March 2024 Game Night

We had a St.Patrick's Day eve game night.

We dined on pizza, cheesy bread, cookies, brownies, and chips, salsa, and cheese dip. Also, a jar of mild banana pepper rings was available. We're now down to one last leftover Twinkie! We had Labatt Blue (my bad, I bought the full-strength stuff by accident).

Dave brought Starry Night liqueur that was polished off; and Landry brought a peanut butter whiskey. 

Why do new people think they must bring gifts? 

The whiskey and his leftover fancy beers will also be here at next game night. Joe refilled the stockpile of Paul's special dietary needs. Of course, Baileys was available. No little umbrellas this time.

Dave (brown), Joe (orange), Paul (green), and Pete (blue) joined me (red) for the expansion map. Landry (white) is new to game night and Catan, arriving in time for game two.

We used the harbor master variant for all games. And I've instituted a new game night award! It will be announced at the end.

Also, as I returned home with the pizza, I spotted Joe taking a picture of the sheep around the corner from me. What an odd spank bank Joe must have on his phone. Just sayin'. Not judging.

 

Game 1

The order of placement and play was myself, Paul, Dave, Joe, and Pete in the double-placement position.

Lack of wood looked like it would be the major problem this game. I used my first placement to grab a spot on the 9 wood with a good rock and 6 wheat. On my last placement I added brick and more wood, and hoped to expand into the center for sheep. Joe and Paul started with a grudge match after initial placement. Joe blocked Paul's hoped-for expansion to the northern coast for a brick port. And Paul and Joe were set up for death or glory in the south depending on who built the first road ...

The starting positions:

Joe lost the long race to build the first road in the south. Paul bought himself time by using his early robber roll to put the robber on the 5 brick. I was collateral damage in that attack, and quickly lost 4 bricks to the grudge match. But more importantly for Joe, Paul turned the corner first in the south. Which led Joe to turn around and move inland to threaten my hoped for interior empire. But Joe, too, lacked bricks so his road building was stalled early on. And when bricks started coming in, he found he needed his brick port to convert his bricks to other uses. I made a notation on the game log of "Joe = dick". I'm not sure what that was about but I suspect Paul was spreading vicious anti-Joe propaganda.

Dave was stuck in potential nooses in both of his settlements. As Joe moved inland in the south, I was forced to prioritize the interior. That gave Dave plenty of time to build three roads around my near-coast settlement before I could build one to turn the corner. Later, as I contemplated finally having resources to build two roads to reverse course in my eastern enclave, Dave built two more roads and blocked my hoped-for breakout to the coast. He even claimed longest road with his enclave link-up. Somehow Dave managed to promote three cities. But ultimately his sin of spilling the entire Dice Chest on to the floor cursed him for the evening. For the most part.

Pete was stuck at his northern interior settlement as I pushed inland and Dave blocked him from going east to the coast the long way. But Pete's coastal enclave had room to grow and he threatened to get harbor master, tying Paul who nabbed it first. With vast pastures for sheep and a sheep port founded early, Pete was in sheep heaven. But road building was low. Although he still had room in the southwest for expansion to at least 5 build spots, which I consider the minimum for a reasonably good shot at victory.

Paul, as noted, won the race in the south to stake out the 8 brick hex. He curled around then moved northeast along the coast, earning harbor master. In the north he turned around and headed west to move past the desert after I settled on the wood-wheat-rock intersection.

Blocked in the east and worried about getting blocked moving into the center, when my 5 brick was finally freed, boy did it produce. My long march pushed northwest where I built on three more spaces. And with a surge of roads I built southwest for more build spots and potential harbors. Oddly enough, I never built any ports during game night. But with four cities, a settlement, and finally the longest road, I reached 11 points. Woo!

The end map:

Paul had 8 points, including harbor master; Pete had 7; and Dave and Joe tied with 6 points.

"Probability"

Even losing the first four 5 rolls, 5 was outstanding. In the 6 versus 8 race, 8 won. And 11 was outstanding. Even 9 was fine although it felt inadequate. I was disappointed in 4.

Game 2

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

Sheep was weak and wood was variable. Rock and brick were fine--but overly concentrated.

The starting positions:

Dave stalled in his expansion. And he was unable to link up his enclaves that started close. Lack of wood was a problem and the brick port didn't seem to help much.

I was pretty happy with my initial placements. I reached the coast at both of my enclaves. I was even ready to build my first port! All in all, I felt good about having enough potential build spots. But my initial optimism was not fulfilled.

Landry linked up across the center and challenged for the longest road. But the need to stake out build spots pushed him to divert roads off the main line. Alas, time ran out.

Joe was pinned in his northern enclave but managed to stretch out along the southern coast. Yet despite two port points, his path to taking harbor master was too long for this game to pan out.

Pete barely built roads. But with a flux capacitor and good production from his rock and wheat, he fully urbanized and took harbor master. With ten points, he was in a strong position to win. But while he got close, the muddler was snatched from his grasp.

Paul was stuck with a desert across his empire, but with 4 settlements and 2 cities, his desert road gave him longest road. Had Landry extended his road, Paul would have only tied. With ten points on the map, Paul revealed his victory point card and reached 11. Congratulations Paul!

The end map:

Pete followed with 10 points, including the harbor master. Joe and Landry tied at 4. Dave and I tied for last with 3 points, each, proving that we hadn't spent the game doing something more productive, like drinking and eating.

"Probability"

Six defeated 8 in their ongoing battle for dominance. But 9 made both look like no-shows. Five at least showed up this game. But perhaps it was tired from game 1.

Game 3

The order of placement and play was Pete, Landry, myself, Paul, Dave, and Joe in the always coveted DP position.

Wood was again a problem resource. Brick was amazingly good. I was happy to jump on wood and brick and was pleasantly surprised to get a good rock and excellent wheat. I had no sheep but was in striking range. I was feeling pretty good about an open west despite the two desert hexes fouling it. Although I'd have to turn around in the south with a wasted initial road.

The starting positions:

Landry was blocked early in the south and was in a tough position to thread the needle in the north just to have a shot at a third build spot and maybe a fourth on a 2 wood coastal hex. With options drying up, he turned to lottery tickets and did command the largest army before the game ended.

Paul was trapped in the north. In the south he was denied a port by Dave's advance up the coast. With some luck and time, Paul had one or two build spots open--maybe a third.

Joe's high point was curling around the 2 rock in the center. His only remaining hope was to push west to keep me from linking up my enclave roads. And then he'd have a path between two deserts for a crappy 11 and maybe an adequate 4 at the end of the journey.

I turned around in the south to reach a decent build spot to add a 6 brick. In the north I pushed inland to reach crappy sheep (I settled on 2 "12' hexes and a "3" hex total. I also turned around in the north to reach the coast. All in all it was a decent start if enough time remained. I could clearly get my minimum 5 settlement spaces with more easily available. I even hoped to get longest road with so few roads built.

Pete was on or near the coast and had hopes for harbor master. But holding it if he could take the title would be difficult in the face of my hopes for expansion at the coasts.

Dave turned the corner in the south to cut off Landry; and then moved up the coast to cut off Paul. Those moves allowed Dave to take harbor master and build 6 roads to take longest road! With three cities helped along by his mountain  lair, one more settlement pushed Dave to 11 and the win! Congratulations Dave!

The end map:

Pete and I followed with 5 points each. Paul, Joe, and Landry (including largest army) had 4 points each.

"Probability"

Nothing was that great except for 9 and 10. And 12 was obviously unusual. Six defeated 8 in their battle but neither was great except by comparison.

Game 4

The order of placement and play was Joe, Pete, Landry, myself, Paul, and Dave in the yadda, yadda, yadda DP spot.

The rock mountain range was obviously a problem. Sheep was excellent. The rest were adequate, I think. Despite being happy with my resources, I was extremely worried that failure to quickly expand would trap me in the center with no place to run. The game ended up being a grueling match with close calls and points gained and lost to put everyone in reach of victory. There were still 7 build spots available on a 6-player map when the game ended!

The starting positions:

Dave looked like he'd repeat his game three victory when he claimed longest road and harbor master early. He stretched along the west coast, moving close to linking his enclaves. With two cities and 2 settlements, Dave reached 10 points. But Landry took the longest road. And with ample trades from your gentle host who is far more helpful than evil despite the ugly rumors, Landry later took harbor master. Time had been purchased for someone else to claim victory. Possibly even Dave who in time reclaimed longest road. For a while ...

Joe made it to the coast in the east where he had one more build site that Landry could potentially race him for. In the south, Joe was nearly as screwed as I felt. And when he built two roads and a settlement to split my enclaves--wasting two of my then-rare roads!--I felt doomed. But Joe was unable to keep pushing north to completely isolate me.

Landry mostly abandoned his northern enclave to expand in the south. While he still had one more building site in the south, he began to turn around in the north where space was available. Four harbor points made him fairly secure. Unless the game dragged out. Landry collected tons of wood by playing a monopoly card after my 9 wood finally paid off. I lost 6 wood. I think Landry collected nearly triple that amount from the board.

Pete expanded to the coast from his central location until Dave blocked further movement. In the south, Pete expanded in a flux capacitor with one more site potentially open if Landry abandoned the south to exploit the north. Hmm. Pete did advise Landry to to that. As that was my only potential bolt hole from my central prison, I focused on my agony and didn't notice the advantage to Pete from that advice! Doh! Pete joined the gold rush of buying lottery tickets that Paul and I were pursuing with gusto. One of them was a monopoly card. I lost 6 rock to Pete. Still, near the end his cards dried up and he was unable to even get one more knight to finally claim those two points.

Paul pushed to the coast in the east but Joe blocked further expansion for Paul there. In Paul's southern enclave he pushed north to end my hopes of a central position. With his expansion limited, Paul soon had a lot of face down development cards. But with only one knight played, I wondered just what he had? Economic cards of no use? Victory points? Because he kept his development card arsenal unplayed, I decided not to play my second knight to avoid provoking Paul to play his own because I knew I only had two! The face-down cards I had were economic. In the end, Paul erred in not playing his knights sooner because with largest army he would have won the game. And while he assumed Pete and I could challenge him, neither Pete nor I could!

My landlocked positions were made worse when I did not get road-building material early. Indeed, I promoted both my initial settlements to cities before I built a new settlement. I did build another settlement--and had to promote that, too, when I didn't get road material. But I figured I should go with what I had rather than try to trade for what I thought I needed. By the time I started to build south at my other settlement, Joe struck. I now had just one option to get even a fourth site along the desert to my north. 

Despite monopoly losses and three robber losses--including one where I hilariously used a knight to remove a robber from a wood hex I needed to produce, only to push myself to 8 cards. Naturally on my immediately following roll, I got a 7, muddling myself. I couldn't help but laugh very hard when I noticed I'd robbed myself with the Paul end. Still, I was able to use a road-building and later a year of plenty to reach and build on the desert. And then promoted that to a city using the other year of plenty card I had. Dave, as I mentioned, had reclaimed longest road. My sole hope was to keep pushing north threading the needle of Dave to the west and Landry to the east, to reach the coast. Maybe I'd get longest road. Or maybe I'd at least have build sites!

With a new victory point card, all I needed was longest road! And I was really close. Indeed, I didn't realize how close I was until Dave raised the alarm. I think that might have been the point when Paul quietly said, "Geez, he's going to win" to nobody in particular. But with the game dragging on, Pete's will to enforce the Pete rule evaporated and he traded with Dave despite him having 8 points--which is what I had minus my victory point card. I was saved when after an entire game of not producing, "3" was rolled twice, giving me 8 bricks before my turn rolled around! That, along with four rocks let me trade four bricks and four rocks for two wood, and then build two roads to take longest road. And I then flipped my victory point card up for 11. My God, the game actually dragged on long enough for my slim hopes of victory to actually work. Amazing. It was a very exciting if exhausting game that pushed us well past our 10:00-ish end time.

Sorry for the long focus on my play. But it was weird. From the start I was worried I'd be trapped in a too-small perimeter. As the game went on my path to victory narrowed. But four early city promotions gave me hope of at least having a decent losing position. And with Dave denied a rapid dash to victory, suddenly a path to victory seemed open. I thought it was a largest army path, but the economic cards I got instead of knights let me thread the needle north to get longest road. And a victory point card freed me from needing one more build site.

The end map:

Paul followed with 9 points, including a victory point card (and enough unplayed knights to have taken longest army). Landry followed with 8 points, including harbor master. Pete was tied with 8 natural points. Joe and Dave were tied at 6 points each, with Joe's total including a victory point card.

"Probability"

The robber was busy. Both 10 and 11 were amazing. Six and 8 were pretty balanced, if low. And 5 was darned good again.

We wrapped up the game after midnight and people filtered out by 12:30. Sadie finally came down to eat, drink, and use the litter box. I stayed up another half hour to get leftovers put away and make a start on putting most of the game away to keep Sadie from playing with the pieces overnight. Or puking on them in retaliation.

Thanks to Joe for taking on statistical duties. In honor of his work I have decided to inaugurate the Grim Reaper of Catan Award for the chief summoner of the robber by total dice rolls.

The winner for March is ... Pete! With a total evening tally of eight "7" rolls, Pete was the greatest threat to the peace and prosperity of Catan.

Paul was the least robber prone, rolling a 7 just twice during the evening. I had the single-game record of five robber rolls in Game 4.

Will Peter defend his title in April? Or will a new Grim Reaper of Catan emerge?

So there you go! The first statistical analysis of the "probability" charts. By the history major. You're welcome.

And a meme!

Thanks for coming by! It was fun, as usual. We'll do it again in April. I assume we'll try to end earlier. 

Feel free to offer your thoughts on how the games unfolded from your perspectives!