Forest Escape, 13 Points

Analysis:

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Donec hendrerit enim sit amet arcu ultrices mattis. Aenean ullamcorper sem eu sem luctus iaculis. Suspendisse ullamcorper felis at nulla fringilla suscipit. Pellentesque rhoncus rutrum fermentum. Phasellus nec nisl vulputate enim tempus feugiat nec sed ante. Maecenas at iaculis sem. Aliquam sed pulvinar urna. Ut dapibus massa non nunc gravida mollis rhoncus nibh faucibus. Vestibulum feugiat auctor purus, in pretium neque feugiat sit amet. Etiam turpis ipsum, facilisis at tempus nec, luctus sit amet elit. Ut vel nulla arcu, vel blandit turpis. Pellentesque gravida libero sapien, vestibulum lobortis magna. Duis in augue tellus. Integer et turpis a urna vestibulum posuere. Proin neque arcu, rutrum vitae dapibus a, adipiscing ut nisi. Sed pharetra consectetur urna, sed ullamcorper nunc ultricies in. Aliquam pulvinar, diam ut adipiscing ultricies, mi velit pharetra eros, non tempus eros turpis sed tellus. Phasellus sit amet massa ligula.

Golden Circle XL, 13 Points

41, 79, 66 :: red, blue, orange

amit is red

we are blue

*

moving on nicely, blue dominating the middle overs. nice placements of settlements enabled blue to get an uprgade at every roll of an 8.

red crept in nicely towards the 35th over to level the game with blue.

and won it in the end by a brilliant stroke of luck.. 3 sicpunkts.

we have had a very abrupt end to this game. red wins and the unnamed player slips down 7 points.

Spiral, 13 pointer > A Beacon in the Land of Catan

118, 73, 78 :: red, blue, orange

we are blue.

and we bring you coverage from the familiar island of Spiral.

We have had a historic game here. Let this account this game be thoroughly written and may it reverberate for a long long time.

We all know of the phenomenon of winning which pods on winning and the cycle it generates. This is not very apparent when you are winning because people tend to have a good time when they win, and not ask "what have i done to deserve this?"

We all know that sadly, losing also pods on losing and the cycle it generates. This cycle is very apparent and gives rise to things like Murphy's Laws, nothing positive comes out of it, except the fact that this cycle eventually breaks, and all the while we ask "what have i done to deserve this?"

Why this game is remarkable is that it is devoid of either of the cycles to a large extent. Moreover this game celebrates the triumph of determination over luck.

red, blue and orange, all had more or less the same start, but as the game progressed, it was clearly tilting in orange's favor. the rolls his numbers, timing, all was favoring orange. The settlements on 8 could never be blocked and 8 rolled like crazy. lets look at the frequencies of the main numbers:

5> 4 times
6> 7 times
7> 7 times
8> 9 times
9> 5 times

this is, of course, one tight slap in the face of probability and mathematics.

nothing much is to be said about red's play, he was foolish to abandon magic numbers in his planning, and paid heavily in the end.

the other players had all reasons to feel sad for orange marching on so easily. but somehow we werent deterred in our determination to build on, not just to survive but to thrive.

and without any drama, without any epic moves, we were rewarded in the end.

the unnamedplayer lights a beacon in the heart of darkness, and gains 10 points, moving on to ......................................??????????????????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

what have we here ravi, the scorecard is making a mistake!!! the unnamed player clearly got 10 points for this game but the score added only 1. this is interesting. we shall check after a logout/login.

if the mistake remains, this is most unfortunate. over to you harsha.

Forest Escape, 13 points

112, 81, 96 :: red, blue, orange

we are blue.

what a game we have had here ravi, the outcome changing in the last couple minutes, swinging this way and that..

it started of well for blue, and the dice rolled many sevens, blue was off to a better start than the others. red was always looking dangerous, because of the numbers he was opening up.. no weak numbers on his region, almost unfair one might say.

nothing much to be said about orange, who foolishly went for that spot for his second initial settlement (look at map) should have taken a spot near its first settlement, there were good numbers and we know that strategy helps in making the longest road in forest escape. red and blue both knew this and played according to this strategy locking orange to only a few tiles. must have been a very boring game for orange.

red always had the longest road and was thus always in the lead. blue had a monopol, but the right time didnt come to open it and wreck havoc, blue waited too long and coupled with another idea, lost the game in the end.

blue went in for the longest road by making boats in the bottom left corner. this is a crafty technique, but a bit too risky, opening up the monopol at the right time blue had enough cards to do this and take the longest road but the numbers betrayed blue. 2 and 3 opened followed by 11.

"if only" this strategy wouldnt have been in play and blue had diverted south from the 5-8 settlemtent the game would have been probably his.

probably, who can say? for this is catan.

the unnamed player loses 9 points and slips down to 73.

************************
we are glad to bring to you coverage of this season, late though it is. one blog post shall be dedicated entirely to the analysis of the lack of analysis for many, many games. but thats it for now, in this post, ravi, its good to be back.

Spiral, 10 points

Spiral, 13 points-

Spiral, 13 Points

this game deserves no analysis. it was totally favoring blue, a fact which is evident from the picture. take a look.

red couldnt do anything, neither could orange. barely they had the time to upgrade and think about moving on when luck was blowing blue's sails, catapulting him to an easy victory.

totally unfair rolls of the dice, blue wins by a huge margin, gains many points, and the unnamed players slips to 58.

Spiral, 13 points

56, -6, 14 :: red, blue, orange

we are red

*

we have witnessed another very textbook game here ravi, no particular highlights in this one..

red played entirely without any thought to the development cards, so did the other players, ...however one point to note here is that this may be by far, the best play we have seen by a bot.

perhaps bots are naturally (?) good at predictable maps (with magic numbers and plenty of resources.)

as the point extends further, maybe ravi, your style and unnamed player's style of play better suits open maps with lots of resources, and is very bot like?

thats a grim connection, if it is, what do you think?

the unnamed player moves on to 69.

Forest Escape, 13 points OR Breakfast in the Woodland Dale

41, ~10, ~-40 :: red, ~blue, ~orange

we are red

its is morning and we are here to report on this warm-up first game of the day. the clouds are in the sky ravi occasional sunshine, weather couldn't be more perfect.

and what a good board is. the toss will not matter much, for everyone will get good positions to start with. its what numbers you open up that will determine the outcome of the game. right now, it looks perfectly balanced.

*

a good game we have witnessed here, no thrills, just textbook play and a very predictable and satisfying end.

red wins the game, thats all that i will say.

unnamed player gains 15 points and jumps on to 56, gaining the green tab once more, lets hope he doesnt lose it again.

over to you harsha.

Spiral, 13 points

150, 52, 30 :: ORANGE, RED BLUE

we are red.

*

well that seemed real quick! orange wins in the end, he did seem like a formidable player, with 150 points, the spirit of the game was on his side.

red held on to the longest road for the longest time, but orange had many more magic numbers, which eventually helped him in the end as he easily snatched away the card and the 2 points that come with it, ending on 15 points, which is very commendable indeed.

we could have finished the game in our turn "if only" proper numbers would have rolled, but this is catan, and dreams are made and shattered here, ravi, at a pace that makes las vegas pale.

the unnamed player slips down many points, to 41 and loses the green tab.

"drink, the devil... takes care of the rest."

Spiral, 13 points

34, 6, 56 :: red, blue, orange we are red okay so we have a slow pitch here today, red starts off with not so promising initial settlements. lets see how it goes.

*

woha! what a whooper of a turn played by red, sweeping the board clean in the last turn, out of nowhere!!

the game was dominated by blue(, till the last five seconds.. ) blue was on top, totally in many rounds, cruising smoothly, sniffing the victory.

too much of our bets were on just one number: 5 and we werent let down, neither were we benefited from it much. what changed the game was development cards. the road cards helped take the long road in the last turn and the largest army in the turn before that. one sicpunkt and the solid points made it to the total of 13.

a timely victory for the unnamed player, he moves on to 52 and gets the green tab in just 5 games of this month, what do you think of that, ravi?

Spiral, 13 points

32, 36, 94 :: red, white, orange we are red

*

orange plays a stunner of an innings! literally took the game away. did things at the right time, and was favored by the luck because, or in spite of that, in the initial overs of the game, helping orange take a comfortable lead, after which there was no changing it.

white played a real weak innings, not being decisive, and thoroughly deserves the minus 15 points it got. white missed the 3:1 post on the west side (pacific) and orange was able to do something in the game.

the unnamed player loses this one as well, but gains a couple of points. +34 now. will keep this one short, over to you harsha.

Forest Escape, 13 points

46, 16, 26 :: red, blue, orange

we are orange

*

a splendid game we have had, early in the morning, early in this season. woodland dale is where we were again, to watch the unnamedplayer and two very talkative opponents.

red wins the game in the end, which is rather surprising ravi, as he had a lot of connection problems and had the bot play its turns for about 20% of the game, more towards the initial power play overs.

the bot apparently did some good work, circling around the 8, which won red the game in the end.

although we may say red got lucky, for there were a couple of messages on rolls of 8 "there are not enough wood cards in the bank" which may prove disastrous, not to mention the effect it can have on the players tempo.

blue played a little weak towards the end, focusing more on talking rather than playing.

we played consistently, some nice numbers opening up initially would have helped, but it wasnt the case, and to be fair, it wasnt the case for anyone.

the development cards didnt play much a role here, although we had a monopol and we know how devastating they can be in a game like this ravi, the timing couldnt be achieved.

all in all a good brotherly game, nobody blocked anyone out of reason and there were no mini-races for the largest army or the longest road.

the unnamed player loses the game but gains six points, to move on to 32.

Forest Escape, 13 points

we are facing some technical difficulties in bringing you the picture of this game.

we shall try to do our best with words.

initially, the other players didnt show much experience in placing the settlements, and we played by the textbook, and opened up good resource after good resource, doing just the right things at the right time, type of play that results after hundreds of matches, the unnamed player marched on, with a whooper of a win the prodigal son has returned, reclaiming his title on the woodland dale.

moving up +24, what a terrific start to the season we're having ravi.

Spiral, 13 points

-1, 0, -17 :: red, blue, orange we are blue okay so righto! we have the first match of the season today.. the unnamed player is sure to start with a bang, after the wonderful end to the last season. lets see how this one goes ravi. *

well, res wins this one, which was predictable, as he had the best numbers to start with, and luck helped him with a few rolls of seven.

it can be concluded that the one who rolls many sevens is almost as powerful as the one who holds the ritter, what do you think about that, ravi?

well, all in all a good enough game we had. blue warmed up a bit, ready for more exciting games in the coming few days.

unnamed player remains unmoved in this game. no points gained, no points lost.