Settlers of Catan for six

It was John and Sarah's last evening here for a while. Tim was still here too, for a few more days. However Jörn was away... so there were six of us for a Catan game on Saturday evening.

Richard (red) placed first. He took a very nice spot with 5 on ore, 6 on clay and 9 on wood. I was second (with orange), so I took a spot that was as good number-wise (5-8-9) but with sheep rather than clay. Then it was Sheila (brown), who opted for a 4-5-11 giving her wood, clay and wheat.

That pretty much used up the obviously good starting positions. John (green) was next. He pondered awhile, then decided to go for the best selection of remaining numbers, which was 5-8-9 on ore and two wheat. We'd been talking about the importance of the ore-wheat strategy... so John was apparently going to try it. Sarah (white) was fifth. She couldn't see anywhere that would be much good - and she likes to use harbours. So she placed her first settlement on the sheep harbour, which bordered two sheep hexes on 8 and 11. Tim (blue) was last. He didn't really have any good places to choose, so decided to opt for as many resources and numbers as possible. He ended up with 4, 8, 9, two 10s and a 12, with theoretical access to all five resources.

Sarah then went for two more sheep hexes with a wood - so all the had available to her was sheep and wood, plus the sheep harbour for trading. A strategy that could work very well, or could be a disaster! John was pleased to find that the coastal 6-10 on clay and wood was still available - giving him the wheat harbour too. He was in a very strong position. He had also inadvertently blocked Tim's first intended move.

Sheila then took two more numbers on the other sheep harbour, I decided I'd opt for three numbers (without any clay) rather than just two on the coast in a rather crowded position, and Richard then took the 4-8 sheep-wheat intersection on the ore harbour, which John had been heading for.


With six players, there can be a fair bit of competition for building spots.

Although Richard played before John, he didn't have such good tiles. And so, twice, John built streets that blocked Richard's plans:


So he built in other directions. Play moved reasonably fast, so that settlements and cities started to spring up all around the island of Catan.


Tim was in the lead at this stage, with six points. John and I both had five, Richard and Sarah both had four, and Sheila had three.

Richard took the longest street first:


Then, rather than taking Sheila's last building spot, I realised that I could build inland to extend my street, and also gain a useful new spot on a 5-ore and 10-wheat (and 2-ore... but that was unlikely to be much use to me). Richard and Sarah had both hoped for that spot.


So I now had the longest street, and nine points. Richard was next with seven. Tim and John each had six points, Sarah had five, and Sheila - whose numbers just weren't being rolled - was trailing with three.

Then Richard extended his road, and took the longest street card back again:


.. which now put him in the lead with nine points, and me in second place with seven, jointly with Tim and John who had each built another settlement in the meantime. Sarah had six, and Sheila four.

By this stage, resources were being gathered faster and faster. The extra 'building phase' in between turns allowed us all to build - so we didn't lose much to the robber - and cities came rapidly, with an abundance of ore and wheat. I joined up my two sections of street, and took the card back from Richard - who had unfortunately wasted a few resources by extending his long street without providing any new building spots.


So, at this stage, Tim was in the lead with ten points. John and I each had nine, Sarah had eight, Richard had seven, and Sheila was still trailing with five.

Most of us had run out of building spots at this time, so all we could do was build cities (if we had any left - Tim didn't by this stage) or buy cards.

Richard and I each built a new city:


So I now had ten points, and was jointly in the lead with Tim.

But John, who had started with such a good position, was able to trump us all. He was the first person to play a third knight card, giving him the largest army - and then turned over a victory point card:


So John was victorious, with twelve points.

Seafarers of Catan: fog island (for four)

Tim was out, and Richard needed a break. So we decided to have a four-person Seafarers game with John and Sarah. They did look at the other scenarios in the booklet, but as so often happens we decided that Fog Island was the most interesting, because of the 'exploration' to turn over unknown hexes.

As when we played Seafarers with them before, we set up the main Catan island resources and numbers randomly. With four people on the 3-4 player board, it's not easy to find good building spots by the end since there are not many available. I went first (orange); I chose some reasonable numbers with an 8 on ore, plus 5 on wood and 8 on sheep. Sheep are a lot more important in Seafarers than in regular Settlers of Catan games, since they're necessary (along with wood) for building boats.

Richard (red) was second; he built on the other 4-sheep hex, with wheat and wood as well. John (white) took some good numbers: two wood and a wheat, on 5, 10 and 6. Then Sarah (brown) took a very nice combination: all five resources, with 4, 6, 8, 9 and 10 as her numbers. On our second placements it was increasingly difficult to find suitable spots. John also managed five good numbers, but was lacking access to both sheep and ore. Richard had all five resources, but not such good numbers, and I had no access to wheat.


John was the only person who bought a ship right at the beginning, rather than a street for his second settlement.

Play was very slow at first. The problem was that 4 was not rolled, and it was the only possibility for sheep. Ironically, 12 - which had sheep but no settlements - was rolled a couple of times. However, we all managed to build some streets; John, Richard and I each built a city (wheat was plentiful so it was easy to trade for it), and Sarah managed the first new settlement of the game after trading heavily for her sheep:


So we were all on three points.

Then a four was rolled and we all cheered. Sarah picked up three sheep, and was able to buy a couple of ships. And so the first exploration of the game yielded...

.. some sea:


I was beginning to wonder where I would build, since John had pretty much blocked my access to the coast, in his quest for sheep. I wanted the 9-wheat spot first, and then decided I might as well extend in the other direction from my first settlement, and perhaps eventually reach the sea that way. Or maybe I'd concentrate on building on the main island...

Sarah bought another ship, and uncovered a useful 5-clay hex:


At this stage, John was - just - in the lead with five points; all the rest of us had four. Building in general was still a bit slow.

Having achieved my 9 on wheat, I started building more streets around the coast in the other direction in the hope of building on the 8-3 coastal intersection. And in doing so, realised that I could claim the longest street card:


So now I was slightly ahead, with six points. For a short while, anyway.

It was indeed only a few rounds. Sarah continued buying ships and uncovering useful land resource hexes, and quickly had a 'trade route' of seven which beat my six streets - so now she had the longest street card.


So Sarah was - just - in the lead with seven points; John (who had managed, at last, to build on sheep) had six; Richard - who had just bought his first ship - had five, and I was trailing with four.

Richard and Sarah both build settlements on the newly discovered island, and when another 4 was rolled - to the accompaniment of more cheers - John started buying ships. All he uncovered was sea, but his 'trade route' now had eight units, so the longest street card was now his:


John was ahead with nine points; Richard and Sarah each had six, and I was still just behind them with five. Evidently the longest trade route was going to be very significant in whoever was finally victorious in this game.

Sarah crossed the island with streets, and built another settlement. Richard headed out towards one of the gold hexes, and John - still maintaining the longest trade route - headed towards the other. He uncovered, and quickly built upon another sheep hex with a useful 9 on it.


John now had ten points. And he had played two knight cards. He didn't have any hidden development cards at that stage, but he only needed one more knight to claim the largest army and victory.

Sarah was not impressed because John not only moved the knight to the sheep hex she and Richard shared - to try and prevent her from building more ships - but he also put the pirate ship next to her one spare ship, so that she could not move it!

However, with the help of some trading, Sarah did manage to buy more ships. And overtook John... so once again the longest street card was hers:


Sarah was now in the lead with nine points, and John had eight. Richard had seven, and I was still behind with six... and there was no way that either of us was going to compete for the longest street card.

Sarah continued buying ships, and maintained her longest route with ease. Then she uncovered an ore hex. Now she and Richard were in a race to build on the gold...

But John, meanwhile, managed to build another settlement AND his last city.


So John now had ten points on the board. And Sarah had eight on the board, plus two for the longest street. The game was clearly going to be a race between the two of them. Richard still had seven points, and I still had six.

Still, I did eventually manage to build a settlement on the 8-clay hex and then bought a couple of ships. I even had the excitement of uncovering a wheat hex, and another 8 for it. That would have made rather a nice building spot... except that I now needed a city before I could buy any more settlements. And I wasn't getting a lot of ore.

Then Richard managed to build on the gold hex, at last. However, it didn't do him any good, because it was then John's turn. He had bought a card on his previous turn, so now he revealed it. A knight - which gave him the largest army, and the extra two points he needed to be the winner.


So Sarah was second with ten, Richard was third with nine, and although I only had seven points on the board, I did have one victory point card which I had kept hidden since the very early stages of the game.

Even though she had the longest trade route, Sarah still wasn't impressed at the way John had blocked her sheep access...

Settlers of Catan in the evening

The same group that met for a Catan game last Thursday evening gathered once more. This time, John and Sarah played separately but Richard and Tim formed a team. They play very differently from each other, so it was interesting to know how they would work together.

They rolled to go first. Playing Richard's usual red pieces, they had some discussion about starting but opted for the good numbers of 5, 8 and 9 on sheep, ore and clay respectively.

Sheila was second, with her usual brown pieces. She opted for the other obvious place: 4-6-9 on ore, wood and clay. That would probably have been my starting spot of choice, had I played first. The numbers were not quite so good as Tim and Richard's choice, but wood is generally more useful than sheep. Then again.. it didn't look as if there would be a lot of sheep in the game, if numbers were rolled as expected.

I was third. With the two prime locations taken, I decided to opt for numbers rather than three resources. So, playing orange as usual, I took the 5-8-9 on two wheat and wood. Of course I had a faint hope that I might be able to access the wheat harbour.. but it seemed pretty unlikely that it would still be available.

As it happened, it wasn't until John (playing white) got to place his settlements that the rather nice 4-6-10 (two ore and wood) intersection was taken. He went for numbers rather than resources, it seemed, since he started without either sheep or wheat.

Jörn (blue) and Sarah (green) played in between John and me; both of them were able to access all five resources, at least in theory, with their placements, and also had a reasonable selection of numbers. So by the time I got to place again, there wasn't much available. I decided that it was most important to have ore, and I really wanted a 6 if possible. So I opted for the coastal 6-4 spot, which gave me yet more wheat in addition to a useful ore place. Possibly I should have placed my street heading inland since I had little hope of getting to the wood harbour before Sarah did, but I knew I had plenty of space for expansion in the wheat section near my first settlement.


By the end, Tim and Richard probably had the best selection of numbers, although I was quite pleased with mine too. They were lacking wheat; I was lacking both sheep and clay.

With plentiful ore and wheat, I managed to build my first two cities fairly easily. Sarah took the wood harbour, so I knew I would have to do any expansion via my other settlement. Clay was somewhat at a premium, but others wanted wheat so I was able to trade, and built a couple of settlements around the 8-wheat hex. John expanded towards the wheat section too, since that was a resource he lacked; in doing so, he was the first to take the longest street card.

I was actually in the lead at this point in the game, with six points. This seemed rather surprising, since the lack of clay was holding me back. I had considered expanding out towards the 5-clay hex, but only ever managed one set of street resources at a time. If I had built one, or even two streets, I could pretty much guarantee that Jörn would have then built one of his to block me.


Sarah, who also had good access to ore and wheat, had also built two cities and had five points. John also had five, with the longest street card, as did Tim and Richard. Jörn and Sheila each had four. It was still very even.

I continued being lucky with rolls and trading, and was able to expand further inland to take a double-wood slot next to the desert. Although, unfortunately, I then kept forgetting to take the relevant wood resources when a 6 was rolled! I was handed the longest street card, which put me more firmly in the lead with eleven points. All I needed was one more city, and I would have won... although I'm pretty sure I did not realise this at the time!


Tim and Richard had built all their cities by this stage - despite still lacking wheat - and had nine points. Sheila had seven, and everyone else had six.

My hope of victory diminished when Jörn joined up his sections of street, and thus took the longest street card with nobody able to take it from him.

Finally I had the resources for three streets in my hand, so I built out towards the 5-clay hex. Not that clay was going to do me much good at this stage - but it was another building spot. Sheila had taken the ore-wheat one which I'd hoped to take near my main expansions so this was my last possible place to build.


So, once again, it could almost have been anybody's game. Tim and Richard were now in the lead with ten points, but Jörn and I were both right behind with nine points each. Sarah and Sheila each had eight, and John had seven. John still had three possible building spots; I had one, Richard and Tim shared one possibility with John; I had the one on the clay which I technically shared with Jörn, but he needed to build some cities first, and I almost had the cards in my hand for that settlement...

Then it was Richard and Tim's turn. I picked up wood, which was the last resource I needed to built my settlement on their building phase.

Except that there wasn't one. They played a third knight card, thus taking the largest army, and another two points.

Once again, Tim had won. That's three wins in the three games we have played since he arrived here last Thursday. According to my statistics on the side of this blog, he's now won 10 out of the 20 games which he's played with us since I started recording them at the end of last year.


Still, nobody was completely trounced. Jörn had ten points, Sarah had eight, and the rest of us each had nine.

Settlers of Catan for... seven

There were seven of us around the Catan table last night. Actually there were eight, but two-month-old Elisabeth wasn't contending to play just yet. John and Sarah decided to play together, so we had a six-person game. Even though Tim had arrived in the early hours of that morning, and Richard and I were both extremely tired.

Tim, playing green, rolled to place first. And with the entire board at his disposal, he opted not for a standard three-resource spot, but for the 5-6-9 with two wheat and a wood. Excellent numbers, to be sure; and he was hoping to gain the wheat harbour. But not the place i would have chosen in his shoes. Which was fine, since I played second so I was able to opt for the 5-8-9 intersection incorporating ore, sheep and clay. While sheep isn't the most useful resource, I could see that both clay and ore might be in short supply, so I hoped I was well-placed for both.

Sheila (brown) was third, and took the spot I would have taken if Tim had opted for my first choice. She had the 4-8-9 on wheat, wood and clay. Jörn (blue) was next. He always likes to have ore at the beginning, so opted for two wood and ore, with 4, 5 and 11 as his numbers. The it was Richard (red). He likes to ensure an 8 and a 6 if possible - and certainly one of them. So he took the 4-6-11 with ore, sheep and clay.

Finally it was John and Sarah's turn, playing the white pieces. They were quite surprised that the 4-6-9 (two wood and a wheat) intersection was still available. I was surprised too, since that would have been my third or fourth option. The numbers were better than either Richard's or Jörn's choice - at least, if they were rolled with statistical likelihood. They were also able to take the 8-10-12 with sheep, ore and clay, thus ensuring them access (at least in theory) to all five resources, and five excellent numbers in addition to the 12.

On the way back, we all attempted to take spots that would give us the resource we lacked so far and, where possible, some new numbers. I would have liked somewhere with a 6, but there was nowhere obvious, so I plumped for reasonable access to wood and wheat. Tim, continuing in the 'ore-wheat strategy' was pleased to be able to place his final settlement on an intersection with two ore and a wood. He lacked sheep, but there were clearly going to be plenty of sheep in this game.


In the first few rounds, 6 was rolled several times, and 8 not at all. 9 didn't appear either. Nor, surprisingly, did 7. I finally bought a development card and was pleased to find that it was a street-builder; extremely useful early in the game. Tim managed to build a city rather quickly, and we all headed for our first planned spots. I took this picture when Tim and I each had four points, while everybody else was on three:


So it was a very even start to the game.

I never like to poach on other people's potential building spots if I can help it, so wasn't entirely sure where I would go next. I didn't need to think too hard, since 9 - the number which would have given me a street each time - continued to be non-existent. I did manage my first city, however, and then decided to aim for the 6-10 intersection on the coast, since I didn't have a 6 and since Tim wasn't aiming for that spot.

Gradually we were all expanding... and suddenly we noticed that Richard had, at least for now, the longest street:


Tim was just in the lead at this stage, with six points. Richard, Jörn and I each had five. John and Sarah had four, and Sheila had three.

Then Sheila built inland, blocking a potential building spot for both Richard and Jörn. I started thinking about the ore harbour, since rather a lot of 5s were being rolled. I could see that Jörn would have liked it too, but he had a few possible places. I didn't plan to take the 8-sheep spot that he was looking at.


I had drawn equal with Tim at this stage; both of us on seven points. But it could still have been anyone's game.

The next excitement was that Jörn took the longest street, although I did grab the ore harbour:


However Tim was still expanding fast. He had built all four of his cities already, plus a couple of settlements, so was well in the lead with ten solid points. Jörn and I each had eight, John & Sarah and Sheila each had six, and Richard - who was struggling to build a city - was just behind with five after he lost the longest street.

Then John and Sarah played a third knight card, and thus took the largest army and another two points. Richard managed his first city. And while everyone else kept losing cards to the robber, I was lucky - and despite having a lot of cards in my hand, did not roll a seven. So I built two streets and a settlement out to my final building spot on the not-terribly-useful spot on the desert.


So Tim was still in the lead with ten points, and I was right behind with nine. I could potentially build two more cities, and planned to buy cards as well in the hope of some victory points. John and Sarah also had nine points including the largest army; I could see that they had other hidden development cards, and wondered if they were victory points since they didn't play a fourth knight on their turn - and thus risked losing the largest army card to Sheila, who by that stage had also played three knights (and had some hidden cards too).

Jörn, who still held the longest street card, had eight points; Richard and Sheila each had six. We knew that things could change rapidly, of course....

... Which is what happened when Sheila played another couple of streets, and thus overtook Jörn's longest street.


So she now had eight points, and he was back on six.

9s were being rolled more often, which wasn't much use to me now as I didn't need any streets. So when Tim's turn came round and he monopolised clay, I wasn't too worried. He had the clay harbour, and we all assumed he was going to build another settlement on the other desert building spot. He muttered about his maths, not sure if he had calculated right...

.. and then surprised us all by placing, instead, six streets.

Not one extra point, but two as he took the longest street card, and neatly won the game.


It turned out that John and Sarah were also very close to winning, since they had two hidden victory point cards, and thus (including the largest army) eleven points.

Settlers of Catan for four people

On Sunday evening, we played a four-person game of Settlers of Catan. It felt like quite some time we had done so - although I didn't realise, until looking in the archives of this blog, that it was as long as three months since we last played regular Settlers for four.

I t was a whole week since we had played at all. I'm surprised we didn't experience withdrawal symptoms. We weren't even the regular four players in the absence of visitors, since Richard was away but John was staying in our guest flat. And just for a change, although we were at Jörn and Sheila's home, we played with our set which I'd taken in case we decided to play the Seafarers expansion.

Jörn (blue) played first. I expected him to take the 5-9-10 intersection with clay, wood and wheat. It's the one I would have chosen, had I gone first. Although I no longer feel the absolute need for having clay and wood in my initial resources, preferring ore and wheat (if I MUST choose), or whatever is likely to be rare, I would certainly choose a spot with wood and clay if they were both on good numbers. However, we all have different strategies, which is part of what makes the game so interesting. Jörn chose, instead, some equally good numbers (4, 8 and 10) on wood, sheep and wheat.

John (with white tiles) played second. He also didn't take my chosen spot, going instead for the somewhat unusual choice of a 2-6-9 intersection with sheep, clay and ore. However, I was almost certain that Sheila (with brown) would take the spot I coveted, as indeed she did.

I don't particularly like playing last, but it does have the advantage of being able to place both settlements together. So I chose two spots which had six different numbers, albeit not the greatest ones, with all five resources available to me, at least in theory. I was quite pleased to have 3, 5, 6, 8, 10 and 11 (although I would really have liked a 9 - they seem to be rolled more often than one would expect) and I intended to take the wheat harbour as soon as possible since I had two wheat hexes including the 8.


By the final placement, Jörn had no access to clay, and Sheila had no access to sheep (the resource I will most happily do without) but John's second spot did give him his last two resources, even if his sheep access was only on a 2. It looked as if it would be quite a balanced game, with no resource clearly in short supply, so I assumed that trading would be reasonably straightforward for any lacking resources.

As the game started, 8s and 10s were not rolled, but 11 was, more than once. I could see that my wheat harbour was fairly safe - nobody else was likely to aim for it - and I was not picking up wheat. So for my first new settlement, I opted for the 3-11-desert intersection. No new numbers, and not even particularly good ones (theoretically) but a building spot that might have been taken by someone else.

Jörn built a city early on, as did both Sheila and I. I did consider aiming for the 4-11-9 intersection with two wood and an ore, since I really did want a 9 - but thought that John wanted it, or the neighbouring 3-4-9, and would probably get there first. When I have plenty of building places, I try not to take the ones that other people are aiming for unless they are clearly in the lead.

After a few rounds I took this photo:


It was still pretty even. Sheila and I each had four points, Jörn and John each had three. Jörn had twice stopped Sheila from building settlements where she had wanted them; once with his second initial placement, and once when he built an extra street to ensure that he would get the wood harbour, even though it would have been rather more useful for Sheila who had two useful wood hexes.

He then built on her last possible coastal building spot. For a moment it seemed as if Sheila was out of building places altogether, but it was still possible for her to build inland across Catan. I noticed that 4-9-11 spot again. John had not built towards it. He had a a street-building card which he had bought, but instead of building towards that, or the 3-8 sheep intersection on the coast (which I would have wanted in his shoes) he headed up towards the 5-clay.

So Sheila had her opportunity. She took the 5-9-11 hex, and also built out towards the sheep on the coast. And took the longest street card too:


So Sheila was now in the lead with seven points. I had six - I was surprised how often the 11 was rolled, still - Jörn had four, and John still had three. Several times the others had to give up half their resources when a 7 was rolled, but for some reason I was lucky, and it never happened to me. We all rather missed the extra building phase that comes with the 5-6 player Settlers expansion; it's most annoying having eight cards, including the resources for a city or settlement, and perhaps a street or two, and then losing half of them.

Since 8s and 10s were not rolled as often as might be expected, sheep were the rarest resource in this particular game, and meant that very few cards were bought. There were perhaps two knights in the whole game so nobody got anywhere near having the largest army card. I did wonder at one stage if I might have been able to challenge the longest street, but it would have been difficult. Then Sheila played her two last streets, because she had the cards to do so (and nowhere to expand to) meaning that she was unbeatable with 14 contiguously.

By this stage, as is usual, we were all collecting resources and building more rapidly than in the earlier part of the game. We reached the stage where Sheila had ten points (including the longest street), I had nine, Jörn had eight, and John had six. John and I still each had one remaining building spot. I could also build one more city - and was going to on my next turn - and realised that I would then have to concentrate on buying development cards and hope for a victory point. Jörn could build two more cities, and would then need either a couple more knights (and sufficient rounds in which to play them) or victory points.

But we didn't get the chance to find out what might happen. Sheila's turn came round: she built a final city, giving her eleven points, and then revealed a hidden victory point card.

Five-person Settlers of Catan

After an enjoyable meal with our friends, the children went to bed and the rest of us started another game of Settlers.

John rolled to go first. He was playing with the white pieces, and with the entire board to choose from, opted for a coastal spot. It was certainly the best place for wood and clay (10 and 8 respectively) and gave him the ore harbour too... but not a spot I would even have considered when playing first, particularly since there weren't any particularly nice places nearby to aim for.

Richard (red) was second, and chose the exact spot I would have liked. Ore was evidently going to be in somewhat short supply in this game, so clearly the 6-ore hex was worth grabbing. He took it, along with a useful 5 on wood, and 10 on wheat.

I was third, with my usual orange pieces. So I took the other spot that had three resources and good numbers - actually slightly better numbers than Richard's, statistically speaking (5-8-9) but with sheep rather than the more useful ore. Sheila said she would have taken the one next to it (with the 4 on clay rather than the 9 on sheep) - but I no longer worry about having both clay and wood at the start of the game, and 9 is a slightly more useful number than 4, in general.

Sheila (brown) was fourth; since there were no places left with three good numbers and three different resources, she opted for the 5-6-9 intersection with two wood and a sheep. That's what I'd have taken in her position. Jörn (blue) played last; with the advantage of being able to place both settlements at the same time, he opted for two reasonable spots, giving him access to all five resources, and five useful numbers (3, 6, 8, 9 and 10) as well as a 12 on clay.

On the way back around the table, we all attempted to get hold of the numbers and/or resources we were lacking. I could not get hold of both ore and clay; so although I did consider the 3-6 coastal hex with two ore, it was quite a crowded place already, and I prefer room to manoevre without too many people trying to get the same spots. So I shrugged mentally, and chose three other reasonable numbers, giving me clay on 5, and two more sheep hexes. I realised that there was no way I could get to a sheep harbour, and in retrospect I think the place with two ore would have been more useful - but I didn't go for it.


The most surprising second placement was John's, who built simply on the 6-ore hex by the sea. He didn't even take the 3-6 intersection which I had considered. He said his strategy was to take harbours (and, indeed, the spot he chose was right on the wood harbour) but it gave him only three numbers in all, and not a whole lot of scope for expansion into other useful numbers.

So we started the game, and unsurprisingly I collected quite a few sheep. 3s were rolled a few times, giving access to ore, so I was able to trade for it and buy one or two cards. Mostly I concentrated on expanding to start new settlements, and succeeded in getting a spot on ore, albeit with an 11. Richard had hoped for the nearby spot with a 10 on wheat - actually I'd quite have liked that one too, but thought it better to secure the one I could easily take rather than push further away and risk losing the spot altogether.

Richard and Jörn each managed a city reasonably early in the game, John started building roads in order to get to some useful building spots, and Sheila fairly quickly achieved the longest street:


That put her in the lead with six points, but Jörn was close behind with five; Richard had four; John and I each had three. With five players on the larger size Catan board, there's usually a fair amount of room so we weren't really fighting over building spots too much.

Having said that, Richard - who didn't find the intersection with a 12 and two desert hexes too appealing - did make an attempt to build right across the board to grab a place where I actually built, on the 4-11-8 intersection with two clay and wheat. However, in doing so, he gained - by quite a margin - the longest street card:


Although he couldn't extend it any further, the only person who could possibly challenge him was John - and he still had quite a way to go. So Richard now had nine points, including three cities and the longest street. He could still upgrade to another city, he still had the unattractive potential building spot by two desert hexes, and he had played two knight cards... meaning that he would most likely also take the largest army. Richard was in a strong position.

Jörn, meanwhile, had seven points, Sheila had six, I had five, and John had four.

In the next round, I finally succeeded in getting my first city. Sheila played a wood monopoly, which gained her quite a few cards and enabled her to use her useful wood harbour; she was then able to build another settlement, and a city. Jörn and John each managed another settlement too.

But Richard was unbeatable. On his turn, he built another settlement, played a third knight (thus gaining the largest army) and also displayed a hidden victory point card. He was the clear winner, with thirteen points in all.


Sheila did say afterwards that she debated playing a third knight card before Richard did, thus prolonging the game a little - but could not resist playing the monopoly on wood instead, since there was rather a lot of wood to be gained from it. I suspect Richard would have won sooner or later, anyway.

Settlers of Catan for six

It was Daniel's last full evening in Cyprus for some months... and he said he'd like to play another game of Settlers of Catan with our friends. John had just arrived, and since he's also a fan of Catan, it meant a six-player game.

Daniel (green) played first, and chose a rather nice intersection with 5-6-10 on wheat, ore and wood. Jörn (blue) was second, and opted for a fairly traditional opening giving both wood and clay, with the useful numbers 4, 6 and 10. That's the spot I'd have opted for too, since it looked as if clay was going to be the most difficult resource to get hold of in this game. Sheila (brown) was next, and took the 4-8-10 with wheat, ore and wood. Then it was my turn; I wanted that 10-clay hex, so chose the intersection with a 4 on wheat and 5 on sheep. Not ideal, but there weren't too many great spots left.

Richard was next. and took the 3-8-9 near the top, which at least gave him access to clay if a 3 was rolled. John was last, so placed two settlements together. He didn't get any clay, but four good numbers (5, 6, 8 and 9) with access to all the other resources, particularly wood. And since he built on the coast, he was only one spot away from the wood harbour. A good move, if a little unusual from our perspective.

Richard needed sheep and wood, and couldn't get both, so he opted for a spot with two good sheep hexes, heading towards the sheep harbour. And, in doing so, made my first placed street useless - but that's how the game goes. I needed wood and ore and couldn't get both, so for once I decided to do without ore, and hope that I could get some by building towards the 8-ore in the bottom corner. I didn't really have great numbers at all; 9 and 5, but no 8 or 6.


For the first round, a surprising number of 6s were rolled, which of course were no use to me at all. However, other useful numbers came up, and I found that I was easily able to trade for ore, despite not having any access to it myself. Ore was a great deal easier to come by than clay, since 10 wasn't rolled at all. I would have done better to have gone for a 3-clay hex!

I was quite pleased when I managed to build my first city, using ore I had traded for:


It was a fairly slow-moving game, with so little clay available. I did, eventually, manage to extend out to the 3:1 harbour, which seemed more useful than getting ore (since I could trade for it so easily). And, indeed, I was able to upgrade another city without too much difficulty.

Although 10 was still not rolled, 3 was, more than once, meaning that there was clay in the game after all. However, it wasn't enough that anyone wanted to trade it at this stage. Jörn managed to build out to several useful spots, and gained the longest street too. And since he had been buying cards, and playing knights, he also gained the largest army:


So Jörn was now significantly in the lead, with nine points. All the rest of us had five.

It still wasn't a particularly fast-moving game, but Jörn continued extending his long street, so that nobody else could even think of challenging it. I still wasn't picking up many cards - ten STILL wasn't rolled - but did manage to build streets out towards the 8-ore hex.

I took this photo when Jörn had managed to gain 11 points, still holding both the longest street and largest army cards:


Sheila did attempt to build out into his street, and I did manage my settlement on the 8-ore hex... and a ten was, eventually, rolled (when clay was no longer any use to me).

But all Jörn needed to do was to upgrade one more city... which is what he did:


So he won the game resoundingly with 12 points. Sheila had a victory point card, so 10 points. John had 9. Daniel had two victory points, so he and Richard both had 8 points. And although I had one victory point card too, I was still last with 7 points.

Settlers of Catan for six

John and Sarah are only here together for a week, and the last available time to play Settlers with them at Jörn and Sheila's was yesterday. We had an enjoyable meal there, then the children - most of them - went to bed, and we got the game out. I was pretty tired after a few late nights recently and hoped John or Sarah might win.

As we chatted while getting ready to play, Richard built another construction with his pieces...


When we set up our initial settlements and streets, I was the last - something that doesn't happen very often - so in the useful position of placing both settlements together. I didn't really look at the board until my turn, other than to note that all the obvious 'good' spots had been taken. Unsurprisingly.

When I studied it, I realised immediately that ore was likely to be in short supply, other than from the 6 hex. Clay was too - perhaps even more so - but the best clay hex was a 5, and the available spots weren't particularly useful. So I decided to opt for the 'ore-wheat' strategy - ie concentrating on building cities at first, and then trading for other resources. There was a useful spread of numbers (6, 9, 10) with two wheat and an ore; I was slightly surprised nobody else had taken it. So that was an easy choice.

I then pondered, considering a couple of coastal spots that would have given me two new numbers. But decided that, since I would need to do a lot of trading - there was no way I could get clay and wood reliably - I'd go for an intersection with three sheep hexes that should enable me to build on one of the sheep harbours. A risky move if I were aiming to win, but I thought it might be fun to try something a little different. There was only one new number (8).

So I started the game with only four numbers, and only three resources.


Indeed, we were mostly lacking at least one resource. Richard (red), who played first, and had a good range of numbers, had no clay or sheep. Sarah (white) had no wheat. John (green) had no sheep, though he had potentially very good wood and clay. Jörn (blue) had no ore, and not very good access to wheat. Sheila (brown) was the only person with access to all five resources at the start of the game.

We got going fairly quickly, with a surprising number of 5s and 11s being rolled (neither of which gave me anything). John built plenty of streets and did some useful trading; Jörn also expanded fairly rapidly, and I built a couple of cities before going anywhere with streets. I then managed to trade sufficiently to build out to the sheep harbour - very useful - and the ore harbour, although I didn't use that one nearly so much.


John took the longest street card early in the game, and although it was taken from him at one point, he then kept it by building so many roads that nobody could possibly catch up.

My problem - as I knew would be the case - was that I had a hard time expanding, even with my harbours. I did gain some clay from a couple of unexpected 3s, and was fairly easily able to trade for wood. Even so, I couldn't trade between turns, so kept buying cards when I had more than 7 cards in my hand (since I did, at least, have the resources for development cards). I possibly needn't have worried - as far as I recall, only two or three 7s were rolled in the entire game. On the other hand, I did gain a victory point.

By the time I had my four cities, other people with better access to clay and wood had expanded into my last remaining building spots, so the only thing left for me to do was to buy cards. I also started playing knights, realising I could probably gain the largest army card since very few other cards were being bought - ore was too rare a resource for almost everyone else - and I knew I was likely to pick up more knights. As was the case... by the final round (when I'd played two of them) I had in my development cards two victory points and about eight knights. Nothing else at all - no monopolies or years of plenty or street-building.

It got to John's turn. He had 11 points on the board (including the longest street, which was secured to him by then). I hoped he'd be able to build another settlement or city and win. But although he had the cards for a settlement, he couldn't also manage another street which he needed first. Since John had been in the lead for most of the game, I'd been moving the knight mostly onto his hexes... just because that's what one does.

If other people had played knights or rolled 7s, they should probably have targetted me, since by that stage it was clear that I was going to get the largest army, and its attached two points. But on the board, I had only my four cities; I'd only built six streets, one of which was wasted (but played to reduce my hand to seven at a stage when I did happen to have wood and clay). It didn't seem that I would be any threat to John. And I really would have liked it better if he'd won...

After John's turn, I bought another development card since I once again had too many in my hand. It was another victory point. So when my turn came around, I played my third knight and showed my victory points. I suppose I could have NOT played the knight, and let it go on for another round to see if John could have won but it didn't seem right somehow. Winning because someone else 'lets' you isn't a real win at all.


So I won with 13 points, and John was second with 11.

It was a good game, and we'd finished before 10pm for once.