August 2026 Game Night

Overcoming distance and obstacles road construction created by Dexter's combat engineers road department, Pete, Paul, Joe, and I joined Dave, who hosted game night. 

But at least I heard no banjo playing on the journey. 

We had game night at Dave's garden estate in Dexter. Dave fed us with wood-fired pizzas made to order and a plethora of beers, salty snacks, and fresh cookies baked by his wife (thanks Cathy!).

This treasured annual event (and what are we, if not defined by opposable thumbs and mindless adherence to tradition?) may be a regular event in August going forward. I always look forward to it. Of course, this event is for the Seafarers of Catan variant--assuming no more than six attend because there is no Mega Seafarers expansion capacity. 

Sad.

Anyway, we played a scenario we have played before but never on the expansion game. It is a great scenario with an aspect that I didn't fully appreciate until after we were well into game one. There is--oddly enough--no harbor master card in this game despite all the ships in play (as sea roads). But the victory points needed to win is still an eye-watering 14! The key is the two bonus points you get for your first settlement on any island, which includes the two areas across the desert. 

Also, in addition to a robber there is a pirate that does what a robber does and also prevents placing or moving ships around the hex it is in. One last quirk is that you cannot switch from ships to roads or vice versa except at a multi-modal settlement or city. Which makes for interesting limitations. Although the ability to move ships (one per turn) that don't link settlements or cities together is cool.

GAME ONE

The order of placement and movement was myself (red), Dave (blue), Pete (brown), Paul (green), and Joe (orange) in the double-placement position.

The opening positions: 

TONY rankings:

What happened? 

• In this game, the hexes and their resource values are set in the rules. Only one good rock is on the at-start section defined by the shore and the desert boundary. Wheat is also weak on the mainland except for one. There are also wildcard gold resources outside of the at-start region.
• Dave surged west with a strong series of ship rolls (10) that propelled him west to a city and then across to the big island in the southwest. Combined with Pete's position, I seemed squeezed out of the sea route. But then the 10 rolls dried up completely and Dave suffered a long pause before settling on the island he reached and then pushed on from there to reach a good rock hex. He built the most ships--6.
• Paul exploited his first-placement rock advantage to promote three cities; yet had limited expansion which denied him to a bonus on one site and another potential site reached. He built 3 ships.
• Joe used his double placement to stake out the north end of the continent, starting with every resource. He was able to secure longest road from any challenge, colonize the northeast area, including getting a gold city and great rock, which helped promote two cities; and then pushed to reach an island in the west with a port settlement about to be built. Oddly, Joe only built 2 ships in the game.
• Pete mostly pushed east where he settled on great rock; and reached gold in the west. Pete promoted three cities and built 2 ships.
• After reaching across the desert for a crappy 12 wood (but 3 points), I noticed Pete and Dave had not closed the Falaise Gap. I sent ships out and managed to settle the big island. But without rock my options were limited. I had to promote cities to free up settlements. I resorted to buying Resource Development cards and first nabbed a monopoly card. I saved it until a big rock roll came up and collected four to promote a city and then free a settlement for the gold island. Another card got me a knight. And with Pete on the cusp of victory tied with me at 13 points, I used my fourth rock to buy a third lottery ticket and--with Dave providing the drum roll--pulled a victory point card! I built 4 ships during the game. That took some luck at the end, I admit. But I judged I had no choice but to beseech Klaus for his blessings. Nobody else bought a Development Card this game.

The final map:

Pete followed with 13, Joe had 11 (longest road), Paul had 10, and Dave had 7.

"Probability":

The robber slightly under-performed. Having 9 sure helped.

GAME TWO

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

The opening positions: 

TONY rankings:

What happened? 

• I didn't really appreciate the city problem in the game until the night was over. Building cities essentially requires going overseas to get rock, wheat, and gold. Do that and you can reach 14 points with only a single bonus settlement but with all four cities. And possibly no bonus settlements at all are needed if you promote four cities and get largest army (or a victory point).  
• Joe lived or died on road production with his interior start. And getting a good wheat came too late for city upgrades with his top-tier rock hex. The less said about his proclaimed relationship with dogs--or at least one dog--the better. Joe was the only other player to buy a Development Card. Zero ships built.
• Dave struck south for the gold hex this game and turned inland to seek the sand sea. How he managed to promote a city is a mystery! Kudos. He built 5 ships.
• Paul decided to duplicate Joe's game one initial placement. But he didn't expand across his starting position to get longest road and couldn't push deeper into his overseas colony to get rock and gold. But Paul did correct a build he could not legally make based on pulling the wrong resources. So kudos for honesty. But really you guys, stop laughing. At one point--perhaps his blood-strategy content (BSC) had spiked--Paul traded 5 cards for one to get under the robber bait threshold. Just how many cards did he have to make that worthwhile? He must have had 11 cards, right? If 10 cards he only needed to trade at 4:1. And if 12 cards, he'd still have 8 after the trade. Perhaps my BSC was too high to appreciate this. But we need explanations. Just 2 ships built.
• I tried to repeat my strategy but with the addition of a pathetic rock starting position and lots of Kansas optimism about seeking stardom in the big city! Still, I managed to promote one city without using completely legal market-cornering means. I built 4 ships. 
• Pete exactly repeated his game one strategy that was denied victory from the, um ... intervention ... by the Fist of Klaus. He crossed the northern sand sea to get great rock again, this time with enough for longest road; and again took the gold island that again produced fool's gold. While he only promoted two cities this game, the longest road bonus got the extra needed point! Woo! Pete built 4 ships.

The final map:

I followed with 11 points, Paul had 8, Dave had 7, and Joe had 4.

"Probability":

Once again, the robber was a tad quieter than normal. And every number got a participation ribbon in this game. But the center was disproportionately productive.

Miscellaneous

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

Sorry. It was an accident.

 

Also, we have data for who can validly claim victim status, robbery-wise, from holding too many cards when the 7 robber strikes.

The robber inflicted losses only twice, oddly enough. So nobody gets to justifiably whine.

And a meme!

 

The games did go pretty quickly, to my surprise! Perhaps Mega experience paid off on the big Seafarers board. Starting a bit earlier would have provided three games, I'm sure. And maybe next year I will remember the city-building issue and plan better for it.

Thank you to Dave for another great hosting effort. Rain kept us from outdoor gaming but it held off long enough to drink and eat fire-baked pizza outside. So a totally successful game night.

And thanks to Paul who volunteered for statistical duty. 

By all means, add your comments to add your thoughts on strategy and "probability" in the game. Next game night is an away game, too. There will be several emails if you haven't marked them as spam.

Great to get together, as always.