Catan commentege

Lest I forget...

Everytime I play Catan (or Endeavor, or a few other games) I forget everything I learned last time I played, especially from the mistakes I made.

Well, I've decided to make a concerted effort to provide myself with a log of my gaming mistakes so I can learn from them.

In my recent game of Catan (a week ago by now; I've had trouble getting Internet time), I made my biggest mistake in allowing my opponents to cirsumvent my, by choosing too early to focus on upgrading into what I call castles. Roads before castles, moron! *Hits head* Second, I always seem to forget about my 4:1 trade with the bank. Its a bad option, but at least it's an option, that is if I remember about it. Third, although I don't think it was a crippling choice, placing my starting settlements distant from the key resources of lumber and brink was an oversight. I could have done trading for the early on, but going back to my other mistakes I built castles before roads, which allowed other players time to cut me off.

It was actually a very close game, and a good time, but I would have leaped into the lead if I had not made these oversights. And I don't like making mistakes, win or lose.

In short:
1) Roads before castles!
2) Brick and wood!
3) Remember the 4:1 option!

Quick update on my STCCG so-called Transwarp game.
Well, I have been making semi-frequent "tweaks" for quite a while now, and I need to post the newest deck list. I just added a Klingon with both SECURITY and Honor, both very Klingon traits. As a compromise to TrekSense, I removed the two Kazon-related dilemmas I had had, and that gave me the wonderful opportunity for Conundrum and Temporal Loop, both improving the game significantly I think. Players want an opportunity to battle, it seems, and temporal quicks are an essential part of the Trek experience.
Not that that will make much sense to people other than I and a few others like me ... haha

While I am blogging about gaming, I thought I'd comment on something I thought of more overtly recently than before. I would consider Catan, Citadels, and Carcassone to together be a milestone for the modern gamer. Once aquainted with these three, they have acheived what I consider a important familiarity with the gaming culture. To be frank, I am basing this on my own experience, my own entry into the gaming culture I didn't realize existed. And in large part I can be forgiven, because as I've heard tabletop board gaming as it now stands is a fairly recent thing, ushered in by Catan itself. At least for the American crowd. There have been "gaming culture" elements for a very long time, but the Catan-generation is something distinct.
Oh, and I am still reading "Intimate Lies"