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.
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.