Gaming Notes: Catan Junior #2

This picture actually shows the pieces played incorrectly, I believe...

After defeating my wife in Catan Junior, I felt capable of taking on my five year old and three year old in addition to my wife.

I was impressed with my five year old son's initial strategies. He seemed very away of the power of the Coco Tiles and bought them up quickly. At first, it looked like it was going to be an easy win for him. And, in case you don't know this about me, I don't play soft.

He even cut me off on one half of the board, limiting my growth potential!

Still, I struggled on. I had quite a few resource in front of me and I learned a lesson about smart trading.

See, one of the brilliant things about this game is the trading system. It's not player to player - there are five markets, each of which hold one commodity. When all five markets have the same commodity, they clear and one of each commodity is put out instead.

Well, I had a ton of goats but not much else. So I kept trading in and buying Coco Tiles. Each Coco tile allowed me to get more resources so in one turn I seriously bought four Coco Tiles. This was enough to evict my son from Pirate's Cove. I then purchased a few quick Pirate's Lairs and won the game.

Is to wrong to feel so good having outwitted a five year old?

Trust me, there will be more Catan Junior played at my house. I think my son is running a statistical analysis as we speak so he can beat me next time. Game on, boy. Game on.