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.

Game 3 - Cities & Knights meets Seafarers

This game was played by five men. It was the four men of the house along with Marcos, a good friend who is a Catan buff on his own. Marcos and his wife will be traveling to South America for three weeks soon. I envy them.

The map seemed huge at first, but so much of the board was water that it was not too spread out.

Jason seemed to be on control for most of the game. He gained the aqueduct very early and it was clear he was going to take the metropolis for paper. He added the longest road by building ships to the island and gained two points for building there, one point for his settlement and one chit point for building on the island.

Marcos added order to our game and strongly enforced doing things in turn rather than in the casual style we are used to. He also reminded us of a few rules regarding Cities & Knights that we had forgotten, including the merchant being worth a point.

Game 2 - Cities & Knights with fish

This was a four player game of Cities and Knights with the Fishermen of Catan scenario added on. Jason, Tom, Jennifer and JB participated in this game. The fish were out in force, with Tom collecting the majority of the fish for most of the game. These fish fueled his empire, as he was constantly trading fish for commodities and resources. Tom played as gray.

Despite Tom's fish empire, Jason, who played as green, was the winner of this scenario. Jason used the longest road, a metropolis, and his brutal understanding of mathmatics to push past the thirteen points he needed to win, despite holding the boot. The boot, a component of the Fishermen of Catan varient, requires a player to get one extra point to win.

A special nod to Jennifer's suave move of stealing a mighty knight from me (JB who played in red). Jennifer played as blue.

Cities and Knights is drastically different from the basic Settlers of Catan game, as you develop structures within your cities and have to collectively fight off the barbarian hordes with knights. You can read about Cities and Knights at Wikipedia.

Game 1 - Seafarers of Catan with fish

The first game we documented was a variant of Seafarers of Catan for five players. We included the Fishermen of Catan addition from the Traders and Barbarians boxed set variation. If you are not familiar with this version of the game, basically there are fishing grounds that yeild fish which players can trade in for commodities, roads, and other things. Keenan, Jennifer, Tom, Don and JB played in this game.

Keenan, who played as red, was the winner. It was close and it is likely that another player would have won soon had Keenan not surprised us all and pulled off getting 13 points. Red is primarily in the lower right hand side of the board.

Documenting a year of games, one game at a time

My household and my group of friends is full of Catan fanatics. We play The Settlers of Catan or one of its variants at least once a week and frequently more often.

This web site is my attempt to document all of the games of Catan that we play in the coming year.

If you are unfamiliar with Catan you can learn more about Catan at Wikipedia.