The Fishermen of Catan (from Traders and Barbarians)

Last night we decided, at last, to try out the first scenario from 'Traders and Barbarians' - another expansion to Settlers of Catan which I'd bought a month earlier in the UK. The first one is called 'The Fishermen of Catan'. It features some extra tiles that are placed on the sea, allowing players to pick up fish tokens if the relevant number is rolled when a settlement or city is built nearby.

So Richard, who was first to play, put his initial settlement on a coastal intersection with 8-wheat, 10-wood, and 6-fish.


And here's how the board looked after our setup phase, and a couple of turns since I forgot to take a photo until after Daniel (brown) had bought another settlement.

Sharp-eyed readers might spot that there is no desert hex; instead there's a lake, which is part of the Fishermen of Catan scenario. The lake is teeming with fish; anyone who builds next to it picks up a fish token if a 2, 3, 11 or 12 is rolled. And while none of those is all that common, the probability - as Daniel pointed out - is actually higher in any one roll than either a 6 or an 8.


Oh, and rather than rolling dice (other than to determine who started) we decided to use the Catan event cards, which are also part of the Traders and Barbarians box.

Becky (blue) quickly managed to build out towards the lake hex, and placed a settlement there. I headed to a 3:1 harbour, and the 9-fish tile. And Richard built a city. So each of us had three points:


It wasn't long before Becky and I also managed a city, and Richard (who did rather well for both ore and wheat) built another city. Becky then shot into the lead by taking the longest street card too. She had 7 points, I had 6, Richard and Daniel each had 5. But it was clear that Daniel would be able to build rather more streets than Becky, if he chose to.


At the top edge of the board Becky had neatly arranged the fish tokens that had been played so far.

What, you might ask, are these fish tokens for?

Well... they're upside down when picked, and can display either 1, 2 or 3 fish. These fish can be used for certain actions on one's turn. Two fish can be used to remove the robber from the board altogether (until a 7 is rolled or a knight played). Three fish can be used to steal a card from another player. Four fish buys a resource of one's choice from the bank. Five fish allow a free street to be built, and 7 fish allow a development card to be bought.

So they're rather useful, and add an extra dimension to the game.

One of the fish cards is an old boot. Whoever picks it up has to gain an extra point to win the game. Except that they can pass it (on their turn) to any other player who has the same or more points than they do.

And when there are no more fish tokens to take, the ones that have been played so far are shuffled and turned upside down again.

Playing with the event cards means that not only are the numbers drawn with true statistical likelihood, there are extra 'events' on some of them. For instance, sometimes we all had to pass a card to the player on our left. Sometimes extra cards were given to the person with the most knights, or the most harbours. And sometimes there was an earthquake:

- which left each of us with a crooked street that had to be mended with a wood and clay, before any more streets could be built.

It wasn't long before Daniel gained the longest street card:


So three of us - Richard, Daniel and I - each had 8 points, and Becky had 7. It was still extremely close. Richard had built all his cities and was rather struggling for streets and settlements. I was picking up a lot of cards, but three times in the game managed to draw a 7 card when I had 8 or more cards in my hand, meaning I lost half of them. It was quite frustrating. I started trading away my excess wherever I could - offering Daniel (who played before me) two cards for one of his, at least twice.

And Daniel, twice, played monopoly cards. Which did at least relieve me of some of my excess.

Then in the next round or two we had high drama, where Becky re-took the longest street card, and Richard and I fought over what was the last potential building spot for both of us. I took it:


- and since I had now built all my cities, I had 11 points. I had nowhere else to build, so had to buy cards from now on. Richard, likewise, could only buy cards; he had 9 points on the board but had already played a knight and was evidently hoping for the largest army. Becky, with the longest street, had 10 points.. and Daniel had 8. Still very closely matched.

Oh, and I had the old boot card, as shown in the next photo. So although I was ahead, I needed two points to win - the same as Becky did.

Then Richard played a third knight. He stole a card from me. Then he played six fish, and stole two more cards from me. If he'd managed to draw a 7 card, he would have taken the last card from my hand...

So now he too had 11 points.


So when my turn came around, I presented him with the old boot card.

But it was a bit pointless, because he gave it straight back to me on his turn.

Then Daniel joined up his two sections of roads, giving him a stretch of 14 and the longest street card. Now he had 10 points, Becky had 9, Richard and I had 11 each. And Daniel still had one potential building spot:


But he didn't need to use it. He built another city on his next turn... and then displayed a victory point development card.


He seemed a little surprised to have won such a tightly-fought game:

Settlers of Catan for three

This afternoon, Becky, Marie and I played what must have been our quickest ever game of Settlers of Catan.

It was a nice board, with the robber right in the middle and plenty of reasonable places to start. Marie (white) placed first and took a very nice spot with ore, wheat and sheep on 10, 8 and 5 respectively. As she said, there were plenty of available clay-wood spots so she hoped there would be one left by the time she put her second settlement down. It's the place I'd probably have chosen too, if I'd played first, since sheep looked as if it was going to be the least abundant resource, for a change.

Becky (red) then went for good numbers: a 5-9-10 intersection on a wood and two ore. I was last, and so was able to get access to all five resources and six good numbers: 3, 4, 5, 6, 9 and 10. Sheep was likely to be the most difficult thing for me to get, with only a 3, but I hoped for the clay harbour. Becky and Marie then both took good clay-wood spots. Street-building was unlikely to be a problem in this game.


And so it proved. We did trade a little, but found that we could mostly build at least one street each per turn. With ore and wheat being fairly plentiful, it wasn't too hard to build cities, either. I was lucky, in that a 3 was rolled just when I needed a sheep for my first settlement (on the 3:1 harbour) and managed to trade for my second sheep, so as to build on the clay harbour.

Then I aimed around the coast towards the 8-wheat hex. With only three of us on the board, there was plenty of space and I managed to get there, and to build (after another 3). I then realised that I had managed to build the longest street, so far:


I was rather too far in the lead. I had 7 points on the board, so that gave me 9 in all. Becky had 5, and Marie had 4. But we did all have plenty of building spaces.

Then it was Marie's turn to be lucky. I managed to build one city in the time she managed to build a settlement AND a city, and also sufficient roads to take the longest street card from me:


So now Marie and I each had 8 points, and Becky had 6. Each of them had bought a couple of cards, and played a knight; I hadn't bought any cards (mainly due to the lack of sheep) so it didn't seem that anyone was going to form the largest army any time soon.

Then it was my turn to be lucky again. I didn't really want to take the longest street card away from Marie, but I had so much wood and clay in my hand that I had to do something. So I joined up my two road sections, while hoping that she would be able to build more and take the longest street card back again. I didn't plan to make it any longer.


What none of us had noticed was that by that stage I had 11 points. So when I built a city on my next turn, I had 12 points - but didn't realise. It wasn't until part way through Marie's turn that she counted up, and mentioned it. Since the rules say that a winner can only be declared on their turn, I said she had better finish her move, and Becky should play hers. So they did that, and managed another building each.

Then it was my turn. After I'd rolled, I had the right cards in my hand to build another settlement... so I did that. And won with 13 points.


Becky had 9 points on the board; Marie had 8 plus a victory point card. So they were in joint second place.

And it was only 35 minutes since we had started.

But rather than another venture onto the shores of Catan, we followed it with a game of 'Ticket to Ride, Europe' where Marie absolutely creamed us.

Another six-person Settlers of Catan

Last night we had another get-together with our friends, vying once again for supremacy on the shores of Catan.

A nice board, on the whole. Becky (white) played first, and took a useful 9-6-4 intersection with sheep, wood and wheat. Daniel (green) was next, and took what I thought an even better spot; a 5-8-9 with wood, sheep and ore. Richard (red) took the 3-5-9 with wood, clay and ore, and I (orange) knew that all the best spots had gone. Rather than having three resources with poor numbers, I decided to take the 5-6-10 with two wood and ore. I always like to have a reasonable ore hex at the statt of the game, since ore is such a useful resource. And I hoped I might get the wood harbour, if it was still available; as it wasn't on a particularly useful intersection, I thought it might be.

I was right. Sheila (brown) also opted for good numbers and took the 5-6-9 intersection with two clay and a wheat. The numbers were slightly better than mine, but I'd decided to opt for ore rather than wheat. Jörn (blue) was last, so placed his settlements to get access to all five resources in theory. His wood access was only the 12, but given the distribution of numbers on wood hexes, it seemed a good bet that wood would be easily available for trading.

Sheila decided to go for an intersection with an 8 - since she had a 6 already - although she realised afterwards that she had no ore. Then it was me again... so I went for the 4-10-11 intersection with two wheat and a sheep. Not the greatest of numbers, but I planned to head to the wood harbour as soon as I could. Richard then took a fairly predictable hex with 8, 10 and 12.

And then Daniel and Becky, who have played with many different people and tend to use slightly more proactive strategies, placed their last two settlements. Daniel's was in fact the obvious place for him to take - two resources he didn't have already, and two good numbers. But it was right on the 3:1 harbour which Sheila had planned to take. And Becky decided to play the potentially risky strategy of placing her last settlement right in the centre of three ore hexes - exactly where I had planned to go as soon as I could.


I didn't think wheat was going to be particularly abundant, but 11 was rolled at least twice in the early rounds of the game. And with the good numbers on ore, it wasn't long before six cities had been built:


It was pretty equal at this stage. Five points for me and four for everyone else. My problem was lack of clay, making it difficult to built streets at all, let alone settlements. And I didn't have all that many potential building spots.

Daniel decided to take another artistic photo:


.. and play continued apace. We realised that Sheila needed to take the longest street card, which gave her another couple of points. I wasn't buying many cards, but others were; Becky played knights regularly, and soon took the largest army.


So Becky and Sheila were jointly in the lead with 8 points each. Jörn and I were close behind with 7 each; Daniel had 6, and Richard had 5.

I realised that I had only two building spots left. One of them was the intersection between the two 11-wheat hexes along the coast, although it was possible that Daniel might take it first. The other was next to the desert, with a 6 on wood and a 2 on sheep. I didn't think anyone else was likely to want that one, but Richard built out that way just before I took that last photo. The Becky built out that way too. They were joking about which one would get it first...

.. then suddenly, after some useful trading, I was able to build a street and settlement, and take it myself.


So now I had 8 points, and one remaining building spot. I also had one more city to build - which I could do instantly if a 10 were rolled. I had no chance of either the street or the army cards, so my only prospect of winning after that was to buy cards. I was pretty sure I had very little chance.

Daniel took the next photo, which makes it rather confusing since the board is the other way around. It shows something that Sheila suddenly spotted.. she had somehow placed a settlement illegally! It was only one street away from one of Richard's. She had no idea how that happened, and neither had any of the rest of us, who should have noticed. We discussed what to do, and eventually decided that it had better remain since nobody stopped her.


So Becky was now in the lead with 10 points including the largest army; Sheila was second with 9; I was third with 8. Another board dominated by the women! Daniel and Jörn both had 7 points, and Richard had 6.

The game could possibly have continued longer. Daniel had played three knight cards by this time, and had plans for another, which would have given him the largest army. Jörn could potentially have overtaken Sheila's street length, and taken the card from her.

But there was another distraction, in the form of my youngest best friend Helen, who was having trouble with teething, and beginning to cry at full volume. She really needed to sleep, and the only current method by which this desirable state happens is to take her for a walk in her buggy. So we were all quite anxious for the game to be over rather than prolonging it too much.

So it was with some relief that somebody rolled a 9 at the point at which Becky had 11 points (nine in buildings plus the largest army). A 9 gave her three ore and two wheat - an instant city.

She played it on someone else's building phase... and although, technically, we should have waited until her turn before she was declared the winner, we didn't worry about that detail this time.


So, once again, Becky won the game. I had a victory point card, bought early in the game, so I had 10 points. So did Jörn, who by this time had the longest street as well as four cities. Daniel had 7 points on the board, but two victory point cards, so he had 9. Richard and Sheila both had 7 points on the board and one victory point card, so had 8 points each. It was really all very close.

Four person Cities and Knights of Catan

For the first time, the four of us were at home for an evening together. It was four weeks since the last time Richard and I played Cities and Knights, and we realised we had never played it with four people.

Richard (playing red pieces) rolled highest, and placed first. I didn't think his choice - the 3-4-8 intersection near the top of the board - was all that great. Becky (blue) took what I thought was the best choice from the city-improvement perspective: a 5-9-10 intersection on sheep, ore and wood respectively. All she needed to do was to upgrade to a city, and she would then have a good chance of collecting all three Catan commodities.

Daniel (brown) took another great spot from the number perspective, including a 6 on clay, and also a 4 on wheat. I had already spotted that wheat was likely to be in serious shortage in this game. So when it was my turn to place both my settlement and my city, I chose some reasonable numbers that included that 4-wheat, and access to all five resources. I particularly liked the idea that any time an 8 was rolled, I would collect a street.

I then forgot to take a photo until we'd played our first round, and built some streets. Richard had even bought and activated his first knight. I remembered just as Becky was placing the first new settlement of the game:


My initial plan was to head for the useful 9-10-5 intersection with two sheep and an ore. Unfortunately, Daniel had the same idea. And when he realised that I would get there before he could, he built a settlement on the 2-5-9 intersection, which gave him a building spot (albeit not as useful) and effectively blocked me from the one I wanted. But I shrugged, and built another street, thinking I would take the 9-10-11 intersection with sheep, ore and wheat.

Alas for my plans. Richard built in that direction, and built a settlement on the adjacent 3-10-11... so I was stymied again.

So I decided on my next move I would head towards the coast from my city, towards the 3:1 harbour... only to find that Daniel had picked up a street-building progress card, enabling him to stop me in my tracks from that one too. He picked up the longest street at the same time, putting him in the lead with six points already:


Richard had five points, Becky had four, and I was still on my initial three... and beginning to run out of building spots already.

It wasn't long before the barbarians made their first landing to Catan. Between us, we had sufficient activated knights to stop them: two for Richard, two for Becky, and two for me.


So we each picked up a progress card of our choice since nobody was the outright Defender of Catan.

I had at least managed to build one settlement by that stage, on the wheat harbour. Not that I was getting a lot of wheat (indeed, I don't think I used it for trading in the entire game), but it was a building spot.

Since I was having such a hard time building settlements, I concentrated for a while on city improvements, and before too long was able to gain Metropolis level with wood. Rather a lot of 8s had been rolled, and other people seemed happy to trade with me.


And the barbarians attacked again. This time, Richard had the most knight power, so gained an extra victory point as Defender of Catan.


So Richard was in the lead with 9 points. Daniel right behind with 8 (including the longest street) and I had 7, including my metropolis. Becky, who had picked up a victory point progress card, had 6.. and kept just missing the opportunity to build a settlement, despite having plenty of building spots. She simply wasn't getting wheat, nor many sheep (since 5s came up only rarely). She had managed to build her city in the useful spot with three potential commodities, but none of those numbers were rolled all that frequently.

By the next barbarian attack, I had managed to build another settlement and upgrade it to a city. I'd also built more streets - hoping for (and succeeding in) one more building spot on the 2 - and Daniel pointed out that my longest street was now longer than his. So that gave me two more points.

Richard and Daniel shared the most knights at this next attack, so no more victory points were awarded; but they both had another progress card to pick up.


Suddenly I realised that I was in the lead with 12 points. Richard, with his one Defender of Catan victory point, was close behind with 11. Daniel had 8, and Becky was still on 6. The booklet said that we should play to 13 points, so we decided that 15 was a reasonable number to aim for.

The next excitement was that Richard managed metropolis level on the cloth commodity improvements. So he now had 13 points. And Daniel extended his roads, giving him back the longest street card. He had control of the merchant, too, so he had 11 points. I was back to 10, and Becky - who had had a sudden spate of success in building - had 8.


I was expecting the game to go on for a while longer... then Richard built some more streets. Daniel's longest street had eight pieces, and Richard's had 9. So he had two more points, making him the winner with 15. And then he showed that he had the merchant card, so he took that as well, meaning he had in fact won with 16 points.


It was a pretty strong victory, I was second with 10 points, Becky was close behind with 9, and Daniel was just behind again with 8.

As we were talking about the game and starting to clear away, Daniel took the camera. He switched to sepia to take this rather nice picture of Richard:


.. and a black-and-white picture of the robber:


... and this, showing both the merchant (artistically out of focus, close to the camera) and the robber in the distance:

Settlers of Catan for six in the evening

Last week, we introduced our friend Joan's daughter Emily to Settlers of Catan. She enjoyed it, and suggested a return match on Monday at their house. We were delighted to agree, but I wasn't really thinking when we agreed to play a game in the afternoon with another friend's three children.

Still, what's the problem? Two games of Settlers is twice as good as one game, and there were different opponents. Mark was home too, but said he'd play on a team with Joan.

Richard (red) played first, and took some nice numbers with an 8-ore hex. I (orange) was second, and opted for some more nice numbers, with a 9-ore hex. Becky (white) was third, and took some more good numbers, hoping for the sheep harbour nearby. Daniel (brown) was fourth... I was worrying that there would be no good places left by the time Emily came to play, which seems a bit unfair as she'd only placed once before. Daniel took a wood-clay-wheat intersection with yet more reasonable numbers; Emily (green) then went directly for yet another place with clay and wood - evidently she didn't need advice any more. Mark and Joan went last, and after much discussion opted for a lot of sheep and some fair numbers, with high likelihood of the sheep harbour.

There were really quite a few reasonable places for our early settlements so at the start of the game, it felt as if anyone could have won.


Although I was hoping for some coastal settlements, I thought I'd better start by building inland where there was likely to be more competition. So I played my first road towards the 12-ore hex, and soon built a settlement there. 9s and 4s were rolled fairly often, and I found myself able to build a couple of cities, too, without any trading.

The longest road was taken by Daniel; he didn't really plan to build it, but kept finding himself with street resources in his hand, and more than 7 cards, so he had to keep building new streets or risk losing cards to the robber. And Becky managed to grab the sheep harbour that Mark and Joan had been aiming for. She did apologise...


So, at this point in the game Daniel and I were equally in the lead with 6 points each.

Emily bought several cards, and started playing knights fairly early in the game. Then she got quite excited about a different card she had bought. She asked us what - in theory - she 'ought' to do if, by chance, she picked up a monopoly card. We gave her some of the strategy of the game. She waited... and then monopolised clay right after a 4 had been rolled.


Richard, who needed clay, was not impressed:


I seemed to be doing better than I had in recent games. Before long, I had gained 8 points. It was the same as Daniel, who still had the longest street card, but with only five roads we were all pretty sure it would be taken by someone else sooner or later. Emily and Becky were next, both with 5 points. Richard had 4, Mark and Joan 3. They didn't seem to be very lucky with dice rolls at all.


Of course, being ahead meant that the robber was placed on my best hexes far more often than I wished. And, since Murphy's Law holds even on Catan, the 6 - which wasn't rolled all that often - came twice when the robber was on my 6-wood hex, where I had two cities and a settlement... and the wood harbour. I missed out on ten wood, which would have translated to five cards of my choice. A potential city... except that I had already built all five of my cities. But I could, perhaps, have built some more streets to overtake Daniel, or bought at least one development card.

Still, I did have 10 points and was picking up a fair number of cards. Daniel had trouble building cities, but eventually managed, and was thus in second place with 8 points.


Then Daniel played a third knight... so he also had the largest army. Ten points - and nobody really challenging him on the army size front.


However, I reckoned I might be able to take the longest street card. So, when I happened to pick up a lot of clay and wood (a couple of 10s were rolled) I bought the streets I needed to join my two sections together. That didn't beat Daniel's ten streets, but took me to 8. All I needed to do now was to join the last two on the 6-wood hex, and I would have 12.


I built one of them. I wasn't picking up any more ore or clay, but managed to buy cards on the building phase of other people's turns. Not that any of them were particularly useful. Several knights, basically, and one monopoly. And one victory point.

Then my turn came around. I was planning to trade to buy another card. Daniel pointed out that I could buy my last street, take the longest street card from him, and win. But.. I didn't want to. I thought I'd gamble on prolonging the game a little... so I bought another card. Had it been another victory point, I would have won.

But it wasn't.

So Becky took her turn, and Daniel built a city in her building phase. He now had 11 points.

Then it was his turn... and he built another city. And then turned over a victory point card... so he won with 13.


I was second with 11 (since I also had a victory point card).

Daniel had come last in most of the other games we've played recently, but then he does usually manage one extreme or the other:

Afternoon game of Settlers for five

A friend texted and asked if I'd be able to play a game with her kids while she went shopping. Sounded good to me... and since Daniel and Becky were here, we decided on a game of Settlers of Catan. Shenna is only 8, and while she plays well she preferred to be in a team with Becky - so we got to play the five-player version.

And just to make it a little different, Daniel suggested that rather than using dice we might try the 'event cards' from the Traders and Barbarians of Catan set. We'd only played one game with the event cards previously.

Josh (white) played first (we did use dice to determine who would begin!) and chose an intersection with clay and wood, despite wood being on a 12. We knew that, with the event cards, 12 would come at some point, albeit not frequently, unless of course it happened to be amongst the bottom five which do not get picked. Becky and Shenna (green) opted for a double-ore slot with some nice numbers, after discussing the fact that they might also try and get the ore harbour. Daniel (red) then opted for a wood-clay spot, which I thought slightly better than Josh's choice, and Nicole (blue) took another wood-clay spot, although clay was 12.

I was last, meaning I could place both settlements... I couldn't see any particularly good places. Clay looked as if it would be in rather short supply, but in theory I had access to all five resources and six numbers. Becky and Shenna were pleased to find that they could still take the ore harbour and planned to trade for wood.


Ore was reasonably plentiful in this game, so three of us managed cities fairly early. The event cards don't just have statistically correct numbers on them; some of them have extra bonuses - such as a free resource card for whoever has the most harbours, or the largest army - or problems, such as the 'earthquake' card which means everyone has to turn a street sideways, and then pay another wood and clay to restore it.


It wasn't long before Shenna and Becky took the longest street. With an 8 on clay (in a game lacking clay generally) and the ore harbour, they had no trouble trading for wood. This put them ahead with 7 points, while I had 6, Josh and Nicole had 5, and Daniel had 4.


The next excitement, not long afterwards, was when Daniel took the longest street card:


- although Josh then built a settlement which effectively ensured that Daniel's street would not get much longer. Unusually, we all managed to have 7 points at the same time:


Slightly to my surprise, I was able to take the longest street card shortly afterwards, giving me 10 points. Becky and Shenna had 9, Josh had 8, Nicole had 7, and Daniel had 5.


It was quite an exciting game. We continued gaining points slowly - Daniel, alas, was still far behind but the rest of us were between 9 and 11; it was still almost anybody's game. And one of the event cards (maybe more than one) required whoever was ahead to give a card of their choice to everyone who wasn't ahead. So that made it all the more even, in a sense.

t could have gone on a long time. Nicole had played several knights, and gained the largest army. So she had 9 points, Josh had 10, Becky and Shenna had 10, and I had 11. Daniel now had 6.



Nicole built another settlement. Josh built another settlement. He and I were in the lead with 11 points...

It got to Becky and Shenna's turn... they built their final city, and then produced a victory point. So they were the winners. And since Nicole also had a victory point, it meant that three of us had 11 points at the end - only Daniel was still behind.


Here's a picture of the winning team: