- two main islands at the sides, four small islands in the middle (two desert, two gold - but that's not really relevant). We set up the hexes and numbers exactly as given. The small islands don't have numbers in the middle, but one at each side; they represent villages of islanders. And the five little Catan chits around each one represent the cloth. Part of the game includes sailing out to these islands; on reaching one of the numbers, relations are established.
Anyone arriving receives one Catan chit (sorry, one bolt of cloth) and then subsequent ones when the relevant number is rolled, until they have run out. Every pair of Catan chits counts one victory point; it suggested that we play to 15 points, or until there were no more than three villages with chits remaining. We decided to do the latter. We were also interested to note that the 'longest street (or trade route)' card is not used in this game.
Interestingly, the booklet says that everyone should set up three initial settlements in this scenario. With our two-player rules, we start with three anyway, so we decided to stick with that rather than having four initially. We picked up resources for the last two settlements placed, too, following our two-player version so far.
As usual, we opted for a wide range of numbers and resources. I didn't have any 4s... and Richard didn't have any 9s. That was unfortunate, since we seem to get a lot of 9s in our games.
We set off fairly quickly for the little islands, and Richard accumulated a vast number of chits when the relevant numbers were rolled. I was a little slower in reaching islands, although I eventually I managed to reach most of them which had chits remaining. However, I did much better with my general building of settlements and cities. We very quickly lost track of who was ahead - we decided that the robber would be controlled by whoever rolled a 7 rather than whoever was behind; in retrospect I think that was a mistake, since I was ahead for most of the game and, any time I rolled a 7, was able to pick up whatever resource I needed. I also bought cards when I could; a 'year of plenty' card early in the game was extremely useful, and I then played a couple of knights when the robber was on one of my hexes.
Shortly before the end, I had done all the building I could, so I concentrated on buying cards. The first time I bought two: a knight and another 'year of plenty'. I knew I could play the knight on the following round to gain an extra two points with the 'largest army'. As it happened, the next round was the last one, since there were only four islands remaining with Catan chits by that stage. I first played the knight card, so I could get the 'largest army'. Then I rolled, and one of those village numbers came up, meaning the final chits were taken from it, leaving only three. However, since Richard had started we agreed I would finish my round. With some useful 2:1 trading using my harbours, I was able to buy three cards in all: one knight... and two victory points.
I hadn't quite realised how few buildings Richard had managed to buy until we counted up. He actually only had 7 points on the board. However, he did have a most impressive number of Catan chits:
- ten pairs, giving him an extra 10 points, so he had 17 in all.
I had 13 points on the board, with all my building done; I also had 2 points for the largest army, and the two victory point development cards. In addition, I had 13 Catan chits, so that was an extra six points.
- so I was the winner, with 21 points in all!
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