Just finished playing a 3 player Kingsburg game.

The next thing we know, around year 4 in the summertime, one player was about 10 VPs ahead of the other two?

Does anyone know how to catch up as the enemies of the kingdom get more and more powerful?

It is hard to say since we do not know how that player has a 10 point lead. If he is ahead because you two lost two buildings during the winter battle, it's tough to catch up.

No bldg losses over winter battles, as I remember.

The other player that lost, and I suspect it's the multiple Jester influences that he did over time.

I think it might have been also the extra VP point for being the strongest victor in the winter battles.

Is there a point in these games when you know you can't catch up and the game is pretty much won/lost?

It is hard to say really. It is still a dice game, and people can roll "poorly" and be denied in not getting the resources they want. From experience, people tend to spend more time thinking in the 5th year because we're all guessing who is in the lead and how to gain an advantage.

I agree, Sock. The dice can have it. I think the player who won started to pull ahead on year 4, when things started to get hot and heavy, and the provinces started to get less and less identical with the other players.

I just played a game recently were one of the players went the embassy route and he had a big point lead by the end of year four. So I had to change my plans. I built as much as I could from the religious row. the one that starts with the statue. That plus the final fight and still having my paladin card was enough to win me the game.

Its a funny story. I won because of one lumber. The player that went embassy didn't have very many soldiers but he had a lot of gold/stone/lumber so he spent it all to get more soldiers so he ended up with nothing and the points came down to a tie. so since I had the most goods the tie broke in favor of me.