While flipping through the referrals for my flickr images, I noticed that this picture of Settlers of Catan board had (relative to my other images) a lot of views. The reason, as best as I can tell, is that it was used as a stock image of Settlers in t…

The idea of taking the “path” of the train, and turning it into an area that is changed in shape and size opens up a lot of cool dynamics, I think. It means that game strategies are not just interpersonal, but also spatial–how much of a buffer does a player’s base have? Is it possible to cut them away from the rest of the mass (and what happens to each half when that occurs)? It becomes almost like a weird, socialist, hex-based Go.