Settlers of Catan for six

It was Marie's birthday; she requested a game of Settlers after dinner. Richard was away, but Annika was visiting, and knows the game. Jacob stayed up too, so there were six of us. Annika took the red pieces; the rest of us had our usual ones (blue for Jörn, brown for Sheila, white for Marie, green for Jacob, and orange for me).

Jörn rolled to go first, and took the obvious spot from the clay-wood perspective. Good numbers for both (8 on clay), and a useful ten on sheep. Jacob was second; remembering that ore is important, he took another nice triple with ore, sheep and clay including a six.

At that point, the two remaining spots with particularly good number selections did not have three resources on them. There was either clay with two wheat, or wood with two ore. I was pretty sure that Sheila would take one of them - which she did - so I took the other. On balance I'd prefer ore to wheat, and could see that the ore harbour was not too far away, so I slightly preferred that place anyway even though Sheila's numbers were significantly better.

Annika was next, and Marie was last; two enviable positions, usually, but by this stage there really were not many useful spots next. Annika opted for ore and two clay, and her other settlement on wheat and two sheep. This gave her a 6 and an 8, but no access to wood - and it looked as if wood was going to be a fairly scarce resource anyway. She pointed her first streets inland, however, which seemed as if it might limit her potential building spots.

Marie managed two settlements that gave her - in theory - access to all five resources, but her numbers were not very good for either wood or clay. I'm not sure what else she could have done, though.

My turn again, and there was no way I could get everything I needed - clay, wheat and sheep - with one settlement. So, as usual, I decided to miss out on sheep. Not too big a deal since the spot I chose, with good access to clay and wheat, lead directly to an 8-sheep hex which I planned to occupy as soon as possible.

Sheila decided she'd take the hex that gave her access to all the three resources she needed, even though it only included a 2 on wood. Then Jacob opted for a coastal intersection that gave him wheat and wood, exactly what he needed. Unfortunately it meant that he and Marie were both heading directly for the same spot, on the wheat harbour. Jörn placed his last settlement on a spot that gave him good wheat, more sheep, and a 12 on ore.


It all seemed fairly even at this stage; nobody had overwhelmingly better spots than anyone else, although the least useful were probably Marie's and Annika's - not through bad strategy, but lack of available spaces.

So we got going, reasonably slowly at first. I was able to get the spot on the 8-sheep without any problem, and then built out to a spot that gave me an 11 on wood - not particularly useful, but I thought I might also go for the ore harbour nearby.

At the same time, Jörn built a couple of settlements too, and Sheila managed three. Jacob managed to get the wheat harbour spot before Marie reached it, which was a pity since Marie had very few possible building spots remaining. Then Jacob was first to build a city. Marie played a monopoly on wheat which gave her quite a few cards, enabling her to build a city too, although we had recommended that she grab her last easy building spot first...


So Sheila had five points at this stage in the game; Jacob, Jörn and I each had four; Marie had three, and Annika had two.

I managed another settlement, taking another spot on the 5-ore. It probably wasn't the best strategy; I was collecting quite a bit of clay, since 9s were rolled regularly, and I could have gone for the clay harbour which would have been rather useful. Sheila built a city and another street.. then Jacob had a street-building frenzy, and took the longest street card:


So now Sheila and Jacob were jointly in the lead with six points each, and I was just behind with five.

I now had to build a city before I could expand any further, and it was surprisingly difficult. 4s and 5s were not rolled very often, and since I kept picking up other cards, I had to buy development cards so as not to exceed the limit of seven in my hand, not wishing to be vulnerable to the robber. The first one was a victory point; the others were knights. Unfortunately, of course, buying them used up some of my available ore. But eventually I managed a city.

Sheila could easily have taken Marie's last building spot, but had plenty of other places along the coast. So she expanded around there, taking the longest street card, and also taking a spot Jörn had hoped for. He - like most of us - lacked wood for much of the game, which seriously limited his expansion potential.

At last Marie managed to build in the centre of the three wood hexes. She did, in theory, have one more building spot but it was likely that Annika would get there first.


So now Sheila was decidedly in the lead, with nine points, including the longest street. I had six (well, seven including my victory point, but that was hidden); Jörn and Jacob each had five; Marie had four, and Annika still had only two. She was not being at all lucky with the rolls of the dice.

However, Annika had bought a few development cards, and had played a couple of knights. She played her third, and thus received the largest army card (and two extra points). She also, at last, managed another settlement, and then fairly quickly upgraded it to a city. I took the clay harbour, although it was too late in the game to be much use. Jörn built some cities...

But it was Sheila who raced ahead of us all. She actually reached 12 points on the board on the 'building phase' of Jacob's turn, including having the longest street card. But the rules state that one can only win on one's own turn. Jacob could, temporarily, have taken the longest street card back since he had a street in his hand, and a street-building card. But he decided not to, realising he couldn't keep the longest street, and hoping for other opportunities to expand elsewhere.

As it happened, it wouldn't have made any difference. Sheila took her turn, and during it managed another settlement, and also picked up a victory point development card. So she creamed us all, with 14 points. Jörn and I were in joint second place, with eight points each...

Settlers of Catan for six (or seven) on Sunday afternoon

Another Sunday afternoon; another Settlers of Catan. We didn't start until 5pm and wanted to eat by 6.30, so I didn't think there was time for a Seafarers game as it takes so long to set up, and the games tend to be a bit more protracted.

Seven of us wanted to play, so Jacob and Daniel decided to be in a team together. An interesting combination, since Jacob is one of the most highly competitive people I have ever met, and Daniel is possibly the least competitive person I know...

Becky was playing with the red pieces, and rolled the dice to go first. Clay was evidently going to be a fairly scarce resources in this game, so she wisely opted for the intersection including the best clay hex with a couple of other resources, all on good numbers. Sheila (brown) was second, and opted for the other obviously good place, again with three great numbers and three different resources. No clay, but she did have wood.

Jörn (blue) was third, and went for three reasonable numbers, including an 8 on sheep, while evidently hoping for one of the sheep harbours. Daniel and Jacob (green) were next, and after some discussion opted for a 3-6-10 intersection. I rather fancied the nearby 4-6-10 and wasn't sure why they didn't opt for that one other than wanting wood rather than wheat. Still, it meant that I couldn't have that one. So I decided to ignore resources, and go for numbers. I took the 5-6-9 with two wood and wheat. Marie (white) was last - so she opted for two places that gave her access to all five resources, plus the ore harbour. Her clay access was only on 12 but at least she picked up one as a starting point, and hoped to build towards the 11 on clay.

I was a little surprised that the other reasonable spot on the 10-clay hex was still available; even better was that it was near the wood harbour, and I had two good wood hexes. So I took clay and two sheep as my second placement.


By the time it got back to Becky, there was still an excellent spot for her to gain the two resources she was lacking: wood on 9 and ore on 8. It was a coastal hex, but undoubtedly the one I would have taken in her shoes.

And so we got started, around 5.15pm. 8s were rolled rather a lot in the early part of the game - I had no 8s, so they were no use to me. There were quite a few 9s as well, however, and even one or two tens, so I was able to build out towards the wood harbour and build a settlement on it. Becky had ore on 8 and wheat on 9, so was quickly able to build a couple of cities. She also bought cards fairly regularly. And when she noticed that there was only one wood resource left in the stack, she played a timely monopoly on wood:


With that, she was able to build another settlement and some streets, gaining her the longest street card:


So now Becky was in the lead with seven points. Sheila and Jörn each had four points, I had three, Jacob/Daniel and Marie were still each on two.

I was pleased to be able to build on the 11-8 intersection giving me an 8 at last, on ore (the one resource I had been lacking). And then I built out again, on a useful 9-wheat and 4-sheep. With 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10 and 11 I now had a good range of numbers and all five resources, and hoped to start being able to build cities since I had used up my five settlements by this stage.

But Becky had played her second knight. Clearly she was also going for the largest army - and she had six points on the board as well as the longest street. Her next nearest rivals were Jörn, Sheila and me by this stage, each on five points. Marie had managed to build one settlement, but Daniel and Jacob were still stuck on two points. Two building spots they had hoped for had been taken by other people, and they weren't picking up many resource cards at all.


Becky could have won the game, by playing her third knight, since she had two carefully hidden cards which we were all sure were victory points. But she thought she'd play another monopoly card instead. She was unlucky - she asked for wheat, as there was plenty of it in the game; but at that point, nobody had any wheat. So she couldn't play her knight after all, and we knew there would be at least one more round. It seemed that the game was going to be over before it started.

I realised that, with my useful wood harbour, I could take the longest street. So when my turn came around, I built two more streets - not going anywhere, but joining up my two sections of road. So I took the card from Becky, reducing her victory points by two. Except that she had already built another city in someone else's building phase, so she had seven points on the board and was evidently going to claim the largest army when it got to her turn again.


When Becky's turn came round, she had the cards to build yet another settlement. So she had eight points on the board. She then played her third knight, giving her two more points for the largest army.


.. and, as we surmised, she also had two victory point cards:


So Becky had won with twelve points, and I was her nearest rival at seven. We finished by 6pm, so it was one of the quickest 5-6 player games we had ever played.

Seafarers of Catan: fog island (for six)

It was a few weeks since we had introduced Becky to Seafarers of Catan, with the Fog Island scenario. Yesterday afternoon, Richard and Daniel went out sailing, but our friends came over for a game, and asked for Seafarers. We decided on the same scenario, but with random distribution of hexes and numbers.

We had not played with six before. The initial setup wasn't easy, with distinct lack of spaces by the end. Becky (playing red, for a change) went first and took what was, in my view, the best spot available. Marie (playing white) went second; Jörn (blue) third; Sheila (brown) fourth. I was fifth, playing orange as usual, and since there were no obviously good spots, decided on some good numbers on sheep and wood - the resources needed to build a boat. Jacob (green) went last, his favourite position, since it meant he placed both settlements together. I'm not entirely sure why he took one spot with only the wood-8 bordering it - there was a similar wood-8 hex with a wheat next to it that he could have had. But he was determined to set out to sea as soon as possible, and to aim for the 10-gold hex.


So the game started. Since I had no ore, my first strategy was to build towards a useful 9-ore hex. Becky built streets out towards the coast at the back of the board, in the hope of the ore harbour. And picked up the longest street card without really intending to.

The first person to uncover a 'hidden' hex was Jacob...and it was a sea hex. Sheila then set out in boats as well, and uncovered a further sea hex.


Jacob kept on building boats and exploring, and for several moves found nothing but sea. Then finally he uncovered a wood hex, with a useful 5, and built a settlement bordering that and the gold hex he had been aiming for.


However, Becky was still rather significantly in the lead. She had 7 points including the longest street. Even if - as was likely - someone took that from her, she had 5 solid points on the board. Jörn was second with five points; Marie, Jacob and I had four each, and Sheila had three.

I did manage to build enough ships to take the longest route card for a couple of rounds, but Jacob soon took it from me. His line of ships was pretty much invincible from that perspective, although he wasn't doing much other building:


Despite losing the longest route card, Becky now had eight points, since she had built two cities and a further settlement. Jörn also had eight points, and Jacob was close behind with seven. Marie, Sheila and I all had five, so it was still fairly even. Marie and I had been discovering some useful land hexes, as had Jacob by this stage. Sheila had remembered a rule which we had quite forgotten in our last game: whoever turns over a land hex takes an extra resource corresponding to it immediately.

Richard and Daniel arrived home from their sailing trip, and Richard sat with Jacob to give him some advice on strategy. He pointed out that since he had by far the longest route, there wasn't much point extending it further; he needed the resources to build settlements and cities instead, to gain more points. Then Daniel took over advising... and Jacob waited until two 12s had (surprisingly) been rolled. Jörn and I both picked up clay for that, so Jacob, on his turn, monopolised clay and received 15 cards:


With those, he was able to trade with others, and then built another settlement.

However, Becky was maintaining a clear lead by this stage. She had 11 points on the board. She still had building spaces too - lots of them! - so could either build more, or buy cards. We had decided to play to 12 points rather than 14, as we were getting hungry. We had to remember to keep counting points; as so often happens in Fog Island, we were all enjoying the exploration phase and tended to forget about trying to gain points.


Unsurprisingly, it was Becky who won - by picking up a victory point card.


We were greatly relieved, not wanting the game to continue much longer. The camera shook slightly on the last shot, and I temporarily ran out of memory space to take any more, so the final board isn't too clear:


But Becky was the clear winner, and Jacob came second with 10 points.

Settlers of Catan for Six on Sunday

Last night, it was our turn to host the Settlers game. Becky kindly watched the younger children (and a movie) so Jacob could play. And since he wanted green pieces, Daniel played with white. Other than that, we had our normal colours: red for Richard, brown for Sheila, blue for Jörn, and orange for me.

Jacob went first, and took the 4-5-8 spot with three resources. Sheila then took the equally good 5-6-10 spot which was the one I would have chosen, since it included ore. Jörn took 8-9-10 with two wood and an ore; Daniel took 4-6-10 with two wheat and a sheep, close to the sheep harbour. That's another spot that rather appealed to me. Richard took the 3-5-9 with three resources... and then it was me, playing last again. I do quite like getting to choose both spots at the same time, but I would prefer to go first or second. Actually, second is slightly better in the six-player Catan game, in my view.

I couldn't find any ideal slots or combinations, so decided I could best live without sheep. So I took a coastal 4-8 on a 3:1 harbour with clay and wood, and a 3-5-10 with ore and two wheat.

On the way back, most people were surprised to find that their particular choice of location was still available.


So we all started the game feeling fairly positive about our starting settlements. The only problem was that we were all, other than Sheila, incredibly tired. I could barely keep my eyes open.

Daniel was rather creative during setup... like father, like son:


My hopes of building inwards from my coastal slot were rather stymied by Jörn and Richard's second placements, so after much thought - not easy when tired - I determined to head, if I could, towards the 9-11-12 spot with better ore on the 9. I quickly reached the half-way mark, on 3-12-12, and though the numbers were pretty bad, I always think I should take any building spots I can on a potentially crowded board. It was worth having, since 12 was rolled at least twice in the game, giving me unexpected extra clay and wheat.

Unfortunately for me, I wasn't the only one who wanted that spot. Jörn started heading that way, as did Daniel who got there first. So instead I curved the other way and took the 2-3-4 slot. Also not great numbers, but any time a 4 was rolled I picked up resources for a street.

And then I headed towards the coast, with the aid of a street-building card I had bought, and took the ore harbour. Not frantically useful since my only access to ore was on a 3 - but it did give me a very nice 6 on sheep, the one resource I was lacking. And, of course a building spot. And, as a bonus - which I hadn't realised at first - the longest street card. For a while.


Unfortunately, that put me in the lead and thus made me a target for the robber. However it wasn't long before Jörn increased his roads and took the longest road card from me:


This put him strongly in the lead with 7 points. Sheila and I each had four points, and everyone else had 3.

Despite our being tired, the game progressed reasonably fast, although there was nothing particularly worthy of photographing until I realised I hadn't taken one for a while. Sheila hoped to take the longest street card, but Jörn increased his roads sufficiently that he couldn't be challenged on it:


So by this stage he had 9 solid points. A 3 had been rolled, and I'd done quite well with trading, so I was right behind with 8. Sheila had 7 (two of her settlements don't show on that image). Everyone else was trailing.

I realised I did have another building spot along the coast, but didn't want to head out that way until I was certain of getting there since I thought Jörn would probably block me. So I took the risk of keeping too many cards in my hand; by the time it was my turn, I had sufficient for four streets - by dint of some trading. Thankfully no sevens were rolled and I was able to extend outwards.


But before I could build that final settlement, Jörn built one more - on someone else's building phase - and then on his next turn, he was able to build one more settlement, and show a victory point card which gave him 12 points and made him the winner.


It was another fairly resounding win for Jörn - he won the Catan game on the previous evening too - and he told us that he used, basically, the same strategy. Lots of one resource, and the relevant harbour (in this case wood).



It's a strategy I've successfully used in the past, but for some reason haven't been able to recently.

Settlers of Catan for five

Our friends were over; some of their children decided to watch a movie, but Jacob said he would rather play Settlers with the adults. We all like the five-player version of the 5-6 player game, since it uses a larger board but there's usually plenty of room for expansion.

Jacob (green) placed first, on a useful 8-9-10 intersection. Jörn (blue) was second, and took an equally useful - at least in theory - 5-6-9 spot. Both had access to ore - something I always like to ensure myself - and were spots I might have chosen had I played first or second.

Richard (red) was third, and took a 6-9-10 spot; good for numbers, but no ore. I was fourth (orange). Since all the obviously good spots with three difference resources and three good numbers had gone, I decided I might as well adopt what's known as the ore-wheat strategy, since the best intersection,number-wise, had two ore and a wheat. I didn't have much hope of the ore harbour, but noted that the wheat harbour was conveniently close. I also noted that, of all resources, wheat was likely to be in shortest supply in the game, so having an 8-wheat hex should be useful.

Sheila (brown) played last, and managed to select a couple of spots which gave her five different numbers and potential access to all five resources. I realised I could not get all I needed, so - as I so often do - decided to sacrifice sheep (so to speak) and went for a clay-clay-wood intersection on 5-8-11.


So the game started, with reasonable progress for us all. Streets were reasonably easy to come by, and since 9s and 10s were rolled with surprising frequency, I was able to build cities rather rapidly. Since ore was an abundant resource in this game, Richard and Jörn also built cities pretty quickly. And Jacob gained the longest street card.


We were fairly even at that point. I was just in the lead with 8 points, Sheila had 7, Jörn and Jacob both 6, and Richard had 5 (one settlement slightly off the photo).

Gradually Sheila took the lead. She was also building up her roads, in the hope of gaining the longest street card. Within a few more rounds, she had 10 points on the board, while I had 9 (including one settlement off the edge). Actually I did also have a victory point card which I'd bought, so I was equal to her, but nobody else knew that. Both of us surprised ourselves during the game by using the 'building phase' (the extra rule in the 5-6 player expansion of Settlers of Catan, allowing other players to build after each person's turn) to build both a city AND a settlement at the same time. Since the extra building phase requires the exact number of cards (no trading allowed), that's pretty unusual.


Jacob wasn't far behind, with 8 points (still including the longest street); Richard had 7; Jörn had 6.

We all had at least one or two building spots left. I still had no access to sheep directly, but had been able to trade -either with the bank (since I was by this stage collecting handfuls of ore) or with other players. Richard and I had both bought and played two knights, and I hoped to pick up another so as to gain the largest army.

Here's the game another round or so later, when Richard had played another knight.


Sheila still had 10 points - all she needed to do was build a couple more streets to win. Richard also had ten, including the largest army card. I still had 9. Jacob still had 8, and Jörn had 7. So it was still really very close.

Then I had a lucky round with cards. Jörn rolled an 8, which gave me two clay and three wheat. I needed one clay and one wheat to build another settlement. I also had three ore cards in my hand already... so at the end of his turn I was able to build, in the extra Catan building phase, to my surprise, another settlement and city at the same time. That gave me 11 points on the board. Someone pointed out that if my hidden card was a victory point (which of course it was) then I had won.

However, I'd been re-reading the rules recently. In the regular game it says, twice, that someone can show a victory point and become the winner on their own turn. In the regular game, when one can't build after other people's turns, that isn't really relevant - so we can only assume it's spelled out so clearly because it applies to the 5-6 player expansion. We haven't played that before; we've allowed anyone, at any stage, to be the victor as soon as they reach 12 points, whether it's their turn or not.

But I said I'd better wait till my own turn, even though I did now have 12 points.

That enabled Richard to play. He rolled a 10, which gave me five ore cards. It also gave Sheila three ore, and Jacob two. It was perfect timing from Richard's perspective, since it enabled him to play a monopoly card, and take all the ore. And he had the ore harbour, although he hadn't used it much. So he built two more cities...


... and since Richard ALSO had a victory point, he was the outright winner, with 13 points, even though I had 12 points.

This is Richard's display of cards at the end, even including a couple of spare ore:

Six-person Settlers of Catan game

Jacob had wanted a six-person game of Settlers of Catan with us, for a while. Some guests were staying with his family who offered to look after his three younger siblings.... so we allocated a couple of hours yesterday, Easter afternoon.

It took a few minutes to remember how exactly to put together the grid for our 5-6 player Catan extension, but eventually it was set up, and we made our first placements. Richard (red) had first choice, I (orange) was last. Some people like going last, since one gets to place both settlements together... I prefer to be first, on the whole. Still, I wasn't feeling at all competitive, and decided - for once - to see how I could do without any access to ore, even though it was in short supply. There was no obvious place for me to take an ore intersection and have even reasonable other numbers, so I opted for five fairly good numbers, with extra sheep and wheat.


The game got going slowly. Here we are after a few moves, all fairly even so far. Jörn (blue), Marie (white) and I all had four points; Jacob (green), Sheila (brown) and Richard all had three [one of Sheila's settlements is slightly off the edge of the photo]. Richard was the only person who had managed a city so far.


Marie, who had no building spots in the middle of the board, continued expanding around the coast and - without aiming for it - achieved the longest street card fairly quickly. So by this point in the game, she was ahead with 7 points, followed by Jörn (6), me (5), Sheila and Jacob (4), and Richard (3).


There still weren't very many cities, due to the general lack of wheat and ore in the game.. Marie and I had both reached the stage of having used up all our settlements, so had to start trying to gain ore and wheat by whatever means possible. She had very good access to ore when 8s were rolled, and I had good access to wheat, so long as the robber wasn't sitting on my 8-wheat hex...

Marie managed three cities without too much difficulty, and also (when given a hint) built a couple of extra streets to ensure that Jörn couldn't extend his roads to take the care from her. However, none of us quite realised that Richard also had that potential... and he needed to get out towards the coast to reach a 3:1 harbour.

I managed a couple of cities by dint of some heavy trading. Jacob tends to trade a little erratically, and will often give away more than he gains, which can be useful for the rest of us. But he managed a couple of cities too, and built out to the coast where he took the wood harbour - something I'd have quite liked. I then had to use a very dull building spot that bordered the desert, although it did give me the wheat harbour.

So, a few rounds later we had reached this picture:


It was still extremely close. Jörn was now in the lead, just, with 9 points. Sheila, Marie, Richard and I were all close behind with 8 points each, and Jacob had 7. It could still have been anybody's game...

In the next round, Richard and I both built another settlement, and Marie built another city. So there were four of us, all equally in the lead with nine points...

... Except that Sheila had played two knights, and had a few other undisclosed development cards. And she had the clay harbour. And a couple of 8s were rolled. Her turn came around again, and she had a huge handful of cards... but did NOT roll a 7.

Which meant that she was able to upgrade TWO of her settlements to cities at the same time, and play a third knight, which gave her the 'Largest Army' card... and made her the winner. Quite exciting to go from 8 (and second-last) place to 12 points in one move!


Richard and Marie each had a hidden victory points cards, so they were in joint second place with 10 points.

We all agreed that it was a very good game.

Six-person Settlers of Catan game

It had been so long since we last played Settlers, we were almost getting withdrawal symptoms. It must have been about ten days...

But on Sunday night some of our friends were here, so we suggested a game. I wasn't entirely 'with it' - I was getting over a nasty sinus infection, and was pretty tired as we'd been out earlier. Besides which I was keeping half an eye on my small friend Helen who is 18 months old and tends to get into things which aren't good for her (or for the things she gets into).

So although I helped a little in getting the game set up, it was a communal effort.


Katie (4) would like to have played but she is nowhere near old enough. Lukas (7) has grasped the rules pretty well and is beginning to play although he tends to lose concentration. But as Sheila wasn't here he made the sixth player.

Richard (red, as ever) rolled the highest number and so placed his settlements first and last. Jacob played green, Jörn blue, Marie green, Lukas brown, and I was red. That's the order we played in, meaning I had the rather Scriptural position of the last (in round one) being the first (in round two). I don't usually like going last, but it does have the advantage of being able to place both settlements optimally at once, rather than hoping someone else doesn't take the spot you really wanted to balance the first one played.


I was quite pleased with my places. I had reasonable access to all five resources, and a good selection of numbers (4, 6, 8, 9 and 10). I realised I would be advising Lukas - and did at least ensure that he didn't start his placements with only two resources, both on the coast as he had planned. But he insisted on taking the 3-1 harbour on an 8-sheep hex for his first settlement.

I found it hard to concentrate on the game, since I was getting up and down to move Helen; so much so that I think I missed some of my cards. Several times I was given some by other kind people who noticed them. Helping Lukas was rather difficult since his sole purpose was to gain the longest street card by joining his two settlements. So he traded single-mindedly for sheep and clay, in ways that helped everyone else. He was deaf to my suggestions of building at least one or two settlements, but did, after a few turns, get six contiguous streets and the cards. At the time it looked as though he might keep it, too. However he still refused to build any settlements; instead he put all his trading skill (such as it is) into buying a development card; he also bought a few more streets when he could.

Meanwhile the rest of us were building as usual; Marie fairly quickly got three cities and was in the lead for a while, but she had a hard time getting any settlements. Jörn was blocked from a couple of building spots he wanted - in a six-player game, the board can get rather crowded - but had plenty of room to expand in other directions. Jacob traded rather wildly for the cards he wanted, and managed a few buildings. Richard and I just played fairly randomly, building whatever we happened to have the cards for.

Since I was occupied with both Helen and Lukas, for different reasons (and sometimes Katie too) I didn't remember to take any more photos until the end of the game. We decided, around 8.45pm, that we would play until 9pm and then finish at the end of the round. Lukas kept losing concentration, and Helen was getting tired. Lukas seemed to be stuck on his two initial settlements and his street since he refused to build anything else - and then Richard challenged with a longer street, and took the card from him. Lukas spent the next two rounds trying to get it back, until Richard built a settlement right in the middle of Lukas's street, meaning he kept it. Lukas is quite cheerful about it - he didn't seem to mind being back with just two points while the rest of us were between 6 (Jörn, Marie and Jacob) and 10 (Richard).

It was nearly 9pm. Richard played his move, and we (the adults, anyway) agreed that we would have one final turn each and end after mine. I had 8 points, and since I picked up rather a lot of cards I decided to buy a development card. It was a monopoly. Since by then I had the sheep harbour, I thought I might monopolise sheep on my final move and see what I could build... but I watched what was picked up more closely than usual, and there weren't many sheep. On the last two turns before mine, rather a lot of wheat was collected so when it came to my turn, I decided to monopolise wheat.

Since the others would have one final chance to build after my turn, I was then able to trade for some of the wheat quite advantageously. I built another street and settlement, taking me to 9 points. Then I realised that if I could build two more streets, I could join up my two stretches of road and take the longest street card.

So I offered to trade some wheat for wood or clay... rather to my surprise, Richard agreed to this. I hadn't realised he was hoping to build a final settlement after the end of my turn, and then reveal a victory point card, which would take him to 12 points. What he didn't notice was that he was in danger of losing the longest street card.


So... I went ahead, and won the game with 11 points. Richard had 10, Jöern, Marie and Jacob each had 6, and Lukas had 2.

Settlers of catan with five of us

Jörn and Sheila's older children like to play Settlers, and often ask if they can stay up for a game... so yesterday afternoon Sarah and I volunteered to go and play a game with them. Sheila played with Lukas, who is 8 and a little erratic in his play, so it was a five-person game. I played orange, Marie (12) was white, Jacob (10 and highly competitive) was green, Lukas/Sheila red, and Sarah brown.

I forgot to take a picture right after the initial placement, but here's what it looked like after a couple of moves - all that had happened on the board was that Jacob had built a street.


As can probably seen from the layout of the board, and the numbers, ore was not a shortage in this game. Moreoever, 5s were rolled with surprising regularity. That meant that I was able to build two cities fairly early on in the game, and Jacob managed to build all four of his within about half an hour:


.. although by that time Marie had (temporarily) taken the longest street card.

Of course, four cities placed like that meant that Jacob kept gaining even more ore. And since 10s were also rolled fairly often, he had a lot of wheat, too. We didn't realise quite how much until his turn came around, and he heaved a great sigh of relief that he had not rolled a 7. He had - among other things - the cards for TWO cities (and almost a third) in his hand!


- but they were of no use to him directly, nor could he play them at the end of anyone else's turn, since he had no cities left to build.

He was able to trade for a good amount of clay and wood, and decided to ensure that he got - and kept - the longest street card, by building all 15 of his streets continuously. If he hadn't done that, Marie might have overtaken him again. The disadvantage of that was that he limited his building spots: he only had one more. He managed to build a settlement there, and was then stuck with buying cards; since he had 11 points by then, none of us really wanted to trade with him, so he sometimes had to trade four ore or wheat with the bank for one sheep card.

Meanwhile I had 9 points on the board, and had bought two victory point development cards. Sheila and Lukas (by this stage it was mostly Sheila playing) also had 9 points on the board. I wasn't picking up many cards at all, and thought Jacob would surely get a victory point card... he was buying two or three cards each turn. But he played, and didn't declare 12 points... so Marie played, then it was Sheila's turn. She managed to build a settlement AND a city, giving her two more points... and then showed a victory point card. So she and Lukas were the winners....

.. or so we thought. Jacob then revealed that he did in fact have a victory point card, so he also had 12 points. When we asked, bewildered, why he didn't declare it (so as to be the outright winnner) he said he was hoping for 15 points. He wanted the largest army (and could have achieved it the following round) and thought that if he kept playing he might pick up yet another victory point card. He wasn't worried about sharing his win with Sheila and Lukas; the important thing was that he beat me!

I forgot to take the final photograph until Marie had already removed her white pieces. But she did it tidily enough that everything else was showing:

Afternoon game of Settlers

Our young friends Jacob and Marie have played Settlers with me a few times, but really wanted a game with Richard. So we arranged for them, and their mother, to come over for a game this afternoon. In last night's game, Josh had commented that he'd like to play more often so we suggested he come over too. Tim said he would happily be in a team with Josh again, but would take more of a back seat this time, advising rather than playing, or 'dreaming' (as we call it in mah-jong).

So it was a six-player game. We'd set it out about twenty minutes before we actually started, as Tim was explaining more strategy to Josh, so we'd had a chance to look at the layout. I could see several possible starting points, and was undecided which to opt for. My usual strategy has been to take a clay and a wood if I can, but I could see that ore was likely to be in short supply. So when - to my surprise - I rolled the highest and started, I placed my initial settlement on the spot near the top left of the photo, with 9 on ore, 6 on wood, 10 on wheat.


By the time I had to place my final settlement, most of the good spots were gone. There was no way for me to get good supplies of both clay and sheep; so, when in doubt, I do without sheep. I could see they would be fairly well available anyway, so I hoped to trade for them. I placed my second settlement on the spot by the sea where there were two clay hexes - an 8 and a 4. If possible I like to get a good range of numbers, although I was missing a 5.

Building went fairly slowly at first - several settlements, few cities. Jacob (green) quickly got the longest street, a strategy Richard used to use, but which means more resources are needed for other buildings. At one point I hoped I might take the longest street card, but Jacob blocked that. There was quite a long stretch where both Sheila (brown) and I had built all our settlements, so could do nothing more until we had cities. I forgot, for a couple of rounds, that I had the wood harbour; once I realised, I traded wood for what I needed - and accepted it from others in return for other resources, once it was no longer needed in the game. It looked as if Jacob might win; had had ten points, and two face-down development cards, of which one might well have been a victory point. So nobody would trade with him.

One of my strategies is to be fairly quiet about my own position, particularly when it doesn't look strong early in the game. Since Jacob was in the lead for most of the game, the robber kept being placed on one of his two ore hexes, one of which was my only source or ore. I was behind at first, so not, apparently, in any danger of winning. But I bought cards, after trading for sheep, and built up the 'largest army' with three knights, and I also had a victory point.

Then five was rolled. For once, the robber was not on an ore hex. Jacob had seven ore cards in his hands, as he told us. Nobody would trade with him, since he was - apparently - in the lead. If he had a victory point, and built just one more city, he would have won.

Six was rolled, so I collected five wood tiles. I traded one of them for wheat, on someone else's turn. I already had one wheat in my hand. I hoped 9 might be rolled, giving me a couple of ore cards, but it wasn't. I could exchange my four wood for two ore, but that wasn't enough for a city. Jacob wasn't going to trade two ore for two wood. I did think about exchanging for ore and sheep, so I could buy another card. But what I've learned over the months is that one has to keep thinking about all the possibilities, making use of every opportunity, re-juggling available resources in one's mind constantly rather than being focused on just one strategy.

I had a knight. Usually, I only play knight cards when the robber is on a hex where I have a settlement. But of course it can be played at any point in one's turn. I rolled the dice, and didn't collect anything. So I played the knight, moving it to Jacob's main ore hex, and - knowing he had almost all ore - took one of his cards. It was ore, meaning I could build my final city and produce my victory point to win. Again.

I'm trying to figure out what it is that makes this game so enjoyable, and I think part of it is that it uses all four 'intelligences' defined by David Keirsey, related to different temperaments: diplomacy, strategy, logistics and tactics. I'm good at diplomacy; I don't tend to steal other people's building spots unless I have to, and while I naturally place the robber on a hex that blocks whoever's in the lead (and more than one person, if possible) I don't do it deliberately to be mean. Nor do I necessarily block anyone who's blocked me; I don't take it personally. There are many possible strategies, and it's important to consider them, but not to be tied into any single one. Best use of resources is an exercise in logistics, and tactics is about taking advantage of the present moment, adapting and adjusting on the spur of the moment. That's my weakest suit, but playing this game is - I think - helping me to strengthen it.

We have another game tonight - all adults - which will make the sixth game in five days. Even I'm beginning to feel a little 'Settlered out' so we've agreed that we won't be playing any Catan tomorrow.