But on Sunday night some of our friends were here, so we suggested a game. I wasn't entirely 'with it' - I was getting over a nasty sinus infection, and was pretty tired as we'd been out earlier. Besides which I was keeping half an eye on my small friend Helen who is 18 months old and tends to get into things which aren't good for her (or for the things she gets into).
So although I helped a little in getting the game set up, it was a communal effort.
Katie (4) would like to have played but she is nowhere near old enough. Lukas (7) has grasped the rules pretty well and is beginning to play although he tends to lose concentration. But as Sheila wasn't here he made the sixth player.
Richard (red, as ever) rolled the highest number and so placed his settlements first and last. Jacob played green, Jörn blue, Marie green, Lukas brown, and I was red. That's the order we played in, meaning I had the rather Scriptural position of the last (in round one) being the first (in round two). I don't usually like going last, but it does have the advantage of being able to place both settlements optimally at once, rather than hoping someone else doesn't take the spot you really wanted to balance the first one played.
I was quite pleased with my places. I had reasonable access to all five resources, and a good selection of numbers (4, 6, 8, 9 and 10). I realised I would be advising Lukas - and did at least ensure that he didn't start his placements with only two resources, both on the coast as he had planned. But he insisted on taking the 3-1 harbour on an 8-sheep hex for his first settlement.
I found it hard to concentrate on the game, since I was getting up and down to move Helen; so much so that I think I missed some of my cards. Several times I was given some by other kind people who noticed them. Helping Lukas was rather difficult since his sole purpose was to gain the longest street card by joining his two settlements. So he traded single-mindedly for sheep and clay, in ways that helped everyone else. He was deaf to my suggestions of building at least one or two settlements, but did, after a few turns, get six contiguous streets and the cards. At the time it looked as though he might keep it, too. However he still refused to build any settlements; instead he put all his trading skill (such as it is) into buying a development card; he also bought a few more streets when he could.
Meanwhile the rest of us were building as usual; Marie fairly quickly got three cities and was in the lead for a while, but she had a hard time getting any settlements. Jörn was blocked from a couple of building spots he wanted - in a six-player game, the board can get rather crowded - but had plenty of room to expand in other directions. Jacob traded rather wildly for the cards he wanted, and managed a few buildings. Richard and I just played fairly randomly, building whatever we happened to have the cards for.
Since I was occupied with both Helen and Lukas, for different reasons (and sometimes Katie too) I didn't remember to take any more photos until the end of the game. We decided, around 8.45pm, that we would play until 9pm and then finish at the end of the round. Lukas kept losing concentration, and Helen was getting tired. Lukas seemed to be stuck on his two initial settlements and his street since he refused to build anything else - and then Richard challenged with a longer street, and took the card from him. Lukas spent the next two rounds trying to get it back, until Richard built a settlement right in the middle of Lukas's street, meaning he kept it. Lukas is quite cheerful about it - he didn't seem to mind being back with just two points while the rest of us were between 6 (Jörn, Marie and Jacob) and 10 (Richard).
It was nearly 9pm. Richard played his move, and we (the adults, anyway) agreed that we would have one final turn each and end after mine. I had 8 points, and since I picked up rather a lot of cards I decided to buy a development card. It was a monopoly. Since by then I had the sheep harbour, I thought I might monopolise sheep on my final move and see what I could build... but I watched what was picked up more closely than usual, and there weren't many sheep. On the last two turns before mine, rather a lot of wheat was collected so when it came to my turn, I decided to monopolise wheat.
Since the others would have one final chance to build after my turn, I was then able to trade for some of the wheat quite advantageously. I built another street and settlement, taking me to 9 points. Then I realised that if I could build two more streets, I could join up my two stretches of road and take the longest street card.
So I offered to trade some wheat for wood or clay... rather to my surprise, Richard agreed to this. I hadn't realised he was hoping to build a final settlement after the end of my turn, and then reveal a victory point card, which would take him to 12 points. What he didn't notice was that he was in danger of losing the longest street card.
So... I went ahead, and won the game with 11 points. Richard had 10, Jöern, Marie and Jacob each had 6, and Lukas had 2.
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