I rolled a 12, to my surprise, and was first to place my settlement. But what an odd board it was. There were, as usual, a few intersections with three good numbers. But NOT ONE of them had three resources attached. So there was no obvious starting place. I tried considering what was likely to be in short supply: both ore and clay looked that way. Ore is often the most important resource, so I considered the 8-ore.. but didn't much like the numbers bordering it. So I opted for the 5-ore, bordering two sheep hexes (8 and 9), and decided to head for the nearby 3-1 harbour, hoping that I would also reach the sheep harbour eventually.
Jörn (blue) played second, and opted for that 8-ore hex, with two other resources even though one of them was a 12. Sheila (brown) then took another place I'd considered, a 5-6-9 intersection with wheat and two wood. Richard (red) decided to go directly to a 3:1 harbour, with a useful spot on clay and wood; Daniel (white) took another clay-wood spot that also bordered wheat (on 11) and Becky (green) played last. Being able to choose both intersections at the same time can be a useful position - and she opted for good access to clay, wood and ore, plus wheat with 11. She put her two settlements fairly close to each other with room to expand.
As we placed our second settlements, we all had the feeling of taking the 'least bad' option rather than something useful. I decided on two good numbers next to the desert, since they gave me access to two more resources; however I knew it would be hard to get started since I had no clay at all, and it wasn't likely to be an abundant resource.
And, indeed, it did take me a long time to get started. I collected cards, but with no clay I was very restricted in what I could build. I hoped I might at least get a couple of cities, but kept finding I had too many cards in my hand... so bought development cards rather than risk losing them to the robber. The first two were knights, but the third was a street-building card. So I played that on my next turn, expanding out from my inland spot - and incidentally stopping Richard from expanding the 'longest street' which he had already gained, since he had good access to both wood and clay. By useful trading I managed, at last, to build a settlement too.
Then I bought another card during someone else's building phase, and it was a monopoly. I was lucky enough to roll a 4 when my turn came round ... and by that stage Becky had both a city and a settlement on a 4-clay hex. Richard and Daniel also collected one clay card each from another 4-clay hex... so I monopolised clay, much to everyone's dismay. So I built another street and settlement. At last I had 4 points; I had wondered if I would ever move from 2. Almost everyone else was also on 4 points by that stage, other than Becky, who was ahead with 6.
Play continued without too much drama until Becky connected her two sections of street, giving her the longest street by a big margin - one that nobody else could attempt to beat. So now she was well ahead with 8 points. In her little corner of Catan, she had room for one more settlement in a spot nobody else could take, and the potential for three more cities too. Sheila and I had both managed 6 points by then; Jörn had 5, Daniel had 4...and Richard, bereft of his longest street card, was back to 2.
I was lucky in the next couple of rounds, in that 5s and 6s were rolled sufficiently for me to be able to build a couple more cities. So I was catching up with 8 points. Becky was still ahead with 9, having built another city too, and Sheila was close behind with 7. As I said, the women dominated this game.. the three guys were still stuck on 5, 4 and 2 respectively; Richard and Jörn were particularly unlucky with rolls of 7s when they had collected too many cards but were unable to build with them.
I had two potential building spots still, one of which was Richard's only potential access to what - and that on an 11. So I didn't mind when he finally managed his first settlement on that spot. I took my final one on the sheep-8 hex by the coast, so I had 9 points. Then I played my third knight card - since I had continued buying cards whenever I had too many resources, giving me the largest army and 11 points. Meanwhile, Becky built another settlement and city, giving her 11 points too, including the longest street. Sheila was still doing well with 9 points; Jörn had run out of building spots but had been able to build all his cities: by now he had excellent access to ore, and the ore harbour (and 12 was rolled at least three times in the game) so had 8 points; Daniel had expanded somewhat, and now had 7 points... and Richard was still stuck on 4.
So, basically, either I needed to buy a victory point card to win - since I had nowhere else to build or expand - or Becky needed to build a city. I hoped she would succeed first. I was picking up lots of resource cards by this stage but none of them were much use. A 3 was rolled for the first time since I'd had direct access to clay - but by that stage it was no use to me, and nobody wanted to trade for it. I had no wheat, so couldn't buy cards during other people's building phases, and while I suppose I could have used up my wood and clay building random roads, there wouldn't have been much point; I would still have had rather more than 7 cards in my hand.
Unsurprisingly, Becky managed to build her last settlement, and was thus the winner. This is what I had left in my hand:
- I also had picked up another monopoly card, and thought I might have monopolised sheep on my next turn, simply because so many sheep were being picked up. I could then have bought at least three or four more development cards. However, I did have a peek at the pile of development cards... and the first half-dozen were all knights. So I wouldn't have won anyway, which was quite a relief.
Here's how the final board looked at the end of the game:
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