We had game night at our remote bayou outpost held by Landry who is homesteading in the wilds of rural South Lyon. And in one game we set a record with nine players on the Mega Catan board. Kudos to Landry for his outstanding hosting effort!
I don't know why Paul is standing for the picture. Dennis doesn't have a Joe-shaped shoulder growth. Matt isn't wearing a 3D "Beej" t-shirt. Landry refused to wear the French maid outfit for hosting an away game night, pleading it made his butt look big. Tony is contemplating the rest of his retired life with this crowd every month. Chris is not blinking SOS. And yes, Pete is wearing a Catan board shirt. One day we'll have one of those decadent parties where we play Catan on Pete's chest. NO tickling!!
Landry provided a cornucopia of food items. Wings, meatballs, pizza, cookies, mini cupcakes, veggies, a fruit salad, M&Ms and Nutty Buddies, corn and potato chips, crackers, pretzels, a smoked dip; plus multiple beers and an open bar. Wow! Did I forget anything??
Going to be tough to beat you guys into submission to accept bowls of gruel and kibble back at Casa Beej in May. Whatever.
We played the harbor master variant, which means victory was achieved with 11 points in game one, and 10 points in games two and three. We also used the desert lair variant (essentially a 7 wild card resource) and the longest road bonus which gives the holder a 3:1 port for trade purposes only.
GAME ONE
The order of placement and movement was Landry (plaid), Chris (green), Pete (pink), Tony (blue), Joe (orange), myself (red), and Paul (maize and blue) in the double-placement position.
The opening positions:
TONY rankings:
What happened?
- Rock was a problem. Wheat was scary if you didn't place first or second.
- Landry stretched out to link up his enclaves. That earned longest road but only provided one potential build site.
- Tony blocked Joe from the coast in one direction. Joe had several build sites open while Tony stretched out on the south coast, potentially challenging for longest road--if Joe would build on Landry's road.
- Other players did game-related stuff.
- Players who settled on 7 were quite pleased.
- Somehow I built three cities and stretched along the coast enough to get three harbor points, getting the harbor master title and 11 points. Woo!
The final map:
Following were Landry with 6 points (including longest road), Pete (with a victory point) and Joe with 5 points each, Chris and Tony with 4 points each, and Paul with 3.
"Probability":
The star of the game was the 2, with only three other numbers surpassing its presence. Avoiding that 2 rock hex was a mistake in retrospect. Paul bet far too heavily on 4. Egad. All hail "probability"!
GAME TWO
The order of placement and movement was Paul (maize and blue), Landry (plaid), Chris (green), Pete (pink), Tony (blue), Dennis (mint), Joe (orange), myself (red), and Matt (brown) in the DP position.
The opening positions:
TONY rankings:
What happened?
- Wood was weak and rock was annoyingly coastal. Sheep was more than adequate.
- Several of us did game-related things. I was targeted by Matt with the robber when I had four points. That's four.
- Dennis did game related things, but with the longest road and a VP card down, secretly vaulted himself into the "Those Who Matter" league.
- Chris was penned in but did manage a couple city promotions. If only his 2 wood hex had produced like game one.
- Tony and Pete had similar settlement structures; with Tony in a failed effort to hold the longest road (but he did use the port feature when he had it); and Pete failing to get harbor master despite four port points!
- Joe piled up five harbor master points and had one more settlement possible plus a city upgrade available. Perhaps that had something to do with his statement "I think I need to touch myself." Which I hope to God was completely unrelated to his comment, "I almost blew beer our of my nose." Perhaps Tony and Dennis remember my mashed potatoes triumph in our middle school lunchroom.
- But I digress.
- Matt fully embraced the dark side of Catan by flinging down a monopoly card to take fifteen rocks. Sadly, his plan to promote a fifth city to win the game foundered on the lack of five city pieces in this timeline's Catan rules. We were all deeply saddened. Inside. Where it counts. Our raucous laughter notwithstanding. Nonetheless ...
- ... with no open build sites available, a victory point card and settlement were enough to reach 10 points in this record-setting Mega Catan game of nine players. Congratulations!
The final map:
Pete, Tony, and Joe (harbor master) tied with 9 points each, followed by Chris and Dennis (longest road and victory point) with 6 each, Paul and myself with 5 each, and Landry with 4.
"Probability":
Well, 12 looked at game 1 2 and said "Hold my dice." The 9 was insane. And 7 desert homesteaders were blessed, too.
GAME THREE
The order of placement and movement was Landry (plaid), Matt (brown), Pete (pink), Tony (blue), Dennis (mint), Joe (orange), myself (red), and Paul (maize and blue) in the coveted DP position.
The opening positions:
TONY rankings:
What happened?
- Rock was outstanding but wheat and sheep were bad.
- Dennis, Joe, and I did game night-related stuff. Our long history of existence was sustained.
- Pete reached five settled locations, with another within reach.
- Matt had five settled locations and no room to expand. He again played a monopoly card (for brick) and resorted to resource cards to get the last knight he needed for largest army and perhaps a victory point card. On one turn he bought to lottery tickets but failed to leap to his feet in triumph. Later he quietly showed me that he had drawn two completely useless road-building cards. I did not reveal that sad secret while the game raged.
- Landry again grabbed longest road, built cities, and managed to get a victory point card.
- Paul's improbable crime-reliant economic base and coastal enclave paid off. And he had plenty of expansion room to defend his harbor master title.
- Tony didn't expand far, but he did exploit his 9/10 city building resources to fully urbanize with (and this is for you, Matt) four cities. Tony restricted himself to the non-fringe way of getting points and had no cards to add to his natural 10, winning the game. Congratulations!
The final map:
Landry (longest road and a victory point) and Paul (harbor master) tied for second with 8 points each, Matt had 7, Pete had 6, Dennis and I had 5 each, and Joe had 4.
"Probability":
Finally, 2 and 12 didn't try to up-jump their status. The robber kept up its pace, making me question my decisions not to settle on desert hexes. And this was the night for 4, 9, and 10. Shame on 5, 6, and 8:
Ef "Probability"!
Miscellaneous
The Grim Reaper of Catan Award for rolling the most 7s and unleashing thievery on the peace-loving people of Catan goes to ...
... Landry! Not because he earned it but because nobody took it from him. Even after I tried the per-game record since not everyone played every game (I know! Strange, right?) and still nobody could take the crown from Landry.
Also, we have data for who can validly claim victim status, robbery-wise, from holding too many cards when the 7 robber strikes.
"Congratulations" Pete, with two hits in the evening.
Also, FYI there are five Victory Point cards in the basic and expanded game; and six in Mega Catan. I can recall having four VP in pre-Mega Before Times. I don't think it was enough to win. Anybody else recall drawing that many?
I remain meme-less for new offerings, I'm afraid.Anyway, we wrapped up by 10:00 and I packed up all the parts. Thank you Landry for hosting this record-setting event! And thanks to all who helped make it so. I remain happy with Mega Rules. We had games of 1.25 hours, 1.5 hours, and 2.0 hours. So not bad at all. And with only four incidents of players losing cards for having too many (more than 9), we seem fine on that score.
Feel free to comment on your strategies or to name names about who done you wrong on the Catan board. Although I know you won't because Catan Dogma clearly says we don't hold grudges from one week to the next.
