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shirenomadPlayed a late-evening game of Settlers of Catan last night, which is always good for entertainment.
All but one of the forest hexes had been placed such that one settlement could claim all three... and this was within four road-lengths of the lumber port. So I had my strategy right off the bat. I couldn't risk placing my first two settlements on a port (only get two resources) and a nothing-but-forest spot (very limited opening hand), so I claimed the port (9-clay, 10-mountain) and made my second settlement on an excellent spot at the edge of the same forest cluster (9-clay, 5-forest, 6-pasture). I figured I wouldn't have any trouble building two roads in to the center.
My mistake. The dice were being unusually uncooperative in rolling fives, and the robber had my forest paralyzed the one time it did come up in the first six or seven rounds. So I'm left with a lumber port and nothing to ship out of it. By the time I did start getting lumber, Robert had built a road right through the spot I wanted. With no apparent intent to settle it, mind you, but if I built a settlement there, it would cut his Longest Road venture in half, so I knew the instant I started building roads in that direction, he'd recognize the threat for what it was and plop down a settlement as a preemptive measure.
So I start building more on the 6-pasture, which doesn't net me much at first either. For some reason, we haven't seen a single six rolled all game. But finally statistics took notice and tried to correct the situation. Suddenly, bam! I roll a six. I have both a city and a settlement on that pasture by this point, so I score three sheep. Bam! Andrew rolls another six! Three more sheep. Bam! I roll yet ANOTHER six! (Robert, who has exclusive control of the other 6-hex but who watched Andrew block it off with the robber two turns before this all started, grumbles heavily.) I know a streak when I see one, so I trade in all that excess mutton for a wheat and an ore, then upgrade my settlement on that hex to a second city. Sure enough, I see yet two more sixes rolled by Andrew and Robert and bask in my bountiful flock...
And that's when Diana, who's been paying attention to all the sheep I (and others) have been getting, deploys her Monopoly development card. And suddenly my entire hand -- nine sheep -- is gone. As are Andrew's four (he had a settlement on the same hex) and Robert's two. Diana now has nearly 20 sheep, and she's had control of the sheep harbor for several turns now. At a 2-to-1 trade ratio, she's got enough to upgrade one of her settlements AND nab a development card. She won a turn later.
The lesson being: Sheep happens.
All but one of the forest hexes had been placed such that one settlement could claim all three... and this was within four road-lengths of the lumber port. So I had my strategy right off the bat. I couldn't risk placing my first two settlements on a port (only get two resources) and a nothing-but-forest spot (very limited opening hand), so I claimed the port (9-clay, 10-mountain) and made my second settlement on an excellent spot at the edge of the same forest cluster (9-clay, 5-forest, 6-pasture). I figured I wouldn't have any trouble building two roads in to the center.
My mistake. The dice were being unusually uncooperative in rolling fives, and the robber had my forest paralyzed the one time it did come up in the first six or seven rounds. So I'm left with a lumber port and nothing to ship out of it. By the time I did start getting lumber, Robert had built a road right through the spot I wanted. With no apparent intent to settle it, mind you, but if I built a settlement there, it would cut his Longest Road venture in half, so I knew the instant I started building roads in that direction, he'd recognize the threat for what it was and plop down a settlement as a preemptive measure.
So I start building more on the 6-pasture, which doesn't net me much at first either. For some reason, we haven't seen a single six rolled all game. But finally statistics took notice and tried to correct the situation. Suddenly, bam! I roll a six. I have both a city and a settlement on that pasture by this point, so I score three sheep. Bam! Andrew rolls another six! Three more sheep. Bam! I roll yet ANOTHER six! (Robert, who has exclusive control of the other 6-hex but who watched Andrew block it off with the robber two turns before this all started, grumbles heavily.) I know a streak when I see one, so I trade in all that excess mutton for a wheat and an ore, then upgrade my settlement on that hex to a second city. Sure enough, I see yet two more sixes rolled by Andrew and Robert and bask in my bountiful flock...
And that's when Diana, who's been paying attention to all the sheep I (and others) have been getting, deploys her Monopoly development card. And suddenly my entire hand -- nine sheep -- is gone. As are Andrew's four (he had a settlement on the same hex) and Robert's two. Diana now has nearly 20 sheep, and she's had control of the sheep harbor for several turns now. At a 2-to-1 trade ratio, she's got enough to upgrade one of her settlements AND nab a development card. She won a turn later.
The lesson being: Sheep happens.
