Four-person Settlers of Catan game in the evening

After playing an enjoyable six-player Settlers of Catan game with our friends in the afternoon, yesterday, we went to their house for a light supper, and - since the children were mostly in bed, and it was only 8.30, and we're not going to be around for the next few weeks - decided to have a four-person Catan game.

Slightly to my surprise, I rolled the highest number so was first - and last - to place my settlements.

It wasn't an easy board. There were no obviously excellent spots. Indeed, Catan island looked sadly small after having played with the larger version earlier in the same day. After some thought, and seeing that ore was, once again, likely to be in short supply, I opted for the best ore hex, bordering two wood, since it gave me 5, 9 and 10 as my numbers.

When my last turn came round, I was pleased to see that the wood harbour was easily accessible, if I took a spot bordering an 8-clay and 3-wheat hex. I hoped I would be able to trade for sheep; it looked as if they would be fairly plentiful.


It was a strange game. 12 was rolled at least six times. There were even more 11s. Unfortunately for me, however, there were very few 5s. I managed to trade fairly amicably for the sheep I needed to build my three other settlements, then had quite a hard time amassing resources for even one city. Jörn didn't manage even one - and as he was getting other cards, he ended up buying several fairly early in the game, so that he didn't have more than 7 resource cards in his hand. So he played knights, and gained the largest army card.

Richard, by contrast, kept picking up handfuls of useful cards, particularly when he had built two cities on wood-6s and another on a wood-9. He managed to get the longest street, although he wasn't sure if he would keep it. He built a settlement purely out of wood cards (ten of them!) on one turn. I picked up the monopoly card, and hoped he might have similar large amounts of wood before my next turn, since I had the wood harbour...

.. but Richard, surprising himself as much as anyone, built another city, which gave him 9 points on the board. With the longest street he had 11... and he then turned over a victory point card, meaning he had won before I'd even thought of taking a mid-game photo:


It was probably the quickest game we had ever played. About 45 minutes in all. It was quite a resounding win for Richard: Sheila had 7 points, I had 6, and Jörn had 5 (including the largest army).