Gnech Adds Catan Championship To Cities & Knights Title!

With his win, Chris Gnech joins the very small group of players (Rob Kircher and Janet Ottey) who have won both Catan and Catan: Cities & Knights.

This year Catan had an increase of 3 players giving us 108 different players. We had as many new faces as returning players, comparing last year to this year, we had 54 new players and 54 returning players.

From our pool of 108 players, 58 of them played in all 3 of the Heats. This increased loyalty may have been sparked by several things, was it:

• Stylish Catan inspired Hawaiian shirts sported by the GM and assistant GMs
• Common board setup being used by all the tables
• 16 different colors of Catan pieces players could earn

I suspect it was the Catan pieces. They were very popular. Players earned 69 different sets with Lavender, Fuchsia and Metallic Gold being the most popular, nearly wiping out our stock. Light Blue, regular Gold and Turmeric Yellow were not chosen and are feeling a bit rejected. Maybe next year.

My favorite reasons that I heard for the color chosen:

• Black is easy for Color blind players to distinguish
• My (insert significant other) loves this color

The three Heats required 22, 22 and 18 tables, however a check-in problem in the third round forced us to start 19 tables. Don’t be surprised if we repeatedly remind each player to check-in before each round next year. This check-in problem caused us to have four 3 player games instead of the preferred three 4 player games. Lesson learned!

Another change made this year was the use of a common game map or layout for every table. This was used for the Semifinal in 2024 and was well received.

Our resident AGM statistician Patrick ran a full analysis of the results. I had to ask for an explanation of those results, which he produced, and I still don’t understand. I have included shortened portions below, but I left out all references to: Expected values, goodness-of-fit, chi-squared, p-values, z statistics, etc. Check with Patrick if you need that information. Here are his summaries:

• All three scenarios were equally likely, as each other, to produce a Longest Road and/or Largest Army
• There was a significant difference in VP Cards played by players who ended up in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th places
• There was a significant difference in Knight cards played between players who ended up in different places. Specifically, comparison testing showed significantly more Knight cards played by 1st place versus both 2nd and 3rd places

Comparison of the Stats from 2025 to 2024

Winners of our preliminary rounds

• Played Victory Point cards a little more than in 2024 (1.11 versus .92 cards in 2024)
• Won Longest Road much less than in 2024 (35% versus 57%)
• Won Largest Army about the same as in 2024 (43% of the time versus 39% in 2024)
• Played on average 2 knights both years (2.03 vs 1.99 in 2025 and 2024)

The following table shows the number of winners and the % of wins for the 63 games in 2025 and the 60 games in 2024

We have doubled our sample but the same general principles that I have heard still seem to be broken by our event. Getting the Largest army was not used to win the majority of our games and starting 3rd or 4th didn’t statistically result in any more wins.

We all played on the same maps. I hope you all liked the idea. I set up 30 different boards, took pictures of each and printed 25 copies of each. There was some difficulty being able to determine the ports. I am in the process of updating them all, except the ones Patrick and Luke fixed during the WBC! Thank you!

Good Help is great to find

Returning Assistant GMs Patrick Neary and Luke Fischer made this tournament a great success. Patrick has mastered most of the WBC paperwork and Luke, who helped voluntarily last year without any recognition, filled in doing much of the legwork and managed the Catan piece rewards. I really do appreciate their help and the Thanks received and patience shown by each of you.

Semifinal

Each of the top 16 players showed up so no alternatives were used. This year 4 players with less than 2 wins made the Semifinal, but they also had to have 2 second place finishes. We followed the same rule as last year with the players with the best records getting first choice of seat and color. First choice on Tables 1 – 4 went to Ethan Mackey, Kevin Wojtaszczyk, David Sinodis and Hannah Manley in that order. All 4 tables used the same set up, chosen by the AGMs because your GM squeaked into the Semifinal. The winner on Table 1 was Ethan Mackey, table 2 was Chris Gnech, table 3 was Chad Martin and Kirk Porteous on table 4.

A few interesting Semifinal statistics:

• 3 of our 16 semifinalists were former winners in previous WBC Catan tournaments
• 8 out of our 16 semifinalists have won wood in previous WBC Catan tournaments
• 3 of the 4 winners decided to place 3rd during setup at their table
• Largest Army was used in 2 of the 4 Semifinal games to win
• Longest Road was used in 1 of the 4 Semifinal games to win

Fifth and Sixth Place

We award 5th and 6th places based on the highest second place scores in the Semifinal, then by ranking coming into the Semifinal. John Gitzen, with a 9-point second place, received the fifth place and Jon Manley, with an 8-point second place finished sixth

Final

1. Chris Gnech – Red
2. Chad Martin – Orange
3. Ethan Mackay – White
4. Kirk Porteous – Purple

Starting Resources

• Kirk started with 1 Brick and Wood
• Ethan started with 2 Sheep and 1 Wheat
• Chad started with 2 Wood and a Wheat
• Chris started with a Brick, Wood and Wheat

Rounds 1 – 4

Rounds 5 – 8

• Chad continues his expansion building a road and a settlement on Ore and 3:1 Sheep port
• Kirk builds 2 roads in Round 5 cutting off Ethan’s Road heading up the coastline
• Finally in Round 7 Chris is able to settle on Wood and 2:1 Brick port
• In Round 7, Chad upgrades his Wood, Ore, Brick Settlement to a City building the first city
• Ethan builds a road toward a Sheep and Wheat tile
• Kirk adds on to his road toward a Sheep, and 3:1 Wood port and very quietly takes the Longest Road
• Chris upgrades his Sheep, Ore, and Wheat Settlement to a City
• In Round 8 Ethan, using the results of his 7 robbery and a 4:1 trade with the bank, builds a road and settlement on the Sheep and Wheat tile on the edge of the desert
• Score: Chris 4, Chad 5, Ethan 3, Kirk 5

Rounds 9 – 12

• In Turn 9, Chris settles on the Ore and 2:1 Sheep port making 3 Ore when a 5 is rolled
• Chad robs the sheep next to Chris’s city shared with Ethan, instead of the Ore spot. He apologizes to Ethan, stating that he chose this spot because Chris is out of resources, He also buys a development card
• Chad then plays a Year of Plenty for 2 Wheat and upgrades 2 settlements to Cities, the Wood, Wheat, Wood and the Wood, Wheat, Sheep
• Kris settles on the Sheep and 3:1 Wood port
• Chad extends his road toward the Wheat, Wheat, and Sheep tile
• Kirk extends his road on the Sheep tile
• In Round 12, Chris plays a Knight card robbing Chad on the Wood tile
• Ethan plays Road Building and loops his road back toward the Ore and Sheep tile
• Kirk buys a development Card
• Score: Chris 5, Chad 7, Ethan 3, Kirk 6

Rounds 13 – 16:

• In Round 13 Chris builds a road toward the Wheat and 2:1 Wheat port
• In Round 13, the bank runs out of wood
• Chad using 3:1 wood for all resources settles on the Wheat and Sheep tile Chad currently has 1 face down Development Card and Ethan has 3
• Chris has Largest Army
• In Round 15, Ethan plays the Road Building Development Card and adds in another road with resources to build a road of length 9 to take the Longest Road from Kirk
• Kirk trades for the resources needed and upgrades his settlement on the Wood and Brick tile to a City In Round 16, Chad upgrades his settlement on the Ore and Sheep to a City giving him 9 points
• Also in Round 16, Ethan plays a Knight card, robbing Chad on the 9 Ore location and builds a road towards a Sheep tile. His road is now 10 long
• In Round 16 Chris has to return 4 wood to the bank
• Score: Chris 8, Chad 9, Ethan 6, Kirk 6. Development Card face down Chris 1, Ethan 3

Round 17:

• 7 is rolled. Chris robs Kirk on the Brick location
• 6 is rolled. Chad uses 4 wood to build a road on the 3:1 Wheat port
• 10 is rolled. Ethan plays a Knight to put the robber on Wood shared by Chad and Kirk
• 3 is rolled. Kirk builds a road toward the Ore trying to earn back the Longest Road. His road is now 10 long, tying Ethan, so the Longest road stays with Ethan

Final Round 18:

• 6 is rolled. Chris lays down 3 Ore and 2 Wheat, showing he has a City Upgrade and then flips over his face down Development card which is a Victory point card to show he has the win

Only one other player has a Victory Point Card, so the final scores are Chris Gnech 10, Chad Martin 9, Ethan Mackay 7 and Kirk Porteous 6.

Final Thoughts

To so many of you, I wish I had more time to hear how your game went and what you thought about this year’s convention. I also want to thank you for letting me take your picture, I managed to get a shot of nearly every table you have no idea how much that helps with my memory. No promises but I hope to get better remembering your names.