Golden Circle XL, 13 Points

Some games you play by the book and the game follows the good principles of probability and you get something beautiful.

Discovery, 15 Points

What a game Ravi, this is what you get when probability takes a vacation, as evident from the Battle for the Roads.

Blue placed the first settlement on top-right 8-9-4 next was my turn, and that placement always throws me off my initial strategies, you know its some wiseguy on the other side when you see a placement like that. By the rules, I should have taken a place on the same area, but I didnt, I put my money on the trusty old 6-5-9 at the bottom left waterfall. The game was set for Red to take great places and a good lead, probably finishing it off soon, but then Red, for his second settlement took the 6-5-3 at the upper right!

On questioning him about that in the game, he simply said it was lack of attention, but for other players, it was indeed divine intervention.

As the game progressed I was lagging behind pitifully. Those guys were around 10 when I was on 4, but returns of investments started to flow in and as the game was nearing the end, and it looked like Red will walk away easily things changed a bit.

Some out of form dice throws later, blue caught up for the longest road, and thus began the Battle of the Roads resulting in the abominations you see on the map. I had the ritters and was in a position to stop one player or the other as they made ships, but i took my chances and waited for them to lose steam hoping to buy some extra rounds, which inshallah did happen that way.

I didnt win this game, it was clear from the start that I wasnt going to, but wanted a close finish. As I reached 12 points, I thought.. "satisfactory performance" and a few negative points, not bad overall. At 13 I thought "not bad indeed!" and maybe nett zero change in points. And then I bought a development card, none other than a victory point. We know how loathsome it feels to get that as your first card in the game, but as the last card.. boy that is sweet!

Doughnut of Plenty, 13 Points

Every once a while there comes a game, starts like an ordinary game, and then some lucky throws of dice later a wind of hope blows, armies of chemicals march in your body, the tempo breaks into a song and the crescendo reaches the heavens and you write poetry with Catan. You get the strength to persevere a few bad weeks more. Thats the story of life, thats how we go on.

After having a bad form, and being busy with other things in life in general, I'm seeing the Green Tab for the first time in weeks.

It started with ordinary placements, orange getting the starting waterfall after 3 throws where orange and I rolled the same numbers. I went for the risky strategy, of getting the ex-bhatha resources, and would have disappointed you a little, Ravi.

Betting on un-intrusive players, the game started off well. The first three development cards were victory points, and a few recurring rolls of 8 after having built a settlement on a waterfall placed me ahead of others. On the table, points looked pretty much the same till the mid-point of the game.

And then it ended too soon. Thankfully, orange planned a longer game and didnt open his table cards. I managed to get the longest road, build a settlement and the biggest army, and opened 3 victory points, all in the last turn, getting a whopping 8 point finish.

Discovery, 15 Points

(Much has been said about many strategies of playing catan on this blog and way too many times have those posts been about bragging victories. This is one such post)

In the last few days we have had some amazing games ravi, with the unnamedplayer almost touching the Golden Tab three times, and then falling back a few ten points, and rising again, and falling again.

And it is fair to say that for this game, he entered the arena with only one goal: to win, and nothing else. and we have seen a victory, with me here ravi, unnamedplayer:

yes thank you, it was indeed very hard to lose those games in the last few days, coming so cost to the Golden Tab several times and not reaching it, yes quite painful, so for this game i started with only one thing to do: to win and i did not permit myself anything else.

the positions were good, the 5-6-9 on the bottom left has been my favorite spot recently and i was quite delighted indeed when it opened another waterfall with a 5 at the first placement, and for the other the 3-5-10 was available, so took that as well.

orange had some luck too, and played well and finished with many points on the board. i could have done some things differently and increased the margin of victory, but you can only do so much when your opponent has 4 victory points.

but i am quite happy with the way this game has turned out, and as only a few days remain of february 2011, and everything changes the next month and beyond, i'll try my best to finish in the 200 league. inshallah.

Surprise me! (A River Runs Through It), 15 Points

Seldom there is a game like this, maybe only once or twice in my life before.

Much has been said about strategies and insightful breakthroughs in the gameplay for catan over the years in this blog, and there is very little indeed that remains to be learnt.

This game is special for 2 reasons, 1. it got +30 points and 2. in the game i made 19 points on board.

The turn before i won, i could win but didnt. I wanted to see if winning with 15 points while the opponents are on 7 and 9 respectively is any different from winning with 18 or more with opponents on 8 and 10. I dont know how many points i would have gained if i closed the game the turn before, but it does seem like scoring higher makes a difference.

15 points, Surprise Me! (United States)

two images for this game, and two words about it. went second after the dice roll and placed a settlement on a good wood-brick spot. the others had reasonable spots as well, but both went for sheep, which in this game can be hard to get. its always either or with the sheep, meaning, either you go for it or you dont think about it at all. i decided to go without it, which thankfully worked. and how!

another risk i took was to have both spots with many same numbers, this can work very well if the numbers roll but can make you pull your hair out if the numbers dont roll. after starting the game, quickly upgraded both spots and took a wheat port, and more wheat spots, and after half way in the game it was cruise control.

red went for the longest road without thinking, he was battling for it right at 5-6 points, which one shouldnt do, its a fifteen pointer, means you must have the stamina for a longer innings. also, he had two soldiers and sacrificed the largest army strategy for the longest road, and boy it cost him because for me it was too easy in the second half of the game to trade wheat and make roads, while always having a good supply of wood and brick.

anyway, all's well that ends well, and could take this 15 pointer with ease and expertise. both these players were green tabs and i was in negative, so winning this by a good margin gave me 34 points. thats the maximum i remember scoring in one game. and we know such victories are paid in blood in this game of chance. and i tremble for my luck in the next few games..

Metros Ahoy, 13 points

this is the map on which the legend of the unnamed player created history. it was a fine monsoon morning in the capital city of gujarat, clouds in the sky and trees swaying in the slight breeze.. before we go into the analysis of the game, a note on the map and player selection:

metros ahoy all this month, and always hosting a game and never denying players a game whatever their rank.

so in the same spirit this game was hosted and players promptly joined, one guy green tab and the other no colour. i always hesitate, but principles are principles. started the game. one advantage with playing with people at rankings way lower than you is that there are good chances they are easy to beat.

rolled the highest number on the dice and had that superstition-backed feeling that i'm going to win this one. took a good position - 4-5-9 wheat-sheep-brick, and waited for the players selections. you can pretty much tell their skill with the first placements. they took reasonable spots, but blue selected sheep over stone and white put all its money on stone, taking the port and another all-stone settlement. i had good choice for the second settlement: if you get a wheat-sheep-brick first settlement with reasonable numbers there is a good chance that you will get a good stone-wood settlement, because they are many.

as the game started, it was easy to follow the flow and go by the book, and eventually get the road and the army and the settlements make up the golden thirteen.

the other player were making some predictable mistakes with the judgement of the road and not investing in development cards.. but thats a bonus you deserve.

the game was won without any fireworks, and this analysis might seem drab, but dear reader, keep in mind that when i started this game i was on 194, and had a (second) chance this month to breach the 200 mark, so each move my hand was trembling and my mind and my heart were hard to control. i could easily have made a wrong move.. and we know how little and apparently innocent just-one wrong moves may actually derail a good train on schedule. but that didnt happen. and with this victory, i reached 204 points.

i had to cool me down by taking a walk outside. but i wasnt actually walking, and my feet weren't touching the ground.