Settlers of Catan for four on our last night in the UK

It was our last evening in the UK prior to returning to Cyprus. So we decided to have one more game of Settlers with my mother and Tim. As we set it up, Richard, playing red as usual, created yet another random contruction:


My mother (white) rolled to place first, and didn't take the best spot on the board... she prefers one closer to where she sits. So Richard (red) took a prime location and I (orange) opted for another good one, particularly including clay which looked as if it could be in short supply. Tim then chose another good spot for numbers, and put his other initial settlement on an intersection with three sheep, planning to take the sheep harbour. My second placement was fairly predictable, then Richard stymied Tim's plans by placing his second settlement directly on the sheep harbour. Not being deliberately nasty, but - as he pointed out - it was the best place for him to play. We then advised my mother on her second placement, giving her access to all five resources.


Richard quickly built two streets out from the sheep harbour, hoping for an ore hex ... and then we advised my mother to build a street to the spot he wanted, as that was also the best for her:


Play was pretty even on the whole, in the early stages. My mother was ahead with 6 points at this stage, since her ore gave her a couple of cities early in the game. I also had two cities and five points; Richard took the longest street so also had five, and Tim had four.


Tim didn't seem to be doing too well - his numbers were not being rolled - but the rest of us continued fairly evenly for a few more rounds. My mother maintained her lead - just - with 7 points, while Richard and I each had 6:


Suddenly Tim did a bit better, and we carried on building... at this stage my mother and I are equally ahead with 8 points each. Richard had 7 including the longest street card, but we didn't think he'd be keeping that as his two sections of street could not be joined together. He only had 5 points on the board, and with no access to ore was having difficulty attempting to build a city. Tim had 6 points on the board, and looked like a contender for the longest street. He was buying quite a few cards, too.


However, it was my mother who - with a little more advice - actually took the longest street card. So she was suddenly WAY in the lead with 11 points. I had 8, Tim had 7, and Richard - still unable to build any cities - was back to 5.


I did very badly from the point of view of the robber. Four times in a row I picked up too many cards during other people's turns, and then rolled a 7 when my own turn came around...


In a surprise move, Richard took the longest street card back again, which at least prolonged the game somewhat. So now my mother and I both had 9 points, while Richard and Tim both had 7:


But Richard couldn't extend his street any further, and my mother could:


So she won the game, with 12 points. I came second with 10... probably I should have bought more cards and attempted the largest army, but I don't usually think about that. Tim had 8 points - he'd hoped for the largest army but kept picking up other cards instead of knights - and Richard was stuck on 5, without a single city.

Another 6-person family Settlers of Catan game

On Friday evening, we ate early and decided on another family game of Settlers with the whole family. Usual colours: red for me, orange for Richard, brown for Daniel, green for Tim, blue for Becky and white for Grandma. Richard was first to place; I was in the unenviable position of being fourth. Most of us managed at least one reasonable placement for our initial Catan settlements.


It wasn't long before most of us had placed a street, and I managed my first settlement. Then my mother - very early in the game - managed to build a city.


With six people playing, there sometimes has to be a bit of 'meanness'. So Richard blocked a potential move for Daniel, and Daniel blocked one for Becky, incidentally gaining the longest street card as well. Still, at this point of the game I was just ahead with 6 points, closely followed by Daniel and Grandma at 5, while everyone else had four. Very even so far.


It continued to be reasonably even. A few rounds later I was still in the lead with 9 points, Becky was just trailing with 6, and everyone else had 7 - with Daniel pretty secure in his longest street card.


Unfortunately we'd nearly run out of building spots. There were a few coastal ones left, but I'd also spotted another one with a 9-wood and 11-clay. The third hex was the desert, but still - by this stage any building spot is useful. As it happened, five of us had all noticed this slot, and were all trying, subtly, to build out to it. Here's how it looked at one point:


Other than Richard, it could have gone to any of us. And with the extra 'building phase' at the end of each person's turn in 5-6 player Settlers, it really was up to the roll of the dice.

First Becky built a street:


Then Daniel built a street, meaning that I was out of the running for that spot:


Then Becky built another spot, meaning it would be more difficult for Grandma to take it:


The tension was immense.

Except that - once I'd realised I wasn't in the running - I'd started building along the coast. I'd run out of cities - I had 10 points on the board. I also had a victory point card, hidden amongst my development cards. And I decided I would buy another card on my turn... which turned out to be another victory point.

So I had won. Grandma was second with 9 points. And that final inland building spot never did have a settlement on it.

Settlers of Catan game for four

We'd all been out for the day, but were back by 8pm. Richard had to go to a meeting, and Tim was pretty tired, but the rest of us thought we'd like a game of Settlers. Tim said he'd play in a team with me for a while, and perhaps go to bed around 9.

So we set up the four-player version of Catan, and placed our initial pieces. Tim and I realised we couldn't get access to all five resources, but managed one initial settlement in the middle of three good wheat hexes, and the other not too far from the wheat harbour... but Becky (playing red, in Richard's absence) decided to block my access to the wheat harbour. A good move, which I would not have thought of myself.


Since she had done that, we felt little compunction in blocking her access to the ore harbour a few moves later.


Daniel (playing green) had already taken the longest street card by this stage, and was buying development cards in hope of taking the largest army too.

With Daniel in the game, there were a few extra photos, rather more creative than my usual basic ones of the board. Here was my hand at one point - such as one to delight my 19-month old youngest friend who loves sheep:


and an unusual one of the robber:


Back to the regular pictures, here's the board after Daniel succeeded in taking the largest army card, putting him in the lead with 8 points. However his lack of access to wheat meant that thereafter he had a hard time doing anything much.


Here's the game a couple of rounds later, by which time Tim and I also had 8 points. With the sheep harbour as well as the ore harbour, I was able to trade advantageously every time it was my turn.


Becky was doing quite well too, but seemed to be hit rather more than average by the 7 being rolled... particularly annoying at times when she had only 8 cards in her hand and had to lose four of them:


We reached the stage where I had 10 points. plus a hidden victory point card (Tim had gone to bed by this stage). Daniel had eventually managed to build his final settlement, so was on 9 points. Becky and my mother each had 6. I was hoping to build another city, but the resources simply weren't appearing... so I bought another card. It was another victory point, making me the winner - for the first time since we'd come to the UK - with 12.

Settlers of Catan game for six

We've played four games of Settlers in the past few days, and although I took photos my memory of the first couple of those games is now rather hazy. But, for the record, they'll I will attempt to write about them anyway.

The first was on the evening of my birthday, after a meal out with our sons and their girlfriends, and my mother. Seven people in all, so Tim and Jo played as a team (green). I was orange, as usual; Richard was red; Becky blue, Daniel brown and my mother white.


With a six-player game, it's usually possible for everyone to get at least one 'good' placement of the initial settlements, and a fair number of resources. I opted for all five resources on my second placement and a good selection of numbers (albeit only five) - but could see I was likely to be rather boxed in as the game progressed, with nowhere much to expand.

As the game began, Tim and Jo expanded the most quickly, giving themselves a block of land with plenty of building spaces. Here they are in the lead with four points, while most of the rest of us had three:


Richard didn't do too well at first; in the initial placement my mother's second street cut off the path he planned, and a few moves after that last shot, Daniel cut off another spot where he had hoped to build, taking the longest street card at the same time. So Daniel took the lead, with six points:


Tim's early lead meant that the robber was placed on his wheat hex rather more often than it probably should have done, making it hard for him to do anything else after he had placed all his settlements. Richard tried to take the longest street card, but Daniel kept it most of the time. They both started buying cards and playing knights so as to gain the largest army and a couple more Catan points. Daniel achieved this first, so was quite significantly in the lead.


In the 5-6 player game of Settlers, there's an extra building phase for each player - if they have the exact resources needed - after every turn. At one exciting point, Daniel had 11 points and we knew he was going to build his final city and win the game. But we wanted to prolong it a little... and I realised that I could - just - take the longest street from him. It wouldn't much help me but would give a few more rounds to the game. And because it was the turn of the person sitting on my right, I got to build the two streets just before Dan built his city...


So he had 10 points, I had 8, Becky had 7, Richard had 6, Tim and Jo had 5, and my mother had 3.

And then Richard played an additional knight, and took the largest army right before Daniel built a couple more streets to take back the longest street card. So Dan still had 10 points and Richard now had 8, while I was back to 6. The only people with building spots remaining were Tim and Jo, and they had run out of settlements, and were not getting the necessary resources to build cities.


It was getting late, and we were all starting to feel tired and a bit frustrated. Perhaps I should have let Dan win earlier rather than taking the longest street card from him. But as we were quite keen to finish the game - Jo needed to get home - we all traded with both Richard and Daniel, hoping that one of them would reach 12 points.

Richard achieved it by managing sufficient streets to take that card - and then showing a victory point card at the end.


So with only 7 points in buildings, Richard was the winner.

Settlers of Catan for six in the UK

Today, our older son Daniel and his girlfriend Becky came down from Carlisle to stay for nearly a week. Both of them are big fans of Settlers of Catan, so after we'd eaten this evening we got out the full game.


Tim started (green), I was second (orange), then Becky (blue), Daniel (brown), Richard (red) and my mother (white). There were some quite nice spots for us all in the first round; I wasn't really thinking and didn't grab a clay hex when I could have done; clay was clearly going to be the most difficult resource (if the dice rolled as expected) in the early part of the game. However, since my first settlement was near a sheep harbour, I decided to put my second one on a good place for sheep which also gave me three different numbers.


Play was very even at first, each of us in turn getting a third point, and then a fourth.


I like the extra building phase in 5-6 person Settlers; as each person finishes their round, the cry of 'anyone building?' goes up. Richard said 'yes' at one point... when he was literally building his remaining pieces into some kind of construction....


.. which Daniel then photographed at an unusual angle when it was done:


The main feature of this game, in its early stages, was sheep. My 19-month old friend Helen would have delighted in my hand at one point:


It was surprising how evenly play continued, with building a bit slow but quite a few development cards being bought. At one stage we all had four points, then I had a fifth. So naturally, I was attacked with the robber:


However that changed when Becky took the longest street with 5 roads, I took it from her temporarily, and was significantly in the lead for a while with 10 points, but it was evident that she was soon going to catch up. I had no access to clay at the start of the game, other than by trading, and even by this stage my only clay hex was a 12 which wasn't rolled very often.

I took a slight risk on expanding outwards, after some useful trading (and the sheep harbour), and was able to get a final building spot. I did have a potential other one but since my mother is the least experienced player, I didn't want to take her very last building spot on the 4-ore hex.


Daniel made a vain attempt to take the longest street, having collected quite a bit of clay and wood, but to no avail. Becky took it back from me, and held onto it.

With six people, the board soon fills up. So most of us reached the stage where we had nowhere else to build. Cities had been relatively easy to come by, but there are only four each. So after I'd managed my last settlement, I bought a card - it was a monopoly. There were a lot of sheep in the game and I had the sheep harbour so I monopolised sheep on my next turn and was able to buy four cards. Three were knights, one was a victory point.

I had thoughts of building up the largest army but could see that others were much more likely to get there first. Still, the board was pretty even: 10 points for Becky; 9 points for me; 8 points for Tim and for my mother; 7 points for Richard; 6 for Daniel (who was extremely tired).



But before I'd had a chance to play even one of them, Tim played his third knight, giving him the two points for the largest army of Catan, and since he also had two victory point development cards he was the winner once again with 12 points.

Four person Settlers in the UK

We're now in the UK.. so away from our usual Settlers of Catan playing friends. But we won't have to suffer withdrawal symptoms because we're staying in my mother's house, where there are TWO Settlers sets. Tim lives here as a student, at present, and has a copy of the American version of Settlers; my mother who also likes the game has the modern version of the game, plus 5-6 player expansion.

So we decided to play our first game on Wednesday evening. I played orange, as usual; Richard was red, Tim blue, and my mother white. it was quite a nice board with the desert in the middle and a selection of reasonable initial placement spots. We did try to persuade my mother that her coastal one wasn't such a good idea, but she wanted spots near to where she was sitting. Ore, it seemed, was going to be in short supply.


The first few rounds went fairly evenly. Ore was not as lacking as we expected, and we soon each built either another settlement or a city. Then Richard and Tim each built another settlement, giving them both four points.


Ore continued to appear, and numbers like 2 appeared more often than it should have done. It wasn't too long before Tim had built all his cities. So he had 8 solid points, and some building spots left; Richard, however, took the longest street card, giving him 9 points by this stage of the game. My mother and I were lagging far behind with 4 and 5 points respectively. I didn't think my numbers were too bad, but somehow they didn't come up.


Richard and Tim kept blocking each other with the robber, which was fine as it gave me a chance to expand a bit more. Richard hoped to extend his long street right across the board, but Tim blocked that - although it didn't particularly help him. By this stage in the game, Richard had 10 points while Tim still had 8, and I was catching up with 7:


Richard and Tim were also rather fighting over building spots. Tim took what turned out to be his last settlement, and started buying development cards and playing knights.

After a little over an hour, Richard had gained 11 points including the longest street, and I - since nobody was attacking me - had also somehow managed to gain 11 points. Tim had 9 points, but had played a couple of knights so was evidently going to gain the largest army card. So any of us could have won, if we had just one victory point card.

I was going to buy two more cards when my turn came round... but Tim played first. So he took the largest army card, and then displayed his victory point.


He was pleased to be the winner in what was a very enjoyable game.