Having the fish availability does slightly change initial setup strategy; it means there are more useful places to start, which is good. And, as Daniel worked out last time, it's well worth building alongside the lake which replaces the desert.
Daniel (playing green) went first, and chose that rather nice spot near the top left of the board, with 5-8-10 on ore, wheat and sheep. It looked like a particularly good place to me, since it was evident that wheat was, in general, going to be a fairly scarce resource. Indeed, playing with event cards rather than dice, we could be pretty sure of that.
Becky (blue) was second, and chose the interesting spot with two good wood hexes and the lake, very near the wood harbour. Richard (red) then took another lake spot, next to both wood and clay - always useful - and since I was last, I decided I'd make the third available lakeside spot my first choice. I realised I would not be able to get all five resources, but it looked as if sheep would be fairly plentiful; and since we weren't playing either Seafarers or Cities and Knights, sheep tends to be the least useful resource.
Even at the start of the game, Becky bought cards whenever she could, while the rest of us were putting up our first settlements (and Daniel his first city). Since Becky bought - and played - knights to start with, it wasn't long before she had the largest army. And when we counted up, nobody was in the lead: we all had exactly four points. A very even game so far.
I was also able to buy a city, but with wheat in short supply it wasn't easy. Richard concentrated on building roads, expanding outwards towards a wheat hex (if only 11), and, naturally, was awarded the longest street card. That put him in the lead, with 7 points. But now he needed to build cities, and with little wheat and no access at all to ore, it wasn't easy for him.
I had only five points on the board, but had concentrating on building towards that useful 8-wheat hex at the top. And since I'd picked up the 'old boot' card in one of my fishing expeditions, I passed it to Richard.
But Richard, too, had been buying cards. He was able to trade for ore, or use some of his fish tokens. And he played his fourth knight card before Becky could, meaning that he now had the largest army card as well as the longest street, and was a long way in the lead.
So, I joined up my two sections of street, giving me the longest street card. Moreover, the 'earthquake' card had been picked up, and I was the only one able to repair my broken road, at first. So now I was ahead with 9 points... and, naturally, was given the 'old boot' card again.
Since I had the ore harbour, I was able to make use of a monopoly development card which I'd held for some time, and monopolise ore. It gave me sufficient to build quite a bit more. I was well in the lead with 11 points, but - since I held the old boot - needed 13 to win. The earthquake struck once more; Daniel - who had no further building spots - hadn't even repaired his first one. So now he had two broken roads. And he was buying cards at every opportunity. He could have built some cities, but pointed out that he could get, at most, eight points on the board. So he needed to buy victory points... hopefully before anyone else did.
We decided to end the game at 9.30, since Richard and I were going to visit a friend and her very new baby. So we played one more round. I built my last city, giving me 12 points on the board - and I bought a couple of cards. Neither of them was a victory point.
And for the first time, I completely forgot to take a photo at the end (although it was only one round after the last one). I was counted as the winner even though, technically, nobody won the game.
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