It wasn't long before most of us had placed a street, and I managed my first settlement. Then my mother - very early in the game - managed to build a city.
With six people playing, there sometimes has to be a bit of 'meanness'. So Richard blocked a potential move for Daniel, and Daniel blocked one for Becky, incidentally gaining the longest street card as well. Still, at this point of the game I was just ahead with 6 points, closely followed by Daniel and Grandma at 5, while everyone else had four. Very even so far.
It continued to be reasonably even. A few rounds later I was still in the lead with 9 points, Becky was just trailing with 6, and everyone else had 7 - with Daniel pretty secure in his longest street card.
Unfortunately we'd nearly run out of building spots. There were a few coastal ones left, but I'd also spotted another one with a 9-wood and 11-clay. The third hex was the desert, but still - by this stage any building spot is useful. As it happened, five of us had all noticed this slot, and were all trying, subtly, to build out to it. Here's how it looked at one point:
Other than Richard, it could have gone to any of us. And with the extra 'building phase' at the end of each person's turn in 5-6 player Settlers, it really was up to the roll of the dice.
First Becky built a street:
Then Daniel built a street, meaning that I was out of the running for that spot:
Then Becky built another spot, meaning it would be more difficult for Grandma to take it:
The tension was immense.
Except that - once I'd realised I wasn't in the running - I'd started building along the coast. I'd run out of cities - I had 10 points on the board. I also had a victory point card, hidden amongst my development cards. And I decided I would buy another card on my turn... which turned out to be another victory point.
So I had won. Grandma was second with 9 points. And that final inland building spot never did have a settlement on it.
No comments:
Post a Comment