We thought about playing our usual 'Fog Island' scenario, but the instructions said that it was not advisable to play Cities and Knights on any of the scenarios with unexplored territory that had to be discovered. So we thought perhaps it would be best to use the first and simplest scenario: heading to new shores. That meant we started with a regular-sized Catan island, and a few smaller ones which we could sail to. Since we could gain extra Catan chits by doing so, quite apart from the extra Cities and Knights points, we agreed to play to 16 points. Or maybe 17...
I was first to place my settlement. I was already a little overwhelmed, wondering whether to head for ship-building resources (wood and sheep), or my usual preferences (whatever is least available, particularly ore), or Cities and Knights commodity-producing hexes (wood, sheep and ore), or even the basic Settlers clay and wood for road-building.
I decided to opt for a good selection of numbers, with resources that would - I hoped - be appropriate for all parts of the game. So I took the 5-8-9 with two wood and a sheep. I headed towards the coast and a 3:1 harbour, figuring that if all else failed I could at least head out to sea.
Tim (white) then took the slightly better numbers of 5-6-9 on wood, wheat and sheep, which I had seriously considered. Wheat, after all, is vital in Cities and Knights in order to feed the knights. And of course it's an essential element of both settlements and cities.
Richard (red) took the 5-9-10 with three resources for his settlement, and the 3-4-8 with two wood and a sheep for his city, thus ensuring some reasonable commodity cards, and six different numbers. Tim took an ore and two wheat for his city, also achieving six different numbers. So I decided that I would also go for numbers... even though it left me with an over-abundance of wood, but no access at all to either ore or wheat.
With the help of my wood and clay, and some useful trading, I managed a couple of streets and a couple of settlements without too much difficulty, Then, since I was still collecting wood and some sheep, I thought I might as well build a ship... and head for yet more wood. Richard and Tim had each managed one settlement by that time, and we had all started gaining city improvements.
It was only as the barbarian ships sailed closer and closer to Catan that we realised we had left it undefended. Tim managed to buy a knight just in time:
So nobody gained a victory point as Catan defender; Richard and I both had to demote our cities into settlements.
With the help of some trading, and some useful progress cards, I was able to build my city again, and even fortify it with some extra clay so as to allow myself more cards before the robber could strike. I also bought a knight, and activated it, so that by the next time the barbarians attacked, Catan was at least defended:
Since Tim and I each had one knight, nobody gained a victory point but we each took a progress card of our choice. Since we both like the green ones best, those are what we took.
Although Richard had started with a city on the 8-wood hex, it took him a few more turns before he was able to re-build it after the first barbarian attack. So I managed to reach the metropolis on books before he did, and thus an extra two points.
Richard also played the card that allowed him to switch any two numbers on the board (other than 2, 12, 6 or 8). He chose to switch the 5-wood (on which I had two cities) with the 11-ore (on which I also had a city, and where he was aiming to build a settlement). Unfortunately for him, he did it the turn before he could built the settlement, in anticipation. He did not know that I held a street-building card, which meant that I was able to build a settlement there instead. Suddenly I had good access to wheat, which I had been aiming for, and also to ore, which I had not expected.
By the next barbarian attack, we had two knights each:
- so each of us picked up another green card. I was in the lead by this stage. I had eleven points on the board, including my metropolis. I also had one victory point from my progress cards. I'd had the longest trade route briefly, too, but Richard took it from me when he sailed out towards the wood-clay island. So he had seven points on the board (plus one victory point from progress cards too), and Tim had seven points on the board.
By the next barbarian attack, Tim had sailed out to the gold hex, and gained the longest street card. So he now had ten points. Richard, who had no ore since I took the spot he wanted, had a hard time building cities, so was still on five points. And I was still significantly in the lead with 12 points on the board, plus my one victory point, and another since I'd taken control of the merchant to enable me to have very useful 2:1 trading on wood.
I was pondering building yet more ships, then realised that two streets joining up my road segments would give me the longest route more easily - so I did that, and by the next barbarian attack was far in the lead with 16 points. So we decided to play to 18.
Richard had six points in buildings, plus an extra chit point for building on another island. Tim had ten points, plus a chit, giving him eleven. I did wonder if he would take the longest trade route card from me - he only needed three more streets or ships to do so - which would have prolonged the game for a few more rounds.
But he didn't. And when my turn came around, I had the cards to build a settlement - at last - one one of the outlying small islands. So that gave me one extra point for the settlement, and another one for the chit that was awarded for being first to build on any of the small islands.
We did, briefly, discuss continuing to 20 points, but had made a note in Cities and Knights that it gets dull after 18 points. So I was declared the winner.
It was rather exhausting trying to think about all the different aspects of the game at the same time, but very enjoyable. And my win was at least in part due to Richard's error of judgement in switching two numbers before he had built on the ore hex.
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