Jörn (blue) placed his pieces first, I (orange) was second, Richard (red) was third, and Sheila (brown) was in her favourite place of being both the last and the first. It was the kind of board with no obviously brilliant spots, but Jörn started on a traditionally good one, with 4, 8 and 10 as the numbers; wood, clay and wheat as the resources. I could see that there was likely to be plenty of clay in this game, a reasonable amount of ore and sheep, and perhaps more of a shortage of wood and wheat. I realised at once that I would probably not be able to get initial access to all five resources; however ore is usually key, so my initial choice was for the 9-ore hex, and the best numbers that went with it (6-clay and 3-wood).
By the time it got back to me, with Richard and Sheila both having placed their two settlements and streets, I didn't have a lot of choice. I could have chosen access to both wheat and sheep with the numbers being 3, 10 and 11, or I could have taken the 4, 6, 11 intersection which Jörn took as his second spot. But instead I thought I'd go for the other good ore tile, with a 10 on sheep, in the hope of trading rather than expecting 11s to be rolled.
So at the start of the game, I was actually the only person who had access to ore - but everyone else had access to wheat, with Richard being the most likely to collect it.
And, indeed, in the early rounds - when it wasn't a lot of use - 9s and 10s were rolled, giving Richard plenty of wheat, and me plenty of ore. I was able to do a bit of trading so I could build a city early on, but there wasn't much wood available and since Richard collected less wheat as the game progressed, it was very difficult to build settlements. I frequently found at the end of my turn that I had six or seven cards... but if I had wheat, there was one of the other resources missing. So I bought a couple of development cards just to reduce the number I was holding. The first one I picked up was a victory point, which wasn't much use at that stage of the game.
I should really have taken more photos, but didn't think about it. Richard was the first person to take the longest street card, then Sheila took it from him, and then he took it back. Slowly, we were all extending outwards, while getting distracted at times by random topics of conversation such as how solar heating panels work...
Sheila took one of Richard's potential building spots, and I took one of Jörn's... not being nasty to each other, just each looking out for our own interests. One can't be too compassionate or generous when playing Settlers of Catan, if one is playing seriously!
During the battle of the streets, I took this photo at the stage when Sheila realised she couldn't get the card back from Richard:
So he was in the lead with 10 points, and still had a couple of building spots available. Sheila and I each had five points (well, I had six with my hidden victory point card), and Jörn had 4. Sheila did have one building spot left, if Jörn didn't take it first, but needed to upgrade to some cities before she could buy more settlements.
I had two building spots left, and having joined up my two sets of streets, realised that - unusually - I had the potential to take the longest street card from Richard, which would at least prolong the game a little. Rather fortuitously, I'd picked up a street-building card which enabled me to have a length of 11 streets on my next turn - and nobody would be able to beat it. I built a settlement at the end of it, too.
So then Richard and I each had 8 points on the board.
Unfortunately, since neither Jörn nor Sheila had access to ore, they were hampered in the final stages of the game, unable to build the cities they needed. They did both buy cards - after some trading - and each played two knights. Rather a lot of 7s were rolled, too. My ore hexes were frequently rendered useless by the knight, and I was still struggling to get wheat. Jörn and Sheila were both unlucky with the 7s, too; several times each of them had to give up four or more cards, at a time when they would otherwise have been able to do something useful.
Still, I managed to build another city, and then found myself collecting quite a few cards when 6s or 9s were rolled. There were a surprising number of 3s too. So, by trading with the bank (mostly) I managed another city. Richard built another one too, and another settlement. Sheila built three cities, despite having to lose so many cards, and Jörn took his last building spot with a settlement.
I wasn't watching points. I tend to get involved in the game, and strategising, and finding the best logistical use of my resource cards. I was pleased when I realised that I had sufficient to buy a settlement for my last possible spot... but surprised when Sheila then asked me if I had a victory point card. She had noticed that I had 11 points including the longest street:
So once again, I was the winner; Richard had 10 points, Sheila had 9 - and was going to take the largest army card on her next move, which would have taken her to 11. Jörn - who had also hoped for the largest army card - had 6 points, since he too had a victory point card.
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