Settlers of Catan for six

It was Marie's birthday; she requested a game of Settlers after dinner. Richard was away, but Annika was visiting, and knows the game. Jacob stayed up too, so there were six of us. Annika took the red pieces; the rest of us had our usual ones (blue for Jörn, brown for Sheila, white for Marie, green for Jacob, and orange for me).

Jörn rolled to go first, and took the obvious spot from the clay-wood perspective. Good numbers for both (8 on clay), and a useful ten on sheep. Jacob was second; remembering that ore is important, he took another nice triple with ore, sheep and clay including a six.

At that point, the two remaining spots with particularly good number selections did not have three resources on them. There was either clay with two wheat, or wood with two ore. I was pretty sure that Sheila would take one of them - which she did - so I took the other. On balance I'd prefer ore to wheat, and could see that the ore harbour was not too far away, so I slightly preferred that place anyway even though Sheila's numbers were significantly better.

Annika was next, and Marie was last; two enviable positions, usually, but by this stage there really were not many useful spots next. Annika opted for ore and two clay, and her other settlement on wheat and two sheep. This gave her a 6 and an 8, but no access to wood - and it looked as if wood was going to be a fairly scarce resource anyway. She pointed her first streets inland, however, which seemed as if it might limit her potential building spots.

Marie managed two settlements that gave her - in theory - access to all five resources, but her numbers were not very good for either wood or clay. I'm not sure what else she could have done, though.

My turn again, and there was no way I could get everything I needed - clay, wheat and sheep - with one settlement. So, as usual, I decided to miss out on sheep. Not too big a deal since the spot I chose, with good access to clay and wheat, lead directly to an 8-sheep hex which I planned to occupy as soon as possible.

Sheila decided she'd take the hex that gave her access to all the three resources she needed, even though it only included a 2 on wood. Then Jacob opted for a coastal intersection that gave him wheat and wood, exactly what he needed. Unfortunately it meant that he and Marie were both heading directly for the same spot, on the wheat harbour. Jörn placed his last settlement on a spot that gave him good wheat, more sheep, and a 12 on ore.


It all seemed fairly even at this stage; nobody had overwhelmingly better spots than anyone else, although the least useful were probably Marie's and Annika's - not through bad strategy, but lack of available spaces.

So we got going, reasonably slowly at first. I was able to get the spot on the 8-sheep without any problem, and then built out to a spot that gave me an 11 on wood - not particularly useful, but I thought I might also go for the ore harbour nearby.

At the same time, Jörn built a couple of settlements too, and Sheila managed three. Jacob managed to get the wheat harbour spot before Marie reached it, which was a pity since Marie had very few possible building spots remaining. Then Jacob was first to build a city. Marie played a monopoly on wheat which gave her quite a few cards, enabling her to build a city too, although we had recommended that she grab her last easy building spot first...


So Sheila had five points at this stage in the game; Jacob, Jörn and I each had four; Marie had three, and Annika had two.

I managed another settlement, taking another spot on the 5-ore. It probably wasn't the best strategy; I was collecting quite a bit of clay, since 9s were rolled regularly, and I could have gone for the clay harbour which would have been rather useful. Sheila built a city and another street.. then Jacob had a street-building frenzy, and took the longest street card:


So now Sheila and Jacob were jointly in the lead with six points each, and I was just behind with five.

I now had to build a city before I could expand any further, and it was surprisingly difficult. 4s and 5s were not rolled very often, and since I kept picking up other cards, I had to buy development cards so as not to exceed the limit of seven in my hand, not wishing to be vulnerable to the robber. The first one was a victory point; the others were knights. Unfortunately, of course, buying them used up some of my available ore. But eventually I managed a city.

Sheila could easily have taken Marie's last building spot, but had plenty of other places along the coast. So she expanded around there, taking the longest street card, and also taking a spot Jörn had hoped for. He - like most of us - lacked wood for much of the game, which seriously limited his expansion potential.

At last Marie managed to build in the centre of the three wood hexes. She did, in theory, have one more building spot but it was likely that Annika would get there first.


So now Sheila was decidedly in the lead, with nine points, including the longest street. I had six (well, seven including my victory point, but that was hidden); Jörn and Jacob each had five; Marie had four, and Annika still had only two. She was not being at all lucky with the rolls of the dice.

However, Annika had bought a few development cards, and had played a couple of knights. She played her third, and thus received the largest army card (and two extra points). She also, at last, managed another settlement, and then fairly quickly upgraded it to a city. I took the clay harbour, although it was too late in the game to be much use. Jörn built some cities...

But it was Sheila who raced ahead of us all. She actually reached 12 points on the board on the 'building phase' of Jacob's turn, including having the longest street card. But the rules state that one can only win on one's own turn. Jacob could, temporarily, have taken the longest street card back since he had a street in his hand, and a street-building card. But he decided not to, realising he couldn't keep the longest street, and hoping for other opportunities to expand elsewhere.

As it happened, it wouldn't have made any difference. Sheila took her turn, and during it managed another settlement, and also picked up a victory point development card. So she creamed us all, with 14 points. Jörn and I were in joint second place, with eight points each...

Seafarers of Catan (Fog Island scenario) for four

Jacob was out sailing with Richard and Mick. Marie wanted to play Seafarers... so we set up a four-person game. We played with our usual colours: brown for Sheila, blue for Jörn, white for Marie and orange for me. We decided on our favourite 'Fog Island' scenario, which is enjoyable to play but rather time-consuming to set up as it requires pieces from both the regular Settlers and the Seafarers boxes. There are hexes and numbers that show, and piles of them to be 'discovered' by building ships.

We opted for random placement of hexes in the main Catan island, but put the numbers according to the booklet.

There's never much room to set up initial settlements in this scenario; I always hope to sail out to discover further resource hexes. So I opted for the best numbers I could, in the circumstances. The only resources I started with were ore, wheat and clay.. which, I realised later, was a bit foolish in this game since it's wood and sheep that are needed to build ships!

Sheila was lacking clay, Marie was lacking ore, and Jörn was the only person with all five resources at the beginning. Marie was the only one of us who began with a ship rather than a street, and was thus in the best position to begin exploring first.


.. and, indeed, that's what happened. Sheila (lacking clay) and I (lacking wood) both managed a city before anything else. Jörn built a street and a settlement.. and Marie built ships, sailed away from Catan, and discovered a very useful 6-sheep hex:


I managed another city, then by dint of some trading was able, at last, to build a new settlement. Sheila started sailing out from Catan, and discovered a wood and a sheep hex. Exactly what I would have liked... but with neither wood nor sheep easily available to me, I didn't have much hope of building any ships. Nor, I realised, did I have anywhere to go since my coastal settlement was in between Marie's and Sheila's shipping lines... I would have to concentrate on building on Catan.

Marie was first to gain the longest street (or shipping route) card:


However, Sheila was just in the lead with six points. All the rest of us now had five.

That 'longest street' card changed hands several times in the game. However, Marie was also first to gain the largest army - she kept buying cards, and kept getting knights - and nobody got anywhere near challenging her on that.


At this stage, when Marie held the largest army and longest street card, she had seven points. So she was just in the lead: the rest of us each had six. It was a pretty even game, point-wise.

The longest route card went to Sheila, and then back to Marie, who was determined to keep it. The problem was that she used her resources on ships, and so didn't take the opportunity to build any settlements. I had eight points on the board - still just on the main Catan island - and Jörn had seven. Sheila also had eight points, including settlements on her discovered hexes. We also noticed that Jörn was gradually extending his streets, and might soon be able to take the longest street card himself...


However, it was Sheila who eventually took and kept the card. She had nine points on the board in buildings... and when her turn came around, she was able to build another settlement, and thus won the game with twelve points:


I was quite pleased to have eleven, since I hadn't built a single ship.

Four-person Settlers of Catan

Richard was busy, and Jacob was away on camp... so we sat down to a four-person Settlers game late yesterday afternoon. Jörn played blue, Sheila brown, Marie white, and I was orange.

I was first to place. Ore looked as if it would be the most scarce resource, so I knew I would place on the four-ore hex. I was undecided between the 5 (sheep)-8 (clay) intersection, and the 6 (sheep)-9 (wheat). From the number perspective, they were equally good. I decided that, on balance, I preferred to have slightly better access to clay than to sheep; and clay is always useful at the start of the game. And it looked as if there would be plenty of wheat available for trading.

Jorn played second, and took the 5-9-10 with wood, wheat and sheep. Marie went next, and took the spot with the best number combination on the board: the 5-6-9 with sheep, wheat and wood. Then Sheila was both last and first. Unsurprisingly she took the spot I had seriously considered, also bordering the 4-ore hex. And she also took the coastal 8-10 with clay and wood. That gave her access to all five resources, and five good numbers: 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10.

Marie needed clay and ore, and had two possible spots: she took the 3, 10 and 11 which also gave her sheep. So she had six numbers: 3, 5, 6, 9, 10 and 11. Jörn also needed clay and ore, so he took the other appropriate spot, giving him two clay and an ore. So he also had six reasonable numbers: 3, 4, 5, 9, 10 and 11. No 6 or 8, but it was likely that he would head to the 8-wheat.

Then, at last, it was me again. I was lacking wheat and wood. My instinct was to opt for wheat rather than wood, although it would have made it rather tricky to get started. And the only good spot on a wheat hex was the 8-4 coastal wheat-clay spot,
The biggest problem with that was that I already had an 8 and a 4, so would be limiting myself to three numbers altogether.

So, with an inward sigh, I opted for the 9-10 coastal intersection with two wood. It was a bit annoying for Sheila since it stopped her from getting the nearby 3:1 harbour which she was aiming for, but the board was already looking crowded. Due to some of the initial placements, there were a surprising number of unavailable spots.

I forgot to take a photo until we'd played a couple of rounds, but all we had built by this stage were a few streets:


Since I'd taken the harbour Sheila had wanted, she built as quickly as she could out towards another 3:1 harbour, thus preventing me from going there. So I could not expand anywhere from my first settlement.

Surprisingly, ore was not in short supply since 4 was rolled rather more often than expected. But without wheat its only use to me was trading - which I did, fairly extensively. I did manage to build on the sheep harbour. Marie had hoped for that spot, but my only hope of building anything at all was to continue around the coast. I'd have liked the 6-11-12 intersection which would have given me access to wheat. Marie would also have liked it. But Jörn built out towards it - and beyond, so that it was secure to him - and took the longest street card in doing so. Then Sheila was the first to build a city:


So Jörn was in the lead with six points, although he didn't expect to keep the longest street card. Sheila had four points; Marie and I each had three. But Marie and I were already struggling to find building spots.

It wasn't long before Sheila took the longest street, and incidentally giving herself quite a few useful building spots:


Marie joined her segments of road, so that she took the longest street card temporarily, but she didn't have the potential to keep it. She aimed for her last building spot, on the desert.. and then Sheila built more streets, and took the card back again:


So Sheila was now in the lead with seven points, closely followed by Jörn with six. I had finally managed my first city, so had five points, and Marie was trailing with three.

I realised that I could, potentially, take the longest street card - and since there wasn't much else I could do, and I had the resources in my hand, I did build a couple more. But Sheila had calculated that she could reach 14 segments, which was the maximum I could reach... so she build the rest of her streets, to guarantee keeping it:


So Sheila now had ten points, but Jörn was still close behind with nine, and I had eight. Marie was still trailing with five. By this stage there were NO building spots left on the entire board... so we were all after ore, wheat and sheep, with little use for wood or clay other than for trading.

So although we were all picking up a fair number of cards, not much happened. We just bought cards, and occasionally played them. Then Jörn build another city:


- so he and Sheila were now equal with ten points each.

Then Sheila built another city.

Then Marie played a third knight card, and so gained the largest army.

And then, at last, Jörn bought another card which was a victory point. He already had one hidden one, so that gave him the twelve points he needed to win:


So he had 12 points, and Sheila had 11. I had 9, and Marie - who also had a hidden victory point card - had 8.

Another Settlers of Catan game for six

Another Thursday evening; another foray onto the shores of Catan. This time in a room running air conditioning, since the weather is getting decidedly hot and humid. Marie was still up, so she joined us.

Daniel (playing green) placed his settlement first, and opted for a very nice 5-6-9 intersection giving ore, sheep and wood. I was second, playing my usual orange. There were several good places available, but I could see that wheat was likely to be the rarest resource, so I chose the 5-8-9 (all good numbers) on ore, wood and wheat. I would probably have chosen that if I'd been first to place, too.

Richard (red) was third, and chose another good place, an 8-9-10 intersection which gave him clay, ore and wood. That would probably have been my second choice since it's always useful to have good access to both clay and wood early in the game. Marie (white) was next; she took the 5-8-10 with wood, sheep and ore. Sheila (brown) went next - and took the 4-6-10 with sheep, ore and wood.

Evidently this game was going to have a plentiful supply of three resources, namely wood, ore and sheep. By this stage I was wondering if I would be able to get access to clay on my second placement; sheep seemed like less of a priority. Jörn was the last to play; he was able to get access to all resources other than ore, and included a settlement on the 9-wheat which I had targetted.

On the way back, play was fairly predictable, and by the time my turn came round again I was pleased to see that the coastal place with 6 on sheep and 10 on clay was still available. It meant that I had all five resources, and five good numbers: 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10.


Play started pretty evenly, although there was a distinct lack of clay. However, despite the theoretical lack of wheat in the game, 11 was rolled a couple of times, as well as 9. So three people - Marie, Richard and Jörn - each built a city before they had managed another settlement, or even a street. I took the next photo when each of us had exactly three points:


I was particularly pleased to have a settlement on a 4, since I now had resources - robber permitting - for the six most likely numbers.

Both Marie and Daniel bought rather a lot of development cards in the 'extra building phase' of the game , so that they kept their hands of resources at seven or less, not wanting to risk theft by the robber. Marie played knights fairly regularly, and soon gained the largest army:


Marie was thus in the lead, with two cities and the largest army, despite not yet having built a single street:


Daniel was second with five points, and the rest of us each had four. I now had a useful 3:1 harbour and was hoping I might be able to extend around the coast towards the 11-ore hex, although I thought that the sheep harbour might be more useful despite being located by a 2-sheep hex.

The next excitement was that Richard gained the longest street card, by joining up his two road segments and reaching a length of seven streets:


I had gained the sheep harbour, but lost access to the 11-ore hex when Sheila built two streets in that direction. And then I lost the possibility of any more building spots when Jörn built out to the other side of the 2-sheep hex, so as to take a 3:1 harbour:


The scores were still remarkably even. Richard (with the longest street), Marie (with the largest army), Jörn, Daniel and I each had seven points. Sheila was very slightly behind with six... but she only needed to build two more roads to obtain the longest street card, and she had a couple more possible building spots. Jörn also had the possibility of building on the same two spots; Richard had two more possibilities (having had one blocked by Jörn fairly early in the game), and Daniel had a not-terribly-useful potential spot on the desert.

Marie and I had now run out of building places. I could still upgrade two more cities, and gain a total of nine on the board. Marie's largest army was increasing in size - she kept on picking up knight cards! - so there was no likelihood of her losing that; however she had only managed to build one new settlement, so had a maximum of six building points. Both of us needed to buy cards in the hope of victory points to have any possibility of winning.

As it happened, I did already have one hidden victory point. And I'd monopolised sheep at a useful point, and used my sheep harbour to build another city. Running out of building spots meant that I could trade any clay I had for ore or even sheep... and I frequently had a significant number of wood cards.

I built my next city. I bought another card, and it was a second victory point. So now I had eight points on the board, plus two hidden ones - ten in all. I needed to upgrade one more city, and then hope to buy a further victory point...

But others had hidden cards too. It could still have been anyone's game.

I took the next photo when all six of us had exactly eight visible points:


Then Daniel upgraded another settlement, giving him nine points. Marie played yet another knight and increased her largest army to seven:


A ten was rolled, and I picked up three clay. How useless, I thought. And then had an idea. I already had a couple of sheep, which could be traded for another clay. I seemed to pick up wood regularly although I didn't currently have any. Perhaps I could simply build four more streets in addition to my segment of four at the bottom - since Richard's longest street was still at seven, and Sheila hadn't yet joined up her two sections...

It was quite a risk. By the time my turn came around, I had about eleven cards in my hand. Had I rolled a 7, I'd have lost half of them... but I rolled a five. Two ore. Ore was what everyone else wanted by this stage, and they all had wood which was now useless to them... although I hadn't picked up any wood in the last round. Surely, however, nobody was going to give me wood since it was clear that I had no building spots...

But I offered ore, or wheat, in exchange for wood. Four people took me up on it without, apparently, any suspicions. After all, we all had eight points - except for Daniel, who had nine - so the game was evidently going to continue a few more rounds.

So I bought four more streets, and placed them... and revealed my two victory points:

Settlers of Catan for six (or seven) on Sunday afternoon

Another Sunday afternoon; another Settlers of Catan. We didn't start until 5pm and wanted to eat by 6.30, so I didn't think there was time for a Seafarers game as it takes so long to set up, and the games tend to be a bit more protracted.

Seven of us wanted to play, so Jacob and Daniel decided to be in a team together. An interesting combination, since Jacob is one of the most highly competitive people I have ever met, and Daniel is possibly the least competitive person I know...

Becky was playing with the red pieces, and rolled the dice to go first. Clay was evidently going to be a fairly scarce resources in this game, so she wisely opted for the intersection including the best clay hex with a couple of other resources, all on good numbers. Sheila (brown) was second, and opted for the other obviously good place, again with three great numbers and three different resources. No clay, but she did have wood.

Jörn (blue) was third, and went for three reasonable numbers, including an 8 on sheep, while evidently hoping for one of the sheep harbours. Daniel and Jacob (green) were next, and after some discussion opted for a 3-6-10 intersection. I rather fancied the nearby 4-6-10 and wasn't sure why they didn't opt for that one other than wanting wood rather than wheat. Still, it meant that I couldn't have that one. So I decided to ignore resources, and go for numbers. I took the 5-6-9 with two wood and wheat. Marie (white) was last - so she opted for two places that gave her access to all five resources, plus the ore harbour. Her clay access was only on 12 but at least she picked up one as a starting point, and hoped to build towards the 11 on clay.

I was a little surprised that the other reasonable spot on the 10-clay hex was still available; even better was that it was near the wood harbour, and I had two good wood hexes. So I took clay and two sheep as my second placement.


By the time it got back to Becky, there was still an excellent spot for her to gain the two resources she was lacking: wood on 9 and ore on 8. It was a coastal hex, but undoubtedly the one I would have taken in her shoes.

And so we got started, around 5.15pm. 8s were rolled rather a lot in the early part of the game - I had no 8s, so they were no use to me. There were quite a few 9s as well, however, and even one or two tens, so I was able to build out towards the wood harbour and build a settlement on it. Becky had ore on 8 and wheat on 9, so was quickly able to build a couple of cities. She also bought cards fairly regularly. And when she noticed that there was only one wood resource left in the stack, she played a timely monopoly on wood:


With that, she was able to build another settlement and some streets, gaining her the longest street card:


So now Becky was in the lead with seven points. Sheila and Jörn each had four points, I had three, Jacob/Daniel and Marie were still each on two.

I was pleased to be able to build on the 11-8 intersection giving me an 8 at last, on ore (the one resource I had been lacking). And then I built out again, on a useful 9-wheat and 4-sheep. With 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10 and 11 I now had a good range of numbers and all five resources, and hoped to start being able to build cities since I had used up my five settlements by this stage.

But Becky had played her second knight. Clearly she was also going for the largest army - and she had six points on the board as well as the longest street. Her next nearest rivals were Jörn, Sheila and me by this stage, each on five points. Marie had managed to build one settlement, but Daniel and Jacob were still stuck on two points. Two building spots they had hoped for had been taken by other people, and they weren't picking up many resource cards at all.


Becky could have won the game, by playing her third knight, since she had two carefully hidden cards which we were all sure were victory points. But she thought she'd play another monopoly card instead. She was unlucky - she asked for wheat, as there was plenty of it in the game; but at that point, nobody had any wheat. So she couldn't play her knight after all, and we knew there would be at least one more round. It seemed that the game was going to be over before it started.

I realised that, with my useful wood harbour, I could take the longest street. So when my turn came around, I built two more streets - not going anywhere, but joining up my two sections of road. So I took the card from Becky, reducing her victory points by two. Except that she had already built another city in someone else's building phase, so she had seven points on the board and was evidently going to claim the largest army when it got to her turn again.


When Becky's turn came round, she had the cards to build yet another settlement. So she had eight points on the board. She then played her third knight, giving her two more points for the largest army.


.. and, as we surmised, she also had two victory point cards:


So Becky had won with twelve points, and I was her nearest rival at seven. We finished by 6pm, so it was one of the quickest 5-6 player games we had ever played.

Seafarers of Catan: fog island (for six)

It was a few weeks since we had introduced Becky to Seafarers of Catan, with the Fog Island scenario. Yesterday afternoon, Richard and Daniel went out sailing, but our friends came over for a game, and asked for Seafarers. We decided on the same scenario, but with random distribution of hexes and numbers.

We had not played with six before. The initial setup wasn't easy, with distinct lack of spaces by the end. Becky (playing red, for a change) went first and took what was, in my view, the best spot available. Marie (playing white) went second; Jörn (blue) third; Sheila (brown) fourth. I was fifth, playing orange as usual, and since there were no obviously good spots, decided on some good numbers on sheep and wood - the resources needed to build a boat. Jacob (green) went last, his favourite position, since it meant he placed both settlements together. I'm not entirely sure why he took one spot with only the wood-8 bordering it - there was a similar wood-8 hex with a wheat next to it that he could have had. But he was determined to set out to sea as soon as possible, and to aim for the 10-gold hex.


So the game started. Since I had no ore, my first strategy was to build towards a useful 9-ore hex. Becky built streets out towards the coast at the back of the board, in the hope of the ore harbour. And picked up the longest street card without really intending to.

The first person to uncover a 'hidden' hex was Jacob...and it was a sea hex. Sheila then set out in boats as well, and uncovered a further sea hex.


Jacob kept on building boats and exploring, and for several moves found nothing but sea. Then finally he uncovered a wood hex, with a useful 5, and built a settlement bordering that and the gold hex he had been aiming for.


However, Becky was still rather significantly in the lead. She had 7 points including the longest street. Even if - as was likely - someone took that from her, she had 5 solid points on the board. Jörn was second with five points; Marie, Jacob and I had four each, and Sheila had three.

I did manage to build enough ships to take the longest route card for a couple of rounds, but Jacob soon took it from me. His line of ships was pretty much invincible from that perspective, although he wasn't doing much other building:


Despite losing the longest route card, Becky now had eight points, since she had built two cities and a further settlement. Jörn also had eight points, and Jacob was close behind with seven. Marie, Sheila and I all had five, so it was still fairly even. Marie and I had been discovering some useful land hexes, as had Jacob by this stage. Sheila had remembered a rule which we had quite forgotten in our last game: whoever turns over a land hex takes an extra resource corresponding to it immediately.

Richard and Daniel arrived home from their sailing trip, and Richard sat with Jacob to give him some advice on strategy. He pointed out that since he had by far the longest route, there wasn't much point extending it further; he needed the resources to build settlements and cities instead, to gain more points. Then Daniel took over advising... and Jacob waited until two 12s had (surprisingly) been rolled. Jörn and I both picked up clay for that, so Jacob, on his turn, monopolised clay and received 15 cards:


With those, he was able to trade with others, and then built another settlement.

However, Becky was maintaining a clear lead by this stage. She had 11 points on the board. She still had building spaces too - lots of them! - so could either build more, or buy cards. We had decided to play to 12 points rather than 14, as we were getting hungry. We had to remember to keep counting points; as so often happens in Fog Island, we were all enjoying the exploration phase and tended to forget about trying to gain points.


Unsurprisingly, it was Becky who won - by picking up a victory point card.


We were greatly relieved, not wanting the game to continue much longer. The camera shook slightly on the last shot, and I temporarily ran out of memory space to take any more, so the final board isn't too clear:


But Becky was the clear winner, and Jacob came second with 10 points.

Settlers of Catan for Six on Sunday

Last night, it was our turn to host the Settlers game. Becky kindly watched the younger children (and a movie) so Jacob could play. And since he wanted green pieces, Daniel played with white. Other than that, we had our normal colours: red for Richard, brown for Sheila, blue for Jörn, and orange for me.

Jacob went first, and took the 4-5-8 spot with three resources. Sheila then took the equally good 5-6-10 spot which was the one I would have chosen, since it included ore. Jörn took 8-9-10 with two wood and an ore; Daniel took 4-6-10 with two wheat and a sheep, close to the sheep harbour. That's another spot that rather appealed to me. Richard took the 3-5-9 with three resources... and then it was me, playing last again. I do quite like getting to choose both spots at the same time, but I would prefer to go first or second. Actually, second is slightly better in the six-player Catan game, in my view.

I couldn't find any ideal slots or combinations, so decided I could best live without sheep. So I took a coastal 4-8 on a 3:1 harbour with clay and wood, and a 3-5-10 with ore and two wheat.

On the way back, most people were surprised to find that their particular choice of location was still available.


So we all started the game feeling fairly positive about our starting settlements. The only problem was that we were all, other than Sheila, incredibly tired. I could barely keep my eyes open.

Daniel was rather creative during setup... like father, like son:


My hopes of building inwards from my coastal slot were rather stymied by Jörn and Richard's second placements, so after much thought - not easy when tired - I determined to head, if I could, towards the 9-11-12 spot with better ore on the 9. I quickly reached the half-way mark, on 3-12-12, and though the numbers were pretty bad, I always think I should take any building spots I can on a potentially crowded board. It was worth having, since 12 was rolled at least twice in the game, giving me unexpected extra clay and wheat.

Unfortunately for me, I wasn't the only one who wanted that spot. Jörn started heading that way, as did Daniel who got there first. So instead I curved the other way and took the 2-3-4 slot. Also not great numbers, but any time a 4 was rolled I picked up resources for a street.

And then I headed towards the coast, with the aid of a street-building card I had bought, and took the ore harbour. Not frantically useful since my only access to ore was on a 3 - but it did give me a very nice 6 on sheep, the one resource I was lacking. And, of course a building spot. And, as a bonus - which I hadn't realised at first - the longest street card. For a while.


Unfortunately, that put me in the lead and thus made me a target for the robber. However it wasn't long before Jörn increased his roads and took the longest road card from me:


This put him strongly in the lead with 7 points. Sheila and I each had four points, and everyone else had 3.

Despite our being tired, the game progressed reasonably fast, although there was nothing particularly worthy of photographing until I realised I hadn't taken one for a while. Sheila hoped to take the longest street card, but Jörn increased his roads sufficiently that he couldn't be challenged on it:


So by this stage he had 9 solid points. A 3 had been rolled, and I'd done quite well with trading, so I was right behind with 8. Sheila had 7 (two of her settlements don't show on that image). Everyone else was trailing.

I realised I did have another building spot along the coast, but didn't want to head out that way until I was certain of getting there since I thought Jörn would probably block me. So I took the risk of keeping too many cards in my hand; by the time it was my turn, I had sufficient for four streets - by dint of some trading. Thankfully no sevens were rolled and I was able to extend outwards.


But before I could build that final settlement, Jörn built one more - on someone else's building phase - and then on his next turn, he was able to build one more settlement, and show a victory point card which gave him 12 points and made him the winner.


It was another fairly resounding win for Jörn - he won the Catan game on the previous evening too - and he told us that he used, basically, the same strategy. Lots of one resource, and the relevant harbour (in this case wood).



It's a strategy I've successfully used in the past, but for some reason haven't been able to recently.