This article describes how Not all resources are created equally... but more importantly, why wheat is the best resource and how to use this information in a strategy and plan around it when playing Settlers of Catan competitively.....
Not all resources are created equally...
...That is in the game Settlers of Catan, the wheat resource is the best.
Table of Contents:
Top of Article
First, let us look at the building costs cards. There are three different items that require wheat: settlements, cities, and development cards. On the other hand, every other resource is only required in building or purchasing two pieces.
* When making an observation of this sort, I shall call this kind of observation a diversity resource observation - in other words, the method used when checking the building costs cards to see how many different pieces the resource will allow me to acquire.
Top of Article Table of Contents
Second, from a numerical perspective, it could be argued that ore is just as valuable or is as good as wheat. Moreover, when we observe the building costs cards we can see that cities require 3 ore and 2 wheat and that development cards require 1 ore, 1 sheep, and 1 wheat. And thus from a purely numerical perspective wheat is just as good as ore and vice versa. However, when we consider the fact that settlements do require wheat - from the diversity resource observation above, wheat edges out ore by a little bit.
* When making an observation of this sort, I shall call this kind of observation a numerical resource observation - in other words, the method used when checking the building costs cards to see how much of a resource or how many resource cards I will need to acquire certain pieces.
Top of Article Table of Contents
Third, from a utility perspective, it could be argued wheat helps you win the game better than any other resource. That is when looking at hard victory points versus soft victory points and static victory points versus dynamic victory points:
-hard victory point - Any victory point that is guaranteed by the act of purchasing an item before a player purchases that item. For example: settlements and cities are hard victory points.
-soft victory point - Any victory point that is not guaranteed by the act of purchasing an item before a player purchases that item. For example: roads and development cards are soft victory points.
-static victory point - Any victory point added to a players total number of victory points not acquired by Longest Road or Largest Army.
-dynamic victory point - Any victory point added to a players total number of victory points acquired by Longest Road or Largest Army.
These two dichotomies can be compared in the following way:
After we look back at our first two types of resource observations (diversity resource observation and numerical resource observation), when we consider victory points, we notice that wheat is involved in the purchase of victory points more than any other resource.
Top of Article Table of Contents
However, one must also consider another observation, the game state observation - the method used when checking the current game state for information about the game. When I make this kind of observation, I am really looking for who is in the lead and where I need to place the robber. When I consider the three observations together for the purpose of denying other players resources, while gaining resources myself, I usually place the robber on the hexes of the player who has the most (potential) victory points not including my own hexes in most cases. Usually the hex I am placing on is wheat or some other resource which the opposing player is trading in for wheat.
So not only are these observations - the diversity resource observation, numerical resource observation, and game state observation giving you an edge alone, when used together they can give you an additional edge against your opponents.
Top of Article Table of Contents
References:
Top of Article Table of Contents
Our RSS Feed
0 comments:
Post a Comment