April 2023 Game Night

We held our April game night at Casa Joe this month.

Eight of us gathered. We saluted the passing of Klaus Teuber, creator of Catan, and appropriately celebrated his life and creation by playing Mega Catan for the first time.

For game night I was red. Pete was brown. Paul was green. Jordan was white. Joe was orange/black. Tony was blue. Alyson was red/black. And Brandon was orange.

The new rules seemed to work well without breaking the flow of the game. The changes were:

--Additional development cards.

--Having the Player 2 special build phase be the player four to the left of the primary (big poop) player;

--Being safe from the robber with up to 9 cards in your hand; 

--giving the longest road card a 3:1 trade bonus like a general port (but it is not a port point for purposes of harbor master); 

--Special rules about deserts being robber lairs. If you have at least one settlement/city on one or more desert build spaces you get to choose one resource card after all other robber rules are completed (loss of cards, theft, and moving the robber). This is only on roll of 7 and does not apply to anyone playing a knight card; and

--Adjusting the points needed to win down when at 8 or more players.

One problem is that with more hexes and two deserts that sometimes the high value discs could be adjacent to each other in both the expansion and mega disc additions. I have a tentative rule to cover that. Or maybe it isn't a big deal. 

Also, the the robbers lair build spots were popular. The value early in the game as a wild card is great. I wonder if in the long run it is a good move because you never get a bonus for upgrading to a city. And this may change the existing game culture of refraining from hitting other players with the robber early in the game. Although none of the games had robbers gone wild. We'll see.

Finally, it was easier to lose track of other players' points with a larger board and more players. 

Anyway, playing three games was pretty good. We'll see if we ever get four games in one night.

When Joe completes his report I'll add it in. But as the very first Mega Catan night I thought I'd put out my impressions, the results, and the maps and statistics.

GAME 1

We played the harbor master variant, and with 8 players you need 10 points to win.

The order of placement and play was Joe, Tony, Alyson, Brandon, myself, Pete, Paul, and Jordan in the coveted double placement position.

Starting positions:

End of game:

Tony won with 10 including the longest road. I followed with 9 including the harbor master, then Paul and Pete with 6, Alyson and Joe with 5, Jordan with 4, and Brandon with 3.

Probability:

GAME 2

We played the harbor master variant, and with 8 players you need 10 points to win.

Tony went first, followed by Alyson, Brandon, myself, Pete, Paul, Jordan, and Joe in the coveted DP position.

Starting positions:

End of game:

Jordan won at 10 with both the largest army and longest road. Joe followed at 8; then Alyson at 7 with a victory point card; Pete, Tony (including a victory point card), and myself at 6; Paul at 5, and Brandon at 4.

Probability:

GAME 3

We played the harbor master variant and with 7 players (Paul needed to leave), you need 11 points to win.

Brandon went first, followed by myself, Pete, Jordan, Joe, Tony, and Alyson in the coveted DP spot.

Starting positions:

End of game:

I won with 12 points, including the largest army. Pete followed with 10, including harbor master; then Brandon with the longest road and Tony at 6; Alyson with 5; and Jordan and Joe with 4.

Probability:

And a meme:

Thanks to all who participated in this historic event! And thanks to Joe for his usual excellent hosting!

Please feel free to comment on your play, luck, and strategy; or how you felt the mega rules worked.