Settlers of Catan for four

Last night we had another Settlers game with our friends Jörn and Sheila, who - basically - taught us to play a little more than a year ago, and have continued playing Catan games with us regularly. It sometimes surprises me how we can continue enjoying the same game, week after week. When we first played a couple of Settlers games with our sons, some years previously, I wasn't particularly inspired by it at all. Catan has definitely grown on us!

I was third to place my first settlement last night. Probably my least favourite place, in a four-person game. But since I was hoping not to win again, it didn't worry me. It was quite a nicely balanced board; I forgot to take photos until we'd had a couple of rounds, and some streets had been placed, but this shows our starting settlements.

As always, I was orange, Richard red, Sheila brown and Jörn blue. My first placement was on the 5-8-10 intersection with ore, wheat and wood. I was slightly surprised that neither Sheila nor Richard had taken that as it was the best number combination. But Sheila had decided to try my usual strategy of looking for the resource likely to be the rarest, and taking its best hex. In this case, it was clearly clay so she played on another good intersection (5-9-10) with 10 on clay.


For my second settelement, after Jörn had played, I couldn't decide whether clay or sheep was more important. I swithered between the one I took (9-10-11 with 11 on clay) or the one Sheila took as her second (3-6-11, with 11 on sheep), the one Richard took for his second (3-4-8 with 4 on sheep) or indeed the one in between them (3-4-11 with 4 and 11 on sheep).

But I opted for clay instead, shrugging inwardly and reminding myself that I wanted someone else to win anyway. Besides, where I placed my second settlement, it wasn't too far to a useful sheep-6 hex, and it seemed unlikely that either Richard or Sheila would take the 6-2 coastal intersection, both sheep, and no harbours.

In the first few rounds of the game, statistics confounded us; 11s were rolled far more often than they should have been, so there was a reasonable amount of clay. Realising I would need to trade, I expanded to the nearby 3:1 harbour as soon as possible, and built there. On my following turn, 9s and 8s were rolled, so that although I'd hoped to expand to that double-sheep harbour spot, I happened to have wheat and ore in my hand. One useful trade later, and I was able to build my first city.

Play was quite even at first. At one point two of us had three points, and two had four points. A round or two later, there were two fours and two fives. I gradually managed to build the two more streets I needed, and eventually gained that 2-6 spot and access to sheep, and also a second city. I wasn't really strategising at all and had little idea what I would do next; however I wasn't encroaching on anyone else's planned territory, and had a couple of comfortable building spots that I would be able to reach - assuming, of course, 11s were ever rolled again. After the initial abundance of clay, it became - as expected - quite a rare resource later on in the game.

Richard had no access to clay at all, nor any potential for it. But - with good trading - he managed to get enough to build streets and three more settlements. His final one was on a spot Sheila had hoped for; but since it was his last possible building spot on the entire board, it was entirely reasonable that he built there.

Jörn, like me, had no access to sheep at the start of the game, and no easy way to get any other than building right out to the 11-sheep hex on the coast. Since Sheila's second settlement placement had stopped the easiest route, he had to collect cards that would allow him to build a longer way round - and collect the longest street card along the way. That meant that Jörn and Sheila were competing for several building spots:


So now Sheila and I both had 6 points; Richard and Jörn both had 5. It was still very even, although there was a lack of building spots near the centre of the board. And since Jörn had taken a spot Sheila wanted, she quickly built more roads, so she could take the longest street card. That put her in the lead, with 8 points, and Jörn was back to 3 points.

Richard was most unlucky in that 7s were rolled at least three times when he had more than seven cards in his hand, meaning he had to give half of them up. It happened to Jörn a couple of times, too. Sheila was somewhat unlucky too; because Jörn and she were competing for spots, when he rolled the 7 he placed the robber on her rather than me. There was one round where 7s were rolled three times in succession; Sheila had 8 cards and had to give up four of them; she then had the robber placed on one of her hexes three times, and lost three more cards. While it made sense for me to place the robber on her, both Richard and Jörn should probably have attacked me instead. Particularly since I also had the potential to steal the longest street card...

But I didn't want to win. So I expanded along the coast and took my last two building spots. Then, since I was gaining so much ore and wheat, I built my last two cities. That gave me 10 points on the board. My turn came round again, and I had a huge handful of cards. Thankfully I didn't roll a 7. I didn't have quite enough to trade for the three streets I would have needed to take the longest street card, and I didn't really want to end the game so quickly anyway. So instead, I traded for development card resources, and bought two. They were both knights. I thought I'd buy cards for the next few rounds, and perhaps start playing knights - whether or not the robber was against me - and so gain the largest army, if nobody else had won in the meantime. Or maybe I'd just keep the knights for when the robber was against me....

My turn came round again. Once again, I had collected a huge amount of ore and wheat. On Richard's turn, I had the cards for three cities in my hand - no use at all, of course, since I'd built all my cities. I did some trading with him - to help him - and then rolled a 7. I had to get rid of a lot of cards, and the only way I could take a card from Sheila - who was in second place - without hurting anyone else was by placing the robber on the desert. So I did that - and stole a wood card from her. Then, with some trading, I was able to buy one more development card.

It was the street-building card.

I decided that, if I could trade for one street on my next turn, I'd use it and take the longest street. Richard needed to do an airport run, so we had to end the game soon anyway, and it looked as if it would still be some time before anyone else managed it.

On the next round, an 11 was rolled, which gave me some clay. Since I already had some wood in my hand, I built one street, and then produced the street-building card.

So Sheila had to give up the longest street, and ended up with 7 points. Richard had managed to build some cities, and had 8 points on the board - pretty impressive given his total lack of clay - plus a victory point card hidden. Jörn had also built a couple of cities, and had 6 points.


None of us has really figured out why I seem to win more than my fair share of Catan games. I do seem to get some luck in the roll of the dice, but luck by its nature isn't consistent! Sheila suggested it was because I don't attack anyone, or take their building spots; I just do my own thing quietly in my own space, so the others attack each other rather than me. Next time, they think they might all attack me by default and see what happens...

Cities and Knights for the two of us again

I was kind of tired yesterday evening. But Richard wanted a game, and chose - once again - Cities and Knights of Catan. We'd played a couple of games of Carcassonne as a change last week; but he thought that if I were that tired, he might have a better chance of winning Cities and Knights. I was quite sure it was his turn to win, and didn't feel remotely competitive.

We set it up pretty quickly, and made our initial placements. It seemed like quite an even board, with no resources clumped together too much, and plenty of reasonable starting spots. Richard, who placed first, was thinking about potential for city improvements, so opted for a good supply of both ore and wood. He was rather lacking in sheep potential, though, and not great for clay. He had a great set of numbers: 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, and an extra 4. I had better access to all the resources, but my numbers weren't quite so good: I didn't have any 4s at all; but then I had two 5s and two 10s.


I wasn't really strategising at all - I simply opted for the best spread of resources I could, noting that the sheep harbour was near a good spot for sheep. Both of us, where possible, tend to build our initial settlements/cities as close as possible to harbours in this game.

As we started the game, I seemed to be quite lucky with the rolls of the dice, as so often happens. We were both picking up cards most of the time, but mine were more useful. I was quickly able to build my first city improvements in both cloth and books, meaning I started picking up progress cards, since the event die rolled colours quite often. Moreover, I picked up a reasonable number of sheep, ore and wheat, meaning I could buy knights to protect Catan as well as increasing my points with buildings. I still wasn't strategising at all - just buying whatever I could each time my turn came.

By the time the barbarians first attacked, I had three knight strengths (meaning we were victorious), and had also built a settlement on a 3:1 harbour, and had also upgraded one of my original settlements to a city. I built inland too, and took a 2-4-6 intersection since I was lacking 4s up to that point. Richard had built three streets and two settlements - on the clay and ore harbours - but was having to trade very heavily for any sheep.


So I won a victory point card as the first Defender of Catan. I don't usually push for knights, and rather hoped Richard would get some for the future - I prefer to expand and build.

And, indeed, by the time the barbarians managed their second attack, his knight force was superior - partly through good use of 'coins' progress cards, since he'd started those city improvements - so he won the card. I had a third city by that stage, and another settlement; I also had the 'merchant' on wheat, giving me useful 2:1 trading. Oh, and I had fortified two of my cities, using extra clay, which enabled me to have extra cards in my hand when the robber attacked.


Richard was still having a hard time with wheat and sheep, and still hadn't built any new cities. So at this stage, he had 8 points (including his Defender of Catan card) and I had 12 (including my Defender of Catan card, and control of the Merchant). Not that I was counting points, particularly.

Richard picked up a couple of 'activate all your knights for free (sic)" cards, and also an 'upgrade up to two of your knights free', which meant I didn't need to worry about knights at all. I was more than happy for him to defend Catan when the time came. So at the third barbarian attack, he won another victory point. He'd been slowly working on city improvements too, but hadn't done much building - just one upgrade to a city.

I had the card allowing me to change two numbers on the board (other than 2, 12, 6 or 8) so I finally played that, switching the 9 on wood (for Richard) with the 3 on sheep (for both of us). This gave Richard better access to sheep, but he was now much worse off for wood.


So after the third attack he had 10 points (with two Defender of Catan cards), whereas I'd built another settlement and upgraded it to a city since the previous attack, giving me 14 in all. Not that I had realised it at the time. I was concentrating on city improvements in both cloth and books, rather hampered by the robber sitting on my 6-wood hex for several rounds.

Then in the depths of my foggy brain, it occurred to me that I could build a knight next to that wood hex, activate it, and then finally kick the robber elsewhere. So I did that. Then I achieved my first metropolis, with a fair amount of trading for commodities. Then I looked for a suitable building spot, expanded outwards, and built another settlement. I realised, as I did it, that I had also - rather by accident - developed the longest street. What didn't occur to me was that I had 19 points - indeed, I had technically won the game just by building two more street pieces, without my final settlement.

But as I wasn't bothering to count points, I didn't realise until I collected sufficient commodities for my second metropolis. Then, dimly aware that I'd placed all my buildings (13 points) and had two metropolises and the longest street, I realised I must have 18 points. So we stopped and counted:


It turned out that I had 21 points - three more than necessary. Richard had 11.

We tried to analyse why I was SO far ahead - unusually so - given that I hadn't been planning, I hadn't bothered with knights after the first few rounds, and I didn't have much access to ore until the end, at which point I didn't need it. We could only assume it was Richard's lack of sheep in the early rounds, and wood in the later ones. He didn't have a great amount of wheat, either, but sufficient, along with the blue cards he picked up, that he had no problem activating his knights.

Another four-person Settlers game

We had another evening's Settlers with just Jörn and Sheila last night. It was pretty peaceful too, as their toddler Helen was asleep for a change... and while I like having a small child to cuddle during a game, she can be a bit unpredictable in grabbing at pieces, and likes to tell everyone else about all the sheep in my hand...

Jörn (blue) placed his pieces first, I (orange) was second, Richard (red) was third, and Sheila (brown) was in her favourite place of being both the last and the first. It was the kind of board with no obviously brilliant spots, but Jörn started on a traditionally good one, with 4, 8 and 10 as the numbers; wood, clay and wheat as the resources. I could see that there was likely to be plenty of clay in this game, a reasonable amount of ore and sheep, and perhaps more of a shortage of wood and wheat. I realised at once that I would probably not be able to get initial access to all five resources; however ore is usually key, so my initial choice was for the 9-ore hex, and the best numbers that went with it (6-clay and 3-wood).

By the time it got back to me, with Richard and Sheila both having placed their two settlements and streets, I didn't have a lot of choice. I could have chosen access to both wheat and sheep with the numbers being 3, 10 and 11, or I could have taken the 4, 6, 11 intersection which Jörn took as his second spot. But instead I thought I'd go for the other good ore tile, with a 10 on sheep, in the hope of trading rather than expecting 11s to be rolled.


So at the start of the game, I was actually the only person who had access to ore - but everyone else had access to wheat, with Richard being the most likely to collect it.

And, indeed, in the early rounds - when it wasn't a lot of use - 9s and 10s were rolled, giving Richard plenty of wheat, and me plenty of ore. I was able to do a bit of trading so I could build a city early on, but there wasn't much wood available and since Richard collected less wheat as the game progressed, it was very difficult to build settlements. I frequently found at the end of my turn that I had six or seven cards... but if I had wheat, there was one of the other resources missing. So I bought a couple of development cards just to reduce the number I was holding. The first one I picked up was a victory point, which wasn't much use at that stage of the game.

I should really have taken more photos, but didn't think about it. Richard was the first person to take the longest street card, then Sheila took it from him, and then he took it back. Slowly, we were all extending outwards, while getting distracted at times by random topics of conversation such as how solar heating panels work...

Sheila took one of Richard's potential building spots, and I took one of Jörn's... not being nasty to each other, just each looking out for our own interests. One can't be too compassionate or generous when playing Settlers of Catan, if one is playing seriously!

During the battle of the streets, I took this photo at the stage when Sheila realised she couldn't get the card back from Richard:


So he was in the lead with 10 points, and still had a couple of building spots available. Sheila and I each had five points (well, I had six with my hidden victory point card), and Jörn had 4. Sheila did have one building spot left, if Jörn didn't take it first, but needed to upgrade to some cities before she could buy more settlements.

I had two building spots left, and having joined up my two sets of streets, realised that - unusually - I had the potential to take the longest street card from Richard, which would at least prolong the game a little. Rather fortuitously, I'd picked up a street-building card which enabled me to have a length of 11 streets on my next turn - and nobody would be able to beat it. I built a settlement at the end of it, too.

So then Richard and I each had 8 points on the board.

Unfortunately, since neither Jörn nor Sheila had access to ore, they were hampered in the final stages of the game, unable to build the cities they needed. They did both buy cards - after some trading - and each played two knights. Rather a lot of 7s were rolled, too. My ore hexes were frequently rendered useless by the knight, and I was still struggling to get wheat. Jörn and Sheila were both unlucky with the 7s, too; several times each of them had to give up four or more cards, at a time when they would otherwise have been able to do something useful.

Still, I managed to build another city, and then found myself collecting quite a few cards when 6s or 9s were rolled. There were a surprising number of 3s too. So, by trading with the bank (mostly) I managed another city. Richard built another one too, and another settlement. Sheila built three cities, despite having to lose so many cards, and Jörn took his last building spot with a settlement.

I wasn't watching points. I tend to get involved in the game, and strategising, and finding the best logistical use of my resource cards. I was pleased when I realised that I had sufficient to buy a settlement for my last possible spot... but surprised when Sheila then asked me if I had a victory point card. She had noticed that I had 11 points including the longest street:


So once again, I was the winner; Richard had 10 points, Sheila had 9 - and was going to take the largest army card on her next move, which would have taken her to 11. Jörn - who had also hoped for the largest army card - had 6 points, since he too had a victory point card.

Two-person Cities and Knights game

We thought we'd play a two-person Cities and Knights of Catan game yesterday evening. It was only 7.30pm when it started, and we knew it could take a couple of hours or more. By the time the board was set up fully it was nearer 7.45... we're getting quicker, but it's still a bit complicated remembering which bits we need from each Catan set. If we ever experiment with combining Seafarers and Cities and Knights, I dread to think how long it would take to sort out at the end!

So we placed our initial pieces: two settlements and one city each, as per our two-player house rules.


I was reasonably pleased with my numbers: 3, 4, 5, 6, 8,9,10 with an extra 5 and 9. Richard's were also good: the same combination, but his extras were a 4 and an 8. It seemed that we were very evenly balanced. Except... which he didn't realise until we'd been playing a few rounds, Richard had no access to sheep whatsoever. He wasn't sure how that had happened, but it was a bit of a nuisance since he needed sheep to buy knights.

Moreover, although there was LOTS of wood in the game - and Richard quickly started collecting the book commodity cards to start his city expansions - there was almost no clay. So it was a bit difficult to build anything much, other than cities.

As usual we didn't introduce the barbarians or the robber until the third or fourth round. The barbarians then started their inexorable approach to Catan, while we amassed our defences. I bought a two-strength knight fairly quickly, and Richard did manage to buy a single-strength one by trading four wood. By the time the barbarians were close, we had each built an extra city, and we'd each built two streets. I'd also - eventually - managed one settlement, on the wheat harbour.

Richard was worried he would lose one of his cities since my knights were stronger; but the event die rolled colours twice, and I was able to buy another knight. I decided I'd rather gain a victory point by beating the barbarians than see Richard lose a city (and thus a point).


No 7s had yet been rolled. Nor had either of us picked up any progress cards. It looked as though it might be a long game.

By the second time the barbarians attacked Catan, I had managed to build a couple more settlements, including a useful one on the sheep harbour. Richard had bought one more street with resource cards, and had also picked up the useful street-building progress card. So he had hopes of getting access to sheep eventually. He did upgrade his knight to double-strength, and built another city. He also built a lot of city improvements - 8s were rolled frequently - meaning that he gained metropolis level rather quickly in wood/books:


My knights were stronger, so once again I gained a 'Defender of Catan' victory point. By that time I'd also picked up a victory point progress card - in Cities and Knights games they are declared at once rather than hidden - so I had a total of 11 points, which Richard had three cities including one metropolis, giving him 8 points.

By the third barbarian attack, Richard had upgraded his knight to 'mighty' status, and had also managed to build another settlement on a 3:1 harbour. I'd upgraded to another city, and also built on a 3:1 harbour, although since it was a 2-sheep hex it wasn't very useful from the resource point of view.


Since we had three knights each, and six cities, we defended Catan equally, so each picked up a progress card of our choice.

And then suddenly we were rolling better numbers, and picking up more useful resources. A 3 was rolled, giving me quite a bit of clay. And since I was the only one gaining cloth commodity cards, I also had two of the progress cards that allowed me to take, twice, two of Richard's cards of my choice (a bit like the regular Catan 'monopoly' cards, but only taking two from each player rather than all cards of that resource).

So I fortified one city, and gained metropolis level with cloth. I upgraded to my last city. I built a settlement out to the wood harbour - Richard would have liked that one as he had so much wood; but eventually he did pick up a yellow progress card, and it was the Merchant. So he placed him on wood, giving him the equivalent of the wood harbour, which was extremely useful.

Meanwhile, Richard gained another metropolis (with coins), and built a couple more settlements: one to give him sheep (should 10s or 11s be rolled) and one on the ore harbour, since he was gaining quite a bit of ore by that stage.

We both (without mentioning it aloud) happened to check each other's points around the same time. I had 12 regular building points, plus 2 for my metropolis, plus three victory point cards... giving me 17. Richard, meanwhile, had 9 regular building points, two metropolises (metropoloi?) and one point for having the merchant. 14 in all. I was quite surprised to be so far ahead, and, indeed, so close to victory since we only play to 18.

My turn came around. Could I, I wondered, possibly build two more streets and a settlement, to get my 18th point? As I pondered, a lightbulb went off in my mind. All I actually needed to do was to build the two streets, since that would give me five in a line... and thus two points for the longest street.

So that's what I did:


Meaning I won with 19 points. And it was only about 9.15pm. The entire game only took an hour and a half...

Settlers of Catan for four

It had been a long since we played a four-person regular game of Settlers with Jörn and Sheila. Looking back at the archives, I think last night was the first time this year! We've enjoyed the five- and six-player games, and Richard and I also like our two-person games. But four is what we were most familiar with during last year. As usual, my tiles were orange, Richard's red, Sheila's brown and Jörn's blue.

We started around 8.30 by the time we'd set everything up. I was last to place, and realised I couldn't get all five resources. I realised that there would be a fair mount of wood, so hoped I'd be able to trade for that. Then I forgot to take a photo until we'd played a couple of rounds, although all that had been built was two streets.


I thought my numbers were at least reasonable: 3, 4, 8, 9 and 10 in addition to the probably not-so-useful 2. But for the first round, I didn't pick up a single card: 5s and 6s were the main numbers rolled. Jörn, who played second, had the best selection of numbers: 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10. No wood, but he could get to a wood hex fairly easily. Sheila's numbers were almost as good, statistically speaking: 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9; she had access to all five resources, too.

The game got going fairly quickly, other than in my case since I continued picking up very few cards. Still, within about half an hour I had at least managed to build two more settlements, and now had access to a useful 5-wheat hex and the ore harbour (less useful). Richard realised he was lacking potential building spaces, so concentrated on buying streets in order to ensure at least a few spots for settlements. Jörn and Sheila were both doing well, expanding and building much more rapidly.


By that stage in the game, Richard had 3 points, I had 4, Sheila had 6 and Jörn had 7.

Then followed the battle of the longest street. Richard took it at first, with just five. He was simply buying more streets to secure building spots and the longest street was a by-product. Not long afterwards, Sheila overtook him and there were a couple of rounds where they both built streets, realising that neither could get more than 10 so whoever got there first would keep the card.

It was Sheila who succeeded; and with her other buildings, she was up to 11 points. Nobody else had more than 9... but she pointed out that I could theoretically take the street card from her. A 2 had been rolled, giving me three unexpected clay resource cards, and I also had some ore as well as sheep. By that stage I'd used all my building spots, and although I'd like to have built a city, we did want the game to continue beyond 9.30... so Richard and Jörn both traded with me to enable me to have the wood I needed.


So Sheila was back to 9 points, the same as Jörn. I had 8, including the longest street. Richard had 7. All very close, and the game could potentially continue for a while since all building spots had been used up: so all we could do was build cities and buy cards.

I did think about the largest army; three of us had each played two knights, but having built all those streets I didn't have enough cards left to buy anything more. Jörn had bought quite a few, so we weren't surprised when he played a knight, a couple of rounds later, and gained the largest army - giving him 11 points. He then tried to trade in order to build a city, but naturally nobody would oblige since he only needed one more point to win.

Or so we thought.

When he discovered that he couldn't actually build another city, he said he'd been hoping to win with 14 points... and turned over two victory point cards. So he won the game with 13.

Cities and Knights of Catan for three

So, finally we taught Sheila to play Cities and Knights. We thought we'd better start on time as it can be a long game, even with just three people. And there are so many extra rules. We tried to explain all we could at the beginning, and then got started. I didn't remember to take a photo right after our initial placements of settlements and cities, but took one shortly afterwards, when a few extra streets had been built, and a couple of knights:


As usual, I played orange; Richard red, and Sheila brown. I could see that clay was going to be in short supply, so was glad to be able to place my city on the best clay hex. Richard had no access to clay at all.

As usual, we played a couple of rounds before bringing the robber or the event die into play. It was quite a slow-moving game, due to the lack of clay; by the time the barbarians attacked for the first time, I'd turned my initial settlement into a city but that was the only real building so far.


Richard and I had each bought and activated one knight, and Sheila had two, so she earned the first 'Defender of Catan' card.

By the second barbarian attack Sheila and I had each built another settlement, and I'd fortified one of my cities to allow two more cards in my hand. But still, road-building was remarkably slow. This time two of us had the same number of knights, so we both took progress cards - nobody was defender of Catan. I took the photo after we'd de-activated the knights:


We were picking up cards when the event die was coloured, and were building city improvements, which of course can't be seen on the board. But still there was almost no clay, so only one more street appeared by the next time the barbarians attacked:


The game did get going a bit better after that. Sheila had the card which allowed her to change any two numbers on the board (other than 2, 12, 6 or 8) so she swapped an 11 and a 9, giving her better ore and reducing my wood. Still, I managed to build a couple more settlements, Sheila extended towards the coast and built one there, and Richard reached metropolis level for one of his cities.


So by this stage I had 8 points (including control of the merchant), Richard had 6, and Sheila also had 6 (including her Defender of Catan card). Once again there was no outright Defender - Sheila and I each provided two knights, to protect our four cities.

We had planned to play to 15 points. Then we thought perhaps 13 would be better, as it was already 10.30 by this time. Then we thought perhaps we'd stop at 11pm, since I was getting very tired. And suddenly we were rolling more coloured events, and picking up useful cards. Sheila reached metropolis level on one of her cities, and I was able to do quite a bit more building. I also picked up a random victory point card.

Then I suddenly realised that, once again, we'd forgotten about the longest street card. At least, I had. Richard, apparently, was planning to get it on his next turn. But I was able to build a couple of streets, and claim the card - which gave me the 13 points we'd agreed on, just before 11pm.

Cities and Knights for two

It had been some time since we'd played Cities and Knights, after a busy few weeks. Last night I was pretty tired, but Richard felt stressed and wanted a game to help him relax. I don't find Cities and Knights particularly relaxing, but he does... so we set it up. I really wasn't 'with it', and forgot entirely to take a photo after our initial setup (two settlements and one city each) - but here's how the game looked after the first few moves:


We'd both managed to build streets and an extra settlement on the coast, and I'd upgraded one of my initial ones to a city. So we were fairly even. On balance I think I had slightly better numbers: although I didn't have access to 6, I had a city on a sheep-8 hex, and a settlement on a wheat-8 hex which is the one I upgraded quickly to a city. Neither of us had much access to wood or clay, which showed... we didn't do a whole lot of expanding outwards at all.

I then forgot to take a picture the first time the barbarians landed. I was ahead on knights at that point, so gained an extra victory point for my pains, and the barbarians were vanquished.

By the time they arrived for their second attack, I'd managed to build a 'coin' metropolis:


We had the same number of knights, so both took progress cards of our choice. I opted for a green one, since they're usually the nicest. I didn't have many 'book' commodity cards at all, not having much access to wood. However, I did pick up quite a few 'cloth'-related yellow cards, including the merchant early in the game. I placed him on ore, since I was getting a fair amount, and there he stayed.

By the third - and, as it turned out, final - barbarian attack, Richard had claimed the metropolis on books. He also had more knights than I did, so took an extra victory point card. I had 15 points including the merchant, and Richard had 13. So we were still pretty close.


It wasn't long before I was able to build my final city, and then I managed to claim the final metropolis, for cloth. Anyone who cares about points would realise that this gave me 18 - still including the merchant, and my 'defender of Catan' card from the first barbarian attack - but somehow neither of us noticed. Richard also built an extra city, and was planning to join up his two sections of roads to take the 'longest street' card, which I'd pretty much forgotten about.

Not realising that we should have stopped the game already (we end at 18 points) I managed to get enough cards for another settlement. I was about to build it when I realised that neither of us had more than four contiguous sections of road... so whereas I could play my four settlement resources to gain one more point, I could also build just one road, using only two resources, and gain two points for the 'longest street'. It occurred to me that I must be not far off 18.... so I counted up and realised that I should have won already.


I built the street anyway, and thus won with 20 points.

Six-person Settlers of Catan game

It had been so long since we last played Settlers, we were almost getting withdrawal symptoms. It must have been about ten days...

But on Sunday night some of our friends were here, so we suggested a game. I wasn't entirely 'with it' - I was getting over a nasty sinus infection, and was pretty tired as we'd been out earlier. Besides which I was keeping half an eye on my small friend Helen who is 18 months old and tends to get into things which aren't good for her (or for the things she gets into).

So although I helped a little in getting the game set up, it was a communal effort.


Katie (4) would like to have played but she is nowhere near old enough. Lukas (7) has grasped the rules pretty well and is beginning to play although he tends to lose concentration. But as Sheila wasn't here he made the sixth player.

Richard (red, as ever) rolled the highest number and so placed his settlements first and last. Jacob played green, Jörn blue, Marie green, Lukas brown, and I was red. That's the order we played in, meaning I had the rather Scriptural position of the last (in round one) being the first (in round two). I don't usually like going last, but it does have the advantage of being able to place both settlements optimally at once, rather than hoping someone else doesn't take the spot you really wanted to balance the first one played.


I was quite pleased with my places. I had reasonable access to all five resources, and a good selection of numbers (4, 6, 8, 9 and 10). I realised I would be advising Lukas - and did at least ensure that he didn't start his placements with only two resources, both on the coast as he had planned. But he insisted on taking the 3-1 harbour on an 8-sheep hex for his first settlement.

I found it hard to concentrate on the game, since I was getting up and down to move Helen; so much so that I think I missed some of my cards. Several times I was given some by other kind people who noticed them. Helping Lukas was rather difficult since his sole purpose was to gain the longest street card by joining his two settlements. So he traded single-mindedly for sheep and clay, in ways that helped everyone else. He was deaf to my suggestions of building at least one or two settlements, but did, after a few turns, get six contiguous streets and the cards. At the time it looked as though he might keep it, too. However he still refused to build any settlements; instead he put all his trading skill (such as it is) into buying a development card; he also bought a few more streets when he could.

Meanwhile the rest of us were building as usual; Marie fairly quickly got three cities and was in the lead for a while, but she had a hard time getting any settlements. Jörn was blocked from a couple of building spots he wanted - in a six-player game, the board can get rather crowded - but had plenty of room to expand in other directions. Jacob traded rather wildly for the cards he wanted, and managed a few buildings. Richard and I just played fairly randomly, building whatever we happened to have the cards for.

Since I was occupied with both Helen and Lukas, for different reasons (and sometimes Katie too) I didn't remember to take any more photos until the end of the game. We decided, around 8.45pm, that we would play until 9pm and then finish at the end of the round. Lukas kept losing concentration, and Helen was getting tired. Lukas seemed to be stuck on his two initial settlements and his street since he refused to build anything else - and then Richard challenged with a longer street, and took the card from him. Lukas spent the next two rounds trying to get it back, until Richard built a settlement right in the middle of Lukas's street, meaning he kept it. Lukas is quite cheerful about it - he didn't seem to mind being back with just two points while the rest of us were between 6 (Jörn, Marie and Jacob) and 10 (Richard).

It was nearly 9pm. Richard played his move, and we (the adults, anyway) agreed that we would have one final turn each and end after mine. I had 8 points, and since I picked up rather a lot of cards I decided to buy a development card. It was a monopoly. Since by then I had the sheep harbour, I thought I might monopolise sheep on my final move and see what I could build... but I watched what was picked up more closely than usual, and there weren't many sheep. On the last two turns before mine, rather a lot of wheat was collected so when it came to my turn, I decided to monopolise wheat.

Since the others would have one final chance to build after my turn, I was then able to trade for some of the wheat quite advantageously. I built another street and settlement, taking me to 9 points. Then I realised that if I could build two more streets, I could join up my two stretches of road and take the longest street card.

So I offered to trade some wheat for wood or clay... rather to my surprise, Richard agreed to this. I hadn't realised he was hoping to build a final settlement after the end of my turn, and then reveal a victory point card, which would take him to 12 points. What he didn't notice was that he was in danger of losing the longest street card.


So... I went ahead, and won the game with 11 points. Richard had 10, Jöern, Marie and Jacob each had 6, and Lukas had 2.

Settlers of Catan for five

Alison is staying in our guest flat; we introduced her to Settlers a year ago, at Jörn and Sheila's, so took her to play another game yesterday evening. Richard was feeling full of cold, and Jörn not 100%. I was kind of tired. I'm not sure that any of us were taking the game all that seriously... although Richard started with another of his creative constructions:


We were talking so much that I forgot to take a photo until we'd played a couple of rounds. Alison started and Jörn went last; I was in the unenviable position of being third to place my settlements. No way could I get all the available resources, but as often happens I decided to concentrate on ore since it was likely to be in short supply, and is so vital as the game progresses. For my second settlement, I opted to go near the wheat harbour as it looked as if I might get good access to wheat - and of course that's also needed for building cities and buying cards. I had no wood access at all, and not much in the way of sheep. But then I really didn't want to win...

By the time I remembered to take a picture, Richard (red) and I (orange) had both managed to build cities; Jörn (blue) and Sheila (brown) had both built settlements:


Then Alison also built a settlement, and the game proceeded fairly evenly. Alison managed to gain the longest street fairly quickly - she had excellent access to both wood and clay - and although both Jörn and Richard attempted to catch up, neither of them succeeded. Richard grabbed the last available spot on an ore hex, thus frustrating Jörn's attempt to reach the same spot (and ensuring no easy supply for ore for him), but although 3s were rolled a few times early in the game, there were very few later on.

We had one situation which I don't ever recall from any other game: each of us, in turn, rolled a 7! Richard even played a knight on his turn prior to rolling, so he could place the robber on a rather productive ore hex... only to have to move it again when he rolled the 7. It was rather a frustrating round, since all that happened was the robber bouncing about the board, and each person in turn taking one card from someone else. We were astounded at having five sevens in a row...

... even more so when Sheila then rolled ANOTHER 7!


Thankfully Jörn, who played after she did, managed to break the train by rolling something else. I don't think there were any more 7s in the game.

I had not realised at the start how few building spaces I would end up with. Richard and Alison took the last two possible spaces for me - which was fine. I was rather hoping Alison might win; she hasn't played for several months but was doing extremely well. At this stage in the game, she had 9 points including the longest street, and although Jörn blocked one of her possible building spaces, she still had another possible one, and plenty of chance to upgrade three more of her settlements to cities. I had 8 points on the board, and one victory point card which I'd picked up, also giving me 9 - but all that was left to me to do was to upgrade one more settlement to a city, and buy cards.

Sheila had 8 points, and a few more places to build. Richard had 7, and lots of building spots. Jörn was behind with 5 points as he had not yet been able to gather enough ore to build a city - but we knew all that could change rapidly with a few lucky rolls of the dice.


And, indeed, that's what happened. My turn came around; I was gaining a huge amount of wheat since 5s, 8s and 9s were rolled fairly regularly, so having the wheat harbour was extremely useful. I didn't have quite enough to build my final city, but I had just picked up a couple of sheep. So I decided to buy two development cards. It was likely that at least one of them would be a knight; I'd already played one, and nobody else had played more than one knight - not many cards had been bought so far. If I could make the 'largest army' then I would reach 12 point, and it was really the only strategy left to me. I assumed someone else would win first, but there's no point giving up altogether...

Imagine my amazement when BOTH of the development cards I'd bought were victory points. I could feel my jaw dropping... Sheila caught sight of me, and I wondered if she had guessed what I had just bought. It is astonishing how often I seem to buy victory points, but I don't remember having two at the same time like that.

The game progressed. The robber was moved to my 6-ore hex, which hampered me a little, since I needed ore to build my last city. 3 wasn't rolled at all - that would have given me 6 ore resources. But I was, once again, gaining wheat. I had too many cards in my hand, and would have lost half of them if a 7 had been rolled, but it didn't.

So, when my turn came around again, I traded most of my wheat for ore, and built my last city. Nine points on the board... and I turned over my three victory points:


I did apologise for winning yet again. But there wasn't really much I could do about it...

Cities and Knights game for two

We hadn't played Cities and Knights for a while - or so it seemed - and we had a couple of ours to ourselves on Friday evening. In previous games, Richard has opted for ore hexes, giving him coin commodities, and had usually won. I don't really like the cards associated with coins - they tend to be the ones that sabotage the other player's knights, or do other unpleasant actions - so I've mostly avoided them. But thought I'd try his strategy this time, for a change, to see if it made any difference.


I was slightly surprised at where Richard placed his city - on the wheat harbour, adjoining two clay hexes. No commodities associated at all. But he thought he was likely to get a lot of wheat with his other placements, so it would certainly have made sense in a normal Settlers game.

As it turned out, I had a lot of wheat and he didn't get so much. Since I also had ore, I was quickly able to build another city, and gather quite a few commodities to improve my cities. I was then lucky enough to pick up the merchant card which I placed on wheat. By the time the barbarians attacked, I had two active knights and Richard had one, so - for once - I earned a victory point as defender of Catan:


Richard did fairly well with wood and very well with clay, so he was able to expand easily, and gained the longest street without any difficulty. He also built some settlements and cities, and started collecting commodiites too. I had reached Metropolis level with coins, for probably the first time ever by the second time the barbarians attacked:


Once again, I had the better knight strength, and thus gained the extra victory point. It doesn't usually happen because either I forget to buy knights, or Richard picks up one of the deserter cards, meaning I lose a knight and he gains one. But he didn't have many coins in this game, at least not in the early stages, and the blue event was rolled surprisingly few times.

Although I was doing well with commodities, and knights, Richard was expanding rapidly - which is usually my strategy. Before long he had all four of his cities built, while I had only three.


Then he took control of the merchant - just as I was beginning to think I'd keep it for the entire game - meaning that he gained an extra point, while I lost one. So he had 15 points (12 built, 2 for the longest street, 1 for the merchant) while I had 11 in buildings, plus 2 for the metropolis, and two extra victory points cards. Also 15. We play to 18 points...


Then he gained a metropolis, taking him to 17 points. I was stronger in knights before the next barbarian attack, and he did consider fortifying all his so as to gain an extra point, but decided it was more important to keep some cards and expand. Except that he realised, too late, that he'd used up fourteen of his streets, and thus had no more building spots for his final settlement.

Meanwhile I gained another victory point card, and then - by dint of extensive trading with the bank - managed to gain the third metropolis. So the final score was 18 to me, 17 to Richard.


He should have won, really, despite that initial city placement on two clay. I think he probably is the better player for this variation of Settlers. But he made that logistical error towards the end, giving me the vital extra point.

Since neither of us picked up ANY blue cards in the entire game, my strategy of building cities on ore hexes didn't make the slightest bit of difference! But at least none of my knights were deserters...