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Who's the more foolish? The fool or fool that plays after the fool?
United States
DURHAM
North Carolina
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May 10th:
Mike was held up in an interminable meeting, so it was 3 of us for Settlers. The twist here was that we were using the Catan Event deck - 36 cards with each combination of 2 dice, with some occasional events to go along with the resource gathering, like Earthquake (everyone breaks a road and must fix it before building any more) or Robber Flees (Robber returns to the desert). Perhaps controversially, I started on neither 6 nor 8, liking some of the combinations on other numbers. The other two did not make such a move, both on the 8 rock and each once on the two 6s.
We pulled out the Event deck for two reasons. One, I have had it kicking around for a couple of years "always meaning to give it a try" and two, to head off the insane lucky run of dice rolls and that feeling that 8 has been rolled 5 times without a single 6. So it was perhaps ironic that the game started off with a string of 6, 7 and 8. Tom and Rick filled their hands with bounty. I traded a card on my first turn for the resource I needed for a development card and I stole one. That was my resource card input for the first few turns (luckily the card I got was Road Building so I at least had something on the board).
Of course with the event deck at some point this run ended and the other numbers got a look-in. Tom built the first city, I was not too far behind with a settlement on the 6 brick, then Rick got his building going - he was building roads though. Both built down to the 8 sheep, Rick claiming Longest Road as he did so. I claimed a spot on the 6 wheat/9 wood and a 9 netted me the resources for my first city. Rick built all 5 settlements before his first city - the lull in 8s was long after that first flurry.
Toward the end of the first run through the deck, building was picking up pace. The 9 right before New Year was particularly sweet for me, netting me 3 rock, 3 wood and no one else got anything - that turn I built a city and another settlement. I was ahead, but Rick was close behind.
With the new deck, the vagaries of the distribution came to the fore again - an 8 got my opponents lots of good stuff and Rick was at 8 points. An early 9 got me to 9 points though and the end of game was close. An Earthquake complicated things a little and I was wondering if I would make my final move (Rick now at 9 points too) when a final 9 meant there was no doubt. I had 10 points with 4 cities and 2 settlements, a card free victory.
Me: 10 points
Tom: 7 points
Rick: 9 points
This was an unusual Settlers game in several ways: no one got a single Knight card (I drew only Road Building and 2 free resources; I don't think anyone else even took a card!). Part of the reason for that was that the rock came in waves, so it was a choice between a city or a card - well, I picked city every time. Another reason was after that flurry of 6-7-8 at the beginning, not a single Robber 7 was revealed. So no one was well motivated to make the Robber move.
We played this game in 50 minutes with set up and take down. Settlers is one of those games that is usually lunchable but sometimes the end game gets drawn out and it overstays its welcome. That is usually a 4 player phenomenon and 3 players, with a little more room for growth, is the quicker of the two. This one felt very bountiful somehow. That comes with early cities and plentiful wood and brick. Despite my umpteen plays, it is still a game I come back to once in a while. I wouldn't be surprised if we played it again very soon (especially as Mike missed out this week - big Settlers fan is Mike).
The Event deck was mixed. It was a little disassociating and because it was just turning over a card rather than rolling, it was oddly difficult to keep track of who's turn it was (embarrassing since it was only 3 player). The Events themselves were more of a pain to keep on top of rather than game changing. Most of the effects are relatively minor and it was again a little hard to remember to actually look for an event and apply it - several times we realized mid-turn there had been an event that turn. But I do appreciate the smoothing of the probability curve, so we'll at least use that part of the deck again, I think.
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