When you're sitting on a meager five victory points, holding 10 sheep that you just can't unload, and watching your friend hit longest road for the Settlers of Catan win, you may wonder where you went wrong in life. While you can't go back and change all of your poor life decisions - like that time you drank the expired milk and spent the next two days in the bathroom - you can learn a few tricks to win your next game of Settlers of Catan. 

Settlers of Catan is an award-winning board game created by German game designer Klaus Teuber which involves using resources to build settlements and cities on an island. Naturally, you want your society to be way better than the other ones, and therein lies the competition. You acquire victory points by building roads, armies, towns, and cities, and generally doing things that make a society look cool to its neighbors. All the while, you'll trade resources with said neighbors for mutual benefit.

This list includes some Settlers of Catan strategies that will take your gameplay to the next level. The game has a few specific mechanics that you can take advantage of to gain an edge on the competition. Keep reading below and learn how to win at Settlers of Catan every time. And remember to lord victories over your friends and family like the good sport that you are.

Cutting off your friends from expanding to a new settlement and then watching them cry in despair is one of the most important aspects of Settlers of Catan. There are several techniques to achieve this end. First, you can use roads to wall in your opponents. Second, you can maximize the effectiveness of the "two spaces away" settlement placement rule. Instead of simply placing your own settlements two spaces from each other, you can take up more space by putting them three away while still preventing your opponent from placing a settlement in between your two. Be mindful when you do this, however, so it doesn't backfire and prevent you from building a settlement in a desired location.

This refers more to the number token on the resource than the specific resource being sought. It's better to have one settlement on a six, and one on an eight, than two on the same number. The latter scenario results in collecting resources in bursts, which makes a player more vulnerable to losing half their cards when a seven is rolled.

That said, some diversity in resource type is also beneficial. Being self-sufficient can be the difference between a win and a loss in the late game. Basically, you never want to have all your eggs in one basket.

There is more to a trade than simply getting a good deal. Keep in mind that the trade will benefit the other trader as well, and if that person is already beating you then they can run away with the game. If someone is only one or two victory points away from winning, then it's safe to say that no one should be trading with them at all. A general rule is if they are showing seven victory points without longest road or largest army, do not trade with them. If you are racing someone to a prime settlement location, then you don't want to give them the resources they need to beat you to it. Sometimes it's better to take a bad deal from the bank than to give others access to your precious resources.

Bricks are the most important resource in the game. On a standard Settlers board, there are three brick and three ore spaces. Brick is necessary for both roads and new settlements, meaning that this resource is in high demand. This is especially true at the beginning of the game, where most players need a few roads and a settlement just to get off the ground. As the game goes on, the focus starts to switch toward ore and wheat, but brick retains value as people strive for the longest road card. Basically, a brick space with a good number on it's going to be a much sought after space.

The first strategy is to build as many settlements as possible. You focus on the brick and wood resources, and to a lesser extent, sheep. You need a lot of room to expand using this strategy, and you should also try to get longest road. Area control is key, making sure that you can build in new areas while your opponents cannot.

The second strategy is to focus on ore and wheat, and use it to make cities and get development cards. Ore is more important than wheat, as cities require three ore and two wheat to build. The downside to this strategy is that it's vulnerable to the robber, so it makes sense to also go for the largest army bonus if you take this route. Start getting knights early so you can fend off any robbers that seek to ruin your economy. Getting a port also goes well with this strategy.

You can also combine the two strategies, but be careful not to overextend yourself. Additionally, do not try to go for both the largest army and the longest road cards. Pick one, and commit. 

The last person to place their first settlement is in a great position to grab a 2:1 port, because they will know exactly where their second settlement will go. Remember to place the port first (so you can pick up three resources for your settlement), followed by a settlement that takes advantage of the 2:1 ratio. When taking this strategy, it's okay to break apart your settlements to different parts of the board, but make sure that you leave yourself room to expand. Also, keep in mind that you will be forgoing longest road if you take this route.

When using the monopoly development card, it's good to trade away all of one type of resource before using it - then you can ask for that type of resource and get all your cards back, and more! It's a very effective way to get a bunch of different resources essentially for free. Be prepared for a few upset friends, however.

Besides being a development card in the game, monopolizing resources can be a good way to increase the value of your own goods compared to those of your neighbors. Generally speaking, if everyone else lacks access to a resource you produce, you can get a much better exchange on that resource.

Keep in mind that during your second turn of the initial placement phase, you will pick up resource cards according to the adjacent resources. If you pick a port, that means that you will only get two instead of the usual three. Therefore, if you want to open up with a port, be sure to do it on the first placement turn and never the second.

You may have noticed that the number tokens have dots, ranging from one to five. These dots represent the probability of rolling that number on a given turn (each dot represents the dice combinations out of 36 that can make that number). In other words, more dots are good. You want dots. If you ever aren't sure about which is the better of two spots on the board - based purely on probability of rolls - add up the dots on each tile and go with the intersection that has the higher total number.

During almost every game, there will be an excess of sheep at some point. Everyone will have sheep, and everyone will be trying to unload them. A person with a well situated sheep port can turn this into an advantage, but this route is only worth pursuing if it's convenient within a player's larger strategy. Above all, don't focus too heavily on acquiring sheep early in the game. They will come. They always come. 

Monopoly is an iconic game that, in the true spirit of capitalism, has been over-marketed to death. The worst Monopoly boards take a total niche subject and try to stretch the game around it, leaving consumers asking, "why on Earth was this ever made?" For this list we examine the dumbest versions of Monopoly ever made, and when you're done reading it, you'll be begging to go directly to jail if it means not having to play them. Some of these are actually very rare Monopoly boards that only collectors own, and that's most definitely a good thing.

Street Fighter Collector's Edition has you buying, selling, and trading fighting arenas, because everyone who played Street Fighter in the '90s always asked themselves, "wouldn't it be cool to own E. Honda's bathhouse?" If the game doesn't already sound dumb, then maybe the playable pieces will convince you, which include Chun-Li's wristband and an actual Hodoken. Yes, you read that right- one of the game tokens is literally a Hadoken, and it looks dreadfully stupid. Don't play this game, guys. Just go home and be a family man.

The demographics for Monopoly and The Littlest Pet Shop franchise can't possibly have much crossover. How many little girls are absolutely chomping at the bit to sit down at the table, do math, and argue about tax rates and mortgages? The Parker Brothers are crafty, though, so they made sure to include adorable figurines with this version, ensuring that young children will throw fits for years to come and force their parents to buy something they will never, ever use.

Have you ever thought to yourself, "I really love Best Buy. I love it so much that I wish there was a way to simulate the experience of standing in line to buy yet another phone charger in board game form"? If yes, then you're in luck, because Monopoly: Best Buy Edition does exactly that. Choose from purchasing exciting properties such as "welcome display" and "transaction center" as you rip off customers by charging them $60 for a USB cable. If someone lands on your "Geek Squad" property you can give their computer viruses on purpose so they have to come back the next month and pay you an exorbitant amount of money again. Fun!

The official website of Big Bang Theory Monopoly encourages you to "mock your friends Sheldon-style as they land on your property." I can't imagine a quicker way to get someone else to flip the board over and punch you in the face than screaming "Bazinga!" at them while playing an already frustrating board game. It also encourages you to "negotiate for key locations like Sheldon and Leonard's apartment and Mrs. Wolowitz's house," which seems to imply that you'd possibly have the chance to evict them from their homes. Hmm, maybe this one's alright after all.

According to reviews on the Internet, the Batman and Robin version of Monopoly has no rule changes whatsoever. Basically, they wanted you to buy it because you're a huge fan of the movie. That means they obviously manufactured these things before the movie came out, because no one in their right mind would have expected people to actually buy this after watching the piece of garbage that is Batman and Robin. Freeze in hell, Batman and Robin: Collector's Edition; you just might be worse than the movie itself.

A lot of people don't like raisins, and a lot of people don't like Monopoly, so this one was really a natural fit. If you don't get enough farming in your daily life, paying the $75 "irrigation tax" might help you get your fix. Does anyone in the world really love raisins enough to buy a Sun-Maid Raisins version of Monopoly? Seriously, let's see the sales numbers for this thing. Even if you do love raisins, and think Sun-Maid raisins are the best raisins, would you really want this in your home? Is there someone out there that would argue you should play Sun-Maid Raisins Monopoly over the original, or say, something like Marvel Comics Monopoly? We want to meet that person.

The Alaskan Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race is a grueling endurance run in which a musher and a team of dogs travel roughly 1000 miles across the state of Alaska in wind chill of up to minus 100 degrees Fahrenheit. If you read that and thought, "why doesn't this have a Monopoly version?" then don't worry! It exists, because of course it does. The Monopoly version is nothing like the actual race, as it mainly consists of buying up properties which represent towns along the route. Even the most hardcore Monopoly collector thinks you're a loser if you own this one.

Look, we all love Garfield, but did the Monday-hating feline really need his own version of Monopoly? It's hard to imagine this game had any buyers outside a handful of weirdos who have entire rooms in their homes dedicated to Garfield memorabilia. The most expensive spaces on the board are "fat cat" and "lazy kitty," which just goes to show how hard Parker Brothers was shoehorning Garfield into Monopoly to make this game work. Even Jon Arbuckle isn't pathetic enough to keep this one in his home.

If there's anything equally as exciting and mind-blowing as a game of Monopoly, it's bass fishing. The Parker Brothers were warned about the dangers of combining these two activities due to the risk of players dying from pure sensory overload, but they simply didn't care. The world needed Monopoly: Bass Fishing Edition, risks be damned. The game includes spaces for both largemouth and smallmouth bass, because the Parker Brothers are psychotic, thrill-seeking, adrenaline junkies who have no limits. If you have a death wish, pick up a copy today, because life is as extreme as you want to make it!

If you love cats, you probably hardly ever play Monopoly. As anyone who has ever had a cat can attest, the cat will lie down in the middle of the board the moment you start playing, forcing you to either quit or shoo it away a million times. I guess this version aims to simulate the experience of having a cat, because the properties include things like "wet food," "yarn," and "box." Hopefully it also has spaces for "pukes in your shoes," "pees on your bed," and "empty out the litter box" for true realism.

The greatest pen and paper RPGs (or role-playing games) don't require any kind of fancy technology. No, these RPGs are much more like traditional board games. When in doubt, go for the classics, like RuneQuest, Traveller and the perennially popular Dungeons & Dragons. This list includes a lot of favorites, but it isn't complete, so feel free to add the pen and paper/tabletop RPGs that you love playing the most, too. Vote up the best, vote down the worst and rerank this list any way you want.

If you're looking for something new to play, why not give some of these great, table top RPGs a whirl? It's no accident that RPGs like 'Call of Cthulhu' have been around for a long, long time. Despite the emergence of some incredibly impressive RPG video games, these tabletop RPGs keep us coming back for more. Tabletop RPGs force us to communicate with each other, rather than being glued to a computer or TV screen for hours on end.