#1 – Catan
Rules/Mechanics: The three most consequential or impactful rules/mechanics in my gameplay were the robber activation rule, and the maritime trade. The robber activation rule acted as a direct counteraction to my overall strategy during gameplay, which was to essentially horde resources. However, each time this stroke of chance was played, I would have to give up a decent amount of my resources, which was especially hindering my strategy when it occurred earlier in the game. Furthermore, the maritime trade rule ended up being relatively prevalent over the course of my gameplay because of the times in which I actually was able to collect a multitude of resources of the same kind. This particular mechanic became more useful later in the game as I began to expand my roads, which is another reason why my strategy of not using most resources to build up settlements came in handy. I was able to trade for better resources out of my reach, without having to deal with the player-to-player interaction that could unintentionally benefit them as well as me.
Objectives: My personal strategy for the game was rather basic in that I took note of the most likely roll spaces in order to set up there, and hopefully accrue the most resources. I tried to take in the most resources by also trading in different items with areas that were more likely than me to receive resources. For example, I was set up in a moderately likely space to receive resources during a role, and tried to trade with players who were more likely to get more resources based on where they were positioned. Moreover, I was oftentimes more focused on expanding roads in order to reach more areas to pool more resources, rather than immediately building up more city areas to receive victory points in the beginning. Then around the later/post-midpoint section of the game, I played much more into the use of resources to build up my settlements and receive more victory points.
Player Interactions: The trading process in this game feels very intuitive and seamless, and it would seem that it is aided by the medium of items being traded being resources that can be easily viewed in terms of what is being collected. Each player could easily see who was gaining what because of the nature of the way the board is set up. That is, the different terrains lying on each hex, and the corresponding resource. Such that, when going to trade for a certain resource, I could readily see right after another player’s roll, exactly what they would be receiving and I could jump at the opportunity to trade with them. However, I did also find that my trading with the other player, because of this seamless view of who was collecting which resources, was often more of a bidding kind of challenge. Wherein other players would also attempt to trade with the player, which not only posed a challenge, but raised overall tensions in the game.
