Settlers of Catan for six players

It's a while since we've played Settlers of Catan with six people. Jörn and Sheila had their set back, but we took ours anyway and ended up using their main pieces, but our sea grids to make it more stable. We spend as much time chatting as playing, so although we got there by about 8.20, it was 9pm by the time we'd set it up and then made our initial placements.


I was orange, as usual; Richard red; Jörn blue; Sheila brown; John green; Sarah white. Sarah placed first (and last); I was in fifth position which is better than fourth, but not as good as first or last! On my first placement, I opted for what might be called a 'courageous' move... an intersection with three grain hexes, but close to the grain harbour. On my second, I was able to access wood and ore, and - on a 12 - clay, but I had no access to sheep at all. At least I picked up resources for a street in my initial cards and was able to play that almost immediately. I then had to trade extensively until I could build a settlement on the grain harbour,

The game got going fairly evenly, with a fair number of resources being picked up, and nobody obviously in the lead. After my hard-won settlement, I built two cities quite easily. I suppose I was playing the 'ore-grain' strategy as described elsewhere, although I hadn't really thought about it. Sheila and John also built cities early in the game, although the others found it harder to do so. But still, it was fairly even for the first half hour or so.


Sheila and I were slightly ahead, so for a while we were the targets of the robber.

John then extended out, to grab what building spaces he could - and access to some more numbers - and took the longest street card:


That put him in the lead, and made him the target of the robber for most of the rest of the game, although I still had my share of being targetted.

Jörn and Richard ran out of building spaces fairly quickly, so had to concentrate on buying cards and - where possible - building cities. Richard got the largest army by collecting several knights, while Sheila and I extended into the rather barren regions beyond the desert. John extended his street to ensure nobody else could take it...


I bought my first development card - and it was a monopoly. I was planning to monopolise grain, since there was quite a lot in the game and I had the grain harbour. I wasn't entirely sure what I'd do with it, since that depended on how many I gained.

Sheila extended further. We reached the stage where John 11 points. Sheila, Jörn and I all had 9. Sarah had 7, Richard had 6. Evidently John was going to win soon...

Then a 5 was rolled on the turn before mine. So Jörn picked up four wood cards. I had five clay cards in my hand, since I'd traded for one, and then a 12 had been rolled. Suddenly I realised that if I could build another five streets, I could take the longest street card from John, and perhaps extend the game a little. I wasn't sure I wanted to - it was getting late, and I was tired. And I wanted John to win, since he hasn't done so with us. It was an inward struggle. But, like having a seven-letter word in Scrabble, or a brilliant place to put the Z, it felt wrong NOT to do it once I realised that I could.

If I'd rolled a 7, I'd have had to lose a lot of cards and wouldn't necessarily have done it so quickly.

But I didn't.

So I called a monopoly on wood, and collected about six wood cards. With the handful of grain I was holding, and the clay cards, I could then build all the extra streets I needed:


John was not impressed. I felt bad until I remembered that he'd attacked my streets in previous games. And it IS just a game...

We played about three more moves. I managed to collect all I needed to build a settlement - so, the game didn't extend that much longer, and I won:


I was lucky with that monopoly card. I was lucky that I didn't roll a 7. I was lucky that a 12 was rolled when I had two cities on a 12-clay hex. John should really have won...