Jacob (green) placed first, on a useful 8-9-10 intersection. Jörn (blue) was second, and took an equally useful - at least in theory - 5-6-9 spot. Both had access to ore - something I always like to ensure myself - and were spots I might have chosen had I played first or second.
Richard (red) was third, and took a 6-9-10 spot; good for numbers, but no ore. I was fourth (orange). Since all the obviously good spots with three difference resources and three good numbers had gone, I decided I might as well adopt what's known as the ore-wheat strategy, since the best intersection,number-wise, had two ore and a wheat. I didn't have much hope of the ore harbour, but noted that the wheat harbour was conveniently close. I also noted that, of all resources, wheat was likely to be in shortest supply in the game, so having an 8-wheat hex should be useful.
Sheila (brown) played last, and managed to select a couple of spots which gave her five different numbers and potential access to all five resources. I realised I could not get all I needed, so - as I so often do - decided to sacrifice sheep (so to speak) and went for a clay-clay-wood intersection on 5-8-11.
So the game started, with reasonable progress for us all. Streets were reasonably easy to come by, and since 9s and 10s were rolled with surprising frequency, I was able to build cities rather rapidly. Since ore was an abundant resource in this game, Richard and Jörn also built cities pretty quickly. And Jacob gained the longest street card.
We were fairly even at that point. I was just in the lead with 8 points, Sheila had 7, Jörn and Jacob both 6, and Richard had 5 (one settlement slightly off the photo).
Gradually Sheila took the lead. She was also building up her roads, in the hope of gaining the longest street card. Within a few more rounds, she had 10 points on the board, while I had 9 (including one settlement off the edge). Actually I did also have a victory point card which I'd bought, so I was equal to her, but nobody else knew that. Both of us surprised ourselves during the game by using the 'building phase' (the extra rule in the 5-6 player expansion of Settlers of Catan, allowing other players to build after each person's turn) to build both a city AND a settlement at the same time. Since the extra building phase requires the exact number of cards (no trading allowed), that's pretty unusual.
Jacob wasn't far behind, with 8 points (still including the longest street); Richard had 7; Jörn had 6.
We all had at least one or two building spots left. I still had no access to sheep directly, but had been able to trade -either with the bank (since I was by this stage collecting handfuls of ore) or with other players. Richard and I had both bought and played two knights, and I hoped to pick up another so as to gain the largest army.
Here's the game another round or so later, when Richard had played another knight.
Sheila still had 10 points - all she needed to do was build a couple more streets to win. Richard also had ten, including the largest army card. I still had 9. Jacob still had 8, and Jörn had 7. So it was still really very close.
Then I had a lucky round with cards. Jörn rolled an 8, which gave me two clay and three wheat. I needed one clay and one wheat to build another settlement. I also had three ore cards in my hand already... so at the end of his turn I was able to build, in the extra Catan building phase, to my surprise, another settlement and city at the same time. That gave me 11 points on the board. Someone pointed out that if my hidden card was a victory point (which of course it was) then I had won.
However, I'd been re-reading the rules recently. In the regular game it says, twice, that someone can show a victory point and become the winner on their own turn. In the regular game, when one can't build after other people's turns, that isn't really relevant - so we can only assume it's spelled out so clearly because it applies to the 5-6 player expansion. We haven't played that before; we've allowed anyone, at any stage, to be the victor as soon as they reach 12 points, whether it's their turn or not.
But I said I'd better wait till my own turn, even though I did now have 12 points.
That enabled Richard to play. He rolled a 10, which gave me five ore cards. It also gave Sheila three ore, and Jacob two. It was perfect timing from Richard's perspective, since it enabled him to play a monopoly card, and take all the ore. And he had the ore harbour, although he hadn't used it much. So he built two more cities...
... and since Richard ALSO had a victory point, he was the outright winner, with 13 points, even though I had 12 points.
This is Richard's display of cards at the end, even including a couple of spare ore:
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