Cities and Knights with Fog Island

We play 'Cities and Knights' about once a week, usually, with the occasional basic Settlers game. But a week or so back we had played Cities and Knights on Saturday evening, and wanted something slightly different on Sunday afternoon. Alternative games were rejected, and someone suggested trying Cities and Knights with one of the Seafarers games.

The only previous time we played Cities and Knights with Seafarers was five years ago, and it was just three of us. Checking that post, I see we had read that it was a bad idea to combine the former with any of the 'hidden tile' games. We didn't remember that, however, so the largest board I can remember seeing was set up, combining the 'Fog Island' scenario with the extra cards and pieces necessary for Cities and Knights.

I didn't think of taking a photo until after we had started. We followed the layout in our instructions, including the distribution of resource hexes and numbers, and I started. It wasn't difficult to choose my opening placement: the ideal spot for both Seafarers and Cities and Knights was on sheep, wood and wheat with good numbers for them all, not far from a coastline.

It was quite crowded by the time five of us had placed our initial settlements and then - in reverse order, of course - cities, and this shows the board after the first round, where both Tim (white) and I (orange) had built a street and a settlement, and I'd also managed a knight; but nothing much else had happened:

We always play our first few rounds with 'friendly robber' (and pirate) enabled: we don't roll the extra Cities and Knights die that might advance the attack towards Catan, and if a 7 is rolled, the player rolls again. This way, resources are collected in a reasonable way at the start of the game and nobody risks losing half their cards. We continue this for at least two full rounds, or longer if several people have still not built anything.

We're familiar enough now with the complexities of Cities and Knights that we could easily weigh up the various possibilities in each turn.

I took my second photo after we'd been playing for about an hour:

The scores were fairly even at this stage. Tim had ten points, including the 'coins' metropolis. Sheila (brown) had nine, including the 'cloth' metropolis and the merchant (or perhaps ten; I forget, now, who had victory points from the progress cards and from defending Catan). I had twelve including the 'longest route' (streets and/or ships). Jörn (blue) had eight or nine, including victory points; Richard (red) had six but was enjoying building ships.

Only three of us managed to build ships at all; Tim realised that he was boxed in from the start, so concentrated on building on the main island. Jörn hoped to build some ships, but was unlucky with numbers, and never managed to do so. Sheila built a couple of ships, but only 'discovered' water. Richard and I were more successful, although very few of the 'island' pieces were discovered by the time the game came to an end.

I won a round later, although I forgot to take a final photo. But it wasn't much different; I built a settlement on the spot that was available, and also upgraded to a new city. I hadn't won a game for a while, and was quite surprised to find that I had done so, although it often seems to me that, when I'm first to place a settlement, I am most likely to win.

Putting everything away was a bit complex as we had used pieces from three different boxes, but Sheila's very good at that, and we all agreed that it was a good game. We should try this more often as a variation. 

Cities and Knights for four players

We decided we'd like a game of Cities and Knights with our son Daniel and daughter-in-law Becky, during the afternoon when there was plenty of time, and when we were all wide awake. It's not very often that we've played Cities and Knights with more than two of us, but they play regularly when they're at home.

Richard (red, as usual) was first to play, and went for a good ore-wheat combination. Daniel was second, with brown tiles; he remembered the importance of wheat in Cities and Knights, so took an 8-wheat, with a couple of other good numbers. Becky, playing blue, took what I usually think of as the best three-number combination (5-9-10) and then it was me. I don't much like playing last, but the advantage, of course, was that I could place my settlement and city together.

My beginning strategy - if one can call it that - with this game is to have my first city on the best possible wood hexes. I like to get as many 'books' commodity cards as quickly as I can, so I can pick up the green progress cards which are often useful, and then reach the heights of being able to choose any resource if I get 'no production on a roll'. So my city went on a good spot with two wood and one sheep, and for my settlement I opted for a spot with three different numbers and as many different resources as I could get. I hoped to be able to trade for wheat.

Becky then placed her city, on another intersection with very good numbers and the potential for 'cloth' commodity cards - the only disadvantage being that she didn't have much of a range of numbers - but as they were 5, 6, 9 and 10 there was a good chance that they would come up regularly.

Then it was Daniel's turn. He studied the board.. and someone commented that, with the first six placements, we had totally blocked the central 11-wheat hex. In fact, by placing where we did, each building directly opposite another, we had actually managed to block every other inland intersection. The only remaining building spots were on the coast!

So Daniel took a spot with good ore - and the potential for 'coins' commodity cards - and Richard took a useful place with both sheep and wood:

Daniel and Becky did both have all five resources available, while I was lacking wheat and Richard lacked clay. 

Then, since we realised that resources were going to be thin in the ground, and we've had games where 11s seem to come constantly, we decided to use the Traders and Barbarians cards instead of rolling dice, so that we would, at least, get statistically likely numbers in proportion. 

As usual, we don't play the event die nor use 7s until at least two rounds have passed, and until at least two people have built something - we also play the 'friendly robber' scenario, meaning that the robber may not be put on a hex that is adjacent to any player with only two (or, in Cities and Knights, three) points. But a couple of 10s were turned over early in the game, so it wasn't long before Becky had expanded and built on the sheep harbour - something she hoped to use extensively - and I had also managed to build another settlement:

Richard and Daniel were stuck, and clay was a scarce resource at this stage, so nobody wanted to trade it. 

With limited building spots available, Becky and I both expanded as rapidly as we could, and it wasn't long before she had the longest street:

So she had eight points, and was in the lead. I had managed a second city by this stage, so was second with six points. Daniel and Richard each had four, still struggling for clay, but hadn't been able to build any cities yet, although a few knights were by now scattered around Catan. 

When we started rolling the event die, several of us had already made a few city improvements; I found that the books commodity was coming fairly often, and picked up some useful cards. Surprisingly quickly, I gained an extra two points with a metropolis on books: 

So Becky and I each had eight points. Daniel had gained a victory point for the most knights when the pirate ship landed for the first time, so he and Richard each had five points by this stage. 

I kept expanding, and - with the help of a useful street-building card - managed to gain the longest street card from Becky: 

So I had 12 points on the board, and nobody else was likely to take the street card from me. We play to 14 in Cities and Knights for more than two players, and I had picked up one victory point progress card - so I was one away from victory, and quite a long way ahead of everyone else. 

However, I forgot entirely that I should have activated my knight. I only had one, and was - as usual - leaving the proctetion of Catan to other players. But the pirate ship was fairly close to landing, and we didn't have enough activated knights. It was Richard's turn, and he had the cards to build another city. He didn't want to do so, not wanting to lose it... but then realised that, with a little trading, he could also buy and feed a knight, so he did that. 

Then it was Becky's turn, and she rolled the black event, so the pirate ship was just one move away from landing. She had a choice - she could activate her knights so as to protect Catan, and then gain a victory point through having the most active knights - or she could activate just one, meaning that I would be the player with the least active knights (ie zero!) and would lose a city. 

Becky decided to be kind, so she fed her knights. We were safe... 

... then Daniel, who didn't move the pirate ship on, built another city.  Catan was no longer safe.  My turn at last, and I would be able to activate my knight so long as I rolled one of the coloured events... 

.. but I didn't. I rolled a pirate ship event, and Catan was attacked. And I lost a city, and therefore a point:

So now I was back to 12. Richard, who had control of the merchant, had 8, Becky and Daniel each had 6. But it was only a matter of time. It did, at least, mean that we all had another turn, which enabled Becky to reach the metropolis on cloth, as well as another settlement and city, giving her 10 points by the end. 

I had too many cards by the time it was my turn again; had I lost half of them to the robber, we would probably have played yet another round. But as it was, I was able to re-build my lost city, giving me 13 points... and then I produced the progress card I had collected during the round which enabled me to take control of the merchant, and give me the final victory point I needed: 

So Becky and I were quite  a long way ahead of our menfolk. Possibly, as Daniel pointed out, this was (at least in part) due to the fact that they had been forced to place their initial cities on the coast, giving them fewer resources at the beginning. 

Rivers and Knights of Catan...? (for two)

Richard's favourite game is Cities and Knights, so, if we don't have any guests, we play a two-person game of this at least once a week. We've got to the stage that we can play it even if we're tired - no longer does it seem the horrendously complicated game it did at first.

But just occasionally we want a slight variation. So I suggested we attempt one of the Cities and Barbarians variants, with Cities and Knights. Richard decided to start with the first scenario in the booklet, the one that uses the River of Catan - last played quite some time ago.

So we got out three boxes, and set up the game, complete with the rivers on the board in place of a few hexes, and the bridges to allow us to cross the rivers (at the cost of two brick one one wood). Oh, and the coins, which can be earned from building next to rivers.  Plus all the Cities and Knights paraphernalia:

I rolled to go first, which I prefer not to do in the two-person game; had I gone second, I would have taken exactly the places Richard (red) took with his two settlements, giving all five resources and six different numbers. As it was, remembering that it was Cities and Knights, and that I always like to collect the 'books' resource, I started on the 8-wood hex, hoping to upgrade to a city as soon as possible. I did also take into account that clay (bricks) looked as if they might be scarce, so was pleased to start on the best clay resource on the board. 

I then placed my city on the next best wood hex, which also gave access to sheep. 

Since we had, inevitably, both built at least some of our starting pieces next to one of the rivers, we both had some coins. We had decided that, with only two of us, we would ignore the 'wealthy' and 'poor settler' cards; this meant that neither of us had any incentive to hang onto coins, so we both used them to buy what we needed (two coins buys one card in the Rivers of Catan scenario) to get our first settlements: 

This meant that the robber and the event die came into play after just two rounds, and the game progressed rapidly. Clay was not in such short supply as we expected, so I fortified my city quickly with two clay cards - that enabled me to have 11 in my hand before the robber would strike, rather than the usual 9 which we allow in the two-person game. 

We both built an extra city fairly quickly, then only just managed to have sufficient knights to defend us when the pirate ship arrived on the shores of Catan for the first time:

Richard had seven points by this stage, and I was lagging behind with five.

We had the same number of knights, so each took a resource card of our choice. We always choose the green 'building' ones if we can, as they tend to be the most useful. Richard's was the 'alchemist' that allowed him to switch two numbers of his choice (excluding 6, 8, 2 or 12). So he exchanged the 5 on wheat (which I had) with the 11 on ore (which he had): 

My green resource card was even more useful - a street-building one, which enabled me to place two streets, something I had been struggling to do.  I had a free city fortification too, so used that, giving me 13 cards allowable before the robber could steal from me. 

A few moves later, since Richard had the resources, and wanted the ore harbour, he built his first bridge: 

That gave him the longest street, but then I managed to build two more streets - an 11 was rolled, giving me plenty of clay - so I took the card from him: 

Then I picked up an alchemist card, meaning I too could switch two numbers. I took the 5 which Richard had placed on ore, and changed it with the 11 on clay, which would theoretically benefit us both:

I say 'theoretically', because as it happened, 11s were rolled rather more often than 5s in this game!

Richard collected the merchant card and using it on wood, of which he had an abundance, right before the pirate struck for the second time:

Although I had the longest street, I only nine points on the board (making 11 in total). Richard had ten on the board, plus the merchant, giving him also 11. So we were neck and neck at this point (not that we actually counted points while playing). 

However, Richard was doing well with the cloth resource cards, and managed to get to metropolis level: 

Little did I know his dastardly plan, which was to build another bridge, and take the longest street card back from me: 

We had both, by this stage, built all four cities.  He also had four settlements on the board, giving him 12 building points, plus two for the metropolis, two for the longest street, and one extra for the merchant. He only needed one more point... and managed it, building his final settlement:

So he was the resounding winner, and I had, simply, 12 points from what I had built. 

I didn't build a single bridge, and neither of us had any victory points at all. 

Cities and Knights of Catan for two

An evening to ourselves, and another two-person Cities and Knights game using our normal two-player Catan house rules. I've stopped photographing and writing about every single game - there were just far too many - but the layout of the board looked rather interesting, with resources rather clumped together, so I thought it was about time I logged another game.

As this picture shows, all the wood was together in the middle; all the clay was together at one edge, and all the ore was also together. It made initial placements quite tricky:


I had most numbers, but was lacking a six, and my clay was apparently going to be rather limited. Richard lacked only 2, 11 and 12 number-wise, and looked as if he was going to do pretty well with city improvements using cloth.

We always play a few round before bringing the robber (and third die) into play, and with plentiful ore and wheat, we both built cities, rather bravely given that we also needed sufficient knights to defend them, once the pirate ship started sailing towards Catan.

Oddly enough, the 10 was rolled rather more often than would be expected, giving us both enough clay to fortify cities against the robber... it was wood that was lacking. We had both managed one street and one new settlement by this stage of the game; I was particularly pleased to have built on a 6, as I had originally planned.

But there was only one knight (mine)... and the pirate ship was rapidly approaching....


... happily, non-black 'events' on the third die came up a few times, enabling me to upgrade my knight, and Richard to buy and feed a two-strength knight, so by the time the pirates landed, Catan was safe. No victory points awarded, but we each picked up a progress card of our choice (inevitably they were both green ones).

.. and the knights were de-activated. It looked as if it was going to be a slow-moving game...


City resources were coming in thick and fast, due to our well-placed cities, but not much else had happened by the time the second pirate attack happened - just a few more streets, an extra settlement for Richard, and some more knights - basically bought because the relevant resources kept arriving and we didn't want our hands too big.

I hadn't activated any knights other than my double one, so Richard won the victory point for the next pirate attack:


And, once again, black events were rolled fairly often. All that happened before the third pirate attack was that a couple more settlements were built, and Richard managed a metropolis (with cloth, unsurprisingly)) which would probably have led to his winning the game, but for one thing: I picked up the card which allowed me to exchange any two of the numbers on the board, other than the 2, 12, 6 or 8. So I changed the 5 on clay (which Richard had) with the 11 on wood, which I had.

This time, I had the most active knights and won the victory point:


Richard was well ahead, though. He had 11 points on the board, including the metropolis, one victory point from a progress card, and one victory of Catan point. I had only 8 points on the board, plus my newly one victory of Catan card.

Then suddenly the action hotted up. I claimed the longest street card... only to have it snatched from my grasp when Richard took it from me. A mistake on his part, as it turned out, because it meant that he did not consolidate his cloth metropolis, and I was able to take it from him (permanently):


Our scores were now very even. Not that we tend to notice while playing.. .sometimes one of us has won several rounds before either of us notices.

The action continued - Richard built a wood metropolis, and I built a couple more streets, thus getting the longest street card back again, at least for a turn or two...


So I had 12 points on the board, the longest street card, and one victory point. 15 in all. Richard had 12 on the board, and one victory point. Unusually, the merchant had not yet come into play.

Then I played the merchant, giving me an extra point. I built another settlement, and another city, and gained the third metropolis too, all in one round...


... which gave me 20 points, and thus a fairly resounding victory, which I had not expected given how far Richard was ahead in the early stages of the game. However, there's a fair amount of luck, and I happened to be lucky with the rolls of the dice.

Cities and Knights WITH Seafarers of Catan

It was Tim's last night here for a while. So we decided to try something new; Cities and Knights of Catan, on a Seafarers board.

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.

Cities and Knights of Catan for three - hard work!

A peaceful Sunday afternoon. Three of us at home - what better to do than to play a game. And since we have a Settlers game planned for this evening with our friends, we thought we'd have a gentle three-person Cities and Knights game.

At least, that's what we thought...

Tim set the board up for us, and rolled to go first. He had the green pieces, and chose a nice-looking spot with 8, 9 and 10 on clay, wheat and ore. It looked as though the tiles were fairly evenly distributed, and that there wouldn't be anything in particular in short supply. However wheat is particularly useful in this game, and that looked like the best hex to get wheat.

Richard, remembering the importance of commodities in Cities and Knights, took the place with sheep, ore and wood on 5, 6 and 9. Then it was my turn to place my settlement and my city together. Both the spots I liked had been taken... so I placed my city on the other one that had the three commodity-related resources, and my other on that useful-looking 9-wheat hex. it bordered the desert, but also a 5-wood, which I hoped would be useful since my only other wood access was on a 3. I hoped to build out towards the 6-clay hex as soon as possible, since I didn't have any access to clay.

Richard was quite tempted by the intersection with three sheep on 5, 8 and 10, which would have given him a lot of the cloth commodity... but decided that it would be more useful to have clay and wheat. Tim did consider the intersection with three sheep, but two of the numbers were the same as number he had already, so instead he chose three new ones including a 6 for his city, with wheat, ore and sheep.


So Richard was the only one of us who had theoretical access to all five resources at the beginning.

Play was very slow to get started. Quite a few 6s were rolled - no use to me at all - and a few 5s and 11s. We don't roll the event die, or count 7s in the first two rounds, which - theoretically - gets it going more quickly. But it didn't seem to work. By the time the barbarians made their first attack - and that was after quite some time, since we rolled the coloured events more than half the time - we had each managed only one street. To be sure, Richard had built a settlement on that three-sheep hex, and Tim had upgraded his settlement to a city. Richard and I each had a double-strength knight, as well. With four cities, we had enough to defend Catan and hoped that we would each gain a development card.

We had also, slowly, been upgrading our cities. Richard and Tim, who were both getting more clay than they needed, built fortifications to their cities on the board so as to allow more cards in their hands when the robber attacked. Tim had also been gaining coins fairly rapidly since 6s and 10s continued to be rolled, so he was picking up the blue progress cards.

Then, right before the barbarians attacked, Tim reached 'mighty knight' status with his coin upgrades, and was able to buy and activate a three-strength knight. Which made him the first defender of Catan:


9s were not rolled as often as one might expect, but they did come from time to time. 4s came fairly often. So we had enough wheat to keep the knights activated - not that we used them for anything other than defending Catan in the entire game. And since ore was also fairly plentiful, more cities were built. By the second barbarian attack, Richard had three cities; Tim had two, one of which had turned into a coins metropolis. And since I was behind the others - despite having picked up one victory point card - I was able to play the 'wedding' card which I had acquired, that meant they both had to give me two resources of my choice. Tim gave me two ore, and Richard gave me two clay, which was useful since I could then fortify my city.

At last I managed to build a settlement on the 6-clay. It felt like very hard work. But I did, now, have my own source of clay - and 6s continued to be rolled reasonably regularly.

When the barbarians attacked for the second time, we were in the same situation as before. Two strength each for Richard and me (since neither of us had yet reached mighty knight status) and three for Tim. So he gained a second Defender of Catan card:


Play should have picked up by this stage, but wood seemed to be in very short supply, making it difficult to build any roads or settlements unless we were prepared to trade quite heavily. My hope of wood and books - on the 3 - was in vain; in the entire game, there was not a single 3 rolled. Yet there were at least three 12s, and a couple of 2s. 5 wasn't exactly frequent either.

In the next few rounds, Richard and Tim had each played the useful progress card that enabled them to move an open road. Not that it really helped either of them significantly since we still lacked wood. I managed to upgrade to a city, as well, and Tim built another settlement which he then upgraded. 8s were being rolled reasonably often, so I was gradually collecting and upgrading my cloth improvements.

My turn came around shortly before the third barbarian attack. By then, Richard had a mighty knight, and Tim still had his one, while I was still on my double-strength knight. And I had picked up two 'deserter' cards. I don't like them - Richard has sometimes played them against me in our two-player games, but I'm not sure I've ever used them, since I don't usually collect many coin commodities. I didn't want to play just one, since it would have meant victimising one of these two beloved people... but when I realised i could play two, right before the next barbarian attack, I decided it was worth doing.

We had some debate about whether I could in fact do that, since they were both mighty knights and I had not yet reached the status of being able to buy those. If I'd simply had to remove them from play, it would have meant both Richard and Tim would have lost a city in the next attack, which would have slowed the game down even more... so I didn't want to do that.

So I checked the almanac in the rules... and sure enough, it actually said that this card could be used to gain a mighty knight, even if the player had not reached that status.

So now I had the strength of eight knights, and was unquestionably the Defender of Catan at the next attack:


Tim was well in the lead with ten points (including his two previous Defender points). Richard, who had control of the merchant, had seven points, and I caught him up at last, since I had one victory point card, and now also had a Defencer of Catan card.

Slightly to my surprise, I managed to gain the metropolis on cloth. I had not expected that, since Richard had far more access to sheep with his cities. I pointed out that any time I gained a cloth from the 8, he did too... and he realised that he had forgotten to pick up sheep or cloth from that hex. When 8 was rolled, he had remembered to collect his clay only.

The game was still going slowly. We usually play to 15 points with a three- or four-person game, but agreed that we would stop at 13 since it felt so frustratingly slow, and rather hard work. Each of us managed another settlement in the next few rounds - there were still lots of building spots, but without much wood it was very difficult to build anything at all. For my settlement, I had to use the merchant card to trade two-for-one wheat, and also the temporary merchant card to enable me to trade two-for-one ore in the same round.

Richard was planning to gain the longest street, and also hoped to get to the last cloth improvement, and thus take the cloth metropolis from me. He would probably have succeeded... but Tim's turn came up first. He upgraded his settlement to a city, and took control of the merchant again. So he won the game with 13 points - and no settlements on the board! He couldn't remember ever before having run out of cities with all five of his settlements still in his hand.


Slightly to my surprise, I was second with ten points, and Richard was in last place with seven.

We all felt exhausted by the end. Rarely has a theoretically enjoyable board game felt like such hard work!

Cities and Knights of Catan for three

It was nine o'clock, which is a little late to start a game, unless it's going to be a short one. But Daniel will only be here for a little more time and we felt like doing something together. We're not the most decisive of families (and that's an example of the Great British Understatement...) but eventually agreed to Cities and Knights. It wasn't until we were setting it up that I remembered that this is rarely a short game, and is not ideal for when I'm feeling a bit tired as there are so many different strategies to consider.

I was first to place a settlement (orange) - an unusual position for me. It has been a while since we've played this game, so I couldn't really remember what works and what doesn't. So I opted for my default system when I can't think of anything better: look for the resource that is likely to be scarcest, and choose a starting spot that borders the hex most likely to produce that resource.

Wheat looked as if it was going to be the least-produced resource in this game - and wheat is vital to activate the knights, as well as for its normal use in cities and settlements. So I built on the 5-9-10 intersection with sheep, ore and wheat.

Richard (red) went next. He likes to take spots that will produce commodities (books, cloth and coins) in Cities and Knights, so he opted for another 5-9-10 intersection with two wood and a sheep. Daniel (brown) was last, and chose two complementary spots, giving him six numbers (3, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 11) with access to all five resources, potentially, and a city on two of the commodity-producing hexes. Richard - still following the strategy of collecting commodity cards -put his city on a spot with two ore and a wheat, although the wheat was a 12 and so unlikely to be rolled very often. It meant he only had four useful numbers (5, 6, 9 [twice] and 10) in addition, and no access to clay at all.

Finally it was my turn to place my city; since I needed wood and clay and wanted some more numbers, I opted for a spot that gave me both, plus more sheep. My numbers were, on balance, as good as Daniel's: I had 3, 4, 5, 6, 9 and 10.


Play started rather slowly. With plenty of ore and sheep it was easy to buy knights, and we all managed to activate them too, either with lucky rolls or suitable trading. We don't use the event die for the first couple of rounds, while we're not counting the 7s, but as soon as we did we found that the black pirate event was rolled almost every time. So it didn't take long before we had to pause for the first invasion of Catan:


It's a little hard to tell from the photo, even if you click to enlarge it, but Richard had upgraded his knight to a double strength one, making him the Defender of Catan, and giving him an extra victory point. So he was in the lead, since we were all having a very hard time doing any actual building. We had each managed precisely one street in addition to our knights, so far!

And the black event continued appearing considerably more than 50% of the time. We did each manage to build one settlement, and were gradually buying city improvements, enabling us to pick up the occasional progress card. Daniel played the merchant, which gave him an extra point temporarily, and I bought another knight, while upgrading my first one.

So when the barbarians attacked for the second time, I was the sole defender of Catan:


The score was still totally even. We each had built one more settlement, giving us each four points on the board. Richard and I each had one Defender of Catan card, and Daniel had a a point for the merchant. We hadn't yet agreed what number of points to play for, but since we were on five each there was still a long way to go...

Slowly play picked up. I built another settlement on a useful interior spot giving me an 11 - so, with the useful 8-clay hex which was on my first extra building spot, I now had access to 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10 and 11. Always my ideal! I then managed to pick up a street-building card (I do like the 'books' progress cards) and was able to build on the wood harbour. Possibly not as useful as the 3:1 harbour nearby, but floating in my mind was the idea of taking the longest street, eventually, by joining up my two segments of road. I also wanted more clay, since it appeared to be in rather short supply in general - Richard still had no access to it at all, so it was useful for trading.

Meanwhile Daniel also built another settlement, and took the longest street card, just after the barbarians attacked for the third time:


We had already de-activated the knights by the time I remembered to take the photo, but I still had the most, and so received a second Defender of Catan card.

So Daniel was in the lead with nine points (including controlling the merchant), I had eight, and Richard still had five. It seemed very strange that none of us had yet managed to upgrade to a city, but that was due to the distinct lack of wheat in the game.

I was tired... earlier in the game I had traded four clay since I had too many cards in my hand, forgetting that I could fortify my one city with two clay, which would enable me to keep nine rather than seven cards in my hand if the robber attacked. However I remembered eventually, and thus bought city fortifications - although with only one city, I could only do that once.

Daniel extended his long street, and Richard played the card that meant he could upgrade both his knights at no cost - a card he had previously stolen from me by using the 'spy'. He was now in by far the strongest position as far as knights were concerned, so I no longer worried about them. I prefer to concentrate on regular building and city improvement when possible, and leave the defence of Catan to other players.

Daniel was in the lead with 11 points, still including the longest street and control of the merchant. He had actually managed to build a city - the first one in the game. I don't like being ahead in this game, since there are quite a few cards that can be played against any player who is in the lead. But I wanted control of the merchant, and with the extra building I had done and my two Defender of Catan cards, it would give me ten points. So I decided to use the resources I had for three more streets to claim another building spot, and also the longest street.

I now had 12 points... and we wanted to play a little longer, so decided to go up to 14. We couldn't remember what we usually do, but it seemed like a good number even though by now it was past 10pm and I was even more tired...


Oddly, after the early part of the game producing almost nothing but black events, the latter part of the game gave us rather more than half coloured events, meaning that a lot of progress cards were collected and played. And it took a great deal longer for the barbarians to attack. I didn't take a photo of the fourth attack, but Richard had the most knights and so received a further victory point.

By this stage I was aiming for Metropolis status on cloth. So I traded where I could, and when my turn came around I had a huge pile of cards in my hand. Thankfully I didn't roll a seven; it meant that I could finally build my first city of the game, and then immediately upgrade it to a Metropolis.


- and that meant I now had 15 victory points, and so was the winner.

Daniel actually had 11 points - he had two hidden victory point progress cards, which he should actually have declared when he received them. He had forgotten that rule - or perhaps played by different rules in the past - which would have helped him, since he frequently had more than four progress cards and had to discard one. Had he been able to reclaim the longest street and the merchant, he would have won.

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: