Catan Tourney
Hey, I have a livejournal. Neat. It gives me a place to recap my experience in the finals of a Catan national qualifying tournament. The details are exactly as how I remember them, which somewhat corresponds to how they actually happened.
Becky and I grabbed dinner and headed over to Eureka*, the store that was hosting the tournament. After milling around for a while, I trekked over to the hotel with some store employees and waited for the other players. The tournament was to be 4 rounds, each player getting a chance to go in each turn order. The winner was off to the nationals at Origins in Columbus, Ohio.
Eureka is a fantastic puzzle and game store in Coolidge Corner that I wandered into a few years ago. Becky dragged me out of a couple hours later or else I would have been there all night. This really hasn’t changed in time, other than Becky is a bit more willing to spend lots of time there too, albeit not as much as me. It features an enthusiastic owner, a playful atmosphere, and a higher concentration of lime green than the EPA recommends. They host weekly game nights at a local Marriot in which I was introduced to many of the games I play (*cradles Dominion*) and the people I play with.
Mark was first to arrive, the only player who had beaten me in the qualifiers.* Emiliano came next. I hadn’t played Settlers against him, but I did play an abbreviated a game of Citadels between games, and he seems to be a highly analytical player. Given that he was the only play to win his first two qualifiers and finished first overall, he certainly was a threat. John showed up about 15 minutes after, which was good, since we didn’t have a backup plan for if we were missing someone. John finished 4th in the preliminaries and hadn’t played any of the top three players. We discussed how the suggested plan of rotating turn order each round wouldn’t be entirely fair, given different setups gave advantages to different start positions, but decided eliminating luck in Catan, a dice rolling game, wasn’t worth the effort.
The qualifiers occurred three months ago, three games to determine the top four seeds. The first game was the most agonizingly painful games I have ever played of anything. There was one a player, a young teen, who had apparently memorized the tournament rules and wished them enacted word for word. For example, the rules stated that the dealer was to hand out resources unless a consensus is formed for everyone to just take their own. So he asked each player in turn and the judges what they would prefer. During the game he took forever to make moves, not bothering to plan a strategy until his turn approached, and repeatedly trying to trade for cards that no one had. Eventually I just stop trying to deal with him, as it wasn’t worth the aggravation. This cutoff would have worked except Devon, a Eureka employee who was playing, was willing to engage him every single time. So we would get these long drawn out negotiations, as they were both determined to not just make trades that helped them, but to win the deals. Sometimes it even took a couple of minutes for them to admit what cards they wanted or had. “Anyone want to trade?” “What do you got?” “ What do you want?” It was like Becky and I deciding on a place for dinner. Devon also bought a ton of development cards; It was the first game I had seen the development stack run out. Devon looked at all his cards every turn. Towards the end it seemed like he was checking if he had won 5 or 6 times each round, as if the numbers changed each time. The game took so long that I ended up setting up and starting my 2nd game just so we wouldn’t be there all night. To make matters worse beyond the halfway point I had thought I didn’t have a chance to win, so I went for the longest road over exponential growth. When the game lasted far longer than I expected there was little I could do. If it wasn’t a tourney game I would likely thrown the game to the person not driving me crazy. Not something I like to do, but it was a non-violent approach, so there’s that. As a tournament game I needed it go as long as possible, since who knows when that 8th point would make a difference*. After 2:30 hours or so or play, Mark finally put it out of its misery.
The tie-breakers worked as follow. First considered was the amount of games won. If that was tied then it would go to points, it if I finished with 6, 9, and 10 points in three games my total would be 25. If it was still tied after that percentage of points won would be considered. So if the scores were 10, 9, 6 in a game, I would have 10 of the 25 points, or 40. This was actually the 2nd Catan tournament that Eureka hosted. The first time I finished with 27 points, one short of what was needed to advance.
A player at the 2nd table started off by saying it is Catan not rocket science, which ensured me this game would be more pleasant. It was a 3 player game and I got all the rolls early. It only took me 20 minutes or so, about the length of a couple rounds in the last game, to get to 9 points. The 10th point took a bit longer, but I won with relative ease. The other players, seeing the spectacle of the first game and respecting the fact that I hadn’t murdered anyone, thought I deserved my good fortune. I won game 3 handily as well. As it turns out, tiebreakers weren’t needed, as exactly four players had won 2 games.
Game I
So we rolled to see who would go first. Amongst the rolls were a twelve and a three, a sure sign that the probability gods weren’t on duty tonight. The order for game 1 was John, Mark, myself Emiliano. The board was well balanced, with no obvious superior starting spot. It was clear early on that no one here cared much about number balance as three players started on the same hex twice, myself on a wood 6, Mark on a 9 of ore, and Emiliano on a 10 of wood. Only John had two entirely different hexes, ones on opposite sides of the board containing less than impressive numbers. I focused my attention on Mark and Emiliano.
I got off to a slow start, in fact after round one I actually had fewer resources than I started the game with. Things picked soon though and I was able to buy a pair roads and settlements, one on a 3 for 1 port. For one of them, I produced 4 woods in quick succession, and dealt three wood to various players for the remaining 3 resources. I grabbed a development card in here as well, which turned out to be a victory point. I then built a city, but even though I now got 3 wood from a 6, the robber mostly stayed away from me. This was thanks to Mark having two cities on the aforementioned 9 and Emiliano completely surrounding his ten. The robber was a major detriment to them though at one point costing Mark 16 resources before it was moved and later preventing 10 woods from going to Emiliano.
I had cards I couldn’t use, so I went to the development pile again, and once again drew a victory point. Suddenly I was at 7 points. Only John was going for the longest road, the other two players had set up triangles, and he was only 5. All I had to do was build another settlement and build two connecting roads between my starting locations. I began to get excited and nervous. If I could win before anyone else noticed I was even close, I would be in great shape. Not only would I be up a game on the field, but I’d be well set to win any tiebreaker. I had a place to put the settlement, I just needed to get the rest of the resources. Suddenly, John, the one who I had discounted a bit, threw down two roads, and a settlement in the spot I was going to build on. I was now four roads short of taking the longest road and needing to find a new place for a settlement. It was a firm reminder that everyone here could play.
My dreams of a decisive win were dashed, but I still had time to regroup. John was at 7 points, but he had all 5 settlements out, and wasn’t in a position to build cities quickly. Emiliano had a nice set-up with 6 points on the table, but didn’t have any development cards to add to his threat. Mark was the biggest concern, as and had amassed a number of development cards along with his holdings showing, but his high concentration on few hexes left him susceptible to the robber and bad rolls. This actually worked to my advantage as the table saw his card stack and ignored my two hidden vps. I built roads off the end of my other settlement, and since John was focusing on buying cities, I was able to catch back up. Mark started to use his cards, but miscalculated a monopoly, only getting a solitary brick from it. I eventually got within a connecting road of taking the longest road. Mark got his 8th point, with one hidden card left when my turn came. I put down the road to get to 9, saying that I wanted to have a high score in case Mark went out. This wasn’t all together false, but of course I didn’t imply that I could win soon. Emiliano a couple of times counted my points as 7, so I might even have been able to trade for the winning resources.
I didn’t need to though as the dice gave me the four resources I needed by Emiliano’s turn. So the only question was would it get back to me again. I held my breath as Mark rattled the dice after his roll and pondered what to do. But he quickly turned them over to me for a meaningless roll as I took game 1 10-9-8-7
Game II
The Island was once again well balanced. The most interesting choice was by John now going 4th. With one placement he took the sheep port. He did not, however, start on any sheep land. He started near it, but ran the risk of anyone else grabbing it with their 2nd choice. The best looking spot 2nd spot for me was only one road away from my first settlement. I considered it, but with only one player left to choose, I hoped to get it as my third settlement. I was a little leery of having two settlements so close together, and figured even if it got taken by Mark, I could still go with my original plan of building towards the harbor. So I put the other settlement towards the middle, which was pretty wide open due to a desert location. This proved me my first of several critical mistakes this game as Mark not only took the spot I was eyeing, but he built his road towards my intended port. Things did work out for John, as the hex with 8/4 of sheep that he was eyeing remained available.
Mark and I fought to get a blocking road on the board, but since he was the first player I had little shot. He didn’t his first turn, but I lacked brick on mine. The only player with it was Mark, and he for some reason was reluctant to trade it to me, even though I assured him I was use it to box him out. John rolled a 7, and chose to rob Mark, but it was to no avail for me as he had 2 bricks and 2 woods by that time. Two rounds into the game and already one settlement was incapable of expansion.
I was able to double trade* for a couple of ore at least, and upgrade the stagnated settlement into a city. I then start building out from my other settlement. My city was on a 9 of wood which kept being rolled. With my consistent wood supply, I was able to add roads and a couple more settlements to get to 5 points. Meanwhile Mark was rolling along thanks to cities on wheat and ore hexes and enough settlements added to build cities on. His numbers were a bit hit or miss, but as the game went on, he reached the point of having a city worth of resources whenever a 5 was rolled. For John things were going less well. Despite being left alone, he barely received enough sheep for his needs let alone extra to trade for other ones. I chose to break off my roads to reach a better numbered settlement near Emiliano that he didn’t appear to be going after. This still extended my road to 6, allowing me to take the longest road from John. With that settlement placed I had nodded the game at 8 being Mark and I.
A double trade is not an official Catan term, at least not until I become World Champion and coin it. The basic premise is that players are less likely to give you a good deal if you already made one trade this round. After all if you can trade for two cards you need, chances are you will be able to do something special this turn. Thus, I never agree to one trade until I finish negotiating the second. In this case I had a wood and a sheep and needed two ore. I offered wood or sheep for ore and someone took me up on the wood portion. I didn’t say yes or no, I just tried to see if anyone else would do sheep for ore. After finding someone who would, I extend the two cards out, one to each player, completing the trades at the same time. If I completed the wood trade first, it is entirely possible the sheep deal would have been more expensive or not completed at all. I did these types of trades several times throughout the night to great effect.
It all went down from there. John quickly took back the road lead. There was nothing left to build in the center of the island, so I headed towards the only spot I could, one that had John’s roads leading to it as well. I built a road past it to make sure that even if John built a settlement first I could still get outside of it and continue to build. What I didn’t plan on was Mark playing a road building card and reaching my safety spot and immediately building a settlement there taking him to 9 points.
Now I was completely screwed. I had no ports, no ore production, no one willing to trade with me, no place to build settlement, and a road with too many forks to be longest. All I could do to trade any sets of four I accumulated for ore and try my luck at cards. The robber and poor rolls did extend the game a few turns as Mark struggled to finish things off. Sadly all I was able to do in that time was pick up a couple soldier cards, playing one. The other 2 players had limited end game success as well, so Mark eventually won. I ended up with 6 points, which meant it was highly unlikely I was going to win a tiebreaker. I needed to win another game.
Game III
Now first to place, I scoured the board, but wasn’t finding a great spot. I said this out loud, which resulted in utterances of surprise around the table. Ah, then I saw, a 9 ore, 6 wood, 5 wheat, spot right near a wood harbor. It would prove to be the best opening spot of the night by a significant margin. My 2nd buy came down to putting a 2nd piece on the 6 wood, or on a different 6 wood across the table. I ended up doubling up on the one 6, since the other one was too in danger of being trapped in. This resulted in the robber spending much of his time on that 6.
My plan was to try to get a settlement quickly on that harbor. With the 6 blocked though and minimal brick production, I wasn’t getting the resources to do it. What was being rolled, was once again, the nine in great abundance. Emiliano and John cursed at the dice and vowed to get some 9’s in the final game. After three straight 9’s were rolled along with a couple 5’s I was able to build a city. Another 9 and 5 put me in position to quickly add another one. In fact I had the cards to buy a third city before I even had the resources to put down a settlement to be upgraded. When the settlement came it was instantly made into a city. Now I would get 4 resources every time a 6 or 9 came up, though one of them, generally the 6, usually hosted the robber. I rooted for 7’s until realizing every time the robber would simply move to the 9. One turn it moved to the 9 on a 7 and back to the 6 on a robber. Still it didn’t hurt me too much, since the usually blocked 6 was rarely coming up, while the 9 continued to come up frequently. And when the 9 didn’t come through, the 12 took its place. At one point the 12 was rolled three consecutive times resulting in 6 ore for me. The odds of that are 1 in 46656. Understandably, Emiliano and John mostly traded among themselves, as a win by Mark or I would take them out of the running. Any time Mark or I agreed to an offer they would check if their counterpart wanted to match it. So I was pretty much on my own in acquiring resources I needed. I grabbed a development card resulting in a victory point. I then was able to build a 4th settlement, surrounding the 9 ore. Finally, I had found away to clear the 6 from the robber as I had made a different spot more dangerous. Now with some access to wood I could trade for resources I needed. I upgraded the new settlement to a city taking me 9 points. Emiliano got to 9 points too as did Mark on his turn. I had a lot of cards in my hand, but I had no place to build a city, and didn’t have the resources to build roads and a settlement. I tried to trade for a sheep to double up my chances, but in the end all my cards allowed me only to buy one development card and hope for the best.
Emiliano had 5 cards in his hand and said afterwards he wasn’t in position to get his tenth point. Mark had emptied his hand to build his last settlement to get to 9. So, perhaps I would have gotten another chance, but it still felt good to draw the university, my 10th victory point, on the river.
Game IV
With 2 wins I was in a commanding position to take the tourney. If someone won 2 of the first three games, no matter what else, the last game was going be awkward. For Mark it was simple, win and Columbus is assured. Any other outcome and I would be victorious. For Emiliano and John they were just playing out the string.
My strategy was simple. Do not let Mark win. Every robber was going to be put on him. I would make no trades with him, but trade liberally to the other players. After all a win by them is a win for me too. I wasn’t going to throw the game, and I still tried to win on my own, but I wasn’t going to put much effort into curtailing the non-contenders.
If you are hoping for a dramatic rendition of the last battle, I’m sorry it didn’t come to pass. Well, not that sorry. I started last and went for a road strategy, doubling up on wood (6 and 5) with one buy and brick (4 and 3) with the other, with limited Ore and Sheep and no wheat. I finally got some opening round rolls, and after a trade, built a settlement on my very first turn, doubling up on the wood 6 for the third time of the night. I was in the lead for a while, building roads and settlements, but John and Emiliano were eventually able to lap me. Mark never even got started. Between poor rolls, me aggressively stopping him, and a boxed in position, the game was never in doubt. All he was able to do was buy a couple settlements, ending the game with a mere 4 points. Even the numbers that helped him helped others more. I do think he made some mistakes. He made hardly any trades, and Catan is difficult to win all on your own. He also let the game get to him a bit, getting frustrated when John decided to block him with a soldier. Still, I don’t know that anyone would have been able to pull off a win in his situation.
I watched eagerly as Emiliano reached 9 points, but it was John who declared victory after placing a settlement and revealing two victory cards. In just over 3 hours*, or slightly longer than the first game of the qualifier had taken, I had won.
*Becky complained that she didn’t have enough time to finish her knitting.
Now, if I was trying the game certainly would have been different. I would have been less helpful in trades, more aggressive on getting the longest road, and would have tried to block the leaders instead of Mark who was never a threat. I don’t know that I would have won, I only ended up about 6 points, but it would have been closer. Mark certainly would have faired better as well.
A different Mark, a friend and Eureka employee, took pictures of the finalists and then approximately 70 million of just me (and the game box) at the hotel and back at the store. I will receive a round trip ticket to Columbus, admittance to Origins, possibly a hotel room, I’m not sure on that one, but I’m not too concerned (*waves to Lyzdon*), and entry into the Semi-finals of the national tourney. The winner there will receive a trip to Germany and the chance to play Catan in a Castle in Germany for the world championship. How cool would that be? There will be no more than 16 players in the semis, and the guy who won the first Eureka tourney said there was only 12 participants, so I have a decent chance. Stay tuned.