The other situational strategy is the “port” strategy, in which you monopolize an advantageous  2-for-1 port and focusing on trading with the bank.
The other situational strategy is the “port” strategy, in which you monopolize an advantageous  2-for-1 port and focusing on trading with the bank. This strategy has the disadvantage of giving you fewer resources on your initial settlements (if you place one of them at a port), but can be advantageous if you are able to produce large amounts of the resource you need to trade. Much like the previous strategy, this is only possible for certain configurations of the board – you need access to good production of your tradeable resource near the desired port. In rare instances this strategy can be combined with the monopoly strategy to completely deprive other players of a particular resource by controlling the production of that resource, and trading it through the port rather than with other players.