Catan: Explorers and Pirates (first game, scenario 1)

Our usual default Catan game is Cities and Knights. It was quite a steep learning curve before we could relax into it, but now we can chat while playing; and do so at least once per week. Nothing spectacular has happened, so I haven't written about every game as I did at first. Indeed, I haven't written anything here for some years.

At Christmas we were given 'Explorers and Pirates', touted as the expansion to beat all other expansions.

It looked complicated - we spent probably an hour just pushing the cardboard hexes and other pieces out of their slots and sorting them into the provided bags. We started to read the instructions but got rather bogged down and decided we were too tired to try it out on Christmas Day.

It was almost six weeks later that we took it out again, determined to try the first scenario. I read aloud while the other players put the board together.  We had to use fourteen ordinary hexes from our regular Settlers game, plus most of the numbers and the outside frame pieces.  But there was no robber, no development cards, not even a 'longest street' card.

We pulled out the bag of pieces labelled 'Standard':

It's really very well designed, each bag having a labelled board showing exactly which pieces should be in it. In this bag we found terrain hexes (with green stars or orange moons on the back), and number tokens, which we had already put in an old film canister.

We also needed to use some extra sea frame pieces, plus the bag of 'gold' circles:

From our previously-sorted wooden pieces from 'Explorers and Pirates' the instructions directed us to use the 'harbours' and 'ships' and also the 'settlers'. 

A harbour, we learned, functions a bit like a city in that it provides two victory points. But only one of each resource is gained when rolling a number adjacent to a harbour. It takes two ore and two wheat resources to upgrade a settlement to a harbour, and - importantly, but logically - it can only be built on an intersection point with sea.

The ships, as in the Seafarers expansion, cost one sheep (pasture) resource, and one wood (lumber).  However they don't function quite like the Seafarers ships. There are only three of them per person, and they can move, up to four sea routes (intersections), at the end of a turn. In addition, they can transport the settlers pieces (and others, in future expansions, but only the settlers were used in this game). 

Each settlers piece, like a settlement, can be bought with one each of wood, clay (brick), wheat and sheep.

Just reading the instructions, and setting out the basic board took us about forty-five minutes, although no doubt this will speed up for future games.

We each started with one settlement, one harbour and one road for each of them, much like a normal Settlers game. But we didn't place them ourselves: we followed the instructions for the beginning game, and put them where we were told to, on a board laid out exactly like the one in the instruction leaflet.

Like the 'Fog Island' scenarios in 'Seafarers', ships can 'explore' the upside down hexes, and discover either resources or more sea. For standard hexes, a number is placed and a resource of that kind added to the player's hand (as in Seafarers). But if a sea hex is discovered, the player gains two gold coins; coins can be exchanged for a resource of the player's choice, but not immediately since exploring ends the turn.

Only one hex can be 'explored' per ship per turn, and there are rules about not building roads or settlements next to sea tiles, so exploring cannot happen using anything other than a ship. When a ship is carrying a settler tile, and arrives at a suitable intersection (ie with no undiscovered hexes) the ship and settlement can be removed and replaced with a standard settlement on that spot, at no further cost.

It didn't take longer to explore, and with two separate islands there was plenty of scope for doing so. Further settlements can be built in the same way, by buying another ship and settler (the ship must be at a harbour if a settler is to be bought) or by building streets and settlements as in the normal game.

There are a few extra rules too: there is no robber, but if a seven is rolled any players with more than seven cards still lose half of them. If a number is rolled (other than seven) then any player who does not receive resources is given a gold coin instead. Players can trade with each other as normal, including for gold coins, but if they want to trade with the bank the standard is three of any resource - as if everyone has a 3:1 harbour/port. There are no trading ports in this game.

We were told to play to eight points, but were close to that after only about half an hour of playing. And since we had started according to the instructions, presumably with as even starting positions as possible, we all reached seven points in the same round. So we decided to keep playing until ten points; we usually play to two points more than the official number.

But it remained even, and when Sheila (playing white) reached ten points, Richard (red) and I (orange) had each gained nine points, and both knew that we could have won on our turns. 

Our immediate response was that we liked it, and could see that it could form the basis of some interesting games. There are three main scenarios to be played, which no doubt we will try out over the next few months. But it was good to establish the basic rules before moving on to far more complicated scenarios.

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. 

Settlers: one of each number - twice!

We played a four-person game about a week ago. I don't tend to strategise too much these days; I focus on whatever I can do with the resources in my hand at any point, and on diplomacy, as far as possible. I don't take a building spot if someone else is clearly heading for it unless it's the only one I have left. I try to expand if I can - but if not I concentrate on building cities and buying cards.

This means that, although I try to start with six different numbers if I possibly can, I often end the game with no more than six numbers. If I can gain a new one, great; but it's not my aim.

So I was quite surprised to notice part-way through last week's game that I had managed to get at least one building spot on each of the ten different possible numbers.

I was even more pleased, from an esoteric point of view, to notice that I'd done so quite efficiently: I had EXACTLY one resource of each number. No duplicate numbers at all (playing orange, as usual):

What's more, since I managed to gain the 'largest army' and a victory point, I won.

I don't recall ever having managed one of each number; it's rare that I get a full set of numbers at all. So I was even more startled, in a five-person game we played a couple of days ago, to find the same thing happening:

I took that photo before the end; it was a very close game, with the 'longest street' changing hands more than once. I won that one too, by building another city: however Blue was the first to reach twelve points so although a game can only be won on someone's turn, it felt like a shared victory morally speaking.

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.

Cities and Knights for four players

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Settlers of Catan by Facetime, for five

It's over a year since we first played Settlers via Skype with our son Tim (who is in the UK). Since then, we've played several such games with him, and have gradually changed the technology; Facetime is now the usual method, and there is always some discussion about what microphone and cameras to use. 

But we've never played a five-person game this way. With our other son Daniel and his wife Becky staying, Tim suggested we try. Richard and Daniel set up a proper microphone, balanced on a stand in the middle of us so that Tim would be able to hear us all, and we got started... 

Daniel took these first two pictures.. while we were doing the initial set-up, Becky played with her remaining pieces to make some little stick figures: 

Then I took the camera, so the board looks a little turned around. Here were our starting places - Richard was red, as usual, and I was orange. Tim played white, Becky blue and Daniel brown:

Of course it's quite hard to see all the numbers in a photo of the bigger board. We all had fairly evenly distributed numbers and resources at the start. It wasn't long before Becky built a city, and Richard managed two of them fairly quickly: 

I was struggling through lack of clay, and thus was last at this stage, still on two points.  Richard was in the lead with five. 

Becky was adapting her stick figures to suit her remaining pieces, and produced this, possibly a cyberman of some kind: 

I traded and traded, and at last managed to build a few streets and settlements, and even gained a possible clay resource, although as it was on a 3 it wasn't all that frequent:

So suddenly I was sharing the lead with Tim and Richard - all on five points - while Daniel had four, and Becky was still on three.

Here's a photo showing Tim thinking about his move, with the little Settlers picture at the side being the image of what he was seeing:

I managed my first city, then decided to expand a little more in the hope of more clay - and someone pointed out that I had the longest street. So, bizarrely, I was in the lead with eight points. But only just. Daniel was building cities as fast as he could as well as expanding, and was on seven. Tim, playing his usual ore-wheat strategy, had three cities and thus six points. Richard, who for some reason was not getting cards, was still on five, and Becky had four: 

I managed another city, and thus nine points. Tim built, in quick succession, a settlement and then an upgrade to a city, so had eight points. Then Daniel not only expanded but took the longest street, so now he was in the lead, with ten points.  

Becky and Richard were trailing a little with six each. But since Becky had won each of the last three games we had played, she didn't mind!

Then Tim played a third knight, giving him the largest army, and sharing the lead with Daniel, also on ten points. Daniel then took his turn, built another settlement... and showed a victory point development card.  So Daniel was the winner:

Here's how the board looked at the end:

Daniel won with 12 points, but Tim also had a victory point so he was close behind with 11.  And the rest of us had eight points each... Becky had a victory point card too. It was a good game. 

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.