Settlers of Catan

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

2012-01-13T17:57:00.000+02:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A most efficient layout on a six-person Catan game

2011-12-22T18:36:00.000+02:00

A few weeks ago, we were playing a six-person Settlers of Catan game, with our usual friends and one friend's parents. A six-player game can, of course, lead to rather an over-crowded board, but as we progressed through the game, it seemed that nobody had run out of building spots early on.

It wasn't until about half-way through that I suddenly realised what a remarkably efficient layout we had managed to produce:

Quite by accident, none of our settlements was directly opposite another on any hex. So, theoretically, we had the maximum possible number of building spots. Blue, green and orange had all run out of new spots by this stage, but each had managed six. Red had six already, and one more. And there were four remaining spots which could be accessed by either white or brown.

As it happened, the game did not continue for many more rounds after that. Here's the final board:

I think it was Richard (red) who won, with the largest army (or perhaps two victory points) as well as ten points on the board.

Cities and Knights of Catan for two

2011-09-30T17:20:00.002+03:00

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!

2011-08-25T17:17:00.003+03:00

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.

Three-person Settlers of Catan game

2011-07-08T14:37:00.004+03:00

We've played many games in the past eight months, but this blog was getting a bit tedious... so I left it for a while.

On Tuesday afternoon our son Tim arrived, very tired and decidedly out of practice with Settlers of Catan. But he suggested a three-person game anyway. It was a nice board. We all started with a wide selection of numbers, and either four or five resources. Tim and Richard soon took a couple of useful harbours, and it all seemed quite even, although I was lagging behind. However I managed to take the longest street card, pushing me up to 8 points, only one behind Tim and Richard who were each on 9. I vaguely thought that play would continue for a while, and that any of us could have won. I was the only person who had played any knights, so I thought I might take the longest army in a turn or two...

Then Tim's turn came round. He had sufficient cards to build more streets, and take the longest street from me. And then revealed that he had THREE victory points:

Apparently he could have won in his previous turn (with 12 points) but hadn't remembered that he could declare victory points immediately they were bought. He only bought three cards in all. And it wasn't as if all the victory points were at the top of the pack since I had bought knights in between his cards. And it had been well shuffled.

So the final score was: 14 to Tim, 9 to Richard, 6 to me.

Traders and Barbarians of Catan

2010-11-29T18:44:00.004+02:00

Last night, we decided to play another Traders and Barbarians scenario. Richard thought we might as well do the last one - the game that's actually called 'Traders and Barbarians'. It took ages to set up. The story is that the barbarians have, basically, been conquered but there are still a small number to be found along lonely streets of Catan. Buildings have to be re-built, and islanders need to use their wagons to transport relevant commodities to the correct places.

Here's an overview of the initial board:

There's no desert, and no robber. A couple of hexes have been removed too (one sheep, one wheat) and there are three new trading hexes which supply the commodities. The 2 and 12 numbers have been removed - if those are rolled, the person simply rolls again.

There are, however, three barbarians on the board. Rather confusingly, the instructions said that we needed all thirty of them, so Richard also got out the knights. But in fact we didn't need any other than the initial three.

In addition to our regular pieces, we each had a wagon:

And some cards to show us how far we could move the wagon each turn:

- which all seemed remarkably confusing when we read the instructions, but did gradually make sense as the game progressed. We each started with four 'moving points' per turn. The wagons have to be moved along intersections. If they move along one with a street in place, it costs one moving point. If there is no street, two moving points. And if there's a barbarian on the street, then it costs an extra couple of moving points.

However, if the street belongs to another player, then that player has to be paid a gold piece. We should each have started the game with five gold pieces but didn't notice that instruction. Gold is also earned for delivering resources via the wagons.

Here's a close-up of the first of the trading hexes:

Tools have to be delivered there; sand or quartz can be collected from it.

Here's the second:

Sand has to be delivered there; tools or glass can be collected from it.

And here's the third, the castle:

Glass and quartz have to be delivered there; tools or sand can be collected.

Roads can be built to the centre plaza area of these trading hexes, but no settlements can be built on them. Roads cannot be built on their borders with the sea.

So... here is our initial placement. Since there were just two of us playing, we put down three initial buildings - and since the final one has to be a city (which is where the wagons are also placed to start with) we did what we do in the Cities and Knights games: two settlements and one city each.

I was completely bewildered by the new regulations, so just chose my spots as I would for a regular game. The instructions did say that it's important to build plenty of roads so as to allow more rapid movement of wagons, so I made sure of reasonable wood and clay. The 'longest street' card is not in play.

Richard quickly built some streets, and moved his wagon along four of them, using up four movement points. I could not move mine so far as I only had one street at the time. Although it would have been quicker to go past the barbarian... The aim is to reach one of the trading hexes as soon as possible to collect one's first trading commodities - however I was more concerned about building some more settlements to start with.

Still, one can move the wagon every turn in addition to building; Richard got first to one of the trading hexes, and picked up his commodity, and set out for the place he had to deliver it to. Meanwhile I bought a settlement and a city. But I finally got to the first plaza and picked up a commodity card, which had 'tools' on it.

Richard upgraded his movement cards a few times... I didn't think about it until I'd done some more building, then realised that the cards remaining in my hand were exactly what I needed to get to upgrade:

So now I had five movements points per turn, and collected two gold pieces rather than one for each successful delivery.

I could also now take an extra chance if my wagon landed next to a barbarian. I could roll one die, and if a 6 was rolled, could move the barbarian. Further upgrades to the cards give more chances to move the barbarian.

I'd been taking so many pictures of individual parts of the game (the last two forgetting the close-up setting, so they're a bit burned out and not properly focussed) that I'd forgotten about the whole board. But this was the state of play of the game by this stage:

I had nine points in buildings, having had a lot of ore and wheat, and thus built all my possible cities already. Richard had five. What we hadn't realised (I hadn't read the full instructions yet) was that for every successful commodity delivery, we should have had an extra victory point. We did wonder why the instructions said to play to 13 points (regular games of Settlers are 10) and wondered where extra points would come from. Of course, just building all the cities and settlements makes 13 points, and we usually play to 16 in a two-person game (18 with Cities and Knights) but were wondering where extra points might come from.

It wasn't long before I had streets that went, pretty much, from the castle hex to the one nearest me. And I kept on picking up tools from the castle, quartz from the other one... which meant I would have been raking in commodity points if we'd realised we were supposed to get points.

Richard had to travel along my streets from time to time, so I got a fair amount of gold for that. And two pieces of gold can be used, up to twice per turn, to buy an individual resource card. Which was extremely useful at times.. so I kept on building. And the more I built, the more resources Ikept picking up. I did, once, have to give up six cards when a 7 was rolled (although the robber is not in play, the barbarians can steal cards in the same way, but do get moved by whoever rolls the 7).

Sheep were in rather short supply in this game, and were needed for most of the movement card upgrades, so we realised that, until pretty near the end, neither of us had bought any development cards. There's a special pack of 25 that go with this scenario, but they cost the same as in a regular Settlers game.

It's possible for two wagons to be in the same place at the same time, as happened in one of the plazas:

- by which stage I had 12 points in buildings, and Richard had 8. If we'd been counting commodity delivery points, we probably each had about the same number of those.

So I built my last settlement. Then figured all I could do was keep on transporting commodities, and spending resources on development cards. The first one I bought gave me an extra wagon journey, which was quite useful.

The second one I bought was a victory point. So Richard said he thought that made me the winner, and that we should stop:

Rivers of Catan (for two)

2010-11-21T17:58:00.004+02:00

It's been a few months since we last played the 'Rivers of Catan' scenario from Traders and Barbarians. So we decided we'd try it again yesterday evening. The main differences in setup are the 'rivers' hexes which replace some of the regular ones, the 'swamps' which replace the desert, and the fact that the 2 and 12 numbers are put on the same hex.

During game-play, bridges can be built (for two clay and one wood) and coins can be earned by building roads or settlements next to the river. These coins can be traded for resources.

We decided to use the 'harbormaster' card in our game, but to use dice rather than Catan event cards. And although we weren't sure if there would be much point using the 'wealthy settler' and 'poor settler' card, we decided we might as well...

Then I forgot to take a photo after we'd placed our initial pieces. Here's the game after a few rounds:

I'd managed to upgrade one of my settlements to a city, and Richard had built another settlement on the coast. We'd built a few streets too.. and I had also built my first bridge:

In a two-person game there's usually plenty of room for expansion, so they tend to be fairly amicable. However, Richard really wanted the 8:3 ore:wheat coastal intersection, which I'd rather hoped for, so he took it in a single move:

We then noticed that I had the longest street. So that gave me 9 points in buildings, plus the other two, making 11. Except that I also had the 'poor Settler' card, which meant I needed an extra two points if I were to win. 18 rather than 16, in other words...

I had the clay harbour from my initial placement, and that had come in useful. I thought I might go for the wood harbour too, as I was getting quite a bit of wood... and Richard pipped me to the post.

So then I thought I'd go for the sheep harbour, as I had been collecting sheep... only to have Richard built streets to block me from that one too:

He was the first to reach three settlements on harbours, so took the Harbormaster card, and an extra two points.

So I had twelve points on the board and he had ten. We each had two extra points... but since he still held the 'wealthy settler' card, and I was the 'poor settler', he was in practice a point ahead of me rather than two behind.

I built my final settlement. I also extended my long street, so that it couldn't be overtaken. I had been buying development cards, and had played a couple of knights. So now I played my third knight, giving me the largest army:

So I had 17 points, which should have been enough to win... but I was still the 'poor Settler'. So I needed one more. Richard had 12 points on the board, plus the harbormaster, plus the 'wealthy settler' which gave him an extra point, so he also needed only one to win.

But my turn came first. I bought a couple more cards... and one of them was a victory point:

Seafarers (fog island) - a longer game than necessary

2010-11-20T17:26:00.003+02:00

Since I've stopped writing about every game of Settlers that we play, I've also stopped taking photos, in general, during the games. On Thursday, Richard and I decided to play a round of Seafarers of Catan with our favourite 'fog island' scenario. I didn't want anything too lengthy or mentally tiring, although I'd forgotten just how long it takes to set the game up!

It wasn't a very equal game, since Richard made a mistake on his initial setup, and I was able to build a great deal faster than he was. When I put my final settlement down, I realised - since I had the longest trade-route, and also a couple of hidden victory points, that I'd won since I had more than 16 points (which is what we play to when there are just two of us). Richard knew it too, but suggested another couple of rounds, out of interest. All I could do, basically, was buy development cards (which I did) and I also built my last two streets and ships, because I had the cards in my hand.

And then he said I should really take photos and write about the game...

By the time we finally finished (when the last hidden hex had been revealed) the table was looking quite a mess:

Although I won, Richard took and held onto the 'largest army' card. He had one of the biggest 'armies' I can remember seeing in a game:

However, I had an extremely long trade route, giving me the 'longest street' card without even having to count:

My 'army' consisted of four knights, and by the end I had three victory points (so I had a total of 18 points) - and several more development cards which I had bought but had not had a chance to play:

It wasn't until late in the game that Richard noticed that we'd taken the wrong bonus cards - I had taken the largest army and he had taken the longest street! Not that it mattered in the slighest, as each is worth two points, but we solemnly exchanged them so as to be correct.

I was getting tired by the end, and buying so many development cards that I just threw my resource cards on the table, leading to quite a muddle:

The game was unusual for a few reasons..

1) Despite us both regularly picking up handfuls of cards by the end, the robber was never able to steal from either of us. For once, 7s were only rolled when we had both managed to spend our resource cards, and only had a few in our hands.

2) The pirate ship was not moved at all, despite a normal number of 7s being rolled, in addition to all the knight cards shown above:

3) Although I built far more ships than I usually do (by the end I had built all my ships AND all my streets) the vast majority of hexes I 'discovered' were simply sea... and the desert:

Whereas Richard, with a very modest fleet of ships, discovered only one sea hex, while all his others were resource hexes:

It was a good game, full of laughter. It really didn't matter who won - it was inevitable that I was going to, early on, but part of the fun of this scenario is exploring the hidden hexes.

Fishermen of Catan and the Harbourmaster

2010-11-17T20:30:00.005+02:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Settlers of Catan... via Skype!

2010-10-14T17:46:00.005+03:00

I decided a few weeks ago that I would stop writing about every single Catan game we play, and only include new posts when there are variations (such as those in 'Traders and Barbarians') or other unusual features.

One such very unusual feature - indeed, unique from our perspective - occurred on Tuesday evening, when we were chatting online to our son Tim, who is a student in the UK. We live in Cyprus. Tim was feeling a bit bored and made an idle comment about how he wished we could play Settlers over Skype. Immediately, I wondered if it would be possible. Would the quality of my webcam be good enough...? So we set up a board, out of curiosity, and put Richard's laptop on the sofa, where we could see Tim:

Then we set up my little portable webcam on a chair, pointed at the Settlers board:

And Tim could see it quite clearly enough!

Of course, it was quite absurd to suggest actually playing a game. And yet... it looked rather a nice layout. And we had half an hour before Richard needed to go out, and Tim needed to eat. So we thought we might just try a bit of a game to see if it was possible. And since Tim wanted to see us as well as the board, Richard set up the internal webcam on his computer to point at us, via yahoo chat. We were probably at our maximum bandwidth...

Tim had to go and fetch resource cards from the set in his house, and we were all set. We chose three fairly distinct colours that were easily distinguishable via the webcam. I had my usual orange, Richard opted for white rather than his usual red, and Tim took blue. We rolled our dice, Tim used a random dice generator on his computer when it was his turn. I went first and placed my settlement, then it was Tim's turn - since we were playing clockwise - and he told me where he wanted his one to go. With the second settlements, he took the cards from his set of resources.

Then we played our first few moves. It must have felt a bit odd to Tim, but I was surprised how oddly 'normal' it felt to be playing a board game - a physical board game - with someone a couple of thousand miles away.

Trading resources with Tim was easy enough. We agreed the relevant exchange, then each traded with our own 'bank' of cards, as if trading with each other.

We had to think for a moment when Richard wanted to place the robber on one of Tim's hexes and steal a card from him. But it wasn't a problem. Tim held his cards up to the screen, so Richard could choose:

.. and when Richard decided which one he wanted, I closed my eyes, Tim showed Richard what the card was, and discarded it himself, while Richard took the relevant card from the bank. I didn't take many photos of the board; I was too interested in the game and the technology. We did take a break when Richard and Tim had to depart, temporarily, but then resumed an hour later.

Tim was in the lead for a while, then I took the longest street card and had eleven points. However, Tim took it from me fairly quickly:

- he then built another city, which put him in the lead with ten points, while I was back to nine:

Richard, who set it all up technologically, wasn't doing so well in this game.

Tim built another city, and so did I. Then I built another settlement, too. So we both had eleven points:

Oddly enough, very few development cards had been bought in this game.** Partly, I suppose, because ore was a relatively rare resource, so when any of us had any, we used it to build cities. Even at this stage, clearly near the end, I had bought - and played - one knight card, and that was all.

My turn came round. I could trade my cards to built another settlement, and I had a building spot, which meant that I could win... except that I didn't have any settlements left to play. I needed a city first, but could not gather the resources for that. And since I didn't want to be caught by the robber, I opted to buy my second development card of the game.

It was a victory point.

And so, although I had rather hoped Tim would win, I was the first with 12 points.

**If Tim had wanted to buy a development card - which didn't happen - we would have picked up the top card, and put it under the webcam (without looking at it ourselves) so that he could see what it was, and then take the equivalent card from his own set. We would then have replaced our card at the bottom of the deck.

Settlers of Catan for two of us

2010-09-29T20:31:00.002+03:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Settlers of Catan for six

2010-09-23T13:36:00.002+03:00

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, basic game for two players

2010-09-21T19:36:00.003+03:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Richard, unsurprisingly, took the longest street:

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

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

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

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

... and, indeed, he took it:

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

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

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

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

Settlers of Catan for four

2010-09-19T15:52:00.002+03:00

Another Thursday evening. Another game with the four of us. Sheila brown, Jörn blue, Richard red, me orange.

It wasn't a particularly inspiring layout for the board. It looked as though there was going to be an over-abundance of wood, a fair amount of sheep, and not a whole lot of anything else. Nor where there any obviously brilliant starting spots.

Sheila went first and took the 3-6-9 with ore, sheep and clay. It's where I'd have gone in first place, too. Probably the best place for numbers, certainly the best spot for clay which was likely to be the scarcest resource of all.

Jörn went second, and took the 4-8-10, with wheat, with wheat, wood and sheep. Equally good numbers, technically, but no clay or ore. I was third. Already there were no attractive spaces to take, so I followed the strategy of taking the best possible ore spot, which was on a 5. It bordered a 6-wood which I hoped would be useful, and also an 11-wheat, which was less likely to be of value.

Richard was last; quite a useful situation for this unhelpful board. He was able to get access to all five resources, and five different numbers: 3, 4 (twice), 8, 9 and 11. I now needed clay and sheep, but the only place to get both was on the coast, with a 2 on the clay, which didn't seem very useful. So, as I usually sacrifice sheep (so to speak!) if one resource must go, I looked at the options for clay. There was really only one possibility: the final place on the 9-clay hex, which bordered a 10-wheat that I hoped would be useful, and also the 2-clay. So that's what I took.

Jörn needed clay and ore, so he took a reasonable spot which gave him both, even though the clay was on an 11; it also gave him an 8 on wood... and made it unlikely that Richard would be able to take the nearby 3:1 harbour.

I then took a photo, not realising that Sheila hadn't placed her second settlement. She suggested I post it anyway, and ask readers where they might have placed the second brown settlement...

Sheila pondered two or three options. She needed both wheat and wood, but couldn't possibly take both. She had considered one of the 8-wood hexes, but one possible spot bordered only the desert, and the other bordered only the 3-ore hex which she had access to already; she was tempted by it, since it would have given her an instant 3:1 harbour, but it looked as if she might have been boxed in rather rapidly, with very few - if any - building spots.

So, as wood was evidently going to be plentiful, Sheila opted for the 3-10-11 intersection which gave her two wheat hexes, and five different numbers altogether.

Play started quite slowly, except that 11s were rolled more often than would be expected, and 10s not at all in the first few rounds. Jörn and Richard were both easily able to build streets, and I went as rapidly as I could to the intersection with two wheat hexes which would give me a five. Richard built in the spot where Sheila had hoped to go, which meant that her building spots were rather limited anyway, and he was first to gain the longest street card, but Jörn soon extended his street further and took it away.

So Jörn had five points, as did I; Richard had four, and Sheila had three.

With my extra wheat and reasonable ore (5s were rolled pretty much as expected statistically), I was fairly quickly able to build another city. I did have to give up cards to the robber more than once; but I found myself with wood and sheep all too often, and nothing I could do with them. It then occurred to me that I should probably take the wood harbour; I hadn't thought of it as a useful building spot, since I already had two settlements on the 2-clay hex, and one on the 5-wheat. But with the amount of wood I was collecting, it was definitely worthwhile.

So I took it - just before Richard planned to. He kept extending his street in the hope of taking back the longest street card. He did for a few rounds, but then Jörn took it back again, and we realised that he was now unbeatable as far as that went.

I then built another city, made almost entirely of 2:1 traded wood.

So Jörn had eight points at this stage, and I had nine. We each had one remaining building spot, although my last one was also Sheila's last one, and she was struggling to do anything so I didn't plan to take it, even though she urged me to! I had already played two knights - being in the lead, I was frequently the target of the robber - and needed only one more to gain the largest army. I also knew I could fairly easily build one more city, so I didn't actually need another settlement.

And that's what happened. If Jörn had had a hidden victory point card, he would have won, but he didn't. So when my turn came around, I built my last city, and played my third knight:

Seafarers of Catan (Fog Island scenario) for four

2010-09-13T18:17:00.004+03:00

Jacob was out sailing with Richard and Mick. Marie wanted to play Seafarers... so we set up a four-person game. We played with our usual colours: brown for Sheila, blue for Jörn, white for Marie and orange for me. We decided on our favourite 'Fog Island' scenario, which is enjoyable to play but rather time-consuming to set up as it requires pieces from both the regular Settlers and the Seafarers boxes. There are hexes and numbers that show, and piles of them to be 'discovered' by building ships.

We opted for random placement of hexes in the main Catan island, but put the numbers according to the booklet.

There's never much room to set up initial settlements in this scenario; I always hope to sail out to discover further resource hexes. So I opted for the best numbers I could, in the circumstances. The only resources I started with were ore, wheat and clay.. which, I realised later, was a bit foolish in this game since it's wood and sheep that are needed to build ships!

Sheila was lacking clay, Marie was lacking ore, and Jörn was the only person with all five resources at the beginning. Marie was the only one of us who began with a ship rather than a street, and was thus in the best position to begin exploring first.

.. and, indeed, that's what happened. Sheila (lacking clay) and I (lacking wood) both managed a city before anything else. Jörn built a street and a settlement.. and Marie built ships, sailed away from Catan, and discovered a very useful 6-sheep hex:

I managed another city, then by dint of some trading was able, at last, to build a new settlement. Sheila started sailing out from Catan, and discovered a wood and a sheep hex. Exactly what I would have liked... but with neither wood nor sheep easily available to me, I didn't have much hope of building any ships. Nor, I realised, did I have anywhere to go since my coastal settlement was in between Marie's and Sheila's shipping lines... I would have to concentrate on building on Catan.

Marie was first to gain the longest street (or shipping route) card:

However, Sheila was just in the lead with six points. All the rest of us now had five.

That 'longest street' card changed hands several times in the game. However, Marie was also first to gain the largest army - she kept buying cards, and kept getting knights - and nobody got anywhere near challenging her on that.

At this stage, when Marie held the largest army and longest street card, she had seven points. So she was just in the lead: the rest of us each had six. It was a pretty even game, point-wise.

The longest route card went to Sheila, and then back to Marie, who was determined to keep it. The problem was that she used her resources on ships, and so didn't take the opportunity to build any settlements. I had eight points on the board - still just on the main Catan island - and Jörn had seven. Sheila also had eight points, including settlements on her discovered hexes. We also noticed that Jörn was gradually extending his streets, and might soon be able to take the longest street card himself...

However, it was Sheila who eventually took and kept the card. She had nine points on the board in buildings... and when her turn came around, she was able to build another settlement, and thus won the game with twelve points:

I was quite pleased to have eleven, since I hadn't built a single ship.

Settlers of Catan for five (with Mick)

2010-09-13T17:06:00.002+03:00

Having introduced our friend Mick to Settlers of Catan, and found him rather proficient, it seemed like a good idea to play a five-person game with Jörn and Sheila a couple of evenings later.

Since Mick had only placed once, it seemed better to use our set, even though we were at our friends' house, so that he didn't have to try and understand a different set of graphics - not to mention German text on the development cards. Mick was happy to play with the green pieces again, and the rest of us took our usual colours: brown for Sheila, blue for Jörn, red for Richard, and orange for me.

Richard rolled to go first, and with plenty of nice spots to choose from, opted for the 5-6-9 intersection on ore, sheep and wheat. I was second, and since I like to have good ore I took the 4-8-9 with clay, ore and sheep. I would have done slightly better, I realised immediately, to have taken the 5-6-9 which Jörn then claimed, with exactly the same resources and slightly better numbers. Sheila went next, and took yet another good spot: 4-6-9 on sheep, clay and wheat. Then it was Mick's turn to play last and first, placing two settlements together. He chose the 4-5 coastal intersection on ore and wood himself, and we advised on various other options; he decided on the 5-8-10 with the other three resources he needed. He had good numbers, but only four different ones.

On the way back, there were still some reasonable spots to take. Sheila needed wood and ore, and found a good intersection providing both, and giving her six good numbers. Jörn and I both needed wheat and wood; so, unsurprisingly, he took the one good spot with both available. I then decided that wheat was more important than wood, so took a spot with two wheat and an ore, giving me six different numbers (one of them being a 12, so not very useful). Richard, in final place, needed wood and clay, and was able to get rather a nice spot with both, giving him also six numbers, including a 12.

So I was the only player who did not have immediate access to all five resources at the start of the game. And wood was in rather short supply, so I was unable to trade for it. Jörn, Sheila and Richard each managed a street and a settlement each in the first few rounds... and I built two cities.

So, technically, I was in the lead with four points. However, without being able to build streets, I was now rather stuck. And, indeed, it took me quite some time before I managed to build even one new street. In the meantime, everyone else had done significant amounts of expanding:

So Jörn and Richard each had five points by this stage, while the rest of us each had four. And I could see that I was going to get boxed in before long, if I didn't start expanding.

Richard was first to take the longest street card. Then, in a move I haven't seen before, Sheila - who wanted a 9-10 double wheat intersection - built in the middle of his street, thus breaking it into two sections, and meaning that nobody held a five-section street any more so it had to be returned to the bank:

Richard had been in the lead with nine points, but was now back to seven. Jörn also had seven. Sheila had six, I had six, and Mick had four.

I managed to build another city, and another settlement. My final possible building spot was on the desert, so I did build one street towards it. But realised that I would do better to buy cards at this stage; I had played a couple of knights, so when I managed my third I did gain the largest army, and another two points. I had a hidden victory point card too, and when my turn came around I bought another card. Had it been a victory point, I would have won... but it wasn't.

So Jörn, who by this stage had ten points on the board, and the longest street card, was the winner with twelve points.

Mick still had only four on the board, but he had a couple of victory point cards, so his total was six, putting him just one point behind Sheila.

Three-person Settlers game with Mick

2010-09-11T16:01:00.004+03:00

Our friend Mick had come to stay. He spotted our Catan boxes, and enquired what they were. So, naturally, we offered to teach him to play Settlers...

He rolled to place first, so we suggested a few possible spots after explaining the rules as well as we could. It's a surprisingly complicated game for someone who has no idea what they're doing, so he took our advice about placing his settlements on trust. Mick took the green pieces, while Richard had his usual red and I had my usual orange.

We all managed access to all five resources, at least in theory; and realised that our placements had worked quite neatly, giving us more possible building spots than average. With only three players there is usually plenty of space anyway.

Mick picked up the principles of the game rapidly and started heading inland. It wasn't long before each of us had built one more settlement, so we each had three points:

When the robber started to come into play, Richard and I put it on each other's hexes, not wanting to discourage someone who was brand new to the game. But it wasn't long before Mick went into the lead, with the longest street:

We were still explaining why we did some of the things we did, and occasionally had to recap on various rules... but Mick clearly had Catan strategy in his mind already, and made his own decisions notwithstanding listening to our suggestions. We soon found ourselves able to build cities, and expanded a bit further into useful spots:

So Mick was still in the lead with eight points (including the longest street), I had seven, and Richard had six. And we started playing the robber on places where Mick also had settlements or cities, and sometimes taking cards from him.

He was a bit unfortunate in losing cards to the robber more than once - we didn't always remind him of the strategy of offering to trade an extra card away when having eight in one's hand; he managed to roll a 7 when in the possession of eight or more cards at least twice during the game.

Mick had bought three development cards, and we knew that they were all knights. He played one to move the robber, and I suggested he play a second on his next turn, in hope of gaining the largest army card.

Had I been competing with experienced players, I would have attempted to join up my two segments of street by this stage, and so taken the longest street card for myself. I didn't do so... but by this stage in the game, that's the only concession I was making to Mick being a totally new and inexperienced player. Had he been more experienced, he would probably have extended his more rapidly to ensure that I didn't manage to take the card, anyway.

So Mick and I each had nine points at this stage, and Richard had six. There were still plenty of building spots available to both Richard and me, although Mick had only one remaining.

I built another settlement, and a city. Richard built a couple of streets in the vain hope of taking the longest street... so Mick joined up his segments, ensuring he kept it. I upgraded another city and built another settlement. Mick built a city.

I had eleven points, and was technically in the lead. Mick had ten... and had played two knights. I reminded him that all he had to do was to turn over his third knight, and he would have won.

He decided he would prefer to keep playing for another round or so.

When his turn came round again, he had a huge handful of cards. Luckily he didn't roll a seven... and was able to build another city AND place his last settlement. That gave him ten points in buildings, plus the longest street, so he had twelve points anyway. Then he turned over his third knight, giving him the largest army...

So Mick was resoundingly the winner, with fourteen points!

Here he is, a little surprised to have won...

Four-person Settlers of Catan game in the evening

2010-09-11T15:11:00.004+03:00

Looking back at the scoring lists we keep, I was a little surprised to discover that the last time Richard and I played a four-person Settlers game with just Jörn and Sheila was back in May. We've loved having so many other people to play Catan games with, of course, but sometimes it's good to have just the four of us who played so many games together last year.

We set the board up outside, for the first time this year. And, since I'm writing this four days after the game happened, I've forgotten who started. I think it may have been Jörn (with blue pieces, as usual). If so, then he opted for the six-wheat hex as one of his starting ones since wheat looked as if it might be in short supply. if he was first, Sheila was second (brown), and took one of the 8-4-3 intersections which I had been looking at. I (orange) then took the other. Richard, who (I think) was last (red) began with good numbers (5, 9, 10) - the best selection of numbers available - on wood and two clay.

It was quite a nice board, and we all managed to begin the game with a reasonable selection of resources and numbers. Richard lacked wheat by the end, while Sheila and I each had only 11 on wheat. But nobody was obviously in a much better position than anyone else:

The first few moves were fairly predictable, and also reasonably amicable. Jörn and Richard both headed towards the coast, and the relevant harbours. Richard did build an extra street to protect the wood harbour from Sheila; so she went the other way towards a 3:1. I decided to head for an inland spot first; not particularly useful in theory (3 on sheep, 11 on wheat, and the desert...) but I could see that inland spots were going to be at a premium, due to the layout of our initial settlements. I did have a faint hope that I might be able to build out quickly towards the 5-wheat/10-ore hex, but suspected that Jörn would get there first...

...which, indeed, he did. Sheila headed to the other side of that nice 5-wheat hex, so I concentrated my building around the coast near the 8-ore hex I'd taken at the start. Richard hoped to get there too, and we did compete for the spot which eventually I took - but since he'd built an extra street it was still possible for him to get a spot around the edge of that 8-ore hex.

Oddly enough, 11 was rolled rather often in this game, so it wasn't long before I was able to build my first city.

So Sheila and I each had five points, Richard had four, and Jörn had three.

I decided, next, to head towards the coast at the bottom of the board in the hope of being able to get a 9 hex. Sheila, meanwhile, gained the longest street card. Richard and Sheila each built a city, but Jörn was having a hard time getting the resources he needed, and was still stuck on three points:

So Sheila was well in the lead with eight, while Richard and I each had six.

Building spots were fast becoming scarce, but Jörn had good supplies of both ore and wheat, so was able to build some cities - and as he did so, naturally gained more frequent resources which he could trade as needed. In quite a short space of time he went from three to eight points. I managed to get my coastal hex including the 9-clay, and Richard took the sheep harbour, which I did also consider. It could have been decidedly useful. Sheila extended her longest street to ensure that nobody else could take it - not that there were really any possible contenders by this stage.

Sheila and I had each played two knight cards, but she was first to play a third and thus gain the largest army:

So she now had ten points. Jörn had jumped to second place with eight, while Richard and I each had seven.

We now concentrated on building cities and buying development cards, while hoping not to be caught by the robber with more than seven resource cards. We reached the stage where Sheila had eleven points and I had nine... and then I played a fourth knight, and took the 'largest army' card from her. So now I had eleven, and she had nine.

I had one more city to build, and although nobody would trade with me, I managed it anyway and thus scraped another win:

But it was all very close. Richard and Sheila each had ten points, and Jörn had nine.

Four-person Settlers of Catan

2010-08-30T16:20:00.004+03:00

Richard was busy, and Jacob was away on camp... so we sat down to a four-person Settlers game late yesterday afternoon. Jörn played blue, Sheila brown, Marie white, and I was orange.

I was first to place. Ore looked as if it would be the most scarce resource, so I knew I would place on the four-ore hex. I was undecided between the 5 (sheep)-8 (clay) intersection, and the 6 (sheep)-9 (wheat). From the number perspective, they were equally good. I decided that, on balance, I preferred to have slightly better access to clay than to sheep; and clay is always useful at the start of the game. And it looked as if there would be plenty of wheat available for trading.

Jorn played second, and took the 5-9-10 with wood, wheat and sheep. Marie went next, and took the spot with the best number combination on the board: the 5-6-9 with sheep, wheat and wood. Then Sheila was both last and first. Unsurprisingly she took the spot I had seriously considered, also bordering the 4-ore hex. And she also took the coastal 8-10 with clay and wood. That gave her access to all five resources, and five good numbers: 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10.

Marie needed clay and ore, and had two possible spots: she took the 3, 10 and 11 which also gave her sheep. So she had six numbers: 3, 5, 6, 9, 10 and 11. Jörn also needed clay and ore, so he took the other appropriate spot, giving him two clay and an ore. So he also had six reasonable numbers: 3, 4, 5, 9, 10 and 11. No 6 or 8, but it was likely that he would head to the 8-wheat.

Then, at last, it was me again. I was lacking wheat and wood. My instinct was to opt for wheat rather than wood, although it would have made it rather tricky to get started. And the only good spot on a wheat hex was the 8-4 coastal wheat-clay spot,
The biggest problem with that was that I already had an 8 and a 4, so would be limiting myself to three numbers altogether.

So, with an inward sigh, I opted for the 9-10 coastal intersection with two wood. It was a bit annoying for Sheila since it stopped her from getting the nearby 3:1 harbour which she was aiming for, but the board was already looking crowded. Due to some of the initial placements, there were a surprising number of unavailable spots.

I forgot to take a photo until we'd played a couple of rounds, but all we had built by this stage were a few streets:

Since I'd taken the harbour Sheila had wanted, she built as quickly as she could out towards another 3:1 harbour, thus preventing me from going there. So I could not expand anywhere from my first settlement.

Surprisingly, ore was not in short supply since 4 was rolled rather more often than expected. But without wheat its only use to me was trading - which I did, fairly extensively. I did manage to build on the sheep harbour. Marie had hoped for that spot, but my only hope of building anything at all was to continue around the coast. I'd have liked the 6-11-12 intersection which would have given me access to wheat. Marie would also have liked it. But Jörn built out towards it - and beyond, so that it was secure to him - and took the longest street card in doing so. Then Sheila was the first to build a city:

So Jörn was in the lead with six points, although he didn't expect to keep the longest street card. Sheila had four points; Marie and I each had three. But Marie and I were already struggling to find building spots.

It wasn't long before Sheila took the longest street, and incidentally giving herself quite a few useful building spots:

Marie joined her segments of road, so that she took the longest street card temporarily, but she didn't have the potential to keep it. She aimed for her last building spot, on the desert.. and then Sheila built more streets, and took the card back again:

So Sheila was now in the lead with seven points, closely followed by Jörn with six. I had finally managed my first city, so had five points, and Marie was trailing with three.

I realised that I could, potentially, take the longest street card - and since there wasn't much else I could do, and I had the resources in my hand, I did build a couple more. But Sheila had calculated that she could reach 14 segments, which was the maximum I could reach... so she build the rest of her streets, to guarantee keeping it:

So Sheila now had ten points, but Jörn was still close behind with nine, and I had eight. Marie was still trailing with five. By this stage there were NO building spots left on the entire board... so we were all after ore, wheat and sheep, with little use for wood or clay other than for trading.

So although we were all picking up a fair number of cards, not much happened. We just bought cards, and occasionally played them. Then Jörn build another city:

- so he and Sheila were now equal with ten points each.

Then Sheila built another city.

Then Marie played a third knight card, and so gained the largest army.

And then, at last, Jörn bought another card which was a victory point. He already had one hidden one, so that gave him the twelve points he needed to win:

So he had 12 points, and Sheila had 11. I had 9, and Marie - who also had a hidden victory point card - had 8.

Two-person Settlers of Catan game with Richard

2010-08-29T12:36:00.004+03:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So Richard had seven points, and I had six.

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

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

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

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

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

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

I played my third knight too.

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

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

Cities and Knights WITH Seafarers of Catan

2010-08-20T16:38:00.001+03:00

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.

Settlers of Catan for four

2010-08-19T17:13:00.004+03:00

Our game of Seafarers of Catan was over so quickly - it was only 9pm when we finished - that we decided to play a quick game of regular Settlers as well. We kept the same pieces: red for Richard, white for Tim, brown for Sheila and orange for me.

I went first, and took the predictable 4-5-8 with clay, wood and wheat. Richard was next; he decided to go for numbers, so took 6-5-9 on sheep and two wood. Then it was Tim, who took 5-9-10 on two ore and clay. Sheila likes the last position best; she was able to take four useful numbers (3, 8, 9 and two 10s) with all resources other than sheep. Tim ended his placement with a lot of ore, no wood or sheep, and six good numbers (3, 4, 5, 6, 9 and 10). Richard lacked wheat after his second placement, and didn't have as many numbers as he would have liked (2, 5, two 6s and two 9s). And I then had nowhere to get ore - which can be a big problem. So I opted for the least bad numbers that would give me the other some sheep, and ended up with six (3, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 11).

And I forgot to take a photo at the end of our settlement placements. However, I took this one shortly afterwards when we had all built at least one street - there was no real shortage of clay and wood at the start of this game - and both Richard and Tim had built a new settlement (Richard on the ore harbour; Tim, who would really have liked the ore harbour himself, on a 3:1).

It wasn't too long before Richard took the longest street card, and shot into the lead. He had six points; Sheila and Tim each had four, and I still had three:

However, Tim and Sheila both managed to build cities. Richard (lacking wheat) could not do so, and my lack of ore made it equally difficult. So Sheila caught up with Richard:

They each had seven points, while Tim and I each had five. And due to the placement of the hexes, there were very few building spots left. Tim and I didn't have any; Sheila and Richard each had one left. But Richard and I were having a hard time building any cities. He did manage one, and I managed two... but Tim, with his plentiful ore, upgraded all four of his settlements to cities. He also bought development cards since there was nothing else for him to do... and then won the game, by playing his third knight (thus gaining the largest army) and revealing two hidden victory point cards:

He hadn't expected to win, when Richard stopped him from getting the ore harbour. If he had been able to take it, he would probably have won rather more quickly. But it was quite a decisive victory since nobody else had more than eight points.

Seafarers: fog island scenario (for four)

2010-08-18T17:16:00.005+03:00

John and Sarah have left, and Jörn was still away. Tim leaves in the early hours of tomorrow. So we decided to have one more game with Sheila while Tim's still here. She came to our house, so we played with our set. Rather than regular Settlers of Catan, we thought we'd try our favourite Seafarers scenario: fog island. It always takes awhile to set up since it needs pieces from two sets (but not all of them). We used random distribution of the resource hexes within the main Catan island, but placed the numbers according to the booklet.

Richard (red) went first. He took the 8-9-10 which is on ore, sheep and wheat. Sheep are important in Seafarers as they're needed, along with wood, to build ships.

Tim (white) was second, and - unsurprisingly - chose the 3-8-9 on clay, ore and wood. Sheila (brown) took the 4-6-9 on clay, ore and sheep which is the spot I would have chosen if I hadn't been the last to play place. While some people like being in last position, I don't particularly like it. Particularly in this game where there aren't all that many places available! So I decided I'd focus on exploring and hope for some better numbers that way. I built one of my settlements on the 6-9 with wheat and wood, and a ship rather than a street. Then I took the 5-8-12 on wood, ore and sheep. I had no clay at all, and rather feeble access to sheep, so I hoped to be able to trade for what I needed, and find some better places out at sea.

By the time the second settlements had been placed, Richard and Tim had theoretical access to all five resources, but Sheila had no wood, which was going to make it tricky to build anything.

However, 3s and 4s were rolled surprisingly often, giving Sheila a great deal of clay. So she was able to trade easily every time she wanted wood, and soon started expanding. Within a few rounds she had managed six points, including two cities. In the same time period, the rest of us each had three points...

Since I was slightly stuck by the initial position of the pirate ship, Sheila was also the first person to head out to sea.. although the first hex she turned over was another sea one:

However, she then discovered a useful sheep. And took the longest trade route too. I managed to set sail too, was pleased for a moment to see that I hadn't found a sea hex.. and then realised it was the desert. However, I then managed to uncover a wood hex, with a fairly useful 4:

So I built a settlement there, and started to explore across the land with another street, hoping to head for the gold hex. I uncovered.. yet more wood.

Sheila, meanwhile, found rather a nice ore hex (with 5), but decided to move her leading ship and then explore in the other direction, where she found a 9-wheat hex.

And Richard managed to set out to sea too:

So Sheila was well in the lead with nine points, including the longest trade route. Richard and Tim each had five, and I had four.

I was very pleased to discover an 8-sheep hex, so quickly built a settlement there, bordering two reasonably wood hexes. Sheila went back to the ore, and discovered some more. And built her remaining cities. Tim also set sail from the main Catan island:

So Sheila now had 11 points. Seafarers can be a very long game, but we'd only been playing for about an hour. She was evidently going to be the winner by a long way ... Tim had six points, Richard and I each had five.

Sure enough, Sheila was able to build one more settlement... and thus was the clear winner:

Settlers of Catan for six

2010-08-16T16:01:00.000+03:00

It was John and Sarah's last evening here for a while. Tim was still here too, for a few more days. However Jörn was away... so there were six of us for a Catan game on Saturday evening.

Richard (red) placed first. He took a very nice spot with 5 on ore, 6 on clay and 9 on wood. I was second (with orange), so I took a spot that was as good number-wise (5-8-9) but with sheep rather than clay. Then it was Sheila (brown), who opted for a 4-5-11 giving her wood, clay and wheat.

That pretty much used up the obviously good starting positions. John (green) was next. He pondered awhile, then decided to go for the best selection of remaining numbers, which was 5-8-9 on ore and two wheat. We'd been talking about the importance of the ore-wheat strategy... so John was apparently going to try it. Sarah (white) was fifth. She couldn't see anywhere that would be much good - and she likes to use harbours. So she placed her first settlement on the sheep harbour, which bordered two sheep hexes on 8 and 11. Tim (blue) was last. He didn't really have any good places to choose, so decided to opt for as many resources and numbers as possible. He ended up with 4, 8, 9, two 10s and a 12, with theoretical access to all five resources.

Sarah then went for two more sheep hexes with a wood - so all the had available to her was sheep and wood, plus the sheep harbour for trading. A strategy that could work very well, or could be a disaster! John was pleased to find that the coastal 6-10 on clay and wood was still available - giving him the wheat harbour too. He was in a very strong position. He had also inadvertently blocked Tim's first intended move.

Sheila then took two more numbers on the other sheep harbour, I decided I'd opt for three numbers (without any clay) rather than just two on the coast in a rather crowded position, and Richard then took the 4-8 sheep-wheat intersection on the ore harbour, which John had been heading for.

With six players, there can be a fair bit of competition for building spots.

Although Richard played before John, he didn't have such good tiles. And so, twice, John built streets that blocked Richard's plans:

So he built in other directions. Play moved reasonably fast, so that settlements and cities started to spring up all around the island of Catan.

Tim was in the lead at this stage, with six points. John and I both had five, Richard and Sarah both had four, and Sheila had three.

Richard took the longest street first:

Then, rather than taking Sheila's last building spot, I realised that I could build inland to extend my street, and also gain a useful new spot on a 5-ore and 10-wheat (and 2-ore... but that was unlikely to be much use to me). Richard and Sarah had both hoped for that spot.

So I now had the longest street, and nine points. Richard was next with seven. Tim and John each had six points, Sarah had five, and Sheila - whose numbers just weren't being rolled - was trailing with three.

Then Richard extended his road, and took the longest street card back again:

.. which now put him in the lead with nine points, and me in second place with seven, jointly with Tim and John who had each built another settlement in the meantime. Sarah had six, and Sheila four.

By this stage, resources were being gathered faster and faster. The extra 'building phase' in between turns allowed us all to build - so we didn't lose much to the robber - and cities came rapidly, with an abundance of ore and wheat. I joined up my two sections of street, and took the card back from Richard - who had unfortunately wasted a few resources by extending his long street without providing any new building spots.

So, at this stage, Tim was in the lead with ten points. John and I each had nine, Sarah had eight, Richard had seven, and Sheila was still trailing with five.

Most of us had run out of building spots at this time, so all we could do was build cities (if we had any left - Tim didn't by this stage) or buy cards.

Richard and I each built a new city:

So I now had ten points, and was jointly in the lead with Tim.

But John, who had started with such a good position, was able to trump us all. He was the first person to play a third knight card, giving him the largest army - and then turned over a victory point card:

So John was victorious, with twelve points.

Seafarers of Catan: fog island (for four)

2010-08-14T17:22:00.005+03:00

Tim was out, and Richard needed a break. So we decided to have a four-person Seafarers game with John and Sarah. They did look at the other scenarios in the booklet, but as so often happens we decided that Fog Island was the most interesting, because of the 'exploration' to turn over unknown hexes.

As when we played Seafarers with them before, we set up the main Catan island resources and numbers randomly. With four people on the 3-4 player board, it's not easy to find good building spots by the end since there are not many available. I went first (orange); I chose some reasonable numbers with an 8 on ore, plus 5 on wood and 8 on sheep. Sheep are a lot more important in Seafarers than in regular Settlers of Catan games, since they're necessary (along with wood) for building boats.

Richard (red) was second; he built on the other 4-sheep hex, with wheat and wood as well. John (white) took some good numbers: two wood and a wheat, on 5, 10 and 6. Then Sarah (brown) took a very nice combination: all five resources, with 4, 6, 8, 9 and 10 as her numbers. On our second placements it was increasingly difficult to find suitable spots. John also managed five good numbers, but was lacking access to both sheep and ore. Richard had all five resources, but not such good numbers, and I had no access to wheat.

John was the only person who bought a ship right at the beginning, rather than a street for his second settlement.

Play was very slow at first. The problem was that 4 was not rolled, and it was the only possibility for sheep. Ironically, 12 - which had sheep but no settlements - was rolled a couple of times. However, we all managed to build some streets; John, Richard and I each built a city (wheat was plentiful so it was easy to trade for it), and Sarah managed the first new settlement of the game after trading heavily for her sheep:

So we were all on three points.

Then a four was rolled and we all cheered. Sarah picked up three sheep, and was able to buy a couple of ships. And so the first exploration of the game yielded...

.. some sea:

I was beginning to wonder where I would build, since John had pretty much blocked my access to the coast, in his quest for sheep. I wanted the 9-wheat spot first, and then decided I might as well extend in the other direction from my first settlement, and perhaps eventually reach the sea that way. Or maybe I'd concentrate on building on the main island...

Sarah bought another ship, and uncovered a useful 5-clay hex:

At this stage, John was - just - in the lead with five points; all the rest of us had four. Building in general was still a bit slow.

Having achieved my 9 on wheat, I started building more streets around the coast in the other direction in the hope of building on the 8-3 coastal intersection. And in doing so, realised that I could claim the longest street card:

So now I was slightly ahead, with six points. For a short while, anyway.

It was indeed only a few rounds. Sarah continued buying ships and uncovering useful land resource hexes, and quickly had a 'trade route' of seven which beat my six streets - so now she had the longest street card.

So Sarah was - just - in the lead with seven points; John (who had managed, at last, to build on sheep) had six; Richard - who had just bought his first ship - had five, and I was trailing with four.

Richard and Sarah both build settlements on the newly discovered island, and when another 4 was rolled - to the accompaniment of more cheers - John started buying ships. All he uncovered was sea, but his 'trade route' now had eight units, so the longest street card was now his:

John was ahead with nine points; Richard and Sarah each had six, and I was still just behind them with five. Evidently the longest trade route was going to be very significant in whoever was finally victorious in this game.

Sarah crossed the island with streets, and built another settlement. Richard headed out towards one of the gold hexes, and John - still maintaining the longest trade route - headed towards the other. He uncovered, and quickly built upon another sheep hex with a useful 9 on it.

John now had ten points. And he had played two knight cards. He didn't have any hidden development cards at that stage, but he only needed one more knight to claim the largest army and victory.

Sarah was not impressed because John not only moved the knight to the sheep hex she and Richard shared - to try and prevent her from building more ships - but he also put the pirate ship next to her one spare ship, so that she could not move it!

However, with the help of some trading, Sarah did manage to buy more ships. And overtook John... so once again the longest street card was hers:

Sarah was now in the lead with nine points, and John had eight. Richard had seven, and I was still behind with six... and there was no way that either of us was going to compete for the longest street card.

Sarah continued buying ships, and maintained her longest route with ease. Then she uncovered an ore hex. Now she and Richard were in a race to build on the gold...

But John, meanwhile, managed to build another settlement AND his last city.

So John now had ten points on the board. And Sarah had eight on the board, plus two for the longest street. The game was clearly going to be a race between the two of them. Richard still had seven points, and I still had six.

Still, I did eventually manage to build a settlement on the 8-clay hex and then bought a couple of ships. I even had the excitement of uncovering a wheat hex, and another 8 for it. That would have made rather a nice building spot... except that I now needed a city before I could buy any more settlements. And I wasn't getting a lot of ore.

Then Richard managed to build on the gold hex, at last. However, it didn't do him any good, because it was then John's turn. He had bought a card on his previous turn, so now he revealed it. A knight - which gave him the largest army, and the extra two points he needed to be the winner.

So Sarah was second with ten, Richard was third with nine, and although I only had seven points on the board, I did have one victory point card which I had kept hidden since the very early stages of the game.

Even though she had the longest trade route, Sarah still wasn't impressed at the way John had blocked her sheep access...