May 2024 Game Night

We had game night! The last one at Casa Beej for a while. The next Game Night® will be at Paul's Classic Car Emporium at a date to be determined.

Joe, Paul, and Pete joined me for an Ito Night of tacquitos, Tostitos, Fritos, dips, and assorted cookies (including chocolate chip oatmeal cookies--no raisins!--I baked with a jar of ingredients Favorite Daughter gave me). The usual house swill, Labatt Blue Light, was available. The bar was raided at some point.

Also, the last of my stockpile of Twinkies was consumed. Just as fresh as the day the Hostess factory extruded them!

We played on the small board and used the harbor master variant. So 11 points were needed for victory. I was red, Joe was blue, Paul was white, and Pete was orange, starting a new fashion trend of color coordinating with your clothing. I guess Paul followed the trend. #clothinggamepiecesmatch

 

GAME ONE

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

The map was fine and everyone snapped up a piece of good rock. I had snagged the wheat-brick combination and was relieved to get rock and wood with a shot at sheep on my final placement. Paul would be aiming for that sheep, too. Pete's sheep was symbolic. Joe had it all and had open paths to improve his weak wheat and sheep.

Initial placement:

Paul built to the coast, cutting off my ability to expand on the coast, while building on five sites with one build spot locked in and another reached. But he built no cities before the game ended.

Joe made it to the coast and he blocked my options to extend my road to hold the longest road card. He promoted to cities and was just one road segment from taking longest road. And with five settled points, that would be enough to win with two more city upgrades.

I built a fair amount of roads but a lot were "wasted" by leading to no settlement prospects. I only had four settled areas but promoted all to cities. Sadly, I only managed to tie for harbor master and had no chance to get any more port points. Even playing a monopoly card and getting 10 rocks didn't push me over the finish line. I really needed to shift to development cards to get largest army to replace the longest road card that was doomed. And then get a victory point card. 

Pete built only three roads in the game, but had five build sites with four cities. Getting harbor master first helped and he had an enclave established with room for two more settlements and another port point if Paul had enough time to improve three port sites. But nobody had more time as Pete reached 11 points and victory. Congratulations Pete!

The final map:

I followed with 10 points, including the barely held longest road. Joe had 7 and Paul had 5.

"Probability"

The heavily built on 2 sheep never produced, contraindicating the wisdom of the "if you build it they will come" theory. robbers were amazingly scarce and the curve was oddly flattish.

GAME TWO

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

The map looked pretty poor for building cities or buying development cards. Or building roads for that matter. But wood and sheep were plentiful. I jumped on the 4 rock and 10 brick to start and settled for a weak wheat to get some wood. I hoped for more wheat at the northeast coast. Paul abandoned hope for rock. Pete and Joe pretended to have rock.

Initial placement:

Paul was unable to link up his two enclaves and had to fully commit to building around the 12 brick. Promoting one city was amazing, given his resources. Good sheep resources with a sheep port helped.

Joe was the player who split up Paul's road net while linking his into a road that nobody could challenge. But short of using the rest of his roads to thread the needle between myself and Pete to build on a coastal desert point, had no ability to build on a fifth site. He needed cities and one more point somehow. Playing the monopoly card helped--I think he got a bunch of bricks. I think.

Pete, as he often does, spread out on the coast to stake out ports. He built up to 4 port points and had the potential with city upgrades to get two more harbor points if he had the time.

I basically curled around both 8 hexes with most expansion options blocked. I did reach a nice 5 wheat--but it produced little and none after I settled. I had one more likely settlement spot, but with three cities and three settlements, holding harbor master with five(!) harbor points was enough to reach 11!

The final map:

Pete had 7 points; and Joe (longest road holder) and Paul tied with 6 each.

"Probability"

That's no curve. But I must say that my initial number selection was outstanding. An oddity of the evening was 12 outperforming 2 by a 9:1 margin over four games.

GAME THREE

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

The map was pretty bad for brick if you didn't hop on the 6. And bad for wood without the 9. I chose brick. Paul's organic road-building potential was nearly zero and he'd have to count on the kindness of strangers. Joe's "I'll trade for sheep" concession is usually safe. Pete's ability to build roads was almost as bad as Paul's chances.

Initial placement:

Joe managed to establish nearly two flux capacitors with the second nearly online. With two port building sites he had a good shot at taking harbor master as long as he got four points first and as long as Paul didn't reach a third port safely within his enclave.

Pete also challenged for harbor master. He did have 5 settlement locations with three of them cities. Sadly, two cities were on the 12 which did not produce at all this game. And he cruelly blocked my attempted link up of my enclaves to extend my road. He was too boxed in to extend his road for those points.

Paul built only three roads in the game but built on two ports and promoted three cities with good city production. He had a theoretical chance of linking his two road sections but with no road production (the two cities on 2 never produced a single tree), that remained theoretical unless the kindness of strangers intervened. That did not happen.

I managed to get six building spots, including one on a desert sheep port. Hey, a settlement spot is a settlement spot. And because I did have access to three of the four sheep hexes, getting the sheep port even later into the game was nice. I'm a little shocked I managed to extend six road segments to the coast. With the longest road and a victory point card down, I decided to by a development card. Maybe it would be a year of plenty card. Or a monopoly card. Or even road building to extend my road. But it was a victory point card and that gave me 11 points. Whew.

The final map:

Paul was second with 9 points, including harbor master. Pete had 8, and Joe had 6.

"Probability"

Once again, the "if they build it, probability will come" theory was a failure at the 2 and 12 which hosted  four cities combined. The 9 shows why I only promoted one city.

GAME FOUR

We mixed up the the order of placement and movement from the first three games to Paul, Joe, Pete, and myself in the always coveted DP position.

The map was again substandard for road building. Rock was good. I hoped a 6 rock and the wheat equivalent on two hexes would be good enough. I had no brick but had a chance at two 3:1 ports for sheep trades. Paul gave up on wheat. Pete had a good shot at getting brick. Only Joe had it all.

Initial placement:

Paul built few roads--with a mutant flux capacitor the result in the north--but fully urbanized, with another build site surveyed and open. Or he could press on another hex to get a fifth port point to take harbor master. But only if Joe didn't block him out.

Pete curled around the 8 and stretched out toward the sheep, attempting to build on the rock port at the 6-3 build spot. Sadly for Pete, that was adjacent to my city. Apparently Pete had too much strategy to drink by then and let his hopes to deny me a settlement spot give him tunnel vision. Oh, that rapscallion! But Pete did deny me my hope of building on the rock port he occupied instead. With three port points--but three cities already built on his five settled spots--Pete had the chance to take a port building spot away from me on the southeast and get up to two more port points with a city upgrade. Of note, Pete build more roads than anyone else this game. So he had a shot at longest road.

Joe linked up his settlements and promoted three cities. And this despite his frequent trading of four rocks for some other needed resource! As he noted, "Rock is the new sheep." Joe was in a good position, able to build another settlement with existing roads. And he could build one more with just a single road. Or if he stretched his coastal road one more segment to build and deny Paul a port, add in another site with a single road build.

Without bricks I struggled to build roads. I curled around the 6 sheep and the 9 sheep to get two ports. I put my first two cities on the ports to establish a hold on harbor master. My hold was tenuous with Paul a road and a settlement from claiming it. Pete needed a road, a settlement, and a city upgrade to get it. And I needed two roads and a settlement ahead of Pete's path (so I'd really need three roads to block him, assuming I couldn't build two roads and settlement in one turn) to lock in harbor master. 

Or I just needed one settlement as long as I held harbor master. Luckily, after Pete's attempt to block my western settlement spot with a too-close build, I played a year of plenty card to build past the corner to reach a 6 sheep coastal spot. And I believe on my next turn--not right then because my memory is I had just two cards in my hand at that point before the roll--built a settlement. That got me to 11 points.

The final map:

Everyone else in this close game had 8 points, with Joe having longest road.

"Probability"

Fourteen robbers isn't a game night record. I believe we once reached the top and would have needed to make a 90 degree turn to keep recording 7s. But that was a large crime wave. To my delight, 6 defeated 8 in their perennial contest for dominance. And 12 finished the night victorious after humiliating 2 one more time.

Thanks to Joe for his continued excellent statistical duties!

We wrapped up Game Night and went outside in a futile effort to see the Northern Lights.

The Grim Reaper of Catan was ... drum roll, please:

I rolled the robber 14 times. Paul did it 10 times. Joe and Pete a meager 5 each.

And a meme.

It was a fun night during which Klaus bestowed his blessings upon me and placed his terrible swift sword in my hands to smite my enemies. See you next month!

June Game Night will be al fresco at Castle Paul's. Possibly played on the hood of a partially restored Mustang. According to RUMORINT, anyway. I have no doubt Paul is preparing a feast to put my Ito Night to shame. It looks like it could be a long string of away games for Beej coming up. 

Notices and whatnot shall surely follow in the near future.