Still, what's the problem? Two games of Settlers is twice as good as one game, and there were different opponents. Mark was home too, but said he'd play on a team with Joan.
Richard (red) played first, and took some nice numbers with an 8-ore hex. I (orange) was second, and opted for some more nice numbers, with a 9-ore hex. Becky (white) was third, and took some more good numbers, hoping for the sheep harbour nearby. Daniel (brown) was fourth... I was worrying that there would be no good places left by the time Emily came to play, which seems a bit unfair as she'd only placed once before. Daniel took a wood-clay-wheat intersection with yet more reasonable numbers; Emily (green) then went directly for yet another place with clay and wood - evidently she didn't need advice any more. Mark and Joan went last, and after much discussion opted for a lot of sheep and some fair numbers, with high likelihood of the sheep harbour.
There were really quite a few reasonable places for our early settlements so at the start of the game, it felt as if anyone could have won.
Although I was hoping for some coastal settlements, I thought I'd better start by building inland where there was likely to be more competition. So I played my first road towards the 12-ore hex, and soon built a settlement there. 9s and 4s were rolled fairly often, and I found myself able to build a couple of cities, too, without any trading.
The longest road was taken by Daniel; he didn't really plan to build it, but kept finding himself with street resources in his hand, and more than 7 cards, so he had to keep building new streets or risk losing cards to the robber. And Becky managed to grab the sheep harbour that Mark and Joan had been aiming for. She did apologise...
So, at this point in the game Daniel and I were equally in the lead with 6 points each.
Emily bought several cards, and started playing knights fairly early in the game. Then she got quite excited about a different card she had bought. She asked us what - in theory - she 'ought' to do if, by chance, she picked up a monopoly card. We gave her some of the strategy of the game. She waited... and then monopolised clay right after a 4 had been rolled.
Richard, who needed clay, was not impressed:
I seemed to be doing better than I had in recent games. Before long, I had gained 8 points. It was the same as Daniel, who still had the longest street card, but with only five roads we were all pretty sure it would be taken by someone else sooner or later. Emily and Becky were next, both with 5 points. Richard had 4, Mark and Joan 3. They didn't seem to be very lucky with dice rolls at all.
Of course, being ahead meant that the robber was placed on my best hexes far more often than I wished. And, since Murphy's Law holds even on Catan, the 6 - which wasn't rolled all that often - came twice when the robber was on my 6-wood hex, where I had two cities and a settlement... and the wood harbour. I missed out on ten wood, which would have translated to five cards of my choice. A potential city... except that I had already built all five of my cities. But I could, perhaps, have built some more streets to overtake Daniel, or bought at least one development card.
Still, I did have 10 points and was picking up a fair number of cards. Daniel had trouble building cities, but eventually managed, and was thus in second place with 8 points.
Then Daniel played a third knight... so he also had the largest army. Ten points - and nobody really challenging him on the army size front.
However, I reckoned I might be able to take the longest street card. So, when I happened to pick up a lot of clay and wood (a couple of 10s were rolled) I bought the streets I needed to join my two sections together. That didn't beat Daniel's ten streets, but took me to 8. All I needed to do now was to join the last two on the 6-wood hex, and I would have 12.
I built one of them. I wasn't picking up any more ore or clay, but managed to buy cards on the building phase of other people's turns. Not that any of them were particularly useful. Several knights, basically, and one monopoly. And one victory point.
Then my turn came around. I was planning to trade to buy another card. Daniel pointed out that I could buy my last street, take the longest street card from him, and win. But.. I didn't want to. I thought I'd gamble on prolonging the game a little... so I bought another card. Had it been another victory point, I would have won.
But it wasn't.
So Becky took her turn, and Daniel built a city in her building phase. He now had 11 points.
Then it was his turn... and he built another city. And then turned over a victory point card... so he won with 13.
I was second with 11 (since I also had a victory point card).
Daniel had come last in most of the other games we've played recently, but then he does usually manage one extreme or the other:
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