serpents & doves: Die Siedler von Catan

Settlers of Catan is a popular game. It is perhaps the unofficial official game of Prince of Peace MC. The game, like so many good table games, comes from Germany where it is known as Die Siedler von Catan. I always thought it would be fun to play in German and I saw a copy of it here in the Bienenberg student lounge. Tonight after dinner, I finally found some people to play.

The German version is a little different. The pieces are plastic, not wood and are modelled in 3-D to actually look like a village or a band of robbers. Instead of 18 individual ocean hexes, it has six pieces that lock together like a jigsaw puzzle to create the sea. This made it much easier to keep the hexes together. We played a little differently, starting with only one settlement instead of two, so the game took almost three hours to play.It started out very slowly with only one village collecting resources and, with no access to brick, I quickly fell behind. I was hoarding a Road Building card and had all I needed to build a new settlement when Marina beat me to it and cut me off from a promising wheat field. I thought all was lost. I had only one city and one road. I despaired of any victory. In the meantime, Sascha, playing for the first time, was surging to a commanding lead. His dominance of the brick manufacturing industry was paying off as he built village after village and was awarded the Longest Road card. I still had a handful of points when he reached nine, one point shy of total victory.
All he needed was one more settlement, but he would be denied by Daniel, who managed to build two more road segments and snatch the Longest Road card, 11 segments to Sascha's 10, reducing Sascha to 7 points. By now I had about six points and things were looking up. I still had no brick or wheat hexes but I had two cities producing an abundance of ore every time a four was rolled. I was able to trade for the essential commodities and build three pitiful villages on the coast--settlements that could work only one hex each instead of the normal three. They were lousy producers, but they provided victory points. Maybe if I could turn more settlements into cities...no, I'll still need at least one more settlement. And still no wheat.By now, Marina, who had been converting settlements into cities, Sascha and I were tied with 7 points. Daniel was 2 points behind with three settlements and the Longest Road card. Suddenly the game seemed within reach and a plan came together. If I could build two more road segments, I would have a road 11 segments long. It would not be long enough to create the longest road and I would have no more room to build. BUT, if I built a settlement at the end of that road, where it connected to Daniel's road, I would cut his road in half, giving myself 1 point for the new settlement and 2 points for the longest road. I would have the needed 10 (11 actually, since I had a point card) and victory would be mine! But could I pull off such a maneuver before someone else beat me to it? I would need 3 woods, 3 bricks, 1 sheep, and 1 wheat. I had no brick-producing or wheat-producing hexes.

The short answer is "Ja." Trading with the unsuspecting Germans, I acquired the needed resources to enact my plan in one fatal blow and beat them at their own game. It was a true come-from-behind victory as I was sure at the beginning that I would not fare well. My endgame was buoyed by the fact that I, and I alone, was producing a great deal of ore. I like to think that I upheld the honor of POPMC and dedicate this victory to my fellow Settlers players in the U.S. of A. Now wasn't that more exciting than some old soccer match?