Golden Circle XL, !3 Points

gg, unlikely winner of the longest road, which helped in winning the game. very risky initial placements, going for the dubious development card strategy, which, this time, worked. now i can exhale.

Discovery, 13 Points

again, on the dark side of luck. tried to minimize the losses and successfully did so. please look at the numbers' roll. this new dice algorithm is turning out to be more on luck than skill.

if we cannot trust mathematics we are doomed to descend into anarchy.

Discovery, 15 Points

The most unfortunate thing has happened with the unnamed player in this game.

winning the toss, he went for the top right waterfall with the plan to make the longest road and the stone port. its the best strategy and often works.

the game had very few rolls of 9, a number very crucial for the unnamedplayer. luck did favor red by opening up an adjacent waterfall and soon he was picking 5-7 cards on the number 5.

the will to survive was thrashed by chronic bad moves for us and soon the game was lost to players with lower rankings. this is most unfortunate.

03 Doughnut of Plenty, 13 Points

what a stunner we have had here today ravi, what can i say about this game? i can do no justice with words, but i will try..

we lost the toss and started last, with the pressure to get spots that cover all resources.

it was quite impossible to do that in this map, and so we went for a 3:1 port and another decent spot. the only thing missing was brick and we know how important it is ravi. it can literally bring your game to a grinding halt and it will just refuse to move on.

as the game started, orange played with all wickedness in his heart and blocked both the chances we had for getting to the magic waterfalls. all seemed lost and the fans started to leave the stadium.

but the unnamedplayer retained his composure, as he stood there at the pitch, while wickets fell at the other end, only he kept his spartan reserve. it is not fear he felt in his heart, just restlessness. and a heightened sense of things.

he did the only thing he could do: upgrade and buy development cards. while the amateurs blocked each other at every roll of 7 the unnamed player bought development cards, occasionally trading stone for brick.

he got the 3 ritters and 2 sicpunkts, and luck did favor him with the road. this is most surprising.. what was orange doing? he had 4 roads with each settlement-cluster. he needed to build just one more, but he didnt think it was necessary and that the game was still on.

and the unnamedplayer leaped from the shadows with the ritter, built a settlement, revealed his library full of books and scrolls worthy of Gandalf's attention and his parliament of Guy Fawkes and the longest road in the empire, swooping 7 points in the final turn straight to victory.

Game 02: Golden Circle XL, 13 Points

Playing with all upper green tabs this was as quick as you want a game to get.

playing first, we took the best waterfall number on the map, and the other two were good spots as well. Statistically, white looked like it had the best spots and as the game progressed it was seen to be true.

Blue played with his mind somewhere else. Started in a mini-forest and the wood port was close by and a lot of 9s rolled in the game. he should have capitalized on that first but did something here and there.

we started to play by the development card strategy but as the game went on the longest road was taken by us, just because no one else was even thinking about it, and eventually bought a lot of development cards, only to finish the game with 4 unopened ritters and a road building card.

a good second game and thats all we have from the presentation area for you today. the unnamedplayer looks well set to pick up the momentum in the next games.

good luck to you ravi, please remember the double golden goal, we dudes need to outprove each other because thats just what we do.

Game 1: Spiral, 10 Points

We were last in placing the settlement, and this being a 10-pointer went for the magic numbers only.

Blue was always going to be a formidable opponent, coming from the League of the Golden Tabs. as the game started, blue did look favored by the Gaia of Catan, and quickly upgraded both the settlements. The unusual rolls of many 11s at the right time sure helped.

Then on, there was no looking back for blue, who promptly bought as many development cards as possible and eventually got the largest army and a couple of sicpunkts.

White played like this was a 15 pointer and missed out an opportunity to make the longest road which would have given it 2 points and a better score. This is most surprising, that white didnt have the longest road at the end of the game, after opening 2 road building cards. Perhaps he was more interested in what boots people wear.

Our game was fairly straight forward, you play to the best of your ability and wish for some luck to win. Only we didnt. No matter. Its a good start anyway.. +4 isnt too bad.

The start this is of 10 select games to be played in this last quarter of february with the goal to make an average of 8 points per game to reach the 200-point mark and the AsoBrain Top 200 list.

Failing and losing the will to do this is quite out of the question.

Discovery, 15 Points

we have seen an absolute stunner today here ravi, what is to be said about this game?

playing with a golden tab, there was initial minor fear of the opponent and we lost the toss sending a brief wave of despair before the match.

the first player took the bottom-left waterfall and the second player to my surprise also built the settlement there. the choice was simple: go for the upper-waterfall with brick and wood and the stone port north west or build both the settlements on the waterfall.

with the spirit of 'try anything once' and 'jump before you think', we took that.

the match began and there was a very good find of stone, which helped upgrade faster which helped make more points which helped reducing the opponents to mincemeat.

not only did the settlements block other players chances for wood or brick, they helped us easily take the longest road. the other players exchanged 4 grains for a wood and other such ridiculous deals.

the match went so smoothly for the unnamed player, thanks to his great planning that it was won on the settlements alone.. no development cards.. no large armies or sicpunkts.. even though it was a fifteen pointer, it lasted shorter than a 10 point spiral. the unnamed player gets a ton of points. and is looking good for the next match.

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postulate: take the north-east waterfall with both settlements whenever possible.

need observational data from 2 more games to prove this.

thats it from the presentation area.