Did you ever wonder how some players manage to solve the Catan Puzzle in less than 2 minutes? Or even in less than 1 1/2 minutes? Unbelievable, you say?

Unbelievable - but not impossible. Watch the video of our user "heidewitzka": He documented his game in a screencast video - it took him phenomenal 1:20 minutes to assemble all pieces.

He describes his strategy as follows:

It simply depends on how you approach the puzzle and also on the available motif.
First I try to place the corner pieces, as you can see in the video. Then I place other margin pieces. If there are inner pieces that can easily be matched, I place them right away too.
All this is done with one eye on the puzzle and the other eye on the remaining pieces. More precisely, this means that I already choose the pieces before actually picking them up. If it is a nearly unmistakable match, in my mind I am already trying to place the next piece while still putting down the current one.
Rotating the pieces is also a pretty fast procedure. There is no need to wait until the piece has stopped rotating. If it has to be rotated clockwise twice, I click twice, and off it goes. The next piece is already waiting.
A total time of 80 seconds means that every piece requires no more than 3.33 seconds, including the time for failed attempts.

Simply click on the link below to watch "heidewitzka"'s video. All you need is the latest version of Flash Player and a fast Internet connection. Please note that the video might stop if it cannot load quickly enough. Do yourself a favor and watch the entire video one more time after the download is completed.

[Click here to watch the video]