Doughnut of Plenty, 13 points

Dear Reader, notice the first settlement ever on desert-lands.

Discovery, 13 Points

a very average game we have had, ravi.

winning the toss, the unnamedplayer wisely ignores the bottom left waterfall and takes the wood+brick on the top right, blue plays safe as well but red foolishly goes for the mirage.

and it wasnt a mirage in this game, red playing well, by the books, little or no negativity in the game, from all players, we have had a very fair game, and the unnamedplayer winning by the slightest of margins. gaining a few points, lets hope the bad spell is over.

Some Map, 10 Points

#$@!@$#!@!!!!

Big Gold Island, 13 points

we have seen the world champions on their worst day here today ravi, very very disappointed players out there.

the unnamed player played the worst innings of all.. what was he thinking? there were some excellent 8-9-5 spots on the map but winning the dice he went for the 6-9-3 waterfall, which in itself is not a bad move, just that by the time the second settlement was to be placed, all good positions had been take, forcing the unnamedplayer to play a negative strategy.. which would also have worked well enough, but today was just not the day.

red on the other hand played well, played with a cool head and had control over most of the game. luck favored red, but it was well deserved.

the unnamedplayer played really really bad.. he shouldnt have begun the game in the mood he was in, and for that mistake he has been well punished with a whooping -20.

Doughnut of Plenty, 13 points

a good game we have had here today ravi, the unnamed player was on his second most favorite map.

blue started off with humble numbers, and played really well, put himself in a very strong position and looked good to win towards the end.

white invested well in development cards.

the unnamedplayer never bought development cards... i think that if you buy a very early development card and it is a victory point, you are put off the entire strategy for the game, sadness creeps in and you lose faith in the cards.

looking at the map, one can see how strongly is the unnamedplayer placed and how well blue played with his poor numbers (the waterfall-6 really helped, and no 7s rolled)

all in all a good game, but victory matters little when you get six points for all the effort.

Discovery, 13 Points

a good game this was, catan owed a good game..

going back to the lands of Discovery, against a golden tab player with 200 points.

winning the toss, putting the first settlement on the 6-5-9 top right. thats a lesson i learnt a long time ago.. never trust the bottom left region.. it seems fair but is the precursor to a very locked game.

red foolishly fell in the trap, but not hard as blue had immense bad luck.

so the lessons of Discovery hold true, one does indeed have a better chance while going for the road and the stone ports, because the road does open hidden tiles and the stone is useful for upgrading, trading and development cards.

gaining 20 points, this game nullifies the damage caused by the last few games, and the unnamed player is on 110 at the moment.

over to you ravi.

Golden Circle XL, 13 Points

piss off game

Golden Circle XL, 13 Points

the most baqvas game of the year. worst sequence of numbers rolling on the dice and later the numbers favoring a donkey of a guy. very very disappointed in the game algorithm.

Donought of Plenty, 13 Points

a satisfying victory. a little crushing, a little thumping, a little luck and lots of strategy.

majja aavi

Marching into the Unknown, 15 Points

good game ravi, close finish, taking on two golden tabs.. we didnt win but make 14 points anyway :)

Gold Secret, 15 Points

a very unfair game by fair standards.

players blocking others for no good reason, luck favoring one guy beyond reason, lowest ever roll of 7s in a game, all the things that you want to go right for you are happening, but they arent happening to you.

Spiral, 15 Points

bloody frustrating good game

Doughnut of Plenty, 13 points

n-b-g

(not bad game)

Spiral, 15 Points

avcggi

(a very close good game indeed)

Fifth Element, 15 Points

gg

Doughnut of Plenty, 13 points

epomule/unnamedplayer/harryamsterdam :: 26, 51, -35 :: red, blue, orange

red wins the toss and takes the only waterfall number outside of the blocked waterfall regions

blue takes a 6-5-9 wood, brick, stone

orange takes very good positions, and looks best placed among the three.

***

we have just witnessed the absolute meaning of the phrase "running away with the game"

this is taking the art of thumping others to a whole new level.

after a very crucial first extension (at the lower right waterfall) the game followed the textbook, the unnamedplayer doing just the right things...

its these games which start so small and end so big that life's all about ravi, you never know when its your day, when its your game, and it happens when you least expect it, and when it does, you hardly believe your eyes.

we have had such a victory here, luck did not favor us, and nothing happened in the game that turned it around, or flipped it 180 degrees, just the small things.. all the small things going right, like with middle earth at the end of the third age.

the unnamedplayer gains 20 points and moves on to 71.

and that too on an evening, of one of the landmark days of life, after a very very jaded afternoon.

Big Gold Island, 10 Points

sniper/unnamedplayer/jun-jul-aug :: 4,46,-126 :: white red, blue

jun-jul-aug wins the toss and takes the only good waterfall number- 10.

sniper takes a good brick port with 6-9 brick.

the unnamed takes 6-5-9 sheep-grain-brick and 5-8 stone with 3:1 port.

and we are off! white has a heavy brick strategy, red has a mix strategy and blue seems to be able to find happiness in small things.

***

white's strategy does work in the end, but he never looked threatening. he finished the game at 9 points, which is a very good play. even blue reached 7, and owing to some bad throws of dice, we couldnt use the monopoly card well, and that delayed the win.

sniper gets a token +1 and the unnamed gets +5, moving on to FiftyOne.

thanks for being with us.

Forest Escape, 13 points

hello and welcome to the second match of the day, hours, miles and emotions apart.

cleaned/terryfic/unnamedplayer :: blue, white red :: 20,18,36

unnamedplayer wins the toss and selects from a poor choice of ports. but its good to be back in the woodland dale. more or less everyone has the same start.

white snatched the road card in a hurry, moves on to 5 points. red opens up a waterfall-8! the most awesome tile you can flip in the game and soon settles on it.

at drinks, blue has just snatched the road and jumped on 9 points, white falls on 6 and we are on 5.

and in the first over after drinks, the unnamed upgrades and builds a house moving on 7. and soon to 9, the road card shuffles between the other two, white and red can smell a gg now both on 12 points, the race is in the final lap..

ohhh and the road card is reclaimed by blue, and that leaves the unnamed with a comfortable and a well deserved victory, the captains shake hands and acknowledge a very good game indeed.

the unnamedplayer gains 10 points and moves on to 46.

Gold Secret, 15 points

welcome back to a new season of 'the settlers of catan'

we are here on a warm sunny winter afternoon for a match between :

stupa/travix/unnamedplayer :: red/blue/orange :: 115/16/8

travix won the toss and went in for the only 6-9-5 spot on the map, reluctantly the unnamedplayer takes a 6-9-11 for stone and sheep and stupa takes the most balanced spots covering most resources.

as the game begins, orange leaps up to make a very fast settlement and makes roads. remembering the forest escape strategy of making roads and opening tiles instead of hoarding cards for making a settlement in the next turn did favor orange. with no particularly good spots but all okay spots orange accelerates to a very early lead, reaching 6 points when the opponents together werent 6 points.

upgrading the brick-wood settlement first instead of the stone-sheep settlement in the hope of making more roads soon did offer a minor advantage.

none of the players went for the development cards, which is surprising.

quite a textbook game in the end, orange marched on at his pace, blue never looked threatening while red was comfortably in the economic region most of the times.

orange won with just the settlements, which is a mighty feat in a 15 point game, and had a couple of sicpunkts to grab the cake.

over to you harsha.