March 2023 Game Night

We had game night last weekend! Joe, Paul, Pete, and Dave (!)--who missed the first two games but returned to game night after basketball duties finally waned.

Paul, Pete, and Dave brought some beer to share; and Joe ensured that game nights for the rest of the year will feature popcorn on the menu. Thanks guys! Totally unnecessary, but thank you.

And Dave brought a gift for your humble and grateful host.

We had pizza (including some with pineapple and ham), cookies, potato chips and dip, and the usual house swill, Labatt Blue Light. Of course, there were non-alcoholic beverages available.

We began the games before official game start to see if we could get in a couple games before Dave arrived late. As it turned out, Dave knocked just as we were clearing the board after game 2. 

Excellent.

On to the games!

 

Game One

The order of placement and movement was Paul (green), Pete (white), myself (brown), and Joe (orange) in the coveted DP spot.

The starting map:

Brick and wood weren't the best.

I was slow to build roads. If not for an early road building card I would have been hosed. But I built out my interior settlement as much as I hoped with that. And I managed to link up and expand my northern settlement to two more. I at least had more than my minimum standard for a chance of winning. Sadly, Joe beat me to the desert coast after I surged some roads (a good 11 harvest helped!), which killed my hope for harbor master. And wasted two roads.  Still, I had one more chance at the northeast rock hex--if I could build roads.

Pete had more trouble than I did building roads.  Amazing 2 and 12 rolls could not make up for poor 4 rolls. Despite just an 11 rock resource, he did promote two cities and had the minimum footprint with a chance to get another.

Joe went on a road-building spree, built with outstanding 5 and 10 resources. I believe Joe took the longest road from me. With my wasted builds I could not take it back. And he locked it down from a threat from Paul. 

Paul expanded to 6 build sites but was trapped without more available build spots. But by urbanizing more than anybody else and depriving anybody but Pete from the theoretical chance of taking harbor master--assuming Paul did not promote a port settlement to a city--Paul reached 11 points. Congratulations Paul!

The end map:

Joe came in second with 9 points, including the longest road. Pete and I tied with 8 points, natural.

"Probability"

The first thing to notice is the extreme robber output. It was a very long game and fairly close, likely because the robber hurt people and represented zero resource production for a higher-than-expected rate. I can't say I remember being hurt by the robber that much. Also, overall my luck was pretty good with my resource numbers. What hurt was the early lack of wood and brick to build roads to build out my footprint. 

Game Two

Game order was the same as game one.

The starting map:

Rock was a problem. I was happy with my resources and hoped to expand around the desert, including the nominal rock source. Note, too, that our initial placements really screwed up builds in the interior.

My wood resource 6 came up a lot but I had insufficient resources to reach the rock as I pushed to stake out some room to grow west of the desert. Again, I built too few roads. I turned left at the coast to stake out a build spot there as Joe expanded. I hoped to go east as well for another port and maybe then get an 11 rock spot on the desert. 

Joe was blocked by Paul at the western coast, denying him a secure bastion. Mostly Joe expanded in the east, getting a good start at getting harbor master.

Paul linked up his two settlements and had a shot at both longest road and harbor master. Unfortunately, with only four build spots he had hope for more build spots only by advancing along Joe's notional coast behind his inland wall.

Pete build a nice enclave and with high-producing rock and wheat hexes to promote three cities, plus good road rolls. So he got both the longest road and harbor master early enough to prevent anybody from taking those points. That got him 12 points and the win. Congratulations Pete!

The end map:

I came in second with 8 points, including a victory point. Joe and Paul tied with 5.

"Probability"

Eight was outproduced by 5, 6, 9, and 10! I bet correctly on that choice, at least. The robber was rather quiet.

 

Game Three

Dave arrived as we were tearing down game two. So we expanded the game and added Dave (blue), whose long absence made us suspect he was catfishing us. We're still suspicious about Jeff, of course.

The order of placement and moving was myself, Joe, Dave, Paul, and Pete in the DP position.

The starting map:

Wood was poor again. And sadly concentrated.

I grabbed the 4 wood with a decent brick and great wheat, hoping nobody would plant themself on the brick port. And on my last pick I chose to get another good brick despite the poor other resources rather than park on the coast for rocks. I crossed my fingers that with room around my second pick and the brick port in the north, I'd be in a good position. As in game one, I could not build roads to save my life. In the whole game I built three. I did get the brick port and a second settlement on the western brick. With my minimum 5 build spots and room for more, I felt pretty good just looking at the map. If 6 and 9 kept producing I'd be golden!

Pete made my road network look like the interstate highway system. With just two roads built, he also built just one settlement. Gulp.

Paul, who made Pete exclaim "Thank God for Paul!", only built two roads. But they both ended with settlements.

Joe matched Paul in roads and settlements.

The juggernaut was Dave with his months-long pent-up Catanian ... excitement. With his initial placement on 5, 6, and 8, the early rolls on those numbers--with his convenient sheep port--propelled Dave to an early building lead. Although Dave set the road-building record with only 5 segments, it was enough. Harbor master and the longest road with just 5 roads (!) plus three cities pushed Dave to a premature an early win with 11 points. Wow. I think I got up to get a beer when Dave had 5 points only to come back to wham, bam, thank you Dave. Congratulations Dave!

The end map:

I came in second with 5 points. Joe and Paul tied at 4. And Pete had 3. 

"Probability"

The shortness of the game made those early concentrations of rolls decisive. There was no time for a proper curve to develop. And with just a single robber roll, nobody could aim the robber under the Pete Rule.

 

Game Four

Paul regained his first placement and movement spot, followed by Pete, myself, Joe, and Dave in the coveted DP spot.

The starting map:

Resource selection was pretty good. The oddest thing was the double desert. I thought my southeast settlement had a bit of room to grow to a couple spots; and thought the deserts gave me plenty if poor build spots to the south after hopefully grabbing more rock and brick settlements in the west. Dave grabbed a nice wheat port with two wheat hexes.

Paul build two flux capacitors and was building to the coast in the northeast. But he got blocked on his inland push.

Joe curled around his initial placement hexes, sadly taking a rock space I wanted. And he had more build spaces to expand at both of his enclaves.

Pete connected his enclaves and stretched toward the desert and the coast! I was again short on road building, allowing Pete to eliminate a lot of my options in that directions. At one point Pete took the longest road from me--as I expected--but could not hold it. Paul blocked his expansion options in the northeast, but otherwise there was room to grow.

As noted, I had trouble building roads. Dave beat me to the coast in the southeast despite having farther to go. He also built inland, blocking Paul and Pete in that direction. His southern wheat exporting enclave was profitable and gave him 2/3 of the harbormaster, which he gained on the coast. Pretty quickly, Dave had 10 points!

In my only surge of road building and with Joe's trading help, I built four roads to take Dave's short longest road title from him. And then I took harbor master. Dave was back to 6 points. And I had more build spots despite no hope of taking my short-lived longest road honor.

Pete build on my coast to break my road--after he had longest road, so I didn't care as long as I had more build spots after the break. Which gave me another port point (on the desert, in a cruel nod to our usual initial placement "advice" to other players) to defend harbor master. But sadly for Pete, Pete was not able to extend his longest road to really protect it.

But Dave regrouped. And with a massive hand of cards that no robber disturbed--but denied many rocks with the robber camped out on Dave's 6 for many turns--in one turn Dave built four roads to retake longest road. And he played his third knight on the same turn to get largest army! On top of an additional city promotion, that gave Dave 11 points and the win. Congratulations Dave! 

That was a gritty win.

The end map:

I finished second with 9 points, including the harbor master. Paul had 7. And Joe and Pete tied with 6.

"Probability"

Both 6 and 8 were great. Nine was unusually good. And the robber was a bit under expected. Otherwise not too distorted.

 

So that was it! A successful and fun game night again, notwithstanding your gentle host's victory drought. Close, but no cigar.

And a meme!

Thanks to all who played. It remains the social event of the month at Casa Beej. Other than the Furry Beer Exchange. 

But perhaps I share too much.

Feel free to comment on the games to add your perspective. People rarely do. But I know I'd enjoy reading observations from other players and from mere voyeurs from the list.

And next month Joe will host game night in South Lyon! I'll bring the Mega Catan additions, just in case.