Thursday, Nov. 7, 2013
The settlers: Shirley Thornton, Nathan Putens, Terry “the Bandit” Boldan, and I.
A small crowd gathered, warranting a small board. It was the smaller field of play that would lead to Shirley Thornton’s first victory in months. A sly one, that Thornton. She slowly built settlements, civilizations, and the longest road (uncontested); an abundance of resources seemed to flow her way. As a new member to the group of settlers, I'm told this is how she operates—with stealth and cunning, and a little bit of luck.
It was a long overdue win for Thornton, who claims her victories are few and far between, and not of her own volition. A humble one, that Thornton, and a strong settler nonetheless.
Much of Thornton's luck would come in the form of frequently rolled numbers of benefit to her. To a mathematician or statistician, this makes absolutely no sense, but as a group we’re convinced that one particular number will be rolled with greater frequency than any other for the course of a game. For this game, the most frequent number was 6. Thornton settled on the majority of land holding 6s. I’m not saying Shirley wasn't smart for settling where she settled, but 6s were rolled at an alarming rate.
Although Terry "the Bandit" Boldan played well, he was unable to corral the resources necessary to beat Thornton. He struggled to gain them. He wasn’t alone.
It was a relatively uneventful game for me considering I couldn’t procure the brick resource. This was owing to my lack of settlements on any brick-producing land (I had none), and there was little trade of the commodity. No one else seemed to have it either, although Nathan Putens and I forged a trade agreement on the grounds that he would send brick my way once he procured any. Unfortunately for me, he rarely did.
Thursday, Nov. 14, 2013
The settlers: Terry “the Bandit” Boldan, Shirley Thornton, Nathan Putens, Erica Corwin, and I.
Terry Boldan isn’t called the Bandit for nothing. This week he terrorized the competition by drawing and playing a development card that would cause great devastation. Not too far into the game the entire bank supply of rock was depleted. That was when Boldan struck. Only he could invoke such craft, such sly tactics. The card he drew was the monopoly card, and in one fell swoop Boldan held all the rock resource the game could offer. With such surplus of one resource, Boldan made several moves that placed him well into the lead. This would obviously bring him victory.
The move would deal the most damage to Erica Corwin, who claims to have been unable to recover from the theft. Indeed, like a bad ADT Home Security commercial, something more was taken than just her material goods: her peace of mind.
There was a good amount of action on the board with one more player this week. Shirley Thornton would again attempt to quietly secure the longest road but fail. I quickly secured two pieces of land yielding the brick resource and was never short (I won't let the past repeat itself; it's too humiliating). And because I would try to utilize the brick port in ways that may have been slightly unconventional (maybe even against the rules), Nathan Putens would suffer.
As the person closest to the bank of resources, and I the farthest, he would be my go-between for cards when I needed them or when I needed to trade them. This would cause some confusion when I gained resources from the bank and immediately used them. Imagine Putens's frustration when I gained two brick cards, he handed them to me, and then I immediately handed them back to him to build a road. Bear with me, fellow settlers, I will get the hang of this game one day.
Despite Boldan's unrelenting game play, the game was well matched. Boldan would only win by a small margin. Because of his luck with development cards, the conversation of our rivalry with the UNL Libraries arose. The latter part of the game involved possible strategies to ensure another flawless victory. Said strategies will not be divulged until after our next confrontation with the book-wielding employees of UNL Libraries.
If any of our adversaries are reading, consider this your official invitation. Our house library may not be as extensive or as vibrant as yours, but what it lacks in volume it makes up for in class. So, feel free to bring the fight to our door. We're ready.
This will be a bimonthly recap from here on out. You lucky readers will get a two-game dump every couple of weeks. Feel free to respond to the blog via the comments section or tweet back at us. This week’s blog goes out to UNL Libraries. We know you’re quite literally shaking at the thought of a rematch, so let’s make it happen.
I managed to obtain the official record of who holds the title for most wins in 2013. There are some obvious favorites to gain the most wins in 2013, some unsuspecting underdogs, and then me. Below is the record:
Terry “the Bandit” Boldan—11 (clear favorite)
Shirley Thornton—9
Laura Wellington (retired)—7
Leif Milliken—5
Erica Corwin—4
Nathan Putens—4
Weston Poor—2 (a strongly favored underdog)
*This is record is tentatively kept by Erica Corwin
**4 total weeks of non-play
-Weston
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