October 2022 Game Night

We held game night at Casa Beej. Joe, Paul who flew in from Jackson--boy were his arms tired--arriving late, Pete, and [checks notes] Dave[!] joined me for Catan.

We had taco pie, Taquitos, Fritos, Tostitos, salsa and cheese dip, and cookies. Plus the M & M stash. So it was a modified, limited Ito Night. Plus the usual house swill, Labatt Blue Light, and assorted non-alcoholic beverages. And at one point my guests raided the liquor cabinet.

Expecting Paul to arrive shortly after official game start, I figured we could hold off starting to avoid playing on the small board and then expanding to the expansion game when Paul arrives. So I set up the bigger board to save time.

But after a longer delay than I expected and no word from Air Paul, I broke down the board to the small one and we played a game. Paul literally arrived as we finished the first game. We clearly could have played another game. Oh well.

Joe was orange, I was red, Dave was white, Pete was blue, and Paul was green when he arrived.

Game One

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

Starting positions.

Wheat was pretty crappy. I thought I was good with an automatic road rather than claiming wheat at start. I thought I had two outlets for wheat but other players cut off my southern play. Thanks, Joe. Luckily I was able to get some wheat in the north. But 4 just came up twice in the game. My single road built during the game was a nightmare. It prevented me from getting the 5 wheat I had hoped to get. I was forced to focus on cities and lottery tickets, hoping I could get to another couple build sites before I was completely cut off. Shockingly, I picked up three victory point cards! In theory just one more settlement would be enough to win.

Joe built out his empire and grabbed the longest road. And after cutting off Pete's southern outlet to the sea, could link up his roads to defend it. Joe also had a shot at harbor master.

Pete, too, worked for the longest road and if he linked up his roads could have gotten that card. Although holding it with his end points blocked would have been tough. Despite three cities, Pete had no more build sites available. Without bonus points he was stuck.

Dave wasn't able to build many roads. But his wheat sites produced nicely and he fully urbanized his four build sites. He even had 2 harbor points. Eventually, Dave played enough knights to take largest army. And to my surprise--because I knew how many victory point cards I had--Dave flipped over his victory point card and reached 11. Congratulations Dave!

Amazingly, I followed with 8 points, including my 3 victory point cards, while Joe (with longest road) and Pete tied at 7.

End game:

"Probability":

Nothing really outrageous. Thank God for my 10 and 11 sheep holdings which at least let me use my port to get some non-rock resources. And while probability denied me only 1 or 2 "4" rolls, I had hoped for above-average return on my investment. Or at least some road-building efficiency with normal rolls.

Paul arrived as we finished the first game. I think Dave triumphantly flipped his victory point card while I was letting Paul in, actually. So we broke down the small game and built the expansion map.

Game Two

Pete placed and played first, followed by Dave, Paul, Joe, and myself in DP spot.

Starting positions.

Rock was in poor shape in this game. Joe even built on the coast for a rock, although the 8 wheat made it a decent site. Wheat was hit or miss, number-wise.

I struggled to expand but did manage to expand out to 5 build sites with 1 ready to build and 1 or 2 more that should have been easily achievable. I built just a single city but did get a victory point card.

Paul built quite the road and created an impressive enclave. But with no way to build cities he had no easy way to free up settlements to build more--or even protect his longest road! I was so tempted to build two roads and a settlement to break his lock on that! It would surely have made the newsletter! Alas, my road building was too limited. But Paul didn't get the time he needed to build cities.

Dave build roads that challenged Paul but didn't quite make it. His lack of wheat wasn't good but he had vast ranges of sheep. And he started with a sheep port on initial placement. I'm so proud. Hey! I'm not crying. You're crying! And with 5 settlements out, Dave also faced the sudden truncation of his road had Pete cared to try.

Pete probably would have done the deed, actually, because he was running out of safe build spots. Not only did Dave cut off one initial road placement, Pete was surrounded by threats from every other player who could have built on the sites around him. I hate that. You almost have to build roads and settlements in one move to avoid having your roads wasted slowly trying for one and than another build spot. Pete did promote two cities.

Joe build a flux capacitor inland and stretched out on the coast for another 3 build spots. Joe blocked my one hope of getting sheep with his coast build. And with two port cities, Joe grabbed harbor master. Along with 3 cities and 3 settlements, that was enough for victory. Congratulations Joe!

Dave, myself (with a victory point card), and Paul (with longest road) tied for second. Pete had 6.

End game:

"Probability":

On paper the 3 worked out well for me. But a good chunk of that was earned right before the game ended and sit on the board in front of me at the end. Drat. And I swung and missed when I bet on 6 rather than 8. At least I didn't bet on 11! And egad, 4 was even worse than in the first game.

And with tired players, we cut the night short at two games. How shameful.

And a meme:

Thanks to those attended! Hopefully Dave doesn't think he gets low value for his attendance with just two games. We'll do better next time! It was fun, as usual, with witty banter worthy of the salons of Paris. Or that could have been the booze. Yeah, with a little distance from the night the "sheep" and "wood" jokes weren't that great. Oh well. We'll do better next time on that, too!

Please feel free to add your comments about your perspective on game night.