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...
No comments:
Post a Comment