| The Settlers of Catan has been the flagship for | | | | new settlements around open grain and ore hexes, |
| German Style Designer Games for many reasons, | | | | or you will have a very difficult time trying to build |
| some of the main ones being its elegant simplicity | | | | cities later on in the game (which can be crucial for a |
| and its depth of strategy. Your choice of strategies | | | | win). |
| will influence your initial setup and overall game play. | | | | Optionally, with your increased settlement production, |
| The separation of strategies that are outlined in this | | | | you can build on a number of ports to get ore and |
| series is a bit artificial, but it is useful to understand | | | | wheat. |
| the concepts behind them. In practice, players will use | | | | With your increased road building capability, you |
| a combination of these strategies during gameplay. | | | | should build your roads to cut off other player's |
| This article, the second in this series, will discuss the | | | | expansion. This can help in denying Ore/Grain players |
| Wood-Brick Strategy. | | | | from acquiring enough building sites they need to win |
| The Wood-Brick Strategy is a strategy to get a lot | | | | the game. This leads into the next variant, which |
| of wood and brick early in the game, in order to build | | | | takes this to more of an extreme: |
| settlements and roads fast. | | | | The "Road Boy" variant works to build roads fast in |
| A wood/brick port is very useful in this strategy, as | | | | order to block off other players' expansion. This |
| finding a way to get ore/grain will be important to | | | | strategy concentrates on building roads first, rather |
| build cities for the middle to end game. | | | | than on production. Only when you are done blocking |
| Lots of people think this strategy is less effective on | | | | people off do you work on getting enough victory |
| a small or congested board, as you need room to | | | | points to win the game. This requires a lot of wood |
| grow. Actually, it can be more effective, as your | | | | and brick, so your first cities should be on these, |
| increased road building capability gives you the | | | | rather than ore. Trade aggressively for wood and |
| advantage in reaching those limited number of | | | | brick, before it's obvious you might be a threat. This |
| expansion spots first. An ore-grain player's worst | | | | is an interesting variant in that it violates my general |
| nightmare is playing on a congested board with one | | | | philosophy of building up production first. It could |
| or two wood-brick players. | | | | work better on smaller boards with less people, so |
| This strategy naturally lends itself to getting the | | | | you don't miss blocking anyone. In addition, it might |
| longest road. | | | | not work well in many Seafarers scenarios, as people |
| For this strategy, it is very important that you build | | | | could just build to islands. |