I was first to place a settlement (orange) - an unusual position for me. It has been a while since we've played this game, so I couldn't really remember what works and what doesn't. So I opted for my default system when I can't think of anything better: look for the resource that is likely to be scarcest, and choose a starting spot that borders the hex most likely to produce that resource.
Wheat looked as if it was going to be the least-produced resource in this game - and wheat is vital to activate the knights, as well as for its normal use in cities and settlements. So I built on the 5-9-10 intersection with sheep, ore and wheat.
Richard (red) went next. He likes to take spots that will produce commodities (books, cloth and coins) in Cities and Knights, so he opted for another 5-9-10 intersection with two wood and a sheep. Daniel (brown) was last, and chose two complementary spots, giving him six numbers (3, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 11) with access to all five resources, potentially, and a city on two of the commodity-producing hexes. Richard - still following the strategy of collecting commodity cards -put his city on a spot with two ore and a wheat, although the wheat was a 12 and so unlikely to be rolled very often. It meant he only had four useful numbers (5, 6, 9 [twice] and 10) in addition, and no access to clay at all.
Finally it was my turn to place my city; since I needed wood and clay and wanted some more numbers, I opted for a spot that gave me both, plus more sheep. My numbers were, on balance, as good as Daniel's: I had 3, 4, 5, 6, 9 and 10.
Play started rather slowly. With plenty of ore and sheep it was easy to buy knights, and we all managed to activate them too, either with lucky rolls or suitable trading. We don't use the event die for the first couple of rounds, while we're not counting the 7s, but as soon as we did we found that the black pirate event was rolled almost every time. So it didn't take long before we had to pause for the first invasion of Catan:
It's a little hard to tell from the photo, even if you click to enlarge it, but Richard had upgraded his knight to a double strength one, making him the Defender of Catan, and giving him an extra victory point. So he was in the lead, since we were all having a very hard time doing any actual building. We had each managed precisely one street in addition to our knights, so far!
And the black event continued appearing considerably more than 50% of the time. We did each manage to build one settlement, and were gradually buying city improvements, enabling us to pick up the occasional progress card. Daniel played the merchant, which gave him an extra point temporarily, and I bought another knight, while upgrading my first one.
So when the barbarians attacked for the second time, I was the sole defender of Catan:
The score was still totally even. We each had built one more settlement, giving us each four points on the board. Richard and I each had one Defender of Catan card, and Daniel had a a point for the merchant. We hadn't yet agreed what number of points to play for, but since we were on five each there was still a long way to go...
Slowly play picked up. I built another settlement on a useful interior spot giving me an 11 - so, with the useful 8-clay hex which was on my first extra building spot, I now had access to 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10 and 11. Always my ideal! I then managed to pick up a street-building card (I do like the 'books' progress cards) and was able to build on the wood harbour. Possibly not as useful as the 3:1 harbour nearby, but floating in my mind was the idea of taking the longest street, eventually, by joining up my two segments of road. I also wanted more clay, since it appeared to be in rather short supply in general - Richard still had no access to it at all, so it was useful for trading.
Meanwhile Daniel also built another settlement, and took the longest street card, just after the barbarians attacked for the third time:
We had already de-activated the knights by the time I remembered to take the photo, but I still had the most, and so received a second Defender of Catan card.
So Daniel was in the lead with nine points (including controlling the merchant), I had eight, and Richard still had five. It seemed very strange that none of us had yet managed to upgrade to a city, but that was due to the distinct lack of wheat in the game.
I was tired... earlier in the game I had traded four clay since I had too many cards in my hand, forgetting that I could fortify my one city with two clay, which would enable me to keep nine rather than seven cards in my hand if the robber attacked. However I remembered eventually, and thus bought city fortifications - although with only one city, I could only do that once.
Daniel extended his long street, and Richard played the card that meant he could upgrade both his knights at no cost - a card he had previously stolen from me by using the 'spy'. He was now in by far the strongest position as far as knights were concerned, so I no longer worried about them. I prefer to concentrate on regular building and city improvement when possible, and leave the defence of Catan to other players.
Daniel was in the lead with 11 points, still including the longest street and control of the merchant. He had actually managed to build a city - the first one in the game. I don't like being ahead in this game, since there are quite a few cards that can be played against any player who is in the lead. But I wanted control of the merchant, and with the extra building I had done and my two Defender of Catan cards, it would give me ten points. So I decided to use the resources I had for three more streets to claim another building spot, and also the longest street.
I now had 12 points... and we wanted to play a little longer, so decided to go up to 14. We couldn't remember what we usually do, but it seemed like a good number even though by now it was past 10pm and I was even more tired...
Oddly, after the early part of the game producing almost nothing but black events, the latter part of the game gave us rather more than half coloured events, meaning that a lot of progress cards were collected and played. And it took a great deal longer for the barbarians to attack. I didn't take a photo of the fourth attack, but Richard had the most knights and so received a further victory point.
By this stage I was aiming for Metropolis status on cloth. So I traded where I could, and when my turn came around I had a huge pile of cards in my hand. Thankfully I didn't roll a seven; it meant that I could finally build my first city of the game, and then immediately upgrade it to a Metropolis.
- and that meant I now had 15 victory points, and so was the winner.
Daniel actually had 11 points - he had two hidden victory point progress cards, which he should actually have declared when he received them. He had forgotten that rule - or perhaps played by different rules in the past - which would have helped him, since he frequently had more than four progress cards and had to discard one. Had he been able to reclaim the longest street and the merchant, he would have won.
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