September 2026 Game Night

We had game night early in September, ably hosted by Joe in the South Lyon outpost and attended by Dennis, Matt, myself, Paul, and Pete.

Joe plied us with pizza, bread sticks with garlic dip, potato and corn chips with appropriate dips, cookies and candy, a sweet and salty trail mix, assorted beers including the official beer of game night (Labatt Blue Light), plus some traditional liquor and liqueur.

We played on the expanded map with the usual harbor master variant, meaning one needed 11 victory points to win. Well, each us did, actually.

 

GAME ONE

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

The opening positions: 

TONY rankings:

What happened? 

• All the resources seemed adequate, with rocks at the low end of that measure. 
• So that blue drive to the sea and settlement set the stage for the night:
  
  
  
• I built out to my minimum of five settlement sites but my rocks did not come in until it was too late, as my city upgrade stockpile displayed at the bottom shows. Missed it by that much.
• Joe also built out to five settled areas with 2-4 more spots available. His rock resources were worse than mine.
• After blocking Joe and savagely preempting Paul's planned settlement on the northeast port, Dennis constructed a little dipper wrapped around a 3 wheat, and challenged for harbor master.
• Paul, cut off in the north, stretched out his southern settlement to build the longest road and promoted a city.
• Matt basically build a city-producing machine on two 5s, using all his cities. And with a VP down, needed another VP or three deployed knights to reach 11. 
• Pete also fully urbanized with his city-building machine on 6s, but with the harbor master raced to 11. Congratulations!

The final map:

Matt came in second with 10 points (including one victory point card), followed by Paul (8 including longest road), Dennis (7), and Joe and myself tied at 5 each.

"Probability":

Visually fairly normal but for the weak robber showing.

GAME TWO

The order of placement and movement was Paul (white), Joe (green), Pete (orange), Dennis (blue), Matt (brown), and myself (red) in the DP position.

The opening positions: 

TONY rankings:

What happened? 

• Rock and brick were pretty bad with only one good resource each.
• Dennis managed to thread the needle to the coast but lacked rocks. His inland push came to a crashing halt when Paul exacted his revenge from game one by cutting him off to connect his enclaves. Dennis had but one more settlement option open after losing his inland race.
• Joe got on the longest road treadmill and spent what it took to make a run for it. With time he could extend his road more than Paul could. But resources were scarce. As was time.
• Pete somehow built three cities despite having just a 2 rock! Not sure what kind of alchemy was needed for that with just 3:1 ports.
• I used the DP spot to get all resources, counting on good sheep and a sheep port to provide road-building resources; I promoted two cities on my way to getting harbor master, and hoped my city-building resources bolstered by ample sheep and a sheep port would give me the last two points needed. So naive'.
• Matt had a nicely expanding footprint balanced with city upgrades, in a race with Pete and myself for a coastal building site. Of course, the city-building was achieved with a monopoly card that gained him 12 rock cards (5 from Paul and 4 from me).
• Paul cut off Dennis inland to link his enclaves while taking more road-building resources  to make his longest road more difficult for Joe to take. Which was enough with four cities and a settlement to win. Congratulations, Paul!

The final map:

Matt and I (with harbor master) followed with 9 points each; Pete had 8, Joe had 4, and Dennis had 3.

"Probability":

The robber was out in force this game. The ends of the curve punched above their weight.

  

GAME THREE

The order of placement and movement was The order of placement and movement was Paul (white), Joe (green), Pete (orange), Dennis (blue), Matt (brown), and myself (red) in the coveted DP position.

The opening positions: 

TONY rankings:

What happened? 

• Rocks were good or poor.
• Dennis was hobbled by lack of road building, and was cut off in the northeast from the coast. In theory, the center of the map was open. 
• Joe had the same road-building capacity as Dennis; but slightly better city-building capacity.
• Paul barely spread out but promoted two cities. People really just weren't thinking about longest road in this game. Paul had the distinction of being the only player to build more than two roads from the coast in the Great Catan Void.
• Pete couldn't even build out to get a flux capacitor as he often does, with an empire that looked exactly like Paul's. Just with the enclaves a bit closer to each other.
• Matt took harbor master with his settlements only, on three port locations. And he curled around the Great Woods aiming for a settlement site. Which left him with two 4-road segments. Like I said, we really weren't paying attention to longest road this game. Which left a mark given Matt had two victory points and harbor master. Hoo boy. If anybody noticed, nobody did anything stupid by pointing it out.
• I focused on city-building in my DP selection, resulting in only one road from resources. I needed a road building card (hidden under my harbor master) to place two roads to port building spots. With 6 points I managed to build a settlement to take harbor master. Then, pondering that the wheat pile was down and that with some rocks in my hand and 3:1 ports, playing my monopoly card would be a good idea. I took 16 wheat and managed to parlay that into two city upgrades to reach 11! Funny enough, it probably would have been easier to get longest road. But it didn't occur to me. I like to think it would have if I didn't have enough for two cities. But we really weren't thinking about longest road this game. Tunnel vision is real, people.

The final map:

Matt followed with 7 points (2 VP cards), Paul and Pete had 6 each, and Joe and Dennis (one victory point card) had 4 each.

"Probability":

That game was a left-shifted abomination of a normal curve. But at least the robber was relatively quiet.

GAME FOUR

Paul needed to beat post-game traffic to get home, so fled rather than defend his win in the last game.

The order of placement and movement was Pete (orange), Dennis (blue), Matt (brown), myself (red), and Joe (green) in the always coveted DP position.

The opening positions: 

TONY rankings:

What happened? 

• Bricks and wheat were weak-ish by being unbalanced. 
• Dennis built around the 9 hex in the south with his good road-building resources. But lacked rocks or sheep.
• Pete built just one road but promoted two cities.  
• Joe settled on four sites with another staked out and leveled for a settlement; and promoted one city.
• I too had little road building capacity but late in the game snatched a great brick site. Sadly it was a coastal non-port site. But I did fully urbanize my four sites and had one more lined up (although I wanted to go one more hex side to get a third port point! Surely the 8 brick would pay off!
• Matt stretched out to connect his enclaves, promoted three cities, took longest road, and had a victory point card down to claim the win. Congratulations, Matt! 

The final map:

Behind Matt were myself with 8, Pete and Joe with 5 each, and Dennis with 3.

"Probability":

 

Huh. So that happened. Paul went home and took probability with him! Hey Tony, where's your Moses probability noooow?

We who remained wrapped up game night yet stayed to watch the end of the football game, which involved a Hail Mary pass into the end zone on a redo granted by superior clock technology for Michigan to win the game. I swear that before the plays I cited our repeated game night experience when somebody needed to buy a victory point card to win, and flipped one over upon purchase for the walk-off victory. Our team's victory felt like that. My ride home coming from the east was okay and only muddled by road construction that my phone didn't know about. But I blindly followed my phone's directions and just floored it at the "bridge out" sign. 

Thank you to Joe for his great hosting again! Joe also stepped up for stats in the last game after Paul abandoned his responsibilities ably done for the first three games to skedaddle home to run the game traffic blockade.

Miscellaneous

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

Nobody. 

Pete and I tied, so I retain the title from last month. If I calculated based on robbers rolled per game, Paul would have won. But no tie-breakers. We don't do higher maths on this site.

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

"Congratulations" Paul, with three hits in the evening.

And a meme (courtesy of Joe)!

Great to see everybody! 

It will be back to Casa Beej in October. As Klaus intended.

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. 

July 2026 Game Night

We had July game night at Casa Beej, playing on the small board.

We dined on White Castle sliders (without cheese, as God intended), chips, dip, and assorted cookies and brownies. The usual house swill (Labatt Blue Light) plus a some scattered brands and non-alcoholic beverages were available, too.

Let me note that I am damn proud to serve with friends who each brought their own dice tower. ... I'm not tearing up! You are! Or its the sliders. I take no responsibility for explosive diarrhea, I should also note. Probably the damn lettuce you ate before arriving.

We played with the harbor master variant, as always, which requires 11 points to win. 

 

GAME ONE

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

The opening positions: 

TONY rankings:

What happened? 

• Other than wheat and sheep, the resources were awful unless you got to them first. This game would take a lot of rolls. And everyone got within easy striking distance of winning.
• Paul reached five settled areas and had room to grow, with enough road-building success to reach them. Or promote a couple cities. And with just five road segments, took the longest road card.
• Joe locked down harbor master and had a decent shots at a couple more build spots. Or he could promote a couple cities. I'm not sure what motivated Joe to comment on the "dark soul" of Paul.
• Pete embraced the role of standing in No-Man's Land, firing in both directions. Talk about a dark soul! Pete resorted to trading four wood for a brick. He only built one road in the game. And really only had a remote chance of getting a fifth spot to settle. But he did fully urbanize. 
• I too had to trade at 4:1 for brick, luckily with sheep from my vast pastures. I settled in 5 areas, promoted four cities, and had a shot at one more build site. Even longest road was a possibility. But in a rarity for me, I nabbed the largest army to get to 11 first! I got the knights when I couldn't get enough rocks to build cities initially and needed to dump cards to avoid the robber.

The final map:

It was a three-way tie for second place at 9 each for Pete (with a victory point), Joe (with harbor master), and Paul (with longest road).

"Probability":

That's an odd curve, no doubt. The plentiful cities were made possible by the high rolls for rock resources.

 

GAME TWO

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

The opening positions: 

TONY rankings:

What happened? 

• Rock and wheat were sub-standard, at best. Brick was okay if you squinted.
• Paul didn't have much road-building success. But he had enough to elbow out Joe's early game effort to cut him off from the northwest coast. That remained a bitter bit of friction for the remainder of the game. Paul also blocked Pete's advance down the coast by building on the coast before Pete could.
• Joe turned around and somehow advanced through the center to nearly link up with his position on the southwest coast. Longest road was a possibility. Harbor master was not happening. And he had just one more potential settlement spot.
• Pete's western city was completely besieged by Joe. But Pete found room on the northeast coast to expand enough on the coast to get harbor master. But the only way to build was up.
• I again fielded the largest army and built a rare (for me) longest road. But I managed to reach 11 before the Catan antibodies could fully kick in. My Plan B was a march up the coast to retake longest road while building settlements. But I held longest road long enough. Woo!

The final map:

Pete followed with 8 points, including harbor master; Joe had 6; and Paul had 4.

"Probability":

The high 3 and 10 explain my longest road. Nobody had more than two cities with the rolls. Pity the fool who relied on 4.

 

GAME THREE

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

The opening positions: 

TONY rankings:

What happened? 

• Road-building material sucked. Nobody had both in high values. Sheep frolicked.
• Joe struggled to build roads, as we all did. Which meant even late in the game he had new site possibilities and an opportunity to challenge for longest road. 
• Pete hurt himself in the early critical part of the game by rolling a 7 when he had nine cards. He managed to fully urbanize. But while new build sites were within reach, toad building without bricks was a problem.
• I managed to build on five sites and promote four cities. I too had a shot at longest road. And a shot at one more build site (maybe two with luck). But Catan antibodies kicked in this game. The 8 was rolled four times when the robber was on my 8 rock. And I had a rock port! On the other hand, my monopoly card got me 11 sheep in addition to what I already had. And I had a 3:1 port for that.
• Paul built on five sites with a sixth lined up. He had harbor master locked down and was able to get ahead in the road race to be the first to take it and reach 12 points! Whoa. Congratulations, Paul!

The final map:

I followed with 9 points, Pete had 8, and Joe had 6.

"Probability":

The center-right of the curve certainly dominated this game.

 

GAME FOUR

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

The opening positions: 

TONY rankings:

What happened? 

• Rock and brick were sub-standard.
• Pete stretched out nicely and was in range of linking his enclaves. Sadly the path was past the desert. Harbor master was out of reach. And city building was low. But a couple building sites were within reach.
• I thought I had a decent enclave possible. Sadly, I was able to build just one road. A road building card provided the other two. And after Paul put the robber on my only brick source--a 2--Pete rolled ... a 2. It was gruesome. Ironically enough I ended the game with 3 unused bricks in my hand. But I did get largest army again.
• Paul stretched out in the north, slipping in front of Joe's trans-Catanian road to reserve a build site on another port in case he needed to defend his harbor master title.
• Joe both stretched out across Catan to seemingly lock down longest road; and promoted two cities. And seemingly this was all done in one turn. With 19 cards in his hand (hello ... robber?), in an epic surge he built a road and a settlement, and promoted two cities to reach 11. Congratulations, Joe!

The final map:

Paul (harbor master) and I (largest army and victory point) had 7 each, and Pete had 6.

"Probability":

I guess this one looks normal enough.

 

We wrapped up at about 10:30. Four games is perfectly adequate. Thanks for everyone who came by to play. It is always a good time. And a big thank you to Joe for his statistics work again. Sadly, no engineers have developed the long-discussed app to move beyond pen and paper. My game log will remain paper and pen, naturally.

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.

Nobody won this week, with another tie. Better luck next month.

 And a meme!

We will do it again in August!