St. Petersburg 5 Player Expansion

If there is one game that I don't seem to be able to figure out, it's St. Petersburg. I'm not sure why, but the strategy doesn't seem as clear to me as the ones for most of the games that I play. Since I haven't devoted the time necessary to overcome my deficit in understanding, I tend to shy away from participating when this title is called out. Steve wanted to try out the 5 person expansion, however, so I joined, him, Kat, Bob, and Ray.

The expansion introduces some slightly different rules to accomodate the 5 players and a few new cards. Examples include putting out 10 green cards for the first round of play, having a circular piece that awards two VP at the start of each round, and the 9 cost New Farmer which produces 3 rubles and 1 VP per green phase.

The hardest part of St Petersburg is all the little decisions that you have to make. Is it worth it to bury that blue card so you'll have a chance at buying a high cost orange card next round? The whole game is one big series of questions on what to buy and when to buy it.

I actually hung in there pretty well for most of this one. I got a few green, blue, and orange cards giving me VP each round and set up a pretty good money engine with green cards. I was only able to obtain 5 different aristocrats, however, which sealed my fate. Both Steve and Bob ended up shooting past me as the end of game bonus kicked in. I believe that Bob said it was his first time to win.

Shogun - First Play

It's been awhile since I made an entry because I haven't been to a game night in the last three weeks. Fortunately, Ed and I were able to make the one at Ray's on Saturday, and our first action was Shogun. Steve had just purchased it and was eager to play. He, Dee, and Ben joined Ed and I.

I had read about the Shogun's combat mechanic, but this was my first experience with the combat tower, which Ed promptly christened The Slide of Pain. I have to say that I like it. It's quick, and it's easy to figure out. Most of all, though, it's fun.

The game involves a lot of indepth thinking, which makes it good for players who like strategy. Having even one person who doesn't make decisions quickly, however, can slow the game down to sluglike proportions. I guess, however, that the same can be said for any one that requires a lot of thought.

While Shogun has the feel of Eurogame with combat, the metagame in my single experience devolved into Risk-like maneuvering for alliances. In fact, the whole game seemed to resemble Risk quite a bit. When we first set up the board, jokes were going around the table about how many bonus armies did you get for controlling the whole continent and who was going to get Australia.

Overall, I enjoyed my first experience with the game even if it did run a bit long. Ed claims that he won because he accomplished his goal of capturing and controlling Bitch'n (actually Bitchu, but who wants to quibble). The actual points leader was Dee, who came in two ahead of me and one ahead of Steve. I was knocked out of contention by a random attack from Ben, who was no where near having a chance to win and who later admitted to not having a clue what he was doing. Playing with him was like playing with a random chance element thrown in.

I need to play more times to get a better sense of how well I like Shogun, but my first impression was pretty positive. From a strategy standpoint, we debated a bit at the beginning whether it was better to control a region or have a bunch of territories spread out. After playing, I would lean toward controlling a region; it's a big advantage to be able to build and tax territories that you know cannot be attacked.

Settlers of Catan Development Card Strategy

The concept for the Development Card Strategy is to ignore wood and brick completely when you are placing your initial settlements. Instead, you want, in order, Ore, Wheat, and Sheep. Cities and Development Cards are your friends.

To achieve 10 victory points, most of the time you'll want to:

• Establish one settlement in addition to your starting 2. You'll need to trade for the Wood and Brick that you need or use Year of Plenty, Monopoly, or Road Building to help yourself out.


• Turn all three settlements into cities. This should be the easiest part of the strategy considering how much Ore and Wheat you'll be producing.


• Purchase large amounts of Development Cards. You should be a shoo-in for Largest Army. Usually, the last 2 points come from bonus points given to you by the Development Cards.

I played 25 games against the computer and tried each time to follow the Development Card Strategy. See this post for more information on the setup. My results and observations are below:

1. I won 16/25 games (64%). While I tried to keep my expectations neutral, I did not think that this strategy was this potent. After playing all 25 games, however, I've changed my mind; this one is definitely playable, and I'll be trying it out when I play over the board games. I also feel that this winning percentage would hold up decently well if I played more games.
2. It's definitely better to be in the 3rd or 4th position (79%) rather than in the first or second (45%).
3. The data certainly seems to suggest that the more chances that you have of hitting one of your resources on any given dice roll, the greater your chance of winning the game. By adding up each resources chance out of 30 (eliminating the 6 chances to roll 7), the smallest number that I obtained was 15 and the highest 22. My winning percentage went up as I the higher the number, and the conclusion seems logical. However, I do not believe that I've played anywhere near enough games to be able to show causation, and I feel that, were I to run enough tests, the quality of resources becomes as important as the quantity.
4. My winning percentage was dreadful for those games when I had less than 5/30 chance of hitting either wheat or ore - 3/11 (27%).
5. I tend to try to avoid loading up on one particular number, especially 6 or 8. For example, If I've already placed first initial settlement next to an 8 ore, I'm loath to place my next one adjacent to an 8 wheat. I'm not sure that this has a large effect on winning percentage. In one game, I noted that 8's did not come up early, and the resulting lack of development may have cost me the game. In other games, however, doubling up had little impact. I think that it's more psychological for me; I'd rather get a small quantity each turn than get lots of resources on a few turns. I hate watching my opponents draw cards while I sit there.
6. It's hard for your opponents to block you in completely when you only need one additional settlement, and it is possible to win with only 2.
7. In only one of my games was I unable to draw the final bonus card that I needed. Regardless of what edition you're using, the percentages of various Development Cards stay approximately the same - 56% for Soldiers; 24% for either Road Building, Year of Plenty, or Monopoly; and 20% for a Victory Point. Since you're drawing a lot of cards, it's likely that you're going to get what you need. The key is to make the best use of the cards that you don't necessarily need.
8. The hardest decision when playing this strategy seems to be determining when to buy a card and when to wait to buy a city. The earlier that you can get cities the better, but you simply cannot wait to buy development cards. You're going to need soldiers to keep the robber off you, and the other, non-VP cards come in handy too. If I'm close to having enough for a city, I'll usually hold out. If I've already bought a couple of cards and have a soldier in waiting, I'll definitely try to save up. Basically, cities trump cards, but cards are important too.
9. The other hard decision is when to expand. If you're in a situation where your opponents can completely cut off your expansion, you need to make sure that you put down a road as soon as possible. Other than that, cities and cards generally take precedence since your initial settlement are probably placed in much better locations than your new one will be.

Summary of 25 games played using the Development Card Strategy:

1. 3rd Player. Initial placement 8 ore, 9 ore, 11 ore, 3 wheat, 10 sheep, 4 brick. Lost. Obviously, only two chances in 30 to get wheat is not enough for this strategy, and I struggled for wheat the whole game.
2. 3rd Player. Initial placement 3 ore, 8 ore, 3 wheat, 8 wheat, 5 sheep, 10 wood. Won. Resource allocation was good as far as percentages went - 7/30 ore, 7/30 wheat, 4/30 sheep. Unfortunately, production was based really heavily on 3's and 8's. These did not occur early, stunting my development. I was barely able to pull the game out.
3. 3rd Player. Initial placement 10 ore, 11 ore, 6 wheat, 9 wheat, 5 sheep, 9 sheep. Won. My production totalled 22, equal to the highest out of all 25 games. Ore was a little lighter than I would have liked, but excess sheep and wheat made up for it. I easily won despite not being able to place a 3rd settlement due to being blocked.
4. 4th Player. Initial placement 4 ore, 8 ore, 6 wheat, 11 wheat, 3 sheep x2. Won. I got perfect resource distribution, and won easily with largest army, 6 points for my cities, and 2 bonus points.
5. 4th Player. Initial placement 6 ore, 6 wheat, 11 wheat, 3 sheep, 5 sheep, 9 sheep. Won. I was heavily invested in 6's, and that number came up a lot early. The win was easy with longest road, 6 points from cities, and 2 bonus points.
6. 1st Player. Initial placement 2 ore, 9 ore, 11 ore, 6 wheat, 6 sheep, 12 sheep. Won. Ore was a little light with only 7/30, but I won with the longest road, 6 points from cities, and 2 bonus points.
7. 4th Player. Initial placement 2 ore, 6 ore, 3 wheat, 6 wheat, 9 sheep, 11 brick. Won. Easy victory with largest army, 6 points from cities, and 2 bonus.
8. 2nd Player. Initial placement 4 ore, 8 wheat, 11 wheat, 3 sheep, 5 sheep, 10 sheep. Lost. Lack of ore KILLED me.
9. 3rd Player. Initial placement 4 ore, 11 ore, 5 wheat, 8 wheat, 4 sheep, 3 brick. Won. Easy victory with largest army, 6 points from cities, and 2 bonus points.
10. 4th Player. Initial placement 9 ore, 9 wheat, 5 sheep, 10 sheep, 10 sheep, 2 brick. Lost despite placing a city on my first turn. Struggled for ore and wheat the whole game.
11. 1st Player. Initial placement 2 ore, 9 wheat, 5 sheep, 9 sheep, 2 brick. Lost. I was on the low end of overall resources with only 18, and I had only 1/30 chance of getting ore. Needless to say, I got toasted.
12. 4th Player. Initial placement 3 ore, 9 ore x2, 6 wheat, 10 wheat, 2 sheep. Won. Getting sheep was a challenge, but a deficiency with that particular resource didn't keep me from winning with largest army, 6 points from cities, and 3 bonus.
13. 1st Player. Initial placement 6 ore, 11 ore, 4 wheat, 10 wheat, 3 sheep, 9 brick. Lost. I had 9 points and couldn't draw one last point from the development card deck; I had tons of soldiers.
14. 1st Player. Initial placement 4 ore, 9 ore, 11 wheat, 6 sheep, 12 brick. Won. This one was close due to the fact that my total initial resources were only 15. I finished with largest army, 6 points from cities, and 2 bonus.
15. 1st Player. Initial placement 6 ore x2, 11 ore, 5 wheat, 11 sheep, 12 wood. Lost. I struggled for resources in this one. Getting ore was dependent on a single 6, which drew the robber often, and only the single 5 gave me wheat.
16. 3rd Player. Initial placement 4 ore, 9 ore, 6 wheat, 5 sheep, 11 sheep x2. Won. I had plenty of ore, wheat, and sheep, which led to an easy victory with largest army, 5 points for 2 cities and a settlement, longest road, and 2 bonus points.
17. 3rd Player. Initial placement 5 ore, 4 wheat, 8 wheat, 11 wood, 6 brick. Won. Despite my best efforts to play a Development Card strategy, the best placements for ore and wheat gave me brick and wood, so this one played more like an expansion strategy. I finished with longest road, largest army, 2 cities, 2 settlements, and 1 bonus point.
18. 4th Player. Initial placement 4 ore, 3 wheat, 8 sheep, 5 sheep, 11 sheep. Lost. This strategy is not viable with such low quantities of ore and wheat.
19. 1st Player. Initial placement 6 ore, 2 wheat, 9 sheep, 9 sheep, 10 sheep, 5 wood. Lost. I struggled with wheat, having only 1/30 chance to get it. Still, I would have won next turn.
20. 2nd Player. Initial placement 5 ore, 11 ore, 10 wheat x2, 6 sheep, 8 sheep, 3 wood. Won. I cruised to victory with plenty of resources. I had 8 points for 4 cities and 2 bonus.
21. 1st Player. Initial placement 3 ore, 5 wheat, 10 wheat x2, 8 sheep, 11 sheep. Lost. I didn't have nearly enough ore!
22. 3rd Player. Initial placement 4 ore, 5 ore, 8 wheat, 12 wheat, 3 sheep, 9 sheep. Won. This one was easy because of the near perfect distribution of resources - 7/30 ore, 6/30 wheat, 6/30 sheep. I finished with largest army, 6 points for cities, and 2 bonus.
23. 2nd Player. Initial placement 3 ore, 6 ore, 6 wheat, 12 wheat, 9 sheep, 11 wood. Won. I had good resources again, very close to last game. I finished with longest road, 6 points from cities, and 2 bonus.
24. 3rd Player. Initial placement 8 ore, 5 wheat, 10 wheat x2, 9 sheep, 4 brick. Won. I had a ton of resources, which made for an easy game. I finished with longest road, 6 points from cities, and 2 bonus.
25. 1st Player. Initial placement 8 ore, 8 wheat, 3 wheat, 4 sheep, 4 wood, 3 wood. Won. I had plenty of ore and wheat due to 8's coming up a lot. I finished with largest army and 8 points for cities.

Age of Mythology

The second game that we played at game night, with the same crew - Dee, Ed, and Joe, was Age of Mythology. Though Ed and I had gone over the rules previously, it was our first time to actually play.

There was a slight misunderstanding with the rules at the beginning; I thought that you could only harvest resources if you had a peasant present, so I produced two houses at the beginning. I was a bit ticked off when the rule was clarified.

Playing Greek, I ended up attacking Ed, Norse, in the first round. The other Greek player, Joe, followed up with another attack on his turn, and Ed's army was decimated. Dee, the other Norse player, attacked me a couple of times putting a big hit on my army. After he used a god power to destroy my woodshop, I declared all out war on him.

There are many games where players have to make a decision about who to attack. My thinking is that, if you build up a reputation for being vindictive, it will give your opponents pause about choosing to pick on you. Whereas attacking Ed at the end of the game might have won the game for me, instead I kicked Dee even after he was down. Was this the right move? I don't know.

Dee turned his focus to buildings and economy while I rebuilt my military might. Between Joe and I, we were able to decimate his forces, and I personally destroyed 3 of his buildings. Going into the last turn, it was obvious that the player with the largest army was going to win. Dee and Joe didn't have a shot, but Dee was able to get his revenge by attacking me. His raid of my resources killed one of my soldiers and eliminated my ability to recruit two others. Ed got the largest army with 13 compared to my 12.

The detriment to Age of Mythology is the length of time it takes. Most of the popular games today run about an hour a contest; I didn't time our time for Age, but it had to have been at least 2.5 hours.

Still, it is fun to play. Like Ed says, all the resource allocation games that we play lack a combat element. This one doesn't. In fact, I absolutely love the combat! It has a very rock/paper/scissors feel to it as you try to guess what your opponent is going to choose. I kept going back to the Princess Bride - "but you know that I know that you know that I know..."

A quick funny side note: the Norse Frost Giant seems to be one of the strongest units in the game. He attacks normally with 7 dice, and, on this night, usually used more like 10 or 12. In five contests, it was defeated each time without rolling a single 6.

Overall, this is a game that I want to add to my collection and play again.

Race for the Galaxy

At the latest game night, I played Race for the Galaxy with Dee, Ed, and Joe, and my winning streak was snapped with authority.

I started out following a very focused strategy of playing only worlds that gave me either a produce power or a consume power. I had 7 cards played and was getting my engine going when Dee ended the game. The points produced by his 12 cards easily dwarfed mine.

The first game or Race that I played, I won by getting huge points from producing and consuming, and I keep trying to go back to that strategy. Obviously, you win by getting the most points, and playing cards gets you points. Next time, I'm going to try optimizing VP production better.

3 Strategies in Settlers of Catan

I have identified three strategies to use while playing Settlers of Catan:

1. Development Card Strategy - Focus on Ore, Wheat, and Sheep, and buy lots of development cards.
2. Port Strategy - Settle a 2-1 port and concentrate on that resource.
3. Expansion Strategy - Expand as far and as fast as possible. Focus on Wood, Brick, Wheat, and Sheep.

My plan is to play 100 games against 3 computer opponents (1 Neutral Expert, 1 Aggressive Advanced, and 1 Neutral Advanced). For the first 25 games, I'll play Strategy 1, regardless of what the board looks like. For the second 25, I'll play Strategy 2; for the third, strategy 3. For the last 25 games, I'll play whichever strategy seems to fit the board best.

I'll write a post describing the results of each 25-game segment of my test. Let's see what I can learn.

MAGDAR!

Ed and I wanted to try some new, quick games, so I went to Other Realms and picked a couple up. For our first play, we went with Magdar.

Overall, I had a lot of fun yelling MAGDAR! Other than that, there's not much to get excited about. The game seems to involve way too much luck based on random die rolls and no real strategy. There are some tactical considerations regarding which boulders to mine, but there's no chance to use them in any meaningful way because the game ends too quickly.

Ed and I started out even with 8 gems and 1 mithril apiece. He got a bit to greedy, and I was able to take out a 16 point gem while establishing one of my dwarfs mining a boulder behind his guy. I added 16 points and a mithril while he added another 8 that counted.

I can't recommend the game as great fun or something that makes you think. The only real plus is that it doesn't completely suck, and it takes only 10 to 20 minutes to play with a fairly short set up time. I guess it has value as something people can play on a game night while waiting for others to finish.

Stone Age - 3 Player

Ed was busy trying out St Petersburg while I really wanted to get in at least one game of Stone Age. Since Steve had just finished playing a round with 3 other players and wanted to move on to another game, I was only able to corral two other players, Eve and Josh.

Three player has slightly different rules than the four player version - out of food field, the mating hut, and the tool hut, only two can be occupied and once a resource has two players occupying it, it is full. Other than that, and the fact that each player gets more turns because there is one less person fighting for cards and huts, the game plays similar.

I followed what is becoming my favorite Stone Age strategy:

• Get as many Tribespeople as is prudent. I've never tried the starvation strategy, instead I try to get only as many as I can support. I ended the game with 9.
• I try to keep my permanent food production within 2 or 3 of the number of Tribespeople that I have. The number gets skewed a bit at the start of the game since I start with 5 tribesmen and no food. Fortunately, I also start with 12 food, which keeps things stable until I'm able to increase my production. I added 2 food production before I added my first new Tribesperson.
• I cherry-picked the cards that I wanted and only paid more than two resources for one late in the game. By that time, I had 6 different symbols and was willing to pay whatever it took to get the extra 13 VPs that the 7th symbol would provide. My opponents were a bit inexperienced and allowed me to take whatever cards I wanted with very little opposition.
• I'm rapidly losing my love of tools. I ended the game with only 2.
• Whenever possible, I put all my resource gatherers on one task instead of spreading them around. Without a lot of tools, luck plays too high a role otherwise. After one round of rolling two dice for gold and getting snake eyes, I abandoned the one or two on a resource tactic unless I was forced into it. Note: an obvious exception to this is food. With one guy and one tool, you're guaranteed at least one food and could get as many as three. By the same token, if I only absolutely need one wood and I have a tool available, I feel reasonably comfortable devoting only one or two tribespeople to the task.
• Buy huts early and often.

I ended up with 154 pts on the track, good for second place before bonuses were counted. Unfortunately for them, my opponents did not understand the true value of the cards. After adding up bonuses, I had 303pts compared to Eve's 218.

I swear that I will post game reports of games that I lose as well, but I've won 6 straight since deciding to start this blog.

Agricola - 2nd Game

Ed had also been reading up on Agricola on Boardgamegeek.com and jumped at the chance to play it at game night. Dustin and Kwan, both experienced players, and Josh joined us.

Since playing for the first time last week, I had done a little research myself and convinced the other players that we should draft cards instead of passing them out randomly. I always loved drafting in Magic tournaments and figured that the mechanic would be fun here too. I was right. Something about it adds an extra element for me. I highly recommend it.

The first rule of drafting in Agricola, obviously, is to grab any Z cards that come your way. I ended up with Game Designer, allowing me to covert one each of a clay, wood, stone, and reed into two food and a bonus point at any time. Some important non-Z cards that I snagged were Slaughterhouse (one food every time an opponent slaughters animals), Woodcutter (gives me one extra wood anytime one of my farmers gets wood), and the Clay Deposit (action square that gives 5 clay. If other players use it, they have to give me a food. If I use it, I can choose to take 2 bonus points instead).

I really meandered through the first part of the game, and, just past the halfway point, thought that I didn't have a chance to win. Then things started to come together. I was the first to get my 3rd farmer and the first to get my fourth. Finally having figured out the farming mechanic, I sowed three fields, which gave me grain and vegetables for the end turns. I also was able to fence in a large chunk of my area and get some livestock.

In the end, I think that the Game Designer is what won it for me. I used it's ability 6 times, giving me 12 food and 6 VPs. I got an additional 4 points from the Clay Deposit. Overall, more than 25% of my total was bonus points, and I won with 39. The nearest competitor was Dustin with 30.

Once again, it seems like getting a powerful card and using it well is the key to winning the game. Of course, it also seems like getting extra people as soon as possible is a major factor as well.

So, after two times playing and winning both, I'm pretty ambivalent towards the game. If a group is getting together and needs a fourth or fifth player, I'll join in (especially if they've already set up the board), but I don't think that I'll ever crave me some Agricola action.

Race for the Galaxy

Ed and I went to the club game night at Ray's place last Saturday night. Our first contest of the evening was Race for the Galaxy. Ed had read a lot about it on board game geek and wanted to try it out. Dee agreed to teach it to us, and Josh, who had played before, joined us as well.

It took a turn or two to figure out what was happening with the different phases, but, by the end of the game, I felt like I was an old pro. The path to victory became pretty clear: get a lot of cards and then play the ones that get you points and more cards. I apparently got a pretty good starting hand and lucky early draws because I was able to play a lot of cards that produced goods.

My early strategy was to produce and then consume/trade, giving me a few points and tons of cards. A couple of the other players made the mistake of producing on turns when I had picked consume, which helped me out tons. With a good engine going, I switched to consume/2x VP, and ended up winning with 43. Dee was a close second with 41.

After playing Agricola, Ed wanted to play Race again. Dustin and Kwan joined us for their first time to play the game.

This game was much slower for me than the last time. I had a hard time getting my engine going, and, since that's the only strategy I knew at the time, it hampered me quite a bit. It was also slow because all of us were inexperienced players. For example, in the first round, every single one of us picked explore.

Being as it was their first time to play, Dustin and Kwan seemed to focus on playing as many cards as possible, regardless of value, making the game end sooner than I think it would have normally. I was never able to get my produce/consume engine going and ended the game with only two VP chips. I thought that my, at that point, four-game win streak was in jeopardy.

In the end, though, the two first time players hadn't collected any VP chips and had played a lot of cards that didn't have a lot of value. Ed had 6 VP chips but had screwed himself early in the game by misreading a card that he spent his whole hand to play. Thus, he ended up playing only 6 or 7 cards the entire game. I had only played 9 cards, but most of them were at least worth 2 VP each. I won again with only 21 points.

I was unsure whether I liked the game or not after the first play. I grew on me the second time, as I had a bit more understanding of the game mechanics. I like that it plays fast - 30 to 45 minutes seems to be a max for this game so far - making it perfect for the start of game night or a nice distraction while waiting for someone to finish up at another table.

I haven't come up with any in depth strategies yet - I'll need to play a lot more for that - but I do have a few tips:

• In my limited playing experience, it seems that the winner will finish with somewhere between 20 and 50 total VPs. This total is relatively low, so every point counts. Make sure that every card you play has value, ie has a way to get you either cards, goods, VPs, or a combination of all three. Don't discount the value of playing a world that gives you 4 or 5 VPs even if it doesn't do much for you otherwise; those extra points may just win you the game.


• Keep a constant eye on how many cards your opponents have played. When they get close to ending the game, maximize the points that you can get in your final turns.


• Set up a produce/consume engine. Cards that give you a card and a victory point for consumed goods in phase IV are extremely valuable. Combine these cards with cards that produce a good of the same type. Use the 5 extra card explore to get the right cards in your hand.

That's all I have for now. I need to play it a lot more! Hopefully, after Christmas, I'll add it to my collections.

Ed and the Story of Gaming

I've invited a friend of mine to add his voice to the blog. The plan at the moment is for him to contribute about once a week. His first post is below:

Hello, my name is Ed. I share Brian's passion for gaming. Brian asked me if I'd like to contribute to his blog on board gaming. I, like him(well, because of him, really) have noticed that board gaming seems pretty under-represented on the endless waves of information and hearsay that is the internet. Brian has boldly bound forward in providing this blog as a way to share his experiences in this much-maligned realm of gaming. I shall accompany him on this journey. I'll be the Sam to his Frodo.

With introductions out of the way, let me start my inaugural entry with a subject that is very close to my heart: a thing I call the"story" of the game. Roger Ebert be damned, I DO believe gaming is the next great medium for storytelling. Most people look towards video gaming specifically as that medium, but I believe all modern gaming, from Magic: The Gathering, to Dungeons & Dragons, are part ofthis evolution of storytelling. Included amongst those historic titles, I would include games like Axis & Allies, and Settlers ofCatan.

I believe a very careful balance of game and story needs to exist to make a game truly outstanding. Having too much of one and too little of the other creates an experience that is forgetful, fun but fleeting. The right mixture of the two, however, is magic.

How this ties into board gaming is this: I believe board games need to examine this balance and take it more seriously. I mentioned Settlers of Catan earlier. I believe part of the reason why this game often times stands out as the most commercially successful of the "geekboard games" is because it is not only incredibly playable, but in between the dice rolls and the sheep cards lies a tale of making it in a strange new land. The wheeling and dealing with your fellow settlers, the plowing of roads into what is hopefully prosperity, the sheer desolation of society when no one can spare a block of stone…these stories and more are told in every game of Settlers of Catan, whether you're aware of them or not. And, whether you're aware of it or not, this is a large part of why Catan is so enjoyable.

I look at some of the other big games in my little slice of the boardgaming community, and I question the existence of this game/story balance in many of them. Where's the story in Agricola? You and your"spouse" are building a farm. That's it. Acquire? There are plenty of pretty colors, and sure, there are some stories to be had in the rise and fall of certain numbers…but it's all just that. Numbers. Honestly, I love Stone Age almost as much as Brian does…but, and I've joked about this in the games I've played…where is the savagery? It's STONE AGE…prehistoric man! Where are the wrestling matches with saber-toothed tigers? The hurling of crudely-made spears at woolly mammoths? The virgin sacrifices to pagan gods? The primitive, savage, harsh world of the Stone Age…and it's about as civil as St. Petersburg and Puerto Rico(two other games that, incidentially, could use a good shot of adrenaline, as well).

Now, I know what you're thinking…Ed is one of "those guys" who only equates gaming fun with bloodshed. Not true. Race for the Galaxy is one of the most fun games I've played in recent memory, and the military might of your settled worlds never lays a finger on another player. Though I did just kid about St. Petersburg, the game does have a certain thematic integrity to it that makes things feel authentic and interesting. And let's not forget the very game that kicked off this rant, Settlers of Catan. No virgin sacrifices there.

So, in closing, I just want to express my hope that a game comes along, either in development or already out there on the shelves, waiting to be played by me, that draws me in, not just through dice and cards, but through imagery and drama. These are the experiences I cherish the most, unmatched by book, by film, or by music. These are the games that make me happy and proud to be a gamer.

Settlers of Catan - General Strategy

The last post covered strategy for the placement phase in Settlers of Catan . This one offers up some general strategies for the game:

• Do not discount how important it is to get off to a quick start. If you can place a third settlement significantly faster than your opponents, you gain the potential for more resources, helping you to outpace your foes even more. Your best bet is to carefully place your initial settlements and roads in optimal positions as I referred to in my last post.


• If wood and brick look to be scarce, consider a card strategy instead. Forget the two entirely and load up on wheat, sheep, and ore. Use the Road Building card to create a space for a new settlement. Then you just have to trade for one brick and one wood to build it. You should easily get largest army, be able to make all three settlements into cities, and get two victory points directly from your cards to get you to 10.


• I played with a friend recently who loves to cut people off by building roads. If you really want to annoy one of your opponents, this is the way to do it. On the other hand, if you want to win, it's an epic fail. Both you and the foe that you are annoying won't have a chance to win. He'll not be able to build anywhere, and you'll devote too many resources to roads. Meanwhile, one of the other players will pretty much cruise to victory. It's not bad to strategically block opponents occasionally, but I wouldn't advise making it your primary strategy.

Settlers of Catan - Initial Phase Observations

I've been playing Settlers of Catan often lately. Here are some of my thoughts on strategy.

It seems to me that the game can easily be won or lost in the set up phase. Here are some of my observations:

• The first thing that jumped out at me, obviously, was the probability of each number being rolled. Fortunately, the game board does a lot of the work for you on this one. Each hex has dots representing the number of times out of the 36 possible combinations that that number will come up. For example, a 6 will occur 5 times out of 36 (1 and 5, 5 and 1, 2 and 4, 4 and 2, and 3 and 3). Thus 5 dots appear on the hexes with the number 6. The higher the combined number of dots at the intersection, the better. 10, 11, and 12 are all high totals.


• The second consideration regarding where to place your settlement is what resources you'll be getting. Do you want to make sure that, with your two settlements, you have access to each of the 5 resources or do you want to load up on some and trade? I've tried each of these strategies, and they both seem to work.


• How many different numbers pay you resources? I find that I like to try to get as many different numbers as possible on my initial setup rather than duplicating. Ideally, if you don't count the rarely seen 2 and 12, I'd like to get 6 our of the remaining 8 numbers. This strategy minimizes the luck component because you're collecting resources on almost every turn. Also, be wary about starting with multiple settlements grouped around the same hex. This situation tends to attract the robber, which can seriously hamper your production early.


• Don't forget that you get starting resources based on the last settlement that you place. Since wood and brick are so valuable early, if you place the second one next to these two resources, it helps.


• Is it better to go for a port or an intersection that gives you three resources? You're giving up a lot for that port. To begin with, it's usually the second settlement that you place, meaning that you're only getting only two resources instead of three to start. More importantly, though, you're giving up a lot of opportunities to get extra resources. That's one less number that you have available than your opponents. I find that it's only really worth it if you can max out on that particular resource by having at least 3 chances to get it.


• Once you've placed your settlements, you have the equally important choice of which direction to lay out the road. For this decision, you need to think about where your opponents are likely to play and try to give yourself multiple options. If your foes cut off both your roads from the start, it will be difficult, if not impossible, for you to recover.

Stone Age

Prior to Saturday night, I had played Stone Age a total of three times and had not won once. Despite this losing streak, and I must admit that winning a game and enjoying a game are often much too synonymous for me, I found that it was rapidly rising up the list of my favorite games.

I'm trying to figure it out why it is so much fun for me. Perhaps it is partly due to Ed's insistance on shouting out "they're entering the mating hut" whenever he creates a new meeple. I like the game play. It seems fast and doesn't drag. I like the tool mechanism for smoothing out luck in rolls, and I like the fact that you can completely screw your opponent by filling up a resource that is desperately needed. Overall, it's just fun.

With Dee, Josh, and Matt as my adversaries, I was finally able to win my fourth time playing the game. My major mistakes in during my losing streak were:

• Liking tools too much. It's great to get 3-5 of them, but I was ending up with 10. Making them less of a priority helped a lot.


• I have a tendency in resource games to try to spend the first part of the game establishing my engine and the last part of the game acquiring points. This doesn't seem to work in Stone Age. You need to be converting resources into points as early as possible.


• Under-emphasizing or over-emphasizing the cards. My first time to play, I pretty much ignored the cards. After losing badly, I routinely bought cards for 3 and 4 resources for the next couple of games. I learned to take what was given to you. If a good card is there for limited resources or a great card is there that is worth more resources, I take it. If not, I let it go and spend my resources elsewhere.


• Way overvaluing the card that gives all players bonus resources based on your die roll. I love these cards. During my losing streak, I'd go out of my way to get one of these. I finally figured out that, even though rolling a 5 or 6 worked great for me, it was also helping out all my opponents. I stopped overpaying for these and instead rejoiced when the player to my right chose to take one.
• Taking what was given to me instead of forcing a specific strategy. In the game that I won, Dee was obviously pursueing a card strategy, and he ended up with over 100 points in bonuses at the end. However, by taking cards above all else, he allowed me to increase my farming and my tribe really easily. I ended up taking the best of what he was allowing to slip to me.

Agricola

Last Saturday night was my first chance to play Agricola, a resource gathering and utilization game that is often compared to Puerto Rico.

Since two of my opponents were Dee and Steve, both considered to be among the toughest competitors in the group, and it was my first time to play, I didn't think that I had much of a shot at winning. My main goal was to learn the mechanics and see how I liked it. Imagine my surprise when I ended up winning even though there were major rules, such as the fact that multiple players can use the actions on the overturned cards and how plowing/sowing worked, that I didn't understand until the very end.

On turn 2, I was able to play a card called Straw Hut (I believe that was the name, couldn't find it in the compendium) that allowed me to have an extra family member for the rest of the game. The advantage given to me by this inexpensive card considering that my opponents weren't able to add extra farmers for several more turns was tremendous. Using the scorecard as a checklist while possessing such a huge benefit, I was able to muddle along and win with 40 total points.

It's hard to offer strategy tips for the first time you play a game. The only thing I would offer up would be to make sure you get good cards. Seriously though, I think that, if I play it again, I'd like to try the drafting method of distributing the cards. Anything you can do to cut down on luck is good with me. Besides, I always loved drafting in Magic tournaments; the process would add an extra dimension to the game for me.

My overall impression of the game was neutral. I'd have to play it again a few times before I could give you a good assessment. It seemed complicated, but not overly so. Setup seemed a bit onerous as all four players had multiple tasks to accomplish just to get the board on the table.

Blogging Board Games

I've had an interest in board games for as long as I can remember. Perhaps my enthusiasm comes from the fact that I was a lot younger than my siblings, and they would never let me play with them when I was a child. In fact, until moving to Hawaii, I never found people who shared my passion for games that are heavily strategy oriented.

Last March, I joined the Oahu Board Gamers Meetup Group, and I've been playing regularly since then. Walking into the first meeting, I figured that, being a supposed aficionado, I would be familiar with most of what they played. After all, I liked Axis and Allies, and my wife had bought me Settlers of Catan for Christmas.

Boy, was I wrong! I had never even heard of these games. They had titles like Cosmic Encounter, Puerto Rico, and Power Grid. I swear that, playing at least three games a night, it took me three meetings before I played the same one twice. A whole new world of gaming has been opened up for me.

I thought that it might be interesting to start a blog to share my thoughts on this new world. My posts will most typically consist of game reports where I try to analyze what led me to win or lose, but I will also post reviews and links to other gaming sites. I hope that my humble writing helps improve your knowledge of tactics and strategy.

Game on!