Strategy. . .

Zach and I played Settlers of Catan today.

We also played LOTR Risk.

At the same time.

Using elements from both games, Zach has designed a very strategic way to combine two of our favorite past times into one really confusing, difficult and time-consuming activity.

Here is how it's played, in a nut-shell:

The Risk armies are placed first, then the Catan settlements and roads are placed followed by the collecting of the Catan resources and, finally, the Risk territories (on the Catan layout) are counted up so the armies can be reinforced.

And then the game begins.

Each player's turn consists of:

1. Rolling the red and yellow Catan dice and collecting resources

2. Counting territories and regions and collecting the corresponding army pieces to place on the board

3. Combat with the red and black Risk dice (a settlement adds 1 number to the highest die for the defender while a city adds 2 numbers)

4. Collecting territory and adventure cards if the battle was successful (if a territory is successfully conquered, a resource is gathered corresponding to the conquered territory)

5. Building settlements, cities and roads if able

6. Fortifying your position

It took 3 hours for Zach to set it up, five hours for him to completely annihilate me and 30 minutes to put it away.

I think it was time well spent!

(How nerdy are we???)