July 2023 Game Night

We had game night at Casa Beej last Saturday.

Joe, Paul, Pete, and Tony joined me for three long games of Catan. We used the harbor master variant, as usual.

We dined on pizza, cookies, chips and dips, and popcorn. The usual house swill, Labatt Blue Light and assorted non-alcoholic beverages were available. Tony brought a 6-pack of something he claimed wasn't Zima. Thanks Tony!

And ... drum roll, please ... the Catan meme slideshow is back in business!

For all games, Paul was orange, Joe was white, Tony was green, Pete was blue, and I was red.

GAME ONE

The order of placement and moving was Paul, Joe, Tony, Pete, and myself in the coveted double-placement position.

The game at the start:

Rocks were a problem. I was shocked when a place on the one good rock resource remained for me to pick. I had to give up on wheat but hoped my good sheep hex combined with getting a sheep port would sort that out.

The ending map:

I managed to get the sheep port and increased my rock, wood, and brick supply despite limited road building; while having one more build spot possible. Inland I had a shot at another build spot. Alas, 11 didn't hit until the last turn, giving my five wood--but turned in unused when the game ended on that player's turn. Drat.

Tony linked up his settlements and made it to the coast. And battled for the longest road. But in the end, lost that battle before the game ended.

Joe had limited road building, but grabbed harbor master with a good advantage on holding it. Plus a lot of potential build spots. And a chance to link up and think about longest road.

Paul stretched out his empire to battle for the longest road and ultimately held it at the end. But with all the money spent on roads, like Tony had just one city.

Pete built the fewest roads of anybody, but somehow fully urbanized. And while we wondered how he might build two more settlements, won with two victory point cards! Congratulations Pete.

Paul was second with 9 points (longest road), followed by Joe with 8 (harbormaster), myself with 7, and Tony with 6.

And the record of "probability":

The robber was exactly average. Everything else was fairly expected, too--if you combine 2 and 12 and 3 and 11.

GAME TWO

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

The game at the start:

Wheat was the problem child of this game. This game I was weak in wheat and again hoped sheep plus a sheep port would bail me out.

The ending map:

Pete again fully urbanized, and this game was in a three-way race for longest road. If he could have grabbed that (again), he was a settlement or VP card away from victory. 

Joe built 3 cities and at first was in the road race. But with no ability to link his enclaves, had to abandon that hope. And with three inland cities, harbor master was not an option.

Tony ended up with the longest road this game. Had the game gone on longer, I could have cut his road absent a defensive settlement build (on a good site, at least).

I built 4 cities, but even with two port cities I failed to beat Paul to 4 port points. That hurt. Longest road was futile, but I had 2 settlements. And if I could build a settlement or get a VP card, the game would be mine!

Alas, it was not to be. 

Paul was out of the road race, but he had three cities and the ability to get 5 harbor points and guarantee his hold. And with three settlements he reached 11 points. Congratulations Paul!

I followed with 10 points, and everybody else had 8 points, with Tony holding the longest road.

And the record of "probability":

The lower probability numbers outperformed--just look at 2,3, and 12! I was very happy with my 3, 4, and 9 resources. And 8 was average. So my sheep port got heavy use.

 

GAME THREE

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

The game at the start:

Brick sucked and rock was poorly placed. So another long game appeared inevitable.

The ending map:

I'm not going to go through this game because clearly my memory can't be trusted. Nor can anybody's comments be trusted.

While I was crowned the winner with 11 points (longest road and 1 VP), I have to decline the honor. My patented Replay Technology reveals a referee error.

While we thought I had the longest road at only 5 segments long, looking at the end map, Joe clearly had 6 segments! Someone had pointed out I had longest road when I didn't realize it--but said even though someone else had 5 points, too, that I had gotten it first. We clearly miscounted Joe's road. Unless I'm forgetting about something? 

Anybody? Nothing springs to mind but I'd like to believe we wouldn't have screwed up that much!

My only saving grace is that I had two harbor points and a 6 would get me a city upgrade to get harbor master. So I had a chance to win anyway.

But we're going to put an asterisk in the record book, and call this as Joe (longest road) and myself (1 VP) with a half win each, tied with 9 points; followed by Tony with 7, Pete with 6, and Paul with 4.

Other than the alcohol, I honestly don't know how we screwed this up. Joe was perhaps too worried about running out of room to record 7 rolls to notice.

And the record of "probability":

All I can say is that despite that toll of robbers, I never lost cards because I had too many in my hand. Somehow! And 6 and 8 were just sad. Thank God for my 10 pasture!

We wrapped up the evening with the first episode of The Expanse. It's been a while since we chilled after the games. But I guess Game of Booooobs Thrones is in the past now.

And a meme:

Thanks to all who attended! It was a lot of fun. Next time we'll pay more attention to the board, eh?

It's looking like August may be tough for a game night. We'll see.