Sunday was the Settlers of Catan tournament. In 2007 I came 12th, last year I came 8th. I was hoping for a better result this time around.
First though, I managed to squeeze in a quick game of Galaxy Trucker before we were due to start. It’s a game I’ve played before, but not for a while – I’m going to have to make Jim dig his copy out next time we have a gathering of some description.
Settlers came and I didn’t do very well in the first game. It didn’t help that I got cut off from a build site I had built to (every painstakingly gathering up the resources) the turn before I had the chance to play the cards to build my second (not counting starting placement) settlement.
The most memorable game of the day saw me use a no more than one brick or wood as building material (I used lots of other resources though). When I did have brick and wood, it usually got traded away. I ended that game with three cities and sixteen development cards (one of which was Road Building, which is how I got the settlement without spending wood and brick on roads). That was one of the wins I’d managed to get.
I had a lot of close, tense games during the day, some of which didn’t end in time. I gather the day saw more time outs then any other OxCon. I don’t know why though.
Still, a game that times out gives you more tournament points then a loss, so it worked out relatively well for me.
I was also lucky enough not to be playing Markus (who has managed to win every year I’ve been and a number before that) or Declan (who had a pretty poor day).
So, I think it might have been more down to luck then skill that I managed to pull into third position (also known as second place discounting Markus).
I’ve got a lot to live up to next year though.