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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cities and Knights of Catan for two

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

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


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

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

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

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


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

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


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

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


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

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


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

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


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

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


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

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


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

Fishermen of Catan and the Harbourmaster

We've played quite a few regular games of Settlers and Cities and Knights; I'm only writing about more unusual variants now. One of those happened on Monday, when we pulled out our 'Traders and Barbarians' expansion, and decided to start at the beginning again. There are several interesting sets of pieces within the box, and variations on the Catan theme which can be used with or without other expansions.

The first scenario in the booklet is the one called Fishermen of Catan. There are fish tiles laid around the outside, and a 'lake' hex replaces the desert:


The little pile of blue next to the resource cards are the little fish tiles, which may have one, two or three fish on them, and which can be traded in various ways. I described this in some detail when writing about our first game of Fishermen of Catan.

We used dice rather than the event cards, but we did decide to bring in the 'harbo(u)rmaster' card which functions like the Longest Street or Largest Army. As soon as any player has three or more harbours - of any kind - that player receives the Harbourmaster card, and two extra victory points. It can then be taken by another player who gains more harbours later on:


Since there were just two of us playing (Richard red, me orange, as usual) we started with three initial settlements each. We don't play the two-player version described in the Traders and Barbarians box (although we should probably try it some time) but our own two-player house rules, although we vary those from time to time too.


As can be seen, we each took an intersection by the lake, which produces fish any time 2, 3, 11 or 12 is rolled. Other than that, we took fairly predictable spots. Richard took one on the coast, with a fish ground tile nearby (which would give him a fish any time a 5 was rolled) but I kept mine inland.

I decided to head, first, for the 3:1 harbour which was by the 6-fish tile, and built my first settlement there:


So that would give me a fish piece every time a 6 was rolled.

Richard headed for a couple of fish tiles on the coast, too, but I decided to build my second settlement on the 8-ore hex:


I decided, next, to head for the other end of my 6-fish tile, and the wood harbour. In my hand, I had a wood, a clay, and a wheat resource (and a couple of ore, which weren't relevant). I also had five hidden fish tiles, which added up to 9 fish. I knew I could trade four of them for any resource of my choice.. so was going to put down the street I could buy from my hand and perhaps buy another wood and clay. Then realised that I needed to think more strategically. With five fish tiles, I could place a free street, leaving my wood and clay resources towards my settlement. Then I could use the other four fish to buy the sheep I was lacking, and place the settlement immediately:


Obvious, I know. But we were just getting used to these extra pieces and it wasn't always easy to think straight!

We'd both built all our settlements, in a fairly even way, and had to start building cities. For some reason, that wasn't so easy, and it was good that we had the fish to enable us to buy extra resources. Richard remained one point ahead of me for the first half of the game:


He then joined up two sections of streets, so took the Longest Street card and two extra points. He then picked up the 'old boot' tile, which nestles amongst the fish tiles... which meant that he would need one extra point to win the game. He could give it to 'any player' with as many or more points than he had - but since he had more than me, he couldn't give it away...


I built out to the sheep harbour, which gave me three harbours and thus the Harbormaster card - and two more points.


The extra settlement meant that I now had nine points on the board, the same as Richard, and we each had a card giving us an extra two. Naturally, I didn't point this out (when I noticed) since I didn't want to be handed the old boot...

Play continued as ever, with resources being gathered faster than ever, although I don't think either of us was caught out by the robber. We play to 16 points; we'd reached the stage where I had built all my cities and settlements - giving me 13 points on the board - and Richard had built all of his other than one settlement, so he had 12 on the board. I still held the Harbourmaster card, and he still held the Longest Street card. Neither of had bought many development cards, but Richard had played two knights, so it was likely that he would gain the Largest Army before long...

.. so, when I managed to collect several wood tiles, and a pile of fish, I decided to spend them on streets to link up my two road sections, and thus took the Longest Street card:


So I had 17 points, winning the game, and Richard was back to 12. Even if he had given me the old boot, it wouldn't have been a problem as I had the extra point.

Settlers of Catan for two of us

Monday evening, and nothing planned... so out came the Catan box for another two-player game. Orange pieces for me, red for Richard, as usual. It would be very confusing if we ever decided to change colours!

Richard rolled the higher number, so - according to our two-player Settlers house rules - he would place his first settlement, then I would place two (taking resources cards for one of them) then he would place two more (taking resource cards for both) and I would then place my final one, taking resource cards for that too. We allow nine in a hand before the robber can attack, and two or three robber-free rounds at the beginning anyway.

Richard said that he was going to use 'my' strategy of starting on the best hex for whichever resource was likely to be scarcest. As it happened, there weren't any obviously lacking resources on this board, but I thought clay and wood would be the most problematical. So I expected Richard to start on either the 4-clay or the 9-wood; most likely, I thought, the useful 5-9-10 combination with sheep, wood and clay respectively.

However, to my surprise, he didn't take either of my chosen spots - instead he opted for the 3-4-8 with wood (on three only) and two ore. That meant that I could place my first two settlements on the two spots I had marked out as the best ones, which gave me five good numbers and access to all five resources.

Richard then took the 5-9-10 with two wheat and wood, and - after some consideration - the 3-4-8 with two clay and a sheep. He liked that spot, which was undoubtedly the best remaining one for clay, but didn't like the fact that it had exactly the same number combination as his first settlement.

As I looked for a spot to place my final settlement, my main aim was access to an 8, since I already had 4, 5, 6, 9 and 10. Since I like having good ore access, I opted for the 8-10-desert hex with ore on 8 and wood on 10. The wood harbour looked rather attractive and convenient too.


Clay and wood were not lacking in the early stages of the game, so we placed streets, and Richard bought a few development cards too. 9s were not rolled, which was a bit annoying since it meant that I could not build a settlement, having no wheat - and nor could I buy any cards. I had to trade four ore, at one point, for one wheat in order to take the sheep harbour, and then trade heavily again for my second settlement.

Then suddenly we rolled three nines in a row, and, with plentiful ore, I was able to build my first city.

However, I had made a strategic error in not securing a spot on the wood harbour; I placed my first two streets next to the other two I had started with, leaving the way open for Richard, who was collecting a lot of wood and clay, to race past me for the wood harbour:


I was ahead at this point in the game (six points, while Richard had four) but he had already played a knight, and had two or three other hidden development cards. As with the last game we played, we decided that the robber would be controlled by whoever rolled a seven (rather than whoever was behind in points) and also that the robber would always steal from the bank - rather than the other player - a resource matching whatever hex he was placed on.

I really wanted a spot on that 5-wheat hex, since wheat was my weak point in this game. Richard had in fact placed his initial settlements as if he were using the 'ore-wheat' strategy, and was beginning, as a result, to get ahead. So I played him at his game, storing up clay and wood until I could push past him to the 2-5 wheat spot on the coast. In doing so, I took the longest street card... for about twenty seconds. Richard then built more streets and took it from me, for the rest of the game.


So I still had six points, while he now had nine. He had also played two knights, so was likely to achieve the 'largest army' too.

And, indeed, that's what happened. We both continued building on just about every turn - in fact Richard reached 16 points before either of us had realised it, and so won the game with 17 points, including both the largest army and the longest street:


I did have one victory point, so I lost with 11 rather than just the ten points I had on the board.

Settlers of Catan, basic game for two players

We devised our two-player house rules for Settlers of Catan at the end of last year, and have enjoyed several two-player games over the months. We're more evenly matched than we used to be, so last night we decided to ignore the 'robber' rule which we adopted at first. In other words, the robber is controlled by whoever throws a seven or plays a knight (as in the regular Settlers game; originally when a seven was rolled, it was controlled by whoever was behind). However, rather than stealing a card from the other player, since there are just two of us, we take a resource matching whatever hex we put the robber on.

We started by placing three settlements each, as usual for a two-player game. I rolled to go first, so I started by placing one. The board looked like quite a nice layout, with several good combinations of numbers. I could see that ore was likely to be the scarcest resource, so I knew I wanted my first placement on the 10-ore hex, which was the best option for it. It was a fairly easy decision to place it where I would also have access to the 5-wood and 9-sheep.

Then it was Richard's turn to place two settlements. He acknowledged later that he made a strategic error in not also taking the 10-ore hex - there was a good spot with an 8-clay and 3-wood which I would certainly have taken if he had played first, and taken the spot I did.

Instead he looked at the intersections with the best numbers. He likes to start with a 6 and an 8, as the most likely numbers to be rolled. So he opted for the other 8-clay, a 6-sheep, with 3, 4, 5 and 11 as his other numbers. He had theoretical access to all five resources, but his only ore hex was the 11. He took cards for his second placement, the one that included both wood and clay.

I then placed my other two starting settlements, and took cards for both. I also like to have a 6 and an 8 if I can, and a variety of numbers, so I took the other 8-clay hex with a 3-wood and 4-wheat, and alsothe 4-6 woods with a 3-ore. I could see that my first settlement wasn't far from the wood harbour, so hoped to be able to make use of that. And whereas my numbers could have been better - I could, for instance, have taken the 4-6-9 with the same two wood and a sheep, I thought it would be a good idea to have another number that might give me some ore.

For Richard's last settlement, I thought he would take the 5-9-10 with two wheat and clay. He would then have an excellent range of numbers - everything from 3 to 11 - and great access to wheat. However, he was already heading for that spot with one of his other settlements, so he went instead for the 9-6-12 with wheat and two sheep, heading towards the sheep harbour.


We allow up to 9 cards in a hand before the robber can steal any in the two-person Catan game, since we don't have any player-to-player trading, meaning that there are often more cards that can't be used. And we don't acknowledge any sevens in the first three or four rounds. As it happened only two sevens were rolled in the entire game!

Despite two 8-clay hexes, wood was a much more plentiful resources in this game, with very few 8s being rolled. We both had the resources needed for streets in our opening hands, but the had to trade heavily with the bank to continue. It wasn't long before Richard took that nice spot with the 9 and 10, meaning that he now had access to every number other than 2. I took my nearest 3:1 harbour as soon as I could, so that I didn't have to trade four cards each time!

Oddly enough, 3s were being rolled more often than one would expect, so I had more ore from that than I did from the 10 - and was soon able to build my first city.


Richard, unsurprisingly, took the longest street:


So at this stage in the game, each of us had six points exactly. We were both rather struggling to get clay or wheat, having instead rather an excess of wood (both of us), sheep (Richard) and ore (me).

Richard built on a 3:1 harbour next, which helped with trading, and extended his long street to join up various sections and ensure that I didn't overtake him. However, his problem was that he simply wasn't picking up any ore. Now he had played all five settlements, he had to start a city. He had bought a couple of development cards early in the game, both of which were knights; so he played them on my ore hexes simply so as to enable him to pick up ore from the bank!

Finally he did manage his first city, and soon after built another settlement:


So now he had seven points on the board, plus the longest street, giving him nine. I was managing to build cities almost every turn, so had ten points on the board - but as Richard had also played two knights (and the only card I had bought proved to be a monopoly, which is not all that useful in two-player Catan) he was evidently going for the largest army as well...

... and, indeed, he took it:


I had finished all the possible buildings, giving me 13 points. We play to 16 when there are just two of us, so all I could do was to buy cards and hope for some victory points. In the meantime, Richard could gradually progress with his buildings and reach 16 first. I did have both the wood harbour and the wheat harbour, which were extremely useful since I continued picking up vast quantities of wood on almost every roll of the dice.

Then I suddenly realised that although I had little hope of building a larger army, I could in fact overtake his longest street. I didn't want to make it too obvious what I was planning, so as I couldn't immediately build the streets (wood suddenly became scarce, temporarily), I bought three cards. To my surprise, two of them were victory points... so I had 15 points rather than 13.

On my following round, I picked up sufficient wood to buy two streets... so I won the game with 17 points.


Richard also had a victory point card, but his total was only 10. I was surprised that he was so far behind, since we'd been so close throughout the game... then we remembered that when I took the longest street card from him, I effectively leapt ahead by four points since I gained two and he also lost two. Ignoring the victory points, I'd had 13 and he'd had 11 a moment earlier...

Two-person Settlers of Catan game with Richard

It's been quite some time since Richard and I last played two-person Settlers of Catan without any expansions. We decided to play just the basic game, rather than anything more complicated, since I was quite tired.

Richard had his usual red pieces, and I had orange. I went first, so placed my initial settlement on the 5-8-10 with ore, clay and sheep. I suppose the 5-6-9 nearby (ore, wood and sheep) would have been slightly better from the number point of view. But it seemed that ore and clay were likely to be the least available resources, so I wanted the best spot I could for both.

Richard then placed two settlements. He chose the 5-6-9, and the 3-4-8 with ore, wheat and sheep. It gave him a good range of numbers and he expected to be able to find clay on his third placement.

I then looked at the best possible combination of numbers - with three starting settlements, it's usually easy to get access to all five resources, and, indeed, most of the numbers. I still needed wood and wheat, so an obvious spot for me was the 4-6-9 with clay, wheat and wood. So I had 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10 which are the six most commonly rolled numbers. I decided that for my third settlement, I'd opt for the intersection with a 3 and 11, both on ore, and another useful 6-wood hex in addition.


With three settlements each, play usually gets going fairly quickly in the two-person game. We start with resources for our second two settlements (and are allowed nine cards in our hands before the robber can strike). We decided, too, that rather than giving control of the robber to whoever was behind, when a 7 was rolled, we would just go with the person who rolled it since we're fairly evenly matched. But would still take the resource matching the hex on which we put the robber, rather than stealing from the other player.

Ore was, indeed, rather a rare resource. 3 and 11 were hardly rolled at all in the early stage of the game (although, ironically, there were a couple of 2s and 12s). However, there was reasonably plentiful wood and clay, and we could trade with the bank for anything else we needed; so we both quickly built the first settlements we had planned, and Richard was able to buy a couple of cities.

It took me a little longer, but at last I, too, built my first city, with the help of my useful 3:1 harbour:


So Richard had seven points, and I had six.

I built more streets, basically to reduce the number of cards in my hand, and also bought a few development cards. One of them was a victory point, which wasn't a whole lot of use at this stage. But I did play a knight to move the robber - as did Richard - and had another one hidden. And a very useful 'year of plenty' which would give me two resources of my choice.

I managed to take the clay harbour - although I wasn't picking up a huge amount of clay - and then Richard took the longest street.


So he was now well in the lead with 11 points. I had seven. We usually play to 16 in the two-player game, which means - basically - having all 13 points from buildings on the board, plus either the longest street or largest army, and a victory point. Since Richard had the longest street, I decided I'd aim for the largest army, so played my second knight and bought another card, which was another knight.

With my year of plenty card, and some trading with the bank, I managed to buy another city - ore still wasn't coming with the rolls of the dice - and then took the sheep harbour. I continued putting down streets in the hope of more building spots - and to reduce the cards in my hand - and Richard started building out around the desert. He didn't have any 10s, and really wanted one, so I expected him to build on the 8-10-desert intersection. But instead he started expanding around the 10 and heading towards the 2.


So he still had 11 points, but by this stage I'd managed 9 on the board, and realised I would catch up when I played my third knight.

My turn came around. In my hand, I had three wood and three clay resources. I glanced at Richard's red pieces, and realised that he had used up all his streets, so could never expand his 'long' street beyond eight lengths. So, with a slight apology, I placed the three streets needed to join up my two segments, giving me eleven contiguous streets and the card. I only had two streets left unplayed, but they were sufficient to give me two more building spots which was all I needed.

I played my third knight too.


So now in a complete reversal, I had 13 points, and Richard had 9.

Ore starting being rolled, at last, so we were both able to buy cites. And since I kept forgetting to count points, we played a little longer than we should have done. Richard managed to reach 12 points, and I also played another settlement, giving me 12 on the board, plus the two cards and my hidden victory point meaning I won with 17:

Two-person Settlers of Catan game with Tim

In December and January, Richard and I played quite a few two-person Catan games. But then we got into Seafarers and Cities and Knights... and while we continued playing the basic Settlers game regularly with our friends, I'm quite surprised to find that the last time we played a two-person straight Settlers of Catan game was in the middle of January.

I did then play one two-person regular Settlers game at the end of April, with Tim. But the last time I played any two-player Catan game was when Richard and I played Cities and Knights at the end of April, just after returning from the UK.

So when Tim suggested a game last night, when Richard was out, I was rather out of practice. Tim had played our family two-person variation on Settlers more recently than I had.

We start with three settlements each, to get the game going. I rolled first, so I placed my first one on the 6-9-3 with clay, wood and ore. Looking at the hexes, it was clear that ore was likely to be in very short supply; the 3 was the most hopeful place for obtaining it. After my initial placement, Tim put two settlements down, and took resources for one of them. He took another spot on the same 3-ore hex, bordering 4 and 8 on sheep and wheat, and also took the 5-10-9 with two wood and a wheat.

Then it was my turn to place my final two settlements, with resources for both. I needed sheep and wheat ;that was easy to obtain with an 8 on wheat, 3 and 4 on sheep. Then I looked at my numbers. I had access to 3 (twice), 4, 6, 8 and 9. I was lacking 5 and 10 (as well as 2, 11 and 12, but they're less important). So I chose the 2-5-10 with another chance of ore on the 2, another clay, and more sheep. I hoped to go for the nearby clay harbour too as an early strategy.

Tim likewise looked at his numbers, and opted for the 5-6-11 with two wood and a clay. It didn't give him great access to clay - and we don't allow player-to-player trading in the two-person version of the game - but did give him a nice selection of numbers.


With six settlements, the game got going fairly quickly. I built out to the clay harbour, and Tim took the wood harbour which looked as if it would be very useful to him. I then built to a 3:1 harbour, while Tim - despite the general lack of ore - upgraded to two cities. The wood harbour was very useful to him in this.

I finally managed to upgrade to my first city by using the useful 'year of plenty' card, which I had bought, and also rolling a 7. In the two-player game, we don't take a resource from the other player when a 7 is rolled; instead we take one from the bank matching whatever hex we put the robber on. So I placed him - several times in the game - on the 12-ore hex.


We did entirely forget until about half-way through that we usually have the robber (when a 7 is rolled) controlled by whichever player is behind in points, regardless of who rolled it. But since we hadn't remembered, and were fairly even anyway, we decided to abandon that rule for this particular game.

The next achievement was Tim gaining the longest street card. We both thought for a moment that we were competing for a building spot - but I wanted the 10-3-desert intersection with two sheep (since by this stage I had the sheep harbour) whereas Tim wanted the 9-10-11 on wood, sheep and clay. So there was no clash of interests. Neither of us is a particularly aggressive player, and there's plenty of room on the board for two players so there's no real need for racing to particular building spots.


By this stage, I'd managed another city so I had 9 points. Tim also had 9 points on the board, so the longest street card gave him 11. We agreed that we would play to 16, as usual for the two-player Catan game.

It didn't take much for me to extend my streets and take the card from Tim. I calculated my streets carefully and realised that since I only needed two more building spots by this stage, and had plenty of spaces, I could extend it to 13, which Tim couldn't beat. Since I kept on picking up wood and clay - which I no longer needed - it was easy enough to keep extending it.


So at this stage, Tim had 12 points - one more settlement to build - and I had 10 on the board plus the longest street, giving me 12 too.

I upgraded my final city; probably I should have attempted to build my last two settlements rather than worrying about completing my street. Tim built his last settlement easily and then started buying development cards. Since he had excellent access to wheat and wood, plus the wood and wheat harbours, he was easily able to buy at least two on every turn. Whereas I needed the resources I had to build.


So Tim had 13 points on the board, and I had 11 on the board plus the longest street. We were still even... but I assumed that Tim probably had at least one victory point card hidden. He had played two knights, as well, so it was only a matter of time before he declared the largest army.

And indeed, that's what happened. He played a third knight card, and then showed not just one but two victory points:


So Tim has now won four out of four games he has played in five days since returning to Cyprus... an impressive record.