Two-person Settlers of Catan game with Richard

It's been quite some time since Richard and I last played two-person Settlers of Catan without any expansions. We decided to play just the basic game, rather than anything more complicated, since I was quite tired.

Richard had his usual red pieces, and I had orange. I went first, so placed my initial settlement on the 5-8-10 with ore, clay and sheep. I suppose the 5-6-9 nearby (ore, wood and sheep) would have been slightly better from the number point of view. But it seemed that ore and clay were likely to be the least available resources, so I wanted the best spot I could for both.

Richard then placed two settlements. He chose the 5-6-9, and the 3-4-8 with ore, wheat and sheep. It gave him a good range of numbers and he expected to be able to find clay on his third placement.

I then looked at the best possible combination of numbers - with three starting settlements, it's usually easy to get access to all five resources, and, indeed, most of the numbers. I still needed wood and wheat, so an obvious spot for me was the 4-6-9 with clay, wheat and wood. So I had 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10 which are the six most commonly rolled numbers. I decided that for my third settlement, I'd opt for the intersection with a 3 and 11, both on ore, and another useful 6-wood hex in addition.


With three settlements each, play usually gets going fairly quickly in the two-person game. We start with resources for our second two settlements (and are allowed nine cards in our hands before the robber can strike). We decided, too, that rather than giving control of the robber to whoever was behind, when a 7 was rolled, we would just go with the person who rolled it since we're fairly evenly matched. But would still take the resource matching the hex on which we put the robber, rather than stealing from the other player.

Ore was, indeed, rather a rare resource. 3 and 11 were hardly rolled at all in the early stage of the game (although, ironically, there were a couple of 2s and 12s). However, there was reasonably plentiful wood and clay, and we could trade with the bank for anything else we needed; so we both quickly built the first settlements we had planned, and Richard was able to buy a couple of cities.

It took me a little longer, but at last I, too, built my first city, with the help of my useful 3:1 harbour:


So Richard had seven points, and I had six.

I built more streets, basically to reduce the number of cards in my hand, and also bought a few development cards. One of them was a victory point, which wasn't a whole lot of use at this stage. But I did play a knight to move the robber - as did Richard - and had another one hidden. And a very useful 'year of plenty' which would give me two resources of my choice.

I managed to take the clay harbour - although I wasn't picking up a huge amount of clay - and then Richard took the longest street.


So he was now well in the lead with 11 points. I had seven. We usually play to 16 in the two-player game, which means - basically - having all 13 points from buildings on the board, plus either the longest street or largest army, and a victory point. Since Richard had the longest street, I decided I'd aim for the largest army, so played my second knight and bought another card, which was another knight.

With my year of plenty card, and some trading with the bank, I managed to buy another city - ore still wasn't coming with the rolls of the dice - and then took the sheep harbour. I continued putting down streets in the hope of more building spots - and to reduce the cards in my hand - and Richard started building out around the desert. He didn't have any 10s, and really wanted one, so I expected him to build on the 8-10-desert intersection. But instead he started expanding around the 10 and heading towards the 2.


So he still had 11 points, but by this stage I'd managed 9 on the board, and realised I would catch up when I played my third knight.

My turn came around. In my hand, I had three wood and three clay resources. I glanced at Richard's red pieces, and realised that he had used up all his streets, so could never expand his 'long' street beyond eight lengths. So, with a slight apology, I placed the three streets needed to join up my two segments, giving me eleven contiguous streets and the card. I only had two streets left unplayed, but they were sufficient to give me two more building spots which was all I needed.

I played my third knight too.


So now in a complete reversal, I had 13 points, and Richard had 9.

Ore starting being rolled, at last, so we were both able to buy cites. And since I kept forgetting to count points, we played a little longer than we should have done. Richard managed to reach 12 points, and I also played another settlement, giving me 12 on the board, plus the two cards and my hidden victory point meaning I won with 17: