We were talking so much that I forgot to take a photo until we'd played a couple of rounds. Alison started and Jörn went last; I was in the unenviable position of being third to place my settlements. No way could I get all the available resources, but as often happens I decided to concentrate on ore since it was likely to be in short supply, and is so vital as the game progresses. For my second settlement, I opted to go near the wheat harbour as it looked as if I might get good access to wheat - and of course that's also needed for building cities and buying cards. I had no wood access at all, and not much in the way of sheep. But then I really didn't want to win...
By the time I remembered to take a picture, Richard (red) and I (orange) had both managed to build cities; Jörn (blue) and Sheila (brown) had both built settlements:
Then Alison also built a settlement, and the game proceeded fairly evenly. Alison managed to gain the longest street fairly quickly - she had excellent access to both wood and clay - and although both Jörn and Richard attempted to catch up, neither of them succeeded. Richard grabbed the last available spot on an ore hex, thus frustrating Jörn's attempt to reach the same spot (and ensuring no easy supply for ore for him), but although 3s were rolled a few times early in the game, there were very few later on.
We had one situation which I don't ever recall from any other game: each of us, in turn, rolled a 7! Richard even played a knight on his turn prior to rolling, so he could place the robber on a rather productive ore hex... only to have to move it again when he rolled the 7. It was rather a frustrating round, since all that happened was the robber bouncing about the board, and each person in turn taking one card from someone else. We were astounded at having five sevens in a row...
... even more so when Sheila then rolled ANOTHER 7!
Thankfully Jörn, who played after she did, managed to break the train by rolling something else. I don't think there were any more 7s in the game.
I had not realised at the start how few building spaces I would end up with. Richard and Alison took the last two possible spaces for me - which was fine. I was rather hoping Alison might win; she hasn't played for several months but was doing extremely well. At this stage in the game, she had 9 points including the longest street, and although Jörn blocked one of her possible building spaces, she still had another possible one, and plenty of chance to upgrade three more of her settlements to cities. I had 8 points on the board, and one victory point card which I'd picked up, also giving me 9 - but all that was left to me to do was to upgrade one more settlement to a city, and buy cards.
Sheila had 8 points, and a few more places to build. Richard had 7, and lots of building spots. Jörn was behind with 5 points as he had not yet been able to gather enough ore to build a city - but we knew all that could change rapidly with a few lucky rolls of the dice.
And, indeed, that's what happened. My turn came around; I was gaining a huge amount of wheat since 5s, 8s and 9s were rolled fairly regularly, so having the wheat harbour was extremely useful. I didn't have quite enough to build my final city, but I had just picked up a couple of sheep. So I decided to buy two development cards. It was likely that at least one of them would be a knight; I'd already played one, and nobody else had played more than one knight - not many cards had been bought so far. If I could make the 'largest army' then I would reach 12 point, and it was really the only strategy left to me. I assumed someone else would win first, but there's no point giving up altogether...
Imagine my amazement when BOTH of the development cards I'd bought were victory points. I could feel my jaw dropping... Sheila caught sight of me, and I wondered if she had guessed what I had just bought. It is astonishing how often I seem to buy victory points, but I don't remember having two at the same time like that.
The game progressed. The robber was moved to my 6-ore hex, which hampered me a little, since I needed ore to build my last city. 3 wasn't rolled at all - that would have given me 6 ore resources. But I was, once again, gaining wheat. I had too many cards in my hand, and would have lost half of them if a 7 had been rolled, but it didn't.
So, when my turn came around again, I traded most of my wheat for ore, and built my last city. Nine points on the board... and I turned over my three victory points:
I did apologise for winning yet again. But there wasn't really much I could do about it...
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