Revisit the Settlers of Catan

A flashback

The Settlers of Catan is dynamic. You always have no clues who will win this time until the very end. This is one of the reasons I like it. Another reason is that this game brings me different type fun when I play with different friends. Also, the game settings and rules are easy. Everyone can get quite familiar with the settings and rules within 10 min. This merit makes the Settlers of Catan approachable.

This time I wanted to mention a game night between us and my friends. At a Friday night, we met David, Janus, Solomon, Charles, Frank and Charles' friend in my place. Most of them had not got involved in board games. So I felt it would be a good chance to introduce the Settlers of Catan.

Before Totof and I went over the rules, we saw Charles and David already constructed something with the settlements and roads. They said "we are building toilets".

We started playing the game. You saw each person had his/her own style. David likes to rob people. The way he robbed was creative. He asked Totof and Charles what they would give to him if they did not want to have a robber on their hex. Then he compared the responses and picked the better one. Got a free card (a bribe) from one party and robbed the other party. What a creative robber.

Charles was very calm. He computed outcomes right and got many good resources at hand. Solomon took every action carefully. He executed plans with good amount of contemplation. Frank was playing the game like a smart kid. You saw him to upgrade settlements as soon as possible in order to acquire resources faster. Janus played pleasantly. You would want to have Janus type player in your game. David expanded his territory with very computer science way. He used "Estrella" to build his kingdom. So you saw all his settlements were built with spiky roads.

During the game, David kept drinking beers. Everyone noticed that. How come? Because he asked for toilette super often. We made fun of him. He was easygoing. So he did not care about this type teasing.

Who won the game? It was me. As mentioned, the Settlers of Catan is dynamic. I was not winning in the first half. Totof and Charles looked promising in the first half. Then, through some dramatic robbings and monopolies, the winner positions got changed. Did not remember who helped me. But, I guessed some good drawings were quite in favor of me so that I won the game.