We explained the principles and rules somewhat, and then got started. I sat on his right hand so I could glance at his cards and advise, and naturally we all explained strategies for the opening settlement placement.
Richard (red) was first to place, so chose an obvious one with good numbers on wood, clay and ore. I was second, and didn't want to take the other obviously good place near Richard's, since I wanted to advise Chris to take it. I somehow didn't notice that there was actually a third spot with good numbers including wood and clay, so instead I opted for good numbers with wood, wheat and sheep. There were really quite a lot of good opening places on this board. Chris (blue) took the one we suggested - since he had no idea, really, what would happen - and Daniel (brown) then took the other obvious place which I'd missed. Becky who was last (playing white) - and thus first in the second round of placements - took some more spots with good numbers and four resources; she lacked only ore. But it looked as if ore was going to be fairly plentiful in this game.
On the way back around the circle, we all managed to get reasonable spots, with access to all the resources (even though my clay was only on a 12). We all thought it was one of the nicest boards we'd seen.
In the first few rounds Becky, Chris and I both managed a street - clay was rather a poor resource, so they weren't easy - while Daniel, who had such good access to ore and wheat, built two cities. This put him firmly in the lead, which isn't really a good thing too early in the game since it meant that he tended to be the target of the robber, right through the game, other than when he moved it himself.
I took the next photo when a few more cities had been built, but we were still struggling a little for other resources. Daniel was still in the lead - just - with six points, and had managed to reach a 3:1 harbour. But I now had five points, and everyone else had four.
The next excitement came when Daniel gained the longest street card with five streets - trading heavily for them, and also buying a fair number of cards which gave him a street-building and a couple of useful monopolies.
So Daniel had ten points. Chris and I each had five, Richard and Becky each had four. It looked as if Daniel was going to cream us totally. We tried to advise Chris not to trade with Daniel, but he made the point that since Daniel was most likely to win anyway, we might as well hurry the inevitable along, and then we'd have time for another game!
It looked as if Chris was right, when Daniel built another city, giving him 11 points. I had managed to scrape together 8 by that point; Richard and Chris were not far behind with 7, and Becky had 6. But Daniel didn't have any victory point cards, so the game was still going...
I should, perhaps, have accepted Daniel as winner.. but somehow I can't let it happen. I was lucky in a couple of rolls of the dice, played a monopoly card, and then traded on my turn so as to build some more streets, and took the longest street card from him.
So now I had 11 points, and Daniel was back to 9. Everyone else had 7.
Then Daniel built another city, and another settlement. He had 11 solid points on the board, and was buying cards. A few more rounds would surely give him the largest army, and victory.
But then my turn came round, and - again with lucky rolls of the dice - I was able to build another settlement. So I had 12 points, and had won.
Richard then showed that he had two victory point cards, meaning that he had 11, as well as Daniel. It was a very close game although we hadn't realised that Richard was so close. Moreover, Chris wanted us to note that he hadn't quite understood about the 'largest army' card - if he had done so, he would have played more knights, and gained an extra two points. So although he ended with 8 we felt that morally speaking he should have had 10.
Then Daniel set the camera up on timer, and took a photo that showed us all:
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