Rivers of Catan (for two)

It's been a few months since we last played the 'Rivers of Catan' scenario from Traders and Barbarians. So we decided we'd try it again yesterday evening. The main differences in setup are the 'rivers' hexes which replace some of the regular ones, the 'swamps' which replace the desert, and the fact that the 2 and 12 numbers are put on the same hex.


During game-play, bridges can be built (for two clay and one wood) and coins can be earned by building roads or settlements next to the river. These coins can be traded for resources.

We decided to use the 'harbormaster' card in our game, but to use dice rather than Catan event cards. And although we weren't sure if there would be much point using the 'wealthy settler' and 'poor settler' card, we decided we might as well...

Then I forgot to take a photo after we'd placed our initial pieces. Here's the game after a few rounds:


I'd managed to upgrade one of my settlements to a city, and Richard had built another settlement on the coast. We'd built a few streets too.. and I had also built my first bridge:


In a two-person game there's usually plenty of room for expansion, so they tend to be fairly amicable. However, Richard really wanted the 8:3 ore:wheat coastal intersection, which I'd rather hoped for, so he took it in a single move:


We then noticed that I had the longest street. So that gave me 9 points in buildings, plus the other two, making 11. Except that I also had the 'poor Settler' card, which meant I needed an extra two points if I were to win. 18 rather than 16, in other words...

I had the clay harbour from my initial placement, and that had come in useful. I thought I might go for the wood harbour too, as I was getting quite a bit of wood... and Richard pipped me to the post.

So then I thought I'd go for the sheep harbour, as I had been collecting sheep... only to have Richard built streets to block me from that one too:


He was the first to reach three settlements on harbours, so took the Harbormaster card, and an extra two points.

So I had twelve points on the board and he had ten. We each had two extra points... but since he still held the 'wealthy settler' card, and I was the 'poor settler', he was in practice a point ahead of me rather than two behind.

I built my final settlement. I also extended my long street, so that it couldn't be overtaken. I had been buying development cards, and had played a couple of knights. So now I played my third knight, giving me the largest army:


So I had 17 points, which should have been enough to win... but I was still the 'poor Settler'. So I needed one more. Richard had 12 points on the board, plus the harbormaster, plus the 'wealthy settler' which gave him an extra point, so he also needed only one to win.

But my turn came first. I bought a couple more cards... and one of them was a victory point: