By focusing on roads, players can not only reach desirable spots on the board more quickly, but can also cut off other player’s expansion opportunities.
The “Wood / Brick” strategy focuses primarily on building new settlements and roads. This strategy allows players to expand quickly, which can increase their resource gathering potential. By focusing on roads, players can not only reach desirable spots on the board more quickly, but can also cut off other player’s expansion opportunities. This strategy is also in a good position to build the longest road. There are two main downsides to this strategy. The first is that you cannot win the game with wood and brick alone – building 6 settlements and getting the longest road only gives you 8 victory points, so as the game goes on you will need to figure out how you plan to get the last two points you need to win. The other downside is that you can end up wasting a lot of resources competing over the longest road card, and getting this taken away from you can be a huge swing in the game.