Joe, Paul, Pete, and Tony joined me for the expansion set board. Against all the odds, Dave ended up having basketball duties on a day when he said he could absolutely make it.
We dined on pizza, chips plus salsa and cheese dip, cookies, and the Twinkies and Nestle's Crunch bars left over from Die Hard Christmas, the usual house swill (Labatt Blue Light), and of course non-alcoholic beverages.
For the evening, I was green, Joe was orange, Paul was brown, Pete was blue, and Tony was red.
Game 1
The order of placement and play was myself, Paul, Joe, Tony, and Pete in the double-placement position. We used the harbor master variant.
The starting positions:
Rock was good but the mountain range complicated things. Wood had the same issue. Wheat was unbalanced. I was reasonably happy with my placement since the eastern coast was pretty open and I even had room to expand inland in my southwestern settlement. On my second placement I decided a port was more important than 12 wheat so just took the coastal placement rather than assume I could build to there. When you start to take the port, take the port, I say.
Tony couldn't get traction, having made a horrible bet on the "6 or 8" wager in order to trade for brick and wheat. Although he did eventually reach wheat.
Paul, too, suffered for betting on 8 wood. Nobody believed he'd ever have 8 wood, really. But he did reach the 6 wheat and was rewarded with enough for a city.
Joe bet on the 8 wheat. And so .... But at least 5 brick was nice. And every 10 was a road for him.
Pete bet on 6 and won that wager. He was able to expand a bit more and eventually reached 3 port points.
I bet on 6 wheat and 9 rock. And while 3 didn't produce much, both rolls came in early to let me expand in the east to get two more port points. Add in a city upgrade on the coast and I locked that down for a bit. And in the end I was able to build a couple roads to sneak in the longest road at 5 segments, and reach 11. Huzzah.
The end map:
Pete followed with 7, including a victory point card; Paul and Joe had 5; and Tony had 3.
"Probability":
Other than the near-total failure of 8, which 5, 7, and 10 essentially stole from, the curve isn't too off. Those who bet on 8 will dissent, of course.
Game 2
The order of placement and movement was Tony, Pete, myself, Paul, and Joe in the DP position.
The starting positions:
Rock was a problem from positions while wood was weak. I was happy to get 8 brick and 6 wheat, while hoping for 9 to produce wood and rock. I risked pointing inland from my rock and wheat enclave and counted on being able to build a flux capacitor in the southwest. I had no sheep. And only two players seriously invested in sheep.
Pete built roads to block Tony from longest road extensions on the coast, at one point. But after Tony was blocked he pointed out he could just go the other way for a bit. Pete also cut my road off inland, after Paul blocked one inland option for me toward the sheep pastures. And in doing so, Pete was able to get the longest road in the southeast where he built toward my natural extension route. For the moment. And with two cities he was in striking distance of victory.
Joe had strong rock resources with good 6 choice. Every 10 was a road-building roll. Sadly, despite a city on the coast, it was not a port so Joe didn't get past two port points.
Paul foiled my expansion plans in the southeast and fully urbanized. He had only one path for expansion through the sheep hexes left to him (coughBeejcough).
Tony expanded nicely, promoting three cities and taking harbor master. And at one point he had longest road and was close to victory. He clawed back to ten points but Pete put longest road out of reach, even after Tony extended his coastal road south to stop Paul's expansion there.
I managed to get 3 cities, and after building a road and settlement in one move, cut off Paul's effort to push inland from his northeast enclave. My main effort was battling for longest road. On one turn when I could build just one road, I declined to extend my road and instead build south from the 8-11 desert point to have a potential build spot. Then, with my apparent "wasting" of a road, on my next turn I was able to build two roads, complete the sperm, and take longest road. That put me at 11!
It was during this game that the more refined Beejorians broke out the Baileys. Those who perhaps need an intervention broke out the Malort that Dave had so kindly left here like a liquid IED waiting to take out someone's taste buds and stomach lining.
Avert your eyes, puny mortals!
Pete thought it was fairly decent. We're scheduling the intervention next month. Keep you calendar open.
Tony properly thought it tasted like essence of squirrel balls. To be clear, he thought it awful and not fit for human consumption.
Maybe it's a Nordic thing. Or perhaps it must be chugged straight from the bottle to appreciate its nuanced bouquet. Or maybe it's the perfect complement to Meth. Hard to say.
Thanks, Dave.
The end map:
Tony followed with 10, including the harbor master; Joe (with 1 VP card) and Paul had 8, and Pete had 7.
"Probability":
This looked reasonably normal. And at least 6 and 8 were close. But 5 and 9 were high performers.
Game 3
The order of placement and movement was Pete, myself, Paul, Joe, and Tony in the coveted DP position.
The starting positions:
Wheat and rock were problems. And sheep was great, but the concentration was a problem. Unless you banked on it and went dice-deep in sheep with a sheep port--on great wood. Just sayin'.
Tony went dice-deep in sheep. Tony came close to linking up his enclaves but the sheep-and-port combo did not pay off in the amount that strategy needs. Needing to trade for wheat, rock, and brick hurt.
His problems this game can be summarized with this reconstructed conversation (I took notes):
Tony: Paul, trade with me to your advantage so I'll be under 8 cards.
Paul: There's no way I'll roll 7 on my turn.
Tony: I have 8. Are you sure?
Paul: Yes, I'll trade after my roll on my turn.
[On Paul's turn, he of course rolled a 7. Then didn't trade with Tony--but built 3 roads, anyway.]
Tony did build a solid road to challenge for longest road. And he had two more build sites locked up. But he never got the time to exploit that.
Joe built a deformed flux capacitor and had to settle for inferior inland 11 rock to get the complete set of 11 rock hexes. Which was rolled once all game. So ...
I built two roads and promoted two cities, and had one or maybe two build spots open, depending on the breaks. So Paul's highway to the interior only theoretically blocked me from what I had thought were wide open virgin territory waiting for me.
Paul, as I suggested, built roads. And he grabbed the longest road before Tony could link and extend his network. Somehow with no rock he did promote a city.
Pete had the wisdom to build on 5 rock and 10 wheat (with a significant assist from 2 because of the sheer quantity of Petopians living there) to max out on cities. He grabbed harbor master first and had a victory point card, reaching 12! Congratulations Pete.
The end map:
Paul followed with 8 points including the longest road, I had 6, Joe had 4, and Tony had 3.
"Probability":
So 6 versus 8 was close this game. The real path to success was betting on 5 and 10.
Game 4
The order of placement and movement was Pete, myself, Paul, Joe, and Tony in the always coveted DP position.
Because Paul had "things to do in the morning" we played without the harbor master on the theory (hey, we'd been drinking) that 10 points would make for a shorter game. Ignoring the loss of two possible points with no harbor master.
The starting positions:
Rock was ... average ... technically. Wheat was interesting. I was glad I didn't place later than second to grab a good rock. And I was happy with wood and brick. But I had to give up hopes of also having wheat. But inland expansion was ruled out and I was pinned close to the coast--without harbor master available.
Tony tried the wheat and wheat port DP spot, with great rock and decent brick. Sheep even looked within reach but wood was not going to happen. Despite Tony's somewhat blindfolded faith in probability, his greatest blow was struck when he placed the robber on Pete's highly settled 12 brick hex. Or maybe Tony thought he was being nice to Pete. I forget. Anyway. The next roll was 12 and Pete was denied 4 bricks.
Oh! How we all laughed in merriment! Pete was strangely quiet, I believe.
Joe was thwarted by Paul moving inland from the north--after Joe blocked my only theoretical path inland. But his southern enclave was shaping up. Although the heavy desert presence in his sphere was a bit of a problem productivity-wise.
I built a flux capacitor in the north and curled around the 6 rock. That position was my bright spot as 6 outpaced even the robber in productivity. I had 6 settlements or cities so felt pretty good. I could even imagine longest road! And at one point I thought I had a shot at harbor master! Oh.
Thanks, Paul.
Pete challenged for longest road with open spaces available for his road sperm's tail. And with two cities and three settlements plus room for a couple more settlements, was well placed to race for 10 points.
Alas, Paul was a road-building monster--as Paul does--and with two cities and four settlements, reached 10 points with the longest road card. Congratulations Paul! What are the odds (Tony? You're pretty quiet, there) Paul wouldn't need one more point to win?
The end map:
Pete and I tied for second with 7 natural points each, with Joe at 5 including a victory point card, and Tony with 3.
"Probability":
In the long battle between 6 and 8 for supremacy, 6 won easily nothing. And 9 was outstanding. Which now I notice was an automatic road for Paul each time it was rolled. Huh.
We wrapped it up after four games and all were sufficiently sober--and sobered by Probability's favor and malice--to drive home.
Thanks to Joe for taking up the statistics job and adding even new features like recording who rolled what during the game. We had many suggestions for Joe on what new angle he could record in the new sheets!
Joe had but one suggestion for where we could stick our suggestions.
Most sadly, Joe neglected to record what turn each roll was made on. Which would be very useful in all the statistical analyses by Game Night's many trained engineers that will no doubt proliferate in the comments section going forward.
And a meme!
In tragic spiritual news, the Dice Tower is showing its age with interior tape coming loose. Therefore the Tiny Dice are no longer suitable for usage except with hand rolls--gasp!--or with the Sheep Travel Tower. Naturally this doesn't apply to Pete's Dice Boob. We look forward to a tassel next Game Night.
We'll do this again next month! As always, it's my social event of the month! Except when it isn't. But even then it is great fun to get together with friends to drink and play Catan.
