May 2023 Game Night

Game night returned to Casa Beej after a glorious Mega Catan event at Joe's last month.

We dined on pizza. I suppose I should order an entire ham and pineapple one next time. We also had chips and dips, cookies, with special dietary needs met, and M & Ms available. The usual house swill Labatt Blue Light and several leftover beers from prior game nights here. Some hit the bar at some point. And the usual non-alcoholic beverage selection.

Paul, apparently not satisfied with his two clanking small iron dice brought his new home-made welded iron die to game night. I really want to see the roll tables for balance on this before accepting it and a twin into the game. And we'll need a new massive titanium dice tower to survive the rolls.

Or maybe next month Paul arrives with a welded codpiece and helmet to just complete our nerd image and send new players running for the hills.

Joe seemed intrigued. For some reason. Not judging.

And amazingly, for the first time Sadie held her ground on the couch and did not run up the stairs to hide. She catloafed warily for a while before she turned her back on us to curl up and get back to the serious business of Second Sleep.

The colors for the night's games were orange for Joe, blue for Tony, Red for Paul, pink for Pete, and mint (okay, you win, Pete, I'll switch from calling it light green) for myself. 

The latter two are new colors replacing standard colors with black roofs that were the initial expansion colors for Mega Catan. I had spare cans of spray paint so used them. I'm working on two new color schemes for the last two old-style Mega expansion piece sets with black roofs or end caps.

Game One

Joe went first, followed by Tony, Paul, Pete, and myself in the coveted double placement position.

Starting Map:

I had all the resources although my wood resource was weak. I hoped to get 9's wood. Wood was definitely a problem resource.

I successfully curled around the 9 woods and built two settlements, while my southwestern settlement languished. Tony beat me to the port at the wood and brick location. All I had left there was to curl around the 2 sheep. My northern settlement had room to expand. Luckily, Tony didn't build toward the 12 wood and desert, reversing course to the coast. On the other hand, 9 did no better than 3 during the game. So my expansion was limited. I did manage to promote a city, at least.

Joe linked up his settlements and had a nice enclave in the north. With seven assured building spots he was in a good position. Although if the game went on he might have had problems defending his longest road with some wasted road segments. Of course, someone but him would need to build roads. Of note, Joe played the monopoly card to get 13 sheep at one point.

Pete relied on 3 and 9 for roads, too, and it showed. He built as many roads as I did. But he promoted all four of his cities! I guess the 12 rock and his sheep port paid off.

Paul had limited expansion, too. But he made up for it with two cities and harbor master. Paul was unable to turn the dial to 11, complaining about Tony, "I gave him a log and look what he's done with it!"

Sad.

Tony somehow managed to do something productive with Paul's log. He had 8 points and nothing big apparently looming. Unless ... But he did get another point with a build. And then he flipped his two victory points to reach 11, screaming ahead of Paul. Congratulations, Tony!

End Map:

After Tony was Paul with 10 points, including the harbor master; Joe (including longest road) and Pete were tied at 8; and I had 7, with a victory point.

"Probability:"

If you bet on 5, 6, 11, or 12, you were pleased. But at least the robber under-performed a bit from expected.

Game Two

Paul was first to place and move, followed by Pete, myself, Joe, and Tony in the coveted DP position.

Starting Map:

Wood was a problem again. I bet on 5 and 9 for my road building. Rock was great, but suffered from being coastal. Brick was unbalanced. Once more I had all the resources with rock the weakest.

Tony bet heavily on his bricks and brick port. His expansion got him wheat and eventually rock.  But his two 11 resources never produced anything during the game. Ouch.

Pete was constrained and didn't expand too much. but building on the desert port gave him a chance at harbor master. And with five settled spaces, he had a shot at 11 even if he could build no more open spaces. And he had a shot at linking his settled areas into one long road.

Joe was hemmed in at his western settlement but had some room in the east. But he did manage to expand the most in the west before others could capture spots. And he grabbed harbor master.

Paul built only 3 additional roads this game, but did have five settled spots, with three of them cities.

I was kind of stymied early by lack of sheep. And at one point traded 4 rocks for a sheep. After that I noticed I had missed four die rolls of sheep production on my 6 hex. [muffled gasps from the audience] Ouch.

I wasn't the only one longing desperately for sheep, I'll have you know. Joe traded four bricks for a sheep and Paul traded four wheat for one. It was that sort of game.

But I digress.

Building on amazingly 12 made up for my loss of early sheep production. At one point I traded 4 sheep for a rock. The wood port ended up being useful to me, too. And I had a lot of sheep in my hand at the end of the game. 

But that's not important right now.

More important is that I linked up my settlements to get longest road with a near trans-Catanian highway. And with longest road I reached 11 points. Woo!

End Map:

Joe (with harbor master) and Pete followed with 8 points each; Pete had 6; and Tony had 5.

"Probability:"

Again, the robber was not over-active. Nine and 5 were outstanding. Six and 8 were above expected. My road production reflected my good bet on road resources this game.

 

Game Three

We went to the small board as Tony left to complete some nefarious plot with his neighbor involving Tony's wife. As of this writing, she's fine. Well, okay, it was a nice plot. But I'm writing this.

Anyway, Joe went first, followed by Paul, Pete (who switched to blue in a surprise reveal party change), and myself in the coveted DP position.

Starting Map:

Rock was horrible multiplied by coastal. Brick was problematic, as the kids say these days. I don't know how I managed to get a 5 rock. with good wheat. After that I was torn. I ended up putting my faith in sheep volume with a sheep port close by to take.

I did manage to turn the corner to reach the sheep port early. If memory serves me, Joe's roads up to my border reflected a drive for longest road rather than an effort to block me. I even added 8 wood to my resources, finally giving me access to everything. All I needed was wheat and rock, with plentiful sheep to trade 2:1 for them as needed, and I'd be golden, with one build site reached and another within reach that could get me up to six build spots.

Joe was quickly blocked in the north and managed to reverse course to get another build site before the center started to get crowded. And he spread out along the coast, with two port points on two harbors.

Pete did not expand too much, but he did have three cities and some room to grow. And with four port points, pretty much locked down harbor master unless Paul took the last port available to Paul. Pete also could have built a couple roads to seize the port build spot I had staked out. But without bricks, significant road building was not likely. On the other hand, with a rock port and only one more city to upgrade, rocks could be traded for bricks ...

Paul went on a road building rage across the north to take longest road. And he promoted two cities. With Pete on the cusp of winning, Paul added enough points to flip his single victory point to reach 11 and claim victory! Congratulations, Paul.

End Map:

Pete followed with 10 points, including the harbor master; Joe had 6, and I had 5, including a victory point.

"Probability:"

Three, 4, 5, 9, and 11 were really good. Six and 8 collectively were as expected. And the robber slightly under-performed again, thankfully.

 

Game Four

This game I placed and moved first, followed by Joe, Paul, and Pete in the coveted DP position.

Starting Map:

I risked ignoring the rocks on my first pick to grab the nice brick and wood combo with a side of wheat in the northeast. Pete took a risk with a coastal two-wood settlement on a brick port complemented by a two-brick settlement on a wood port. The mind boggles. That left me to choose between no bricks to get a nice rock on 6, or taking the 6 brick and suffer from no rock and no hope of building on any. I chose the brick with access to more sheep to be Catan's sheep pimp for the game.

Pete build out nicely but he needed to build a lot of roads for relatively few settlement options which other players blocked. Sadly for him and fortunately for me, he closed out my expansion options inland to numbers that did not produce much (4 and 11). All his sheep came from trade of some sort. He did have three port points, however, which might give him harbor master.

Joe amazingly stretched his interior settlement north and south, blocking Pete and blocking me. And with a settlement from his other starting position he had the minimum 5 spots and potentially two more on the coast, depending on the breaks.

Paul was unable to build many roads. But with a high-producing wheat and major rock-producing areas, he was fully urbanized on his three build spots. He was also pushing for largest army with two exposed. He had more build spots in reach, but clearly wanted the largest army first. Of course, Paul had the distinction of rolling 7 three times in a row when he had 8 or more cards in one stretch. Ouch.

I expanded across the pastures to get a near monopoly on sheep. I seemingly had a nice enclave, but due to my placement there was a huge dead zone between my enclaves. I had two possible build spots left. With harbor master but only one city, I managed to build a road to close a gap in my road to take longest road from Joe, and reach 11 points. Whew!

End Map:

Paul followed with 6 points while Joe and Pete each had 5. As I noted, 5 and 9 gave me nice road production. And I had sufficient sheep with a sheep port to work out well.

"Probability:"

No 4 production hurt everyone, but Pete was probably the worse off given others who built on 4 had other places for those resources.

We wrapped up at around 10:00. Thanks to all who came by! Dave was remotely pleased at our efforts to keep the card decks Daved neatly stacked.

We'll do it again next month. And thanks again to Joe, who was the statistician for the night.

And a meme!

 

Nobody felt the need to stay the night or even just a little longer with coffee to get under BAC limits. What a responsible group!

And as always, feel free to add your perspectives in the comments.