Birthday game of Settlers of Catan (for six teams)

Last night our friend Jacob was 11. We usually play Settlers of Catan with his parents, but he had requested to stay up for a game with us, after his birthday dinner. His sister Marie was also staying up. It posed a slight problem, since there were eight of us in all... but Marie said she'd play in a team with me, and Daniel and Becky agreed to be another team.

The initial board had plenty of good spaces, so we were all fairly pleased with our initial settlements. Richard (red) placed first, and Jacob (green) was delighted to place last.


Marie and I (orange) were quite pleased with our starting points, since we had potential access to all five resources and some reasonable numbers. Indeed, most of us were in that position. Richard lacked wheat; Daniel and Becky lacked wood; but other than that, we all had everything.

A surprising number of 6s were rolled in the early part of the game; no use to Marie and me, but it meant there was a fair amount of wheat and ore available, so cities were built fairly quickly. Jacob was in the lead at first, with five points:


Jörn (blue) found himself unable to build many settlements, but placed plenty of streets, giving himself potential building spots, and also the longest street card:


So at this point, Jörn, Sheila and Jacob were equally in the lead with 6 points each. Marie and I had 5, Richard had 4, Daniel and Becky also had 4.

It was rather clear that Marie and I were going to run out of building spots fairly quickly. All the nice ones had been taken anyway. I didn't think I'd get our final one, but we happened to have the right resources for a development card...and happened to pick up a monopoly card. So on our next round, since a 9 and a 10 had been rolled, we monopolised wood. And then built two streets and a settlement using one clay, one sheep, and 11 wood. We still had two wood leftover at the end, which were useful for trading since of course we no longer had any use for wood after building our last settlement.


Daniel and Becky, by this stage, had the largest army and so had 8 points. Jörn still held the longest street, so also had 8 points. Sheila had 8 solid points, and the potential for a longer street. Jacob had 7, Marie and I had 7. Richard, who had also run out of building spots, and was a bit hampered by his lack of wheat, had 6. So it was still pretty close.

Play continued fairly amicably, with trading that was usually beneficial to both players. The robber was moved from time to time, but unusually nobody had to lose cards in the whole game due to having too many when a 7 was rolled.

Marie and I built the rest of our cities. So we had nine solid points, and then could do nothing more but buy development cards. Jacob also had nine points, with no more building spots, although he did have the potential for one more city. Daniel and Becky had nine too, including the largest army. Sheila took the longest street card, and raced ahead to 11 points. Jörn had 8, as did Richard,


Then Jacob's turn came around. He monopolised clay, and did some extensive trading. He already had two hidden development cards, and we had guessed that at least one of them might be a victory point. He built his last city, giving him ten points. And then - with a little trading with Daniel and Becky - he had the cards to buy another development card. It was a victory point...

... and he then revealed that he had three altogether!


So Jacob won the game with 13 points.


A very pleasant end to his birthday.