00:00:00:18 - 00:00:11:15 Unknown
This is a settlement. Most people would place this just about anywhere
but you. You would be much more interested in what a catan national champion would do.
00:00:13:22 - 00:00:31:20 Unknown
And if you ever get a chance to meet one, you usually only get to ask them
one question. Meet Mistergnome, a guitar player from Chicago, which apparently boasts an amazing
catan scene. He is an avid tournament player, and after playing really well in several tournaments,
finally hit his stride and finished the first place in the
U.S. national championship. 00:00:32:01 - 00:00:53:06
Unknown So how did he finally become the champion? Well,
Mistergnome has a secret Let's take a look at the game board for the final game of the championship.
Can you guess which color misnomers if you just read, you'd be wrong. Mr. Norm is blue
and has a grand total of ten points, thanks to largest army, longest road and a Victory
Point development card. 00:00:53:09 - 00:01:10:19
Unknown And if you asked Mr. Gnome why he won,
he will tell you that the biggest factor in his victory is like sort of the obvious
dude. He said the first thing he noticed was that there was only one good source of wheat,
the eighth. The other weeds on the board weren't even close. Mr. No. Second place, and he decided
to take the eight for 11 spots. 00:01:11:06 - 00:01:34:10
Unknown How do you think
he felt about that? It's not ideal numbers, but wheat is just that important. Sometimes
you have to sacrifice a lot to make sure you get it. And as the initial placements continued and
the options started to narrow, he decided to pick six for two for his second placements.
Which he seemed pretty happy about. It gave me plenty of water to go to my eight wheat and it
gave me brick and wood synergy on the floor. 00:01:34:21 - 00:01:58:02
Unknown This is all very interesting,
but can the decisions of a Catan national champion really be simplified it to just a
few sentences. I think it's time we ask him that once in a lifetime question.
In an average game of Catan What is your strategy for initial placements? What followed was the
most clear and straightforward advice I've ever heard about starting placements and he
broke it down like this. 00:01:59:00 - 00:02:17:09
Unknown If you can get on
all resources with your starting settlements, with those resources on the best possible numbers, this
often requires planning ahead and predicting where other individuals are going to place before you
get to place again. If you have to make a choice, go with a better ore and wheat spots and make sure
you do not get locked out of either of those. 00:02:17:17 - 00:02:44:14
Unknown If you can't do no
one place so that you can build towards the fifth resource and get on it by your third,
settlements always ensure that you're on a good source of wheat If you cannot do no one or to
make sure your first expansion, a.k.a. your third settlement, is on a useful port so that you can
trade for that resource, if you cannot do no one to or three, make sure your sovereign settlements
are on or wheat and sheep such that you can build cities and use development cards to gain the cards
you don't have by playing nights. 00:02:44:16 - 00:03:08:04
Unknown Monopoly and
you're planning. This is one hell of a flow chart, but he doesn't stop there. This guitar champion
was determined to drop some serious guitar knowledge that was going to change your world.
Or at least get you out of fourth place. Try to balance your resources well in terms
of probabilities. Wood is only useful if you have a brick to pair with it,
so it may not be worth trying to build two more wood settlements unless you have a port
or another way of getting brick. 00:03:08:06 - 00:03:25:15
Unknown If you're unbalanced
in some way to start, let's say having way more than wheat than ore or way more brick than wood,
then aim for your subsequent settlements to become more balanced. With more balanced,
you will seven out less often and you will be able to build more often. 70 out is when
a seven is rolled and you have seven or more cards in your hand and you have to return
half of them to the bank. 00:03:25:17 - 00:03:45:17
Unknown If you run into the situation,
you might also want to get more familiar with trading strategies like this. I'll trade you
a dad joke for a like. Ready? What is the best place to trade sheep in Catan? On Wall Street
Playing a four player game means that there are less good spots in the board to expand to
making roads less valuable. 00:03:45:18 - 00:04:11:16
Unknown Instead, it's important to maximize
production from your starting spots, which of course you can do by building cities. Thus, in a
four player game ore and wheat are by far the most valuable resources. You also want to get on sheep
to pair with your own so you can buy development cards and control the pace of the game. Keep your
spots uncovered as well as use your knights, year of plenty road building, etc. to get the wood and
brick that you likely sacrificed to get the good ore and wheat spots and as a bonus, you'll be
getting the largest army along the way. 00:04:11:17 - 00:04:30:15
Unknown That is a really good
point and a game where expansion is naturally limited because of the number of players you
want to be cost effective and conscious of your expansion. Options. Developing cards are key.
It is not unusual for every single card in the deck to be bought in the tournament game.
If your six or is blocked 80% of the game, the other players will basically have turned
that six or into a 12 war. 00:04:30:16 - 00:04:48:04
Unknown Not only that, but being
stuck with the robber that long has allowed other players to realize the full potential of their
spots. You will often see other players sacrifice better probability spots in order to ensure that
they can get on or expanding to make settlements. That is just too costly to rely on. Six Resources.
If you have to build one road. 00:04:48:05 - 00:05:08:23
Unknown Eight Resources we have to build two. They also
require four different types of resources, whereas cities only require two though. Being on all
resources is important. You'll have a hard time winning without order and wheat and wheat can't be
beat. Got it. Ports are definitely valuable, but poor strategies generally are not complement. Your
strategy and not be essential to it. 00:05:09:00 - 00:05:29:00
Unknown The problem with relying on a
port is that your port resources often too easily blocked, denying you not only have that resource,
but also the resources you hope to use the port to trade for. That being said,
you generally want to get on a three to one port in every game because of the flexibility
it provides. So that means three to one ports should be a moderate consideration when placing
you initial settlements roads. 00:05:29:00 - 00:05:48:07
Unknown That's really important information, which
is crucial because it's used for everything that gives you points. Settlements, cities, development
cards. It's used in more things than any other resource. Don't have cheap built cities, don't
have or you can still build roads and settlements don't have brick or would at least you can build
cities and buy cards that don't have wheat. 00:05:48:10 - 00:06:09:12
Unknown Good luck. Also, just as important,
if you can prevent someone from getting wheat, you essentially prevent them from getting more points.
They're also going to have a much harder time spending their resources since you need weed to do
almost anything, which means they are getting hit by seven more often. Typically, someone's wheat is
a great spot for a robber for the same reason, and it also prevents them from buying any development
carts to get the robber off. 00:06:09:16 - 00:06:30:15
Unknown I'm telling you right now, if you start using
the strategy, it's going to make a big difference in your game. Also, when I ask my subscribers what
the most important resources, clearly they know what they're talking about. If all else fails
when picking up starting settlements, you can always make up for it by getting better at trading
on Wall Street If you like in this Catan content, let me know and if there's any other board games
you want me to dive into. 00:06:31:04 - 00:06:32:08
Unknown I can't read your mind.