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Runaway

2009-09-02T03:46:40Z

Abundant August concluded with Ian winning in runaway fashion. It was over a 13 point lead and it now gives Ian a commanding lead for the year. He also leads the number of times he has been the Golden Sheep winner.

Well we're back to a normal game play September. One would say "Same Stuff, Differnet Day" September. Also this month, the a Catan tournament is being held in Memphis, TN and we are still on the fence about entering. Maybe we can convince Ian to go so he can cry like a baby in fron of complete strangers when he doesn't win.

Open Spaces

2009-08-03T19:20:17Z

Today begins a new month for your favorite competitors. Now a lot of effort was put into creating our new 7 player board. How to construct, how to do number distribution and the like. And what happens? We only get 4 participants today. We were however, very determined to create our big board for a real game and so we played on way too big a board. There was so much space for everyone and was for the most part non-confrontational. 4 people did eliminate special builds which was a travesty has everyone at one point or another was discarding settlements and cities. Ian picked up the win and gets the early lead for the month.

No jerk to speak of today but we did have a brilliant move. It was Ian’s turn and he had just amassed one serious chunk of cards. Ken thought it was wise though to offer him 3 ore for just one wheat. Ian jumped at the opportunity and created 2 cities, a settlement, and a road for good measure. On the very next turn, Ken rolled the special rule “Scarecrow” which netted him 3 wheat from the rest of us. Sadly, no one had any ore for one of Ken’s wheat.

Abundant August

2009-08-03T16:15:35Z

We begin a new month of Catan and it is a Special Rule Month. This month is “Abundant August” as a most of the rules give you resources. Albeit sometimes at the expense of the others. Will are also experimenting with a different board as we will have some games with 7 participants. Should make for an interesting month.

Rules for this Month

If you roll 1-1-1 (value of 1 and 2 ) you get to call your rule.

40 : LOVE – You have to win by 2 victory points. (You are able to win on a special build)

And the winner is... - player grabs a card from the random resource pile

From the Jaws of Defeat – you can build a settlement or a city, only one, for 1 less resource

High Five! – all players get a card of their choice

I Feel Sorry For You – Subtract your point total from that of the leader. Collect that many resource cards from the bank. If you are tied with, or are the leader, collect 1 card.

Ore-afice – All players turn their ore into the bank.

Road Reconstruction – Player can move any road they have to a different legal place. Optional

Scare Crow – Everyone gives the roller one wheat if they have one.

The Drunken Sailor – Cap’n Hazelwood has rendered all trade ports useless due to negligence. No 2:1 or 3:1 port trades allowed for 1 round.

The Joker and the Thief – players moves robber and gets a card from all players adjacent to that tile. (City and Settlement are equal value, but if you have 2...sorry!)

We’ve Struck Oil – Deserts produce Oil (choice of card) for settlements and cities on the deserts on this turn and all 7’s rolled for 1 round.

Welfare – The player with the most points must give a resource card to the player with the least points

That’s It for July

2009-08-03T16:14:45Z

Derick is the Golden Sheep winner for July making him a 2 time winner of the award. Tony and Ian before him were able to get consecutive months as well but were unable to 3-peat. Will Derick rise to the challenge or wet his bed like a scared child. We will see.

Tony’s Comeback

2009-07-28T18:14:21Z

Now that the Tour de France is over, Tony has come back to the fold. With Lance Armstrong defeated, Tony is looking for blood. He took the game in about 30 minutes with 2 cities, 4 settlements and the Longest Road. Devlin was the next closest at 7 points. Derick was tied for last today actually losing points for the month. However he didn’t lose any ground to Ian because it was Ian that was tied with Derick for last. With an 8 point lead and 3 days left, the window for anyone to catch him is closing.

Game’s Biggest Jerk: Devlin – Playing a Monopoly card can get you this title pretty quick.

Over Before It Started

2009-07-21T15:54:55Z

Derick wins today’s game in very anti-climatic fashion. His initial placement only left him with 6’s, 10’s, and 12’s. Those came in bunches. He acquired tons of resources while everyone else struggled to catch up. Tony came in 2nd with only 6 points. The other players had either 5 or 4 points. The game gives Derick a huge lead in July for the Golden Sheep as the month is winding down. We are quite dumbfounded as to what has sparked Derick into this recent hot streak. Is it his new Blackberry? Did he get some tips from his Warcraft guild? Are Ken and Devlin eating up all the bad spots forcing Derick into better positions? We’ll figure it out in time.

Game’s Biggest Jerk: Derick for being incredibly lucky, acting like he isn’t, and for cutting off Tony’s road. Derick could have gone the other direction and still taken the Longest Road because he was the only one could build them with ease.

Seafarers of Catan

2009-07-17T15:44:07Z

Last night Ken “Red Shirt” Gillum hosted a special game of Catan. It was the first time for some of us to play Seafarers of Catan. Quite enjoyable actually. Although there was some period of adjustment for us as now we had to worry about island jumping, a pirate ship, ships, and gold. Other things to adjust to was not having the luxury of the second 12-sided dice we use for our regular games of Catan. Resource production seemed painfully slow at times. Our first adventure had us using one of the pre built scenarios. The 4 Island scenario victory went to Ian as he had the Longest Trade Route. Second game was “Ultra Random” scenario in which I won. We ended up with just 2 islands and 1 of them had a very odd shape as it had some weird land bridge look to it.

Can’t wait to do it again and I would recommend it as a purchase for those who are on the fence about it. It’s a great was to break up the traditional look and feel of Catan. Not sure when we will combine Seafarers and Cities & Knights.

Catan's Favorite Son Wins

2009-07-17T15:43:02Z

I was full of win for this 6 player game of Catan. It all started with our initial placements. I was first to place which meant my 2nd settlement would do its best to get me some resources as it would be the last to place. My first placement left me unable to produce Wood and Wheat. My options were then Wood on 8,5 or Wood-Wheat on 12-3. I took the 8-5 wood and Ian threw a major fit. He questioned my intelligence because I was abandoning wheat. It also might have to do with Ian having a road going towards that same 8-5 spot. 8’s and 5’s then started hitting like nobody’s business. I might have been wood’s biggest supplier which allowed me to trade for wheat. I believe I also got incredibly lucky. I purchased 3 development cards through the course of the game. The first was a Year of Plenty to help build a city since I didn’t have any wheat. Second card was Monopoly which I used for brick. It was rare throughout the game and it had just yielded the most it had at any point in the game. Built some roads and a settlement, traded the rest back to the other for more wheat and another city. Third development card was a Road Builder. This helped me take the Longest Road. On the same turn I built a settlement on a Sheep port which I immediately used to trade in sheep for wheat. This let me build one more city for the win.

Game’s Biggest Jerk: Me for not even bothering to mention how everyone else did. All I know is they all finished with less points than me.

Point Counter-Point

2009-07-15T20:32:14Z

Today's 6 player game was an epic struggle between dear friends Wes and Devlin. Their relationship may have suffered as a result, but it's still too early to determine that. It started very early when Wes played a knight to block Devlin's wood. It prevented a decent amount of wood from being produced. They were also next to each other on the board so they were constantly battling for the same spots. Devlin managed to get the Longest Road and block Wes's settlement. Wes returned the favor by stealing the road and blocking one of Devlin's potential settlements. Meanwhile Derick had 4 cities and was very close to connecting his 2 groups for the Longest Road. Tony managed 7 points with no ore and no room to grow. I finished with 8 but then had 9 consecutive dice values that didn't give me any resource production. Devlin needed 1 sheep for the win on his turn and no one was trading. He went after Wes who had 6 sheep and 1 wood to steal a card. Devlin drew wood. Turn Over! Ian built a ton of roads to get the Longest Road and had 4 cities for the win. Didn't see that coming? Neither did we.

Seriously, Anyone Need Brick?

2009-07-15T04:36:43Z

Derick grabs today's win in a game that took longer than expected. He rushed out to an early and fast lead getting 7 points in about 30 minutes. It took about another 25 minutes to get those last 3 points. 6 player board today which made it a tight fit. Wes and myself finished with 8 points. I had a mountain of brick and just needed a 10 to hit to catch 7 wood and to lay down 7 roads for the win. Well maybe 'just' isn't the word for it but you get the idea. Of course having that much brick wasn't uncommon as we all had our fair share of it. Ken was the brick king today with the most. Yet Ian had the brick port but arguably had the least amount of brick. Ian was also an unfortunate victim of bad timing. He could never quite pull off a trade he needed. Either the immediate turn before or after his was a trade he desperately needed on his own turn. Also he was the 1st person today to roll a 7 and twice rolled a 7 on his own turn to make himself discard.

Games Biggest Jerk: Wes - Are you surprised? Probably shouldn't be. Though today's might have been an accident as he moved the robber to Ian's tile because he knew all he had was ore. Then he played a monopoly card and asked for ore. Honest mistake? Maybe, but no one else really challenged that title today either.