October 2025 Game Night

We had game night! Before the game night arrived, the Beer Fairies contributed to game night:

Thanks Beer Fairies! We who played "Daved" the card stacks in respect and gratitude. Coincidentally, Dave is referenced on the computer screen in the background. 

It was a curious but well behaved group for game night:

We enjoyed pizza, chips and dip, cookies, and tiny muffins. The last is not a euphemism. Joe brought some fancy brew to add to the brewnucopia that Dave and his better half delivered. We never even had to open the case of beer I brought. You'll see it or something very much like it in November.

We played with the harbor master variant, as usual, meaning the game went to 11 points. 

 

GAME ONE

The order of placement and movement was Pete (white), myself (red), and Joe (orange) in the double-placement position.

The opening positions: 

TONY rankings:

What happened? 

• Wood was a problem with yield and location. Everything else seemed adequate.
• Joe gained his first of four longest road titles this night.
• I chased largest army with two knights played. I'd complain I had a victory point card instead of a third knight, but I needed the VP, too--unless I had the time to get a city/settlement point.  
• I was grateful for the road building card, which provided a third of the roads I built. 
• Pete had the harbor master bonus locked down in his four-city empire, and won the game with 11.

The final map:

Congratulations Pete! I followed with 9 (including a VP), and Joe had 7 (including the longest road).

"Probability":

10 stood out--as did the robber which grossly exceeded its expected 10 muggings.

  

GAME TWO

The order of placement and movement was myself (red), Joe (orange), and Pete in the coveted double-placement position.

The opening positions: 

TONY rankings:

What happened? 

• "You can always trade for sheep" was a slogan that mocked us this game. Many a 4:1 bank trade was made for sheep. Yet I ended the game with three sheep in my hand from a too-late-to-matter 12 sheep roll. Of note, Joe rolled 7 of 9 sheep rolls. Just saying.
• I had hoped for better road building, but 5 let me down. And when Pete secured harbor master, my options collapsed.
• Joe went trans-Catanental to gain longest road. And his placements prevented both Pete and I from thinking about linking our provinces.
• With Pete's harbor master and four city promotions, he reached 11! 

The final map:

Congratulations Pete! Joe (with longest road) and I tied with 8 points each.

"Probability":

The 10 was again highly productive. The robber was only slightly above average. The 12 was above average but only because of garbage time success.

 

GAME THREE

The order of placement and movement was myself (red), Joe (orange), and Pete in the always coveted double-placement position.

The opening positions: 

TONY rankings:

What happened? 

• You either had wheat or you basically didn't this game. I tried to avoid the latter fate with a double-wheat settlement. 
• I had trouble building roads. 
• Pete threatened to challenge Joe's inefficient longest road if Pete could connect his two provinces.
• I managed to get and hold harbor master before Pete could claim it, and with a victory point claimed the win.

The final map:

Woo! Joe (longest road) and Pete tied with 8 points each.

"Probability":

Ten was good again, joined by its "probability" twin 4. The robber went on part-time status after so much OT earlier in the evening.

  

GAME FOUR

The order of placement and movement was Joe (orange), Pete (white), and myself (red) in the always coveted DP position.

The opening positions: 

TONY rankings:

What happened? 

• Even after our hard lesson about sheep in game 2, we actively flirted with comfy, soft, warm disaster once again.
• I sacrificed a higher TONY score to secure the 6 rock with my second placement. At the start we all built cities with amazing synchronization.
• Building roads was tough this game, and Joe only made it to 4 segments long. Sad.
• With a road building card, I built two segments down to and along the coast to gain longest road (with 5!); and ...
• ... on the same turn I built a settlement on a port  to get harbor master. That put me up to 12 points!

The final map:

Whew! Pete followed with 9 points (including a victory point) and Joe had 8.

"Probability":

Well, 10 finally got put in its place. The robber slightly under-performed. As one would expect, the 6 rock and 9 wheat we all had drove us all to high urbanization. Conversely, 8 disappointed all of us.

 

GAME FIVE

The order of placement and movement was myself (red), Joe (orange), and Pete in the always coveted--and frankly exhausting--DP position.

The opening positions: 

TONY rankings:

What happened? 

• Wood was weak and brick was too concentrated to be accessible. I risked no brick in favor of a higher TONY.
• Joe built a DMZ across Catan  to keep Pete and I from fraternizing, gaining the longest road in the process.
• I hardly built any roads. But finally got to a position with ports and resources where I thought I had a path to victory.
• Neither Joe nor I built any cities! Joe got to rock later and my 8 was sad.
• Pete soared on his 5 and 10 rocks to a nearly fully urbanized empire.
• And with harbor master, largest army, and a victory point card, put a 12-burger on the board. 

The final map:

Congratulations Pete! Joe was second with 8 (longest road and VP), and I followed with 4.

"Probability":

It was an odd roller coaster "probability" curve with the robber calling it a night early. And 8 did no better than 5, 6, 9, 10, and 11! Even 4 and 12 were only slightly behind it.

 

We wrapped it up to watch the second half of the Michigan game rather than go for what I assume would be a record 6 games in one night. 

And I would like to point out that with three players rattling around on the board, nobody did anything on initial placement to really make the newsletter. Which proves we do it out of necessity on crowded boards with more competition for resources--and not malice.

Or maybe just Joe, Pete, and myself are nice guys. Perhaps bestowing our glow of collegiality to the rest of you pirates gives many of you too much credit. 

You know who you are. 

 

Miscellaneous

The Grim Reaper of Catan Award for rolling the most 7s and unleashing thievery on the peace-loving people of Catan goes to ...

Also, we have data for who can validly claim victim status, robbery-wise.

"Congratulations" Beej, with 5 hits resulting in card losses during the evening. 

And a meme!

The crowd was small but well behaved. Thanks for coming by. It was fun, as always.

See you at the November game night here at Casa Beej again.