Game 10 - Settlers with camels, fish, and event cards

Tom reports on the game.

This was a basic Settlers of Catan game played by Tom [White] Jennifer [Blue] and JB [Orange] with the addition of three variants from the Traders and Barbarians expansion: fish, caravans [camels] and event cards [sans events] in place of rolling the dice. This game was fairly short which limited the quantity of fish produced. Jennifer, by having a fair amount of sheep and wheat, was able to move one of the caravans into a very advantageous route for her which allowed her to not only sprint for the longest road but also to enhance nearly all her settlements and cities by one point each. John Brian also was well placed in relation to a caravan route but didn't have the infrastructure or real estate to capitalize fully on it. Tom lacked wood and brick so had cities early and many development cards, but failing to be on any caravan route left him unable to compete with Jennifer in the end.

As Tom mentioned, we played with event cards which tends to yield a game with less randomness than using dice to determine the "dice roll" each turn.

Jennifer outlines her winning strategy below.

Game 9 - Lost my camera phone

Happy New Year! We started the year off right, with a game of Catan on New Year's Day.

For eight games, I have struggled and lost. Statistically it was time for me to win... and I did win, but wouldn't you know it? I win a game, and my cell phone goes missing.

It was a four-player Cities & Knights game between Jason, Tom, Jennifer and myself.

No images, no video, no phone and just my sketchy memory... but I won a game. Woohoo!

Game 8 - Seafarers

This game was played while I was out playing in a soccer tournament.

Tom's report of the game is as follows.

This was a custom seafarers game played by Tom [White], Jason [Green] and Jennifer [Blue] on a long narrow island with gold infused islands on both sides. Tom and Jason fought over longest trade route for much of the game which allowed Jennifer to maintain a place in the running despite some stalling of her numbers. Tom was poised to win but a thoughtless tactical error allowed Jason to sever his longest trade route and settle on his gold island to take the lead and eventually the victory.

No interview with Jason on his game strategy was recorded.

Game 7 - Seafarers

Happy Birthday Don!

Tonight we went to a party for my friend Don's 34th birthday. Of course we played Catan. Someone suggested that we photograph the board after the initial posting and then again at the end of the game, to better show the winner's strategy and path to victory from their original settlement placements.

Unfortunately my camera phone seems to have had some smutz on the lens and captured very foggy images of the game.

The game was a six player game and the players were Sarah (brown), Jennifer (green), Tom (white as always), Tim (blue), Morgon Mae (red), and me (orange). It was Tim's first game of Catan ever, but he played very well. Morgon Mae started out slow, but ended the game with a city and a settlement on a gold producing 8 tile. The game was won however by Jennifer. Here is how she did it.

Additionally the other half of the party played two games of Carcassonne Carcassonne which is another tile game by the same German fellow who created Catan. I'd have a photo of the two games, but as you have seen above, my camera lens was foggy. I captured unintelligible images of the games. Jason won the first game of Carcassone, and birthday-boy Don won the second game of Carcassone.

Game 6 - Settlers with fish

On the night of the winter solstice, Tom (white), Jennifer (blue), Jackie (red) and I (orange) played a four-player game of Catan. The only departure from the basic settlers game was the addition of the Fishermen of Catan ruleset out of the Traders & Barbarians boxed set.Jackie had never played with varient rules before, but she enjoyed playing with fish.

The dice seemed to love rolling "8"s from the beginning, so Jennifer and her sister Jackie made strong starts. My strategy was to contain Tom's expansion, so I surrounded his settlements, and tried not to allow him to expand. Instead, he invested in development cards, and managed to win by having five pints on the board, plus the largest army and three victory points in development cards.

Game 5 - Seafarers with fish

This was a fast moving three player game between Tom (white), Jason (blue) and I (red). The game was one of the most frustrating games that I have ever played. I was winning from the first roll of the dice up until the final moments, when Jason dastardly won with 12 points.

Game 4 - Cities & Knights with camels

This game was played by the five of us living together in our home, Jennifer, Tom, Keenan, Jason, and I. It was a Cities & Knights game with The Caravan rules thrown in from Traders and Barbarians.

The barbarians sprinted toward Catan and struck before we could protect the land with knights. As a result Jennifer (blue) and I (orange) were kneecapped by losing our initial cities. Tom (white) and Jason (green) did well throughout the game. Both Keenan (red) and Jennifer showed strength as the game went on, while I languished with no cities and therefore no commodities and therefore no progress cards. I did control the caravan route more often than not, which resulted in my taking the longest road from Jennifer, but this did not save me as I lost the game with the fewest points.

Tom conquered the game. He was the first to thirteen points and beat out Keenan and Jason.