And my 3 over-produced, too. Which was nice. With just five build spots and no way to build roads or ports, I started buying cards and managed to beat Pete for that achievement. I built one city but didn't have the time to build 3 more.

Paul again grabbed longest road. This time by building a nice corner enclave in the north and abandoning his southern settlement. Paul had one more guaranteed build spot and a shot at one in the south. But his city-building stalled at one.

Pete had the best rock and it produced. Pete built few roads but again earned harbor master with a small--5 build spots--but fully urbanized empire. He had one more potential build spot but didn't need it! Congratulations Pete!

The end map.

 Paul came in second with 9 points. I followed with 8, including largest army. And Joe had 3.

 "Probability"

Lots of robbers. And 3, 4, 5, and 9 were really good. But the curve at least looked kind of normalish.

 

Thanks to those who attended. It was a lot of fun. And in a participation trophy spirit, everyone won a game. And I appreciate the clarification to my questions the next morning. My notes on the last two games were not in sync with my photos or memory. Sadly in my effort to avoid glare I narrowed the pictures to miss perimeter evidence of points. All is clarified.

And while I forgot to mention it, everyone is welcome to stay after the game for additional coffee, non-alcoholic beverages, and time before driving home. And if you can't drive you can sleep next to the cat.

Please feel free to comment.

And a meme!