On January 8th, Tim, Bob, Eric and myself got together for a Settlers of Catan game. This particular Settlers however was expansion game called Settlers of Catan: Cities and Knights. We picked our colors:
Tim - White
Bob- Orange
Eric - Red
Bruce - Blue
In this particular game, we have knights to hire for defense of Catan and commodities that are manufactured in cities in addition to our normal trade goods that we reap such as wheat, wood, stone, sheep and brick. The commodities are important for advancement to a level that allows for the building of a "metropolis" in a city. A metropolis gives you 2 extra victory points.
Also, there was the necessity of building city walls to protect oneself from marauding barbarians that would periodically attack the entire island of Catan and if you weren't careful could ransack your city and reduce it to a mere settlement.
Knights have been introduced into the game that allows one to "bully" your neighbor as well as help in the defense of Catan from barbarians. The person with the least amount of knights and lowest quality as well will usually suffer the wrath of the barbarians if they should attack. The person with the most and highest quality of knights gets a free victory card for being the "Defender of Catan" if all players together defeat the barbarians. So it pays to field the biggest and baddest army in the field.
After we all got our two settlements and one city placed on the map, the game slowly turned on the die rolls. In this game, a third die was added to the normal two dice that we normally use in Settlers. This third die is the "event" die. It has a black ship on three sides and a colored metropolis on the other three sides. If a colored metropolis is rolled then you may receive a "progress" card for that color. There are three different progress cards corresponding to their colors: Trade, Politics and Science. If a black ship comes up then a barbarian ship counter is moved closer to the island of Catan. It takes 6 turns before the barbarians arrive and pillage Catan. Unfortunately, everyone kept rolling the black ship and before long the barbarians raided Catan. Bob had the least amount of knights on the board and his city was not protected with walls and thus his city was sacked by the barbarians. Smoke from the burning ruin could be seen for miles!
As the game progressed Tim suddenly got way ahead in total points. Cities add 2 pts to your overall score. Settlements add 1 pt and any progress cards that have pts are added together. Finally, if you advance to level 4 in either politics, science or trade then you get to add a building to your city called a "metropolis". This adds an additional two points to your final score. I believe he had 11 points total and you need just 13 points to win.
Tim was suddenly the big man on the board with Bob close behind and Eric and myself taking up the rear. Slowly but surely I weaseled ahead by reaching level 4 on trade. I then upgraded two settlements to cities and suddenly I was in a position to win. However, Bob decided to make a crucial decision and forcibly break Tim's longest road (2 pts) which by default allowed me to have the longest road. This very act put me over the winner's circle and I have to say "thank you, Bob" because it was really his action that brought me victory.Tim came in second, with Bob third and Eric unfortunately last.
Overall, it was a great game and we all really enjoyed it. Some notable actions have to be highlighted. Bob was tenacious as ever with his knights. He did seem to suffer the most however, he lost 2 or 3 knights when everyone else lost none. He had one city sacked by the barbarians. He did however, have at one point, the largest army on the board and defeated the barbarians when they came a raiding. Thus, he received a special card called the "Defender of Catan" giving him one victory point.
Tim naturally seemed to be the victor right out of the gates but eventually lost it to more astute players later on. Eric as always was steady and sure and could have easily won where it not for the die rolls that did him no favors.
Well, after having played this game and winning at the very last moment, it must be said that it's "good to be the Lord"!
