The Settler

That was such an awesome game of Settlers of Catan, I feel the need to blog about it now.*

I went over my friend Brogue's house to play some New Year's Day games. I played one game of (expanded for 6 players) Settlers for 4 hours, then I played San Juan, then I played another expanded Setters game.** And I won the last one.

More than that, I feel I've learned something about the game.***

The first game, I was landlocked, and I was amidst enemies, yet I obtained the Longest Road and was able to hold onto it for the whole game. My first placements were almost good. I had some high-rolling numbers, but my wood was weak and I was missing ore completely. Sheep was not very plentiful, either. I soared up through the midgame, but then I was stuck at seven points. Without ore, I couldn't do anything. Meanwhile, the others didn't have any ore, either, but the winners had ports, a 3:1 and a 2:1. I decided to try to incorporate ports into my strategy from now on.

The second game, I had really good placement from the start, but I had nowhere to go from there. In the huge, expanded board, there was one really fertile quadrant where everyone crowded each other, and then there was an empty wasteland. I put one in the crowded area and one in the out-there section. I managed to cover all resources with decent numbers, except I had no grain. But in the empty wasteland, I was close to a 3:1, which would also give me a grain with a 4 on it.

It also just happened that, through doing that, I got three sheep with every roll of a 5. In the fertile land, I was near a sheep port. 5s kept rolling, inexplicably, and with my 3:1 port, I traded in enough sheep to clothe Qin Shihuang Di's army of terracotta soldiers.**** And with all that wool, I bought me access to the sheep port.

At this point, the others realized I was a threat. Every time a 5 was rolled, I got material for cities. The others stopped trading with me, and soon the robber was on my 6 or my 8 every turn. I had to go for Development Cards to get the robber off my back. Meanwhile, a girl got Longest while the guy next to her got Largest.***** I had had dreams of building up my four-segment road into something big, but she made her road 8 segments and she was close to cutting me off. Then the girl got a city, and she had nine points to my eight.

I sat nervously while my hand filled up with cards. Three bricks. Five sheep. Three ore. Two wood. A wheat. Some more sheep & brick. I realized that the key to winning the game was in my hand of 17 cards, and, if the robber wasn't rolled, I could do something awesome.

Finally it was my turn. I flipped a soldier over, just to steal a wood from the girl who was winning. Then I rolled. I got nothing out of the roll, but I hadn't needed anything, save that the robber not move. And then I did what nobody expected. I built FIVE ROADS from two wood, five brick, and six sheep. I stole Longest and won the game.

And no one was excited but me.******

* The dorkiest sentence I've ever written.

** That's not much better.

*** Okay, forget what I said in the first footnote.

**** Too much of a stretch? I just wanted to link to my China history stuff.

***** You know, in another context, that could sound interesting.

****** Awwww, man, they didn't see the beauty in the pummelling. Some people. I'm pretty sure this is the most... dorky is too good a word... the most arrogantly dorky sentiment I've ever expressed. There ought to be a word for "arrogantly dorky."