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. 

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.

Settlers of Catan with very few building spots!

Last night, for the first time in a while, we played a four-person Settlers game with our friends Jörn and Sheila.

After our initial setup, Sheila spotted that the central 11-sheep hex was entirely inaccessible. None of us could remember seeing that kind of scenario before - but with six settlements arranged around the middle 'circle' of hexes, there were no spots at all available to be used on the central one.

I didn't think to take a photograph until we were fairly well into the game, when we realised that that, with only 18 cities or settlements, we had actually run out of building spots entirely:


Sheila, playing brown, had the longest street and so was well in the lead at this stage, with 10 points and five buildings; Richard (red) was second with 6 points; he also had managed five building spots. Jörn (blue) and I (orange) had only managed to grab four building spots each, and were tied in bottom place with five points. While it's possible to win with only four building spots, it's not easy. I prefer at least five. I did wonder whether I could get the 'largest army' but with sheep in fairly poor supply, it was difficult to buy many cards.

Strangely enough, as we upgraded our settlements as far as we could, 11s and 4s were rolled more than would be expected, and at one point I was able to 'monopolise' sheep, gaining 13 of them. With no harbours I had to trade rather heavily, but it did at least enable me to upgrade to another city and buy a further card.

I did get a victory point, and two knights.. but Jörn got in with a third knight first, and the largest army. Richard took the longest street from Sheila - and built sufficient roads that it could not be taken back - and suddenly our scores were more even: at one point we were on 9, 8, 7 and 6 points. Theoretically it could have been anyone's game, except that eventually there was nothing to do other than buy cards.

It was Sheila who won in the end, playing a fourth knight and thus taking the largest army, as well as producing two victory point cards. So she won with 13 points. Richard was second with 10, I had 9 (including my victory point), and Jörn was back to 6.

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.

Cities and Knights of Catan for three

It was nine o'clock, which is a little late to start a game, unless it's going to be a short one. But Daniel will only be here for a little more time and we felt like doing something together. We're not the most decisive of families (and that's an example of the Great British Understatement...) but eventually agreed to Cities and Knights. It wasn't until we were setting it up that I remembered that this is rarely a short game, and is not ideal for when I'm feeling a bit tired as there are so many different strategies to consider.

I was first to place a settlement (orange) - an unusual position for me. It has been a while since we've played this game, so I couldn't really remember what works and what doesn't. So I opted for my default system when I can't think of anything better: look for the resource that is likely to be scarcest, and choose a starting spot that borders the hex most likely to produce that resource.

Wheat looked as if it was going to be the least-produced resource in this game - and wheat is vital to activate the knights, as well as for its normal use in cities and settlements. So I built on the 5-9-10 intersection with sheep, ore and wheat.

Richard (red) went next. He likes to take spots that will produce commodities (books, cloth and coins) in Cities and Knights, so he opted for another 5-9-10 intersection with two wood and a sheep. Daniel (brown) was last, and chose two complementary spots, giving him six numbers (3, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 11) with access to all five resources, potentially, and a city on two of the commodity-producing hexes. Richard - still following the strategy of collecting commodity cards -put his city on a spot with two ore and a wheat, although the wheat was a 12 and so unlikely to be rolled very often. It meant he only had four useful numbers (5, 6, 9 [twice] and 10) in addition, and no access to clay at all.

Finally it was my turn to place my city; since I needed wood and clay and wanted some more numbers, I opted for a spot that gave me both, plus more sheep. My numbers were, on balance, as good as Daniel's: I had 3, 4, 5, 6, 9 and 10.


Play started rather slowly. With plenty of ore and sheep it was easy to buy knights, and we all managed to activate them too, either with lucky rolls or suitable trading. We don't use the event die for the first couple of rounds, while we're not counting the 7s, but as soon as we did we found that the black pirate event was rolled almost every time. So it didn't take long before we had to pause for the first invasion of Catan:


It's a little hard to tell from the photo, even if you click to enlarge it, but Richard had upgraded his knight to a double strength one, making him the Defender of Catan, and giving him an extra victory point. So he was in the lead, since we were all having a very hard time doing any actual building. We had each managed precisely one street in addition to our knights, so far!

And the black event continued appearing considerably more than 50% of the time. We did each manage to build one settlement, and were gradually buying city improvements, enabling us to pick up the occasional progress card. Daniel played the merchant, which gave him an extra point temporarily, and I bought another knight, while upgrading my first one.

So when the barbarians attacked for the second time, I was the sole defender of Catan:


The score was still totally even. We each had built one more settlement, giving us each four points on the board. Richard and I each had one Defender of Catan card, and Daniel had a a point for the merchant. We hadn't yet agreed what number of points to play for, but since we were on five each there was still a long way to go...

Slowly play picked up. I built another settlement on a useful interior spot giving me an 11 - so, with the useful 8-clay hex which was on my first extra building spot, I now had access to 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10 and 11. Always my ideal! I then managed to pick up a street-building card (I do like the 'books' progress cards) and was able to build on the wood harbour. Possibly not as useful as the 3:1 harbour nearby, but floating in my mind was the idea of taking the longest street, eventually, by joining up my two segments of road. I also wanted more clay, since it appeared to be in rather short supply in general - Richard still had no access to it at all, so it was useful for trading.

Meanwhile Daniel also built another settlement, and took the longest street card, just after the barbarians attacked for the third time:


We had already de-activated the knights by the time I remembered to take the photo, but I still had the most, and so received a second Defender of Catan card.

So Daniel was in the lead with nine points (including controlling the merchant), I had eight, and Richard still had five. It seemed very strange that none of us had yet managed to upgrade to a city, but that was due to the distinct lack of wheat in the game.

I was tired... earlier in the game I had traded four clay since I had too many cards in my hand, forgetting that I could fortify my one city with two clay, which would enable me to keep nine rather than seven cards in my hand if the robber attacked. However I remembered eventually, and thus bought city fortifications - although with only one city, I could only do that once.

Daniel extended his long street, and Richard played the card that meant he could upgrade both his knights at no cost - a card he had previously stolen from me by using the 'spy'. He was now in by far the strongest position as far as knights were concerned, so I no longer worried about them. I prefer to concentrate on regular building and city improvement when possible, and leave the defence of Catan to other players.

Daniel was in the lead with 11 points, still including the longest street and control of the merchant. He had actually managed to build a city - the first one in the game. I don't like being ahead in this game, since there are quite a few cards that can be played against any player who is in the lead. But I wanted control of the merchant, and with the extra building I had done and my two Defender of Catan cards, it would give me ten points. So I decided to use the resources I had for three more streets to claim another building spot, and also the longest street.

I now had 12 points... and we wanted to play a little longer, so decided to go up to 14. We couldn't remember what we usually do, but it seemed like a good number even though by now it was past 10pm and I was even more tired...


Oddly, after the early part of the game producing almost nothing but black events, the latter part of the game gave us rather more than half coloured events, meaning that a lot of progress cards were collected and played. And it took a great deal longer for the barbarians to attack. I didn't take a photo of the fourth attack, but Richard had the most knights and so received a further victory point.

By this stage I was aiming for Metropolis status on cloth. So I traded where I could, and when my turn came around I had a huge pile of cards in my hand. Thankfully I didn't roll a seven; it meant that I could finally build my first city of the game, and then immediately upgrade it to a Metropolis.


- and that meant I now had 15 victory points, and so was the winner.

Daniel actually had 11 points - he had two hidden victory point progress cards, which he should actually have declared when he received them. He had forgotten that rule - or perhaps played by different rules in the past - which would have helped him, since he frequently had more than four progress cards and had to discard one. Had he been able to reclaim the longest street and the merchant, he would have won.

Cities and Knights of Catan for two

We arrived in Cyprus very early Thursday morning. So I was very, very tired by the evening. Watching a film would have sent me to sleep, and I'd have dropped off if I'd tried to read. So Richard suggested a short game... and then, when I said he could choose, he opted for Cities and Knights of Catan, which was rather more complex than I wanted! However, the last time we'd played Cities and Knights was a month previously, and he'd started setting it up before I realised.

Initial placement in our two-player game gives each of us two settlements and a city. So we chose fairly predictable spots:


In Cities and Knights it's important to have cities on ore, sheep and wood hexes so as to be able to collect commodities as well as resources, and thus improve the cities. It's also vital to have sheep and ore resources to buy knights, and wheat to activate them. Richard made a mistake (he was also tired) in missing out on wheat entirely in his initial placement - and wheat didn't look as if it was going to be a particularly abundant resource in this game.

After a couple of rounds the event die is used, and the barbarians start to approach Catan. They approached rather rapidly in their first attack, and somehow neither of us had thought about buying knights. So we had three cities, and no knights at all...


.. which meant that we both had to lose a city. At least I could choose to keep the one which I'd already fortified (clay being widely available for some reason early in this game).

The first progress card I picked up was the one allowing me to remove any unfinished street - mine or Richard's - and, if mine, to move it anywhere else on the board. I was delighted to be able to move one of my initial ones which looked as if it was going to be wasted, and move it to a more useful spot. It meant that my demoted city (now a settlement) stood on its own with no street attached by the time the barbarians attacked for the second time:


Thankfully I had been able to buy and activate a couple of knights, meaning that we didn't lose cities again, and moreover I gained a victory point as defender of Catan.

The next barbarian attack took rather longer. During that period, I first gained the longest street (rather by accident, as usual), and it was then taken from me by Richard. I extended mine more, to gain useful building spots but didn't overtake him. So by the next time the barbarians landed, we were pretty evenly matched. Richard had 8 points on the board, 2 for the longest street, and one extra victory point card he had picked up. I had 8 points on the board also, and thought I would collect another Defender of Catan point too... until Richard bought and activated one more knight, just in time.


So we each picked up a progress card of our choice.

By the third barbarian attack, Richard was a little more in the lead. He'd built his 'coins' up to metropolis level, so had 11 points on the board, plus the longest street (still), and the victory point card: 14 in all. I had 10 on the board, plus my Defender of Catan card, putting me at 11. And this time, Richard had more knights than I did, so he collected a point for being Defender of Catan, putting him at 15. We play to 18 points with two-player Cities and Knights...


However, the next few rounds led to significant building for me. I was able to build another settlement, and my final city. And by extensive trading, I managed to gain metropolis level on another of the city types. So suddenly I had 15 points, while Richard's numbers weren't being rolled and he was still stuck at 15 too.

My turn came around when I had just picked up a large handful of cards. I was thankful not to roll a 7. I was also exceedingly tired, and hoped the game would end soon. I needed three more points to win. Could I do it..?

Yes. It was simple. I held the 'merchant' progress card, so I played it - giving me one more point. And I bought another street, which meant my longest stretch was one more than Richard's. So I leapt ahead to 18 points... and the game was over.

Cities and Knights for the two of us again

I was kind of tired yesterday evening. But Richard wanted a game, and chose - once again - Cities and Knights of Catan. We'd played a couple of games of Carcassonne as a change last week; but he thought that if I were that tired, he might have a better chance of winning Cities and Knights. I was quite sure it was his turn to win, and didn't feel remotely competitive.

We set it up pretty quickly, and made our initial placements. It seemed like quite an even board, with no resources clumped together too much, and plenty of reasonable starting spots. Richard, who placed first, was thinking about potential for city improvements, so opted for a good supply of both ore and wood. He was rather lacking in sheep potential, though, and not great for clay. He had a great set of numbers: 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, and an extra 4. I had better access to all the resources, but my numbers weren't quite so good: I didn't have any 4s at all; but then I had two 5s and two 10s.


I wasn't really strategising at all - I simply opted for the best spread of resources I could, noting that the sheep harbour was near a good spot for sheep. Both of us, where possible, tend to build our initial settlements/cities as close as possible to harbours in this game.

As we started the game, I seemed to be quite lucky with the rolls of the dice, as so often happens. We were both picking up cards most of the time, but mine were more useful. I was quickly able to build my first city improvements in both cloth and books, meaning I started picking up progress cards, since the event die rolled colours quite often. Moreover, I picked up a reasonable number of sheep, ore and wheat, meaning I could buy knights to protect Catan as well as increasing my points with buildings. I still wasn't strategising at all - just buying whatever I could each time my turn came.

By the time the barbarians first attacked, I had three knight strengths (meaning we were victorious), and had also built a settlement on a 3:1 harbour, and had also upgraded one of my original settlements to a city. I built inland too, and took a 2-4-6 intersection since I was lacking 4s up to that point. Richard had built three streets and two settlements - on the clay and ore harbours - but was having to trade very heavily for any sheep.


So I won a victory point card as the first Defender of Catan. I don't usually push for knights, and rather hoped Richard would get some for the future - I prefer to expand and build.

And, indeed, by the time the barbarians managed their second attack, his knight force was superior - partly through good use of 'coins' progress cards, since he'd started those city improvements - so he won the card. I had a third city by that stage, and another settlement; I also had the 'merchant' on wheat, giving me useful 2:1 trading. Oh, and I had fortified two of my cities, using extra clay, which enabled me to have extra cards in my hand when the robber attacked.


Richard was still having a hard time with wheat and sheep, and still hadn't built any new cities. So at this stage, he had 8 points (including his Defender of Catan card) and I had 12 (including my Defender of Catan card, and control of the Merchant). Not that I was counting points, particularly.

Richard picked up a couple of 'activate all your knights for free (sic)" cards, and also an 'upgrade up to two of your knights free', which meant I didn't need to worry about knights at all. I was more than happy for him to defend Catan when the time came. So at the third barbarian attack, he won another victory point. He'd been slowly working on city improvements too, but hadn't done much building - just one upgrade to a city.

I had the card allowing me to change two numbers on the board (other than 2, 12, 6 or 8) so I finally played that, switching the 9 on wood (for Richard) with the 3 on sheep (for both of us). This gave Richard better access to sheep, but he was now much worse off for wood.


So after the third attack he had 10 points (with two Defender of Catan cards), whereas I'd built another settlement and upgraded it to a city since the previous attack, giving me 14 in all. Not that I had realised it at the time. I was concentrating on city improvements in both cloth and books, rather hampered by the robber sitting on my 6-wood hex for several rounds.

Then in the depths of my foggy brain, it occurred to me that I could build a knight next to that wood hex, activate it, and then finally kick the robber elsewhere. So I did that. Then I achieved my first metropolis, with a fair amount of trading for commodities. Then I looked for a suitable building spot, expanded outwards, and built another settlement. I realised, as I did it, that I had also - rather by accident - developed the longest street. What didn't occur to me was that I had 19 points - indeed, I had technically won the game just by building two more street pieces, without my final settlement.

But as I wasn't bothering to count points, I didn't realise until I collected sufficient commodities for my second metropolis. Then, dimly aware that I'd placed all my buildings (13 points) and had two metropolises and the longest street, I realised I must have 18 points. So we stopped and counted:


It turned out that I had 21 points - three more than necessary. Richard had 11.

We tried to analyse why I was SO far ahead - unusually so - given that I hadn't been planning, I hadn't bothered with knights after the first few rounds, and I didn't have much access to ore until the end, at which point I didn't need it. We could only assume it was Richard's lack of sheep in the early rounds, and wood in the later ones. He didn't have a great amount of wheat, either, but sufficient, along with the blue cards he picked up, that he had no problem activating his knights.

Two-person Cities and Knights game

We thought we'd play a two-person Cities and Knights of Catan game yesterday evening. It was only 7.30pm when it started, and we knew it could take a couple of hours or more. By the time the board was set up fully it was nearer 7.45... we're getting quicker, but it's still a bit complicated remembering which bits we need from each Catan set. If we ever experiment with combining Seafarers and Cities and Knights, I dread to think how long it would take to sort out at the end!

So we placed our initial pieces: two settlements and one city each, as per our two-player house rules.


I was reasonably pleased with my numbers: 3, 4, 5, 6, 8,9,10 with an extra 5 and 9. Richard's were also good: the same combination, but his extras were a 4 and an 8. It seemed that we were very evenly balanced. Except... which he didn't realise until we'd been playing a few rounds, Richard had no access to sheep whatsoever. He wasn't sure how that had happened, but it was a bit of a nuisance since he needed sheep to buy knights.

Moreover, although there was LOTS of wood in the game - and Richard quickly started collecting the book commodity cards to start his city expansions - there was almost no clay. So it was a bit difficult to build anything much, other than cities.

As usual we didn't introduce the barbarians or the robber until the third or fourth round. The barbarians then started their inexorable approach to Catan, while we amassed our defences. I bought a two-strength knight fairly quickly, and Richard did manage to buy a single-strength one by trading four wood. By the time the barbarians were close, we had each built an extra city, and we'd each built two streets. I'd also - eventually - managed one settlement, on the wheat harbour.

Richard was worried he would lose one of his cities since my knights were stronger; but the event die rolled colours twice, and I was able to buy another knight. I decided I'd rather gain a victory point by beating the barbarians than see Richard lose a city (and thus a point).


No 7s had yet been rolled. Nor had either of us picked up any progress cards. It looked as though it might be a long game.

By the second time the barbarians attacked Catan, I had managed to build a couple more settlements, including a useful one on the sheep harbour. Richard had bought one more street with resource cards, and had also picked up the useful street-building progress card. So he had hopes of getting access to sheep eventually. He did upgrade his knight to double-strength, and built another city. He also built a lot of city improvements - 8s were rolled frequently - meaning that he gained metropolis level rather quickly in wood/books:


My knights were stronger, so once again I gained a 'Defender of Catan' victory point. By that time I'd also picked up a victory point progress card - in Cities and Knights games they are declared at once rather than hidden - so I had a total of 11 points, which Richard had three cities including one metropolis, giving him 8 points.

By the third barbarian attack, Richard had upgraded his knight to 'mighty' status, and had also managed to build another settlement on a 3:1 harbour. I'd upgraded to another city, and also built on a 3:1 harbour, although since it was a 2-sheep hex it wasn't very useful from the resource point of view.


Since we had three knights each, and six cities, we defended Catan equally, so each picked up a progress card of our choice.

And then suddenly we were rolling better numbers, and picking up more useful resources. A 3 was rolled, giving me quite a bit of clay. And since I was the only one gaining cloth commodity cards, I also had two of the progress cards that allowed me to take, twice, two of Richard's cards of my choice (a bit like the regular Catan 'monopoly' cards, but only taking two from each player rather than all cards of that resource).

So I fortified one city, and gained metropolis level with cloth. I upgraded to my last city. I built a settlement out to the wood harbour - Richard would have liked that one as he had so much wood; but eventually he did pick up a yellow progress card, and it was the Merchant. So he placed him on wood, giving him the equivalent of the wood harbour, which was extremely useful.

Meanwhile, Richard gained another metropolis (with coins), and built a couple more settlements: one to give him sheep (should 10s or 11s be rolled) and one on the ore harbour, since he was gaining quite a bit of ore by that stage.

We both (without mentioning it aloud) happened to check each other's points around the same time. I had 12 regular building points, plus 2 for my metropolis, plus three victory point cards... giving me 17. Richard, meanwhile, had 9 regular building points, two metropolises (metropoloi?) and one point for having the merchant. 14 in all. I was quite surprised to be so far ahead, and, indeed, so close to victory since we only play to 18.

My turn came around. Could I, I wondered, possibly build two more streets and a settlement, to get my 18th point? As I pondered, a lightbulb went off in my mind. All I actually needed to do was to build the two streets, since that would give me five in a line... and thus two points for the longest street.

So that's what I did:


Meaning I won with 19 points. And it was only about 9.15pm. The entire game only took an hour and a half...

Cities and Knights of Catan for three

So, finally we taught Sheila to play Cities and Knights. We thought we'd better start on time as it can be a long game, even with just three people. And there are so many extra rules. We tried to explain all we could at the beginning, and then got started. I didn't remember to take a photo right after our initial placements of settlements and cities, but took one shortly afterwards, when a few extra streets had been built, and a couple of knights:


As usual, I played orange; Richard red, and Sheila brown. I could see that clay was going to be in short supply, so was glad to be able to place my city on the best clay hex. Richard had no access to clay at all.

As usual, we played a couple of rounds before bringing the robber or the event die into play. It was quite a slow-moving game, due to the lack of clay; by the time the barbarians attacked for the first time, I'd turned my initial settlement into a city but that was the only real building so far.


Richard and I had each bought and activated one knight, and Sheila had two, so she earned the first 'Defender of Catan' card.

By the second barbarian attack Sheila and I had each built another settlement, and I'd fortified one of my cities to allow two more cards in my hand. But still, road-building was remarkably slow. This time two of us had the same number of knights, so we both took progress cards - nobody was defender of Catan. I took the photo after we'd de-activated the knights:


We were picking up cards when the event die was coloured, and were building city improvements, which of course can't be seen on the board. But still there was almost no clay, so only one more street appeared by the next time the barbarians attacked:


The game did get going a bit better after that. Sheila had the card which allowed her to change any two numbers on the board (other than 2, 12, 6 or 8) so she swapped an 11 and a 9, giving her better ore and reducing my wood. Still, I managed to build a couple more settlements, Sheila extended towards the coast and built one there, and Richard reached metropolis level for one of his cities.


So by this stage I had 8 points (including control of the merchant), Richard had 6, and Sheila also had 6 (including her Defender of Catan card). Once again there was no outright Defender - Sheila and I each provided two knights, to protect our four cities.

We had planned to play to 15 points. Then we thought perhaps 13 would be better, as it was already 10.30 by this time. Then we thought perhaps we'd stop at 11pm, since I was getting very tired. And suddenly we were rolling more coloured events, and picking up useful cards. Sheila reached metropolis level on one of her cities, and I was able to do quite a bit more building. I also picked up a random victory point card.

Then I suddenly realised that, once again, we'd forgotten about the longest street card. At least, I had. Richard, apparently, was planning to get it on his next turn. But I was able to build a couple of streets, and claim the card - which gave me the 13 points we'd agreed on, just before 11pm.