We had game night in early December at Casa Beej. Right on the heels of my annual Die Hard Christmas party:
Dave, Tony, Pete, and Paul joined me for an expanded game:
We dined on pizza plus leftover meats from the DHC party, chips and dip, cookies, and alcohol-flavored nuts donated by Dave. We had the usual house swill, Labatt Blue Light--and leftover beer and hard cider from the DHC party. Invite the skirts and somehow wine appears in my kitchen, allowing me to turn a beer profit during the party!
May all my life obstacles remain First World Problems.
We played the harbor master variant, as is standard, which means one needed 11 points to win the game.
GAME ONE
The order of placement and movement was Pete (brown), tony (white), Dave (blue), myself (red), and Paul (orange) in the double-placement position.
The opening positions:
TONY rankings:
What happened?
- Brick and wood were shaky; sheep were plentiful.
- Pete reached the coast in a corridor and then reversed course inland, making a play for longest road. With a secondary push on the northern coast, harbor master beckoned.
- I was cruelly denied use of a third of the roads I built by Tony.
- Dave cut off Tony's northern settlement expansion and used that to claim the harbor master title.
- Paul heavily urbanized his empire on the strength of his "9" ROI.
- Dave remarked--and I quote: "My nuts are surprisingly tasty!" Thank you for sharing.
- Tony claimed the longest road and held it with 7 segments. And with two knights showing and two points from victory, he drew a victory point card instead of a knight; then he immediately bought another Development Card--getting a second VP card for the walk-off win. That double tap may be a Game Night by Beej® first. Congratulations, Tony!
The final map:
Dave (harbor master) and Paul came in second with 7 points each. Pete and I trailed with 6 each.
"Probability":
6 and 9 were the keys to victory, with 8 right up there. My 8 lacked a 5 partner for road-building; and my 9 sheep was finally paying off with a build up and sheep port. But it was not enough.
GAME TWO
The order of placement and movement was myself (red), Paul (orange), Pete (brown), Tony (white), and Dave (blue) in the coveted double-placement position.
The opening positions:
TONY rankings:
What happened?
- All the teeth-breaking resources were shaky.
- This game it was Dave's turn to brutally cut me off as he allowed nothing to stand in his way to get longest road. He built three precious roads in one turn to build past me!
- Paul abandoned his northwest outpost to build around his 10 brick. This game a single city was his reward for having no rock.
- Tony made it to the coast to get his coveted sheep port; and then meandered across the north to claim longest road and seek ports for a shot at harbor master.
- I did not spread out much but I had plenty of room to expand in the south between the deserts, freeing me to promote three cities as a priority when 10s rolled in. I never actually reached the coast.
- Pete reached the magic five settled spots, promoted all of his cities, and claimed harbor master! His coastal non-port city still didn't stop him. Congratulations, Pete.
- The robber was never rolled this game. Possibly another first for Game Night by Beej® tonight.
The final map:
I was second with 8 points (with 1 victory point card), followed by Tony with 7 (and longest road), Paul with 6, and Dave with 4.
"Probability":
It was a weird distribution, to say the least. It was the Era of the One-Pip Resources.
GAME THREE
The order of placement and movement was Tony (white), Dave (blue), myself (red), Paul (orange), and Pete (brown) in the coveted DP position.
The opening positions:
TONY rankings:
What happened?
- You either had rock or didn't. The less said about wood, the better.
- Tony, Pete, and Paul fell behind, with just two cities between them.
- My tracking of resource rolls prompted me to play my monopoly card to get 13 wheat. Before I played it, I almost had to take a wheat from Paul in a trade. Thankfully, he ultimately game me what I needed--a rock, I think. I didn't have it in me to give away a wheat in a trade right before I collected all the wheat. For those of you who wonder if I have limits. I do.
- My road building was minimal (just two), but with three cities, one victory point, and two knights up, I sought another knight. I pulled another victory point. But I gathered resources for another shot at a knight (the robber blocked by rock), confident that a little poop lottery ticket purchase followed by a triumphant big poop move would lead me to--wait, What? Oh ...
- ... Dave used a road-building card to get longest road! With just five roads! And with his harbor master in hand, reached 11. Congratulations, Dave!
The final map:
I followed with 9 points (including two victory points). Tony, Paul, and Pete had 4 each.
"Probability":
The robber was very active in a more normal looking distribution. Those who chose 8 over 6 in that endless competition chose well.
GAME FOUR
The order of placement and movement was Paul (orange), Pete (brown), Tony (white), Dave (blue), and myself (red) in the always coveted DP position.
The opening positions:
TONY rankings:
What happened?
- Rock sucked. Whoever had the 9 rock was okay (why Tony didn't take it escapes me. Norman, coordinate*).
- Tony for the third time tonight snagged longest road while building a nice enclave on the east coast. His deployed army rose to two again.
- Gotta say that seeing 11 cities built total was rather a surprise. But the 9 had a big role in that!
- Pete struggled to expand, building up as much as he built out.
- Paul returned to his roots, building to challenge the longest road. And he still promoted two cities!
- I'm still not sure how I promoted two cities. But I did set my personal best on road building for the evening: four! I was so close to having two flux capacitors on the board.
- Dave, too, struggled to expand. But with the magic five building site--and partners willing to trade with him despite my cautions about his lead--seized the harbor master on his way to 11 points! Congratulations, Dave!
The final map:
I followed with 7 natural, Paul (with a victory point) and Pete had 6 each, and Tony had 5, including the longest road.
"Probability":
Did you build on 9? Good luck if you didn't!
Miscellaneous
The Grim Reaper of Catan Award for rolling the most 7s and unleashing thievery on the peace-loving people of Catan goes to ...
Pete rolled half of all the 7s!
Also, we have data for who can validly claim victim status, robbery-wise.
While Paul and Pete tied for the honor, a tie goes to nobody!
Thank you, Paul, for stepping up on the statistics front. Without this kind of work, our tales of how badly "probability" screwed us would be anecdotal only.
And a meme! [Checks folder]
Well, this is embarrassing. I am out of memes in the folder. The one I thought was the last was just a duplicate. So ... we'll see if more become available.
*But hey, how about a Star Trek video?
We wrapped up the games before the 10:00 goal. Thanks for coming by to the last Game Night by Beej® of 2025. As always, it was much fun!
Please offer your views in the comments section on your strategy or specifics on how Cruel Probability stabbed you in the back. Why I didn't change dice the entire night is beyond me. I credit Dave's fortune to his resort to the tiny dice. Which forced us to trust Dave's announcement of the results almost as much as we had to trust Pete with his Egyptian hieroglyph dice.
See you in 2026, when surely we will all have flying cars!
