Jacob went first, and took the 4-5-8 spot with three resources. Sheila then took the equally good 5-6-10 spot which was the one I would have chosen, since it included ore. Jörn took 8-9-10 with two wood and an ore; Daniel took 4-6-10 with two wheat and a sheep, close to the sheep harbour. That's another spot that rather appealed to me. Richard took the 3-5-9 with three resources... and then it was me, playing last again. I do quite like getting to choose both spots at the same time, but I would prefer to go first or second. Actually, second is slightly better in the six-player Catan game, in my view.
I couldn't find any ideal slots or combinations, so decided I could best live without sheep. So I took a coastal 4-8 on a 3:1 harbour with clay and wood, and a 3-5-10 with ore and two wheat.
On the way back, most people were surprised to find that their particular choice of location was still available.
So we all started the game feeling fairly positive about our starting settlements. The only problem was that we were all, other than Sheila, incredibly tired. I could barely keep my eyes open.
Daniel was rather creative during setup... like father, like son:
My hopes of building inwards from my coastal slot were rather stymied by Jörn and Richard's second placements, so after much thought - not easy when tired - I determined to head, if I could, towards the 9-11-12 spot with better ore on the 9. I quickly reached the half-way mark, on 3-12-12, and though the numbers were pretty bad, I always think I should take any building spots I can on a potentially crowded board. It was worth having, since 12 was rolled at least twice in the game, giving me unexpected extra clay and wheat.
Unfortunately for me, I wasn't the only one who wanted that spot. Jörn started heading that way, as did Daniel who got there first. So instead I curved the other way and took the 2-3-4 slot. Also not great numbers, but any time a 4 was rolled I picked up resources for a street.
And then I headed towards the coast, with the aid of a street-building card I had bought, and took the ore harbour. Not frantically useful since my only access to ore was on a 3 - but it did give me a very nice 6 on sheep, the one resource I was lacking. And, of course a building spot. And, as a bonus - which I hadn't realised at first - the longest street card. For a while.
Unfortunately, that put me in the lead and thus made me a target for the robber. However it wasn't long before Jörn increased his roads and took the longest road card from me:
This put him strongly in the lead with 7 points. Sheila and I each had four points, and everyone else had 3.
Despite our being tired, the game progressed reasonably fast, although there was nothing particularly worthy of photographing until I realised I hadn't taken one for a while. Sheila hoped to take the longest street card, but Jörn increased his roads sufficiently that he couldn't be challenged on it:
So by this stage he had 9 solid points. A 3 had been rolled, and I'd done quite well with trading, so I was right behind with 8. Sheila had 7 (two of her settlements don't show on that image). Everyone else was trailing.
I realised I did have another building spot along the coast, but didn't want to head out that way until I was certain of getting there since I thought Jörn would probably block me. So I took the risk of keeping too many cards in my hand; by the time it was my turn, I had sufficient for four streets - by dint of some trading. Thankfully no sevens were rolled and I was able to extend outwards.
But before I could build that final settlement, Jörn built one more - on someone else's building phase - and then on his next turn, he was able to build one more settlement, and show a victory point card which gave him 12 points and made him the winner.
It was another fairly resounding win for Jörn - he won the Catan game on the previous evening too - and he told us that he used, basically, the same strategy. Lots of one resource, and the relevant harbour (in this case wood).
It's a strategy I've successfully used in the past, but for some reason haven't been able to recently.
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