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. 

Seafarers: Fog Island, different layout

We don't play Seafarers all that often. Our usual games, preferably with five players, tend to be either regular Settlers of Catan - if we're tired, or don't have very long - or Cities and Knights.

Occasionally we do something different, and have played a few games of Seafarers: Fog Island. But it always slightly niggled me (a) that in a four-person game it was very easy for one player to get completely blocked from sailing; (b) it can be a bit depressing when someone builds a lot of ships and keeps turning over sea tiles; (c) those valuable gold hexes don't have great numbers, and rarely get built to (d) it's easier to win, usually, by ignoring the ships and just building on the regular islands.

A few months ago I stayed for a few days with my brother and sister-in-law, who said that Fog Island is their favourite Catan game. I was happy to play, of course - and then very surprised to see that their layout was rather different from the one I was used to. Instead of an island on one side and blanks on the other, there were two smaller islands with 'fog island' going down the middle:

They said that they place the hexes and numbers randomly from those allowed. The instruction guide showed a rather strange layout with two 8s next to each other:

Even more surprisingly, there's a different layout again for a four-person game: 

There are the same number of unknown/fog tiles in each, but one of the Catan islands is bigger in the two-person game.

This meant that the selection of hexes and numbers also depends on whether the game is for three or four players. Here are the lists from the instruction guide. First the 'face-up' hexes and number tokens:

It's notable that here are no gold hexes at all in the face-up ones. So that's one of my niggles sorted. 

Only two face-down sea hexes is a huge benefit. Another niggle eliminated by this version.

My brother usually wins, but in one of the games we played, my sister-in-law (playing orange) creamed:

If anyone zooms the picture and counts, it should be noted that they play with the 'harbourmaster' card, given when someone gains three harbour points. My sister-in-law had that, and the 'longest route', as well as the buildings shown on the board.

I tried to print the photos I'd taken showing this different layout, but it didn't work.. then, today, we decided to play with my son and daughter-in-law. They suggested I email my photos to their iPad, so we could use them to lay the game out as in the instructions. They decided to follow the exact scenario as shown for four players - with the oddity of two 8s next to each other.

It was quite tricky choosing starting settlements. I started (playing orange); Becky came second (playing blue); Daniel (playing brown) was third; Richard (playing red) was last. We all thought Richard made an error in building where he did on the right-hand island, with no clay at all. Better would have been to ignore the 2 sheep hex and build on the 5/6 coastal intersection with a ship rather than a street:

However, important though the starting positions are, there's always some luck in the rolls of the dice. Daniel, who did start with a coastal point and a ship, was quick to sail out; his first two turned over hexes were ore and wheat, with reasonable numbers, so he quickly built on the intersection:

Becky quickly built out from the other island and was also lucky in her discoveries. She had (and kept) the longest route from an early stage. Daniel discovered the first gold hex, with a 9 number token, which gave him a good selection of resources of his choice after he had built there:

Since Daniel and Becky's six-month old son was asleep, we borrowed his Primo (baby Lego) man to take over from the robber for a while:

I decided I'd build streets around the island to build settlements rather than sailing; Richard would love to have built boats but never had the chance.  At least twice he was caught by the robber on his turn, just when he'd collected sufficient cards to do something useful.

I thought Daniel was going to win after he gained the 9-gold hex, but once again Becky's strategy, combined with a little luck, meant that she was the winner:

We didn't use the harbourmaster, but she had the longest route and also a victory point.

Seafarers (fog island) - a longer game than necessary

Since I've stopped writing about every game of Settlers that we play, I've also stopped taking photos, in general, during the games. On Thursday, Richard and I decided to play a round of Seafarers of Catan with our favourite 'fog island' scenario. I didn't want anything too lengthy or mentally tiring, although I'd forgotten just how long it takes to set the game up!

It wasn't a very equal game, since Richard made a mistake on his initial setup, and I was able to build a great deal faster than he was. When I put my final settlement down, I realised - since I had the longest trade-route, and also a couple of hidden victory points, that I'd won since I had more than 16 points (which is what we play to when there are just two of us). Richard knew it too, but suggested another couple of rounds, out of interest. All I could do, basically, was buy development cards (which I did) and I also built my last two streets and ships, because I had the cards in my hand.

And then he said I should really take photos and write about the game...

By the time we finally finished (when the last hidden hex had been revealed) the table was looking quite a mess:


Although I won, Richard took and held onto the 'largest army' card. He had one of the biggest 'armies' I can remember seeing in a game:


However, I had an extremely long trade route, giving me the 'longest street' card without even having to count:


My 'army' consisted of four knights, and by the end I had three victory points (so I had a total of 18 points) - and several more development cards which I had bought but had not had a chance to play:


It wasn't until late in the game that Richard noticed that we'd taken the wrong bonus cards - I had taken the largest army and he had taken the longest street! Not that it mattered in the slighest, as each is worth two points, but we solemnly exchanged them so as to be correct.

I was getting tired by the end, and buying so many development cards that I just threw my resource cards on the table, leading to quite a muddle:


The game was unusual for a few reasons..

1) Despite us both regularly picking up handfuls of cards by the end, the robber was never able to steal from either of us. For once, 7s were only rolled when we had both managed to spend our resource cards, and only had a few in our hands.

2) The pirate ship was not moved at all, despite a normal number of 7s being rolled, in addition to all the knight cards shown above:


3) Although I built far more ships than I usually do (by the end I had built all my ships AND all my streets) the vast majority of hexes I 'discovered' were simply sea... and the desert:


Whereas Richard, with a very modest fleet of ships, discovered only one sea hex, while all his others were resource hexes:


It was a good game, full of laughter. It really didn't matter who won - it was inevitable that I was going to, early on, but part of the fun of this scenario is exploring the hidden hexes.

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.

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.

Seafarers: fog island scenario (for four)

John and Sarah have left, and Jörn was still away. Tim leaves in the early hours of tomorrow. So we decided to have one more game with Sheila while Tim's still here. She came to our house, so we played with our set. Rather than regular Settlers of Catan, we thought we'd try our favourite Seafarers scenario: fog island. It always takes awhile to set up since it needs pieces from two sets (but not all of them). We used random distribution of the resource hexes within the main Catan island, but placed the numbers according to the booklet.

Richard (red) went first. He took the 8-9-10 which is on ore, sheep and wheat. Sheep are important in Seafarers as they're needed, along with wood, to build ships.

Tim (white) was second, and - unsurprisingly - chose the 3-8-9 on clay, ore and wood. Sheila (brown) took the 4-6-9 on clay, ore and sheep which is the spot I would have chosen if I hadn't been the last to play place. While some people like being in last position, I don't particularly like it. Particularly in this game where there aren't all that many places available! So I decided I'd focus on exploring and hope for some better numbers that way. I built one of my settlements on the 6-9 with wheat and wood, and a ship rather than a street. Then I took the 5-8-12 on wood, ore and sheep. I had no clay at all, and rather feeble access to sheep, so I hoped to be able to trade for what I needed, and find some better places out at sea.


By the time the second settlements had been placed, Richard and Tim had theoretical access to all five resources, but Sheila had no wood, which was going to make it tricky to build anything.

However, 3s and 4s were rolled surprisingly often, giving Sheila a great deal of clay. So she was able to trade easily every time she wanted wood, and soon started expanding. Within a few rounds she had managed six points, including two cities. In the same time period, the rest of us each had three points...


Since I was slightly stuck by the initial position of the pirate ship, Sheila was also the first person to head out to sea.. although the first hex she turned over was another sea one:


However, she then discovered a useful sheep. And took the longest trade route too. I managed to set sail too, was pleased for a moment to see that I hadn't found a sea hex.. and then realised it was the desert. However, I then managed to uncover a wood hex, with a fairly useful 4:


So I built a settlement there, and started to explore across the land with another street, hoping to head for the gold hex. I uncovered.. yet more wood.

Sheila, meanwhile, found rather a nice ore hex (with 5), but decided to move her leading ship and then explore in the other direction, where she found a 9-wheat hex.

And Richard managed to set out to sea too:


So Sheila was well in the lead with nine points, including the longest trade route. Richard and Tim each had five, and I had four.

I was very pleased to discover an 8-sheep hex, so quickly built a settlement there, bordering two reasonably wood hexes. Sheila went back to the ore, and discovered some more. And built her remaining cities. Tim also set sail from the main Catan island:


So Sheila now had 11 points. Seafarers can be a very long game, but we'd only been playing for about an hour. She was evidently going to be the winner by a long way ... Tim had six points, Richard and I each had five.

Sure enough, Sheila was able to build one more settlement... and thus was the clear winner:

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...