June 2024 Game Night

It was too hot for game night at Casa Paul, so we went to Plan B at Casa Beej.

Sadie was of course suspicious. She didn't like the vacuuming downstairs. But one thing is just chance. Then I moved the table to accommodate more than three players. Suspicious, sure. But it could be coincidence. 

And then I brought in pizza. The smell of a third thing clearly indicated enemy action game night. She meowed in quite the distressed matter as she followed me into the kitchen. Her eyes pleading with me not to subject her to this fresh Hell. So she retired upstairs and wasn't seen for many hours again.

But I digress.

Dave, Paul, and Pete joined me for the small board; with Joe arriving in time to watch the end of the first game and help set up the expansion board.

We dined on pizza, potato chips and dip, Reese's Cups, and cookies. Plus the usual house swill, Labatt Blue Light.

We played the harbor master variant, as usual. 

For the night, I was red, Joe was green, Dave was orange, Paul was blue, and Pete was white.

And thanks to Paul who stepped up and gave Joe a break from statistics duty. I'm just going to say that not a single engineer has opted for using different color pens--which I've thoughtfully purchased--for each player in order to record the turn that each number is rolled while also indicating who rolled it. Again, just sayin'.

Game One

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

Starting positions:

Brick was crappy and rock was below par and concentrated. Ouch. I could have gotten in on 10 rock but decided to stake out the 8 wood and see what was left after Pete's two placements. There wasn't much so I went all in on brick and hoped to reach wheat and trade for rock.

My strategy failed despite getting two good wheat hexes. I had no cities at the end. As expected, I built a lot of roads. That let me link up my holdings, gave me five build spots with one more protected, plus a shot at another build spot. 

Weirdly I was nearly crucified by the mob for not building toward the center to get the 4,5,11 spot to stop Paul from linking up. I placed three roads to block him from a build site or linking up, but debated aloud about whether that was the best move. I reasoned that since Pete or Dave could reach the site to build a settlement before me, it would be more prudent to instead built along the coast to link my enclaves. That guaranteed another build spot while not wasting road segments on a sidetrack--although letting Paul link up to threaten that road was a price I paid. Weird, huh?

Paul was able to build three cities with his heavy rock and wheat production. He also had a decent shot at taking the longest road from me, although with my road production I was confident I could out-produce him. And he was on the cusp of a fifth build spot.

Somehow Pete promoted two cities. And he had three settlements. He would need to beat me to another port build spot to have a shot at harbor master, and was closer than I was. But his road building was weak.

Dave had good city-building capacity and pumped out sheep (phrasing!) at an amazing rate. He grabbed the harbor master--and I think he was the first to take the longest road, but I may be mistaken. With two settlement spots open and one ready to build, a victory point card pulled at the end made that route to victory unneeded. Congratulations Dave!

The end map:

Paul followed with 8 points, including a victory point card. Pete and I (with longest road) tied at 7 points.

"Probability":

Nine was absolutely incredible, 11 over-produced, 8 beat 6 in that endless rivalry, and the robber over-achieved.

Game Two

We moved to the expansion board with Joe. The order of placement and movement was myself, Pete, Paul, Dave, and Joe in the coveted double-placement position.

Brick was a problem and rock and wood were ... problematic, I suppose. I had no debate deciding on using my first placement to take the 8 brick with a good rock and wheat. My second placement was Later Beej's problem so I didn't get invested in any empty space. Joe had to settle for crap rock to get brick, but otherwise had decent resources. Paul would have to beg for sheep and his western enclave was going to require quick building to expand. Dave needed to expand to rock and had the most inland settlement of any of us to get good wheat. Pete had options on the coast and surprisingly room to expand on his inland settlement. With my last placement I chose wood and figured that despite being close to my first placement, I had plenty of room to expand toward the desert and lock in an enclave.

Starting positions:

Joe was cruelly blocked going to the coast after locking down the critical 11 and 12 rocks. He made it to the coast on the other side, and then turned around and built inland to reach two more build sites. He had excellent shots at two more build spots along the southeast coast. But city-building assets were low.

Dave expanded his roads, managing to link his enclaves and establish the longest road in a generally road-poor map. Had he been able to promote cities on the highly productive 5 rock hex he monopolized, he would have built more than one city. And he had room to expand.

Pete didn't expand much, but he built up, deploying all his cities. He had a shot at two building spots, one on a port. Although getting harbor master was lost because all cities were built. Still, all he needed was one more point and a mere settlement would be enough. Or a victory point. But alas, despite buying a lot of lottery tickets, no victory point card saved the day.

Paul, too built up all his cities. He had a shot at one more build spot--maybe two. And he, too, started buying lottery tickets and seemingly was seeking the largest army.

I was barely able to build roads, settling on one complete and one incomplete flux capacitor. By being the first to get three port points by promoting a single-resource port rather than a more productive interior site, I managed to get harbor master--if I could hold it. But the more immediate threat was Pete simply building a settlement and getting 11 points. So I had started buying lottery tickets like they were a Costco bulk deal. I played knights early to preempt Paul, initially putting the robber on harmless sites. I was first to get largest army and with four knights, was in a good position. I pulled a victory point card to reach 11. Whew.

The end map:

Pete and Paul (with one VP card) tied for second with 10; Dave had 8, including longest road, and Joe had 6.

"Probability":

Three, 5, 9, and 11 were the stars while 6 and 8 had a sub-par tie. The robber was on vacation this game.

Game Three

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

Rock was again a problem. Wood has a horror show. And wheat was on paper adequate. Joe jumped on the best wood that also had high quality brick and rock. Amazingly his final choice gave him great wheat and sheep, resulting in full resource production. I eagerly took the 9 rock and 8 wheat, with a side of 4 brick that I counted on. I accepted a mere 12 sheep on my second placement. Weirdly, we were concentrated in the northeast and southwest. The center and northwest were rather open. Which gave Pete's interior 9 rock settlement surprisingly many expansion options. Dave was pretty cramped in the south. Paul was slightly less penned in.

Starting positions:

This game was another game with high demand for development cards.

Dave cut off Paul's expansion option in the southwest by linking his settlements. By doing that he actually put himself in a decent position to have 5 settlement spots and a couple ports.

Paul built to the coast in the northeast then turned around and advanced toward his nearly cut off settlement in a drive worthy of Patton's offensive to relieve Bastogne. That got him the longest road. But while Paul promoted a city, he had only four settlement sites. But one was ready to build on and he had a couple more nearby if he could reach them.

Pete curled around the 11 and 10, and had room to expand including a locked-in spot on the southern coast. The 9 rock let him promote two cities.

Joe reached the coast in the northeast before getting penned in. And built out in the southeast to grab harbor master while building out to a total of six building sites, including two cities. One more city promotion or two roads and a settlement--or a victory point card--would provide victory.

Amazingly this game, I only built two roads. Equally amazing I drew two road-building cards in my development card buying spree. That let me build out to the 11 brick to keep Pete from pushing toward the desert and blocking build spots. And a second card gave me two more build spots. The 10 and 9 rocks and 8 wheat let me promote three cities. I was trying to get largest army, but with two knights, I pulled a victory point card. Paul deployed a monopoly card to keep me from promoting a city and was openly disappointed I had no rocks to turn over. After I built a settlement, I flipped my victory point card and reached 11! Whew.

The end map:

Joe followed with 10, including the harbor master. Pete had 8, including a victory point card, Paul had 7, including the longest road, and Dave had 4.

"Probability":

Wow, 8 really outstripped 6. And 5 and 10 were good.

We wrapped up by 9:00 and hung around for a while with time and caffeine to allow safe drives home.

The Grim Reaper of Catan award goes to ... me! In the first repeat of this admittedly short-lived award, I sent more robbers out to the good people of Catan than anybody else. By 7 rolls, of course. Knights aren't counted. And I also had the single-game high of rolling four 7s. Paul rolled only two robbers all night.

And a meme!

Sadie ran downstairs as soon as she heard people beginning to leave.

Thanks to everyone who came by! Great to get together, as usual. Next month we'll be at Casa Joe in our great white north across the county line.