Seafarers of Catan: fog island (for four)

Becky had never played Seafarers of Catan. Daniel hadn't played for ages. So we thought it about time to have a game of 'Fog Island'. And since Becky was new to it, we thought that even though only four of us were playing, we would use the 5-6 player expansion, to give us all plenty of room.

It took Richard about half an hour to get it all set up. There aren't too many different rules in Seafarers -just the building of ships for one sheep and one wood hex - and Becky's good at games, so we set up our initial settlements with ease:


We used the layout in the booklet, and I was a bit surprised that it was so difficult to get access to all the resources. I found myself without ore, which I don't like at the start of any game. However, with Fog Island one sets out to see to explore other territories, so I realised there was potential for ore that way. Becky (blue) and Richard (red) both had good access to ore; if I'd made a prediction about who would win, I would have expected it to be one of them.

Since I was a little blocked in on the main Catan island, I set out to sea as soon as I could and was very pleased to find that my first uncovered hex was a clay, and the corresponding number a 6.


I was even more pleased when the next tile was a wheat-4.

Richard also started exploring at the other end - and to his surprise, also uncovered land tiles, although without such good numbers. Daniel assured us he had shuffled the hidden hexes, so it was surprising not to have had any sea in the first half dozen.


Daniel and Becky, meanwhile, were building on the main Catan island. Becky was stymied from setting out to sea at first, because of the initial placement of the pirate which prevented her from building any ships on the surrounding edges.

Eventually the pirate was moved, and Becky started out to sea. I had done more exploring... and although Richard did uncover one sea hex, I continued finding land. Unfortunately no ore, however.

Daniel was the first to build the 'longest trade route', just with streets, but Richard soon took it from him when he started exploring.


Then Becky built more and more ships, heading out towards the gold hex in the corner, and took the longest trade route herself.

I did eventually uncover an ore hex... but unfortunately the corresponding number was 12. However I managed to get as far as the other gold hex:


At last Daniel began building ships - and uncovered another gold hex:


By this stage, Daniel - who had bought a LOT of development cards - had played three knights, and so obtained the largest army. Thus he was in the lead - just - with 10 points. Becky, who still held the longest route card, had 9, I also had 9, and Richard had 8.


Then I happened to pick up a lot of wood and clay... so extended my streets, joined up my two sections, and took the longest trade route card. I was now ahead with 12 points. We had decided to play to 14, and all still had plenty of building spots. However, I had used up all my streets which isn't something I usually do.



It really was a game of battles for the longest trade route. Richard was the next person to take it:


So onw Richard had 11 points, I had 11 points, Daniel had 11 points, and Becky had 8. We sympathised, but then she's won rather a lot lately, so we didn't feel too sorry for her.

I built my last two settlements, and had 13 points. Daniel also did some more building, and had 13 points. His 'largest army' kept growing bigger and bigger; he bought a lot of cards, but nearly all of them were knights. And since his 13 points included that card, he still had the potential for another city, whereas all I could do was buy cards. Until that point in the game, I had not bought any at all. We were a bit surprised that Daniel did not have even one victory point card amongst his large collection.

And, being Daniel - and not competitive - instead of trading for another city and winning, which he could have done at least twice (although he did have rather bad luck, losing half his cards to the robber several times) decided to buy more cards whenever he could and hope for a victory point.

The first two cards I bought were also knights.

And then, on my next turn, I bought one more...and it was a victory point:


Here, by contrast, are the cards Daniel bought in the game: thirteen of them, without a single victory point:


So, a little reluctantly, I was the winner. Daniel should have been, however.

Here's the final board, where Becky had once again gained the longest trade route card:



So I had 14 points, Daniel had 13, Becky had 10, and Richard also had 10.

I guess ore is not as important in Seafarers as it is in regular Settlers of Catan, or Cities and Knights.