We had game night on Valentine's Day for those of us who chose bros over, well ... erm ... toes:
You know who we're talking about. Do better in March.
We dined on classic White Castle sliders plus tortilla chips and cheese and salsa dips, corn chip and 7 5-layer dip (thanks Landry!), and cookies and cake. We had the usual House Swill, Labatt Blue Light (plus a paczki beer Pete brought!), and assorted non-alcoholic beverages. The bar was of course open.
We started on the small board then moved on to the expansion game for the next three games. As usual, we used the Harbor Master variant, which means victory required 11 points.
GAME ONE
The order of placement and movement was Pete (white), Paul (blue), Landry (orange), and myself (red) in the double-placement position.
The opening positions:
Total Original Number Yield (TONY) rankings:
What happened?
- Bricks were hit or miss; and rocks were poor.
- Landry learned a lesson in "probability" when he had 9 cards before his roll and declined a 3:1 trade--and then rolled a 7. The first of six self-effings over the entire night.
- Pete didn't match in volume but he may have won the intensity by rolling a 7 when he had 15 cards.
- Landry stretched out and had hopes to hold the longest road.
- Paul grabbed the harbor master.
- Pete took largest army.
- Despite zero bricks, with the help of a road building card I took longest road. And with a victory point card down, reached eleven points!
The final map:
Pete followed with 10 points (largest army and a victory point), Paul had 9 (harbor master), and Landry had 4.
"Probability":
So that happened. Over half of all the 7s rolled in the night happened in this game. Reasonably symmetrical, though. But slightly tilted to left side of curve. Note that the asterisks indicate self-efs where you rolled a 7 when you had more than 7 cards in your hand.
GAME TWO
The order of placement and movement was Landry (orange), myself (red), Pete (white), Paul (blue), and Joe (green) in the coveted double-placement position.
The opening positions:
TONY rankings:
What happened?
- Wheat was hit or miss; and sheep was disturbingly weak.
- Landry actually traded with Paul in order to cut off Paul's push to the center.
- Paul embarked on an epic series of trades in order to get the cards to build a settlement--only to notice he had already placed five settlements. Clearly insufficient strategy consumption.
- I was concerned about being penned in, but managed to break out to the west.
- Landry stretched out to take longest road; and reported that this game was his first city upgrade.
- Joe made a challenge for harbor master.
- Pete made it to the coast to add a harbor and with two city ports, took harbor master and then reached 11! Congratulations, Pete.
The final map:
Following were myself with 8 points (including largest army), Paul and Landry (longest road) at 7 each, and Joe with 5.
"Probability":
This game, 8 crushed 6 and 3 and 11 were very good to their tenants.
GAME THREE
The order of placement and movement was Landry (orange), myself (red), Pete (white), Paul (blue), and Joe (green) in the coveted DP position.
The opening positions:
TONY rankings:
What happened?
- Wheat was hit or miss; brick was unfortunately concentrated; and wood and rock were not impressive.
- I was happy with my positions and city-building capacity and assumed I could trade for sheep; but sheep shortages hurt me and my road building was inadequate.
- Landry stretched out and was one road segment from linking his enclaves and giving his longest road a good cushion.
- Paul was a city-building monster and fully urbanized. At one point he traded a city upgrade to Joe for all six of Joe's cards that included a settlement and road.
- Joe exploited his DP brick factory and brick port to get a choke hold on harbor master.
- Pete was thwarted from harbor master; but with a surprise road-building card he was able to build to the center and erect a settlement to reach 11. Congratulations!
The final map:
Paul and Joe (harbor master) followed with 9 points each, I had 7, and Landry had 4.
"Probability":
The robber finally ran out of steam; and 5 and 10 continued their evening's run.
GAME FOUR
The order of placement and movement was Joe (green), Landry (orange), myself (red), Pete (white), and Paul (blue) in the much coveted DP position.
The opening positions:
TONY rankings:
What happened?
- While we saluted the amber waves of grain in the northeast, that was an unfortunate concentration; wood and brick were hit or miss.
- Joe and Landry managed to clash over the apparently coveted route to a desert hex. To be fair Joe had a rock port and two good rock hexes would be profitable.
- I was pretty happy with my center placements; and by starting with a road managed to build across Paul's flank to reach sheep resources that I lacked.
- Pete almost got harbor master.
- Paul sailed under our radar to get harbor master; and then in a flurry of road building, stretched across the southern coast to get longest road--and damn the threat of me building three roads and a settlement to cut his road--and reached 11 points. Congratulations, Paul!
The final map:
Following were Pete with 7 points, myself with 6, and Joe and Landry tied with 3 each.
"Probability":
Those who counted on 5 were sadly disappointed. Those who chose to settle on 8 should celebrate your wisdom.
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, from holding too many cards when the 7 robber strikes.
"Congratulations" Landry, with seven hits in the evening.
Which was equal to the combined total of everyone else.
And ... no meme! What? The fetish picture wasn't enough? God I hope this post doesn't get lots of hits ...
We wrapped up at a decent time and headed out, eager to get the results to study for the March contest.
Thanks to all who showed up to play and be merry. We appreciate Paul's pinch-hitting on statistics and salute going above and beyond by adding a new notation to record self-efs on rolling a 7.
We'll do it again next month here at Casa Beej.
